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Published on: November 6, 2015
Ideomotor representation, motor control, and body aesthetics in juvenile rhythmic gymnasts: between reciprocal
R M Ciorășteanu1, R Mijaica2, L Balint2
1Interdisciplinary Doctoral School, Transilvania University of Brașov, Brașov, Romania.
Objective:
This study aimed to evaluate the effects of a personalized integrative training program on ideomotor representation, motor control estimated through whole-routine performance, and body aesthetics in juvenile rhythmic gymnasts, as well as to examine short-term transfer to competitive performance.
Methods:
The study used a pre-post intervention design and included 9 competitive rhythmic gymnasts aged 8-11 years who followed, for 14 weeks, a program integrated into their regular training. The assessment included whole-routine performance, used as an operational expression of motor control, computerized video analysis, the Movement Imagery Questionnaire-3 (MIQ-3), and the Evaluation of Body Aesthetics in Sports (EBAS).
Results:
All athletes showed increases in total whole-routine score, with the group mean rising from 16.06 ± 1.10 to 17.26 ± 1.00 points, while the mean difficulty realization rate increased from 64.66% to 72.82%. At the inferential level, ideomotor representation was the only variable that showed a statistically significant change between T0 and T2 (Z = -2.25, p = 0.024). Indicators of whole-routine performance and body aesthetics showed favorable directional improvements, but these were not statistically significant at group level. At the individual level, the response to the intervention was differentiated, and short-term transfer to competitive performance remained variable.
Conclusion:
Ideomotor representation was the dimension most responsive to the intervention and may provide a useful reference point for optimizing performance organization in juvenile rhythmic gymnasts, even though the relationships among ideomotor representation, motor control, and body aesthetics remain unevenly consolidated in the short term and transfer to competitive performance is expressed differentially.
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