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.

足球赛事的每一刻均要求球员作出差异化应对与决策，并需自主探索适配的行动方案。因此，于不可预测场景中开展的训练，会对学习过程与执行功能（executive functions）的表现产生影响，但目前关于训练对男性与女性的影响差异尚未得到充分探究。本研究旨在对比男女精英青年足球运动员的执行功能表现。研究结果显示，在视觉空间工作记忆（visuospatial working memory）测试中，男性的准确率显著高于女性。本研究结果凸显了为女性足球运动员自幼年起提供更充足训练机会的必要性，使其能够在掌握关键认知-运动技能的敏感窗口期内完成运动学习进程。