The Effects of Motor-Cognitive Warm-Up Protocols on Sport-Specific Skills in 8-Year-Old Football Players

Football is a multifaceted sport in which cognitive function plays a crucial role alongside physical performance in overall athletic success. However, widely adopted warm-up protocols primarily target motor skills, with minimal attention to cognitive readiness. This study aimed to investigate the short-term effects of motor-cognitive warm-up protocols incorporating auditory and visual stimuli on various cognitive and motor skills in youth male football players. Twenty-four male players (age = 8.56 ± 0.33 years) were randomly assigned to three groups (n = 8): motor-verbal (MVEG), motor-visual (MVIG), and motor-only. Each player completed one warm-up session followed by four performance tests. All groups completed the same football-specific warm-up exercises, differing only in instruction modality: pre-given for MG, verbal (auditory) for MVEG, and visual for MVIG. Immediately after the warm-up, participants completed the Stroop Color-Word Test (SCWT), Loughborough Soccer Passing Test (LSPT), Illinois Ball Test (IBT), and t-test. Significant group differences were found in SCWT error rate (p = 0.009), LSPT time (p = 0.001), IBT time (p = 0.036), and t-test time (p = 0.003). Across these tests, seven outcome measures were recorded: SCWT completion time and error rate, LSPT total time (finishing time plus penalties), IBT completion time and error rate, and t-test completion time. No differences were observed in SCWT completion time or IBT error rate. MVEG outperformed the other groups in most tests, except the LSPT, where MVIG achieved the best performance. MG showed the lowest overall performance, except in the t-test. Warm-up protocols incorporating cognitive stimuli can immediately improve motor and executive performance.