Sports People Research Articles

Pure sport: practical sport psychology

Are you only as good as your last game? Is it really just a matter of keeping your eye on the ball? Pure Sport: Practical Sport Psychology explains in everyday language the whys and wherefores of contemporary sport psychology – pinpointing what works and what doesn’t when it comes to performance enhancement. As the title suggests, Pure Sport goes back to basics by highlighting practical concerns for those who are involved with competitive sport at every level – from junior club to international elite. Drawing on their considerable experience as both academic researchers and applied sport psychologists, the authors present a powerful array of techniques for channelling and harnessing mental skills with the goal of improving sporting performance. The interventions that they describe have all been tried and tested in competitive settings, but here, for the first time, the psychological techniques underlying them are brought together in a single volume that uniquely blends sound theory with good practice. Liberally sprinkled with practical examples, evocative photographs and clear diagrams, Pure Sport is essential reading for anyone with an active involvement or interest in sport. It will help coaches, teams and sports people alike to develop their mental edge and so realise their true potential in sport and through sport.

Interrupting the Immoral Panic around Child Abuse and Professional Touch

This paper explores how critical research might impact on social practice. Over the past decade, Piper and colleagues have identified the negative implications of the moral panic around child abuse in constraining intergenerational relationships and in diminishing the ability and commitment of adults acting in loco parentis to benefit young people in education, childcare, and sports coaching. Achieving impact in this area is complex and challenging because the research outcomes run counter to powerful social discourses and institutional interests and the researchers have limited communicational resources. In response, this paper proposes a new conceptualisation of the research topic, drawing on Aristotelian ideas of employing wisdom and professional judgment in pursuit of doing the right thing. Based on this analysis, an impact strategy is discussed which purposefully interrupts the ‘no touch’ discourse in coaching via a social media campaign that emphasises positive memories and motivations of sports coaches working with young people.

Sanal Gerçeklik Ortamları ve Uygulamalar: Spor ve Sanal Ortam Göstergeleri

Günümüzde gerçeklik imgesi ile sanallık imgesi sık tartışılan kavramlar olmuştur. Gerçeğin yansıması ya da “gerçekmiş” gibi yapılarak çeşitli uygulamalar gerçekleştirilmesi çoğu alanda gözlemlenmektedir. Gerçeğin göstergeleri ile “gerçekmiş” gibi aktarılan “şeylerin” göstergeleri farklı mıdır? Bu göstergelerin algılanmaları ve “gerçekmiş” gibi aktarılan dünyaların gerçek dünya göstergeleri ile bütünleşmesi ise gözlenen bir olgudur. Bu bağlamda, yeni medya teknolojileri ile yaratılan sanal ortamlarda yaşanan deneyimler, oluşturulan sanal dünyalar gerçek-gerçek olmayan karşıtlığını gözler önüne serse de, bu tür sanal dünyalar kimi alanlardaki uygulamalarla yaşamı da kolaylaştırmaktadır. Çalışmada örneğin; “robot göz” ya da simülasyon uygulamaları aracılığıyla teknolojik gelişmelerle yaratılan ve gerçek-sanal sınırını çizen, kimi zaman da sınırı aşan ortamlar, “spor etkinlikleri” bağlamında ele alınacaktır. Sporcuların performansları ve teknik özellikleri ile ilgili göstergeler, sanal ortama nasıl aktarıldığı; bu göstergeler anlamlandırıldıktan sonra, “gerçekte” nasıl bir iyileştirme ortamı yaratıldığı sorusunun yanıtı sorgulanmaya çalışılacaktır.

Recreational Benefits of Boccia Intervention Courses in People with Cerebral Palsy

This study aimed to investigate the recreational benefits of boccia intervention courses (including effects on physical, mental, social and sports abilities) in people with cerebral palsy. In this study, ten intervention courses were conducted (once a week; 3 hours per each courses). The experimental measures from eleven members were collected from the Taoyuan Boccia Club of the Cerebral Palsy Association of R.O.C. The measures for the interventional effects including: recreational benefit scale, recreational benefit check list, skill record sheet, weekly training observation record sheet, completive performance assessment form, course satisfaction survey and overall opinions of the Boccia course. The findings were as follows: (1) The Boccia intervention improved participants' subjective feelings of recreational benefits, especially the social benefits and self-presentational benefits. (2) Boccia intervention enhanced the motor functions of people with cerebral palsy. According to the skill records, the pitching direction was improved significantly. (3) After ten weeks Boccia courses, shooting accuracy was also significantly enhanced. In the game contest of the last week, comprehensibility of the referee's instruction and preparation for pitching were performed much better by the participants. (4) Parents were satisfied with the course content, teaching quality and its related benefits. This study concludes that Boccia, designed specifically for people with physical and mental disabilities and motion control problems, showed physical, psychological, social and sport ability benefits via multidimensional evaluation with the effects of ten-week intervention. Boccia intervention proved to be a suitable recreational sport for people with cerebral palsy to participate, and worthy for further promotion.

Anxious Settler Belonging: Actualising the Potential for Making Resilient Postcolonial Subjects

When I arrived in Aurukun, west Cape York, it was the heat that struck me first, knocking city pace from my body, replacing it with a languor familiar to my childhood, although hea more northern. Fieldwork brings with it its own delights and anxieties. It is where I feel competent and incompetent, where I am most indebted and thankful for the generosity kindness of strangers. I love the way “no-where” places quickly become somewhere and some to me. Then there are the bodily visitations: a much younger self haunts my body. At time adult self abandons me, leaving me nothing but an awkward adolescent: clumsy, sweaty, too m body, too white, too urban, too disconnected or unable to interpret the social rules. My body in that this is not my home, but home for Wik and Wik Way people. Flailing about unmoored from socio-cultural system that I take for granted, and take comfort from – and I draw sustena Anxiety circles, closes in on me, who grows distant and unsure, fragmented. Misusing Deborah Rose, I’m tempted to say I’m separated from my nourishing terrain. Indeed it can feel like nation (not the country) slipped out from under my feet.

La satisfacción corporal y su rol en las relaciones sociales

The research here tries to investigate the level of satisfaction of people with their own body and their view on the rest of society. In our article we analyze the role of body as a vehicle of socialization and, subsequently, of transmission of contents and discourses among society members. Firstly, we are trying to check the level of physical satisfaction and the view of the own body. Secondly, we will try to discover the viewpoint that society has of the rest of the people and the compatibility between those viewpoints. Thirdly, we will separate by sexes in order to investigate in a more detailed way the group of people that is affected by the worry about their own body. Lastly, the investigation will focus on the general opinion on the influence of the media amongst the view of the own physical image and the integration of people in several sports.

Playing through Pain: Children and Young People's Experiences of Physical Aggression and Violence in Sport

While there has been some focus on physical abuse in the general child abuse literature, there have been few studies examining the physical abuse of children in sport. This article focuses mainly on peer physical harm in sport. However, we argue that to fully understand physical harm between young people in sport requires understanding: (1) the ‘sporting ethos’ prevalent in sport where training and competing to the limits of physicality are part of the culture; and (2) the physical harm that occurs between coaches and young people as a context for understanding physical harm between young people. Results are based on a convenience sample of 6124 young people (age 18–22) who completed an online survey about their experiences of participating in sport as children; 89 follow‐up interviews were conducted with a sub‐set of these young people. Findings suggest that in sport, where training and competing to the limits of physicality are inherent to sporting achievement, physical harm is common and takes on a different form to physical harm of children in other settings. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.‘Results are based on a convenience sample of 6124 young people’Key Practitioner Messages Sport practitioners and sport bodies should put in place policies, procedures, training and practice which enable adults to systematically tackle harm occurring in sport settings including between peers. Practitioners involved in working with children and young people in sport settings should take steps to promote a more positive sporting and coaching ethos and build upon what children and young people value about sport participation.

Expansion beyond reason: WADA surveillance and sanction should not concern itself with non-sporting social issues and public health

The question of whether WADA should remove acknowledged non-performance enhancing drugs that are also controlled drugs in the non-sporting world, such as cannabis, from its banned substances list, and thus from its remit is an important one. It is important because it helps define the parameters of what organisations such as WADA ought to be concerned with and it is important because it provides an illustration of how concerns around drug use and doping are often far more than a simple concern for the health of individuals but are also in fact complexly wrapped up in issues of morality and the governance of populations. The two papers that contest the question are in fact not too far apart in reality. Both provide an excellent case for why WADA's current justification and rationale for the inclusion of drugs such as cannabis, cocaine and ecstasy in its banned list does not hold up to scrutiny, is contradictory and based on weak argumentation – particularly when invoking WADAs criterion of violation of the ‘spirit of sport’. Where the papers differ is in their respective positioning on how WADA should resolve what is in reality a serious and indefensible dilemma. Waddington, Christiansen, Gleaves, Hoberman, and Moller (2013) argue that WADA has no jurisdiction over the private and personal activities of sports people, should refrain from attempting to do so in this regard and should remove the substances in question from their remit whereas Henne, Koh, and McDermott (2013) argue that a more refined understanding and articulation of the health concerns relating to these substances both justifies WADA inclusion and would substantiate their inclusion on the grounds of health risk alone. For Henne et al. (arguably in contradiction to the tenor of the rest of their paper) it is about tightening up the logic and justification to fit the existing policy whilst for Waddington et al. it is about showing how both the policy and its rationale are misplaced and should be abandoned.

Book Review: Physical Education and Sports for People with Visual Impairments and Deafblindness: Foundations of Instruction

Physical Education and Sports for People with Visual Impairments and Deafblindness: Foundations of Instruction. Lauren L. Lieberman, Paul E. Ponchillia, and Susan V. Ponchillia. New York: AFB Press, 2013, 396 pp., $49.95 paperback, $34.95 e-book and ASCII, $30 online, $10.95 by chapter. Physical Education and Sports for People with Visual Impairments and Deafblindness: Foundations of Instruction, Lauren Lieberman, Paul Ponchillia, and Susan Ponchillia, is a unique and comprehensive work that addresses a critical need in the field of visual impairments and deafblindness. Providing appropriate access to physical education activities for people with visual impairment, blindness, and deafblindness has long been a concern for professionals in our field. Many service providers are unsure of methods for including their students and clients. They, along with physical educators and others who provide sports and active experiences to children and adults, are skeptical about appropriate inclusion, and are wisely concerned with safety issues. Parents of those with visual impairments and deafblindness can also be included in this group of skeptics, as they struggle with understanding what their family members can or should do in terms of physical activity. The authors have provided a well-written guidebook for physical education teachers and specialists in the field, as well as valuable information for parents and others who encounter people with visual impairments and deafblindness in their programs. This is a valuable work that should become a required textbook for anyone entering the fields of visual impairment, deafblindness, or physical education. It should also be considered a handbook for parents, to answer their questions about modification and inclusion in physical activity and to present appropriate role models. Throughout the text, readers are provided with stunning examples of the accomplishments of people who are visually impaired or deafblind. These descriptions are intended to clear the misconception that people with disabilities cannot be successful or competitive in sports, and also to provide inspiration to cultivate and maximize the potential of those who are disabled. The authors also intersperse the book with vignettes that illustrate the results when intervention is not provided and, conversely, the effects of appropriate accommodations. These illustrations are priceless, as they can be applied and compared to the readers' own experiences with people who are disabled in order to inspire positive change. OVERVIEW OF IMPAIRMENT AND SKILL DEVELOPMENT The book begins with a thorough discussion of visual impairment and deafblindness, providing an overview of these disabilities with useful definitions of specific eye conditions and deafness, as well as descriptions of various professionals in the field. This information would be especially useful for physical education professionals who may have limited knowledge of the field of visual impairment. The authors provide information from their own experiences and from well-referenced articles, studies, and position papers, outlining the impact these disabilities have on concept development. As explained by the authors, desire and motivation to move are fostered by early and continued observation of others in our environment. Much of early skill development falls into this category of incidental learning, and is missed by those with visual or hearing impairments or both. Family members and teachers who do not know adaptive techniques may unintentionally exacerbate the situation, by not providing opportunities for young individuals to participate and develop skills or by not fostering a desire for physical activity and self-advocacy. The authors strive to provide strategies for overcoming these barriers to developing lifelong physical health, by explaining the need for physical activity, describing case studies that show the results of lack of activity, as well as appropriate interventions, along with principles for adapting sports, activities, and training. …

Municipal Grants for Sports and the Merits of a Voucher System in the Czech Republic

In Europe in 2008 governments spent 36 billion Euro on sports subsidies. One of the main goals for spending public money on sports is to increase the participation of people in sports. Th e Czech Republic even spent more than average on sports. However, the participation in sports in this country lags behind the European average. Th is article investigates whether the way such grants are given can explain this. One of the outcomes of this paper is that transparency in the decision-making process in sports-grants allocation is lacking, resulting in many cases of fraud. Th is paper also investigates the merits of an alternative way of allocating money, which is, using sports vouchers as a tool for allocating public resources. Th e experience with that instrument is, although rare, quite positive, especially in reducing fraud. Although there is a lot of hesitance against using vouchers, the experience shows that this is primarily based on prejudice and unfamiliarity with this instrument.

Involvement of College Athletes in Sports for People with Disabilities

Involvement of College Athletes in Sports for People with Disabilities

Validation of a brief screening tool to assess adequacy of carbohydrate and fluid intakes in sports people

Validation of a brief screening tool to assess adequacy of carbohydrate and fluid intakes in sports people

A survey on impact of interval and combined training on breast stroke swimming

Article history: Received June 2, 2012 Received in revised format 28 October 2012 Accepted 30 October 2012 Available online November 4 2012 Swimming is of the most important sports in the world and most countries try to find the most qualified people for participating in world's different championships. Training athletic people in swimming sport is more important in this area of sports compared with other sports. In this paper, we perform an empirical investigation to find the effects of various swimming sports on swimmers. The focus of this study is to compare the performance of two methods before and after two methods of interval and combined breast stroke swimming. The population of this survey includes all teenagers aged 13 and 14 who had, at least, one year of swimming experience. The sampling includes 30 people who were randomly selected and they were divided into two groups of 15 people. One group participated in interval training for three sessions per week and in an eight-week period. The second group took part in combined training for three sessions per week and in an eight-week period. At the end of training program, we have compared the results using t-student. Combined swimming includes different types of exercises. The results show that although there is a meaningful difference before and after two types of training programs but there is no different between the performances of these two tests. © 2013 Growing Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

The specialising or sampling debate: a retrospective analysis of adolescent sports participation in the UK

Whether young people should specialise in one competitive sport at an early age, or pursue a wider range of sports during adolescence is a topic of some debate (Baker, Cobley, & Fraser-Thomas, 2009) and is fundamental within sports policy and coaching practice. The purpose of this retrospective recall study was to identify whether early specialisation or sporting diversification (sampling) throughout childhood and adolescence can influence performance levels prior to adulthood. An online questionnaire was used to collect the sport participation histories of 1006 UK sports people, which were then compared with the developmental framework provided by the Developmental Model of Sport Participation (DMSP, Côté & Fraser-Thomas, 2007). A significant association between the number of sports participated in at the ages of 11, 13, and 15 and the standard of competition between 16 and 18 years was found. Individuals who competed in three sports aged 11, 13, and 15 were significantly more likely to compete at a national compared with club standard between the ages of 16 and 18 than those who practised only one sport. The findings reported here provide some empirical support for the sampling performance pathway DMSP model in a UK context.

Salivary Hormonal Responses and Performance Changes During 15 Weeks of Mixed Aerobic and Weight Training in Elite Junior Wrestlers

To prepare efficiently for competition, wrestlers usually train physically for a period of approximately 12-20 weeks. Numerous physical qualities must be developed during this period of preparation: aerobic fitness, maximal strength, muscular endurance, power, and speed. However, numerous studies have concluded that it is difficult to concurrently develop strength and aerobic fitness for several reasons, in particular antagonistic endocrine variations. The study involved 15 elite junior wrestlers who trained at a sports training school for 15 weeks. To investigate the effects of long-term training and to assess the relationships between hormonal concentrations (salivary testosterone [T] and cortisol [C]) and performance changes during simultaneous strength and aerobic fitness training, 6 saliva samples and 3 physical tests and 2 measures of body composition were made during the training period. Wrestlers had a significant increase (+1.5 kg) in body weight without changes in percentage body fat. Apart from the 20-m maximal shuttle speed, all performances increased significantly during the 15 weeks of training: maximum mechanical power output (Pmax: +12.8%), mean power during 30 seconds (Pmean: +10.8%), bench press (+5.7%), squat (+23.1%), power clean (+6.1%), time to 3,000- and 30-m sprints (-3.6, -1.3% respectively). During the period that the C increased, there was no significant variation for the T. The T/C ratio followed a variation pattern contrary to that of the C. We found strong correlations between salivary T, C, and T/C and the variation in explosive strength. Our results suggest that data about subjects' salivary C, T, and T/C may be employed to optimize the training process for sports people who need to develop strength and aerobic fitness simultaneously.

An Improved Comprehensive Evaluation Model based on Ant Colony Optimization for People Sports Culture

An Improved Comprehensive Evaluation Model based on Ant Colony Optimization for People Sports Culture

The Meanings of Sport: An Empirical Study into the Significance Attached to Sporting Participation and Spectating in the UK and US

This article is an empirical study of the attitudes of spectators and players of sports in the UK and USA. Through qualitative research the significance of sport in people's lives is explored. The author is exploring the hypothesis that sport might be taking over some of the functions of religion in people's lives. Five broad areas are considered: (1) answers about the significance of sport in people's lives and how it effects scheduling of other commitments; (2) answers concerning motivation in playing or watching, and also the importance of team or club; (3) answers about the relationship of playing or watching sport to one's character; (4) answers about aesthetics and routines; (5) answers about winning and losing and their impact.

Psychic Payoffs, Overpriced Assets, and Underpaid Superstars

SummaryNon‐pecuniary payoff is a significant component of the rewards to workers – artists, academics, and sports people – and to investments in assets, such as paintings. This paper explores the implications of partial input payment via psychic rewards under a range of assumptions concerning mobility and homogeneity of factors in markets for both labor and capital. Depending on these assumptions, we show systematic underpayment of inputs in some situations and overpayment in others. Particular attention is paid to the earnings of superstars. The paper is illustrated throughout by references to labor and capital employed by firms in the arts and in sport.

Changing lives? Critical evaluation of a school-based athlete role model intervention

There would appear to be an enduring belief that successful sportsmen and women can act as powerful motivational role models for young people, especially disaffected, disadvantaged or disengaged youth. In the UK, for example, this belief has been expressed recently in the development of programmes, such as changingLIVES, the Respect Athlete Mentor Programme and Playing For Success. There are further examples around the world of programmes based on similar beliefs including Sporting Partnerships, Athlete Development Australia, Active Girls Breakfast and the Whitelion Sports and Recreation program. This paper reports an evaluation of the changingLIVES ‘athlete mentor’ programme in the UK. This was a school-based programme using successful sports people to deliver a series of motivational activities to young people who were identified as being disengaged or disaffected in some way. Conceptual confusion in the terms ‘mentor’ and ‘role model’ evident in the literature was mirrored in the programme design. The design of an appropriate evaluation strategy was constrained by the scale of the programme aims and the comparatively low evaluation budget. Nonetheless, detailed data were collected on individual pupils. Evaluation data suggested that although the teachers and young people did report an immediate positive reaction to the activities, there was limited evidence of a wider impact on young people's behaviour, school attendance or self-esteem. It is argued that there should be greater conceptual clarity and a stronger evidence base supporting the design and delivery of interventions in schools that seek to use sports people as role models (or mentors) for young people.

‘A genuinely emotional week’: learning disability, sport and television – notes on the Special Olympics GB National Summer Games 2009

In July 2009, the Special Olympics Great Britain National Summer Games for athletes with learning disabilities were held in Leicester. Uniquely the Games achieved considerable television news coverage. This article offers a preliminary analysis of television representations of the Games. National TV coverage of the Paralympics is now established, but Special Olympics – and sport for people with learning disabilities in general – receives little media or research attention. This is partly because Special Olympics remains located outside mainstream national sporting networks and its ethos stresses the importance of participation over sporting excellence. The 2009 Games’ television coverage projected complex and ‘mixed’ messages reflected in the language, tone and images typically employed by broadcasters. We identify three key themes: first, the problematically relentless ‘positive’ tone of the coverage, which echoes wider public discourses concerning learning disability; second, the media emphasis on ‘human interest’ narratives and so, via these, the invidualizing of learning disability questions and the general absence of any wider discussion of political or social agendas linking sport and disability; finally, how television in its occasional focus on the families of athletes with learning disabilities articulated values and tensions which characterize the unusually conflicted status of the Games.