Smits, B.L.M. (Benjamin) (2014) Pacing and decision-making in sport and exercise: The necessity of performance-feedback, experience, and endpoint knowledge in the regulation of exercise intensity. thesis, Human Movement Sciences.
Full text available on request.Abstract
The goal-directed distribution and management of effort across the duration of an exercise bout is also known as pacing. Pacing, and its consequent exercise performance, can only be optimised if exercisers make decisions based on the most relevant information. Although factors as performance-feedback, experience, and endpoint knowledge are frequently considered in pacing studies, limited research focuses on whether and how these factors influence the adaptation of a pacing-strategy. The current study examined the necessity and contribution of these factors in selecting a pacing-strategy during endurance exercise, and its influence on consequent performance. While performing three successive 20-km cycling time trials, participants appointed to an experimental (EXP) group (n = 10) were blinded from feedback during their trials, while participants within a control (CON) group (n = 10) could consult performance-feedback continuously. Whereas the CON-group three times showed the same pacing-strategy (i.e. power-distribution), the strategies of the EXP-group varied across the trials. However, in none of the trials between-group differences were found in performance (i.e. performance time and mean power output). Furthermore, when controlling for end spurt influences by cutting off the last 10% of the pacing-strategy of each trial, the results suggest that after getting used in the initial two trials, in the subsequent trial the EXP-group was able to adopt a pacing-strategy comparable to that of the CON-group till the end phase of the trial. It was concluded that when specific task-experience in feedback-blinded circumstances is gained, only feedback that provides well-trained athletes precise knowledge of the endpoint is possibly necessary in proper decision-making in pacing for subsequent trials, because this enables them to deplete all reserved energy before termination of the trial.
| Item Type: | Thesis (UNSPECIFIED) |
|---|---|
| Supervisor name: | Hettinga, F.J. and Pepping, G.J. and Polman, R.C.J. |
| Faculty: | Medical Sciences |
| Date Deposited: | 06 Apr 2022 08:10 |
| Last Modified: | 06 Apr 2022 08:10 |
| URI: | https://umcg.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/3048 |
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