The influence of general cognitive training on sport-specific performance in wheelchair basketball

Abstract

There has been tremendous growth of sport-science literature completed on able-bodied or mainstream athletes. However, research completed on the development of perceptual-cognitive skills on athletes with physical disabilities is scarce. Twelve Senior high performance/National Academy athletes were recruited from Wheelchair Basketball Canada to participate in a pre-test vs. post-test intervention study of general cognitive training (GCT) effects on sport-specific performance. Athletes were tested in general executive functioning, sport-specific cognitive skills (pattern recall), and sport-specific physical performance indicators. The intervention was 4-weeks of multiple object tracking (MOT). Results from statistical analysis show little-to-no changes over the study period, which supports the hypothesis that participation in MOT would have no effect on performance in wheelchair basketball. Future research is needed in this area and would benefit from a larger sample size, a control-group, and extended study period. Coaches are encouraged to be cautious in their use of GCT programs in high performance athlete training environments.