Extreme Sports Research Articles

Laws Relating to Mountaineering in India: Scope and Prospect

Mountaineering has been one of those adventure sports which has gained popularity with the advent of 20th Century in the entire world and in India too. But with the growing popularity comes the great challenges to regulate mountaineering within and outside the country. It is a sport where nature has the final call at every stage. Thus, human endeavor to conquer mountains is a myth, rather it can be said that the mountains allow humans to climb it. Every year a lot of climbers give up their lives while climbing high altitude mountains. Obvious reasons are Extreme weather conditions, High Altitude accidents like avalanches and snowstorms but some artificially created causes include non-trained climbers and huge number of permit issue per season which leads to traffic jams at high altitudes. Also, every year the sport of mountaineering generates huge waste in the higher altitudes because of which the mountains are polluted to a great extent. This directly impacts the source of water to the villages which are dependent on snow fed rivers. Though the agencies involved in conducting mountaineering have certain policies of bringing the accumulated waste down from the higher altitudes but no proper method of waste disposal is followed by them especially in cases of human bio waste generated at higher altitudes. Therefore, it is very much necessary that the sport of mountaineering be regulated with strict positive laws that can be enacted for better regulation of the Adventure sport within the country so that mountaineering should become a matter of specialization rather than just a hobby. The object of this paper is to point out the problems and ensure possible safety measures in mountaineering and sustainability of environment at the same time.

Prediction and simulation of wearable sensor devices for sports injury prevention based on BP neural network

In the research of sports injury prevention, the recognition of sports action plays an important role in the action recognition model and the prediction evaluation model. In view of the above problems, this paper constructs a new mathematical model through the idea of BP neural network. The model combines wearable technology and can improve the recognition accuracy of sports actions. The model uses the BP network classifier, which can be used in data. Processes such as feature extraction improve efficiency and reliability. In this paper, the algorithm simulation is carried out, and the experiments are carried out for three movements: running, running and static. The results show that for the recognition of running and running action, when the hidden layer node is 11, the BP neural network classifier shows the best recognition effect. For static motion, the recognition effect of each classifier is basically the same. This paper analyzes the wearable sports action recognition system, including perception layer, application layer and service layer, to realize the recognition and classification of sports actions, predict actions in advance and prevent sports injuries. Finally, this paper analyzes the causes of sports injury, puts forward specific measures to prevent sports injury, and further reduces sports injury events through wearable devices.

Study on the Path of Developing Sports Lifestyle among College Students

The "Opinions on Promoting National Fitness and Sports Consumption to Promote the High-quality Development of the Sports Industry" for the first time combines "promoting national fitness" with "promoting sports consumption". Sports are the dream of national strength and national rejuvenation, as well as a healthy lifestyle for the people. College students, as the fresh force of reform and innovation, and the main force of the country's future, are the main implementers of the goal of becoming a strong sports country. Their health level is related to whether the country's strategic goals can be achieved. Cultivating a healthy sports lifestyle among college students and paying attention to the health of each individual are the ultimate goals pursued by school physical education, while providing a strong human resource for the country's sustainable development. Strengthening the concept of a healthy sports lifestyle among college students helps promote their practice of physical activity. This is not only related to the realization of individual and school sports goals, but also to the construction and development of higher education in China. College students are the pillars of the country and shoulder the responsibility of national construction. Their health level is related to the destiny of the country. Therefore, understanding the health status of college students in sports life and exploring ways to improve their sports lifestyle development are of great significance to both individuals and the country.

Professionalization of action sports: field- and organizational-level professionalization of new Olympic sports

The inclusion of action sports in the Olympic Games and gaining popularity may necessitate a professionalization of the associated sports organizations to effectively tackle the challenges and meet the expectations of various stakeholders. This study explores the professionalization of action sports newly included in the Olympics by focusing on skateboarding and surfing in South Korea. Data for this study included semi-structured interviews with key individuals (n = 17) and archival materials. The findings indicate that Olympic inclusion triggered the sports’ professionalization at the field- and organizational-levels. There were changes in the institutional environment for the sports at the field-level, and the sports’ central organizations underwent structural and procedural changes. This research provides implications to action sports organizations and stakeholders, especially those in countries where action sports are less popular, who wish to leverage the Olympic inclusion of their sports as an opportunity to establish a more professionalized system for sports.

Mobile therapeutic ‘home’ territories during the COVID-19 pandemic and moments of being well pedalling

ABSTRACT This paper moves beyond biomedical accounts of cycling health benefits to consider the situated, emergent, embodied, and relational notion of being well. In doing so, we draw on Deleuze and Guattari’s account of affect to advance a conceptual framework of mobile therapeutic ‘home’ territories. We understand moments of being well as an emergent affective capacity generated by the coming together of socio-material relations in the process of territorialization, deterritorialization and reterritorialization. Our rhizoanalysis is based on semi-structured interviews and sketches of cycling reactivation research in inner-city Sydney, Australia, in 2020 during the first pandemic lockdown. We demonstrate that for those working at home with access to coasts and parks, riding a bike became an important enabler of becoming and being well in moments of competitiveness and playfulness. Such moments emerged from the intensified affective force of social-material relations that comprise pedalling ‘home’ territories as ‘lifestyle sport’ or as ‘active free-play’. In doing so, we contribute to debates in social and cultural geography on riding a bike.

The Virtue of External Goods in Action Sports Practice

Consistent with the idea that business ethics is a form of applied ethics, many virtue ethicists make use of an extant (pure) moral philosophy framework, namely, one developed by Alasdair MacIntyre. In doing so, these authors have refined MacIntyre’s work, but have never really challenged it. In here questioning, and developing an alternative to, the MacIntyrean orthdoxy, I illustrate the merit of business ethicists adopting a broader philosophical perspective focused on constructing (new) theory. More specifically—and in referring to action sports (e.g., mountain biking, snowboarding)—I propose that an external good motive is not only much more consistent with virtuous practical excellence than MacIntyreans acknowledge, but that such a motive is fundamental to identifying and explaining how practices can be deliberately created (by businesses). Consequently, and in stark contrast with MacIntyre’s deeply pessimistic outlook on modern business and society, I propose that those who value practices might celebrate our current era.

The predisposition to risk and the need to seek thrills in parachutists

Researching the predisposition to risk and the need to look for strong sensations in parachutists is a current topic because it targets a community and a growing activity. Whether it is a static line jump, or a tandem or a jump made by an athlete, it involves a level of risk, which on the one hand offers strong sensations, on the other, can be fatal. Identifying the level of risk of these people who practice extreme sports, could prevent some dangerous or lethal situations, and would make it possible to reduce the risk and its awareness where it is too much. In the flow of emotions and adrenaline felt in the free fall, there is a probability that people want more and more such feelings, to push their limits by exaggerating or even unaware of the risk they take.

N47 Spiritual needs of patients with IBD: preliminary results of a pilot study

Abstract Background Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) includes Crohn's Disease (CD) and Ulcerative Colitis (UC), and both lead to manifestations that affect the patient's quality of life (QoL). The issue of chronicitỳ makes the disease difficult to manage and requires a radical change in patients’ habits, leading to a decrease in QoL after diagnosis. The literature emphasises how spiritualitỳ positively influences the psychophysical well-being of chronic patients and consequently their QoL. This study aims to describe the spiritual needs of patients with IBD to promote holistic care and improve their QoL and aims to explore their eventual association with sociodemographic and clinical variables. Methods A cross-sectional study was carried out in the outpatient gastroenterology clinics of a university hospital, administering the validated Spiritual Needs Questionnaire (SpNQ) during outpatient follow-up visits to patients over 18 years of age after informed consent to participate in the study. The SpNQ consist of 27 items divided into four domains: Religious needs, Needs for Inner Peace, Existential needs, and Giving/Generativity Needs. Some clinical and sociodemographic data were also collected. Results A total of 103 completed the questionnaire: 53% had CD, 35% UC and 12% had undetermined IBD. 44% were males the median age was 45 years, and half of the sample was more than 10 years from IBD diagnosis. More than 40% were in biologics, 47% had a high educational level, 28% were smokers, and 4% had a stoma. 65% were Christian, 26% had no religion, and the frequency of their participation in religious gatherings varies from never (15%), to rarely (59%) and often (26%). They cultivate their spirituality mainly by conducting their existence in accordance with values that are fundamental to them (47.7%), staying in contact with nature (30.5%), praying (15.8%), engaging in introspection and self-knowledge (14.7%), volunteering (12.6%), and practising extreme sports (10.5%). The analyses showed statistically significant differences between sexes regarding the domains "Needs for Inner Peace" and "Religious Needs" (p<0.001) more relevant to women than men, and significant differences between ages regarding the domains "Existential Needs", more relevant to middle age (p=0.037), and "Giving/Generativity Needs", more relevant to middle age and to elderly (p=0.015). Conclusion Spiritual needs may play a major role in the care of patients with IBD, and nursing should consider this dimension to improve the holistic care of the patients. Research should be expanded through studies involving a larger sample size and evaluating the IBD outcome by acting on spiritual needs.

“Frisbee on football field”: the intergenerational conflict between two sports at grassroots level in China

Ultimate frisbee has gained great attention and enjoyed explosive growth in China from 2019 to 2022 (especially in 2022), but has also aroused heated controversies in cyberspace, typically in the football community. This paper explores the forms and underlying reasons for conflicts between the two sports. Through field observation, in-depth interviews, and a survey of amateur participants in both frisbee and football, the paper finds that conflicts between the two sports, which arise from ultimate frisbee’s quest for legitimacy, are exaggerated as a result of the mediatization of sports. The study further revealed that Frisbee, as an alternative sport, exhibits notable cultural distinctions from football, a traditional sport. This divergence in sports culture mirrors the generational gap. Consequently, the conflict between the two sports is more of an intergenerational conflict within the realm of sports culture, reflecting the overall transformation of Chinese society.

A retrospective analysis of injury and illness incidence in four new extreme sports debuting during the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympic Games: surfing, BMX freestyle, sport climbing, and skateboarding

A retrospective analysis of injury and illness incidence in four new extreme sports debuting during the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympic Games: surfing, BMX freestyle, sport climbing, and skateboarding

Alternative Media in Alternative Sport: Platforming Working Conditions in Professional Skateboarding

Alternative media enable marginalized people to voice their experiences, challenge dominant ideologies, and circumvent mainstream gatekeepers. Podcasts are an alternative medium that can be counterhegemonic, foregrounding such issues as antiracism, Indigeneity, LGBTQ rights, socialism, and workers’ perspectives. This article expands on alternative-media research by transporting it to the skateboarding subculture. I first depict the skateboard outlets Thrasher Magazine (1981) and The Berrics (2007) website as hegemonic and mainstream. By contrast, I depict podcasts The Bunt (2016) and Vent City (2019) as counterhegemonic and alternative. I then ask: To what degree do skate podcasts acknowledge professional skateboarders as workers? And: Do such shows allow skaters to express grievances with their industry? A discourse analysis of Thrasher and The Berrics demonstrates that they often mystify freelance work, class, and skaters’ working conditions. An analysis of The Bunt and Vent City suggests that podcasts offer unique and radical perspectives, though attention to working conditions is uneven. I find there may be too much overlap between the case studies for an alternative/mainstream distinction to be meaningful. Political currents within skateboarding are still promising, however, and digital media will be essential in making the subculture and industry more inclusive.

The Popularity Gap: Effects of Social Status on the Visibility of Lifestyle Sports Stars on Instagram

Social media provides athletes with opportunities to enhance their personal brands, engage with fans, and access professional opportunities. Several studies have examined how athletes use social media to attract and engage large audiences. Less is known about the social forces that enable and constrain their popularity. Drawing on expectation states theory, this study considers how athletes’ social status affects their follower counts and engagement rates on Instagram. Based on a content analysis of 6240 images posted on Instagram by 112 professional disc golfers, we show that the gender, sport dominance, and physical attractiveness of athletes affect their popularity, controlling for their strategic efforts to self-brand. These findings offer new insight into the ongoing debate over social media’s impact on long-standing inequalities in the media-sport industry.

Psycho-physio-neurological correlates of qualitative attention, emotion and flow experiences in a close-to-real-life extreme sports situation: low- and high-altitude slackline walking.

It has been indicated that extreme sport activities result in a highly rewarding experience, despite also providing fear, stress and anxiety. Studies have related this experience to the concept of flow, a positive feeling that individuals undergo when they are completely immersed in an activity. However, little is known about the exact nature of these experiences, and, there are still no empirical results to characterize the brain dynamics during extreme sport practice. This work aimed at investigating changes in psychological responses while recording physiological (heart rate-HR, and breathing rate-BR) and neural (electroencephalographic-EEG) data of eight volunteers, during outdoors slackline walking in a mountainous environment at two different altitude conditions (1 m-low-walk- and 45 m-high-walk-from the ground). Low-walk showed a higher score on flow scale, while high-walk displayed a higher score in the negative affect aspects, which together point to some level of flow restriction during high-walk. The order of task performance was shown to be relevant for the physiological and neural variables. The brain behavior during flow, mainly considering attention networks, displayed the stimulus-driven ventral attention network-VAN, regionally prevailing (mainly at the frontal lobe), over the goal-directed dorsal attention network-DAN. Therefore, we suggest an interpretation of flow experiences as an opened attention to more changing details in the surroundings, i.e., configured as a 'task-constantly-opened-to-subtle-information experience', rather than a 'task-focused experience'.

Association of Ocular Injuries in Patients with Head Injury: A Tertiary-Level Armed Forces Experience

ABSTRACT Introduction: The incidence of trauma is on an increasing trend worldwide. It has drastically increased due to urbanization, vehicular congestion, alcoholism, and poor infrastructure facilities, especially in developing countries. In the Armed Forces, the additional burden of trauma is also seen due to various unit activities, organized sports, and other adventure sports. Head injury cases are often associated with various ocular injuries. These ocular injuries, if subtle in nature, can be missed initially and progress into ophthalmological complications and rarely into permanent visual impairment. The aim of this study was to critically analyze the association of various ocular injuries in patients with head injury. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in a tertiary-level Armed Forces Hospital from July 2016 to December 2018. A total of 40 patients were evaluated who had head injury along with ocular injuries. The Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) was used to assess the severity of the head injury. Ocular manifestations such as subconjunctival hemorrhage, ecchymosis, soft tissue injuries such as lid tear, corneal injuries, and bony and associated nerve injuries were evaluated. Results: A total of 40 patients with head injury with ocular manifestations were studied. Road traffic accident (RTA) was the most common cause, followed by accidental fall from height and sports injuries. There was a male preponderance (n = 32 (80%)) over females (n = 8 (20%)). Unilateral ocular manifestation (n = 32 (80%)) was more common than bilateral involvement (n = 8 (20%)). The most frequent ocular manifestations were subconjunctival hemorrhage and ecchymosis (35 (87.5%)), followed by lid laceration (6 (15%)), corneal tear (04 (10%)), vitreous hemorrhage (01 (2.5%)), evisceration (2 (05%)), and cranial nerve injury (06 (12.5%)). Orbital wall fracture was seen in 15 (37.5%) patients, including lateral wall fracture (n = 08 (20%)), medial wall fracture (n = 04 (10%)), orbital floor fracture (n = 02 (05%)), and orbital roof fracture (n = 01 (2.5%)). Conclusion: Ocular injuries can occur in patients with head injury irrespective of the mode and kinematics involved (severe head injury may present with minimal ocular manifestations or vice versa). These patients require hospitalization, observation, thorough ophthalmic evaluation, and periodic assessment to minimize morbidity and complications.

The influence of personality and temperamental traits on the perception of a sports injury

Aim: A study was conducted on the relationship between personality and temperamental traits and the perception of trauma. Materials and Methods: The study involved 50 people practicing extreme and high-risk sports and 50 people practicing non-extreme sports. The study used: the BFI-10 Personality Questionnaire translated by Jan Fazlagić, the Sensation Seeking Scale (SSS-V) by Zuckerman and the Scale of Perception of Injury in Sports by J. Blecharz. Results: Statistically significant differences were detected in the intensity of personality and temperamental traits and injury perception between groups, as well as statistically significant correlations between the results obtained in the BFI-10 Questionnaire, SSS-V Scale and the Injury Perception Scale in Sports. Conclusions: There is a relationship between the type of sport practiced and personality and temperamental traits. Personality and temperamental traits have a weak or moderate impact on the perception of trauma.

Kultura off-roadu w perspektywie funkcjonowania hybrydalnego

Life in the modern world has shifted to some extent in the functioning of individuals in many areas. This paper focuses mainly on such spheres as communication, tracking and sharing information, and sport-related cultures, which take on a new meaning in the hybrid reality. These fields combine to create and enable a new type of human interaction. Reporting, commenting, or posting information on sports achievements is not a novelty, but currently this state of affairs is significantly gaining in importance and expanding to tracking information about the private life and functioning of people practicing various sports disciplines. Cultures that have developed around various physical activities are much more able to expand and promote a particular sport by publishing information in the digital space. It is particularly important in relation to disciplines that are not popular or are extreme or high-budget sports. Thanks to the presence of these activities in the virtual space, it is possible to promote, disseminate them, and gain a larger group of enthusiasts.

Potential of adventure sports tourism in Himachal Pradesh

Potential of adventure sports tourism in Himachal Pradesh

Starting in your mental pole position: hypnosis helps elite downhill Mountainbike athletes to reach their optimal racing mindset.

Downhill Mountain Biking is an extreme sport requiring high mental strength to perform on the best level in a competition with only one run to win the race. The substantial challenge here is to control automatic processes like competitive anxiety and stress. Hypnosis can address these automatic processes. We developed and evaluated a hypnosis audio-intervention to activate the optimal racing mindset. In our study, 19 elite Downhill Mountainbike athletes registered at two consecutive races of the IXS Downhill Cup. After the first race, athletes listened to the hypnosis audio-intervention. In this intervention, we instructed the athletes how to activate their optimal mental state before the second race. At both races, we measured competitive anxiety, stress, self-confidence, state resilience, and flow with validated questionnaires and assessed resting heart rate variability as physiological measure of resilience. Race-related somatic anxiety and subjective stress decreased significantly while self-confidence increased significantly from first to second race after athletes listened to the hypnosis. Heart rate variability was significantly increased at the second race indicating elevated vagal activity. When comparing race results of our participants to a control group of other elite athletes competing in the races but not listening to the hypnosis, we found that our study participants generally performed better in both races. The study shows that our hypnosis intervention was effective in reducing competitive anxiety and stress while increasing perceived resilience and self-confidence: After a self-administered hypnosis session, athletes were able to improve automatic processes responsible for putting them in their mental pole position.

A Review of Ugo Corte, Dangerous Fun: The Social Lives of Big Wave Surfers. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 2022, 272 pp.

This ethnographic study of big wave surfing in WaimeaBay in Hawai’i by the Italian sociologist Ugo Corte discovers how this extreme sport involving risk-taking activity is performed interactively. The data from observations and interviews are interpreted in terms of the theory of interaction ritual, which claims that the key to understanding these group activities is the notion of emotional energy generated as result of the social interaction. Unlike his predecessors Еrving Goffman and Randall Collins, Ugo Corte does not proceed from theory, but from his empirical material, for the interpretation of which he uses comparisons with somewhat similar phenomena from different fields, from other sports to creative industries. However, the book’s theoretical framework is Collins’s thesis on affect as a driving force of social order, from which the ideas emerge about how the focus of emotion and attention in joint activity generates group solidarity. The book illustrates how a sociologist and anthropologist can address the issues of risk and danger, and also shows the ways in which modern interactionist sociology, armed with post-Goffmanian tools, is developing.

The effects of lower leg compression garments on lower extremity sports injuries, subjective fatigue and biomechanical variables: a systematic review with meta-analysis

The effects of lower leg compression garments on lower extremity sports injuries, subjective fatigue and biomechanical variables: a systematic review with meta-analysis