Executive functions in soccer: the role of practice in the performance of male and female athletes

In soccer, each moment of the game demands the creation of different responses and decision-making, requiring independent discovery of the appropriate actions. Therefore, practice within an unpredictable context impacts the learning processes and the performance of executive functions, how practice impact differently males and females is not yet extensively known. The objective of this study was to compare executive functions in male and female elite young soccer players. The results revealed that males showed higher accuracy when compared to females in the visuospatial working memory test. The results of this study highlight the necessity for more robust practice opportunities for females in soccer from an early age, enabling sporting learning processes during sensitive periods of acquiring crucial cognitive-motor skills.