Soccer and swimming, while both demanding sports, differ significantly in the skills required for success. One relies on reacting to an ever-changing environment, while the other thrives on consistent, repetitive movements. This article delves into a study comparing proactive and reactive control mechanisms in young soccer players and swimmers, highlighting how training shapes these abilities.
Open vs. Closed Skills: Setting the Stage
Sports are broadly categorized as open or closed skills. Open skills, like soccer, demand adaptability and anticipation in unpredictable environments. Closed skills, such as swimming, involve performing pre-learned movements in stable settings. This fundamental difference raises the question: how does this impact an athlete’s control mechanisms?
Proactive and Reactive Control: Two Sides of the Same Coin
Proactive control involves anticipating actions and preparing responses in advance, crucial for open-skill sports. Reactive control, on the other hand, focuses on responding quickly to unexpected stimuli, essential for closed-skill sports. This study examined these controls in young athletes through two specially designed games.
The Proactive Game: Anticipating the Opponent
In a “push and fall” game, soccer players and swimmers competed head-to-head, aiming to push each other off balance. This game required anticipating the opponent’s move and strategically planning a response. Results showed soccer players exhibited superior stability, falling significantly less often than swimmers.
This advantage stemmed from the soccer players’ ability to modulate their Anticipatory Postural Adjustments (APAs). They effectively adjusted their body position before the push, generating the necessary force to maintain balance based on their prediction of the opponent’s actions. This highlights the crucial role of APAs in proactive control. A clear correlation was found between APAs and the timing of action initiation in soccer players, demonstrating a learned ability to prepare for and anticipate actions.
The Reactive Game: A Test of Speed
The reactive game utilized a FITLIGHT Trainer, requiring players to quickly deactivate randomly illuminated lights. This tested pure reaction time and agility. Surprisingly, no significant differences emerged between soccer players and swimmers. Both groups demonstrated comparable speed and accuracy, suggesting similar levels of reactive control.
The Impact of Training: Shaping Control Mechanisms
This study underscores the profound influence of sport-specific training on developing distinct control mechanisms. Soccer players, constantly exposed to dynamic environments, exhibited a heightened ability to anticipate and proactively adapt. Swimmers, trained in predictable settings, excelled in reacting swiftly to known stimuli.
Conclusion: Tailoring Training for Specific Needs
The findings of this study offer valuable insights into the development of proactive and reactive control in young athletes. Understanding these differences allows for tailoring training programs to enhance specific skills. While both soccer and swimming require exceptional athleticism, they demand distinct control mechanisms shaped by the nature of the sport. Further research with larger sample sizes and including female athletes is recommended to build upon these findings. This research emphasizes the importance of understanding the specific demands of each sport to optimize training and performance.
Citation: Nardello F, Bertucco M, Cesari P (2021) Anticipatory and pre-planned actions: A comparison between young soccer players and swimmers. PLoS ONE 16(4): e0249635. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0249635
