## 4 Discussion
### Effects of Verbal Encouragement and Listening to Preferred Music  
Based on the relevant literature [9; 19; 20; 24] and with regards to our research hypothesis, the main finding was that the players' performances improved under the PM and VE. Therefore, it is likely that the youth elite basketball players responded positively to listening to preferred music and receiving verbal encouragement, which, consequently, similarly improved their repeated CoD performance more than performing the same task did. To our knowledge, this is the first study to compare the influence of highly motivating music vs. verbal encouragement and the absence of both conditions on repeated maximal CoD performance in elite young basketball players. The present results indicate a positive acute effect of listening to PM and receiving VE compared to the control condition on the repeated CoD performance of youth elite basketball players. Based on the many benefits of music in sports performance [9; 24], we could argue that the tempo of the music and the coupled motor patterns would result in increased efficiency/decreased needs of neural drive [9; 24]. Notwithstanding, the R-CoD is a graded test, increasing in high-intensity velocity in our study. Therefore, although the synchronization between the music and the motor tasks underpins this higher performance \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c c c c} \hline  & **CON\_TT** & **CON\_PT** & **CON\_FI** & **VE\_TT** & **VE\_PT** & **VE\_FI** & **PM\_TT** & **PM\_PT** & **PM\_FI** \\ \hline Height & 0.07 & 0.05 & 0.03 & \(-\)0.17 & \(-\)0.21 & 0.22 & \(-\)0.23 & \(-\)0.22 & 0.02 \\ Mass & 0.43 & 0.33 & 0.13 & 0.28 & 0.24 & \(-\)0.09 & \(-\)0.03 & 0.14 & \(-\)0.40 \\ BMI & 0.42 & 0.30 & 0.15 & 0.45 * & 0.44 & \(-\)0.29 & 0.15 & 0.34 & \(-\)0.47 * \\ Body fat \% & 0.13 & 0.07 & 0.09 & 0.49 * & 0.40 & \(-\)0.10 & 0.19 & 0.16 & 0.02 \\ CON\_TT & - & & & & & & & & \\ CON\_PT & 0.92 *** & - & & & & & & & \\ CON\_FI & \(-\)0.07 & \(-\)0.47 * & - & & & & & & \\ VE\_TT & 0.80 *** & 0.63 * & 0.19 & - & & & & & \\ VE\_PT & 0.83 *** & 0.72 *** & 0.04 & 0.94 *** & - & & & & \\ VE\_FI & \(-\)0.61 ** & \(-\)0.63 ** & 0.22 & \(-\)0.53 * & \(-\)0.79 *** & - & & & \\ PM\_TT & 0.73 *** & 0.67 ** & \(-\)0.08 & 0.65 ** & 0.75 *** & \(-\)0.69 *** & - & & \\ PM\_PT & 0.71 *** & 0.65 ** & \(-\)0.06 & 0.66 ** & 0.80 *** & \(-\)0.80 *** & 0.91 *** & - & \\ PM FI & \(-\)0.10 & \(-\)0.08 & \(-\)0.01 & \(-\)0.13 & \(-\)0.25 & 0.39 & 0.04 & \(-\)0.39 & - \\ \hline \end{tabular}  
* CON--control condition, VE—verbal encouragement, PM—preferred music, TT—total time, PT—peak time, FI—fatigue index (**
* \(p<\) 0.01,
* \(p<\) 0.05).  
\end{table} 
Table 3: [PERSON]’s correlations between study variables. for a similar physiological exertion, allowing the activity to be more efficient [31], both listening to the preferred music and receiving verbal encouragement during the R-CoD task in our study more likely reduced the physiological feedback signals related to this physical exertion, being the consequence of the limited channel capacity of our afferents [19; 20; 24]. This might distract from fatigue afterward more than the use of control conditions would. Moreover, despite the fact that during high-intensity activity, in all stages of the test, attention might be narrowed and the distracting capacity could be insufficient to cope with high fatigue [9; 19; 20; 32], we can deduce that the participants are elite athletes who had already experienced music- and verbal-encouragement-related motivation and success. The benefits of auditory-motor synchronization in complex tasks (i.e., CoD) are evident because the motor patterns are highly specialized and need equally specific preferred music and verbal instruction. In addition, CoD speed includes many external stimuli to consider so that the distracting effect may be more evident during this task [33]. In this context, participants feeling engaged would be confident with increasing their performance in this challenging situation when assigned verbal encouragement and instructions.