2013 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

The influence of dual task on movement smoothness during a ball-bouncing task

Research Project

Project/Area Number	24800020
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Research Field	Physical education
Research Institution	Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology
Principal Investigator	MASATO Iwami 東京農工大学, 工学(系)研究科(研究院), 助教 (50634698)
Project Period (FY)	2012-08-31 – 2014-03-31
Keywords	二重課題 / 円滑性 / 筋電図 / ボールバウンシング
Research Abstract	The purpose of this study was to compare experienced basketball players and novices in terms of kinematic variability and muscular activities of the upper limbs during basketball-bouncing movements in a dual task paradigm. The participants were college basketball players and novices. In dual task conditions, novices showed greater variability in the amplitude of shoulder angular displacement during bouncing movements than did experienced basketball players. These results suggest that the novices were more affected by variability in the angular displacement of the proximal element of the upper limb joint, and that this could negatively affect their performance by reducing the accuracy and smoothness of ball bouncing. These findings imply that there are differences in proximal control strategy that influence kinematics between skill levels.