Influence of internal individual constraints and short-term practical interventions on the neuromechanics and performance of soccer kicking in youth academy players

• Autor(a) principal: Vieira, Luiz Henrique Palucci
• Data de Publicação: 2022
• Tipo de documento: Tese
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional da UNESP
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/11449/217191
• topic: Technical skill; 3-dimensional kinematics; Accuracy; EEG; Human movement; Motor Control; Biomechanics; Habilidade técnica; Cinemática 3-D; Acurácia; EEG; Movimento humano; Controle Motor; Biomecânica

Athletic performance is mutually dependent upon individual constraints and practical interventions. Regarding the former, it is recognised that brain activity and sleep indices can modulate movement planning and execution. Concerning the strategies used in practice, contemporary short-term prescriptions have been adopted by conditioning professionals and physiotherapists with the primary intention to acutely enhance musculoskeletal power output or accelerate post-exercise recovery processes. These includes postactivation performance enhancement (PAPE)-based plyometric warm-up and induced cooling (COOL) through ice packs, respectively. However, it remain unknown whether measures of brain dynamics and natural sleep patterns influence skill-related performance in soccer. To date, the literature does not show a consensus for PAPE effectiveness in young populations. Generally, COOL also negatively affects subsequent lower limb movements requiring high force-velocity levels. Based on these assumptions, the general aim of the current thesis was to investigate the influence of internal individual constraints (EEG and sleep-derived indices) and effects of short-term practical interventions (PAPE and COOL) on the movement kinematics and performance aspects of soccer kicking in youth academy players. A series of six studies is presented. These include a literature review, one technical note and four original experimental research articles (two observational and two interventions) in an attempt to answer the questions defined in the research programme. From the data gathered here, it was possible to provide evidence that a) kick testing in studies systematically lacked resemblance to competition environments; b) occipital brain waves during the preparatory phase determines ball placement while late frontal signalling control both ankle joint in impact phase and post-impact ball velocity; c) poor sleep quality and late chronotype preference are linked to subsequent impaired targeting ability; d) acute enhancements achieved via PAPE/plyometric conditioning are purely neuromuscular, being slightly converted into kicking mechanics or performance improvements; e) in a hot environment, repeated high-intensity running efforts impair both ball placement and velocity whilst a local 5-minutes COOL application assists recovery of overall kick parameters and f) a markerless deep learning-based kinematic system appear as reliable alternative in capturing on-field kicking motion patterns. To conclude, both internal individual constraints (EEG and sleep quality) and a short-term practical intervention (cooling quadriceps/hamstrings with ice packs) have an acute impact in kicking performance in youth soccer context. A model integrating evidence from all papers is presented alongside limitations and recommendations for future studies in this field.