Analysis of motor performance in timing anticipatory tasks in elderly practioners of interception sports

Abstract

The aim of this study was to analyze the effect of interception sports on the performance in of a complex anticipatory timing task in the elderly. The study included 73 participants divided into three groups: elderly athletes, elderly and young non-athletes. The task consisted in the execution of a sequence of touchs in four sensors, simultaneously to the lighting of diodes aligned in a groove, with the last touch matching the lighting of the last diode. We used three speeds of diode lighting (1 m/s, 1.5 m/s, 2.2 m/s), with ten trials for each speed. The performance was analyzed by calculating the constant error, variable error and absolute error. The results indicated positive effect of sports on the anticipatory timing performance in elderly athletes. There was also the effect of varying the speed of the stimulus, with the best performances of the groups at moderate speed.