title: Examining warm-up decrement as a function of interpolated open and closed motor tasks: implications for practice strategies.
abstract: Warm-up decrement (WUD) is a loss in the level of physical performance following rest and prior to subsequent trials. The activity-set hypothesis is one of several explanations for this phenomenon. The purposes of this study were to field test the efficacy of the activity-set hypothesis and explore the effectiveness of performing closed and open interpolated tasks in reducing WUD. The criterion task was hitting tennis ground strokes in response to a ball tossing machine, an open skill. Elite players (n = 20) from a tennis club in New South Wales, Australia, practised either a closed or open task, or rested, prior to resuming the first post-rest trial, using a repeated-measures design. The results yielded partial support of the activity-set hypothesis. Although the closed interpolated task markedly reduced WUD, open skill practice solicited better post-rest performance. Warm-up decrement was clearly evident under the rest condition. Furthermore, post-rest scores were statistically superior for the open skill condition as compared to practising a closed interpolated task, at least for the first two post-rest trials (trials 21 and 22). The implications for these results in reducing WUD are explored within the frameworks of task classification systems and schema theory.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia.
authors.forename: M H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Anshel
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D015444:Exercise / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009048:Motor Skills / Q000145:classification / Q000502:physiology; D010809:Physical Fitness / Q000502:physiology*; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D013715:Tennis / Q000502:physiology