Competitive Women Research Articles

Analysis of competitive activities of top kickboxers within European competitions

Analysis of competitive activities is a basic way to determine the efficiency of competitive athletes. In relation to kickboxing, there is no continuity given to research, both in the world and in our country. The main objective of this paper is to analyze the competitive activities of top kick boxers, which was implemented in 10 matches (5 matches of the European Championship (Bilbao - Spain 2014) and 5 matches of the European Cup (Belgrade 2014 and 2015)) in the women's and men's competition. The aim of the study was to compare the characteristics of competitive activity in the function of various competitions. The task was to provide the basic necessary information, which the coach can use to prepare athletes for a specific competition, in relation to the number of strokes poentirajucih (foot techniques and hand techniques) and temporal structure details (active and pasifna stage combat). The sample consisted of 20 elite-level athletes in the women's competition - two categories (60 and 65 kg) And in the men's competition - the three categories (63.5, 71 and 91 kg). The results showed that compared to men, no significant disparities in the number of cumulative poentirajucih strokes hand techniques, while the poentirajucih strokes leg techniques, the sum of all stripes, active and passive phases of the struggle was no statistically significant difference between the analyzed event. In relation to women, a statistically significant difference was found between all analyzed variables. Based on these results we can conclude that a higher quality level of competition causes the kick-boxers are prepared for higher activity during a match and for more intensive use of techniques that earn more points, and for kicks.

Competitive Behavior, Stress, and Gender

This paper investigates whether chronic stress and acute physiological responses to competitive stress can explain individual and gender differences in competitiveness. We measure individuals' autonomic nervous system activity in a resting state as well as under non-competitive and competitive incentives in a real task using heart rate variability measurement. We find that basal heart rate variability, a proxy for chronic stress, and acute competition-induced changes in heart rate variability predict self-selection into competition. Moreover, we observe that basal heart rate variability predicts self-selection into competition for women, but not for men. Overall, we find tentative evidence for gender differences in the relationship between physiological stress and a decision to enter competitive environments. Our results suggest that individual variation in autonomic nervous system activity and physiological responses to competitive stress predict self-selection into competitive environments, but do not explain gender differences in willingness to compete.

Analysis of judo match for seniors

Background (Introduction): To bring training process closer to the competition conditions it is necessary to conduct judo fight analyzes at all competition levels. That is why the main objective of this work is to analyze the structure of judo fight on the Grand Prix level in the context of the new rules. Material and methods: The paper analyses technical solutions in 125 fights of men’s part of competition, and 68 fights of women’s competition. All analyzed fights were part of elimination rounds of Grand Prix Tournament Rijeka (2013). Results: Statistically significant number of fights ends in stand up position before the end of regular time in both, men and women, categories. Nage waza remain the most important techniques in judo fight and the most used techniques in ground position are hold down techniques. Nevertheless, one can find a great deal of specificities through each weight category. Conclusions: According to the results of performed analysis one can conclude that judo fight requires a high level of technical efficiency and the physical ability. The differences in the analyzed variables, which occur between weight categories in the men's and women's competition, require an individualized approach in training process.

Women’s sexual competition and the Dark Triad

The Dark Triad (DT) of sub-clinical narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy has been found to be related to competitive attitudes and behaviors, chiefly in men. Using a women-only sample (n=439), we examined the relationship of DT with general and sexual competitiveness. Factor analysis indicated that the distinction between inter- and intra-sexual competition in women may be less clear than previously conceptualized. We found significant positive correlations between DT and both general and sexual competitiveness. Regression analyses indicated that DT, and in particular, narcissism, are significant predictors of general and sexual competitiveness. These findings are discussed in relation to evolutionary theory, and directions for future work on sexual competition and DT are suggested.

Testosterone response to competition in males is unrelated to opponent familiarity or threat appraisal.

It has been proposed in the literature that the testosterone (T) response to competition in humans may be modulated by cognitive variables. In a previous experiment with a female sample we have reported that opponent familiarity and threat appraisal moderated the T response to competition in women. With this experiment we aim to investigate if these variables have the same impact on males T response to competition, extending the previous findings in our lab. Forty male participants (20 dyads) were recruited to engage in a same sex, face to face competition using the Number Tracking Test as a competitive task. Levels of T, cortisol (C) and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) were measured before and 20 min after the competition. Results show that losers report higher levels of threat than winners and increased their T levels after the competition, however this T change was not predicted by opponent familiarity or threat appraisal. No variation was detected for C and DHEA levels. These findings suggest that there could be sex differences for the moderators/mediators of the T response to competition in humans.

COMPETITIVENESS OF WOMEN IN THE LABOUR MARKET IN LATGALE

Competitiveness in the labour market is a range of various factors that assist an employee in getting or retaining a job, while an employer can attract and maintain a labour force adequate to meet the employer’s needs. The research aim is to examine the competitiveness of women in the labour market in Latvia and to develop proposals for its improvement. The present research deals with employment trends, especially focusing on statistical data on women. The research also examines statistical data on job vacancies, unemployment, wages, and other related data. To identify the factors influencing women’s competitiveness, 214 women were surveyed in Latgale region. According to the survey, there are several factors influencing women’s competitiveness in the labour market. Education, length of service, and experience are the most significant factors. The longer women’s unemployment period is, the more these women require support to restart their employment and to be competitive in the labour market. Research methods employed: the monographic method, the descriptive method, analysis and synthesis, the graphic method, document analysis, statistical analysis, and a sociological method – a survey. The survey results were processed using the tools of the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) and Microsoft Excel

The South African Woman and the Immigrant Lover: Myths and Dynamics of Cross-Border Love Relationships in a Post-Apartheid South African Community

Love relationships between black South African women and immigrant men have not been given adequate attention by researchers of migration, refugee studies, and those concerned with anti-immigrant attitudes and violence. In this paper, based on ethnographicr esearch conducted in the Alexandra township of Johannesburg, South Africa, in 2009, I argue that cross-border love relationships provoke sexual and racial jealousies between the two sets of manhood: South African and black African immigrant. These are eventually expressed in anti-immigrant violence, such as the events that occurred in May 2008 mainly perpetrated by men, exhibit characteristics of masculinisation, racialisation and sexualisation. Intermittent poverty and unemployment also play a role in this drama. Incidents of hatred based on competition for women and resultant resentment by men who lose out deepen. I contend that in order to fully comprehend this kind of violence, one needs to understand the dynamics of love relationships between black South African women and black African immigrant men and pervasive myths like immigrants stealing jobs and taking women, that are common in the community.

The Relationship between Competitive Experience and Performance in Skeleton

The Relationship between Competitive Experience and Performance in Skeleton The purpose of this study was to determine if a relationship exists between competitive experience and performance in skeleton. We obtained official rankings, chronological age, years of competitive experience and years in the national team from 2007– 2013 of internationally competitive World Cup competitors, from the international federations website. Chronological age, competitive experience and international competitive experience at World Cup level were correlated with end of season World Cup ranking. A total of 138 competitors (78 men and 60 women) qualified for inclusion in the study based upon World Cup ranking over the seasons analysed. Effect size (ES) was also used to compare between men and women. Results showed that men were moderately older (28.9- 30.8 vs. 26.5-29.2 years, ES=0.66) and had moderately higher competitive ages (7.7-9.6 vs. 5.7-8.1, ES=0.66) than women across seasons. Moderate correlations were found between performance and competitive age (-0.59) in two seasons for men. Talent transfer of younger women competitors before younger men into skeleton may result in higher rankings or results in a shorter timeframe.

Female physical characteristics and intra-sexual competition in women

Women engage in intra-sexual competition to attract or to retain a mate. Given men’s preferences for certain female physical characteristics, women may be attuned to potential rivals who display such traits. We examined how variation in facial femininity, breast size, and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) affects perceived competition and attractiveness judgments in a sample of German female undergraduates. Thirty-five women ranked five images of each stimulus type according to perceived competition and rated these images for attractiveness and femininity. Women with more feminine faces, larger breasts, and lower WHRs received higher attractiveness and femininity ratings and were ranked highest on perceived competition. The results indicate the occurrence of human female intra-sexual competition with respect to physical traits desired by potential mates.

Attunement to the fertility status of same-sex rivals: women's testosterone responses to olfactory ovulation cues

Evolutionary theories of mating suggest that changes in fertility across the menstrual cycle play an important role in sexual selection. In line with this framework, the current research examined whether olfactory cues to the fertility of a same-sex rival would prompt hormonal signs of intrasexual competition in women. Women exposed to the scent of another woman close to ovulation subsequently displayed higher levels of testosterone than women exposed to the scent of a woman far from ovulation. Whereas women exposed to the scent of a woman in the mid-luteal phase displayed sizable decreases in testosterone over time, no such decline was observed among women exposed to the scent of a woman near ovulation. Thus, olfactory cues signaling a rival's heightened level of fertility were associated with endocrinological responses in women that could be linked to intrasexual competition.

Guilty without trial: state-sponsored cheating and the 2008 Beijing Olympic women's gymnastics competition

One of the most widely covered news stories during the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics involved several Chinese female gymnasts who had allegedly falsified their ages and were in fact ineligible for competition because they were underage. Using a news-framing analysis, this study examines how New York Times and Washington Post reporters framed the scandal. I argue that by employing the frames of state-sponsored cheating, assumed guilt, Western fair play and kowtowing, US journalists positioned the controversy as part of a larger ideological metaphor to represent China's refusal to adhere to Western standards, and to explain how this enables the nation to unfairly bypass the United States in the Olympics and in general as a world power. To rectify what they perceive to be a power imbalance, reporters craft a new narrative in which the Chinese gymnasts and, by extension, China itself, are not the victors in the contest for supremacy between East and West. In so doing, journalists evoke, support, and perpetuate the US' historical racialization of the Chinese as a slight, effeminate, deceitful people, thereby assigning these qualities to China as a nation and as a people. While journalists assuage US readers' fears of a future dominated by China, they close off avenues of understanding by positioning the US and China as enemies.

Threat perception and familiarity moderate the androgen response to competition in women

Social interactions elicit androgen responses whose function has been posited to be the adjustment of androgen-dependent behaviors to social context. The activation of this androgen response is known to be mediated and moderated by psychological factors. In this study we tested the hypothesis that the testosterone (T) changes after a competition are not simply related to its outcome, but rather to the way the subject evaluates the event. In particular we tested two evaluative dimensions of a social interaction: familiarity with the opponent and the subjective evaluation of the outcome as threat or challenge. Challenge/threat occurs in goal relevant situations and represent different motivational states arising from the individuals’ subjective evaluation of the interplay between the task demands and coping resources possessed. For challenge the coping resources exceed the task demands, while threat represents a state where coping resources are insufficient to meet the task demands. In this experiment women competed in pairs, against a same sex opponent using the number tracking test as a competitive task. Losers appraised the competition outcome as more threatening than winners, and displayed higher post-competition T levels than winners. No differences were found either for cortisol (C) or for dehydroepiandrosterone. Threat, familiarity with the opponent and T response were associated only in the loser condition. Moderation analysis suggests that for the women that lost the competition the effect of threat on T is moderated by familiarity with the opponent.

Sex Differences in Marathon Running with Advanced Age

The sex difference in marathon performance increases with age and place of the finisher, even at the elite level. Sociological factors may explain the increased sex gap, but there is limited empirical evidence for specific factors. The purposes of this study were to determine the sex difference in velocity for the marathon across the place of finisher (1st-10th place) with advanced age and (2) to determine the association between the sex difference in participation (ratio of men-to-women finishers) and the sex difference in running velocity. Running times of the first 10 placed men and women in the 5-yr age brackets between 20 and 79 yr and the number of men and women who finished the New York City marathon were analyzed for a 31-yr period (1980-2010). The sex difference in running velocity increased between the 1st and the 10th place because of a greater relative drop in velocity of women than men (P < 0.001). The sex difference increased with advanced age and decreased across the 31 yr, but more for the older age groups (P < 0.001). The number of women finishers also increased relative to men for the 31 yr, but more in the older age groups (P < 0.001). Importantly, approximately 34% of the sex difference in velocity among the first-place finishers was associated with the ratio of men-to-women finishers (r = 0.58, r² = 0.34, P < 0.001). The greater sex difference in velocity that occurs with age and with increased place was primarily explained by the lower number of women finishers than men. These data provide evidence that lower participation rates and less depth among women competitors can amplify the sex difference in running velocity above that due to physiological sex differences alone.

Hyperandrogenism and Intersex Controversies in Women's Olympics

International sports governing bodies such as the International Association for Athletics Federation and the International Olympic Committee have recently revised their policies for inclusion of athletes competing in women's international sports competitions. Previously, the focus was on verification of gender or femininity. The mishandling of Caster Semanya's case brought the complex issues of fairness with regard to athletes with disorders of sexual development or hyperandrogenism into both public and private debates. The new International Association for Athletics Federation and International Olympic Committee policies for inclusion in women's sporting events rest largely on the serum testosterone level, mandating that it be less than the lower limit of normal for men as the defining criteria. This report provides an overview of past problems and an update of the newly adopted policies for eligibility for competition in women's events. Endocrinologists will play a key role in the evaluation and treatment of women athletes who have elevated androgen levels, regardless of the underlying cause.

Social Aggression and Resource Conflict Across the Female Life‐Course in the Bolivian Amazon

This work explores sources of conflict among forager-horticulturalist women in Amazonian Bolivia, and applies life history theory as a tool for understanding competitive and cooperative social networking behaviors among women. In this study, 121 Tsimane women and girls were interviewed regarding current and past disagreements with others in their community to identify categories of contested resources that instigate interpersonal conflicts, often resulting in incidences of social aggression. Analysis of frequency data on quarrels (N = 334) reveals that women target several diverse categories of resources, with social types appearing as frequently as food and mates. It was also found that the focus of women's competition changes throughout the life-course, consistent with the notion that current vs. future reproduction and quantity-quality trade-offs might have different influences on competition and social conflict over resources within women's social networks across different age groups.

Contesting the Norm: Women and Professional Sports in Late Nineteenth-Century America

Athletic opportunities for females have reached an extent that few women living in the nineteenth century might ever have imagined. For more than two decades the women's 10,000-metre run has been part of the Olympics. Women's wrestling was added at Athens in 2004 and women's boxing competitions will begin at the 2012 London Games. Changing cultural norms, especially those brought forth by ‘women's movements’ of the 1960s as well as the ensuing amazingly successful athletic performances that women attained, have been of the utmost importance. In the United States, as the ‘New Woman” of the late 1800s began to engage in a modest game of golf or tennis, or take a leisurely bicycle ride, the then dominant theme – strenuous physical activity is inimical to a female's health – that had been articulated in books like Edward Clarke's Sex in Education, Or a Fair Chance for Girls (1873) began to be challenged. Few late nineteenth-century women offered a greater challenge than did ‘professional sportswomen’ like pedestriennes Ada Anderson and Exilda La Chapelle, competitive cyclist Louise Armiando, and the boxer Hattie Stewart. Whereas their feats were ignored by more elevated publications like Scribner's Magazine and Outing daily newspapers sometimes could be quite complimentary. The coverage given by Sporting Life (considered by many to be the major sports journal of the times) was somewhat mixed. When it came to baseball (the game that ‘made men men’) Sporting Life was vehemently opposed to any woman engaging in America's ‘national pastime’. So was Albert Spalding, co-founder of the lucrative A.G. Spalding Sporting Goods Company. This article sheds new light upon these and other still too little known matters regarding women who ‘contested the norm’ in late nineteenth-century America.

‘The Future is Asia'? The Role of the Asian Football Confederation inthe Governance and Development of Football in Asia

In accordance with its slogan ‘The Future is Asia’, the Asian Football Confederation initiated the Vision Asia football development programme in 2003. Focusing on marketing, grass roots, coach education, referees, sports medicine, men's competitions, women's competitions, futsal, media, and fans, it is claimed to be a comprehensive complement to FIFA's Goal Project. Furthermore the AFC has introduced a financial aid programme called AID27 and its social responsibility campaign titled Dream Asia focusing on utilising football as vehicle for achieving development, peace and social justice. Aimed at exploring the role of the football governing body AFC in the transnational governance and development of football in Asia in the context of a globalised game, this article provides an overview of the history of the AFC and its political relations with FIFA and Asian member associations. In addition it contains an analysis of the AFC's institutional structure, its policies and network relations. Accordingly thearticle implies a description of how specifically the AID27 and Vision Asia programmes are aimed at developing and increasing the standards of Asian football.

Mad Men, Competitive Women, and Invisible Hispanics

Mad Men, Competitive Women, and Invisible Hispanics

The significance of testosterone for fair participation of the female sex in competitive sports

The significance of testosterone for fair participation of the female sex in competitive sports

The impact of the menstrual cycle and hormonal contraceptives on competitiveness

We examine whether competitiveness in women is influenced by biological factors. Female participants in a laboratory experiment solve a simple arithmetics task first under a piece rate and then under a competitive tournament scheme. Participants can then choose which compensation scheme to apply in a third round. We find that the likelihood of selecting into the competitive environment varies strongly and significantly over the menstrual cycle and with the intake of hormonal contraceptives. The observed patterns are consistent with a negative impact of the sex hormone progesterone on competitiveness. We show that the effect of the menstrual cycle and hormonal contraceptives on competitiveness is due neither to an impact on performance, nor to an impact on risk aversion or overconfidence.