Relationship between choice reaction time and expertise in team and individual sports: a gender differences approach.

Experts in sport benefit from some cognitive mechanisms and strategies which enables them to reduce response times and increase response accuracy.Reaction time is mediated by different factors including type of sport that athlete is participating in and expertise status. The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between CRTs and expertise level in collegiate athletes, as well as evaluating the role of sport and gender differences.44 male and female athletesrecruited from team and individual sports at elite and non-elite levels. The Lafayette multi-choice reaction time was used to collect data.All subjectsperformed a choice reaction time task that required response to visual and auditory stimuli. Results demonstrated a significant overall choice reaction time advantage for maleathletes, as well as faster responses to stimuli in elite participants.Athletes of team sportsdid not showmore accurate performance on the choice reaction time tasks than athletes of individual sports. These findings suggest that there is a relation between choice reaction time and expertise in athletes and this relationship can be mediated by gender differences. Overall, athletes with intrinsic perceptual- motor advantages such as faster reaction times are potentially more equipped for participation in high levels of sport.