Elite Sportsmen Research Articles

Individualization of psychological training and its importance at different stages of many years’ perfection in tennis

Purpose: to determine significance of individualized approach during psychological training at different stages of many years’ perfection in tennis. The tasks of the research were studying of place and role of psychological component in general system of tennis players’ sport training as well as determination of specificities of individualized approach during 14-15 years old and elite tennis players’ psychological training. Material: In the research 24 experts, coaches of combined teams and clubs, elite tennis players took part. Results: Role of psychological training in general system of many years’ perfection has been determined. We also found out that individualization of psychological training in modern tennis is not paid sufficient attention to at present. Most of the questioned respondents pointed, that such training is conducted mainly with elite sportsmen (42%). Only 14% noted that individual psychological training is carried out at basic stages of many years’ perfection. Conclusions: Principle of individualization is a determining one in the course of sportsmen’s training at stages of many years’ perfection. About 86% of experts stressed on significance of application of individualized approach in work with tennis players. Consideration of tennis players’ individual features during psychological training is a compulsory matter in increasing of effectiveness of sportsmen’s training and competition functioning.

Structural-linguistic approach to assessment of functional states of organism of elite sportsmen, who have symptoms of chronic tiredness

Purpose: assessment of functional states of sportsmen’s, having symptoms of chronic tiredness, organism with the help of structural-linguistic approach. Material: Sportsmen of different kinds of sports participated in the research. For determination of degree of chronic tiredness questionnaire by Leonova was applied. For classification of functional states of sportsmen’s organism structural-linguistic approach was applied. Results: in 41% of the questioned sportsmen chronic tiredness was found. Appearance of their not stable states can be caused by reduction of organism’s resistance to loads and high risk of chronic tiredness syndrome. Conclusions: in sportsmen with chronic tiredness we observed functional tension of organism’s regulatory systems in rest and over-tension - after loads. We determined types of functional states of sportsmen’s with chronic tiredness organism.

Making subaltern shikaris: histories of the hunted in colonial central India

Academic histories of hunting or shikar in India have almost entirely focused on the sports hunting of British colonists and Indian royalty. This article attempts to balance this elite bias by focusing on the meaning of shikar in the construction of the Gond ‘tribal’ identity in late nineteenth and early twentieth-century colonial central India. Coining the term ‘subaltern shikaris’ to refer to the class of poor, rural hunters, typically ignored in this historiography, the article explores how the British managed to use hunting as a means of state penetration into central India’s forest interior, where they came to regard their Gond forest-dwelling subjects as essentially and eternally primitive hunting tribes. Subaltern shikaris were employed by elite sportsmen and were also paid to hunt in the colonial regime’s vermin eradication programme, which targeted tigers, wolves, bears and other species identified by the state as ‘dangerous beasts’. When offered economic incentives, forest dwellers usually willingly participated in new modes of hunting, even as impact on wildlife rapidly accelerated and became unsustainable. Yet as non-indigenous approaches to nature became normative, there was sometimes also resistance from Gond communities. As overkill accelerated, this led to exclusion of local peoples from natural resources, to their increasing incorporation into dominant political and economic systems, and to the eventual collapse of hunting as a livelihood. All of this raises the question: To what extent were subaltern subjects, like wildlife, ‘the hunted’ in colonial India?

Athletes confessions: The sports biography as an interaction ritual

Commercialization of emotions is not a new phenomenon but in Denmark there is a new general trend to tell and sell personal stories in the media. Personal deprivation and crises are also major topics in sports media. This paper focuses on sports biographies as a book genre that is reviving in popularity. The paper approaches the topic through the biographies of one Danish athlete: the former professional cyclist, Jesper Skibby, who writes about his doping disclosure and shares his personal dilemmas as a former elite sportsman. The thematic text analysis orientates around social interactions, emotions, and personality constructions. Inspired by microsociology with a Durkheimian flavor of Goffman and Hochschild, themes including "face work," "interaction rituals," and "emotions management" are discussed. The analysis claims that sharing personal information in the media is not only a means of confession and reclaiming status but is also business and management - on an intimate level. Telling the story of the corrosion of a sporting character has become a hot issue, an entertainment, and not least a commercial commitment.

Responses of trace elements to aerobic maximal exercise in elite sportsmen.

Trace elements are chemical elements needed in minute quantities for the proper growth, development, and physiology of the organism. In biochemistry, a trace element is also referred to as a micronutrient. Trace elements, such as nickel, cadmium, aluminum, silver, chromium, molybdenum, germanium, tin, titanium, tungsten, scandium, are found naturally in the environment and human exposure derives from a variety of sources, including air, drinking water and food. The Purpose of this study was investigated the effect of aerobic maximal intensity endurance exercise on serum trace elements as well-trained individuals of 28 wrestlers (age (year) 19.64±1.13, weight (Kg) 70.07 ± 15.69, height (cm) 176.97 ± 6.69) during and after a 2000 meter Ergometer test protocol was used to perform aerobic (75 %) maximal endurance exercise. Trace element serum levels were analyzed from blood samples taken before, immediately after and one hour after the exercise. While an increase was detected in Chromium (Cr), Nickel (Ni), Molybdenum (Mo) and Titanium (Ti) serum levels immediately after the exercise, a decrease was detected in Aluminum (Al), Scandium (Sc) and Tungsten (W) serum levels. Except for aluminum, the trace elements we worked on showed statistically meaningful responses (P<0.05 and P<0.001). According to the responses of trace elements to the exercise showed us the selection and application of the convenient sport is important not only in terms of sportsman performance but also in terms of future healthy life plans and clinically.

The London 2012 Olympics – will there be a legacy for mental health?

SummaryThe host country's legacy after the Olympic Games is multifaceted. Alongside such diverse elements as tourism, commerce and transport sit the health benefits of increased participation in sports and provision of the highest quality medical support for the nation's elite sporting performers. Mental health, however, merits no specific mention. This could be a missed opportunity to create a legacy that promotes the mental health benefits of exercise as well as ensuring that the mental health needs of elite sportsmen and women are recognised and met in the same manner as their physical health needs.

Exercise-Induced Changes in Redox Status of Elite Karate Athletes

Regular training has been claimed to increase the activity of antioxidant enzymes and, consequently, augments the resistance to oxidative stress; however, large volumes of training performed by elite sportsmen could lead to a chronic oxidative stress state. The aim of our study was to assess the oxidative status of elite athletes at the beginning of the preparatory and the beginning of the competition training phases, so that the influence of three months of programmed physical activity on redox status could be determined. The chronic effects of exercise on the redox state of the athletes were compared to the effects of a single bout of karate training. Thirty elite karate athletes, 16-30 years old, were subjected to maximal graded exercise test to estimate their aerobic capacity; blood sampling was also performed to measure levels of superoxide anion radical (O₂⁻), hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂), superoxide dismutase activity (SOD) and catalase activity (CAT). The only significant change after the three-month training process was found in the significantly decreased CAT activity (X ± SE: 7.95 ± 0.13 U/g Hb × 10³ in the preparatory period, 6.65 ± 0.28 U/g Hb × 10³ in the competition stage; P < 0.01). After a single karate training session, there was statistically significant decrease of O₂⁻(X ± SE: 32.7 ± 4.9 nmol/ml in the preparatory period, 24.5 ± 2.5 nmol/ml in the competition stage; P < 0.05) and increase of H₂O₂(X ± SE: 11.8 ± 1.0 nmol/ml in the preparatory period, 14.2 ± 0.9 nmol/ml in the competition stage; P < 0.01), as well as significant CAT increase (X ± SE: 6.6 ± 0.6 U/g Hb × 10³ in the preparatory period, 8.5 ± 0.5 U/g Hb × 10³ in the competition stage; P < 0.05). Although the three-month training process induced, at the first sight, negative changes in the redox state, expressed through the decrease in CAT activity, adequate response of the antioxidant system of our athletes to acute exercise was preserved.

A reliability assessment examining the inter- and intraobserver reliability of the current england and wales cricket board musculoskeletal profiling protocol

BackgroundThe England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) musculoskeletal profiling was first introduced in 2005 and has been developed over the past four seasons with the aim of identifying risk factors...

The Effects of Using Thyme on Iron Status in the Elite Sportsmen

This study aims to investigate the effects of using thyme on iron and iron related hematological parameters elite athletes. The subject group of the research was composed of 12 male wrestlers who have competed in various age categories of Turkish National Team and who were still competent for the medal in Turkey Championships. The subjects, all of whom have been carrying out actively, for at least 2 months, their applicable exercises were subjected to the thyme loading session without any interference in their training sessions. Each person was offered after meals, three times a day for duration of 35 days total, thyme tea which had been brewed 1 gram dried thyme in boiled water of 150 cm for ten minutes. Before and after 3 the thyme loading period, blood samples were collected and analyzed the levels of Hemoglobin (HGB), Erythrocyte (RBC), Ferritin (F), Transferrin (T) Serum Iron (SI) and Iron Binding Capacity (IBC) was accomplished by means of the brand OLYPUS AU640 hemacytometer. The amount of Transferrin Saturation (TS) was calculated using the formula, “SI X 100/IBC”. In this study it was observed that the applicable levels were within, before and after thyme loading, the normal clinical values. However, a significant decrease, after 4-week thyme loading, for the concentration levels of HGB, RBC and SI (p<0.05) and a significant increase for the level of IBC (p<0.01) were identified. As a result, it was observed that the thyme which has been known for its numerous benefits has, besides its positive effects, some adverse effects on the iron status in the sportsmen. Therefore, supplemental iron loading, coupled with giving beverages such as tea, green tea, thyme, etc. all containing catechin as active substance might be required for the performance sportsmen.

Anaesthesia and analgesia drugs contraindicated in competitive athletes

The administration of any pharmaceutical agent to a professional or elite sportsman is fraught with danger. There is the risk of giving a banned substance to an ailing athlete and destroying a career. Then there are the potential problems of drug interactions with any of the multitude of agents that the sportsman may be taking. One should also be alert to being asked to treat the side-effect of a banned, illegal, experimental or veterinary agent. The rules for banned substances apply not only to able-bodied athletes, as athletes with disabilities are governed by the same rules and may need treatment for their chronic conditions.

The effect of 1-month thyme using in elite sportsmen on oxidant stress and anti-oxidant capacity

The object of the study is to determine the effect of thyme loading during exercise at elite wrestlers on oxidant stress and anti-oxidant capacity. Totally 18 elite wrestlers were involved...

The ‘sorry addict’: Ben Cousins and the construction of drug use and addiction in elite sport

Australian Football League (AFL) player Ben Cousins is one of the most highly acclaimed and recognised athletes in Australia. Followed closely in the media, his off-field activities are subject to as much attention and speculation as those on the field. In 2007, Cousins and his family confirmed long-standing rumours that he was an illicit (non-performance enhancing) drug user. Following a series of incidents, his football contract was terminated and Cousins publicly entered drug rehabilitation. In this article we explore the multiple extant accounts of Cousins’ drug use. We examine media representations of his drug use, including accounts from a range of key stakeholders, and we also look at Cousins’ public accounts of his own drug use. What emerges is paradoxical picture both of Cousins himself and of drug users more broadly. Cousins is simultaneously positioned as in control and out of control, as manipulative and as subject to the manipulations of his ‘addiction’, as criminal and victim, as culpable and innocent. In the process, he acts as a figure through which contemporary understandings of the nature and implications of addiction are produced and reproduced. What is addiction? If, as many now take for granted, it is a disease requiring a medical response, what can be said about the agency and responsibility of the ‘addict’ in the context of elite sport? How do mainstream understandings of elite sportsmen as intrinsically masterful, commanding and physically exemplary mesh with assumptions about drug addicts as passive and physically compromised? In considering this intersection of discourses of elite sports and of addiction, we also explore some of the unique dimensions of the Cousins case including the challenge his embodied athleticism poses to understandings of his drug use, and the significance attributed to his rehabilitation and ‘comeback’ in 2009. We conclude with some reflections on the ways in which Cousins’ case troubles certainties about drug use, and on the strategic efficacy of disease models of addiction in Australia.

Immune response to exercise in elite sportsmen during the competitive season

Our aim was to evaluate the chronic effects of training and competition during a 4-month season on immune response in professional volleyball players. Players took part in an incremental maximal cycling test at the beginning and at the end of the season. As control group, subjects with regular recreational activity were selected. Blood samples were obtained at rest, immediately after the exercise test, and after 30 min recovery. Volleyball players have similar basal levels of erythrocytes, hematocrit, hemoglobin, and total protein and urate than controls and higher levels of creatinine and activities of AST, ALT, and GGT. Maximal incremental exercise test significantly increased erythrocyte counts, hematocrit, and blood hemoglobin levels in volleyball players. T- and B-lymphocytes significantly increased after exercise test and were maintained high during recovery. Cortisol levels were significantly increased immediately after exercise and during recovery with respect to basal values. Basal and post-exercise cortisol levels were significantly higher at the final of season than at the beginning. Serum levels of immunoglobulins (IgG, IgA, and IgM) and complement fractions (C3, C4) were unaffected by the volleyball season. The IgG and IgM levels were significantly higher after exercise and recovery than basal levels. Maximal exercise test induced an acute phase/inflammatory response characterized by increased circulating lymphocytes, antibody response, and cortisol levels. Competition season increases cortisol concentration indicative of accumulated stress intensity.

엘리트스포츠를 통한 자원봉사의 실태 및 활성화 방안에 관한 연구

엘리트스포츠를 통한 자원봉사의 실태 및 활성화 방안에 관한 연구

What to tell the media—or not: consensus guidelines for sports physicians

Sports physicians working as team doctors, sports club or governing body medical officers come under more pressure to divulge medical information about their patients to the media than most other...

Recombinant erythropoietin found in seized blood bags from sportsmen

During an anti-doping investigation, the Spanish Guardia Civil confiscated blood bags from elite sportsmen. A novel immuno-purification method demonstrated that plasma samples with elevated erythropoietin (EPO) contained recombinant material (rEPO). This shows that rEPO is used before autologous blood transfusions and that rEPO analysis in plasma can be reliably addressed.

Special features of allergy testing in elite sportsmen

Special features of allergy testing in elite sportsmen

The Walkers who Finished Oxfam Trailwalker 2005: Who Were They?

In Oxfam Trailwalker, walkers formed a team of four to compete in the 100 km MacLehose Trail within 48 hours. In 2005, 3724 walkers participated in this event. About 82% of these walkers finished the trail. This study aimed at examining those successful walkers. Variables that might affect the finishing time were studied. A total of 231 walkers were recruited. Their training history was obtained. Their body weight, height, Q-angle of both knees, arch index and arch ratio of both feet were recorded. Those walkers who could not complete the trail were excluded from analysis. Data from 202 walkers were analysed. The results showed that mature walkers did better than young ones (p=0.004). Male walkers performed better than female walkers (p=0.019). Experience in previous events was a factor to success (p=0.000). High training hours for hiking might lead to a more favourable finishing time but the finding was not statistically significant (p=0.449). Body mass index, Q-angle of knees and foot shape did not show any statistically significant relationship with the finishing time. In conclusion, except for age, gender and experience, no special trait could be identified from these successful walkers. It would be very reassuring for those who intend to take part in Oxfam Trailwalker and yet not possessing the genetic advantage of an elite sportsman.

The comparison of the effect of static and dynamic exercise on heart rate variability in elite sportsmen

The comparison of the effect of static and dynamic exercise on heart rate variability in elite sportsmen

The comparison of the effect of static and dynamic exercise on QT interval in healthy elite sportsmen

The comparison of the effect of static and dynamic exercise on QT interval in healthy elite sportsmen