RESUMO
Weighted football place-kicking acutely enhances the ball velocity (BV) of subsequent standard football place-kicks. However, there is a dearth of research examining the long-term effects of such interventions, with less evidence in existence among elite athlete cohorts. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the individual effects of a 4 week, eight-session weighted Gaelic football intervention on BV of standard Gaelic football place-kicks among six elite male Gaelic football goalkeepers. This research design was based on a pre-, mid-, post-, and retention-test design. A linear mixed model analysis was employed, with time and participants as fixed effects, and the number of place-kicks per testing session as a random effect. Post hoc tests revealed significant changes in BV for five of the six participants (p < 0.05), with three participants experiencing significant BV increases from pre-test to post-test (p < 0.05), while no significant differences were found between post-test and retention-test. The remaining three participants experienced no significant BV differences from pre-test to post-test and retention-test. These findings suggest that a weighted football place-kicking intervention can be a time-efficient means of maintaining and enhancing BV and, thus, kick distance, among elite goalkeepers during pre-season and in-season phases.
RESUMO
ABSTRACT: Jermyn, S, Neill, CO, and Coughlan, EK. The acute effects from the use of weighted implements on skill enhancement in sport: A systematic review. J Strength Cond Res 35(10): 2922-2935, 2021-Weighted implements are used before competitive performance with the aim of enhancing motor skill execution on return to the standard implement. The purpose of this review was to analyze the existing literature pertaining to the acute effects of weighted implements on respective sporting performance. Following a systematic screening process, 25 studies were identified. This review highlighted the effects of (a) weighted balls and bats on throwing and batting performance and (b) indoor weight throw implements on indoor weight throw performance. Studies reported conflicting effects on immediate performance post-warm-up with the respective implements. Notably, although overweighted bats and overweight attachments are a prominent preparatory tool in baseball, this review found consistent and repeated evidence of degraded batting performance in striking-based studies. Decreased bat velocity, altered swing patterns, subjective-objective mismatches of bat speed and weight, temporal accuracy errors, and inadequate recalibration to the standard bat were identified as acute effects. This review identified an obvious dearth of research into the acute effects of weighted implements on motor skills in other sports with equally complex perceptual motor patterns, such as football (soccer), golf, rugby, basketball, and American football. Future weighted implement research should investigate the acute effects of respective implements on motor skill performance in other sports, such as those aforementioned, with the purpose of exploring relevant implications for preparatory strategies and immediate performance on return to the standard implement.
