The effect of different instructional foci on the learning of a motor skill of aikido was investigated. Sixty participants from both sexes with an average age of 14 practiced choku tsuki task, which consisted of hitting a target on the chest of an attacking opponent with a stick. They were divided into four groups: relaxation, with a cue about the relaxed way in which the task should be performed; low hip, with a cue about maintaining hip displacement as low as possible; perceptive, with a cue at the circular target located on the chest of the opponent as they raised their sword to attack; and control, without cues. The dependent variables included measures related to the task goals, movement pattern relative to the task components and kinematic features. Only the perceptive and low hip groups learned the motor skill. The perceptive group obtained better overall performance than the other groups. Learning choku tsuki was improved by the instructional cue “strike target as soon as sword is raised”, establishing the learner’s perceptive attunement to the moving opponent. Learning was also enhanced by the cue "keep hips as low as possible"; however, at a lower level than that of the perceptive cue.

This study aimed to investigate the goalkeeper’s anticipatory and reaction time behaviors. For this purpose, 50 kicks performed by male futsal players were analyzed. The time of goalkeeper’s response to a kick was analyzed in relation to the kick outcome, court zone and distance between the goalkeeper and player who performed the kick. The goalkeeper’s anticipation and reaction time behaviors were those below and above 200 ms as the time criterion, respectively, by considering the moment the player began the preparation for kicking to the moment the goalkeeper began to respond to it.  Results showed that the goalkeeper performed anticipatory behaviors predominantly when (i) goals were attained and (ii) kicks were performed in the center and attack court’s zones (iii) at a distance ranging from 5.97 to 7.84 meters. In these conditions, the goalkeepers’ anticipatory behaviors implied ineffective performances.

Assessment is an essential procedure for any professional intervention, including in physical education and sports contexts. It concerns a process of collecting information that allows accessing the state of practitioners in relation to desired teaching-learning or training behaviors. Recently, the focus on assessment instruments has been extended to the martial arts contexts, whose studies have shown that the assessment instruments have been recognized by experts of different martial arts not only in relation to access of specific performances, but also as a means of promoting the practitioner's knowledge and motivation. The present study sought to develop and validate a checklist for an aikido’s motor skill: the choku tsuki. For content validation, the evaluators were 17 aikido experts, with at least 7 years of experience, all black belts (n = 6 (6th dan); n = 2 (5th dan); n = 3 (3rd dan); n = 5 (2nd dan); n = 2 (1st dan)). And, for the reliability test, there were four participants (n = 1 (5th dan); n = 2 (2nd dan); n = 1 (1st dan)). Ten adolescents, all inexperienced in the practice of jo, male (n = 7) and female (n = 3), whose ages ranged from 14 to 16 years old also participated as performers. At least 70% of the aikido experts evaluated the items as clear, adequate and technically viable for application in research contexts. The intra and inter-rater correlation indexes reached at least 0.90. It can be concluded that the choku tsuki assessment instrument is reliable, since it reached significant values in the reliability and objectivity indices.

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