Recognising the diversity of the athletes and activity participants we work with

Abstract

In the Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport we publish papers from authors representing all corners of the world. For example in this issue we have contributions stemming from Australia, New Zealand, France, Spain, Italy, Japan, Portugal, Germany, and Iran. This broad coverage brings us a rich mix of viewpoints and contexts, and contributes to our understandings of sports medicine and sports science applications to a broad spectrum of the population. We often make the assumption that an athlete is an athlete, no matter where in the world they come from. While there is some element of truth to this assumption, we need to be cognisant of not only the similarities in athletes but also their differences brought about by their country, ethnicity, and culture of origin. Whilst there are often the more obvious genetic differences across ethnicity and racial groups (e.g., with particular racial groups more at risk of certain disease processes), it is more the subtle differences based on cultural context that I would like to emphasise. A particular paper in this issue that drew my attention to this point is that by Dudley and colleagues that looked at engaging girls from linguistically diverse populations in physical activity. Research in this area routinely demonstrates cultural nuances and differences that can determine uptake or otherwise of physical activity and exercise. As we increasingly live in a world where national boundaries are becoming more fluid and populations of single countries become more culturally varied, we find ourselves dealing with very diverse groups of athletes and activity participants. Both our research and our practice needs to be aware of such issues and ensure that we provide opportunities all along the activity and elite sport continuum for the broad population we cater for. This issue of Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport brings a mix of papers across several discipline areas. In sports medicine, we lead with a paper by Schneiders and colleagues that investigated the normative values for clinical measures of neurological function in concussion. It is with such values that sports medicine professionals can interpret these clinical tests with their patients. We also include a paper by Crow and colleagues that demonstrates that hip adductor muscle strength is decreased both preceding and during the onset of groin pain. In our section on sports injury Smartt and Chalmers report data on injuries associated with ski-lifts and discuss some of the barriers to reporting such injuries. They draw their data from the New Zealand national accident compensation database, an extremely rich data source for sports injury analysis. In the physical activity section, as well as the earlier mentioned paper, we stick with the theme of physical activity in the school context. Willenberg and colleagues have identified several environmental changes that could be made in school playgrounds that could increase opportunities for physical activity. Our sports science papers in this issue address a range of review and original research papers. We include a review of the factors that determine chosen cadence during submaximal cycling, the findings of which can assist in developing training programs. We continue the increasing interest in global positioning satellite systems, this time in a paper by Barbero-Álverez and colleagues on the validity and reliability of such systems in assessing sprint speed. Other sport science papers address performance predictors of throwing velocity and jump height in waterpolo players, pacing strategies in outrigger canoe ergometry, the effects of contract-relax stretching on the neuromuscular properties of the plantar flexor muscles, and a paper on the work-rate of substitutes in elite soccer. Our biomechanics section includes research on spring-mass characteristics during a 400 m sprint, a paper on the use of a single inertia sensor to identify characteristics of running gait, and a review paper on energetics and biomechanics factors of swimming performance. Finally, under sports nutrition, Dascombe and colleagues studied the nutritional supplementation habits and perceptions of elite athletes in a sporting institute, and Tartibian and colleagues provide evidence that omega-3 consumption during intensive wrestling training can improve pulmonary function both during and after exercise.