Mental fatigue impairs physical activity, technical and decision-making performance during small-sided games.

Athos Trecroci,Gabriele Boccolini,Marco Duca,Damiano Formenti,Giampietro Alberti,Moacir Marocolo

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0238461

Athos Trecroci, Gabriele Boccolini + Show 4 more

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https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0238461

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Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of mental fatigue on physical activity, technical and decision-making performance during small-sided games. Nine sub-elite soccer players were enrolled in the study. The players performed two small-sided games on two occasions within a crossover experimental design. Before each game, they underwent a mental fatiguing task (Stroop task) and a control task (documentary watching) in a randomized, counterbalanced order. Players’ physical activity, technical, and decision-making performance were obtained during small-sided games by GPS and video scouting. Results showed that distance in acceleration covered per min, negative passes, passing accuracy, and shot accuracy were likely impaired than control task after a mental fatiguing protocol. Decision-making performance of negative passes, passes accuracy, and dribbling accuracy resulted also likely decreased compared with control task. These findings demonstrated that mental fatigue impacted on technical, GPS-derived, and soccer-specific decision-making performance during SSG. In conclusion, avoiding cognitively demanding tasks before playing soccer-specific activities may be advisable to preserve players’ physical activity, technical, and decision-making skills.

Highlights

Fatigue can be classified as mental or physical [1]
Multiple comparison analysis reported that both mental fatiguing task (MFT) (ES = 2.72, p < 0.0001) and control task (CT) (ES = 1.76, p < 0.0001) increased their Rating of Perceived Exertion (RPE) values from START to POST with a large effect, respectively
The main findings of this study were that mental fatigue affected the number of negative passes, passing accuracy, shot accuracy, distance in acceleration covered per min, decision

Summary

Introduction

Fatigue can be classified as mental or physical [1]. The former refers to a psychobiological state in which individuals manifest subjective, behavioural, and physiological alterations induced by prolonged or excessively demanding mental tasks [2]. According to Warm et al [3] activities requiring a high vigilance are stressful as accompanied by hard mental work. Mental fatigue has been shown to impact on muscle endurance, fatigue, and recovery during static shoulder abduction (to exhaustion) exercise [4], on motor performance (e.g. force) during submaximal hand-grip exercise [5], and on physical performance (e.g., time to exhaustion) during high-intensity cycling exercise [6].

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