On December 16, Margarida Vaz de Carvalho, a PhD student of SpertLab and CIPER, successfully defended her MSc dissertation in High-Performance Training in Sport at Faculdade de Motricidade Humana
Her dissertation, titled “Variability of Perception–Action and Its Role in Expertise in Jump Rope”, supervised by Professor Duarte Araujo, compared experts and novices in a single-rope speed sprint task. Findings show that expert performers exhibit greater local movement variability alongside greater global movement coordination, both closely linked to task goal achievement.
These findings challenge the traditional view of variability as mere noise and expertise as automaticity, showing instead that performance entails functional variability in perception–action coupling, informing how a constraints-led approach (CLA) can be used in training.
Margarida’s scientific rigor and novelty, framed by the dynamic research environment at SpertLab, are to be praised 👏
