Women's Basketball Research Articles

Epidemiology of Ankle Sprain at the United States Military Academy

Background Ankle sprain is a common injury in athletic populations that results in significant time lost to injury. Hypothesis The incidence rates (IRs) of ankle ligament sprains are influenced by gender, height, weight, body mass index (BMI), physical conditioning, level of competition, type of sport, and athlete exposure to sport. Study Design Cohort study; Level of evidence, 2. Methods A longitudinal cohort study was performed to determine the effect of risk factors for ankle sprain at the United States Military Academy between 2005 and 2007. Results A total 614 cadets sustained new ankle sprains during 10 511 person-years at risk, resulting in an overall IR of 58.4 per 1000 person-years. Women (96.4), compared with men (52.7), had a significantly increased rate ratio (IRR) for ankle sprain of 1.83 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.52-2.20). Men with ankle sprains had higher mean height, weight, and BMI than uninjured men (P < .001). Men with ankle sprains had higher average scores in push-ups, sit-ups, and run time than uninjured men (P < .001). Ankle sprain occurred most commonly during athletics (64.1%). Ankle sprain IR did not significantly differ between intercollegiate and intramural athletic competition after controlling for athlete-exposure (IRR, 1.05; 95% CI, 0.81-1.37). The ankle sprain IRR of female compared with male intercollegiate athletes was 0.93 (95% CI, 0.67-1.32) per 1000 person-years and 1.04 (95% CI, 0.74-1.47) per 1000 athlete-exposures. The intercollegiate sports of men's rugby, women's cheerleading, and men's/women's basketball, soccer, and lacrosse had the highest ankle sprain IR. Conclusion Higher mean height and weight in men, increased BMI in men, greater physical conditioning in men, and athlete exposure to selected sports were all risk factors for ankle sprain.

Bring in a Psychologist to Help Women Student Athletes

Bring in a Psychologist to Help Women Student Athletes

The Effect Of A Competitive Collegiate Basketball Season On Recovery Cue Seven Questionnaire Scores And Drop Jump Height A Pilot Study

Overtraining often comes about when athletes are unable to fully recover from their training demands. Overtraining affects various aspects of an athlete's physical and/or mental ability to perform at an optimal level. Practical and effective monitoring for overtraining needs to incorporate both physiological and psychological measures that allow for immediate feedback for either the athlete, strength and conditioning specialist or coach in order to keep athletes from suffering from the possible downfalls of overtraining symptoms. This study examined the effect of a competitive collegiate season on drop jump heights and recovery cue seven questionnaire scores in division 1 women's basketball players. Eleven female division one collegiate basketball players (mean ± SD; age = 19.4 ± 1.5 yr; height = 179.4 ± 10.6 cm; weight = 81.0 ± 10.9 kg; BMI = 25.2 ± 3.5 kg/m2) volunteered to participate in the study. Prior to data collection, subjects signed an approved informed consent, were instructed how to complete the recovery cue seven and practiced the drop jump technique. During conference play, players reported to the Biomechanics lab each Wednesday following their day off from mandatory basketball workouts for five weeks. The players completed a recovery cue seven questionnaire. Following a 3-minute warm-up on a cycle-ergometer, players performed a self-selected dynamic warm up. Following the warm up, the investigator visually reviewed the drop jump procedure with the subjects. The subjects then performed two-drop jump trials from a box height of 30 cm, onto a force plate (AMTI, Watertown, MA). Jump height was calculated by multiplying 9.81 by Flight Time2/8. An ANOVA with repeated measures was used to analyze each of the seven different scales of the recovery cue seven questionnaire along with jump height. No significant differences (p > 0.01) were found between time points on the recovery cue seven questionnaire or jump height. Although no significant differences were found with this study, future research in this area may need to consider analyzing individual player's results as opposed to analyzing data from the team as a whole. The use of a simple performance test, such as a drop jump and the use of a short psychological assessment, such as the recovery cue seven are very practical tools that can be done on a weekly basis to monitor athlete's levels of fatigue and possible signs of overtraining. Coaches, athletic trainers and strength and conditioning specialists may benefit by implementing weekly measurements of fatigue into training as a way of monitoring for possible signs of overtraining or underrecovery.

The Effect Of A Competitive Collegiate Season On Drop Jump Performance Characteristics In Women Basketball Players: Pilot Study

Strenuous sport training and competition without adequate rest and recovery may lead to decreases in physical performance which may be a predictor of under recovery. The aim of the present study was to observe the influence of a competitive collegiate women's basketball season on drop jump performance characteristics: relative peak force (RPF), contact time (CT), and flight time (FT). Drop jump testing was conducted during in-season conference play on 11 NCAA Division I women basketball players (19.4 ± 1.5 yr). Following a recovery day, participants reported to the lab (same day and time) for 5 weeks. Participants followed the same general 3-min warm-up on a cycle ergometer followed by a specific dynamic warm-up each week. Participants were then given the same verbal instructions and visual demonstration on how to correctly perform the drop jump test. Participants performed two-drop jump trials from a box height of 30 cm, onto a force plate (1000Hz). Repeated measures ANOVA revealed no significant change in RPF, CT, and FT across 5 weeks of competitive conference play. These data indicate that drop jump characteristics were not altered by in-season sport training and competition. These results suggest participants were allowed adequate recovery from training and competition. However, it is possible meaningful changes in performance may have occurred within individual participants which were not detected in mean scores. Jump tests provide an inexpensive, non-invasive, and simple tool for sport and conditioning coaches to monitor the physiological stress of sport training and in-season competition. This weekly assessment protocol could provide necessary information concerning player readiness, recovery status, along with physical and sport training needs.

Playing Rough and Tough: Chinese American Women Basketball Players in the 1930s and 1940s

Playing Rough and Tough: Chinese American Women Basketball Players in the 1930s and 1940s

Playing Rough and Tough: Chinese American Women Basketball Players in the 1930s and 1940s

Playing Rough and Tough: Chinese American Women Basketball Players in the 1930s and 1940s

The Excommunication of Don Imus

Journalists used religious language to describe the firestorm of controversy in 2007 when Don Imus was banished for 8 months for insulting the Rutgers University women's basketball team. But journalists used this language in ironic and contradictory ways. They questioned whether he deserved to be condemned as a sinner but also challenged his expressions of penance as insincere. Later they expressed surprise that his protestations of contrition and appeals for absolution were effective and that his “excommunication” was lifted. Examination of theological understandings of excommunication finds that religious excommunication is often exacted through a public process, is therapeutic for both sinner and society, and can be reversed. That is, having legitimately, if ironically, referenced excommunication, journalists may have misunderstood why sinners may be banished and how they can be redeemed. Excommunication—as cutting off communion and communication—shows the flip side of the commonality among communication, communion, and community.

Strength, Power, Speed, and Agility of Women Basketball Players According to Playing Position

The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of playing position on strength, power, speed, and agility performances of women basketball players. Thirty subjects playing at national level participated in this study. They were divided into 3 groups according to playing position: guards (positions 1 and 2), forwards (positions 3 and 4), and centers (position 5). Each subject performed 8 tests presented in a random order: The 30-second Wingate Anaerobic test (WAnT), isokinetic testing of the knee extensors, 2 types of jump tests, a 20-m sprint, the agility T-test, a suicide run, and a basketball chest pass. Statistical differences between playing positions were assessed using a 1-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Scheffe post hoc analyses. Results showed that guards performed significantly better than centers for the relative peak and mean power achieved during the WAnT (+13% and +16.9%, respectively), relative peak torque of knee extensors (+19.5%), single-leg jump (+21.8), suicide run (+7.5%), and agility T-test (+6.4%, p < 0.05). In addition, guards achieved significantly better performances than forwards in the suicide run test (+7.1%) and forwards were characterized by a greater peak torque of the knee extensors compared to centers (+22.1%). These results indicate that specific fitness training must be undertaken according to playing position. The ability to perform the suicide run, the single-leg jump, and the different movements involved in the agility T-test must be developed in guards. In contrast, speed over short distances and strength development of lower body and upper body should be performed by all playing positions.

Competitive Anxiety in Expert Female Athletes: Sources and Intensity of Anxiety in National Team and First Division Spanish Basketball Players

State and trait anxiety levels in elite Spanish women basketball players were investigated and possible differences in sources of anxiety identified, comparing National Team and First Division players. 84 players participated (13 National Team members, 71 First Division players). A quantitative/qualitative design was used. Results indicated that National Team members had lower State and Trait Anxiety scores than did the First Division players and both groups had lower scores than established population norms. Playing time was significantly related to State and Trait Anxiety for both groups of players and those who had more minutes of playing time had lower scores. Qualitative analyses indicated that the primary sources of anxiety reported by these athletes related to personal issues pertaining to feeling physically and mentally unprepared for practice and games.

The Individual Sport Team Coverage on NCAA Division I Athletic Department Web Sites

The creation of athletic web sites have become commonplace for athletic departments across the country in today's intercollegiate athletic setting (NCAA Members, 2006). Beyond basic promotional benefits, web sites are critical because they provide athletic programs with the unique ability to build brand equity in their overall product through the provision of equitable coverage to each of the teams housed within their department. The purpose of the current study was to identify the individual team coverage provided on NCAA Division I intercollegiate athletic web sites (<i>n</i> = 20) during the three sport seasons (Fall, Winter, and Spring) featured during the academic school year. Overall, from an equity perspective, the results demonstrated that men's and women's basketball received significantly more article and photograph coverage when in comparison to the teams that received negative coverage differences. In contrast, when analyzing the coverage from a financial standpoint, the results confirmed that men's basketball and men's football were underrepresented when in comparison to the remaining 16 nonrevenue teams included in the study.

Motivational Factors Influencing Sport Spectator Involvement At NCAA Division II Basketball Games

The purpose of this study was to investigate the motivational factors affecting sport spectator involvement using 304 spectators from NCAA Division II men's and women's basketball games. Two aspects (behavioral and socio-psychological) of sport spectator involvement were examined. The results revealed that spectators at intercollegiate basketball games had a higher level of socio-psychological involvement than behavioral involvement. A series of multiple regression analyses were conducted to examine the affects of socio-motivational factors (perceived value, fan identification, involvement opportunity, and reference groups) on sport spectator involvement. Fan identification, involvement opportunity, and reference groups were identified as influential factors that had a significant impact on overall sport spectator involvement. The results also indicated that the four motivational factors predicted more variance for socio-psychological involvement (<i>R²</i> = .33) than behavioral involvement (<i>R²</i> = .22). The findings of this study provide valuable insight to Division II athletic administrators about how to attract additional spectators to collegiate basketball games.

Comparison of physical profile of Malaysian basketball and netball players by playing position

The aim of the research is to compare the physical profile of Malaysian women basketball and netball players. The physical profile measures were height, body mass, and body fat. The subjects were divided into two groups based on their playing performance and positions. The playing performance consisted of elite/senior, junior, and reserve, while for playing posi tions were forward/attack, centre, and guard/defence. The percentage of body fat wasdetermined by means of skinfold measurement at seven different locations. Results showed that there were significant differences in body fat percentage between basketball and netball players (t (63) = –4.20, p

PHYSICAL PROFILE COMPARISON BETWEEN BASKETBALL AND NETBALL PLAYERS IN MALAYSIA BASED ON PERFORMANCE AND PLAYING POSITION

The aim of the research is to compare the physical profile between Malaysian women basketball players and netball players. The physical profile measures were height, body mass, and body fat. The subjects were divided into two groups based on their playing performance and positions. The playing performance consisted of elite/senior, junior, and reserve players. Meanwhile, the playing positions consisted of forward/attack, centre, and guard/defence. The percentage of body fat was determined by means of skinfold measurement at seven different locations. Results showed that there were significant differences in body fat percentage between basketball player and netball players (p &lt; 0.01). The elite/senior basketball players were reported to have the lowest body fat percentage as compared to other basketball or netball players. While for the playing position, guard/defence position basketball players were reported to be the shortest and have the lowest body fat percentage as compared to other playing positions. In conclusion, Malaysian basketball players were found to have better physical or bodily advantaged in terms of playing contact sports as compared to the Malaysian netball players.

Senda Berenson: The Unlikely Founder of Women's Basketball

In the winter of 1892, the new instructor of physical training at Smith College, a diminutive young woman with a heavy accent, introduced her students to an adaptation of James Naismith's new game of Basket Ball. An immediate if unexpected success, the game spread to other women's schools across the country, and soon its founder, Senda Berenson (1868-1954), was called upon to codify its distinctive set of gender-specific rules. Emphasizing team passing and position over individual the version she instituted defined women's basketball for seventy years and eventually earned her the honor of being the first female elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame. Yet, as Ralph Melnick points out, Berenson's pioneering role in the history of women's athletics was more a matter of accident than destiny. A Jewish immigrant from Lithuania, prone to ill health throughout her childhood, she enrolled in the Boston Normal School for Gymnastics in the fall of 1890 with the hope of strengthening herself so that she could pursue a career as a pianist, dancer, or painter. Instead, she soon became both a practitioner and a proponent of a new approach to women's physical education, one aimed at providing a natural outlet of the play instinct, developing endurance and physical courage as well as quickness of thought and action, and promoting through team work the power of organization women needed to achieve full social equality. Extending her work into the factories and blighted urban tenements of America, Berenson later won the recognition of Jane Addams, Margaret Sanger, and other progressive reformers. Believing that Americans have forgotten how to play, she wanted to teach others to live joyfully - beautifully. For Berenson, the physical culture of exercise and games, played not for competition but for personal and social development as well as sheer enjoyment, was but another form of art. This convergence of athletics and aesthetics was hardly surprising, Melnick explains, because the single most important influence on Senda Berenson's life was her brother, the renowned art critic and connoisseur, Bernard Berenson. The two siblings wrote frequently to each other over the course of their lives, and the author draws heavily on their correspondence throughout the book to create an intimate and insightful portrait of a remarkable American woman.

I'm the King of the World?: Barry Bonds and the "Race" for the Record

It was inevitable--though not entirely welcomed--that as long as Barry Bonds remained healthy and pitchers threw pitches in the general vicinity of the strike zone, Bonds would break Hank Aaron's Major League Baseball all-time home run record. There were a few other certainties in the 2007 season: despite Bonds never failing a drug test, the issue of performance-enhancing drugs would dominate the discussion; the media response to Bonds breaking the record would range from benign indifference to outright hostility; and race would exist just below the surface of the discussion. As media continues to encroach into citizen's everyday lives through their television, radio, Internet, cell phone, and iPod, how an event is covered by media representatives becomes as important, if not more important, than the event itself. In a sports context, this means that sportswriters and commentators have tremendous power to influence the ways in which fans and the general public view persons and events. Anyone who has read a Spiderman comic book or seen the immensely popular films of the same name is familiar with the adage: with great power comes great responsibility. Unfortunately, sportswriters and commentators have not always framed sporting events and controversies in a fair and balanced manner, particularly when race and ethnicity intersect with sport (i.e., Duke Lacrosse case, NBA dress code issue, etc.). One possible explanation for the racial blind spot comes from Critical Race Theorist Charles R. Lawrence III, who argues Americans share a common historical and cultural heritage in which racism has played and still plays a dominant role. Because of this shared experience, we also inevitably share many ideas, attitudes, and beliefs that attach significance to an individual's race and induce negative feelings and opinions about nonwhites. To the extent that this cultural belief system has influenced all of us, we are all racists. At the same time, most of us are unaware of our racism. We do not recognize the ways in which our cultural experience has influenced our beliefs about race or the occasions on which those beliefs affect our actions. In other words, a large part of the behavior that produces racial discrimination is influenced by unconscious racial motivation. (1) If Lawrence is correct, then race permeates all of our actions whether we are conscious of it or not. It stands to reason that unconscious racial attitudes influence the ways in which sportswriters discuss sport issues involving race and ethnicity generally and the ways Bonds's home run chase has been framed more specifically. When MLB began the integration process and sportswriters began paying attention to athletes of color, racist attitudes were the norm and could be expressed freely. Since overt racism is no longer tolerated, the negative attitudes created by the shared racist history will find an outlet, and in this case, the ways in which Bonds's pursuit of Aaron's record has been framed provides such an outlet. Two thousand seven was a banner year for race in sport--in both positive and negative ways. The year began on a hopeful note when the Chicago Bears' Lovie Smith and the Indianapolis Colts' Tony Dungy became the first African American head coaches in the National Football League to reach the Super Bowl. (2) Unfortunately, it only took two months for the glow of Smith and Dungy's accomplishment to fade. On April 3, 2007, while the Rutgers women's basketball team was playing its first championship title game, radio talk show host Don Imus and his producer Bernard McGuirk referred to the team as nappy headed hos. (3) Less than two weeks later, MLB celebrated the sixtieth anniversary of Jackie Robinson's first regular-season game with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Many players, coaches, and managers opted to wear the number 42, including the entire Houston Astros team, which did not have any U.S.-born black players on its roster. …

An Intensive Combined Training Program Modulates Physical, Physiological, Biomotoric, and Technical Parameters in Women Basketball Players

The purpose of this study was the investigation of the effects of an intensive combined training program based on the pretest scores of a university women's basketball team on their physical, physiological, biomotoric, and technical features. Twenty-four university volunteers were equally divided into two groups: an experiment group (intensive combined training group) and a control (technical training) group. The 10-week intensive combined training program was performed on the experiment group according to their pretest outcomes. Before and at the end of each period of training, which was scheduled four times a week, the physical, physiological, biomotoric, and technical performance of each subject were determined. With respect to the pre- and posttest measurements, the basketball group showed significant differences (p < 0.05) in girth measurements (shoulder, waist, hip, arm, thigh, and calf), in skinfold measurements (percent body fat), in physiological measurements (vital capacity and forced vital capacity), in biomotoric tests (right-left hand grip, dynamic and countermovement jump, sit-up, push-up, 1500-m endurance), and in technique tests (free and inside shooting). It can be concluded that a 10-week intensive combined training program performed on university women basketball players had a significant effect on improving their physical, physiological, biomotoric, and technical features. It proved to be highly recommendable for female basketball players who are preparing for short-term tournaments; the basketball group in this study won a championship.

Bodily Fear

In this article, John Houchin, author of Censorship of the American Theater in the Twentieth Century, continues his exploration of censorship and its social ramifications. In censorship battles throughout history, debates may have been addressed in two or three newspaper articles, only to fade quickly from public view. Houchin argues the swift proliferation of internet and cable communication has protracted these debates, placing even greater pressure on artists, producers, and regulatory agencies. Houchin explores the impact of censorship vis-à-vis four events, events that all revolve around women and the presentation of the female body: Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues, Janet Jackson's “wardrobe malfunction” at the 2004 Super Bowl, Don Imus' defamatory comments about the Rutgers women's basketball team, and the play My Name is Rachel Corrie, compiled from the late activist's emails, letters, and journals.

After the Storm? The Israeli Supreme Court and the Arab-Palestinian Minority in the Aftermath of October 2000Ilan Saban is an Assistant Professor of Law at Haifa University. The author would like to express thanks to Gordon Anthony, Robert Chapman, Moshe Cohen-Eilya, Tammy Harel-Ben-Shahar, Hassan Jabareen, Yousef T. Jabareen, Barak Medina, Liav Orgad and Revital Sella for valuable comments.

In late September 2000, the Oslo process collapsed and the second Intifada erupted. Soon after that (during the first two weeks of October) something momentous occurred in inter-communal relations ...

An Inter-View on Motherhood: Racial Politics and Motherhood in Late Capitalist Sport

This article explores Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) player, Jackie Moore's experience as a celebrity sport mother and my experience interviewing her. I use reflexive auto-ethnographic (Denzin, 1997, 2003; Tierney, 2002) and performance ethnographic (Denzin, 2003; Denzin &amp; Lincoln, 2000) practices to provide an active dramaturgical interrogation of both the contextual moment for women's professional basketball and motherhood and the personal experience of interviewing. By using a reflexive auto-ethnographic lens to gain an "Inter View (Kvale,1996) of my own positionality during the interviewing process and using performance ethnography to explore the emotions, the cultural positioning and experiences of Jackie Moore as an athlete and a mother this article intends to provide an alternative and Inter View of the personal interview as a research practice.

Ocular Injury Rates in College Sports

To determine the rate of eye injury sustained in 12 college sports in order to assess whether there is a high risk of ocular eye injury in some sports. From the fall of 1990 through the spring of 2006 at an NCAA Division III college, all ocular injuries that occurred while participating in a varsity sport and reported to the training room were retrospectively analyzed to obtain an ocular injury rate per sport. This study included 5921 participants during a 16-yr period. During this time, 10 ocular injuries were sustained in five different sports. Five (50%) occurred while playing men's basketball, one (10%) in women's basketball, two (20%) in men's water polo, one (10%) in baseball, and one (10%) while playing women's soccer. The rate of ocular injury as a result of participation in baseball, basketball, cross-country, football, golf, soccer, swimming and diving, track and field, water polo, softball, or volleyball is very low. Hence, any discussion with athletes regarding the utility of eye protection while participating in any of these sports should focus on the athlete's past ocular history instead of the sport to be played.