Basic neurophysiology of motor skills in sport: a review

The broad spectrum of skills in sport, with their high demands on strength, speed, endurance, coordination, and flexibility, represents one of the greatest challenges to human motor performances. However, the basic neurophysiological mechanisms in sport are not principally different from those in everyday motor acts. This review describes some of the relevant neurophysiological facts in a comprehensive frame, with emphasis on new findings and changes of traditional concepts. Going from simple to increasingly complex processes, the following chapters, each with several subtopics, will be treated: peripheral and spinal building blocks of motoricity; elementary grammar of the spinal cord; some aspects of spinal/supraspinal coordination in the brainstem; achievements and problems of cerebral motor control; and principles of motor learning in sport. In conclusion, the recent progress in neurophysiological research on motor systems allows recognition of a substantially new trend, a change of "paradigms": old mechanistic concepts of reflex chains and motor functions, like a complicated automation, are increasingly replaced by the idea of a sensing, planning, and self-operating subject whose mental processes are decisive for motor behavior, particularly in sport. Further mutual stimulation and support can be expected from this development between the science of sport and that of neuro- and psychophysiology.