The combination of physical and mental load exacerbates the negative effect of each on the capability of skilled soccer players to anticipate action

ABSTRACT

This study examined the impact of combining physical and mental load on the anticipatory judgements of skilled soccer players. Sixteen players completed an 11vs11 video anticipation test in four counterbalanced conditions, each separated by 7 days. The baseline condition consisted of only the anticipation test. A physical load condition required participants to complete a simulated soccer protocol on a treadmill followed by the anticipation test. A mental load condition required participants to complete a 30-min Stroop test followed by the anticipation test. Finally, in the combined load condition, participants completed the physical load protocol alongside the mentally loading Stroop task followed by the anticipation test. Response accuracy, visual search behaviour and measures of effort were assessed throughout. Response accuracy decreased in the separate physical load and mental load conditions when compared to baseline and worsened further in the combined load condition. The reduction in response accuracy across experimental conditions coincided with an increase in the number of fixations when compared to the baseline condition. It is suggested that the separate sources of load impaired the players ability to allocate sufficient resources to task-relevant information leading to a reduction in anticipatory accuracy, and this was exacerbated in the combined load condition.

KEYWORDS:

• Visual search
• anticipation
• expertise
• mental fatigue
• physical fatigue

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

¹ The Fox method has come under criticism due to only considering an individual’s age; however, it was deemed an acceptable method in this current study because of the within-subject design adopted.

² The location and duration of final fixation was collected and analysed; however, upon inspection of the data, there were no between condition differences in this data set. Therefore, this variable is not included herein so as to reduce the length and complexity of the results.