Pacing Behaviour Development and Acquisition: A Systematic Review

Background: The goal‑directed decision‑making process of effort distribution (i.e. pacing) allows individuals toefficiently use energy resources as well as to manage the impact of fatigue on performance during exercise. Given theshared characteristics between pacing behaviour and other skilled behaviour, it was hypothesized that pacing behav‑iour would adhere to the same processes associated with skill acquisition and development.Methods: PubMed, Web of Science and PsycINFO databases between January 1995 and January 2022 were searchedfor articles relating to the pacing behaviour of individuals (1) younger than 18 years of age, or (2) repeatedly perform‑ing the same exercise task, or (3) with different levels of experience.Results: The search resulted in 64 articles reporting on the effect of age (n = 33), repeated task exposure (n = 29) ordiffering levels of experience (n = 13) on pacing behaviour. Empirical evidence identifies the development of pacingbehaviour starts during childhood (~ 10 years old) and continues throughout adolescence. This development is char‑acterized by an increasingly better fit to the task demands, encompassing the task characteristics (e.g. duration) andenvironment factors (e.g. opponents). Gaining task experience leads to an increased capability to attain a predeter‑mined pace and results in pacing behaviour that better fits task demands.Conclusions: Similar to skilled behaviour, physical maturation and cognitive development likely drive the devel‑opment of pacing behaviour. Pacing behaviour follows established processes of skill acquisition, as repeated taskexecution improves the match between stimuli (e.g. task demands and afferent signals) and actions (i.e. continuing,increasing or decreasing the exerted effort) with the resulting exercise task performance. Furthermore, with increasedtask experience attentional capacity is freed for secondary tasks (e.g. incorporating opponents) and the goal selectionis changed from achieving task completion to optimizing task performance. As the development and acquisition ofpacing resemble that of other skills, established concepts in the literature (e.g. intervention‑induced variability andaugmented feedback) could enrich pacing research and be the basis for practical applications in physical education,healthcare, and sports.