United States Sports Academy - "America's Sports University"

FOREWARD

The United States Sports Academy, in
cooperation with the Supreme Council for Youth and Sport, presents the Arab
world with its own International Physical Fitness Test Manual based on norms
collected and processed on Arab youth, ages 9 to 19. This fitness test is
one of the few developed outside the Western world and is believed to be
the only such test battery that measures the basic components of all physical
activity, i.e. speed, strength, suppleness, and stamina.

This test was introduced to 199 physical
education teachers by Dr. Thomas P. Rosandich on 15 January 1977 in Manama.
This test was initially developed by the International Committee for Physical
Fitness Testing in Tokyo in 1964 at which time Dr. Rosandich served that
committee as its first Secretary.

KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA. This past week
on campus at the United States Sports Academy we had Tan Sri Dato' Elyas
Omar, the former Lord Mayor of Kuala Lumpur, the magnificent capital city
of Malaysia, to receive an honorary doctorate during our 26th Annual Graduation
Celebration.

Dato' Elyas served for more than a decade
as the Lord Mayor of Kuala Lumpur and was perceived to be the second most
powerful man in Malaysia next to the Prime Minister. He had a rather unlimited
budget during the heyday of Malaysia, when they were showing a national growth
of nearly 20% per year. He built the very beautiful city of Kuala Lumpur,
a mix between Asian and Western architecture, into a bustling capital city
with buildings that are the highest in Asia, and a fast transit system that
takes the people from one end of the city to the other, over the bustling
streets of bazaars. He maintained the beauty of the traditional British railway
stations, except this one features Islamic architecture, which is not what
one would see in Victoria station in London. The same is true with many of
the buildings including City Hall, the Parliament and the Selangor Sports
Club in the heart of the city.

With all the research data on the health
and fitness benefits of regular physical activity, why do most American adults
remain sedentary? Primarily because it is difficult to change adult lifestyle
patterns. If this were not the case, the recent Surgeon General's Report
on Physical Activity and Health would have called for more than 30 minutes
of movement, most days of the week as a fitness
recommendation.

The 1990s have produced a wealth of
information on the importance of strength training for older adults
(Biomarkers, Living Longer Stronger, Strong Women Stay Young, Lifefit,
Strength Training Past 50), but we see very few fitness facilities with
a significant percentage of senior exercisers. What is the problem? It is
partly lack of education and partly lack of motivation, partly the challenge
of change and partly the fear of failure.

Abstract:

In their longitudinal examination of local and national newspaper
reports of soccer hooliganism in Britain Dunning, E., Murphy, P. J. and Williams,
J. (1986) concluded that hooliganism has been a feature of soccer crowds
for about 100 years (Dunning et al. 1986, p. 8). They note that there were
periods of decline until the mid-1960s when soccer hooliganism became a "cause
for material concern" (Dunning et al. 1986, p. 8). Indeed, Taylor states
that "there is no equivalent period in British soccer history to the 25-year
period of more or less continuous soccer hooliganism beginning in 1961" (Taylor,
1984, p. 176). This study presents, places and portrays these soccer hooligan
gangs within the larger context of British professional soccer during this
period.

No event illustrates the social phenomenon of "soccer hooliganism"
more dramatically than the deaths of 39 Italian spectators at the European
Cup Final between the Liverpool Football Club and the Italian team Juventus,
played at Heysel Stadium in Brussels, Belgium on 29 May 1985 at the hands
of soccer hooligans from Liverpool, England (Kerr, 1994).

When we begin to compete, what can we learn from the professionals
to help us play at our best?

Be Prepared:

Essential for competition is putting in time and effort on the driving
range and putting green. This insures not only the proper execution of your
golf skills, but also the confidence that you have prepared for the
competition.

The last thing you want to do is enter a tournament having to work
on your swing mechanics during important rounds. The mind needs to be free
to focus on targets and a plan to play the course in as few strokes as
possible.

Become Familiar With the Course:

All of us are familiar with the home field/court advantage in almost
all sports. The same holds true in golf.

Throughout the centuries, dietary intake has been a source of concern
to athletes in search of an ergogenic edge over opponents.

It wasn't until 1866 that it was demonstrated that there was
insignificant, if any use of protein as a fuel during exercise. Since that
time, innumerable studies have refuted the notion that a high protein intake
will enhance athletic performance.

Since the conclusion of the Kraus-Weber Tests in the 1950s, there
has been ever- increasing awareness and concern for cardiopulmonary fitness
and health in Americans. Endurance type activities such as Nordic skiing,
cycling, running, triathalons, and swimming have become in vogue, and as
a result, more intense attention has been devoted to dietary manipulations
which may provide an ergogenic effect, thus prolonging time to exhaustion,
or delaying the onset of blood lactate accumulation (OBLA) in an attempt
to compete at a higher intensity, longer.

ABSTRACT

Changes in cognitive strategies can improve performances and lessen
perceived fatigue during distance activities (Padget & Hill, 1989). However,
such changes may be difficult and annoying for participants (Masters &
Lambert, 1989). This study identified subjects' preferred cognitive strategies
and examined the effects of a complementary cognitive strategy. Twenty-five
subjects performed an 800 m free-style swim while being timed and assessed
for heart rate. One week later, subjects read a Behavioral Instruction Sheet
(BIS), appropriate for their style in the first swim and followed it during
the second swim. Results showed that associative thinking was used more
frequently than dissociative thinking by 73%, t(21) = 6.68, p<.05. No
significant differences were found from the first to the second swim in
performance times, RPE and heart rates with the exception of more muscular
fatigue in the second swim t (16) = -2.17, p<.05. This study suggests
that cognitive strategy training can not be completely associative or
dissociative.

INTRODUCTION

During the past several years we have learned a lot about the effects
of strength training and body composition. For example, a carefully controlled
study at Tufts University showed significant changes in body composition
from a basic program of strength exercise (Campbell et al. 1994).

The subjects added three pounds of lean weight, lost four pounds
of fat weight, increased their resting metabolic rate by seven percent and
increased their daily energy requirements by 15 percent after 12 weeks of
strength training.

Research with over 1100 previously sedentary adults revealed similar
body composition improvements from eight weeks of standard strength training
(Westcott and Guy 1996). The program participants increased their lean weight
by 2.4 pounds and decreased their fat weight by 4.6 pounds.

Of course, unfit individuals tend to improve their body composition
at faster rates than people who are presently doing strength exercise. Many
people want to know if strength training can further enhance body composition
in well-conditioned exercisers.

International youth sport tours are travel programs that provide youth
teams with the opportunity to travel to and compete against sport teams from
other countries. In addition to competing, the team members and their family
and/or friends are able to tour the countries, cities and areas where the
competitions are held. These team sport competitions, therefore, afford
experiences and benefits that are difficult to duplicate without international
travel taking place. This paper will look at the benefits derived by team
members who participated in European sport tours organized by this writer.
The information for this paper has been obtained from written evaluations
completed by past sport travel participants (team members, families and friends
who completed the tour).

Training for Optimal Performance

Soccer is a major sport for young athletes in the United States, and
is also rapidly becoming a major sport for males and females for all ages.
Because young athletes go through puberty at different times, they vary a
great deal among each other in size and maturity. These differences pose
a challenge to the athletes and their coaches. The primary characteristics
of a young athlete are: motivation; physical fitness (i.e. muscle strength,
power, endurance, flexibility, proper body composition, and cardiac respiratory
endurance); discipline, coachability; skills; ability to be a part of a team;
ability to think under stress; and good spatial orientation.