ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Sports Act. Living
Sec. Women in Sport
Volume 7 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fspor.2025.1620442
This article is part of the Research TopicBridging the Knowledge Gap: Enhancing Research on Women's Participation in SportsView all 4 articles
The Effect of Heading Encountered in Typical Women's Football (Soccer) Matches on Fine and Gross Motor Control
Provisionally accepted
- University of Exeter, Exeter, United Kingdom
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Heading is an integral component of football, but concerns remain about its impact on brain health.This study examines the acute effects of heading on gross and fine motor control as a measure of the motor-cognitive function of women footballers. The heading protocol for this study represented the typical exposure to headers experienced in the women's game: one every 10 min, for one hour, replicating a corner kick. A sample of 19 female collegiate football (soccer) players participated in two sessions: a control session, and a heading intervention. Gross motor control was assessed via measures of sway during standing balance, and fine motor control was evaluated using a precision finger grip task. Results showed no significant changes in gross motor control, based on postural sway parameters. However, significant alterations were observed in fine motor control in the tremor frequency (0-4 Hz band) of precision gripping, indicating a potential change in motor-cognitive function following the heading task. The findings suggest that exposure to the number and type of headers that might be performed over a typical football match does not impair standing balance, but it may affect fine motor control. Future research should look to incorporate brain imaging and electrophysiological measures to further understand the mechanisms underpinning changes in fine motor control performance after heading.
Keywords: soccer1, mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI)2, motor control3, cognitive function4, visual-motor processing5
Received: 29 Apr 2025; Accepted: 06 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Palmer, Bond, Woodgates, Jack, Smail, Baker and Williams. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Jac Lloyd Palmer, University of Exeter, Exeter, United Kingdom
Genevieve K R Williams, University of Exeter, Exeter, United Kingdom
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