An interventional study of Cognitively Engaging Soccer Practice and Conventional Soccer Practice in Executive Function (Cognition), Soccer Training and Performance, sponsored by Fan Mao. Completed at 1 site in China. Open to male participants aged 16 Years to 18 Years, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-07-07.
Sponsored by Fan Mao · Not applicable, Interventional, and Other
This study will examine whether an 8-week soccer-specific cognitive-motor training program can improve executive functions, decision-making, and soccer skill performance in youth soccer players. Soccer players often need to scan the field, process information quickly, choose appropriate actions, and perform technical skills under pressure. The training program is designed to combine soccer skills with game-like cognitive demands, such as recognizing opponents' movement, selecting passing or dribbling options, and responding to changing play situations.
Participants will be randomly assigned to either a soccer-specific cognitive-motor training group or an active control technical training group. Both groups will train three times per week for eight weeks in addition to their usual soccer training. The study will compare changes in soccer decision-making, executive functions, and skill performance from baseline to post-intervention and to a four-week retention test.
60 studies on the registry are indexed under Sialorrhea; 5 are open to participants now.
This study's enrollment of 64 is above the median of 31 across 44 interventional studies indexed under Sialorrhea.
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Exclusion Criteria:
Participants assigned to the experimental arm will receive soccer-specific cognitive-motor training in addition to their usual soccer training. The program will last 8 weeks, with 3 sessions per week and approximately 45 minutes per session. Each session will combine soccer technical practice with game-like cognitive demands, including scanning before receiving the ball, recognizing opponent pressure, identifying target players, selecting between passing, dribbling, or shooting options, responding to transition cues, and performing under time or opponent pressure. Training tasks will progress from constrained perception-action drills to conditioned small-sided games. The intervention is designed to improve executive functions, decision-making, and soccer skill performance under representative match-like conditions.
Behavioral: Cognitively Engaging Soccer Practice
Participants assigned to the control arm will receive active technical training in addition to their usual soccer training. The program will last 8 weeks, with 3 sessions per week and approximately 45 minutes per session. Training will include conventional soccer technical drills, such as passing patterns, dribbling circuits, receiving and turning exercises, ball-control activities, and finishing practice. The control sessions will be matched with the experimental arm for training duration, session frequency, general soccer content, and approximate physical workload. However, they will not systematically include game-like cognitive-motor constraints such as opponent-pressure recognition, target-player identification, decision-switching cues, or structured pass/dribble/shoot choice demands.
Behavioral: Conventional Soccer Practice
This intervention integrates cognitive elements into basic soccer skill practice. Participants engage in 20-minute soccer dribbling sessions that include decision-making tasks, attention control, and working memory challenges embedded within motor actions. For example, players must react to color or number cues while performing dribbling drills. The purpose is to enhance both motor learning and cognitive performance through dual-task engagement.Cognitively Engaging Soccer Practice
This intervention consists of traditional soccer dribbling training without added cognitive tasks. Participants perform the same duration and frequency of soccer skill practice (20 minutes) focusing purely on motor performance and technique refinement. No external cognitive demands are introduced.
Video-Based Soccer Decision Accuracy
Video-based soccer decision accuracy will be used as the primary outcome to assess soccer-specific decision-making performance. Participants will view attacking and transition scenarios from a field-player perspective. Each video will be occluded at a critical decision point, and participants will select the most appropriate action, such as pass, dribble, shoot, switch play, or retain possession. Decision accuracy will be calculated as the percentage of responses that match the expert consensus answer. Higher scores indicate better soccer-specific decision-making performance.
Time frame: Baseline, immediately after the 8-week intervention, and 4-week retention follow-up.
Dribbling performance time
Dribbling performance time will be measured as the total time (in seconds) required to complete a standardized cone-dribbling course.
Time frame: Baseline, immediately after the 8-week intervention, and 4-week retention follow-up.
Reaction time on cognitive tasks (Stroop task and 2-back task)
Reaction time (in milliseconds) will be recorded for correct responses during computerized Stroop and 2-back tasks. Mean reaction time across trials will be calculated separately for each task at each assessment time point.
Time frame: Baseline, immediately after the 8-week intervention, and 4-week retention follow-up.
Response accuracy on cognitive tasks (Stroop task and 2-back task)
Response accuracy will be calculated as the percentage of correct responses during computerized Stroop and 2-back tasks.
Time frame: Baseline, immediately after the 8-week intervention, and 4-week retention follow-up.
Plan to share: No — de-identified data available upon reasonable request
Ran from Feb 2024 to primary completion in May 2024, 3 months.
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This study is completed, as verified in Jul 2026. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.
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