Introduction: Neurocognitive functions such as motor inhibition and attentional skills may underlie success in sports and distinguish between elite and amateur players. One ability that has not been studied in relation to sports performance is the ability to learn motor sequences. The current study investigated implicit and explicit motor learning in elite youth soccer players as compared to amateur soccer players. Method: Thirty-eight youth elite soccer players, and thirty-two amateur soccer players between 10 and 12 years of age performed a serial reaction time task (SRTT) with two sequences of eight keys. One of the sequences must be learned explicitly, the other was implicitly learned. A total of five blocks with 25 trials for both sequences in each block was administered. Differences between implicit and explicit learning were tested using repeated measures analysis of variance with sequence and block as within-subject variables and group as between-group variable. Group differences were tested using two separate repeated measures analysis of variance, with group as between-factor and mean reaction time of each block as dependent variable. Results: No difference across groups was found between implicit and explicit learning ((F(1,68)=.80,p=.53). Interestingly, youth elite soccer players showed superior reaction times on both the implicit and explicit learning sequence (F(1,68)=4.9,p<.05 and F(1,68)= 3.8,p<.05, respectively) as compared to amateur soccer players. An interaction effect was found between group and block for the implicit sequence, between block 3 and 4 (F(1,68)=4.4 0,p<.05) where the elite youth soccer players showed constant performance of the implicit motor sequence and stopped learning, whereas the amateur soccer players were still learning. For the explicit sequence, no interaction effect was found (F(1,67)=.26, p=.61), indicating similar learning curves for both groups. Conclusion: Youth elite soccer players outperform youth amateur soccer players on implicit motor learning, and also showed faster reaction times across the SRTT on both sequences. These findings may be important for talent identification in soccer because children with superior implicit learning abilities may learn more rapidly and develop better motor abilities leading to superior sports performance.
© Copyright 2014 19th Annual Congress of the European College of Sport Science (ECSS), Amsterdam, 2. - 5. July 2014. Published by VU University Amsterdam. All rights reserved.