Participants in this group engaged in Life Kinetic (LK) exercises twice a week for eight weeks. The training program combined physical and cognitive tasks designed to enhance neuroplasticity, improve balance, agility, jumping performance, proprioception, and cognitive functions. The exercises included activities that stimulated mental and physical coordination, aimed at improving overall athletic and mental performance.

Participants in the control group continued their usual recreational fencing training without additional intervention. To match the exposure of the experimental group, they engaged in structured, low-intensity activities unrelated to the objectives of Life Kinetic Training. These activities included light stretching, basic coordination drills, and non-cognitive motor tasks, conducted at the same frequency and duration as the experimental sessions (twice per week for one hour). These activities were designed to simulate a training environment while lacking the cognitive and motor integration components central to the intervention. At the end of the study, participants were fully debriefed about the nature and purpose of their activities, including the rationale for the placebo-like design, as part of the ethical protocol.

Combination of cognitive and physical exercises aimed at improving neuroplasticity, agility, balance, and cognitive functions.

The counter movement jump (CMJ) was assessed utilizing the OptoJump Next system (Microgate, Bolzano, Italy). After a self-administered warm-up session, participants performed 3 trials of the counter-movement jump without arm swings, followed by a one-minute rest period, after which they completed the actual CMJ test. Each participant completed three repetitions of the CMJ without arm swings, and the highest result in centimeters (jumping height) was documented as the primary outcome measure. The OptoJump, a dual-beam optical apparatus, quantifies contact and flight durations during jump sequences (or individual jumps). Flight time (tair) was employed to determine the elevation of the body's center of gravity.

A Stroop test comprising three distinct conditions was employed (Scarpina and Tagini, 2017). Each condition featured 60 stimuli, arranged with 6 items per line on a 21.5 × 29 cm sheet of paper. In the initial condition, referred to as the reading condition, participants were required to read words printed in black ink, which included the names of colors such as red, green, blue, and yellow. In the second condition, known as the naming condition, participants were instructed to identify the colors of various rectangles. In the third condition, termed the interference condition, participants were required to name the color of the ink used to print the words, while disregarding the semantic content of the words themselves, as they were incongruent with the ink color (e.g., the word "green" printed in red ink). This condition specifically tested the participants' inhibitory control. Across all conditions, participants were instructed to respond as quickly as possible while minimizing erro

The T-test was conducted as previously described (Semenick, 1990). Four cones were positioned in a T formation, with one cone located 9.14 meters from the starting cone and two additional cones placed 4.57 meters on either side of the second cone. All times were recorded using an electronic timing gate (Fusion Sport Inc.), set at a height of 0.75 meters and spanning 3 meters wide, aligned with the marked starting point. Participants were instructed to sprint forward 9.14 meters from the starting line to the first cone, touching it with their right hand. They then shuffled 4.57 meters to the left to reach the second cone, touching it with their left hand. Subsequently, they shuffled 9.14 meters to the right to the third cone, touching it with their right hand, and shuffled 4.57 meters back to the middle cone, touching it with their left hand. Finally, they backpedaled to the starting line. Timing commenced as participants passed through the timing gates and concluded upon their return

Body weight was measured with participants wearing light underwear, standing, and with a precision of 0.1 kg.

Body height was measured with participants standing upright, feet together, back against the wall, and recorded to the nearest 0.1 cm as the maximum distance from the floor to the highest point on the head.