Sports Technique Research Articles

Improvement of Sports Technique Based on Biomechanical Indicators of Yurchenko Handspring Vault in Women’s Artistic Gymnastics

The main purpose of this paper is the biomechanical analysis of the kinematic and dynamic indicators of sports technique used in Yurchenko handspring vault by means of the macro methods for exercises learning during the training basic specialization stage. This scientific approach led to the organization of an experimental study, using the research methods as follows: 1. Method of theoretical and methodological analysis of literature related to artistic gymnastics. 2. Method of evaluation of gymnastics exercises sports technique using the algorithmic analysis of the motion. 3. Video computerized method, using” Pinnacle Studio”,” Kinovea” and” Physics ToolKit” programs. 3. Method of movement postural orientation and evaluation of key elements of sports technique with complex coordination of movement structure. 4. Method of linear-branched programming of gymnastics exercises learning and improving. 5. Statistical method, by means of” KyPlot” program. The research was conducted from 2012 to 2014, when gymnasts’ performances were monitored in three national competitions - handspring vaults event; a number of 7 athletes aged 12 to 15 participated in these competitions, all of them members of junior national team of Romania. The results of the research highlighted and identified the kinematic and dynamic characteristics of sports technique key elements of Yurchenko vault in women’s artistic gymnastics. The implementation of the macro methods of learning in young gymnasts’ training contributed to the improvement of sports technique and the effective experimental distribution of the difficult and highly difficult basic vaults.

Improvement of Sports Technique Based on Biomechanical Indicators of Yurchenko Handspring Vault in Women’s Artistic Gymnastics

The main purpose of this paper is the biomechanical analysis of the kinematic and dynamic indicators of sports technique used in Yurchenko handspring vault by means of the macro methods for exercises learning during the training basic specialization stage. This scientific approach led to the organization of an experimental study, using the research methods as follows: 1. Method of theoretical and methodological analysis of literature related to artistic gymnastics. 2. Method of evaluation of gymnastics exercises sports technique using the algorithmic analysis of the motion. 3. Video computerized method, using” Pinnacle Studio”,” Kinovea” and” Physics ToolKit” programs. 3. Method of movement postural orientation and evaluation of key elements of sports technique with complex coordination of movement structure. 4. Method of linear-branched programming of gymnastics exercises learning and improving. 5. Statistical method, by means of” KyPlot” program. The research was conducted from 2012 to 2014, when gymnasts’ performances were monitored in three national competitions - handspring vaults event; a number of 7 athletes aged 12 to 15 participated in these competitions, all of them members of junior national team of Romania. The results of the research highlighted and identified the kinematic and dynamic characteristics of sports technique key elements of Yurchenko vault in women’s artistic gymnastics. The implementation of the macro methods of learning in young gymnasts’ training contributed to the improvement of sports technique and the effective experimental distribution of the difficult and highly difficult basic vaults.

Improvement of Sports Technique Based on Biomechanical Indicators of Yurchenko Handspring Vault in Women’s Artistic Gymnastics

The main purpose of this paper is the biomechanical analysis of the kinematic and dynamic indicators of sports technique used in Yurchenko handspring vault by means of the macro methods for exercises learning during the training basic specialization stage. This scientific approach led to the organization of an experimental study, using the research methods as follows: 1. Method of theoretical and methodological analysis of literature related to artistic gymnastics. 2. Method of evaluation of gymnastics exercises sports technique using the algorithmic analysis of the motion. 3. Video computerized method, using” Pinnacle Studio”,” Kinovea” and” Physics ToolKit” programs. 3. Method of movement postural orientation and evaluation of key elements of sports technique with complex coordination of movement structure. 4. Method of linear-branched programming of gymnastics exercises learning and improving. 5. Statistical method, by means of” KyPlot” program. The research was conducted from 2012 to 2014, when gymnasts’ performances were monitored in three national competitions - handspring vaults event; a number of 7 athletes aged 12 to 15 participated in these competitions, all of them members of junior national team of Romania. The results of the research highlighted and identified the kinematic and dynamic characteristics of sports technique key elements of Yurchenko vault in women’s artistic gymnastics. The implementation of the macro methods of learning in young gymnasts’ training contributed to the improvement of sports technique and the effective experimental distribution of the difficult and highly difficult basic vaults.

Toward Personalized Vibrotactile Support When Learning Motor Skills

Personal tracking technologies allow sensing of the physical activity carried out by people. Data flows collected with these sensors are calling for big data techniques to support data collection, integration and analysis, aimed to provide personalized support when learning motor skills through varied multisensorial feedback. In particular, this paper focuses on vibrotactile feedback as it can take advantage of the haptic sense when supporting the physical interaction to be learnt. Despite each user having different needs, when providing this vibrotactile support, personalization issues are hardly taken into account, but the same response is delivered to each and every user of the system. The challenge here is how to design vibrotactile user interfaces for adaptive learning of motor skills. TORMES methodology is proposed to facilitate the elicitation of this personalized support. The resulting systems are expected to dynamically adapt to each individual user’s needs by monitoring, comparing and, when appropriate, correcting in a personalized way how the user should move when practicing a predefined movement, for instance, when performing a sport technique or playing a musical instrument.

Physical Activity Level and Sport Participation in Relation to Musculoskeletal Pain in a Population-Based Study of Adolescents: The Young-HUNT Study.

Background:Prevalence of musculoskeletal pain among adolescents is high, and pain in adolescence increases the risk of chronic pain in adulthood. Studies have shown conflicting evidence regarding associations between physical activity and musculoskeletal pain, and few have evaluated the potential impact of sport participation on musculoskeletal pain in adolescent population samples.Purpose:To examine the associations between physical activity level, sport participation, and musculoskeletal pain in the neck and shoulders, low back, and lower extremities in a population-based sample of adolescents.Study Design:Cross-sectional study; Level of evidence 4.Methods:Data from the Nord-Trøndelag Health Study (Young-HUNT3) were used. All 10,464 adolescents in the Nord-Trøndelag county of Norway were invited, of whom 74% participated. Participants were asked how often they had experienced pain, unrelated to any known disease or acute injury, in the neck and shoulders, low back, and lower extremities in the past 3 months. The associations between (1) physical activity level (low [reference], medium or high) or (2) sport participation (weekly compared with no/infrequent participation) and pain were evaluated using logistic regression analyses, stratified by sex, and adjusted for age, socioeconomic status, and psychological distress.Results:The analyses included 7596 adolescents (mean age, 15.8 years; SD, 1.7). Neck and shoulder pain was most prevalent (17%). A moderate level of physical activity was associated with reduced odds of neck and shoulder pain (OR = 0.79 [95% CI, 0.66-0.94]) and low back pain (OR = 0.75 [95% CI, 0.62-0.91]), whereas a high level of activity increased the odds of lower extremity pain (OR = 1.60 [95% CI, 1.29-1.99]). Participation in endurance sports was associated with lower odds of neck and shoulder pain (OR = 0.79 [95% CI, 0.68-0.92]) and low back pain (OR = 0.77 [95% CI, 0.65-0.92]), especially among girls. Participation in technical sports was associated with increased odds of low back pain, whereas team sports were associated with increased odds of lower extremity pain. Strength and extreme sports were related to pain in all regions.Conclusion:We found that a moderate physical activity level was associated with less neck and shoulder pain and low back pain, and that participation in endurance sports may be particularly beneficial. Our findings highlight the need for health care professionals to consider the types of sports adolescents participate in when evaluating their musculoskeletal pain.

Determining the Anxiety Sensitivity Bases of Anxiety: A Study with Undergraduate Students

This study aims to examine the relationships between subdimensions of anxiety sensitivity and anxiety. The participants in the study were 841undergraduate students (411 females; 430 males) randomly selected from three different faculties -Faculties of Technical Education, Education, and Sport Sciences- at Mugla Sitki Kocman University. Data collection instruments included the Anxiety Sensitivity Index-Revised, (ASI-R), and also Beck Anxiety Inventory, (BAI). The data were analyzed using Pearson product-moment correlation analysis and structural equation modeling. The results indicate that there were significant positive associations between subdimensions of anxiety sensitivity and anxiety. The results also indicated that the fear of cognitive dyscontrol subdimension of anxiety sensitivity was the most important predictor of the anxiety for emerging adults. Further research examining the relationships between subdimensions of anxiety sensitivity and anxiety are necessary to strengthen the current study's findings.

Screen and Roll: Transmissions of Embodied Knowledge through Canadian Women’s Basketball History

Analyzing the role of cockfights in Balinese culture, Clifford Geertz argues, “Attending cockfights and participating in them is, for the Balinese, a kind of sentimental education. What he learns there is what his culture’s ethos and his private sensibility (or anyway, certain aspects of them) look like when spelled out externally in a collective text” (449). Geertz’s thesis can be applied to Western sport: particularly in the twentieth century, sport was a place where men went to learn physical skills, values, and sentiments associated with masculinity. In this article, I examine the residue of sport’s male-dominated history through performative writing. I weave together historical quotations, performance theory, and a personal narrative about my experiences as a female basketball player and coach to consider the relationship between female bodies, the practice of sport, and the transmission of embodied knowledge. Ultimately, I argue that embodied repertoire is a significant site for the transmission of sport technique and the study of sport history.

Extraction of Knowledge from the Topographic Attentive Mapping Network and its Application in Skill Analysis of Table Tennis.

The Topographic Attentive Mapping (TAM) network is a biologically-inspired classifier that bears similarities to the human visual system. In case of wrong classification during training, an attentional top-down signal modulates synaptic weights in intermediate layers to reduce the difference between the desired output and the classifier’s output. When used in a TAM network, the proposed pruning algorithm improves classification accuracy and allows extracting knowledge as represented by the network structure. In this paper, sport technique evaluation of motion analysis modelled by the TAM network was discussed. The trajectory pattern of forehand strokes of table tennis players was analyzed with nine sensor markers attached to the right upper arm of players. With the TAM network, input attributes and technique rules were extracted in order to classify the skill level of players of table tennis from the sensor data. In addition, differences between the elite player, middle level player and beginner were clarified; furthermore, we discussed how to improve skills specific to table tennis from the view of data analysis.

Sport participation and physical activity level in relation to musculoskeletal pain in a population-based sample of adolescents: The Young-HUNT Study

Abstract Aims Studies have shown conflicting results regarding associations between physical activity (PA) and musculoskeletal pain among adolescents, and few have evaluated the impact of sport participation. Therefore, the aims of this study were to examine the associations between sport participation and persistent weekly pain by body region in a population-based sample of adolescents. Methods In this cross-sectional study, data from the adolescent part of the Nord-Trøndelag Health Study (Young-HUNT3) were used. Participants were asked how often during the last 3 months they had experienced pain in the neck-and-shoulders (NSP), low back (LBP) or lower extremities (LEP). The impact of sport participation and PA level on pain was evaluated using logistic regression analyses, stratified by gender, and adjusted for age, socioeconomic status and psychological distress. Results In total, 3765 boys and 3831 girls were included, mean age 15.8 years (SD 1.7). NSP was most prevalent (17%). Adolescents who participated in endurance sports had lower odds of NSP and LBP compared to non-participants. Participation in technical sports was associated with increased odds of LBP, and participation in team sports with increased odds of LEP, vs. no participation in the respective sports. Participation in strength sports and risk sports, vs. no participation, was related to higher levels of pain in all regions. Compared to a low PA level, a moderate PA level reduced the odds of NSP and LBP, whereas a high PA level increased the odds of LEP. Conclusion This study identified sports potentially protective, as well as sports associated with higher odds of NSP, LBP and LEP in a large population-based sample, and has increased the understanding of participation in sports as potential determinants of musculoskeletal pain among adolescents. Our findings highlight that types of sport adolescents participate in should be considered by healthcare professionals when evaluating their musculoskeletal pain.

Análise das publicações científicas sobre ginástica artística

http://dx.doi.org/10.5007/2175-8042.2016v28n47p67O objetivo deste estudo foi analisar a produção científica sobre a Ginástica Artística (GA), publicada no período de janeiro de 2000 a dezembro de 2014, em periódicos nacionais e internacionais. As buscas foram realizadas a partir de procedimentos de revisão sistemática, nas seguintes bases de dados: Google Acadêmico, EBSCO Host, LILACS, MEDLINE, SCIELO, Scopus, Sport Discus, Science Direct e ISI (Web of Science). Foram selecionados 382 artigos, classificados em sete categorias de enfoques temáticos: Treinamento Esportivo, Biológica, Pedagógica, Psicológica, Sócio-Antropológica, Filosófica e Administrativa. Os resultados mostram maior incidência de estudos internacionais, de caráter quantitativo, voltados à análise das técnicas do esporte em diferentes aparelhos. A Ginástica Artística se configura como um objeto de investigação na área das Ciências do Esporte, fundamentada principalmente, nas Ciências Naturais.

Swedish PE teachers’ understandings of legitimate movement in a criterion-referenced grading system

ABSTRACTBackground: Physical Education (PE) has been associated with a multi-activity model in which movement is related to sport discourses and sport techniques. However, as in many international contexts, the Swedish national PE syllabus calls for a wider and more inclusive concept of movement. Complex movement adapted to different settings is valued, and in the national grading criteria qualitative measures of movement are used. This research seeks to examine how the wider concept of movement is interpreted and graded. Drawing on Bernstein’s concept of the pedagogic device, the paper explores teachers’ roles as active mediators in the transformation of national grading criteria for movement and the kinds of movement that are valued in teachers’ grading practices. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate what PE teachers consider legitimate movement in a criterion-referenced grading system and the factors that influence their grading practice. The Repertory Grid (RG) technique was employed in order to access their tacit knowledge. Methodology: Seven Swedish PE teachers were interviewed, all of whom teach and grade years seven to nine in different compulsory schools. Using the RG technique, the teachers were asked to reflect on the aspects they considered important for achieving a high grade. The national grading criteria for years seven to nine were then presented one at a time and the teachers were asked to describe how they assessed and graded each requirement. The teachers were also asked whether any specific factors had influenced their grading. In the content analysis, the second part of the interview was attended to first and the results were interpreted in light of Bernsteins’ concept of the pedagogic device. Findings: Sport techniques and competitive sports influenced the teachers’ interpretations of what constitutes complex movement. The aspect of fitness also appeared to be valued by the teachers in that it facilitates the valued movement. In some cases the difficulty of describing movement qualities in words could reduce the concept of movement to something measurable and quantifiable. The teachers’ concerns about students’ unequal opportunities to develop and demonstrate their skills also influenced the teachers’ interpretation of complex movement. Conclusions: In the transformation of national grading criteria to grading practice, the pedagogic actions taken inform and limit the way in which legitimate movement in PE is conceptualised. Adopting a concept of movement that is wider than competitive sports allows the structures of inequality to be addressed and enables the movements performed by students with other moving experiences than competitive sports to be valued. The tension between the demands of transparency in a high stakes grading system and the inability to articulate the quality of complex movements is problematic. There is a need to verbalise teachers’ conceptions about physical education knowledge to be able to discuss and develop the concept of movement. In this process, the RG technique is a potentially useful tool. Having the language to discuss movement qualities also enables us to strengthen the interrelation between curriculum, pedagogy and assessment.

Teaching Methods Indications for Education and Training of Sport Skills

This work, starting from the theories of the movement, wants to provide applicative methodological guidance on the understanding of the task, the importance of the variability, the revaluation of the error and of the extrinsic feedback. This last certainly one of the most important aspects about the problems of motor control and then learning the technical skills and sports. From these conceptual approaches are derived some important implications, in terms of teaching, from which to draw indications applicative control and learning of technical skills and sports like basketball at school. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2016.v7n2s1p421

Acute effects of psychological relaxation techniques between two physical tasks

ABSTRACTThe concept of recovery strategies includes various ways to achieve a state of well-being, prevent underrecovery syndromes from occurring and re-establish pre-performance states. A systematic application of individualised relaxation techniques is one of those. Following a counterbalanced cross-over design, 27 sport science students (age 25.22 ± 1.08 years; sports participation 8.08 ± 3.92 h/week) were randomly assigned to series of progressive muscle relaxation, systematic breathing, power nap, yoga, and a control condition. Once a week, over the course of five weeks, their repeated sprint ability was tested. Tests (6 sprints of 4 s each with 20 s breaks between them) were executed on a non-motorised treadmill twice during that day intermitted by 25 min breaks. RM-ANOVA revealed significant interaction effects between the relaxation conditions and the two sprint sessions with regard to average maximum speed over all six sprints, F(4,96) = 4.06, P = 0.004, = 0.15. Post-hoc tests indicated that after systematic breathing interventions, F(1,24) = 5.02, P = 0.033, = 0.18, participants performed significantly better compared to control sessions. As the focus of this study lied on basic mechanisms of relaxation techniques in sports, this randomised controlled trial provides us with distinct knowledge on their effects, i.e., systematic breathing led to better performances, and therefore, seems to be a suited relaxation method during high-intensity training.

‘It doesn't matter how they move really, as long as they move.’ Physical education teachers on developing their students’ movement capabilities

ABSTRACTBackground: Movement is key in physical education, but the educational value of moving is sometimes obscure. In Sweden, recent school reforms have endeavoured to introduce social constructionist concepts of knowledge and learning into physical education, where the movement capabilities of students are in focus. However, this means introducing a host of new and untested concepts to the physical education teacher community.Purpose. The purpose of this article is to explore how Swedish physical education teachers reason about helping their students develop movement capability.Participants, setting and research design. The data are taken from a research project conducted in eight Swedish secondary schools called ‘Physical education and health – a subject for learning?’ in which students and teachers were interviewed and physical education lessons were video-recorded. This article draws on data from interviews with the eight participating teachers, five men and three women. The teachers were interviewed partly using a stimulated recall technique where the teachers were asked to comment on video clips from physical education lessons where they themselves act as teachers.Data analysis. A discourse analysis was conducted with a particular focus on the ensemble of more or less regulated, deliberate and finalised ways of doing things that characterise the eight teachers’ approach to helping the students develop their movement capabilities.Findings. The interviews indicate that an activation discourse (‘trying out’ and ‘being active’) dominates the teachers’ ways of reasoning about their task (a focal discourse). When the teachers were specifically asked about how they can help the students improve their movement capacities, a sport discourse (a referential discourse) was expressed. This discourse, which is based on the standards of excellence of different sports, conditions what the teachers see as (im)possible to do due to time limitations and a wish not to criticise the students publicly. The mandated holistic social constructionist discourse about knowledge and learning becomes obscure (an intruder discourse) in the sense that the teachers interpret it from the point of view of a dualist discourse, where ‘knowledge’ (theory) and ‘skill’ (practice) are divided.Conclusions. Physical education teachers recoil from the task of developing the students’ movement capabilities due to certain conditions of impossibility related to the discursive terrain they are moving in. The teachers see as their primary objective the promotion of physical activity – now and in the future; they conceptualise movement capability in such a way that emphasising the latter would jeopardise their possibilities of realising the primary objective. Should the aim be to reinforce the social constructionist national curriculum, where capability to move is suggested to be an attempt at formulating a concept of knowledge that includes both propositional and procedural aspects and which is not based on the standards of excellence of either sport techniques or motor ability, then teachers will need support to interpret the national curriculum from a social constructionist perspective. Further, alternative standards of excellence as well as a vocabulary for articulating these will have to be developed.

The Technology to Train Techniques in Sports

The Technology to Train Techniques in Sports

Training the Body: The Potential of AIED to Support Personalized Motor Skills Learning

This paper argues that the research field of Artificial Intelligence in Education (AIED) can benefit from integrating recent technological advances (e.g., wearable devices, big data processing, 3D modelling, 3D printing, ambient intelligence) and design methodologies, such as TORMES, when developing systems that address the psychomotor learning domain. In particular, the acquisition of motor skills could benefit from individualized instruction and support just as cognitive skills learning has over the last decades. To this point, procedural learning has been considered since the earliest days of AIED (dating back to the 1980’s). However, AIED developments in motor skills learning have lagged significantly behind. As technology has evolved, and supported by the do-it-yourself and quantified-self movements, it is now possible to integrate emerging interactive technologies in order to provide personal awareness and reflection for behavioural change at low cost and with low intrusion. Many activities exist that would benefit from personalizing motor skills learning, such as playing a musical instrument, handwriting, drawing, training for surgery, improving the technique in sports and martial arts, learning sign language, dancing, etc. In this context, my suggestions for AIED research in the coming 25 years focus on addressing challenges regarding 1) modelling the psychomotor interaction, and 2) providing appropriate personalized psychomotor support.

Eating disorder pathology in elite adolescent athletes.

We aimed to investigate eating disorder pathology in German elite adolescent athletes. Evidence suggests that eating disorder pathology is more common in adult elite sports, especially in female athletes and in sports emphasizing leanness. There is a scarcity of studies in elite adolescent athletes who are in a vulnerable developmental stage and are affected by general as well as sport-specific risk factors. Our data was derived from the German Young Olympic Athletes' Lifestyle and Health Management Study (GOAL) which conducted a survey in 1138 elite adolescent athletes. In this sample, we assessed body weight, weight control behavior, body acceptance and screened overall for core symptoms of eating disorders, depression and anxiety. We performed a tree analysis to identify high risk groups for eating disorder pathology. High risk groups comprised (a) athletes competing in weight dependent sports, and among athletes competing in disciplines other than weight dependent sports (b) athletes who are high on negative affectivity, (c) female athletes and (d) male athletes competing in endurance, technical or power sports. Athletes competing in weight dependent disciplines reported wide spread use of compensatory behaviors to influence body weight. Athletes reporting eating disorder pathology showed higher levels of depression and anxiety than athletes without eating disorder pathology. Increased psychosocial burden in athletes with eating disorder pathology suggests that eating disorder symptoms should not be accepted as an unproblematic and functional part of elite sports. The prevention and management of eating disorder pathology is especially important in weight dependent sports. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (Int J Eat Disord 2016; 49:553-562).

Assessment of the Impact of Marine Dietary Biocorrectors on the Parameters of Motor Activity of Motocross Racers

This paper is aimed to describe the results of the study in assessing the efficiency of using biologically active dietary supplements (Molluskam, Maristim, Tinrostim, Krusmarin, DNK-algin) in the ration of motocross racers. Studying and enhancing the use of natural dietary biocorrectors in sportspersons’ ration seeking to improve and accelerate the recovery of energy and reconstructive resources in their bodies is a rather urgent issue of sports training theory and practice. Multifacetedness of the dietary issue and its interrelation with the health, mental and physical working performance of a human are continuously attracting attention causing various theories, diets, and recommendations to emerge. However, not all of them may be successfully applied in sports practice, despite the positive role of certain provisions. Taking biocorrectors ensures high level of working performance of motocross racers acknowledged by sport techniques and physical training at the background of immunomodulation effect. The biocorrectors specified in the article have antidoping certificates confirming their safety in the sports practice.

The application of electrolaser myostimulation and laserophoresis of biologically active compounds in sports medicine (a review)

This scientific review highlights peculiarities of the delivery of laser radiation to the tissues of the athlete's body by means of laser electrophoresis of biologically active substances and the possibilities for electrolaser myostimulation. The main features of electrical myostimulation based on the application of laser-generated radiation are described. The authors emphasize the necessity of taking into account the neurophysiological dependence of active and passive contractile muscular activity during training. They provide the scientifically grounded rationale for the combined use of coherent laser radiation and electrical stimulation. The list of scientific papers that confirm the effectiveness of the method being considered is presented. The authors compare this method with other techniques for the induced ion transfer. The beneficial influence of laserphoresis of succinic and hyaluronic acids on the athlete's body is reported with special reference to alleviating the pain syndrome. A number of phyto-extracts used for the purpose of laser electrophoresis are characterized. The authors demonstrate the application of the optional versions of this technique in various sports during the training and competition periods.

Accelerometry in sport

The possibilities to analyse various sports movements and activities, their techniques and dynamics are deepening and enhancing with the rapid development of modern technologies. It subsequently enables to improve and enhance sports techniques, performances and efficiency, to prevent possible injuries, to enhance training methods, and to reach sports results of higher quality. The use of accelerometry to observe, examine and analyse various movements and their techniques and dynamics in different human physical and sports activities has become of high prominence in several recent decades. The goal of the paper is to illustrate some possibilities of the use of accelerometry to analyse these aspects in the field of sport, in selected cyclic and acyclic sports. The study aims to outline and indicate a way of possible examination, observation and analysis of the data acquired by accelerometry measurements.