Individual Sports Research Articles

FORMATION OF MOTIVATION AND VALUE ORIENTATIONS IN TEAM AND INDIVIDUAL SPORTS ATHLETES

The article highlights the problems of forming motivational and value orientations among team and individual sports athletes. It showed that in the majority of scientific works devoted to the study of sports motivation, consideration of individual motivational variables, mainly the main sports motives of activity, prevails. Three main aspects of the study of motivation in general and sports motivation are highlighted, in particular: the topological (content) aspect, which involves consideration of the content of the main motives of activity; the structural aspect, which focuses attention on the internal structural characteristics of motivation and assumes the presence of a certain structure of interdependent motivational variables as a single entity, which, in fact, is motivation; dynamic aspect, which includes the entire complex of factors that ensure the process of formation, development, extinction of motivation, as well as the development of demotivation. Motivational variables have been studied that will allow to consider and characterize the structure of sports motivation in a socio-psychological context, in representatives of team and individual sports, in which the fact of having a team can determine the uniqueness of the combination and the degree of manifestation of these motivational variables: external and internal motives of sports activity, valuable orientations, types of orientation of the athleteʼs personality, as well as jealousy as one of the motives that ensure success in a competitive situation. It was revealed that the structure of sports motivation is a system of interrelated internal and external motives that ensure the desire to achieve high results in sports of higher achievements, which is determined by the social and psychological context ‒ the presence or absence of a team as a group (“a single whole”), factors, that determine the specifics of the professional development of athletes. We see the prospect of further research in the development of programs that provide training for professional athletes to perform at national and international competitions.
 Keywords: formation; motivation; motives; values; orientations; motivational variables; young athletes; interaction team and individual sports; team.

Preservice Physical Education Teachers’ Resistance to Change: The Importance of Occupational Socialization Experiences

(1) Background: The aim of this study was to evaluate preservice Physical Education (PE) teachers’ resistance to change during their school practicum based on their occupational orientation profiles (between-subject factors: type of sport experience and role orientation in teaching) after controlling their self-esteem. (2) Methods: 235 preservice PE teachers (male = 118), undergraduate students at the University of Athens, Greece, completed the resistance to change scale and the Rosenberg self-esteem scale online. A multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) was conducted to establish the between-subject factor differences in the four dimensions of the resistance to change scale. (3) Results: The results showed that the preservice PE teachers with experience in individual sports reported higher levels of emotional response during practicum compared to those involved in team sports. No other differences proved statistically significant. The results of the present study should be used as a point of reference for shaping the discussion about the concept of resistance to change in teacher education programs.

Hip Contact Forces During Sprinting in Femoroacetabular Impingement Syndrome.

Sprinting often provokes hip pain in individuals with femoroacetabular impingement syndrome (FAIS). Asphericity of the femoral head-neck junction (cam morphology) characteristic of FAIS can increase the risk of anterior-superior acetabular cartilage damage. This study aimed to 1) compare hip contact forces (magnitude and direction) during sprinting between individuals with FAIS, asymptomatic cam morphology (CAM), and controls without cam morphology, and 2) identify the phases of sprinting with high levels of anteriorly directed hip contact forces. Forty-six recreationally active individuals with comparable levels of physical activity were divided into three groups (FAIS, 14; CAM, 15; control, 17) based on their history of hip/groin pain, results of clinical impingement tests, and presence of cam morphology (alpha angle >55°). Three-dimensional marker trajectories, ground reaction forces, and electromyograms from 12 lower-limb muscles were recorded during 10-m overground sprinting trials. A linearly scaled electromyogram-informed neuromusculoskeletal model was used to calculate hip contact force magnitude (resultant, anterior-posterior, inferior-superior, medio-lateral) and angle (sagittal and frontal planes). Between-group comparisons were made using two-sample t -tests via statistical parametric mapping ( P < 0.05). No significant differences in magnitude or direction of hip contact forces were observed between FAIS and CAM or between FAIS and control groups during any phase of the sprint cycle. The highest anteriorly directed hip contact forces were observed during the initial swing phase of the sprint cycle. Hip contact forces during sprinting do not differentiate recreationally active individuals with FAIS from asymptomatic individuals with and without cam morphology. Hip loading during early swing, where peak anterior loading occurs, may be a potential mechanism for cartilage damage during sprinting-related sports in individuals with FAIS and/or asymptomatic cam morphology.

Mental health correlates of athletic shame and guilt among elite-level youth athletes in Turkey

ObjectivesThis study evaluated the mental health correlates of athletic shame and guilt among elite-level youth athletes and provided psychometric data on the Turkish version of the Athletic Perceptions of Performance Scale. DesignCross-sectional. MethodsAn online survey was sent to 645 Turkish elite-level youth athletes incorporating standardized scales assessing athletic shame, guilt, and symptoms of high prevalence mental disorders. A subset of participants (n = 45) provided test–retest data at 30 days. ResultsA total of 301 elite youth athletes participated (M = 16.42 ± 0.49 years; 48.7 % response rate) equally representing team and individual sports. Confirmatory factor analysis validated the Turkish version of the Athletic Perceptions of Performance Scale and test–retest data supported temporal stability. Female athletes (compared to male athletes) and athletes participating in an individual sport (compared to participating in a team sport) reported higher athletic shame-proneness scores (p < 0.01 and p = 0.04; respectively). The Turkish version of the Athletic Perceptions of Performance Scale shame-proneness and no-concern scores were associated with athlete-specific stress, anxiety, and depression scores. The Turkish version of the Athletic Perceptions of Performance Scale guilt-proneness was associated with athlete-specific stress and anxiety scores. ConclusionsFindings provide cross-cultural validation of the Athletic Perceptions of Performance Scale assessing athletic shame and guilt, demonstrating that female athletes and athletes participating in an individual sport were more likely to experience athletic shame-proneness. Results suggest that athletes experiencing shame-proneness and performance concerns may benefit from supportive coaching and/or mental health supports.

Movement as a Neuromodulator: How Physical Activity Influences the Physiology of Adolescent Depression

Movement as a Neuromodulator: How Physical Activity Influences the Physiology of Adolescent Depression Abstract: In the context of adolescent depression, physical activity is becoming increasingly recognized for its positive effects on neuropathology. Current scientific findings indicate that physical training affects the biological effects of depression during adolescence. Yet the pathophysiology of adolescent depression is not yet fully understood. Besides psychosocial and genetic influences, various neurobiological factors are being discussed. One explanation model describes a dysfunction of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA axis) with a sustained elevation in cortisol concentration. Recent studies highlight neuroimmunological processes and a reduced concentration of growth factors as causative factors. These changes appear to lead to a dysregulation of the excitation and inhibition balance of the cerebral cortex as well as to cerebral morphological alterations. Regular physical training can potentially counteract the dysregulation of the HPA axis and normalize cortisol levels. The release of proinflammatory cytokines is inhibited, and the expression of growth factors involved in adult neurogenesis is stimulated. One should ensure the synergistic interaction of biological and psychosocial factors when designing the exercise schedule (endurance or strength training, group or individual sports, frequency, duration, and intensity). Addressing these open questions is essential when integrating physical activity into the guidelines for treating depressive disorders in children and adolescents.

Does Gender, Sports Age, Type of Listening Music Affect Pre-Competition Anxiety in Adolescent Athletes?

Athletes listen to music during training and competitions, in order to have fun, gain motivation and increase performance. The aim of this study is to examine the effect of gender, sports age and type of listening music to pre-competition anxiety level in adolescent athletes. Cross-sectional research method, one of the quantitative research design was used. The population of the study consists of athletes between the ages of 14-18 who have a good training level and participate to competitions. The sample consists of a total of 140 adolescent athletes (age: 16.55±4.67) who are engaged in individual and team sports from different branches. Data were collected with the “Revised Competition State Anxiety Inventory-2 (CSAI-2R)”. “T-test” and “ANOVA” test were used in the analysis of the data. No significant difference between the groups in sognitive anxiety (CA) and somatic anxiety (SA) scores according to type of listening music (p&gt;0.05), but a significant difference in self-confidence (SC) scores in favor of those who listening to arabesque music (p0.05). As a result, it can be said that listening to arabesque music before the competition increases the level of self-confidence of adolescent athletes and accordingly reduces the level of anxiety.

Examınatıon of the leadership characteristics of individual and team sports coaches according to some demographic variables

Coaches' leadership orientations play an important role in their professional success. This study aims to examine coaches' leadership orientation behaviors according to certain socio-demographic variables. In the study, it has been used a type of quantitative research using a 'descriptive survey' model. The research is conducted with individual and team coaches (n=196). Among the coaches, 55.6% are individual coaches, while 44.4% are team coaches. The Multidimensional Leadership Orientation Scale and a Demographic Data Form have been used to collect information. For statistical analysis, it is determined whether the assumption of normal distribution of the data is met or not through Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Shapiro-Wilk tests. For examining the status of leadership orientation with respect to the relevant variables, parametric (Independent Samples t-test, One-Way Analysis of Variance ANOVA) hypothesis tests have been applied, taking into account the results of the normality tests. The study has revealed that coaches' leadership orientation scores differ significantly according to age and sports branch variables (p&lt;0.05). As a result of the research, it is determined that coaches aged 21-30 and those in individual sports prefer '’Structural and Political’' behavior. Furthermore, coaches' leadership orientations are found not to be influenced by gender, income status, years of coaching, and educational status.

Rhythm in sport: Adapted rhythmic training to optimize timing and enhance performance in athletes

Precise timing, the ability to control exactly when something should be done, integrates physical characteristics like strength, power, and technique into highly skilled sporting actions. Despite timing's indispensability to peak athletic performance, there exist few timing-specific training methods. The authors present a new training approach which adapts exercises from drummers, the elite timing experts, to athletes. This progressive series of rhythmic exercises cultivates a detailed, ‘top down’ cognitive framework of time which promises to enhance movement precision and efficiency. Use cases demonstrate broad applications of this new training approach across individual and team sports.

Investigation of Work Motivation and Anxiety Levels of Trainers Working in Antalya

The universe and sample of this research, which was carried out with trainers working in individual and team sports, consists of a total of 163 trainers actively working in 50 sports branches in Antalya. Within the scope of the research, the work motivation scale whose validity and reliability studies were conducted by Yılmaz (2012) and the state and trait anxiety scale adapted to Turkish by Öner and Le Compte (1983) were used. The SPSS 26 package program was used in the analysis of the data obtained in this study, in which participation was made on a voluntary basis, and it was determined that the data provided a normal distribution. In this context, independent sample t-test from parametric tests and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used in the study. Homogeneity of variances was found to be significant with Levene's test. For this reason, Scheffe test was used in multiple comparisons. The relationship between work motivation and anxiety was examined by Pearson correlation analysis.&#x0D; As a result of the research carried out with individuals actively coaching in team and individual sports branches; It has been determined that as the anxiety levels of the coaches decrease, there is an increase in the work motivation levels.

Team performance and gendered parenthood in horse-riding activities for young children

To improve the experiences of children and parents and prepare those who arrange the activities for parental needs the aim of this article is to describe and analyse parental roles in a horse-riding activities for younger children in Sweden and Norway. Horse-riding for younger children is an individual sport but conducted in interplay with others such as parents and horses. To understand these interactions, Goffman’s dramaturgical approach and insights from research on sport and gender have been used. The main result is that during the activity, the child and the parent interact and perform as a team. In addition, the team performance is influenced by gender constructions. The gender construction is, however, different from what former has been shown in research on sport and gender.

Professional Athletes' Well-Being: New Challenges in Post-COVID-19 Times.

The COVID-19 period was characterized as a traumatic period throughout the world. During the pandemic, sports organizations had to adapt to government rules and social distancing measures frequently and faced a challenging and complex period in keeping their athletes on a normal routine. Many athletes faced uncertainty regarding their present and future competitive context and personal worries, similar to society during the pandemic. Consequently, adverse effects on the mental health and well-being of athletes were reported in individual and team sports. This review seeks to explore the perceived impact of COVID-19 on athletes' well-being and future considerations. This review suggests professional athletes' well-being should receive more attention and will be addressed in the future for the benefit of the athletes and not just in favor of performance. Moreover, the emphasis on evidence-based psychological support such as stress management and athletes' well-being in a high-performance sport context should increase. The post-COVID-19 period highlights the importance of broadening athletic identity into a more holistic scope that includes life-performance balance and personal values outside the sporting context. Lastly, developing and fostering resilience is complex yet fundamental for systems, when considering athletes' personal context and providing them with professional skills outside of their professional domain.

Toward value co-creation in private youth sport for ‘secondary’ consumers: expert coaches’ perceptions of parent–coach collaboration

ABSTRACT Research question Recent evidence suggests parents and coaches would find value in a collaborative relationship. However, the specific roles of parents and coaches in co-creating value remain unclear. Therefore, this research aims to establish expert coaches’ perception of effective collaboration between parents and coaches in the market-driven private youth sport setting. Research methods Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 expert coaches to examine their perceptions of effective parent–coach collaboration. Results and findings Through a reflexive thematic analysis, the authors identified four themes explaining expert coaches’ perceptions of parent–coach collaboration in market-driven youth sport experiences. The themes include: (1) balancing individual circumstance and private sport system demands; (2) collaboratively developing programming; (3) establishing flexible relationship parameters and (4) navigating involvement boundaries. Implications These themes were used to create a practical guide for coaches in navigating relationships with ‘secondary’ consumers of youth sport (i.e. parents). Moreover, a theoretical conceptualization of value co-creation for ‘secondary’ consumers of youth sport is offered.

Mindfulness, Physical Activity and Sports Participation: Validity Evidence of the Lithuanian Translation of the State Mindfulness Scale for Physical Activity 2 in Physically Active Young Adults.

The aim of the present study was to examine the psychometric properties of the Lithuanian translation of State Mindfulness in Physical Activity (SMS-PA-2) in a sample of physically active students. A total sample of 539 students from universities and colleges (50.3% men; mean age 23.3 ± 7.2 years) were asked to provide demographical data, report physical activity (PA) and PA habits and fill in measures of trait awareness, autonomous motivation in physical activity, trait body appreciation, trait body functionality appreciation and disordered eating attitudes and behaviours and self-esteem via an online anonymous survey. Students also provided information about their participation in organized team sports, organized individual sports, recreational sports and home exercise. Results. The SMS-PA-2 replicated the original four-factor structure, with good internal consistency (except for the Accepting Mind subscale). Invariance analyses across sex groups revealed an acceptable fit of the configural, metric and scalar models. However, in the multi-group analysis, metric invariance and scalar invariance were not confirmed. The SMS-PA-2 was positively associated with leisure-time PA, PA habits, more self-determined motivation for exercise, trait awareness, trait body appreciation, trait body functionality appreciation and self-esteem. A negative association was observed between the SMS-PA-2 and disordered eating attitudes and behaviours. Home exercisers and students engaged in team sports demonstrated lower levels of state mindfulness in PA than those engaged in organized individual and recreational sports. The Lithuanian version of the SMS-PA-2 is a reliable and valid instrument for measuring state mindfulness in PA. This instrument is recommended for researchers who aim to investigate the role of state mindfulness in the PA in Lithuanian-language-speaking samples of young adults. Future studies should explore the Lithuanian version of the SMS-PA-2 by asking participants to fill questionnaires in immediately after the PA session, and measurement invariance between sexes should be further tested.

Sprint and jump performances of female athletes are enhanced in the evening but not associated with individual chronotype

ABSTRACT Sprint and jump performances represent performance-determining parameters in individual and team sports. Fluctuations in performance depending on the daytime raise the question of the best time to train and compete. Given the scarce research on females, this study aimed to analyze the influence of daytime on sprint and jump performances and to investigate whether the performance difference is related to the chronotype. Thus, 23 female sports students completed a questionnaire to assess their chronotype followed by performing two 30 m sprints, 5 Repeated Jump Tests (5RJT), and countermovement jumps (CMJ) in the morning (7:00–9:00 h) and evening (17:00–19:00 h). Time after 5 m, 10 m, and 30 m during the sprints, reactive strength index (RSI) during the 5RJTs, and jump height during the CMJs were examined. The performance during the 30 m sprint (t(22) = 5.28, p < 0.01 moderate effect size: 0.50) and the two jump tests (5RJT: t(22) = 8.27, p < 0.01 large effect size: 0.95; CMJ: t(22) = 5.46, p < 0.01 moderate effect size: 0.79) were significantly better in the evening than in the morning. There was no significant correlation between chronotype and the time-of-day effect. The results should be considered when planning training and competition.

Analysis of the relationship between personality traits and mental training in athletes

Mental training has become a frequently used training method to ensure optimum performance of athletes in the preparation stages before, during and after the competition. Athletes can use different techniques to ensure motivation and concentration. The aim of this study is to examine the relationships between personality traits and mental training techniques in athletes. The study group consists of total= 321 athletes, women=106 and men = 215, who are active in individual and team sports. In the study, data collection tools were used with the personal information form containing demographic information prepared by the researcher and the "The Sport Mental Training Questionnaire (SMTQ)" developed by Behnke et al., (2017) and adapted to Turkish culture by Yarayan and İlhan (2018). Descriptive statistics and Pearson correlation analysis were used in the analysis of the data. As a result, positive and significant relationships were found between personality traits and mental training dimensions, and personality traits and mental training dimensions are closely related.

Effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Injuries Related to Individual and Team Sports: An Analysis of the NEISS Database Between 2017 and 2021.

The first 2 years of the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic had a profound effect on youth sports participation. The primary aim of this study was to explore the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on youth sports injury patterns, with a secondary aim of comparing organized team and individual sport-related injuries in diverse age groups. Descriptive epidemiology study. The National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS) was searched to identify injuries sustained by patients aged 11 to 23 years while playing organized team or individual sports from 2017 to 2021. We investigated reports of concussions, dislocations, fractures, and sprains/strains. Between 2017 and 2021, there were 58,721 and 3778 team and individual sport-related injuries, respectively. When compared with the prepandemic years, there was a 57.07% decrease in 2020 and 22.31% decrease in 2021 for the number of organized team sport-related injuries. Organized individual sport-related injuries had a 56.24% and 35.18% decrease in number in 2020 and 2021, respectively. Male patients were most likely to be injured in team sports (81.0%), and female patients were most likely to be injured in individual sports (67.1%). High school athletes sustained the majority of injuries in team (57.0%) and individual (51.2%) sports. The years 2020 and 2021 saw a decrease in proportion of sprains/strains and an increase in proportion of fractures. The number of organized sport-related injuries reported to emergency departments decreased in 2020, and despite vaccinations and easing of social distancing, the 2021 value did not return to what it was prepandemic. As coronavirus-related restrictions have eased, there should be careful monitoring of sports injuries among youth athletes.

Use of Post-Exercise Recovery Strategies in Team and Individual Sports

Use of Post-Exercise Recovery Strategies in Team and Individual Sports

The paradox of talent: How chance affects success in tennis tournaments

Individual sports competitions provide a natural setting for examining the relative importance of talent and luck/chance in achieving success. The belief that success is primarily due to individual abilities and hard work rather than external factors is particularly strong in this context. Thus, individual talent is regarded as the most important – if not the only – component in ensuring a successful career for athletes. In this study, we test this belief using tennis as a case study, due to its popularity and competition structure in direct-elimination tournaments. Our dataset covers the last decade before Covid-19 pandemics (2010–2019) of main international events in the ATP circuit and consists of tourney results and annual rankings for professional male players. After a preliminary data analysis, we introduce an agent-based model able to accurately simulate the tennis players’ dynamics along several seasons. We show that, once calibrated on the dataset, the model is able to reproduce the main stylized facts observed in real data, including the results of single tournaments and the development of players’ careers in the ATP community. The strength of our approach lies in its simplicity: it requires only one free parameter a to determine the importance of talent in scoring every single point: a=1 indicates the ideal scenario in which only talent matters, whereas a=0 represents the opposite limit case, in which the outcome of each point is entirely due to chance. We find the best agreement between real data and simulation results when talent weights substantially less than luck, i.e. when a is between 0.20 and 0.30. A further comparison between data and simulations, based on the analysis of the direct networks of all the matches, confirms the previous finding. A posteriori, we notice that this surprisingly important role of chance in tennis tournaments is not an exception. On the contrary, it can be explained by a more general paradoxical effect that characterizes highly competitive environments, particularly in individual sports. In other words, when the difference in talent between top players is minimal, chance becomes determinant. Our findings highlight the impact of the – too often underestimated – external factors on athletes’ performance in individual tournaments and their careers. Our results point out the unfairness of the “winner-takes-all” reward system that enhances the disparities between the first classified players and the others in major competitions.

Leisure activities of young drug users and non-drug users: association with five personality factors

The article presents the survey data of 4422 Kharkiv students from higher education institutions of III-IV accreditation levels, among whom 8.1 % used drugs during the last year. Using the validated and adapted BFI-10 screening questionnaire for the rapid diagnosis of five personality factors, the association of personality factors with drug use in the 12 months before the study has been established. The analysis of the leisure activities of student youth in Kharkiv shows that it is quite stable. The most common forms of leisure are spending free time on the Internet, going for walks and socialising with friends, studying and doing homework, watching films and TV programmes (including on the Internet), as well as hobbies and interests. Individual sports activities, reading books, going to cafes and restaurants with friends, playing computer games, and working or having a part-time job are of medium prevalence. The least common forms of active recreation were bowling or billiards, attending a sports section, concerts, clubs or discos. Doing homework (r=0.103, p&lt;0.01), watching TV programmes (r=0.083, p&lt;0.01) and playing sports individually (r=0.063, p&lt;0.01) have a negative correlation with drug use. Low values of the big five personality factors “C” – conscientiousness (r=0.063, p&lt;0.01) and work in free time (r=–0.136, p&lt;0.01) – have a positive correlation with drug use.&#x0D; Factor analysis has allowed to identify and meaningfully interpret eight factors that describe the internal structure of leisure activities of student youth in Kharkiv. Only one factor was found to be related to drug use which is the factor of “Earning money for drugs”, which consists of low values of the personal factor “Consciousness” and the dominance of work over studies in the structure of leisure time. Two factors related to computer game playing have also been identified such as “psychopathic gaming behaviour” and “neurotic gaming behaviour”. The findings allow to draw a conclusion that should be used in building prevention programmes: the risk of drug use increases in individuals with a low level of the Big Five C personality factor – consciousness – and the dominance of work and part-time jobs in the structure of leisure over the main activity of the student which is studying.

Advancing sport ecology research on sport and the natural environment

ABSTRACT Sport and the natural environment have an intimate relationship threatened by global warming and climate change. Individual sport organizations and events to the collective global sport sector must address climate change on two primary fronts – (1) reducing their impact on the natural environment resulting in climate change to sustain the environments individual sport organizations and events taking place and (2) sustaining sport from changing environments due to climate change. This paper examines previous research from these two fronts, and gaps are identified that can inform future research to advance our understanding of environmental sport management or sport ecology topics. The paper then discusses practical and measured responses to climate change using examples from other disciplines beyond sport management to enhance these research lines and inform industry practice. As the sport sector advances, a fourth wave of the sport environmental movement is emerging where sport organizations encounter internal and external pressures to resolve contradictions in their stated environmental values and organizational operations (e.g. short-haul flights, carbon-intensive sponsors). The paper concludes with recommendations across these two fronts to engage fans and participants in meaningful climate action with demonstrative results.