The Effects of Exercise Difficulty and Time-of-Day on the Perception of the Task and Soccer Performance in Child Soccer Players

Abstract

In soccer, accurate kicking skills are important determinants of successful performance. A successful kick must meet several criteria, including speed, accuracy, and timing. In fact, players who are able to kick the ball more accurately under various difficulties, such as time pressure, space constraints, the opponent’s pressure, and the distance between the kicking point and the goal, have a clear advantage during soccer games. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of exercise difficulty and time-of-day on perceived task difficulty and kicking performance. Accordingly, 32 boys (age: 11 ± 0.7 years; height: 1.45 ± 0.07 m; body-mass: 38.9 ± 7.8 kg) performed shooting accuracy tests under two difficulty levels (distance (long-distance (LD) vs. short-distance (SD)) and time pressure (Without-time-pressure (WTP) vs. With-time-pressure (TP)) at 08:00 h and 17:00 h. Absolute-error, variable-error, and constant-error were evaluated during the kicking tasks, in addition to ball velocity and shooting quality. Moreover, rating-of-perceived-exertion score (RPE), feeling-scale (FS), and perceived difficulty were completed immediately at the end of each test. The results showed that shooting quality was not affected by the time-of-day, but it was better in WTP vs. TP (p < 0.05), and in SD vs. LD (p < 0.05), respectively. Higher values for FS and lower values for RPE were observed in the morning compared to the afternoon (p < 0.05) and in WTP vs. TP (p < 0.05). In conclusion, specific soccer skills of boys were not time-of-day dependent, but they may be associated with time pressure and task difficulty.

Monitoring mood state to improve performance in soccer players: A brief review

“…In male youth soccer players, depression, RPE scores, Hooper Index, and stress were higher in the afternoon than the morning (Masmoudi et al, 2016). In some studies, training in the morning improved mood state (Masmoudi et al, 2016;Irandoust et al, 2019), whereas Masmoudi et al (2021) showed that only depression and vigor scores, but not anger, confusion, fatigue, inter-relation, or TMD were significantly worse when training at 17:00 h compared to 08:00 h. Across these studies, exercise/training in the morning boosts physical performance and physiological status including perceived energy levels that may have positive feedback effects and perpetuate improved mood. These studies also indicated that morning activities may also confer improved mental health status and productivity throughout the day.…”

“…Mood state in soccer players is related to time of day and to training time (e.g., morning versus evening training) (Chtourou et al, 2012(Chtourou et al, , 2014Masmoudi et al, 2016;Irandoust et al, 2019;Hsouna et al, 2021;Masmoudi et al, 2021). In male youth soccer players, depression, RPE scores, Hooper Index, and stress were higher in the afternoon than the morning (Masmoudi et al, 2016).…”

Recommendations for Resuming PA after Prolonged Rest in Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Integrative Review of Relevance for Immunity

“…In summary, some general principles emerge from the literature that can be adopted in designing play programs to resume PA in children: first, the progressivity of physical loads [ 95 ]. Setting progressive dimensions of the playing field and giving time constrains are the simplest ways to determine the physical load of playing by using interesting activities [ 96 ].…”