Journal articles on the topic 'Athlete centred environment'

There is evidence to suggest that athletes face multiple challenges during their career from injuries, to pressure from parents, competition, lack of support and so forth. A psychologist is important for helping the athlete overcome individual difficulties and succeed. This study is focusing on understanding the role of sports on athletes’ psychosocial development, the challenges they face and the psychological support they need from the athletes’ perspective. Through a qualitative research analysis, this study shows that a psychologist can have an overarching role and support not only the athlete but also the athletes’ environment such as the coach, parents and teachers. Reflecting this finding, an athlete-centred model is proposed.

The research on talent development is increasing, even though most of it has focused on the individual athlete. By using a holistic and ecological approach to talent development and especially the players’ environment, one could highlight how the environment facilitates player and team development. The purpose of this study was to analyse the recruit team of the professional football club Ranheim F.C. in Norway. Principal methods of data collection included interviews, participant observations of life in the environment, and analysis of documents. The environment was centred around the relationship between coaches and players, and although the supporting staff was relatively small, the inclusive and supportive approach from competent coaches was essential. The characteristics of the environment included that players were encouraged to take responsibility for their own development, exercise self-reflexiveness and the ability to handle the challenges that may arise in the life of young football players, and optimize the everyday lives of the players. Despite economic challenges within the club, the environment compensated with spirit, volunteerism, and hard work.

The purpose of this study was to enrich our understanding of formal coach education settings. We investigated how coaches developed knowledge during a postgraduate tertiary coach education course. We also explored coaches’ perceptions of changes they made to their coaching attitudes, behaviours, skills, and practices as a result of their studies. Semistructured interviews1were conducted with 17 performance coaches. Results revealed that coaches developed knowledge through rich learning situations that were relevant to their coaching context. Furthermore, the three types of knowledge (professional, interpersonal and intrapersonal; Côté & Gilbert, 2009) were fostered in an environment that was socially constructed through a Community of Practice. Coaches felt they were better equipped to develop athlete performance as a result of the knowledge gained through the course. The findings reinforce the importance of developing formal coach education that is learner-centred, provides diverse learning experiences, and embraces informal learning concepts when embedded in formal learning contexts.

Wearable technology, specifically within a varsity athletics setting, has the potential to empower athletes to make informed and educated decisions about their training. However, few studies have investigated the perceived effectiveness from the athlete's point of view or considered what an athlete needs to be able to use these devices in an effective manner. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore the perceived effectiveness of the WHOOP band wearable technology within a varsity women's basketball team environment. Several themes emerged from the data that centered around the athlete/coach relationship, privacy concerns, consideration of life aspects outside of sport, and important considerations to be able to use the WHOOP data effectively in a team environment. These findings highlight important factors for future users to consider when implementing wearable technology in a university varsity sport team setting.

Background:The purpose of this study was to implement and assess the impact of a person-centered, feel-based self-regulation intervention on the stress, burnout, well-being, and self-regulation capacity of eight university student-athletes experiencing burnout. This was warranted given the negative outcomes associated with athlete burnout, the scarcity of burnout research focusing on student-athletes, and the lack of intervention research addressing burnout in sport.Method:A mixed methods design including questionnaires administered at four time points during the athletic season, pre- and postintervention interviews, and multiple intervention sessions was used.Results:Repeated-measures ANOVAs revealed that stress and burnout levels significantly decreased, and well-being and self-regulation capacity levels significantly increased as the intervention progressed. The qualitative data supported these findings.Conclusion:It appears that university student-athletes participating in this type of intervention can learn to effectively manage themselves and their environment to reduce adverse symptoms and improve optimal functioning.

The Olympics is a unique and challenging performance setting that tests the strength of the coach–athlete relationship. The purpose of this study was to investigate the coach–athlete relationship prior to and during the Olympics with Olympic-medal-winning athletes and their coaches. Qualitative research methods were implemented where three Olympic medalist coach–athlete dyads participated in semistructured interviews. Data collection included three separate interviews (athlete, coach, and coach–athlete) for each dyad. Cross-case analysis identified three lower order themes related to creating an athlete-centered environment: (a) empowering effective decision making, (b) open and honest communication, and (c) mental cue-based instruction and feedback. In addition, three lower order themes related to developing a caring supportive relationship emerged: (a) developed trust, (b) commitment, and (c) gratitude. Results indicated that coaches and athletes perceived that their success at the Olympics Games was influenced by the strength of the coach–athlete relationship that was developed over multiple years prior to the Olympics.

The holistic ecological approach to talent development in sport highlights the central role of the overall environment as it affects a prospective elite athlete. This paper examines a flat-water kayak environment in Norway with a history of successfully producing top-level senior athletes from among its juniors. Principal methods of data collection include interviews, participant observations of daily life in the environment and analysis of documents. The environment was centered around the relationship between prospects and a community of elite athletes, officially organized as a school team but helping the athletes to focus on their sport goals, teaching the athletes to be autonomous and responsible for their own training, and perceived as very integrated due to a strong and cohesive organizational culture. We argue that the holistic ecological approach opens new venues in talent development research and holds the potential to change how sport psychology practitioners work with prospective elite athletes.

BackgroundPoor oral health of elite athletes is common and is associated with negative performance impacts. There is a need for oral health promotion strategies that are effective within the elite sport environment.AimTo develop, implement and evaluate a pragmatic oral health promotion intervention that integrated the capability, opportunity, motivation and behaviour model of behavioural change into the knowledge transfer system for effective implementation of preventive interventions.MethodsRepeated measures study. Athletes and support team together viewed one 10 min presentation and three 90 s information films. Athletes alone received oral health screening, personalised advice and an oral health toolkit. Outcome measures included: (1) oral health knowledge, athlete-reported performance impacts (Oslo Sports Trauma Research Centre, OSTRC score), use of oral hygiene aids, gingival inflammation (bleeding) score, recorded at baseline, 4–6 weeks and 12–16 weeks and (2) athlete feedback.ResultsWe recruited 62 athletes; 44 (71%) male and 58 (93.5%) white British, 55 (88.7%) athletes completed the study. Mean knowledge score improved from 5.69 (1.59) to 6.93 (1.32) p<0.001. Mean OSTRC score reduced from 8.73 (14.54) to 2.73 (11.31) p<0.001. Athlete use of prescription strength fluoride toothpaste increased from 8 (12.9%) to 45 (80.4%) p<0.001. Athlete-reported use of interdental cleaning aids at least 2–3 x week increased from 10 (16.2%) to 21 (34%) p=0.013. Bleeding score remained unchanged.ConclusionThis behavioural change intervention was successfully implemented within different elite sport environments. It was associated with an increase in athlete oral health knowledge, enhanced oral health behaviour, a reduction in self-reported performance impacts and high participant retention.

The significant impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID- 19) pandemic has extended to sport with the cessation of nearly all professional and non-professional events globally. Recreational parks and fitness centres have also closed. A challenge remains to get athletes back to participation in the safest way, balancing the protection of their health while curbing the societal transmission of the virus. With this Position Statement, the South African Sports Medicine Association (SASMA) aims to guide return-to-sport as safely as possible, in an evidence-based manner, given that COVID-19 is a new illness and new information from experts in various fields continues to emerge. Clinical considerations are briefly described, focusing on a return-to-sport strategy, including education, preparation of the environment, risk stratification of sports and participants, and the practical implementation of these guidelines. The management of the potentially exposed or infected athlete is further highlighted. It is important that persons charged with managing athletes’ return-to-sport in any environment must be up-to-date with local and international trends, transmission rates, regulations and sport-specific rule changes that might develop as sport resumes. Additionally, such information should be applied in a sports-specific manner, considering individual athlete’s and team needs and be consistent with national legislation.

This case study is guided by the holistic ecological approach and aimed at (a) providing a holistic description of an athletic talent development environment using a table tennis club in Sweden as a case study and (b) examining the factors perceived as influential to the effectiveness of the club’s talent development. The holistic ecological approach’s two working models informed the data collection (through interviews, observation, and analysis of documents) and were subsequently transformed into empirical models, acting as a summary of the case. Findings revealed that the environment’s success in talent development can be seen as an outcome of the following key features: (a) flexible and supportive training groups, (b) opportunities to learn from senior elite athletes, (c) support through the club and sport-friendly schools, (d) support of the development of psychosocial skills, (e) regular and intensive training, (f) focus on long-term development and athletes as whole persons, (g) strong and coherent organizational culture centered around the basic assumption, “we are a community of committed members,” and (h) integrated efforts among the club and sport-friendly schools to support athletes’ development. This case study can inform other athletic talent development environments on how to optimize talent development processes.

Research on abuse in sport reveals that sporting environments are unique contexts where athlete abuse can occur. An international panel on “safe sport” identified the need to implement strategies to ensure sport is safe for all. One strategy identified as a way of preventing abuse from occurring in sport is to educate the parents of athletes. This study centres on an education intervention implemented with 14 parents from a gymnastics and swimming context where narrative pedagogy (e.g., athletes’ stories of abuse) was used. As a result of engaging with narrative pedagogy, parents were able to identify unacceptable coaching practices. However, the extent of several dominant cultural ideologies (e.g., competitive performance ideology) became known through the parents’ responses and influenced the way they took up the athletes’ abuse stories.

Context Conflict is prevalent between sports medicine professionals and coaching staffs regarding return-to-play decisions for athletes after injury in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I setting. The firsthand experiences of athletic trainers (ATs) regarding such conflict have not been fully investigated. Objective To better understand the outside pressures ATs face when making medical decisions regarding patient care and return to play after injury in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) setting. Design Qualitative study. Setting Semistructured one-on-one telephone interviews. Patients or Other Participants Nine ATs (4 men, 5 women; age = 31 ± 8 years [range = 24–48 years]; years certified = 9 ± 8). Data Collection and Analysis Interviews were audio recorded and later transcribed. Thematic analysis was completed phenomenologically. Researcher triangulation, peer review, and member checks were used to establish trustworthiness. Results Two major themes emerged from the qualitative analysis: (1) pressure is an expected component of the Division I FBS AT role, and (2) strategies can be implemented to mitigate the negative effects of pressure. Three subthemes supported the second major theme: (1) ensuring ongoing and frequent communication with stakeholders about an injured athlete's status and anticipated timeline for return to play, (2) providing a rationale to coaches or administrations to foster an understanding of why specific medical decisions are being made, and (3) establishing positive relationships with coaches, athletes, and administrations. Conclusions External pressure regarding medical decisions was an anticipated occurrence for our sample. Such pressure was described as a natural part of the position, not negative but rather a product of the culture and environment of the Division I FBS setting. Athletic trainers who frequently face pressure from coaches and administration should use the aforementioned strategies to improve the workplace dynamic and foster an environment that focuses on patient-centered care.

Context: Athletic therapy students learn emergency skills through a variety of modes, including students portraying injured athletes and cardiopulmonary resuscitation manikins. Although acceptable and satisfactory forms of teaching, these methods are limited in their ability to create realistic physiological symptoms of injury. Objective: To assess how athletic therapy students perceive their learning needs (LNs) relative to the use of high-fidelity manikin simulation (HFMS) compared with student simulation (SS) in the laboratory setting. Design: Pretest-posttest study design. Setting: Nursing Simulation Centre, Sheridan College, Brampton, Ontario, Canada. Patients or Other Participants: Thirty students from the Bachelor of Applied Health Science (Athletic Therapy) program at Sheridan College in years 2 and 4. Intervention(s): Perceived LNs related to the use of the Laerdal Medical SimMan3G HFMS contrasted with the use of SS for learning to respond to a prescribed emergency scenario. Main Outcome Measure(s): Participants completed questionnaires for both the SS and HFMS environments that consisted of 16 specific LNs spanning the cognitive, psychomotor, and affective domains of learning. Paired t tests and a 2-way analysis of variance were used to analyze the questionnaire data. Results: Participants reported all LNs as being equally important in both environments, but HFMS was identified as a better environment for achieving 13 of the 16 LNs. The mean change from pretesting to posttesting of all LNs in the affective domain improved significantly (P &lt; .05) in the HFMS environment. Year 4 participants deemed HFMS to be a more effective means of learning in the cognitive and psychomotor domains (P &lt; .05). Conclusions: The HFMS experience enhanced athletic therapy students' perceptions of their confidence, base of knowledge, decision-making skills, and overall acute management of critical lifesaving situations. The HMFS environment is a more effective tool for addressing the LNs in the affective domain, which includes skills related to confidence, attitudes, values, and appreciations.

Objectives The purpose of this study was to present the improvement measures of athlete career support program implemented by Korean Sport & Olympic Committee by analyzing the program and the problems. Methods For the purpose, literature review and interview for 8 stakeholders were performed. In-depth interviews were conducted from November to December 2021. In-depth interviews were conducted for business managers of the Korea Sports Association, external users of the program, and former and current athletes. The analyzed programs were those for career education for youth athletes, career events, promotion activities, career counseling, career competency education, and mentoring. Results The identified problems were top-down type lecture in career education for youth athletes, students' avoidance due to coercion in career events, a gap in contact path between promotion provider and consumer in promotion activities, lack of counselors who can communicate empirical facts in the field of sports in career counseling, inconsistency with the skills practically required by the society in career competency education, and lack of systematization of the mentoring curriculum in mentoring. The presented improvement measure were opening of career education program and modifying the lecture method into them centered on participation in career education for youth athletes, complementary to induce voluntary participation in career events, production of promotional contents mainly of short videos in promotion activities, placement of counselors specialized in sports area in career counseling, education through regular internship agreements with local companies in career competency education, and establishment of mentor management process in mentoring. Conclusions It is necessary to operate a career support project for athletes and develop an educational curriculum that does not lag behind the times. In addition, it should be established as a career and education project centered on student athletes and retired athletes who are consumers, not for the project.

The holistic ecological approach puts an emphasis on the environment in which prospective elite athletes develop. Applying the holistic ecological approach, this article examines talent development among male under-19 football players at Ajax Amsterdam which has a history of successfully developing several of its juniors to top-level international players. Principal methods of data collection include interviews, participant observations of daily life in the environment, and analysis of documents. The environment was centred around the relationship between players and a clubhouse community consisting of a team of coaches, teachers, experts, and managers that helped the players to focus on: Handling dual careers (sport and school), developing mental toughness, social skills and work ethic. Furthermore, the environment was characterised by a strong, open, and cohesive organisational culture based on each player as an investment, social responsibility and individual development before winning matches. We argue that the holistic ecological approach holds the potential to inspire coaches and practitioners to be sensitive to and analyse not only the individual player’s athletic development but also the overall strategies and organisational settings, in the talent development environment.

Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBIs) are often connected to the development of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disease commonly found in athletes, military veterans, and others that have a history of repetitive brain trauma. This formative exploratory study looked at person-centred design techniques for a person with CTE. The person-centred design method used for this study was based on a two-tiered reductionist approach; the first tier was to identify common symptoms and concerns associated with CTE from the literature. This information provided specific symptoms that were addressed through brainstorming ideations. Each singular ideation accommodated the singular, or small cluster of symptoms, that affected a person with CTE in a residential environment. This method of understanding a health condition through its symptoms, and then designing for those symptoms can extend the practice of interior design by providing probable solutions to specific health symptoms, thereby including designers into the healthcare team. Commonly identified behavioural and physical symptoms of CTE served as the factors of analysis and thus a variable of design. The health condition symptoms became the variables of design, and each symptom was assessed through additional data obtained from the literature for environmental causality, mitigation, or accommodation. Once the outcomes were determined, each design implication was assessed for its relationship to specific design actions.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the factors perceived to be associated with the design and delivery of an effective Olympic Games preparation camp. Design/methodology/approach – To identify and explore such factors, interviews were conducted with eight members of a preparation camp delivery team for the London 2012 Olympic Games, and with two athletes who had participated in Olympic preparation camps. Findings – The results identified four overarching factors that should be considered when designing and delivering an effective Olympic preparation camp: planning, operations, environment, and the delivery team. To illustrate the interrelationships between these factors and situate them within the holistic preparation camp context, an operational model was developed. This model also portrays the chronological ordering of events, individuals involved at each stage, and athlete-centered nature of an Olympic preparation camp. Originality/value – Despite the significant amount of Olympic-related research at organizational, environmental, and individual levels, no research to date has holistically examined Olympic preparation camps per se. This study provides the first insight into the factors associated with the design and delivery of an effective Olympic preparation camp, and potential interrelationships between these factors.

Purpose Based on Haidt's social-intuitionist theory, this study analyzes the differences in ethical decision-making between sport athletes and the general public in order to understand the ethical judgment tendencies of athletes and examine the determining factors influencing their judgment from the perspective of their environment. In so doing, this study hopes to motivate education for enhancing ethical consciousness as well as institutional policy. Methods To this end, 200 elite athletes in their twenties registered for more than 10 years at the Korean Sports Association and 200 college students in their twenties from five universities in Seoul were selected for comparison. Response trends for each item were analyzed by percentage, and differences between groups were confirmed by the χ2 test method. Results The results are as follows. First, in general ethical situations, athletes usually showed a compulsory ethical view that emphasized principles, whereas in a sports situation, they showed a double consciousness and revealed a very strong consequential ethical view which put much emphasis on outcome. Second, athletes strongly maintained a Confucian ethical view that recognized ethics as a norm compared to the general public and, as a result, it was found that paternalism was relatively stronger than rationalism in their ethical decision making. Third, athletes regarded other people's thoughts and group interests as important criteria for ethical decision-making rather than individual thoughts and interests, and showed a group-centered mindset which emphasized group harmony and relationship. Fourth, while the general public viewed excellent athletes as those with excellent skills and good personality, and valued their morality, athletes thought relatively little of the influence and importance of morality in their success. Finally, it was found that coaches and managers were fundamental to the formation of the athlete’s moral view. Conclusion An in-depth understanding of sports participants' ethical awareness should come first in order to enhance ethical consciousness in sport. I hope this study will work as a catalyst for research which approaches athletes' ethical consciousness from a socio-cultural context.

Physiological, psycho-social and emotional parameters are critical skill and technical performance motifs in sports endeavors. Despite their noteworthy basis for high-quality athletic efficiencies, training and psycho-social deficiencies are inevitable challenges for athletes in competitive locales. This prospective cohort study adopted the quantitative approach. Its population was 200 participants with a sample of 25 coaches and 50 players drawn from selected tertiary institution teams in Masvingo Province. Study participants were drawn using stratified random sampling. Its thrust was to establish the impact of COVID-19 for return-to-sport athletes during lockdown restrictions. Further, it explored cardiological implications of cardiopulmonary loading parameters among athletes with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-oriented pulmonary ailments and non-diseased group. An adapted updated version of the Oslo Sports Trauma Research Centre questionnaire was used for data collection. Emerging findings revealed substantial disruption of training normalcy from lockdown restrictions. Players risked injury sustenance from solitude unsupervised workouts. Further, high cardiopulmonary loading intensities compromised health conditions of athletes with COPD-related ailments than the non-diseased group. Moreover, athletes reported major physiological and psycho-social retardation trends upon return-to-sport fora from COVID-19 lay-off restrictions. Creating online digital coaching bionetwork websites could substantially enhance ‘Work from Home’ training environments. Digital health support synergies through virtual tele-health conferences and video/zoom forums could further provide practical resolutions for athletes’ physiological and psycho-social parameters. Moderate to high intensity aerobic indoor training regimes could serve to attenuate retardation of quality skeletal tenacity and capacitate cardio-pulmonary activities from the effects of COVID-19 restrictions. SARS-oriented athletes require appropriately designed training regimes that are within their motoric aptitudes to avoid compromising their cardiopulmonary-related ailments. This allows for gradual alterations of physiological body processes from the onset of training workouts.

The heteronormative sporting environment underpins the sex/gender and heterosexual/homosexual binaries that are deeply entrenched in sport (Maurer-Starks et al., 2008). These function to preserve the biological differences between cisgender men and women, and remain institutionally resistant to individuals who transgress the boundaries of hegemonic masculinity and femininity (Davison & Frank, 2006). This study explores the idiosyncratic sporting experiences of lesbian and trans male athletes navigating the resistant climate. Four in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with two self-identified lesbian athletes and two self-identified trans male athletes. Results indicate that paths to empowerment for lesbian athletes centred on accentuating the masculine gender performances as atypical to hegemonic femininity. For trans male athletes, the medical transition was at the foci of narratives and masculine gender performances led to successful reinscriptions of the body through sport. Despite the oppressive conditions, the lesbian and trans male athletes found safe spaces to participate in sports.

Cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) is a second-line imaging test in cardiology. Balanced enlargement of heart chambers called athlete’s heart (AH) is a part of physiological adaptation to regular physical activity. The aim of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic utility of CMR in athletes with suspected structural heart disease (SHD) and to analyse the relation between the coexistence of AH and SHD. We wanted to assess whether the presence of AH phenotype could be considered as a sign of a healthy heart less prone to development of SHD. This retrospective, single centre study included 154 consecutive athletes (57 non-amateur, all sports categories, 87% male, mean age 34 ± 12 years) referred for CMR because of suspected SHD. The suspicion was based on existing guidelines including electrocardiographic and/or echocardiographic changes suggestive of abnormality but without a formal diagnosis. CMR permitted establishment of a new diagnosis in 66 patients (42%). The main diagnoses included myocardial fibrosis typical for prior myocarditis (n = 21), hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (n = 17, including 6 apical forms), other cardiomyopathies (n = 10) and prior myocardial infarction (n = 6). Athlete’s heart was diagnosed in 59 athletes (38%). The presence of pathologic late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) was found in 41 patients (27%) and was not higher in athletes without AH (32% vs. 19%, p = 0.08). Junction-point LGE was more prevalent in patients with AH phenotype (22% vs. 9%, p = 0.02). Patients without AH were not more likely to be diagnosed with SHD than those with AH (49% vs. 32%, p = 0.05). Based on the results of CMR and other tests, three patients (2%) were referred for ICD implantation for the primary prevention of sudden cardiac death with one patient experiencing adequate intervention during follow-up. The inclusion of CMR into the diagnostic process leads to a new diagnosis in many athletes with suspicion of SHD and equivocal routine tests. Athletes with AH pattern are equally likely to be diagnosed with SHD in comparison to those without AH phenotype. This shows that the development of AH and SHD can occur in parallel, which makes differential diagnosis in this group of patients more challenging.

Mental health research exists for student-athletes in the areas of depression, anxiety, and self-esteem prevalence. However, updated prevalence rates and assessment of risks across sports, academic status, and genders are needed. Filling the gaps in research assists in the creation of patient-centered mental health screening and interventions designed for student-athletes. Therefore, the purpose is to examine the prevalence of depression, anxiety, and self-esteem in collegiate student-athletes and differences between sex, academic status, and sport type, and identify associations for risks. Using a cross-sectional design, collegiate student-athletes were surveyed to assess for risks of depression, anxiety, and self-esteem. With the use of SPSS, Chi-square analyses and multinomial logistic regressions were used. Student-athletes (22.3%) were at risk for depression, anxiety (12.5%), and low self-esteem (8%). No significant differences were found for sex, academic status, and sport type for depression or self-esteem; however, significant differences occurred for state and trait anxiety by sex. A significant association for depression and anxiety risk was found with females at risk. Depression and anxiety are present within student-athletes, regardless of sport type. Females are at a higher risk; however, all student-athletes would benefit from the creation of validated, patient-centered mental health screenings and psychotherapeutic interventions.

Anxiety consists of cognitive and somatic components. The present study aims to examine the relationship between ethnic and anxiety. The sample consisted of 147 football players, with Malay (N=54), Chinese (N=45), Indian (N=31) and others (N=17). Competitive State Anxiety Inventory –2, used to collect the data. The result showed that Malay ethnic category exhibited higher levels of cognitive anxiety, whereas Indian ethnic exhibit a higher level of somatic anxiety. The findings of this study is beneficial to coaches, sport psychologist and counsellors in providing suitable coping strategies to Malay and Indian soccer athletes, to reduce anxiety and enhance their performance. Keywords: Cognitive anxiety; somatic anxiety; football players; cultural. eISSN 2514-7528 © 2018. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open-access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. https://doi.org/10.21834/jabs.v3i8.287

Sports nutrition in Canada has significantly evolved over the years from providing fundamental training dietary advice to applied precise assessment of nutritional status in a variety of settings, especially with the establishment of Canadian Sport Institutes and Centres across Canada. This progression has enhanced the level of dietary support to manage athletes’ nutrition in a holistic perspective. Athletes are now educated about food fundamentals (acquiring foods, menu planning, preparing, food safety), personal accountability of hydration and energy monitoring (urinary and body weight assessments), individualized supplementation protocols, and customized nutrition for variable daily training environments according to their Yearly Training Plan. Sport dietitians are an important member of Integrated Sport Teams where collaboration exists amongst professionals who coordinate the athletes’ personalized training and performance programming. Dietitians in sport are encouraged to continue to lobby for nutrition programming at the elite, varsity, provincial, and club levels to ensure that athletes receive accurate guidance from nutrition experts.

Lockdown order during the COVID-19 pandemic creates new norms of lifestyle, including food accessibility. To understand whether this situation might affect food purchase behaviour (FPB) and diet quality in exceptional people such as athletes, online FPB and diet quality index-international (DQI-I) questionnaires were distributed to 299 university athletes but only 195 responded. The survey found FPB score of respondents was 63.3±14.1, whereas the DQI-I score was 61.8±13.2. A strong relationship between FPB and DQI-I scores, r(193) = .64, p<.00001, was determined. FPB and DQI-I were not affected by gender, age and college seniority differences. Keywords: Food purchase behaviour, diet quality index, athletes, COVID-19 eISSN: 2398-4287 © 2022. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BYNC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21834/ebpj.v7iSI7%20(Special%20Issue).3823

Context It has become increasingly important that athletic trainers (ATs) understand and promote diversity, inclusion, and cultural competency. One technique athletic training educators can use to promote cultural competency for those in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and asexual (LGBTQIA+) community is by attending a safe space ally training (SST) program to integrate the concepts of SST programing into their curriculum. Objective To provide athletic training educators with techniques to integrate inclusion and cultural competence regarding the LGBTQIA+ community into the athletic training curriculum using SST content. Our goal is that athletic training educators will train future ATs as well as embrace individual professional development. Background The National Athletic Trainers' Association (NATA) LGBTQ+ Advisory Committee (AC) has created an SST workshop for athletic trainers. Educators can promote cultural competency throughout the curriculum using evidence-based training programs such as the NATA LGBTQ+ AC SST. Description The emphasis of SST is to improve cultural competence regarding sexual minorities to improve inclusivity in all athletic training settings. It is critical that athletic training education programs prepare graduates to be competent, compassionate, patient-centered and professional ATs who are ready to function as health care professionals for all patients. Clinical Advantage(s) A goal of cultural competency is to create an inclusive environment within all athletic training settings, whether it be in a classroom, a clinic, or a nontraditional work setting. Health disparities and health care inequities must be appreciated by every AT to deliver compassionate and competent care for all in marginalized populations. Educators can make a difference in the future of athletic training by increasing the cultural competency of their students. Conclusion(s) Patient-centered care, knowledge of the care of those in diverse and minority populations, and ethical behavior can be enhanced through SST programs.

Context Graduates of athletic training programs (ATPs) have identified factors contributing to their persistence through professional education. However, program directors have yet to elaborate on programmatic attributes that might contribute to athletic training student retention in their respective ATPs. Objective To determine program directors' perceptions of ATP strengths and areas for improvement regarding athletic training student retention. Design Qualitative study. Setting Bachelor's ATPs. Patients or Other Participants Sixteen ATP directors with 6.0 ± 4.0 years of experience in their current positions. Main Outcome Measure(s) The participants completed audio recorded telephone interviews. We analyzed the data using principles of grounded theory and maintained trustworthiness using multiple-analyst triangulation, peer review, and member checks. Results We found 2 themes to describe the strengths of bachelor's ATPs. Our participants thought that they provided a student-centered approach and diverse clinical education experiences leading to a supportive and exciting environment to foster athletic training student learning. We categorized the student centered approach theme into 3 subthemes: program size, student engagement and program atmosphere, and academic and clinical cohesion. Conclusions Program directors should strive to provide athletic training students with individual attention to help them feel welcomed, valued, and important. A small program size or adequate personnel can foster interpersonal relations which can provide athletic training students with mentoring opportunities. Improving ATP cohesion can provide learning opportunities which assist students in making connections and promote the importance of the academic and clinical education components of the ATP. Engaging athletic training students early through a variety of clinical education experiences can assist professional socialization and foster excitement for the profession.

Context Social determinants of health (SDH) are reportedly more important in determining a patient's health status than the actual health care services provided. Given their role and unique clinical practice environment, athletic trainers will encounter patients who are influenced by SDH. It is important to educate future generations of athletic trainers on the importance of SDH to promote positive patient outcomes. Objective To detail a strategy for implementing concepts of SDH into athletic training education programs. Background A purposeful educational strategy that incorporates didactic concepts and clinical practice application of SDH for athletic training students is important to produce a deeper understanding of the role these factors play in populational health. Description Delivery methods such as presentation modules and learning activities are presented. Clinical Advantage(s) Integrating SDH through a tailored activity exposes students to the concepts of SDH and promotes observation and use in clinical practice. Awareness and recognition of how SDH support delivery of patient-centered care may promote patient and population health outcomes. Conclusion(s) The inclusion of SDH into athletic training education using lecture, observational learning, and reflective techniques can expose students to SDH in clinical practice and promote whole-person health care.

Background: Young adults often derive self-identity from affiliation with peer crowds, which may be defined as reputation-based peer groups centered around characterizable lifestyle norms. Little is known about peer crowds prevalent among Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and other Pacific Islander (AANHPI) populations and the peer crowds’ normative tobacco and other substance use behavior. To address this gap in knowledge, this study conducted focus groups with young adult community college students. Methods: Focus group discussions were conducted with a convenience sample of 42 young adults (Mean age = 21.5, SD = 2.7) recruited across community colleges on O‘ahu, Hawai‘i. The participants represented 60% women, 55% NHPI, and 29% Asian American. Results: Results indicated the presence of a wide range of peer crowds in the population, which may be classified into the following seven categories prevalent in the literature: Regular, Academic, Alternative, Athlete, Geek, High Risk, and Popular. Several peer crowds within the Alternative, Athlete, Geek, High Risk, and Popular categories appeared to represent subcultures relevant for NHPI young adults. High-risk peer crowds were reported to be vulnerable to different types of substance use. Tobacco product use, particularly e-cigarette use or vaping, was noted to be characteristically present among Popular crowds and certain Athlete crowds. Conclusion: Tobacco and other substance use prevention interventions, such as mass media campaigns, may benefit from targeting high-risk peer crowds, especially those relevant for NHPI young adults, who are at high risk for tobacco and other substance use. E-cigarette use prevention interventions may benefit from paying close attention to vulnerable Popular and Athlete groups.

Background: Many medical students are dealing with day to day stress in their lives and they need to be both physically and mentally active to counter and overcome their daily problems. In such scenario, a non-pharmacological adjunct could prove useful to counter all of it so that they can work more efficiently. Many universities do recommend the use of peppermints and chewing gums. This study is conducted to see if any of these items actually have an influence on cognitive and physical abilities.Methods: A non-randomized controlled trial was performed on the undergraduate medical students of N.K.P. Salve Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Centre belonging to the age group of 18-21 years. They were given normal flavoured gum, mint flavoured gum and peppermint. A series of cognitive and physiological tests in both stressful and stress free environments were performed.Results: Consumption of peppermint in a stressful environment showed increase in attention span of the subjects and it increased the intelligence Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-R (WAIS-R) in both stress free and stressful environments. As compared to normal gum, peppermint and peppermint gum proved to be more effective. There was no significant change observed in alertness, reaction time, arithmetic ability, short term memory and fatigue index in any of the subjects.Conclusions: Peppermint has caused increase in the attention span and intelligence of medical students in a stressful work scenario. Peppermint gum was found to be more beneficial than normal gum.

This work intends to examine the influence of different dimensions of psychological distance on the moral decision-making of sports college students in sports dilemmas under different learning pressure conditions, and to further investigate the relationship between psychological distance and moral decision-making. The research on the influencing factors of moral decision-making of sports majors can effectively help to understand the moral cognition level of the group, and provide a reference for the interpretation of athletes’ moral anomie behavior, thereby enriching the content of the moral quality education of athletes. This work intends to study the impact of psychological distance on the moral decision support of sports college students in the context of the Internet of Things (IoT) and machine learning. Psychological distance in the machine learning environment may affect individuals’ understanding and cognition of events and, to a certain extent, can change students’ cognition and judgment of events. IoT and machine learning environments are chosen as the foundation. The learning pressure of college students majoring in physical education is a variable. A questionnaire survey and experimental design are used to test the influence of different degrees of learning pressure, social distance, and spatial distance on the moral decision-making of physical education college students in the sports dilemma. The dimensions of the psychological distance of physical education (PE) students are analyzed under different stress conditions and their impact on the moral decision-making of PE students. This experiment adopts a mixed experimental design of 3 learning stresses (no stress vs. moderate stress vs. high stress) × 2 social distances (self vs. others) × 2 spatial distances (Beijing vs. France). The results show that the main effect of social distance is significant. When the self is the decision-making subject, individuals tend to make more moral decisions. There is a significant interaction between social distance and learning pressure. In a stress-free and high-stress environment, individuals make a significant increase in the number of moral decisions when faced with self-centered decision-making. Now, moral decision-making and its consequences are important for college students majoring in sports. The results of their moral decision-making in the field of education directly reflect the image of the individual and even the institution.

Context:Health professionals (ie, physical therapists, athletic trainers) can play an integral role in the psychological recovery from injury.Objective:To examine health professionals’ perceptions of the roles they play and their influence on the psychological recovery of their clients.Design:A qualitative design using semistructured interviews that were transcribed and analyzed using interpretational analyses to reveal themes.Setting:4 rehabilitation clinics specializing in sport- and physical-activity-related injuries.Participants:18 participants (17 physical therapists, 1 athletic trainer) with a mean age of 36 years.Results:Using thematic coding of the interview data, general-dimension data themes identified were centered on the roles of rapport builder, educator, and communicator. Health professionals perceive that they play important roles in the psychological recovery of their clients in spite of a lack of professional training in psychology and strive to create a caring and supportive environment. Results demonstrate the perceptions of the roles they play and the influence they have on the psychological component of the recovery process.

The study aimed to investigate the use of visual display badminton game rallies to determine the level of sports intelligence. Methods of this study reveal the study participants with video display real game of badminton where some strokes rally divided into several shots. The result showed expert level players led the perceptual-cognitive task among another tested group. This preliminary study could suggest that the 'software' approach in skilled performance has been heading the search for systematic differences in information processing strategies between expert and novice athletes. Keywords: perceptual-visual; prediction; decision making; video task eISSN: 2398-4287 © 2022. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BYNC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21834/ebpj.v7iSI7%20(Special%20Issue).3822

This study describes the development, evaluation and application of a computer vision and deep learning system capable of capturing sprinting and skeleton push start step characteristics and mass centre velocities (sled and athlete). Movement data were captured concurrently by a marker-based motion capture system and a custom markerless system. High levels of agreement were found between systems, particularly for spatial based variables (step length error 0.001 ± 0.012 m) while errors for temporal variables (ground contact time and flight time) were on average within ± 1.5 frames of the criterion measures. Comparisons of sprinting and pushing revealed decreased mass centre velocities as a result of pushing the sled but step characteristics were comparable to sprinting when aligned as a function of step velocity. There were large asymmetries between the inside and outside leg during pushing (e.g. 0.22 m mean step length asymmetry) which were not present during sprinting (0.01 m step length asymmetry). The observed asymmetries suggested that force production capabilities during ground contact were compromised for the outside leg. The computer vision based methods tested in this research provide a viable alternative to marker-based motion capture systems. Furthermore, they can be deployed into challenging, real world environments to non-invasively capture data where traditional approaches are infeasible.

Objective: This review of literature presents the theoretical framework of goal orientation and student achievement from a pedagogical perspective while providing practical applications and implications for integrating goal orientation into athletic training education programs. Data Sources: Selected literature derived from EBSCO, Education Abstracts, CINAHL, PsychInfo and ERIC databases from 1980 to 2005 was reviewed. Key words for the search included achievement goal orientation, achievement motivation, and student engagement. Data Synthesis: Literature from educational psychology and pedagogy were reviewed to present key issues related to achievement goal orientation. The review addressed achievement goal theory relative to student engagement, task persistence, and adaptive behaviors. Additionally, implications for athletic training educators were generated for both didactic and clinical settings. Conclusions/Recommendations: Achievement goal orientation has profound implications on student learning and student achievement. Athletic training educators must be careful to create educational environments which foster self-regulated learning. Activities that assist students with goal construction and that monitor student progress toward a designated goal in the classroom and clinical settings should be of primary importance to athletic training educators. In a profession that requires lifelong learning; fostering strong achievement goals through student-centered activities can enhance the professional development of the student throughout the curriculum and beyond.

Abstrak Aspirasi dari masyarakat, wakil rakyat, dan berbagai kalangan pengurus berbagai cabang olah raga di kota metro sangat menghendaki dibangunnya fasilitas olah raga yang representative guna meningkatkan kualitas para atlit lokalnya. Untuk itu pemerintah daerah telah memprogramkan pembangunan Sport Centre di kota Metro, Lampung. Permasalahannya adalah desain sport centre yang seperti apa yang cocok untuk kota Metro sebagai ibukota kabupaten? Tujuan penelitian ialah untuk mendapatkan konsep perencanaan dan perancangan arsitektur bangunan sport centre yang tepat sebagai pusat fasilitas olah raga tingkat kabupaten. Metode yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini ialah deskriptif, analitis dan sintesis. Hasil penelitian telah mendapatkan suatu konsep perencanaan dan perancangan arsitektur bangunan sport centre yang bersifat rekreatif dan edukatif. Kata kunci: Sport Centre, Rekreatif, Edukatif. Abstract The aspirations of the community, people's representatives, and various management circles of various sports branches in the metro city really want the construction of representative sports facilities in order to improve the quality of local athletes. For this reason, the local government has programmed the construction of a Sport Center in the city of Metro, Lampung. The problem is what kind of sports center design is suitable for Metro as the district capital? The purpose of this research is to get the concept of planning and designing the right sports center building architecture as the center for sports facilities at the district level. The method used in this research is descriptive, analytical and synthesis. The results of the research have obtained a concept of planning and architectural design of a sport center building that is recreational and educational. Keywords: Sport Centre, Recreational, Educative

This paper aims to investigate the differences in standing balance control ability between freestyle skiing aerials athletes and ordinary graduate students by means of wavelet transform (WT) and the overall stability index (OSI) and to discover the characteristics of the postural control ability of dissimilar subjects and appropriate methods to assess the postural control ability of the human body. Research Methods: In all, 16 subjects were tested, including 8 from the Chinese national team who had won the world championships of freestyle skiing aerials, with 10+ years of training (age: 23 ± 23.1 years, Height: 176 ± 2.1 cm, and weight: 69 ± 3.5 kg), and 8 ordinary graduate students of Shenyang Institute of Physical Education (age: 22.6 ± 4.6 years, Height: 179 ± 3.3 cm, and weight: 73 ± 4.1 kg). When performing the tasks, the research subjects were required to stand on the steady support surface (with eyes closed and legs closed) for 30 s in each testing. The displacement data of the anteroposterior (AP) direction and the mediolateral (ML) direction of their centre of pressure (COP) were recorded. Then, WT and OSI were calculated. Two dissimilar methods were compared to analyse the characteristics of balance ability. Results: (1) The athletes’ WT values in the AP direction and the ML direction were concentrated in the interval of 22~30 s and 0–8 s, respectively, while the ordinary graduate students’ WT values in the AP direction and the ML direction were concentrated in the interval of 10~25 s and 0–7 s, respectively; (2) the WT values of the regular graduate students in the AP direction and the ML direction were higher than those of the athletes (p < 0.01); and (3) the OSI value in the AP direction of the athletes was higher than of the ordinary graduate students, while the OSI value in the ML direction of the athletes was lower than that of regular graduate students. Conclusion: Compared to the OSI, WT can analyse the characteristics of balance control ability more effectively. The COP displacement frequencies of the athletes and ordinary graduate students were concentrated in the low-frequency bands. The athletes had superior adjustment ability in an imbalanced state and could adjust to the best position without effort. In addition, the athletes had a stronger adaptive ability. In comparison, the ordinary graduate students had comparatively poor adaptive ability and weak adjustment ability in the imbalanced state, so it was difficult for them to attain the best angle after adjustment.

The positive and appropriate development of children through youth sport is of the utmost importance. The quality of this experience can also have a direct effect on their life-long engagement in physical activity and sport (Newman et al., 2018). The Game in the Child Model was designed on the premise that you must first learn how to teach the child before you can teach them to play the sport and is most beneficial for children 12 years of age and younger. This foundational premise guides all other components of the model from a philosophical as well as a developmental level. These guiding factors consist of four levels beginning with child characteristics (how they think, feel, grow), coach characteristics (their past and present experiences), organizational characteristics (type and purpose). The leads to gaining a better understanding of how play can be used as a tool for growth and development within an athlete-centered environment. The final two levels address a game-based pedagogical approach that reflects the first two levels with the goal of unlocking the Game within the Child. The model also recognizes the importance of the child’s social, economic, and political influences through the envelopment of Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Theory (1975, 1977).

Context: Knowledge and understanding of how to evaluate and implement clinical prediction rules (CPRs) is necessary for athletic trainers, but there is a lack of information on how to best teach students about CPRs. Objective: To provide an overview of the derivation, validation, and analysis of the different types of CPRs and to provide examples and strategies on how to best implement CPRs throughout didactic and clinical athletic training curricula. Background: Clinical prediction rules are used in a variety of health care professions to aid in providing patient-centered care in diagnosis or intervention. Previous research has identified that many athletic trainers have a limited knowledge of CPRs and often do not implement them in clinical practice even if they do know about them. Using these evidence-based decision-making tools can help improve patient outcomes while also decreasing unnecessary medical costs. Description: This article discusses the derivation and validation of CPRs as well as how to implement the concepts of CPRs in multiple courses to allow students numerous opportunities to understand how CPRs can be beneficial. Clinical Advantage(s): Teaching students how to critically analyze CPRs and understand the derivation process of CPRs will develop students' decision-making skills and encourage students to be evidence-based clinicians. In addition, the teaching strategies described here aim to create dialogue between students and preceptors regarding evidence-based practice concepts. Conclusion(s): Athletic trainers must be able to function in the larger health care environment, and understanding how to correctly evaluate and apply CPRs will be helpful. Teaching students a variety of CPRs and how to evaluate their impact on clinical practice will prepare students to step into this role when they become independent clinicians.

Background and purpose: Muscle dysmorphia is one of the most common forms of body dysmorphic disorder. It is part of the obsessive-compulsive disorders, wherein sufferers believe that the body is too small or not muscular enough. The purpose of this study was to determine the predictors of muscle dysmorphia among fitness center members.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted at five fitness centers with 117 respondents. Several scales were applied including: 1) 4th edition Sociocultural Attitudes Towards Appearance Scale (SATAQ) to measure self-internalization, family, peer, and media pressures; 2) Physical Appearance Comparison Scale (PACS) to measure social comparison; 3) Body Esteem Scale for Adolescents and Adults (BESAA) to measure respondents' satisfaction with their bodies and 4) The Muscle Dysmorphic Disorder Inventory (MDDI) to measure muscle dysmorphia. Meanwhile, weight was measured with Kris EB9-4A Series digital scales, height with GEA microtoise and body fat percentage with a digital HBF-306 body fat monitor. Spearman’s Correlation test was performed for the bivariate analysis and multiple linear regression for the multivariate analysis.Results: The prevalence of muscle dysmorphia among fitness center members was 43.6% (95%CI=33.99:53.20) in the total sample based on MDDI cut-off score. Bivariate analysis shows that six variables including body fat percentage, total physical activity, thin/low body fat internalizations, muscular/athletic internalizations, peer pressure, media pressure associated with muscle dysmorphia. In the multivariate analysis, only four variables were significantly associated with muscle dysmorphia, namely: muscular/athletic internalization (β=0.369, 95%CI=0.296:0776, p<0.001), media pressure (β=0.277, 95%CI=0.167:0.595, p<0.001), body fat percentage (β=-0.262, 95%CI=-0.301:-0.067, p=0.002) and body dissatisfaction (β=-0.224, 95%CI=-0.245:-0.050, p=0.003).Conclusion: The prevalence of muscle dysmorphia in Denpasar City is relatively high. Muscular/athletic internalization, media exposure, body fat percentage and body satisfaction are associated with increase chance of having muscle dysmorphia.

Heart rate monitors (HRMs) are used by millions of athletes worldwide to monitor exercise intensity and heart rate (HR) during training. This case report presents a 34-year-old male amateur soccer player with severe bradycardia who accidentally identified numerous pauses of over 4 s (maximum length: 7.3 s) during sleep on his own HRM with a heart rate variability (HRV) function. Simultaneous HRM and Holter ECG recordings were performed in an outpatient clinic, finding consistent 6.3 s sinus arrests (SA) with bradycardia of 33 beats/min. During the patient’s hospitalization for a transient ischemic attack, the longest pauses on the Holter ECG were recorded, and he was suggested to undergo pacemaker implantation. He then reduced the volume/intensity of exercise for 4 years. Afterward, he spent 2 years without any regular training due to depression. After these 6 years, another Holter ECG test was performed in our center, not confirming the aforementioned disturbances and showing a tendency to tachycardia. The significant SA was resolved after a period of detraining. The case indicates that considering invasive therapy was unreasonable, and patient-centered care and shared decision-making play a key role in cardiac pacing therapy. In addition, some sports HRM with an HRV function can help diagnose bradyarrhythmia, both in professional and amateur athletes.

Teaching Games for Understanding is basically learning by the game level that suitabled with the development and activity of modification game learning that is centered on tactical problems and the student must be to solve it. Physical Education learning approaches to introduce the meaning of playing in sport to students. The purpose from this research is to improve known player basketball about Man to Man Marking in playing basketball used teaching games for understanding tactical approach. This research is qualitative research, observative descriptive design to know implementation of new learning methods in Physical education to students, or athletes by using teaching games for understanding. In this research had been done by observation, using triangulation data, given practice Teaching games for understanding methods, improving known was by questionnaire and skill results after giving teaching games for understanding method and documentation from the activities. This approach was an activity to make it easy for the students to deliver material, especially about the tactic games in sport. Furthermore, this approach is a part from Tactical Approach, where students or athletes will do some game modification that is almost the same with the real game. Technique from the game will be the same, but sometimes the field, rule of game, and player who can play will be modified by the teacher. The focus from students was in the tactical game. So, they must understand their position and their assignment in the field during the game. From the research, answered from students and their opinion about the Teaching Games for understanding tactical approach for better known man to man marking defense, the conclusion that 66,7% from total sample have good known about the teaching games for understanding, but 33,3% from others, have good known yet about the tactical approach. That is, the teaching games for understanding for students and athletes must be more socialized, especially in Jambi.

A maximum plank hold (PH) has been implemented in the Army Combat Fitness Test (ACFT) with the Holistic Health and Fitness (H2F) program. The H2F program introduces a shift in wellbeing from a fitness centered approach to framework also comprising nutrition, sleep, mental, and spiritual components. The purpose was to analyze how a maximum PH correlated with fitness, lifestyle behaviors, and mood states in tactical athletes (TA) and assess differences between those who pass and fail. Forty-nine TA completed fitness testing, lifestyle behavior, and mood state surveys. Bivariate correlations were used to examine relationships with PH performance. PH time was significantly correlated with total body mass, fat mass, BMI, push-ups, and state physical energy (SPE). VO2max was significantly different between the groups who passed and failed the PH. PH was not associated with lifestyle behaviors or trait mood states. PH performance could vary day-to-day as it was correlated with SPE. Individuals with poorer aerobic fitness and body composition may be at risk for failing the PH.

In what ways did Sydney's Gay Games reinvent the Australian nation? In this paper I set out to examine this question by drawing upon the idea that sports and parades of athletes during opening ceremonies have been definitive moments for the Australian nation. I investigate the social terrains or bodyscapes invoked by sporting gay pride during the participants' parade at the opening ceremony and sports venues of the Sydney 2002 Gay Games. This enables insights into whether these spaces subverted the heteronormativity of sporting bodies that are metaphors for Australian national space. I centre my argument within a post-Foucauldian performance theory to consider both lived experience and textual representations of queer sports spaces. This approach advocates a recursive relationship between power, discourse, and critically reflexive, geographically embedded subjects. The ethnographic basis of my findings is participant observation and a time series of in-depth interviews with over forty self-identifying gay and queer males living in Sydney. I extract two overarching themes from the bodyscapes of the games: transcendence and imprisonment. For those actively involved in the making of camp bodyscapes, mimicking the monopoly of the dominant order through the authority of national signification provided by the parade of athletes at opening ceremonies and by sporting bodies offered a transgressive vehicle. However, the pillar of hetero-normative sporting bodies in defining Australian national boundaries survived unchallenged. Sporting gay pride also worked to close rather than to open up a space for discourses about sexuality and national identity to occur. Closure from a mainstream audience occurred by jettisoning the shame that links sport, sex, and bodies. Closure also occurred amongst certain respondents who shunned the games, regarding it as disciplining bodies into ‘normalcy’.

Adapted physical activity (APA) can improve psychophysical wellbeing and quality of life (QoL) in cancer survivors, a vulnerable population requiring a global management, especially during the recent pandemic. On this basis, we investigated for the first time the impact of a tailored APA intervention on a melanoma-affected 18-year-old female athlete to counteract treatment sequelae and promote lower limb functional and strength recovery. Patient was evaluated at baseline and post-protocol by a test battery focusing on mobility, muscle strength measured by dynamometry, and lower limb girths assessed at specific anatomical points. Moreover, health-related QoL, depression/anxiety, psychological distress and pain intensity were evaluated by Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy–Melanoma (FACT-M), Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), distress thermometer, and numerical rating scale (NRS) questionnaires, respectively. An almost doubled up increase in lower limb strength, along with hip mobility improvement, and post-surgical edema and pain reduction were observed following the protocol. Concerning the QoL assessment, a moderate post-intervention improvement in physical and emotional wellbeing was detected, while depression state worsened though remaining within the normality range. Our findings show that a specialist-supervised structured APA protocol based on a patient-centered multidisciplinary approach may represent an effective strategy to recover functional and psychophysical efficiency, thus promoting a quick return to daily life activities and offering a concrete chance of resuming competitive sport practice.

This cross-sectional descriptive study was initiated to investigate the relationship between physical activity and perceived quality of life in a lower-limb amputee population. The objective was to show which aspects of physical activity were most strongly linked to quality-of-life factors in this special patient group. The outcome measurements were two questionnaires: a section of the Trinity Amputation and Prosthetic Experience Scales (TAPES) and the World Health Organization Quality-of-Life Scale (WHOQOL-Bref). The former measures activity restriction and has Athletic, Functional, and Social subscales. The latter includes Physical, Psychological, Social, and Environmental domains, and measures the individual's perception of their quality of life. The two questionnaires were sent by post to 75 male and female participants with either trans-tibial or trans-femoral amputation who were receiving prosthetic care from a Glasgow-based rehabilitation and mobility centre and who met the inclusion criteria. All participants were over 18 years of age (mean age 66 years). In total, 25 participants returned the questionnaires—a response rate of 33%. According to analysis, 8 of the 12 relationships found were statistically significant. There was a very strong correlation between scores on the social elements of each questionnaire. The correlations between scores on the functional and athletic elements of the TAPES questionnaire and scores on the social element of the WHOQOL-Bref questionnaire were less strong. Our findings support the need for greater acknowledgement by healthcare professionals involved in the care of those with amputation about the importance of the patient's social relationships with friends and family. Education about the importance of increasing and maintaining a level of physical activity conducive to health benefits should be implemented within a supportive sociable environment for the patient with lower-limb amputation.

Evident within many diasporic communities is a group consciousness and organization that operates in non-institutional spaces outside the realms of government agencies. The case of Puerto Ricans is no different and beyond collective organization, islanders in the diaspora went further in redefining the very criteria of Puerto Rican identity. This paper focuses on the migrant communities located in New York and the ways in which informal activities and non-institutional venues served as community centres. Food traditions, sporting competitions, and poetic practices all acted as cultural bases. Such activities fostered a democratic and participatory formation of Puerto Rican identity and played a critical role in the socio- economic development of migrants. These spaces also provided room for the complex nuances of Puertoricanness that were overlooked or purposely excluded from dominant ideologies by both the American and Puerto Rican government. Looking at bodegas, athletic clubs, and the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, we can observe the vital role of spaces outside the state’s control in facilitating an egalitarian and communal process of identity-making.

IntroductionCurrent evidence suggests that the loss of mechanoreceptors after anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tears might be compensated by increased cortical motor planning. This occupation of cerebral resources may limit the potential to quickly adapt movements to unforeseen external stimuli in the athletic environment. To date, studies investigating such neural alterations during movement focused on simple, anticipated tasks with low ecological validity. This trial, therefore, aims to investigate the cortical and biomechanical processes associated with more sport-related and injury-related movements in ACL-reconstructed individuals.Methods and analysisACL-reconstructed participants and uninjured controls will perform repetitive countermovement jumps with single leg landings. Two different conditions are to be completed: anticipated (n=35) versus unanticipated (n=35) successful landings. Under the anticipated condition, participants receive the visual information depicting the requested landing leg prior to the jump. In the unanticipated condition, this information will be provided only about 400 msec prior to landing. Neural correlates of motor planning will be measured using electroencephalography. In detail, movement-related cortical potentials, frequency spectral power and functional connectivity will be assessed. Biomechanical landing quality will be captured via a capacitive force plate. Calculated parameters encompass time to stabilisation, vertical peak ground reaction force, and centre of pressure path length. Potential systematic differences between ACL-reconstructed individuals and controls will be identified in dependence of jumping condition (anticipated/ unanticipated, injured/uninjured leg and controls) by using interference statistics. Potential associations between the cortical and biomechanical measures will be calculated by means of correlation analysis. In case of statistical significance (α<0.05.) further confounders (cofactors) will be considered.Ethics and disseminationThe independent Ethics Committee of the University of Frankfurt (Faculty of Psychology and Sports Sciences) approved the study. Publications in peer-reviewed journals are planned. The findings will be presented at scientific conferences.Trial statusAt the time of submission of this manuscript, recruitment is ongoing.Trial registration numberNCT03336060; Pre-results.

It was the Canadian philosopher Marshall McLuhan who first introduced the term ‘global village’ into the lexicon, almost fifty years ago. He was referring to the phenomenon of global interconnectedness of which we are all too aware today. At that time, we were witnessing the world just opening up. In 1946, British Airways had commenced a twice weekly service from London to New York. The flight involved one or two touch downs en-route and took a scheduled 19 hours and 45 minutes. By the time McLuhan had published his book “Understanding media; the extensions of man”, there were regular services by jet around the globe. London to Sydney was travelled in just under 35 hours. Moving forward to a time immediately pre-covid, there were over 30 non-stop flights a day in each direction between London and New York. The travel time from London to Sydney had been cut by a third, to slightly under 22 hours, with just one touchdown en-route. The world has well and truly ‘opened up’. No place is unreachable by regular services. But that is just one part of the picture. In 1962, the very first live television pictures were transmitted across the Atlantic, via satellite. It was a time when sports’ fans would tune in besides a crackling radio set to hear commentary of their favourite game relayed from the other side of the world. Today of course, not only can we watch a live telecast of the Olympic Games in the comfort of our own homes wherever the games are being held, but we can pick up a telephone and talk face to face with friends and relatives in real time, wherever they may be in the world. To today’s generation – generation Z – this does not seem in the least bit remarkable. Indeed, they have been nicknamed ‘the connected generation’ precisely because such a degree of human interconnectedness no longer seems worth commenting on. The media technology and the transport advances that underpin this level of connectedness, have become taken for granted assumptions to them. This is why the global events of 2020 and the associated public health related reactions, have proved to be so remarkable to them. It is mass travel and the closeness and variety of human contact in day-to-day interactions, that have provided the breeding ground for the pandemic. Consequently, moving around and sharing close proximity with many strangers, have been the activities that have had to be curbed, as the initial primary means to manage the spread of the virus. This has caused hardship to many, either through the loss of a job and the associated income or, the lengthy enforced separation from family and friends – for the many who find themselves living and working far removed from their original home. McLuhan’s powerful metaphor was ahead of its time. His thoughts were centred around media and electronic communications well prior to the notion of a ‘physical’ pandemic, which today has provided an equally potent image of how all of our fortunes have become intertwined, no matter where we sit in the world. Yet it is this event which seems paradoxically to have for the first time forced us to consider more closely the path of progress pursued over the last half century. It is as if we are experiencing for the first time the unleashing of powerful and competing forces, which are both centripetal and centrifugal. On the one hand we are in a world where we have a World Health Organisation. This is a body which has acted as a global force, first declaring the pandemic and subsequently acting in response to it as a part of its brief for international public health. It has brought the world’s scientists and global health professionals together to accelerate the research and development process and develop new norms and standards to contain the spread of the coronavirus pandemic and help care for those affected. At the same time, we have been witnessing nations retreating from each other and closing their borders in order to restrict the interaction of their citizens with those from other nations around the world. We have perceived that danger and risk are increased by international travel and human to human interaction. As a result, increasingly communication has been carried out from the safety and comfort of one’s own home, with electronic media taking the place of personal interaction in the real world. The change to the media dominated world, foreseen by McLuhan a half century ago, has been hastened and consolidated by the threats posed by Covid 19. Real time interactions can be conducted more safely and more economically by means of the global reach of the internet and the ever-enhanced technologies that are being offered to facilitate that. Yet at a geopolitical level prior to Covid 19, the processes of globalism and nationalism were already being recognised as competing forces. In many countries, tensions have emerged between those who are benefitting from the opportunities presented by the development of free trade between countries and those who are invested in more traditional ventures, set in their own nations and communities. The emerging beneficiaries have become characterised as the global elites. Their demographic profile is one associated with youth, education and progressive social ideas. However, they are counter-balanced by those who, rather than opportunities, have experienced threats from the disruptions and turbulence around them. Among the ideas challenged, have been the expected certainties of employment, social values and the security with which many grew up. Industries which have been the lifeblood of their communities are facing extinction and even the security of housing and a roof over the heads of self and family may be under threat. In such circumstances, some people may see waves of new immigrants, technology, and changing social values as being tides which need to be turned back. Their profile is characterised by a demographic less equipped to face such changes - the more mature, less well educated and less mobile. Yet this tension appears to be creating something more than just the latest version of the generational divide. The recent clashes between Republicans and Democrats in the US have provided a very potent example of these societal stresses. The US has itself exported some of these arenas of conflict to the rest of the world. Black lives Matter and #Me too, are social movements with their foundation in the US which have found their way far beyond the immediate contexts which gave them birth. In the different national settings where these various tensions have emerged, they have been characterised through labels such as left and right, progressive and traditional, the ‘haves’ versus the ‘have nots’ etc. Yet common to all of this growing competitiveness between ideologies and values is a common thread. The common thread lies in the notion of competition itself. It finds itself expressed most potently in the spread and adoption of ideas based on what has been termed the neoliberal values of the free market. These values have become ingrained in the language and concepts we employ every day. Thus, everything has a price and ultimately the price can be represented by a dollar value. We see this process of commodification around us on a daily basis. Sports studies’ scholars have long drawn attention to its continuing growth in the world of sport, especially in situations when it overwhelms the human characteristics of the athletes who are at the very heart of sport. When the dollar value of the athlete and their performance becomes more important than the individual and the game, then we find ourselves at the heart of some of the core problems reported today. It is at the point where sport changes from an experience, where the athletes develop themselves and become more complete persons experiencing positive and enriching interactions with fellow athletes, to an environment where young athletes experience stress and mental and physical ill health as result of their experiences. Those who are supremely talented (and lucky?) are rewarded with fabulous riches. Others can find themselves cast out on the scrap heap as a result of an unfair selection process or just the misfortune of injury. Sport as always, has proved to be a mirror of life in reflecting this process in the world at large, highlighting the heights that can be climbed by the fortunate as well as the depths that can be plumbed by the ill-fated. Advocates of the free-market approach will point to the opportunities it can offer. Figures can show that in a period of capitalist organised economies, there has been an unprecedented reduction in the amount of poverty in the world. Despite rapid growth in populations, there has been some extraordinary progress in lifting people out of extreme poverty. Between 1990 and 2010, the numbers in poverty fell by half as a share of the total population in developing countries, from 43% to 21%—a reduction of almost 1 billion people (The Economist Leader, June 1st, 2013). Nonetheless the critics of capitalism will continue to point to an increasing gap between the haves and don’t haves and specifically a decline in the ‘middle classes’, which have for so long provided the backbone of stable democratic societies. This delicate balance between retreating into our own boundaries as a means to manage the pandemic and resuming open borders to prevent economic damage to those whose businesses and employment depend upon the continuing movement of people and goods, is one which is being agonised over at this time in liberal democratic societies around the world. The experience of the pandemic has varied between countries, not solely because of the strategies adopted by politicians, but also because of the current health systems and varying social and economic conditions of life in different parts of the world. For many of us, the crises and social disturbances noted above have been played out on our television screens and websites. Increasingly it seems that we have been consuming our life experiences in a world dominated by our screens and sheltered from the real messiness of life. Meanwhile, in those countries with a choice, the debate has been between public health concerns and economic health concerns. Some have argued that the two are not totally independent of each other, while others have argued that the extent to which they are seen as interrelated lies in the extent to which life’s values have themselves become commodified. Others have pointed to the mental health problems experienced by people of all ages as a result of being confined for long periods of time within limited spaces and experiencing few chances to meet with others outside their immediate household. Still others have experienced different conditions – such as the chance to work from home in a comfortable environment and be freed from the drudgery of commuting in crowded traffic or public transport. So, at a national/communal level as well as at an individual level, this international crisis has exposed people to different decisions. It has offered, for many, a chance to recalibrate their lives. Those who have the resources, are leaving the confines of the big capital cities and seeking a healthier and less turbulent existence in quieter urban centres. For those of us in what can be loosely termed ‘an information industry’, today’s work practices are already an age away from what they were in pre-pandemic times. Yet again, a clear split is evident. The notion of ‘essential industries’ has been reclassified. The delivery of goods, the facilitation of necessary purchase such as food; these and other tasks have acquired a new significance which has enhanced the value of those who deliver these services. However, for those whose tasks can be handled via the internet or offloaded to other anonymous beings a readjustment of a different kind is occurring. So to the future - for those who have suffered ill-health and lost loved ones, the pandemic only reinforces the human priority. Health and well-being trumps economic health and wealth where choices can be made. The closeness of human contact has been reinforced by the tales of families who have been deprived of the touch of their loved ones, many of whom still don’t know when that opportunity will be offered again. When writing our editorial, a year ago, I little expected to be still pursuing a Covid related theme today. Yet where once we were expecting to look back on this time as a minor hiccough, with normal service being resumed sometime last year, it has not turned out to be that way. Rather, it seems that we have been offered a major reset opportunity in the way in which we continue to progress our future as humans. The question is, will we be bold enough to see the opportunity and embrace a healthier more equitable more locally responsible lifestyle or, will we revert to a style of ‘progress’ where powerful countries, organisations and individuals continue to amass increased amounts of wealth and influence and become increasingly less responsive to the needs of individuals in the throng below. Of course, any retreat from globalisation as it has evolved to date, will involve disruption of a different kind, which will inevitably lead to pain for some. It seems inevitable that any change and consequent progress is going to involve winners and losers. Already airline companies and the travel industry are putting pressure on governments to “get back to normal” i.e. where things were previously. Yet, in the shadow of widespread support for climate activism and the extinction rebellion movement, reports have emerged that since the lockdowns air pollution has dropped dramatically around the world – a finding that clearly offers benefits to all our population. In a similar vein the impossibility of overseas air travel in Australia has resulted in a major increase in local tourism, where more inhabitants are discovering the pleasures of their own nation. The transfer of their tourist and holiday dollars from overseas to local tourist providers has produced at one level a traditional zero-sum outcome, but it has also been accompanied by a growing appreciation of local citizens for the wonders of their own land and understanding of the lives of their fellow citizens as well as massive savings in foregone air travel. Continuing to define life in terms of competition for limited resources will inevitably result in an ever-continuing run of zero-sum games. Looking beyond the prism of competition and personal reward has the potential to add to what Michael Sandel (2020) has termed ‘the common good’. Does the possibility of a reset, offer the opportunity to recalibrate our views of effort and reward to go beyond a dollar value and include this important dimension? How has sport been experiencing the pandemic and are there chances for a reset here? An opinion piece from Peter Horton in this edition, has highlighted the growing disconnect of professional sport at the highest level from the communities that gave them birth. Is this just another example of the outcome of unrestrained commodification? Professional sport has suffered in the pandemic with the cancelling of fixtures and the enforced absence of crowds. Yet it has shown remarkable resilience. Sport science staff may have been reduced alongside all the auxiliary workers who go to make up the total support staff on match days and other times. Crowds have been absent, but the game has gone on. Players have still been able to play and receive the support they have become used to from trainers, physiotherapists and analysts, although for the moment there may be fewer of them. Fans have had to rely on electronic media to watch their favourites in action– but perhaps that has just encouraged the continuing spread of support now possible through technology which is no longer dependent on personal attendance through the turnstile. Perhaps for those committed to the watching of live sport in the outdoors, this might offer a chance for more attention to be paid to sport at local and community levels. Might the local villagers be encouraged to interrelate with their hometown heroes, rather than the million-dollar entertainers brought in from afar by the big city clubs? To return to the village analogy and the tensions between global and local, could it be that the social structure of the village has become maladapted to the reality of globalisation? If we wish to retain the traditional values of village life, is returning to our village a necessary strategy? If, however we see that today the benefits and advantages lie in functioning as one single global community, then perhaps we need to do some serious thinking as to how that community can function more effectively for all of its members and not just its ‘elites’. As indicated earlier, sport has always been a reflection of our society. Whichever way our communities decide to progress, sport will have a place at their heart and sport scholars will have a place in critically reflecting the nature of the society we are building. It is on such a note that I am pleased to introduce the content of volume 43:1 to you. We start with a reminder from Hoyoon Jung of the importance of considering the richness provided by a deep analysis of context, when attempting to evaluate and compare outcomes for similar events. He examines the concept of nation building through sport, an outcome that has been frequently attributed to the conduct of successful events. In particular, he examines this outcome in the context of the experiences of South Africa and Brazil as hosts of world sporting events. The mega sporting event that both shared was the FIFA world cup, in 2010 and 2014 respectively. Additional information could be gained by looking backwards to the 1995 Rugby World Cup in the case of South Africa and forward to the 2016 Olympics with regard to Brazil. Differentiating the settings in terms of timing as well as in the makeup of the respective local cultures, has led Jung to conclude that a successful outcome for nation building proved possible in the case of South Africa. However, different settings, both economically and socially, made it impossible for Brazil to replicate the South African experience. From a globally oriented perspective to a more local one, our second paper by Rafal Gotowski and Marta Anna Zurawak examines the growth and development, with regard to both participation and performance, of a more localised activity in Poland - the Nordic walking marathon. Their analysis showed that this is a locally relevant activity that is meeting the health-related exercise needs of an increasing number of people in the middle and later years, including women. It is proving particularly beneficial as an activity due to its ability to offer a high level of intensity while reducing the impact - particularly on the knees. The article by Petr Vlček, Richard Bailey, Jana Vašíčková XXABSTRACT Claude Scheuer is also concerned with health promoting physical activity. Their focus however is on how the necessary habit of regular and relevant physical activity is currently being introduced to the younger generation in European schools through the various physical education curricula. They conclude that physical education lessons, as they are currently being conducted, are not providing the needed 50% minimum threshold of moderate to vigorous physical activity. They go further, to suggest that in reality, depending on the physical education curriculum to provide the necessary quantum of activity within the child’s week, is going to be a flawed vision, given the instructional and other objectives they are also expected to achieve. They suggest implementing instead an ‘Active Schools’ concept, where the PE lessons are augmented by other school-based contexts within a whole school programme of health enhancing physical activity for children. Finally, we step back to the global and international context and the current Pandemic. Eric Burhaein, Nevzt Demirci, Carla Cristina Vieira Lourenco, Zsolt Nemeth and Diajeng Tyas Pinru Phytanza have collaborated as a concerned group of physical educators to provide an important international position statement which addresses the role which structured and systematic physical activity should assume in the current crisis. This edition then concludes with two brief contributions. The first is an opinion piece by Peter Horton which provides a professional and scholarly reaction to the recent attempt by a group of European football club owners to challenge the global football community and establish a self-governing and exclusive European Super League. It is an event that has created great alarm and consternation in the world of football. Horton reflects the outrage expressed by that community and concludes: While recognising the benefits accruing from well managed professionalism, the essential conflict between the values of sport and the values of market capitalism will continue to simmer below the surface wherever sport is commodified rather than practised for more ‘intrinsic’ reasons. We conclude however on a more celebratory note. We are pleased to acknowledge the recognition achieved by one of the members of our International Review Board. The career and achievements of Professor John Wang – a local ‘scholar’- have been recognised in his being appointed as the foundation E.W. Barker Professor in Physical Education and Sport at the Nanyang Technological University. This is a well-deserved honour and one that reflects the growing stature of the Singapore Physical Education and Sports Science community within the world of International Sport Studies. John Saunders Brisbane, June 2021

That was the year that was! 2021 seemingly arrived just yesterday and now we are shortly to bid it farewell. I hailed its predecessor as heralding the hope for a new clarity of vision – the start of a new decade which promised much. However, I have become reminded that perfect 20/20 vision in the present may not necessarily lead to reliable predictions for the future. Further I have immediately been taken back to my undergraduate days and the unforgettable words of the great poet T. S Eliot in his poem Burnt Norton – the first of the four Quartets Time present and time past Are both perhaps present in time future, And time future contained in time past. If all time is eternally present All time is unredeemable. What might have been is an abstraction Remaining a perpetual possibility Only in a world of speculation. What might have been and what has been Point to one end, which is always present They are words that seem to ring particularly true not only to anyone contemplating their remorselessly advancing years and reflecting on a career nearing completion, but they also seem particularly apposite for the experiences of the last two years. The pandemic started by destroying our expectations and predictions for what lay ahead. It ensured that our best laid plans for our immediate futures would remain unfulfilled and thus unredeemable. Subsequently during the year, we were left to speculate as to our future pathways - not only with regard to our professional activities, but also concerning our personal and family relationships – with a whole world of separation between ourselves and those of our kith and kin domiciled in distant lands. Though for some it may have been no more than a regional border! Such forced isolation caused many of us to think backwards as well, reflecting on our past trajectories and recalling both mistakes and successes alike. Yet for many it became a time to substitute the incessant demands of work and its associated travel and busy-ness with former and forgotten pleasures. Leisurely walks with friends and family, the rediscovering of rhythms and tempos unimpeded by the daily demands of our diaries and other extraneous demands on our time that had required us to respond immediately and forgo the immediate needs of the surroundings and people closest to us. Above all, with the future in limbo and the past re-emerging in our minds, it reinforced the realisation that the present is what we really have, and it contains what is most important. For a time, the incessant chatter and noise of the media retained our attention, just as it had dominated our attention at the end of 2019. Yet, somehow during the year, the hype and frenzied reporting seems to have diminished in impact. This was nowhere more evident than in the responses to COP26 – the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, UK. Items in the press came thick and fast leading up to the event: predictions of planetary doom; political conflicts were highlighted as world leaders met or didn’t meet on the conference stage; appearances by the celebrities of the world; demonstrations aplenty. All of this breathless activity faded imperceptibly out of our consciousness as the serious (but more boring?) negotiations between nations started to take place, with much of the brilliance of the limelight now exhausted. The anticlimactic conclusion was judged by Boris Johnson, the chair and among the most optimistic of politicians, as achieving a 6 out of 10. Several positive outcomes were identified such as: commitments to end deforestation; a global methane pledge; a socalled ‘Breakthrough Agenda’, which committed countries to work together to accelerate the clean energy transition. Yet predictably, this was labelled by the critics and activists as too little too late. Although there are many who would see climate crisis as the major crisis that faces us – there are many other current crises of even more pressing and immediate concern to very many of us. The most urgent of which, would depend upon your own circumstances and where you might find yourself in the world. Examples from recent media would include: the loss of previously taken for granted freedoms in Hong Kong; increased fears for personal safety and the prospect of hunger and poverty in Afghanistan; the loss of political freedoms and the prospects of war in Belarus and the Ukraine; the prospect of secession leading to renewed civil war in Serbia; another military coup in Sudan; civil unrest in Cuba, etc etc.. On a global scale the movement of people leaving failed states and war-torn areas looking for the chance to make a better future, has continued to increase on a scale that the world is quite unable to manage. Sadly, even in the countries that are eagerly sought as destinies, there seem to be endless stories of strife, anxiety and anger to be told. The Economist provides the example of France, the ninth largest economy in the world with the 20th largest population of 67+ million. This pillar of Europe is facing a presidential election. Far from rejoicing in its prosperity, stability and proud history – the mood is sombre. Tune in to any French prime time talk show this autumn, and discussion rages over the country’s wretched decline. France is losing its factories and jobs, squeezing incomes and small businesses, destroying its landscapes and language, neglecting its borders and squandering its global stature. Its people are fractious and divided, if not on the verge of a civil war, as a public letter from retired army officers suggested earlier this year. At the second presidential primary debate for the centre-right Republicans party, on November 14th, the five candidates competed with each other to chronicle French disaster. Listen to the hard right, and it is “the death of France as we know it”. The anxiety is widespread. In a recent poll 75% agreed that France is “in decline”. When asked to sum up their mood in another survey, the French favoured three words: uncertainty, worry and fatigue. So, we are entitled to ask, what is happening in the world as we contemplate the path out of Covid? Should we not be expecting some feeling of optimism and gratitude that modern medicine has provided a way forward out of the pandemic through vaccination and new medical treatments? We should be putting the trials and tribulations of the pandemic behind us, embracing the lessons we have learnt and anticipating the benefits of the reassessments and recalibrations we have undergone over the last two years. Yet instead, we seem to be facing re-entry into a world of strife and dissension. It is a view that that would seem to encourage retreat into the comfort of a limited and familiar space, rather than striking out confidently and optimistically. So, to return to Eliot – perhaps we need to be reminded that the present is all we have. We will only be able to experience our future when we arrive there. Therefore, the pathway we choose to it, should be as smooth, rich and rewarding as possible. It should not be characterised by hedonism but rather by enhancing rather than diminishing the future. Every moment spent devaluing either our future or our past, is a moment that further undermines our present. This last point is particularly true when we fail to see our present in the context of both our past and future. One of the major contributions to this current angst within our societies, appears to be the cultural wars being waged by the warriors of WOKE. Passing judgements on figures from a previous time, without a clear understanding of the context in which they operated makes absolutely no sense. It is akin to a capital punishment abolitionist vilifying the heroes of the French Revolution for allowing Madame Guillotine to be the agent of their retribution against the aristocracy. So, it is with defacing statues of those who lived and acted in far different times and were the product of the dominant values and beliefs of that time. It is indeed an act of vandalism. If we remove all evidence of the history to which such people belonged, how can we expect to learn from that time and ensure that the world does indeed move forward? Although we are talking about the context provided by time – this is equally true of all the contexts in which we currently find ourselves. It is impossible to understand human behaviour without knowing and understanding the context in which it occurs. This is a key principle of the science of human behaviour. Alas it is a principle that has been neglected in the sport sciences in recent years. Whereas research into the physiology, psychology and biomechanics of sport has flourished, too often it is reported in a way that fails to adequately take account of the context in which it occurs. It is why so many findings are ungeneralisable and remain in the laboratory rather than making the journey out onto the playing field of life. Understanding the history and the social context within which sport is practised is essential if scientists and professionals are going to be able to make comparisons between findings gained in different settings. Comparative studies in sport and physical education play an important role in enabling knowledge and understanding about these institutions to be widely shared. Our journal therefore has an important role to play in the development and sharing of knowledge and understanding between scientists and professionals in different settings. This is a role that has been filled by our journal over the last forty-three years. I am pleased to be able to report that the society (ISCPES), following a break of four years in activity, will be meeting again at the end of this year. The meeting which can be attended online will be hosted by Lakshmibai National College of Physical Education in India. Details are provided in this edition, and I commend this important meeting to you. That there is an interest and demand in comparative and international studies is clear from the number of submissions we have been receiving for our journal. The chance to meet with fellow researchers and colleagues in real time, if not actually face to face, is to be welcomed. It is my fervent hope that this will lead to continuing growth in interest in our multidiscipline and internationally focused field. I congratulate the organisers for their initiative. I would also like to pay tribute to former president Dr Walter Ho of the University of Macau, for his role in this as well as for his continuing support of our journal. So, I come to commend to you the contributions of this latest volume. They come from four different continents and as such provide a representative cross section of our readership. The topics about which they write give an example of the range of understanding and practices that can usefully be shared amongst us. In our first paper Croteau, Eduljee and Murphy report on the health, lifestyle behaviours and well-being of international Masters field hockey athletes. The Masters sport movement provides an important example of why sport represents a solid investment in assisting individuals to commit to health supporting physical activity across the lifespan. The study is particularly interesting, as it provides evidence of the broader sense of wellbeing to be gained by ongoing participation and also the fact that this benefit seems to apply even in the geographic and culturally different environments provided by life in Europe, North America and, Asia and the Pacific. Our second paper by Kubayi, Coopoo and Toriola addresses a familiar problem – the breakdown in communication between researchers and scientists in sport and the coaches who work with the athletes. The context for this study is provided by elite performance level sport in South Africa and the sports of soccer, athletics, hockey and netball. It is concluded that the sports scientists and academics need to be encouraged to make their work more available by presenting it more frequently face to face during coaching workshops, seminars, clinics and conferences. However, the caveat is that this needs to be done in a way that is understandable, applicable and relevant to helping the coach make effective decisions and solve problems in a way that benefits the athletes as the end product. A team of medical and pedagogical scientists from Gadjah Mada University in Indonesia provide the Asian input to this volume. They raise a concern over the issue of safety and risk in physical education and how well specialists in the subject are prepared in the area of sport injury management. Hidayat, Sakti, Putro, Triannga, Farkhan, Rahayu and Magetsari collaborated in a survey of 191 physical education teachers. They concluded that there was a need for better and more sustained teacher education on this important topic. PE teacher training should not only upgrade teachers’ knowledge but also increase their self-perceptions of competence. PE teachers should be provided with enhanced training on sports injuries and Basic Life Support (BLS) skills, in order to improve the safety and maximize the benefits of PE classes. It is a finding that could usefully be compared with current practices in other countries and settings, given the common focus in the PE lesson on children performing challenging tasks in widely varying contexts. Our final paper by Rojo, Ribeiro and Starepravo takes a very much broader perspective. Sport migration is a relatively new, specialised but expanding field in sports studies. This paper is however significant not for what it can tell us about current knowledge in sport migration, but rather in what it tells us about the way knowledge is gathered and disseminated in a specialist area such as this. Building on the ideas of Bourdieu, they demonstrate how the field of knowledge is shaped by the key actors in the process and how these key actors serve to gather and use their academic capital in that process. As such fields of knowledge can become artificially constricted in both the spaces and cultures in which they develop. The authors highlight a very real problem in the generation and transmission of academic knowledge, and it is one that International Sports Studies is well positioned to address. In conclusion, may I encourage you in sharing with these papers to actively engage in reflecting on the importance of the varying contexts these authors bring and how sensitivity to this can enlarge and deepen our own practices and understanding. John Saunders Brisbane, November 2021