There is evidence supporting a correlation between motor, attention and working memory in children. This present study focuses on children aged between 7 and 10 years, who have been playing basketball in the last two years. The aim of this study is to verify the correlation between cognitive and motor abilities and to understand the importance of this correlation in basketball practice. A total of 75 children who were 7.2–10.99 years old were assessed in terms of their attention, motor manual sequences and visuo-spatial working memory. A regression analysis was provided. In this sample, the motor abilities of children were found to be correlated with attention (denomination task, R2 = 0.07), visuo-spatial working memory (R2 = 0.06) and motor manual sequencing (aiming and catching task, R2 = 0.05; and manual dexterity task, R2 = 0.10). These correlations justify the suggestion to introduce deeper cognitive involvement during basketball training. The development of executive functions could have an important impact on basketball practice and the introduction of attention and memory tasks could help coaches to obtain optimal improvement in performance during the training sessions.

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The present literature highlights the importance of the cognitive aspects in the motor development of the sporty, Typically Developing children. The cognitive aspects permit to investigate how overcoming our self-limits, by increasing the expectations. The cognitive development is a ground-variable of the motor development, and enriches it.In this study we refer to young basketball players aged between 7 and 11 years old. We propose them a motor (motor manual sequencing skill, manual dexterity, balance, and aiming and catching) and a cognitive assessment. (visuo-spatial working memory, attention, inhibition and switching). By collecting our data, we propose a complete bivariate regression analysis, which follows the preliminary already published data. We focus on cognitive and motor individual abilities, to verify the correlation between them. Through this investigation, we would like to support the involvement of cognitive aspects in each part of the motor development of the children, even if depending on teachers, coaches and educators.

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The goal of the study is to analyze the kinematics and provide an EMG analysis of the support limb during an instep kick in adolescent players. We set a video camera, two torque transducers on the knee, and EMG sensors. A sample of 16 adolescent soccer players between 10 and 12 years old performed kicks. The kinematics shows a p = .039 on frontal plane (dominant 15.4 ± 1.8, nondominant 18.8 ± 1.7); the EMG analysis shows a p = .04 on muscular activation timing for the vastus medialis. A difference between the legs on the frontal plane emerges. Moreover, a huge difference on sagittal plane between the adolescent pattern and adult pattern exists (15° in adolescent population, 40° in adult population). The result shows a greater activation of the vastus medialis in the nondominant leg; probably, in this immature pattern, the adolescents use this muscle more than necessary.