Abstract: Objective: To explore the effect of regular football exercise and stop practice on the executive function of school-age children, and to provide theoretical basis for improving children's physical fitness. Methods: 46 school-age children aged 10-11 in Sichuan Olympic School were selected as the experimental group. They were given 24 weeks football exercise five times a week for 2 hours each time. The control group consisted of 43 school-age children matched by age, height and weight. During the 0, 24, 4 and 8 weeks of training, Flanker task, Smith 2-back experiment and Salthouse experiment were used to measure the inhibition function time difference, refresh function time difference and conversion function time difference of all subjects respectively. Results: (1)24-week intervention stage: the inhibition and conversion functions of the experimental group were significantly better than those of the control group (P<0.01), and the refresh function was significantly better than that of the control group (P<0.05); (2) Stop training stage: the inhibition function of the experimental group was significantly better than that of the control group (P<0.01) and the conversion function was significantly better than that of the control group (P<0.05) at 4 weeks of stop training. The inhibition and conversion function were significantly better than that of the control group (P < 0.05) after 8 weeks of training suspension. Compared with 24 weeks, the inhibitory function of the experimental group declined significantly after 8 weeks of training (P<0.01). Compared with 4 weeks of training suspension, the inhibitory function of the experimental group declined significantly after 8 weeks of training suspension (P<0.05). Conclusion: 24-week football exercise can improve the executive function of school-age children in varying degrees. The beneficial effect of 4 weeks' training cessation on executive function of school-age children is still maintained, while the inhibition function of 8 weeks' training cessation declines.

Key words: school age children, football, exercise, stop practice, executive function