Francisco J Moreno

• Sport Sciences
• Head of Department at Miguel Hernández University of Elche

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0307949.].

Background The handstand is an essential skill in acrobatic sports. This skill requires the athlete to maintain an inverted upright stance with only the hands supported, which requires a great effort of muscular coordination and motor control. Several factors influence the ability to control the posture, including fatigue, which is a bit studied co...

Analysis of variability in physiological time series has been shown to be an indicator of the state of the organism. Although there is evidence of the usefulness of analysis of the amount and/or structure of variability (complexity) in cycling actions, there is limited knowledge about its application in resistance exercise. The aim of this study is...

Perceptual-cognitive skills are crucial in successfully managing information and decision-making in sports, particularly in high-pressure environments. We examined 16 basketball referees’ on-the-court visual search behavior by comparing referees of different experience levels (experienced, n = 8; and novice, n = 8) and different court positions. Pa...

The study analyzed the gaze behavior and decision-making performance of 20 soccer assistant referees while judging offside events. Specifically, gaze behaviors, gaze entropy, and estimated quiet eye (eQE; defined as the last fixation prior to the attacker’s ball pass) characteristics (i.e., location, onset, offset, and duration) were analyzed in re...

This study investigates the acute effect of physical exercise simulating a standard pre-competitive warm-up on the response suppression and decision-making of football referees. Thirty-four referees (n = 17 – regional level; n = 17 – national level) participated in the study. A Stop-Signal Task (SST) and a decision-making video test were used to ev...

Background Variable practice is a broadly used tool to improve motor learning processes. However, controversial results can be found in literature about the success of this type of practice compared to constant practice. This study explored one potential reason for this controversy: the manipulation of variable practice load applied during practice...

Asencio, P, García-Valverde, A, Albaladejo-García, C, Beato, M, Moreno-Hernández, FJ, and Sabido, R. Analysis of concentric and eccentric power in flywheel exercises depending on the subjects' strength level and body mass. J Strength Cond Res XX(X): 000-000, 2024-The objective of this study is to describe how flywheel exercise mechanical outputs ar...

Resistance training programs play a crucial role in optimizing soccer performance. The aim of this study is to compare performance outcomes in sport-specific tasks after implementing two different flywheel resistance training (FRT) programs: variable intensity (VI) and constant intensity (CI). Seventeen (n = 17) amateur footballers were divided int...

Movement control can be an indicator of how challenging a task is for the athlete, and can provide useful information to improve training efficiency and prevent injuries. This study was carried out to determine whether inertial measurement units (IMU) can provide reliable information on motion variability during strength exercises, focusing on the...

En estos últimos años, y debido a la crisis sanitaria, las posibilidades de colaboración internacional presenciales se vieron reducidas y la Universidad Miguel Hernández de Elche (UMH) elaboró una propuesta para considerar la colaboración internacional no presencial. El objetivo del estudio fue aplicar un protocolo basado en plataformas virtuales y...

This work aimed to describe the visual search behavior of basketball referees. Eight national and eight regional basketball referees took part in the study. The participants watched five projected gameplay video clips twice from different perspectives: lead and trail referee positions. Dependent variables were based on the extrinsic ocular motility...

Motor variability is a prominent feature of the human movement that, nowadays, can be easily measured through different sensors and analyzed using different types of variables, and it seems to be related to functional and adaptative motor behavior. It has been stated that motor variability is related to the system’s flexibility needed to choose the...

Balance has been positioned as an important performance skill in sport. Differences in postural control have been found between levels of expertise. However, this statement remains unanswered in some cyclic sports. This work aimed to describe the one-leg balance performance of a sample of elite BMX riders—racing and freestyle—compared to a control...

Inhibitory control is an executive function that is closely and bidirectionally related to sports practice. The objective of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to study the effect of this relationship when response suppression is assessed within the Stop-Signal Paradigm. Twenty-four articles met the inclusion criteria and were selected fo...

Induced variability by the use of unstable surfaces has been proposed to enhance proprioceptive control to deal with perturbations in the support base better. However, there is a lack of evidence about its benefits facilitating motor adaptions in upper body skills. In this experiment, practice on an unstable surface was applied to analyze the adapt...

Background: Fatigue is a process that results in a decreased ability to produce force, and which could eventually affect performance and increase the risk of injury. Force variability analysis has been proposed to describe the level of fatigue with the purpose of detecting the development of fatigue. Variability is credited to play a functional and...

There is a controversy about the benefits of variable practice on motor learning. This study aimed to analyze the effect of variable practice after the learner stabilized their performance. Thirty-two healthy adults performed a computer-simulated discrete accuracy task in which they had to release a virtual ball to try to hit a target. After a pre-...

The complexity of the center of pressure (COP) provides important information regarding the underlying mechanisms of postural control. The relationships between COP complexity and balance performance are not fully established and might depend on the task constraints and the filtering decomposition of the COP signal. This study assessed COP complexi...

Currently, it is not fully understood how motor variability is regulated to ease of motor learning processes during reward-based tasks. This study aimed to assess the potential relationship between different dimensions of motor variability (i.e., the motor variability structure and the motor synergies variability) and the learning rate in a reward-...

Uno de los puntos clave del entrenamiento deportivo es conocer cuándo un gesto técnico debe ser modificado, así como las estrategias que seguir para ello. Se ha comprobado cómo la interacción con diferentes materiales y espacios es adecuada para incentivar la búsqueda de soluciones motrices en los individuos, pero es importante conocer el estrés qu...

In tennis, coaches consider balance fundamental for the acquisition of skilled motor performance. However, the potential relationship between balance and tennis expertise and performance has not been explored yet. Therefore, this study assessed the relationship between balance and tennis performance using linear and non-linear parameters through 1)...

Basketball Free-throw analysis has been approached from different research areas, trying to explore if an ideal throw pattern exists or if the throwing movement responds to different patterns depending on players’ characteristics. Nevertheless, not only are there differences in the technique between players, but they also show intrinsic variability...

To assess the influence of age and skill level on handball throwing kinematics and performance, 126 participants were distributed into groups according to their skill level (elite or recreational) and age group (U12, U16 or +18). Each participant performed three sets of 10 throws, aiming to hit a target (40 × 40 cm) located in the right corner of t...

Postural control is considered a key variable in team sports, such as handball, which require abilities strongly related to balance. However, postural control and its relationship to the performance of handball skills according to the players’ skill level and age has not been evaluated to date. This study analyzes the relationship between balance a...

To analyse the influence of age and skill level on tennis serve performance, 99 male participants took part in a study of maximum effort serves to a target (50 x 50 cm) in the add service box. Participants were divided into two skill level groups (elite and recreational) and three age groups (under 12 years old [U12], under 16 years old [U16] and +...

The aim of this experiment was to assess if the previously supported relationship between the structure of motor variability and performance changes when the task or organismic constraints encourage individuals to adjust their movement to achieve a goal. Forty-two healthy volunteers (aged 26.05 ± 5.02 years) performed three sets of cyclic pointing...

Background: Motor variability has been related to motor control playing a functional role in human adaptive behaviours. However, the direction of the relationship between variability and motor control can be unclear. The specific relations that exist between task constraints and movement (re)organization could explain some of this controversy. Rese...

Resumen: Desde la pedagogía no lineal se entiende al sujeto como un sistema complejo en continua interacción. La interacción entre los distintos elementos del sistema y el entorno provoca la emergencia de nuevos patrones de comportamiento. Si se introduce una variable externa que altera el equilibrio del sistema, éste adopta un nuevo estado, y esta...

Recent studies have found that motor variability is actively regulated as an exploration tool to promote learning in reward and error-based tasks. Based on this functional role of variability, several researches have manipulated motor variability by practicing in order to maximize learning processes. However, the effectiveness of such variable prac...

Recent studies show that motor variability is actively regulated as an exploration tool to promote learning in reward-based tasks. However, its role in learning processes during error-based tasks, when a reduction of the motor variability is required to achieve good performance, is still unclear. In this study, we hypothesized that error-based lear...

This study investigated the extent to which specific interacting constraints of performance might increase or decrease the emergent complexity in a movement system, and whether this could affect the relationship between observed movement variability and the central nervous system’s capacity to adapt to perturbations during balancing. Fifty-two heal...

This study addresses the visual and motor behavior, and success rate, of 40 novice tennis players in a laboratory setting and an on-court situation when viewing a passing-shots rally performed by an expert tennis player located at the back line of the court. The tennis players had to move fast and quickly through forehand or backhand volleys. Visua...

The execution variability and outcomes found in throwing actions have received special attention in numerous studies in recent years. The aim of this study was to analyze the effect of an unstable condition on velocity, accuracy and kinematics of movement in the seven metres throw in handball. Twenty‐five young handball players took part in an expe...

Trunk exercise speed has significant effects on neuro-mechanical demands; however, the influence of a variety of exercise speeds on motor control of the trunk displacement remains unknown. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of performance speed on trunk motion control during the curl-up exercise by analyzing the kinematic variance about...

The authors' aim was to determine which variables allow for the characterization of motor balance behavior. Traditional measures and nonlinear measures of center of pressure (COP; n = 30) and kinematics (n = 10) were tested in their absolute and relative consistency in a 30-s standing balance task protocol under stable and unstable conditions. Rega...

Previous studies have pointed out the convenience of taking the characteristics of the skill to be learned and the intrinsic characteristics of the learners into account when designing practice tasks. Nevertheless, few studies have manipulated the amount of variable practice. The ability to adapt, as an inherent feature of biological systems, can b...

Research regarding the complex fluctuations of postural sway in an upright standing posture has yielded controversial results about the relationship between complexity and the capacity of the system to generate adaptive responses. The aim of this study is to compare the performance and complexity of two groups with different levels of expertise in...

In recent years, several works have explored variability using different approaches, trying to describe the variations in motor movement. Traditionally, movement variability was regarded as a system error due to noise of neuromuscular mechanisms, but alternative theories suggest that motor variability seems to reflect a functional behaviour improvi...

Abstract Variable practice has been shown to be an effective strategy to improve open motor skills. However, the usefulness of this procedure in closed motor skills remains controversial. The following study has the objective of analysing the effects of variability practice in the improvement of a closed skill. The skill studied has been the tennis...

El tiro libre en baloncesto, es una acción en el cual cobra una gran importancia la precisión del lanzamiento y es un gesto que tradicionalmente se ha entrenado mediante la repetición del gesto técnico manteniendo constantes las condiciones de práctica. El objetivo del estudio es mostrar la eficacia de un entrenamiento en variabilidad del tiro libr...

Objective The aim of this study is to analyze the relationship between the complexity and postural balance in a standing balance task. In this way, this study assesses the effect of the sample frequency, the stationarity of center of pressure (COP) and the used of different analysis. Method Twenty-one volunteers were asked to stand still for 30 s...

El ser humano es interpretado como un sistema complejo con capacidad de adaptación y en continua interacción con su entorno (Kelso, 1995). Cualquier variación que se produzca a su alrededor provocará cambios en el sistema ajustándose a las condiciones que le rodean. Esta capacidad de adaptación, característica de los sistemas biológicos, resulta un...

The human being is interpreted as a complex system with a capacity to adapt, and in continuous interaction with his environment (Kelso, 1995). Any variation around him will create changes in the system to adjust to the surrounding conditions. This capacity to adapt, a characteristic of the biologic system, is an appropriate reference to understand...

The aim of this study is to analyze the visual search strategies of expert (n=5) and inexperienced drivers (n=5) during a simulated task of driving in laboratory. The ocular movements are recorded with an ASL SE5000 eye tracking system; and the number, time and location of these fixations are analyzed too. The drivers observed a sequence of specifi...

RESUMEN El rendimiento en el tenis viene determinado principalmente por la ejecución del saque con la mayor ve-locidad y precisión posible. El objetivo del estudio es analizar cómo afecta la variabilidad en el movimiento a las variables de rendimiento. Participaron 29 tenistas (12.9 ± 1.64 años), que realizaron 20 saques cada uno. No se encontraron...

Studies about the relationship between complexity and performance in upright standing balance have yielded mixed results and interpretations. The aim of the present study was to assess how the increasing difficulty in standing balance task affects performance and the complexity of postural sway and neuromuscular activation. Thirty-two young healthy...

Relationship Between Motor Variability, Accuracy, and Ball Speed in the Tennis Serve The main objective of this study was to analyze the motor variability in the performance of the tennis serve and its relationship to performance outcome. Seventeen male tennis players took part in the research, and they performed 20 serves. Linear and non-linear va...

The research uses a cognitive perspective to analyse the visual and motor behaviour of a sample of junior tennis players during their perception of different shot movements made by an opposing player. Visual fixations (time and location) were recorded using the ASL SE5000 eye tracking system and the time parameters of motor response (reaction time,...

This study examines the differences between expert and novice team-handball players in their sensitivity to instructions that emphasize speed or precision requirements. The effects of instructions on throwing speed and accuracy of a handball over arm throw and the speed–accuracy trade-off in experts and novices is revisited. An expert group (n=18)...

This study analyzes the effect of the practice distribution in the precision and speed of handball shots performed by young players. Two groups of ten participants were involved in the study (12.5 ± 0.9 years old), with different practice conditions. One group participated under massed practice and the other one under a distributed practice, both i...

Resumen El presente trabajo tiene como objetivo analizar el efecto de la variabilidad de la práctica sobre la precisión en una tarea simplificada respecto al lanzamiento de siete metros en balonmano. En este estudio ha participado un grupo de 14 jugadores pertenecientes al Equipo Nacional Promesas Masculino de balonmano, con una edad media de 15 añ...

El presente trabajo tiene como objetivo analizar los valores de la velocidad y de la precisión en el lanzamiento de siete metros en balonmano con jóvenes jugadores en función de la distribución de la práctica. En este estudio han participado dos grupos de diez jugadores de balonmano de categoría infantil (12,5 años, SD=0,9). Cada uno de estos dos g...

p align="justify">Este estudio investiga acerca de la relación existente entre la variabilidad en la ejecución del servicio plano en tenis y la práctica variable del mismo, partiendo de un análisis predictivo de las variables cinemáticas instantáneas que definen el movimiento de la mano que sujeta la raqueta. 17 tenistas pasaron por 8 condiciones d...

p class="resumenyabstract" align="justify">This work examines the General Adaptation Syndrome like a suitable framework to explain motor learning processes. Human motor behaviour is viewed like a complex system continuously interacting in the environment. Motor learning is proposed as an adaptation process to the tasks constraints. Training loads a...

This study investigated simultaneous treatments in contextual interference (blocked and random practice) and their effect on the process of learning four tennis shots. 8 tennis players participated in the research, which was carried out in two phases. The first phase involved a 3-wk. period of 12 sessions with 192 practice tennis shots per session...

applied to control, evaluation and training in different sport situations. This system has been adapted to describes an portable and low cost automatic system the athletic start, swimming, and voleyball jump, by means of experimental situations with high level athletes as experimental subjects. The system is based in information processing model fo...

RESUMEN La relación entre velocidad y precisión ha sido investigada en la ejecución de diferentes habilidades motrices. Estas variables parecen ser muy relevantes para el rendimiento en el servicio en tenis. En este estudio se ha investigado acerca de cómo afecta la modificación de la velocidad de la pelota sobre la precisión alcanzada en el servic...

In this work, the last improvements of the knowledge about perception in sports are presented. Several investigators have demonstrated that skilled perception of the image that it is visualized determines an adequate behavior in the sport. From a cognitive perspective, the limited capacity of information processing of a subject in a complex environ...

This study is aimed to show the design and application process of an automated system to recording in real time the temporary parameters of tennis players reaction response during the execution of the technical-tactical movement called “split-step and second volley”. The knowledge about temporary characteristics of the action will be make used of i...

Resumen La gran cantidad de grados de libertad durante la ejecución de un movimiento deportivo permite describir diferentes niveles de variabilidad. En el estudio del lanzamiento de baloncesto ha existido gran interés por conocer las características de la ejecución óptima del lanzamiento, pero son menos los trabajos que se han interesado en investi...

El empleo de sistemas tecnológicos y de simulación para el análisis del movimiento humano y de los procesos comportamentales, ha permitido la optimización del ren-dimiento en diferentes acciones deportivas y tareas motri-ces, facilitando el estudio tanto en situaciones de laborato-rio como de campo, de aquellas variables determinantes para el rendi...

El rol que juega la variabilidad en la coordinación y control del sistema sensorio-motor es un elemento central para el estudio del Control Motor. Nuestro propósito ha sido elaborar un protocolo experimental que nos permitiera medir la variabilidad de los parámetros cinemáticos de una sucesión de piruetas endehors desde 4.ª posición de pies, sujeta...

p> RESUMEN Este trabajo examina las posibilidades del Síndrome General de Adaptación como un marco de referencia para explicar y predecir los cambios producidos por el Aprendizaje Motor. Se parte de la consideración del ser humano como un sistema complejo en continua interacción con su entorno y el aprendizaje como un proceso de adaptación a las...

The great amount of degrees of freedom during the execution of a sport movement allows describing different levels of variability in human movement. Several authors have studied biomechanic characteristics of basketball shoot, but few of them have studied influence of variability on shoot task. The present study tries to know the effects of opponen...

This investigation examined the effects of distributed and massed practice on the learning and retention of a discrete computerized skill (Exp. 1) and a continuous computerized skill (Exp. 2). 40 men were randomly assigned to one of four groups, of which two groups took part in Exp. 1 and two groups in Exp. 2. Performance was assessed at various po...

This investigation examined the effects of distributed and massed practice on the learning and retention of a discrete computerized skill (Exp. 1) and a continuous computerized skill (Exp. 2). 40 men were randomly assigned to one of four groups, of which two groups took part in Exp. 1 and two groups in Exp. 2. Performance was assessed at various po...

Twenty participants were tested on rapid elbow extension movements. This experiment examined the effects of the type of termination (pointing vs. impact movements) and sport practice (karate vs. volleyball) on temporary specific electromyographic (EMG) and kinematic measures during elbow extension movements. EMG was recorded from triceps (main agon...

p> RESUMEN La relación entre velocidad y precisión ha sido investigada en la ejecución de diferentes habilidades motrices. Estas variables parecen ser muy relevantes para el rendimiento en el servicio en tenis. En este estudio se ha investigado acerca de cómo afecta la modificación de la velocidad de la pelota sobre la precisión alcanzada en el s...

The purpose of this study was to determine visual behavior and motor responses between experienced and novice wheelchair tennis players relative to the return in tennis. Novice (n = 7) and Experienced (n = 5) wheelchair tennis players took part in the study. Two series of serves performed to the forehand and the backhand sides were examined in both...

The aim of this study consists of the application of an experimental protocol that allows information to be obtained about the visual search strategies elaborated by swimming coaches. 16 swimming coaches participated. The Experienced group (n = 8) had 16.1 yr. (SD = 8.2) of coaching experience and at least five years of experience in underwater vis...

The aim of this study consists of the application of an experimental protocol that allows information to be obtained about the visual search strategies elaborated by swimming coaches. 16 swimming coaches participated. The Experienced group (n=8) had 16.1 yr. (SD=8.2) of coaching experience and at least five years of experience in underwater vision....

This study analyses the visual behaviour performed by tennis coaches with different levels of experience, when they shown a second top-spin serves in a video-based and court situations during a performance error detection process. The ASL SE5000 eye tracking system was used to detect and record the point of gaze in the visual field. Three experimen...

El presente trabajo analiza los efectos que sobre el rendimiento tiene la organización de la práctica con interferencia contextual en tres habilidades de lanzamiento y recepción. En este estudio ha participado una muestra de 392 escolares, pertenecientes a diferentes cursos de primero, segundo y tercero de E.S.O. Se estudia el efecto que la organiz...

The study of the visual and motor behaviour in a simulated situation of return to service in tennis and wheelchair tennis was carried out, where participants responded to the serves in both real-life (3D) and video-based settings (2D). Automated systems to acquire data were employed, trying to simulate the attentional demands of the game in the vid...

En situaciones deportivas limitadas temporalmente como el servicio en tenis, es fundamental la obtención de informaciones relevantes acerca del movimiento del oponente, con el fin de poder emitir una respuesta lo más eficaz posible. El presente trabajo analiza las estrategias de búsqueda visual elaboradas por dos grupos de tenistas en silla de rued...

El presente trabajo aborda la problemática del estudio del comportamiento visual y motor en una situación simulada de resto ante el servicio en tenis y tenis en silla de ruedas, en la que los sujetos deben responder ante los servicios efectuados por su oponente, tanto en situación de pista (3D) como ante una proyección de video en una pantalla (2D)...

The study of the visual and motor behaviour in a simulated situation of return to service in tennis and wheelchair tennis was carried out, where participants responded to the serves in both real-life (3D) and video-based settings (2D). Automated systems to acquire data were employed, trying to simulate the attentional demands of the game in the vid...

Experienced athletes in sports with moving objects have shown greater skill when using visual information to anticipate the direction of a moving object than nonexperienced athletes of those sports. Studies have shown that expert athletes are more effective than novices in occlusion situations in the first stages of the sports sequence. In this stu...

Experienced athletes in sports with moving objects have shown greater skill when using visual information to anticipate the direction of a moving object than nonexperienced athletes of those sports. Studies have shown that expert athletes are more effective than novices in occlusion situations in the first stages of the sports sequence. In this stu...

esumenEn el presente trabajo se analizan las principales variables que afectan a las condiciones de la práctica y al efecto que éstas provocan sobre el aprendizaje y la retención de habilidades motrices. A lo largo del texto se analizan dos de los temas de investigación más frecuentemente estudiados en el ámbito del aprendizaje motor como son la in...

En el presente trabajo se analizan las principales variables que afectan a las condiciones de la práctica y al efecto que éstas provocan sobre el aprendizaje y la retención de habilidades motrices. A lo largo del texto se analizan dos de los temas de investigación más frecuentemente estudiados en el ámbito del aprendizaje motor como son la interfer...

In this work the relationships between visual attention (by an eye tracking system) and the reported attention have been studied (by an interview and two graphic questionnaires). The participants indicated the locations that they considered the more important ones, after two series of serves performed by wheelchair tennis and tennis players, as muc...

El presente trabajo presenta una revisión acerca del rol que juega la atención durante el proceso perceptivo para la obtención de información durante situaciones deportivas, información de vital importancia para la emisión de una respuesta lo más adecuada posible de acuerdo a la situación en la que el jugador/deportista se haya inmerso. Partiendo d...

El presente trabajo aborda el estudio de la influencia del tamaño de imagen en una situación de videoproyección en laboratorio, reproduciendo la acción de resto al servicio en tenis. Los tenistas analizados observaron dos secuencias de 24 servicios, dirigidos a la esquina y a la cruz del cuadro de servicio, cada una de ellas con un tamaño de imagen...

p class="titulo1" align="center"> RESUMEN El propósito de este trabajo consiste en mostrar el proceso de diseño y la aplicación de un sistema automatizado de medida para el registro en tiempo real de los parámetros temporales de la respuesta de reacción en jugadores de tenis durante la ejecución de una acción técnico-táctica denominada “split-step...

This paper shows the results of two studies carried out with whee1chair tennis players in an on-court situation (3 dimensions) and with tennis players in a laboratory (2 dimensions). In both studies we have analysed the visual behaviour of the players, who responded to the serves of left-handed and right-handed opponents. Results show that the perf...

El trabajo tiene como finalidad dar a conocer el proceso de diseño y validación de un sistema automatizado de registro de la respuesta de reacción y la motilidad ocular extrínseca en receptores de voleibol, tanto en situaciones reales de juego y laboratorio. Su esquema de funcionamiento se basa en el diseño de un software de registro que integra po...