Influence of a proprioceptive training on functional ankle stability in young speed skaters – a prospective randomised study

The influence of a 12-week-proprioceptive training on functional ankle stability was investigated in young speed skaters. Twenty-eight speed skaters were randomly divided into an intervention (n = 14) and into a control group (n = 14). A 15-min circle training was performed 5 times per week over a 12-week period. Measurements were taken prior to the training, after 6 and 12 weeks of training. Kinaesthesia was evaluated with the Isomed2000 in all movements of the ankle joint. Dynamic balance was tested with the Biodex Stability System at the stable level 8 and at the unstable level 2, measuring the overall stability index, the anterior/posterior and the medial/lateral scores. Static single-leg stance was evaluated using the Kistler force platform. Kinaesthesia of the intervention group improved significantly for plantarflexion of the right foot (P = 0.001) after 12 weeks. Dynamic balance showed significant differences in the intervention group after 12 weeks in comparison with the first measurement for each foot in the overall stability index, the anterior/posterior and the medial/lateral scores (P ≤ 0.017, respectively) at the unstable level 2. Functional ankle stability improved in terms of dynamic balance after 12 weeks of proprioceptive training. Therefore, inclusion of proprioceptive exercises in the daily training programme is recommended for young speed skaters.     

Sport activities differentiating match-play improvement in elite youth footballers – a 2-year longitudinal study

This study examined contributions of different types of sport activities to the development of elite youth soccer performance. Match-play performance of 44 German male players was assessed by expert coaches twice, 24 months apart (age 11.1–13.1 years), based on videotaped 5v5 matches. Player pairs were matched by identical age and initial performance at t₁. Each player was assigned to a group of either “Strong” or “Weak Responders” based on a higher or lower subsequent performance improvement at t₂ within each pair (mean Δperformance 29% vs. 7%). A questionnaire recorded current and earlier amounts of organised practice/training and non-organised sporting play, in soccer and other sports, respectively. Group comparison revealed that “Strong Responders” accumulated more non-organised soccer play and organised practice/training in other sports, but not more organised soccer practice/training. Subsequent multivariate analyses (multiple linear regression analyses (MLR)) highlighted that higher resultant match-play performance at t₂ was accounted for R²_adj = 0.65 by performance at t₁, together with more non-organised soccer play and organised engagement in other sports, respectively, and greater current, but less earlier volume of organised soccer. The findings suggest that variable early sporting experience facilitates subsequent soccer performance development in German elite youth footballers.     

Relative age effects in Swiss talent development – a nationwide analysis of all sports

Relative age effects (RAE) generate consistent participation inequalities and selection biases in sports. The study aimed to investigate RAE across all sports of the national Swiss talent development programme (STDP). In this study, 18 859 youth athletes (female N = 5353; mean age: 14.8 ± 2.5 y and male N = 13 506; mean age: 14.4 ± 2.4 y) in 70 sports who participated in the 2014 competitive season were evaluated. The sample was subdivided by sex and the national level selection (NLS, N = 2464). Odds ratios (ORs) of relative age quarters (Q1-Q4) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated. In STDP, small RAE were evident for females (OR 1.35 (95%-CI 1.24, 1.47)) and males (OR 1.84 (95%-CI 1.74, 1.95)). RAE were similar in female NLS athletes (OR 1.30 (95%-CI 1.08, 1.57)) and larger in male NLS athletes (OR 2.40 (95%-CI 1.42, 1.97)) compared to athletes in the lower selection level. In STDP, RAE are evident for both sexes in several sports with popular sports showing higher RAE. RAE were larger in males than females. A higher selection level showed higher RAE only for males. In Switzerland, talent identification and development should be considered as a long-term process.     

Politicians’ perspective on the community-related impacts of major sports events – a case study for Innsbruck-Tyrol

While scholarly attention with respect to the social impacts of sports events has increased in recent years, there is still little research discussing the wide-ranging community-related impacts stemming particularly from major sports events. Local political leaders, as (elected) representatives of the community, are important stakeholders within this context and face the challenge of balancing diverse interests in the implementation of major sports events. The purpose of this study is to assess the importance politicians attribute to event impacts that create sustainable outcomes for residents living in a host city. Based on a content analysis, a list of general event impacts (outputs and legacies) produced by major sports events was created and subsequently discussed with scholars and experts in the field to classify the criteria as community relevant or not. A final number of 56 criteria (34 of which are considered community relevant) was then used in the assessment of the politicians’ (representing either the State of Tyrol or the City of Innsbruck) attitude towards these impacts. The findings of the study indicate that, though aware of community interests, politicians nevertheless prioritize economic and touristic benefits for the host city/region such as place marketing. Moreover, politicians seem to have a better understanding of tangible impacts (e.g. infrastructure), underestimating the important intangible impacts (e.g. voluntariness) closely related to community issues. Thus, the research in hand outlines the need to sensitize governments to community interests when planning and implementing major sports events.     

Radial and tibial bone indices in athletes participating in different endurance sports: a pQCT study†

Low magnitude bone-loading sports may benefit bone structure and strength in the exercised limbs. This study compared peripheral quantitative computed tomography measures of radial and tibial diaphyseal strength (strength–strain index, SSI), structure (total area (ToA) and cortical area (CoA), density (CoD) and thickness (CT), and circumferences), muscle cross-sectional area (MCSA) and strength (one-repetition maximum, 1-RM) in male endurance athletes taking part in (i) non-weight-bearing and non-impact sports: swimmers (SWIM, n?=?13) and road cyclists (RC, n?=?10), (ii) non-weight-bearing, impact sport: mountain bikers (MB, n?=?10), (iii) weight bearing and impact sport: runners (RUN, n?=?9). All athlete groups were also compared to sedentary controls (CON, n?=?10). Arm MCSA, 1-RM and radial bone size and strength tended to be greater in SWIM than CON and/or RC (ToA, %difference ±?95%CI, SWIM-CON: 14.6%?±?12.7%; SWIM-RC: 12.9%?±?10.7%) but not different to MB and RUN. RUN had bigger tibial CoA than CON, SWIM and RC (CoA, RUN-CON: 12.1%?±?10.7%; RUN-SWIM: 10.9%?±?9.4%; RUN-RC: 15.8%?±?9.5%) without marked changes in tibial strength indices, lower-limb MCSA or 1-RM. Both MB and RC failed to display any difference in tibial indices, lower-limb MCSA and 1-RM compared to CON. In swimmers, the bone structure and strength of the primary exercised limbs, the arms, is greater than controls and road cyclists. Conversely, although runners experience impact and weight-bearing loading, tibial structure is greater without a substantial difference in tibial strength compared to controls and non-impact sports. Failure to observe a difference in tibial indices in MB and RC compared to controls is unexpected.     

The relationship between physical activity,fitness, physical complaints and BMI in German adults – results of a longitudinal study

Objectives: This study’s aims were to describe the development of physical activity, physical fitness (PF), subjective (physical complaints (PC)) and objective (Body mass index (BMI)) health measures and to examine the relationship between the development trajectories. In addition, the study also aimed to assess the influence of sociodemographic determinants (age, sex, socioeconomic status (SES)) in German adults over a period of 18 years. Methods: The longitudinal study population comprises of 721 men and women, aged 33–76 years over the study period. There was self-report of physical activity and PC and testing of physical fitness and BMI in each study year (1992, 1997, 2002 and 2010). Latent growth curve models were used to analyse the development. Results: Physical activity slightly increased while fitness, PC and BMI worsened over the course of 18 years. Sex, age and SES play important roles concerning physical activity, fitness and health. Several integrative associations could be detected between physical activity, fitness, PC and BMI as well as their trajectories. In particular, high initial levels of physical activity and fitness protect from high PC and BMI.The slope of physical activity was not significantly associated with slopes of fitness, PC and BMI. However, increase of fitness resulted in decrease of PC. Conclusions: A general positive development regarding the amount of physical activity could be detected. However, if it is only an unsystematic increase of physical activity, this is not in itself enough to achieve health benefits. The strengthening of fitness should be focused when increasing physical activity, since only then a health benefit is possible.     

Sport,Prison, Violence: On Imprisonment and Confinement Conditions – ‘French Prison Sport’ and the Instruments of the World's Good Conscience

In France today, sport is considered to be a fundamental element of the educational offer in the prison environment, especially because it represents in the eyes of the majority an activity that is capable of channelling violence and violent behaviours, although this exemplary effect of education cannot be taken for granted. It is based, in fact, on a commonly accepted opinion and on evidence that is rarely questioned and is even contradicted in recent studies. But can sport, as a more or less formalised pedagogical, institutional and/or sociopolitical project, continue to be ‘educational’ in particular social spaces, like prison, which in essence distorts the conditions of unconstrained free practice and cultural dissemination? Starting from a case study, focused on France, the aim of this paper is to question the relation of sport with the calming qualities and/or, on the contrary, those that produce force fields, not by isolating it and constructing an improvised model but rather by re-inserting it into the issue of pacifying social fields, that is by re-integrating sports practice in the very place which gives it a sense and literally one which incarnates a motor praxeology with constraints – not to say control.     

The role of community sports coaches in creating optimal social conditions for life skill development and transferability – a salutogenic perspective

Sport is widely recognised as having the potential to enhance the personal development of socially vulnerable youth, yet there is very limited knowledge on how community sports coaches can create optimal social conditions for life skill development and transferability. We adopt a salutogenic approach in order to study whether and how community sports coaches create these optimal social conditions. Based on the salutogenic framework, a thematic analysis was conducted of 15 in-depth interviews with community sports coaches providing sports lessons to socially vulnerable youth. As part of the interviews, the sports coaches were presented with several training scenarios and asked how they would respond in specific training situations. The results showed that the sports coaches aimed to create meaningful sporting experiences for youths. These meaningful sporting experiences were considered a precondition for keeping youths engaged in the sporting activities, as well as a precondition for life skill development. The sports coaches specifically focused on creating little moments of success and on making sure that the youths felt they belonged to a group. In order to ensure that the youths could experience moments of success, specific coaching strategies were implemented to increase the youths’ comprehensibility and manageability in specific sport situations. According to the sports coaches, experiencing little moments of success could contribute to an increase in socially vulnerable youths’ understanding of the everyday challenges that they face, as well as contribute to their ability to deal with these challenges. Creating meaningful sporting experiences may help youths ‘to learn to cope' – a skill that could be beneficial over their lifespan and in different societal domains.     

Fan culture and motivation in the context of successful women’s professional team sports: a mixed-methods case study of Portland Thorns fandom

Abstract

By the metric of average home attendance, the Portland Thorns of the National Women’s Soccer League are the most popular women’s professional sports team in the world. This paper investigates that distinct sports context through a mixed-methods case study of Thorns fandom, asking what fans themselves perceive to be salient elements of a successful fan culture for women’s professional soccer and what motivates their fandom. Drawing on survey data that are contextualized by ethnographic observations and interviews, we offer an interpretive analysis of ways Thorns fandom hybridizes elements of traditional and alternative sports fandom. Our findings highlight the emphasis Thorns fans put on quality soccer in a professional atmosphere where fans themselves create the supporters culture, along with the symbolic importance to fans of identifying with values such as gender empowerment, diversity and inclusion. We discuss ways these themes might offer and inform alternative models of sports fandom.     

Cultural Imperialism,Nationalism, and the Modernization of Physical Education and Sport in China, 1840–1949

Abstract

This paper examines how missionary educational institutions and Young Men’s Christian Association physical education and sport programmes, in conjunction with the nation-building project of the Nationalist government, transformed and modernized physical education and sport in China from 1840 to 1937. The concepts of cultural imperialism and nationalism are central to this study, to understand how the two interacted in the process of the development of modern physical education and sports in China. This paper argues that the cultural imperialism model is ineffective for an understanding of the impact of missionaries on Chinese society and the subsequent transformation and indigenization of physical education and sport in modern China. More precisely, the way in which Chinese nationalism played an active role in resisting, selecting, and reshaping the cultural products (modern physical education and sport) evidences a process that was an active negotiation, rather than a passive consumption, of Western culture. This said, Christian physical education and sport programmes had long-lasting effects on how physical education and sports became the way to define ‘modern’ bodies as they were incorporated into the wider education programme of modernizing China under the Nationalist government.     

From Honeymoon to Divorce: Fragmenting Relations between China and South Korea in Politics,Economics – and Sport

This is an analysis of two East Asian Nations, South Korea and China, and a descent from growing friendship to growing friction in economics, politics and sport – with sport as an analogue of fragmentation and the Guangzhou Asian Games as an analogous illustration of crescive tension between the two nations in economics, politics and sport in the twenty-first century.     

‘Power in the arm,steel in the will and courage in the breast’ – a historical approach to ideal norms and men’s dominance in Swedish club sports

From both a quantitative and qualitative perspective, research shows that men and masculinities have dominated the Swedish sports movement for a long time and that sport as a so-called ‘democratic people’s movement’ has been criticised for being a male movement. Given the self-made claims of the Swedish Sports Confederation’s fostering of inclusivity and democratisation, this study encompasses a critical and historical perspective on the inclusive and exclusive dimensions of sport. The study object is a Swedish sports club and the specific aim is to analyse the prevailing norms and ideals and how they eventually helped to reproduce men’s domination in a local sports club. Chronologically, the paper uses a historical comparative approach studying the club’s 1910s–1920s and 1970s–1980s. The research questions put are: What characterised the norms of the ideal member and collective membership in terms of gender and did these change over time? Is it possible to find specific examples of inclusion and exclusion techniques by studying the club’s photographs and stories? The main result shows subtle and explicit power techniques that reproduced (some) men’s superior position at the club level.     

Sport as a medium of national resistance: Politics and baseball in Taiwan during Japanese colonialism, 1895–1945

This paper examines the manner in which the Japanese colonial government influenced the development of baseball in Taiwan during the period from 1895 to 1945. The paper seeks to explain the role that baseball played in the divided society of this period. It argues that baseball was a political vehicle used by the Japanese colonial government to promote social integration and it evaluates the responses of the Taiwanese to baseball utilized for this purpose.     

The Governance of Sport in Australia: Centralization,Politics and Public Diplomacy, 1860–2000

For Australia and most of its people, international sporting contests have long been a marker of the nation’s identity, psyche and international standing. Now in the era of global mediasport, the geopolitical role and the economic impact of elite sport has assumed far wider implications. As a consequence, the need for strong, effective and appropriate governance of all sport, particularly at the elite level has become of critical importance. This paper presents an overview and an analysis of the policy shifts that impacted the development of the Australian Sport Commission, its structure and administration from its colonial roots up to the period leading to the Sydney Olympics in 2000. This discussion will look at the development of the centralized governance of elite and community sport in Australia and will be reflected upon through a consideration of the sportization–globalization processes, with sport in the first instance being established as an element of the cultural diffusion of British imperialism to its significant geopolitical role in late twentieth-century Australia.