Sports Studies and Sports Psychology – Page 9

A Practical Evaluation of Golf Coaches’ Knowledge of Block and Random Practice

Authors: Dr. David Grecic and Mr. Brendan Ryan, MS / MA

Corresponding Author:
Brendan Ryan
1304 Denman Ct
Wesley Chapel, FL
[email protected]
407-233-6946

David Grecic is a princial lecture and head of sport at the University of Central Lancashire. David joined the School of Sport, Tourism and the Outdoors in August 2008 having previously worked in a variety of sport and education settings for 15 years. He is an active coach in a variety of sports including rugby union, swimming and golf. It is here that his specialist interest lies and that drives his academic research.

Brendan Ryan is a former college coach who now works closely developing junior golfers in their pursuit of college. He is also a well-established academic, with a pair of Master’s degrees and the author of several books, published papers and popular articles.

A Practical Evaluation of Golf Coaches’ Knowledge of Block and Random Practice

ABSTRACT
The practical knowledge of golf coaches is of great interest to golfers, researchers, and the media alike. One popular element is their application of practice design and, in particular, their use of Contextual Interference (CI) through their use of random and block practice design. The study investigated the level of understanding of 69 golf coaches in the theory, use, and transference of both these methods. The main findings were that coaches had a surface level understanding of the issues, but had worrying gaps in knowledge on how to relate their practice design to long-term athlete development. Suggestions are provided on how coach learning could be provided to support this identified development need.
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U.S. Sports Academy2018-06-13T11:07:13-05:00July 19th, 2018|Sport Education, Sports Studies and Sports Psychology|Comments Off

Talking Bodies: Athletes & Tattoos as Nonverbal Communication

Authors: Sam Belkin(a) & R. Dale Sheptak Jr(b)

Corresponding Author:
Sam Belkin, MA
[email protected]
440-241-5913

(a) Department of Sociology, University of Leicester, Leicester, England.
(b) Department of Health, Physical Education and Sport Sciences, Baldwin Wallace University, Berea, Ohio, USA.

Talking Bodies: Athletes & Tattoos as Nonverbal Communication

ABSTRACT
Dennis Rodman, the quintessential example of deviant behavior as a player in professional basketball, along with Chris ‘Birdman’ Andersen fast tracked the normalization of tattoos in the National Basketball Association. Still considered deviant behavior in Western societies, the prominence of highly visible tattoos in the NBA and collegiate basketball world has been growing rapidly. In this article, we discuss how professional and collegiate basketball players perceive tattoos in regard to identity and performance. We focus on how tattoos act as a channel for nonverbal communication in this population. Through these two topics, players avertedly or inadvertently address the interplay of tattoos and identity as well as how tattoos inform social groups. With the increased visual media presence of players through social media, smart phones, the internet, and other forms of technology, the necessity of understanding what role tattoos have among the players cannot be understated.
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U.S. Sports Academy2018-05-24T10:13:59-05:00July 5th, 2018|Research, Sports Studies and Sports Psychology|Comments Off

Investigation of Attention, Concentration and Mental Toughness Properties in Tennis, Table Tennis, and Badminton Athletes

Authors: Gulsum Bastug * (1), Mugla Sitki Kocman University, Faculty of Sports Sciences, Turkey.

Corresponding Author:
Gulsum Bastug, PhD
Mugla Sitki Kocman University, Faculty of Sports Sciences
Kotekli/Mugla, 48000
[email protected]
002522111951

(1) Gulsum Bastug, Muğla Sıtkı Koçman University, Faculty of Sports Sciences is a doctoral professor. She works in the field of exercise and sports psychology.

Investigation of Attention, Concentration and Mental Toughness Properties in Tennis, Table Tennis, and Badminton Athletes

ABSTRACT
The aim is to examine the attention, concentration, and mental toughness characteristics of tennis, table tennis, and badminton athletes. A total of 61 athletes participated in the study, with a mean age of 21.18 ± 2.96, playing tennis, table tennis, and badminton. The Concentration Endurance Test (d2 attention test) developed by Brickenkamp (1966) was used to determine the level of attention of the athletes participating in the study. The Letter Cancellation Task, developed by Kumar and Telles (2009), was used to determine the concentration level, and Sheard et al. (2009) developed the “Sports Mental Toughness Questionnaire-SMTQ-14”. In the Analysis of Data, the ANOVA test was used to identify differences between groups, and Tukey Honest Significant Difference (HSD) analysis was used to determine which branches were different. As a result; concentration performance was significantly different between the groups. It was determined that tennis athletes were more successful in concentration performance than table tennis and badminton athletes.
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U.S. Sports Academy2018-05-25T14:13:23-05:00July 3rd, 2018|General, Sports Studies and Sports Psychology|Comments Off

Update in Attitudes Towards Wage Equality in Gendered Professions

Author: Emily Dane-Staples

Corresponding Author:
Dr. Emily Dane-Staples
3690 East Avenue
Rochester, New York, 14618
Phone: 585-899-3803
Fax: 585-385-7311
[email protected]

Emily Dane-Staples, PhD is an Associate Professor of Sport Studies in the School of Arts & Sciences at St. John Fisher College in Rochester, New York

Update in Attitudes Towards Wage Equality in Gendered Professions

ABSTRACT
Employment research has asked diverse questions about job satisfaction, gender appropriate work, wage and compensation satisfaction and parity, and advancement. Most existing research has explored gender discrimination in traditional professions such as engineering, law, education, and medicine; notably absent is the billion dollar industry of sport. This research sought to remedy that shortcoming by exploring attitudes towards wage equality across gender for eight different professions, including coaching positions and that of a professional athlete. Survey results found that most respondents were in favor of wage equality across all professions, but the sport professions showed the greatest amount of variation. Differences in attitude were attributed to a respondent’s gender, personal sport participation, and gender majority of the profession they would be entering. Additionally, qualitative responses indicated that revenue/profit factors and outcome-based considerations were influential in making attitude determinations.
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U.S. Sports Academy2018-05-25T15:35:00-05:00June 19th, 2018|Research, Sports Studies and Sports Psychology|Comments Off

The effects of Perceptual-Cognitive training on Subjective Performance in Elite Athletes

Authors: F. Moen1, M. Hrozanova2, and A. M. Pensgaard3

Centre for Elite Sports Research, Department of Education and Lifelong Learning, Faculty of Social and Educational Sciences, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway, 2Centre for Elite Sports Research, Department of Neuromedicine and Movement Science, Faculty of Medicine and Health Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway, 3Department of Coaching and Psychology, The Norwegian School of Sport Sciences, Oslo, Norway

Corresponding Author:
Frode Moen
E-mail address: [email protected]
Tel. : +47 932 487 50
Postal address: Department of Education and Lifelong Learning
Norwegian University of Science and Technology
N-7491 Trondheim, Norway

Frode Moen is currently the head manager of the Norwegian Olympic Sports Center in the Mid-Norway region, where he also has a position as a coach / mental trainer for elite athletes and coaches. He also is an associate professor at the Department of Lifelong Learning and Education at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. He previously has worked as a teacher in high school where sport was his major subject, and he has been a coach for the national team in Nordic combined in Norway for several years. Frode received his Ph. D. in coaching and performance psychology from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. His research focuses mainly on coaching in business, coaching in sport, communication, performance psychology and relationship issues.

The effects of Perceptual-Cognitive training on Subjective Performance in Elite Athletes

ABSTRACT
This current study examines if a perceptual-cognitive training program, such as the Neurotracker (NT) 3-dimensional (3D) multiple object tracking (MOT) device, has the potential to improve elite athletes’ performances in dynamic sports. Fifty-four elite athletes from boxing, wrestling, women handball, women soccer, orienteering, biathlon, alpine skiing, sled hockey, badminton and table tennis completed a pre-post quasi experiment over a period of 5 weeks (46% males and 54% females). The results show that the NT baseline scores and subjective performance improved significantly during the experiment. However, subjective performance improved only when learning rate and number of targets were controlled for. The results are discussed in regard of applied implications and possible future research.
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U.S. Sports Academy2018-05-02T13:03:13-05:00May 31st, 2018|Research, Sports Studies and Sports Psychology|Comments Off