Energetic and Cognitive Demands of Treading Water: Effects of Technique and Expertise.

Being able to tread water effectively can improve the likelihood of survival following accidental immersion. People tread water in various ways, ranging from rudimentary 'doggy-paddle' to more elaborate techniques like the eggbeater, but little is known about the energetic and cognitive requirements of treading water. We therefore aimed to measure the demands of treading water techniques for people of different experience levels. Three cohorts, comprising 21 adult water treading experts (water polo players), 15 intermediate swimmers and 16 inexperienced swimmers, treaded water for 3 min each using four different techniques while cognitive and energetic economy measures were taken. For inexperienced swimmers, the flutter kick and breaststroke patterns produced the lowest self-reported physical and task load (rating of perceived exertion, NASA task load index), while cognitive (probe reaction time), cardiac (heart rate) and metabolic (oxygen consumption) load did not differ between techniques. In contrast, for expert water treaders, both breaststroke and eggbeater patterns produced lower cognitive, cardiac and metabolic loads. For intermediate swimmers, breaststroke resulted in the lowest cardiac and metabolic loads, as well as self-reported task load. Probe reaction time was highest while performing the eggbeater technique, indicating that this technique was challenging to coordinate and cognitively demanding. While the energetic demands of antiphase kicking patterns (such as eggbeater in experts or flutter kick in beginners) may be similarly low, the symmetric coordination of upright breaststroke may explain why this pattern's cognitive economy was favourable for all groups. As the eggbeater can be challenging to perform for many people, an upright breaststroke technique is an adequate alternative to adopt in survival situations.

Effect of baby swimming lessons on infants' avoidance of bodies of water.

Despite the popularity of infant swimming programs, no evidence exists to determine whether they influence infants' judgments and behavior when confronted with bodies of water. We conducted two separate studies examining if the total number of swimming sessions an infant participated in predicted whether they avoided a body of water they could enter via an edge (Study 1-Water Cliff: n = 101 infants) or a slope (Study 2-Water Slope: n = 77 infants). The results revealed a significant interaction between number of sessions and type of entry into the water. Infants who participated in 10 or more sessions were more likely to avoid falling on the edge leading into the water but entered the water significantly more if they could access it via a slope. These findings suggest that while experience in baby swimming programs can promoted more adaptive behaviors on drop-offs leading into bodies of water, sloped entries may heighten drowning risks for young children with greater familiarity with water. Because we tested the two groups of infants in different countries, further research is warranted to determine if cultural differences in child rearing practices or variations in the content and/or teaching of the swimming programs might explain these intriguing findings.

Advice from "pracademics" of how to apply ecological dynamics theory to practice design.

There has been an increase interest in knowing and enacting pedagogical approaches such as the Constraints-led Approach (CLA) and Nonlinear Pedagogy (NLP) which are underpinned by Ecological Dynamics in recent years among practitioners. While there seems to be a perceived uptake of such pedagogical approaches that encourages exploratory learning and the development of individualised movement solutions, there are still concerns on how these pedagogical approaches are enacted on the ground. In this paper, we the authors, as "pracademics", attempted to address some of the common concerns that we are aware of from our regular interactions with academics and practitioners. In brief, we highlighted some of the common challenges related to sense making concepts from Ecological Dynamics and building connections to practice. We stressed the need to invest time to think differently to create representative learning environment, rethink how assessment is to be done, finding a balance between theoretical jargon and practical application as well as intentionally situating coach development and support. We may not have all the answers, but we hope this paper could provide a useful starting point on how to apply Ecological Dynamics Theory to practice design.

Construct validation of a general movement competence assessment utilising active video gaming technology.

Introduction: The assessment of children's motor competence is an important concern as physical inactivity has been linked with poor movement quality and aspects of well-being such as low self-esteem. The General Movement Competence Assessment (GMCA) is a new instrument that was developed using active video gaming technology. Methods: Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to examine the internal validity of the GMCA in a sample of 253 typically developing children (135 boys and 118 girls), aged 7-12 years old (9.9 ± 1.6 years). Further, a second-order confirmatory factor analysis examined how the four constructs fit onto the higher-order variable of movement competence. Results: Results revealed that the first-order four-construct model of the GMCA was a good fit (CFI 0.98; TLI 0.98; RMSEA 0.05). The second-order confirmatory factor analysis revealed that the four constructs loaded directly onto movement competence. It accounted for 95.44% of the variance which is approximately 20% more than the first-order model. The internal structure of the GMCA identified four constructs of movement competence (i.e., stability, object-control, locomotion and dexterity) based on the study sample. Discussion: Performance trends in the general movement competence assessment support empirical evidence that movement competence improves as children age. Results suggest that active video games have considerable potential to help assess general motor competency in the wider population. Future work may consider the sensitivity of motion-sensing technologies in detecting developmental changes over time.

Effects of Exposure to Formal Aquatic Activities on Babies Younger Than 36 Months: A Systematic Review.

This systematic review investigated the possible effects of exposing infants to formal activities in aquatic environments. A literature search of eight databases was concluded on 12 December 2022. Studies were eligible if they: (i) focused on 0-36 months of age infants, (ii) addressed the exposure of infants to formal aquatic activities, and (iii) compared the 'same condition of aquatic exposure with the control' or 'before and after exposure'. The PRISMA protocol was used. Articles considered for inclusion (n = 18) were clustered in the health, development, and physiological outcome domains. The results show that research is focused on indoor activities, mainly in baby swimming programs and baby aquatic therapy interventions. Swimming and aquatic therapy practices are generally safe for babies' health, and there are benefits to preterm and newborns exposed to aquatic therapy once the physiological parameters are maintained in normal and safe patterns. A positive effect is also suggested in general gross and fine motor skills, visual motion perception, cognitive flexibility, and response selection accuracy for infants who participated in aquatic programs. Further investigation with high-quality experimental designs is required to establish the effect of exposure of infants to formal aquatic activities (Systematic Review Registration: CRD42021248054).

The effect of nonlinear pedagogy on the acquisition of game skills in a territorial game.

Introduction: Nonlinear Pedagogy (NP), underpinned by Ecological Dynamics, provides a suitable pedagogical approach for practitioners (e.g., Physical Educators, coaches) to encourage exploratory learning that is learner-centered even in Traditional Sporting Games (TSG) that could be represented by invasion or territorial-like games. NP involves the manipulation of constraints which form boundaries for interacting components to self-organize, facilitating the emergence of goal-directed behaviours. Key pedagogical principles relating to representativeness, manipulation of constraints, awareness of focus of attention instructions, task simplification and the functional role of noise can encourage exploratory learning that helps develop 21st century competencies. This is in contrast to a Linear Pedagogy (LP) approach that is more teacher-centered and focuses on repetition in practices to promote movement form consistency in enhancing the acquisition of movement skills. Little is known about the effectivity of NP in the learning and transfer of invasion games. The aims of this study were to: (a) determine the impact of NP on the teaching and learning of an invasion game in the Physical Education (PE) context; (b) examine the transferability of game skills to other games in the same game category (i.e., floorball as a territorial game in this study). Methods: 224 (between 12 to 13 years old) students underwent a 10-week intervention program to learn to play an invasion game (football) with either a NP or LP approach (i.e., repetitive and prescriptive drills). Results: Performance outcome data were measured during Pre, Post, Retention, Transfer test 1 (larger playing area) and Transfer test 2 (floorball). Significant improvements in several performance outcome and game play measures in football was observed for the NP condition. Fewer improvements in the same measures were found for the LP condition. Discussion: Evidence for transfer of learning for NP was not as strong as anticipated although there was still some potential for encouraging transfer of learning. The key findings from this study further challenge the "one-size fits all" philosophy in the teaching of PE. Both LP and NP approaches would have a role to play in supporting teaching and learning which could be context dependent.

Assessment of water safety competencies: Benefits and caveats of testing in open water.

Drowning has been the cause of over 2.5 million preventable deaths in the past decade. Despite the fact that the majority of drownings occur in open water, assessment of water safety competency typically occurs in swimming pools. The assessment of water safety competency in open water environments brings with it a few difficulties, but also promises tremendous benefits. The aim of this position paper is to discuss the benefits and caveats of conducting assessments in open water environments as opposed to closed and controlled environments, and to provide recommendations for evidence-based practice. The first theoretical section discusses the effects of the environment and key variables (such as temperature and water movement) on various factors of assessment. These discussions are linked to the two perspectives of representative learning design (based on ecological dynamics) and information processing theory. The second section presents two pilot studies of relevance and provides practical implications for assessment of water safety competency. It seems that a combination of pool-based practice and open water education may be ideal in assessing aquatic skills competency. Assessment in open water presents clear benefits regarding validity, but often poses seemingly unsurmountable barriers, which providers may have reservations about in the absence of clear evidence. Hence this article provides a robust discussion about competency assessment and signals the practical importance of faithfully reproducing the environment in which skilled behavior is most relevant.

The effect of educational gymnastics on postural control of young children.

Fundamental movement skill (FMS) proficiency does not develop solely due to maturation, but also via diverse perceptual-motor experiences across childhood. Practicing gymnastics has been shown to improve postural control. The purpose of the present study was to examine potential changes to postural control of children following a course of educational gymnastics. Two groups of children both completed 20 × 45-min physical education (PE) lessons; one group (n = 43, age = 6.4 ± 0.7, 56% male) completed educational gymnastics lessons in school delivered by a professional coach, the other group completed their typical PE classes (n = 18, age = 6.5 ± 0.3, 33% male). Unipedal balancing performance was assessed by calculating the percentage of successful trials made. Postural sway dynamics were explored by calculating center-of-pressure sample entropy, 95% ellipse sway area and sway velocity. Measurements were taken before the lessons began and immediately after the lessons were completed. The gymnastics group performed better than the typical PE group at unipedal balancing. Females outperformed males in both groups. Males made different changes to postural control (i.e., increased sway regularity and improved stability) compared to females across 3 months. Educational gymnastics enabled children in a critical period of development to make more rapid improvements to postural performance and control. Novel movement experiences, like those offered by educational gymnastics, may have a positive influence on postural control and importantly, physical literacy. Future work should examine how sex effects the development of postural control strategies in young children.

Infant Drowning Prevention: Insights from a New Ecological Psychology Approach.

Drowning causes significant mortality and morbidity globally, and infants (0-4 years of age) are disproportionately impacted. In a groundbreaking approach to pediatric drowning prevention, ecological psychology has been used to investigate the relationship between infants' perceptual-motor development and their behavior around bodies of water. In this review, we summarize recent research findings in the field of ecological psychology and apply these to the prevention of infant drowning. Studies have linked infants' avoidance of falls into the water with locomotor experience and type of accessway into bodies of water. Through crawling experience, infants learn to perceive the risk of falling into water and start adapting their behavior to avoid drop-offs leading into water. Infants tend to enter deep water more when the access is via a slope than via a drop-off. We propose that ecological psychology can enhance infant drowning prevention interventions. The aim is to create an additional layer of protection, the perceptual information layer, in addition to existing strategies, such as supervision and barriers. This new protective layer can be a powerful tool to further highlight the risk of entering the water and reduce infant drowning-related mortality and morbidity.

The Influence of Equipment and Environment on Children and Young Adults Learning Aquatic Skills.

Learning aquatic skills is an important component of developing physical literacy in children. Aquatic skills such as floating, swimming and safe entry/exit promote engagement in different water environments and may help preserve lives in an emergency. This scoping review was conducted to evaluate the influence of task constraints (i.e., equipment) and environmental constraints (i.e., physical and social) on how children learn foundational aquatic skills. In developed countries, children are typically taught in swimming pools under direct supervision. It is also not uncommon to see children and infants learning to swim with assistive equipment (e.g., buoyancy aids). However, perhaps surprisingly, the evidence on how and where children learn aquatic skills does not uniformly promote such practices. For example, the use of flotation devices has not been proven to aid skill learning. Some researchers have advocated that children should learn aquatic skills whilst wearing outdoor clothing. One benefit of children wearing clothing is an increased capacity to practice in colder water (such as the ocean, rivers, or lakes). Overall, whilst practitioners often use equipment for various reasons it seems that not all equipment is equally useful in promoting the acquisition of aquatic skills. In less developed countries, with limited access to swimming pools and fewer resources for private instruction, a range of different open water aquatic environments and practices, such as swimming in temporarily flooded areas, have been reported. Such strategies are in urgent demand of further research given that drowning rates in less developed countries around the world exceed those in developed nations. It can be argued that learning in pools does not afford the opportunities to develop the whole range of adaptive skills that may be required in different open water environments such as navigating currents and waves, floating whilst clothed, or making life-saving decisions. Consequently, a shift toward teaching in open water environments has occurred in several countries. This review provides an evidence-base upon which practitioners can design more effective aquatic education programs for children.

A Multidisciplinary Comparison of Different Techniques Among Skilled Water Treaders.

In an immersion incident, a person may be required to tread water for extended periods of time in order to survive. Treading water, or maintaining a stable head position above the water surface, can be achieved in several different ways. Determining which treading water techniques are economic (energetically and cognitively) is an important first step in approaching evidence-based water safety instruction. The present study investigated the cognitive and metabolic demands associated with four main techniques for treading water in experienced water treaders. Skilled water treaders (n=21) performed four common treading techniques for 3min each: "running" in the water, "flutter kick" with hands sculling, "upright breaststroke," and "egg-beater." Self-reported rate of perceived exertion (RPE) and task load index (TLX) score, as well as objective measures of probe reaction time (PRT; i.e., response to auditory cues while treading), oxygen consumption and heart rate were assessed. The "egg-beater" technique and the "upright breaststroke" technique were linked to significantly lower cognitive and energetic demands compared to the other techniques (VO2: p<0.001 - "Running" M=29.02, SD=7.40/"Flutter kick" M=29.37, SD=8.56, "Breaststroke" M=23.47, SD=7.28, and "Eggbeater" M=23.18, SD=6.31). This study lays the groundwork for future research that may establish the ideal movement behavior in drowning situations and investigate movement instruction to less experienced treaders.

Do infants avoid a traversable slope leading into deep water?

Ramps used to access swimming pools are designed with a shallow slope that affords easy access for all including infants. Locomotor experience has been linked to infants' avoidance of falling into the water from drop-offs; however, the effect of such experience on infants' behavior when a slope is offered to access the water has not been addressed. Forty-three crawling infants (Mage  = 10.63 ± 1.91 months; Mcrawling  = 2.38 ± 1.77 months) and 34 walking infants (Mage  = 14.90 ± 2.18 months; Mwalking  = 2.59 ± 1.56 months) were tested on a new Water Slope paradigm, a sloped surface (10°) leading to deep water. No association between infants' avoidance of submersion and locomotor experience was found. Comparison with the results of infants' behavior on the water cliff revealed that a greater proportion of infants reached the submersion point on the water slope than fell into the water cliff. Collectively, these results indicate a high degree of specificity in which locomotor experience teaches infants about risky situations. Importantly, sloped access to deep water appears to increase the risk of infants moving into the water thereby making them more vulnerable to drowning.

Experienced crawlers avoid real and water drop-offs, even when they are walking.

Crawling experience was recently linked to crawling and walking infants' avoidance of falling on real and water cliffs, whereas walking experience had no effect on walkers' avoidance behavior (Burnay et al., 2021). In the current study, the behavior of 25 infants was analyzed on the Real Cliff/Water Cliff apparatus using a longitudinal study design. Infants were tested as experienced crawlers (Mcrawling = 2.93 months, SD = 1.07), novice walkers (Mwalking = 0.68 months, SD = 0.29), and experienced walkers (Mwalking = 4.90 months, SD = 0.92). Infants avoided falling on both cliffs when tested as experienced crawlers and their behavior was not different when tested as novice or experienced walkers. These findings confirmed the effect of crawling experience on crawling and walking infants' avoidance of falls from heights and into water and the transfer of perceptual learning from crawling to walking postures.

Adaptability in Swimming Pattern: How Propulsive Action Is Modified as a Function of Speed and Skill.

The objectives of this study were to identify how spatiotemporal, kinetic, and kinematic parameters could (i) characterize swimmers' adaptability to different swimming speeds and (ii) discriminate expertise level among swimmers. Twenty male participants, grouped into (a) low-, (b) medium-, and (c) high-expertise levels, swam at four different swim paces of 70, 80, 90% (for 20 s), and 100% (for 10 s) of their maximal speed in a swimming flume. We hypothesized that (i) to swim faster, swimmers increase both propulsion time and the overall force impulse during a swimming cycle; (ii) in the frequency domain, expert swimmers are able to maintain the relative contribution of the main harmonics to the overall force spectrum. We used three underwater video cameras to derive stroking parameters [stroke rate (SR), stroke length (SL), stroke index (SI)]. Force sensors placed on the hands were used to compute kinetic parameters, in conjunction with video data. Parametric statistics examined speed and expertise effects. Results showed that swimmers shared similarities across expertise levels to increase swim speed: SR, the percentage of time devoted to propulsion within a cycle, and the index of coordination (IdC) increased significantly. In contrast, the force impulse (I +) generated by the hand during propulsion remained constant. Only the high-expertise group showed modification in the spectral content of its force distribution at high SR. Examination of stroking parameters showed that only high-expertise swimmers exhibited higher values of both SL and SI and that the low- and high-expertise groups exhibited similar IdC and even higher magnitude in I +. In conclusion, all swimmers exhibit adaptable behavior to change swim pace when required. However, high-skilled swimming is characterized by broader functional adaptation in force parameters.

The Poor "Wealth" of Brazilian Football: How Poverty May Shape Skill and Expertise of Players.

Worldwide, 1.3 billion people live in Poverty, a socio-economic status that has been identified as a key determinant of a lack of sports participation. Still, numerous athletes around the world have grown up in underprivileged socio-economic conditions. This is the case in Brazil, a country with around 13.5 million impoverished citizens, yet, over decades, many of its best professional footballers have emerged from its favelas. In this article, we explore the role of the socio-cultural-economic constraints in shaping the development of skill and expertise of Brazilian professional football players. The methodological and epistemological assumptions of the "Contextualized Skill Acquisition Research" (CSAR) approach are used as an underpinning framework for organizing and analyzing data. Results suggested that, at the exosystemic level of Brazilian society, Poverty emerges as an influential constraint that can potentially enrich football development experiences of Brazilian players. Poverty, however, is not the direct causation of outstanding football skill development. Rather, from the perspective of ecological dynamics, Poverty creates specific contexts that can lead to the emergence of physical as well as socio-cultural environment constraints (e.g., Pelada, Malandragem) that can shape affordances (opportunities) for skill acquisition. These ideas suggest the need to ensure that environmental constraints can support people to amuse themselves cheaply, gain access to employment opportunities and maintain health and well-being through (unstructured and more structured) sport and physical activities in dense urban environments such as favelas, inner city areas, and banlieues. For this purpose, design of open play areas and even parkour installations can provide affordances landscapes for physical activity and sports participation in urban settings.

The effect of specific locomotor experiences on infants' avoidance behaviour on real and water cliffs.

Infants' avoidance of drop-offs has been described as an affordance learning that is not transferable between different locomotor postures. In addition, there is evidence that infants perceive and act similarly around real and water cliffs. This cross-sectional study investigated the effects of specific locomotor experiences on infants' avoidance behaviour using the Real Cliff/Water Cliff paradigm. The experiments included 102 infants, 58 crawling, but pre-walking, infants (Mage  = 11.57 months, SD = 1.65) with crawling experience ranging between 0.03 and 7.4 months (M = 2.16, SD = 1.71) and 44 walking infants (Mage  = 14.82 months, SD = 1.99), with walking experience ranging between 0.13 and 5.2 months (M = 1.86, SD = 1.28). The association between crawling experience and crawlers' avoidance of the real and water cliffs was confirmed. Importantly, crawling and total self-produced locomotor experience, and not walking experience, were associated with walkers' avoidance behaviour on both cliffs. These results suggest that some degree of perceptual learning acquired through crawling experience was developmentally transferred to the walking posture. A longer duration of crawling experience facilitates a more rapid recalibration to the new walking capability. In addition, there was no difference in infants' avoidance of falling on the real and the water cliff. However, infants explored the water cliff more than the real cliff, revealing more enticement to examine bodies of water than for drop-offs. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at https://youtu.be/23LXIGiLhHI.

Skill Acquisition Methods Fostering Physical Literacy in Early-Physical Education (SAMPLE-PE): Rationale and Study Protocol for a Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial in 5-6-Year-Old Children From Deprived Areas of North West England.

BACKGROUND: There is a need for interdisciplinary research to better understand how pedagogical approaches in primary physical education (PE) can support the linked development of physical, cognitive and affective aspects of physical literacy and physical activity behaviors in young children living in deprived areas. The Skill Acquisition Methods fostering Physical Literacy in Early-Physical Education (SAMPLE-PE) study aims to examine the efficacy of two different pedagogies for PE, underpinned by theories of motor learning, to foster physical literacy. METHODS: SAMPLE-PE will be evaluated through a cluster-randomized controlled trial targeting 5-6 year old children from schools located in areas of high deprivation in Merseyside, North-West England. Schools will be randomly allocated to one of three conditions: Linear Pedagogy, Non-linear Pedagogy, or Control. Non-linear and Linear Pedagogy intervention primary schools will receive a PE curriculum delivered by trained coaches over 15 weeks, while control schools will follow their usual practice. Data will be collected at baseline (T0), immediately post-intervention (T1), and 6 months after the intervention has finished (T2). Children's movement competence is the primary outcome in this trial. Secondary outcomes include physical activity, perceived competence, motivation, executive functions, and self-regulation. An extensive process evaluation will also examine implementation factors such as intervention context, reach, dose, fidelity and acceptability. DISCUSSION: The SAMPLE-PE project will enable better understanding surrounding how to operationalise physical literacy through enrichment of PE practices in early PE. The study will provide robust scientific evidence regarding the efficacy of underpinning PE pedagogy with theories of motor learning to promote the development of physical literacy. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Retrospectively registered on 5th September 2018 at ClinicalTrials.gov, a resource provided by the U.S. National Library of Medicine (Identifier: NCT03551366).

Variability of upper body kinematics in a highly constrained task - sprint swimming.

Before examining the effect of changing constraints on skill adaptation, it is useful to know the tolerable variability of a movement pattern for optimal performance. Tolerable variability may vary throughout the period of task performance as some parts of the movement pattern may be more important than others. The purpose of this study was to quantify the inter-trial variability of performance variables, and hand path as the task-relevant parameter, of skilled front crawl swimmers during 25 m sprints. It was hypothesised that the wrist paths would have smaller inter-trial variability during the below water phase than during the above water phase. Twelve skilled swimmers performed four 25 m front crawl sprints which were recorded by six phased locked video cameras for three-dimensional analysis. Standard deviations and time series repeatability (R 2) of the right and left wrist displacement were determined. On average, swimmers varied their sprint speed between trials by <1.5%. The spatio-temporal patterns of wrist paths varied by <3 cm in all directions (horizontal, vertical & lateral). There was no significant difference in inter-trial variability between above and below water phases. Swimmers increased wrist path consistency at the critical events of water entry in the horizontal and lateral directions and at exit for the horizontal direction. This study established levels of variability in spatio-temporal movement patterns of the paths of the wrist in sprint swimming and provided evidence that swimmers minimise variability for key events, in this case, the position of the wrists at water entry and exit.

Exploratory Analysis of Treading Water Coordination and the Influence of Task and Environmental Constraints.

The radical embodied cognition approach to behavior requires emphasis upon how humans adapt their motor skills in response to changes in constraint. The aim of this exploratory study was to identify how the typical coordination patterns used to tread water were influenced by constraints representative of open water environments. Twenty-three participants were measured while treading water (TW) in a swimming flume in four conditions: (1) in still water, wearing a bathing suit (baseline); (2) wearing typical outdoor clothing (clothed); (3) with an additional cognitive task imposed (dual task); and (4) against a changing current (flow). Mixed methods kinematic analysis revealed four different TW coordination patterns were used across the conditions. The four TW patterns used represent a hierarchy of expertise in terms of the capacity to generate continuous lift forces, where pattern 1 (the lowest skill level) involved predominantly pushing and kicking limb movements (N = 1); pattern 2 was a movement pattern consisting of legs pushing/kicking and arms sculling (N = 7); pattern 3 was synchronous sculling of all four limbs (N = 6); and pattern 4 was the "eggbeater kick" (the highest skill level), with asynchronous sculling movements of the legs (N = 9). The four TW patterns were generally robust to the modified constraints. The higher skilled patterns (i.e., patterns 3 and 4) appeared to be the most stable coordination patterns. These results suggest that learning to perform more complex patterns to tread water might be an asset to survive in life-threatening situations.

Walking with avatars: Gait-related visual information for following a virtual leader.

Dynamic situations, such as interactive sports or walking on a busy street, impose high demands on a person's ability to interact with (others in) its environment (i.e., 'interact-ability'). The current study examined how distance regulation, a fundamental component of these interactions, is mediated by different sources of visual information. Participants were presented with a back and forwards moving virtual leader, which they had to follow by walking back and forwards themselves. We presented the leader in several appearances that differed in the presence of segmental (i.e., relative movements of body segments), cadence-related (i.e., sway and bounce), and global (i.e., optical expansion-compression) information. Results indicated that removing segmental motion information from the virtual leader significantly deteriorated both temporal synchronization and spatial accuracy of the follower to the leader, especially when the movement path of the leader was less regular/predictable. However, no difference was found between cadence-related and global motion information appearances. We argue that regulating distance with others effectively requires a versatile attunement to segmental and global motion information depending on the specific task demands. The results further support the notion that detection of especially segmental information allows for more timely 'anticipatory' tuning to another person's locomotor movements and intentions.