Dissertations / Theses: 'Sports Skill'

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Barton, Gavin Bruce. "Career success and life skill development through sports." Thesis, Boston University, 2011. https://hdl.handle.net/2144/31637.

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Thesis (Ed.D.)--Boston University
PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you.
This study was designed to explore whether sport participation contributes to life skill development and if so how these skills aid professional success. The research questions were: 1) Which life skills were perceived by successful individuals to have contributed to career success? 2) What did they understand were the sources for these life skills? 3) What was the learning mechanism for these life skills? 4) How are life skills understood to have developed through sport, applied in professional work? This research offers empirical evidence that life skills perceived to have been learned through sport are strong contributors to professional success. The study employed case study methods and content analysis of data derived from fifteen in-depth semi-structured retrospective interviews with males having extensive but non-elite sport experience. Findings confirmed the development of life skills identified through prior research but also added constructs, particularly a special form of resilience, realistic optimism. Participants mentioned multiple learning sources for life skills, including education and family. However, sport experiences predominated. Handling pressure and resilience were learned primarily from sport; teamwork and confidence were learned solely from sport. The codes for learning mechanisms applied to this study were derived from social and experiential learning theories. The majority of learning instances were experiential, highlighting the importance of learning directly from experience and subsequent reflection. Life skills realistic optimism, confidence, and perseverance were learned primarily through experience; handling pressure and resilience were learned only through experience. This research adds to the literature by demonstrating within the experience of single individuals, evidence of direct transfer of skills from sport to work, and by identifying specific life skills perceived to aid career success. Findings provide practical insights for athletes, coaches, parents and educators and also suggest a number of topics for future research, including potential differences between men and women or competitors in individual versus team sports.
2031-01-01

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Douglas, Cameron (Cameron David). "Luck and skill in professional League of Legends (E-sports)." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/119960.

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Thesis: S.B., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Mechanical Engineering, 2018.
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 35-36).
As professional gaming (e-sports) develops a greater global infrastructure, it will be critical to create league systems in which skill and luck balance to create competitive, exciting, and fair environments. This study uses the most developed e-sport leagues, found in the game League of Legends (LoL), to examine early efforts at crafting such environments. The use of "winning persistence" and Bayesian statistical analyses reveal that best-of-one matches in LoL demonstrate an overall luck-skill ratio similar to professional baseball (MLB) and football (NFL). Best-of-three matches exhibit an understandably higher ratio of skill, similar to professional basketball (NBA). With both match lengths exhibiting viable but significantly different luck-skill ratios, LoL creator, Riot Games has the tools to control how much luck and skill exist in their matches and leagues, setting an important precedent for future leagues and organizations.
by Cameron Douglas.
S.B.

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Stevenson, David M. "Decision making skill and complex problem solving in team sports." Thesis, University of Stirling, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/1893/20389.

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This thesis aimed to enhance understanding of the nature of knowledge bases possessed by elite sports performers which underpin perceptual-cognitive and decision making skills. Two main theories were considered; Active Control of Thought (ACT*) and Representational Redescription (RR). The purpose of Study 1 was to examine the anticipatory ability of elite and non-elite players in football and hockey. The results indicated that elite players in both sports were quicker and more accurate in their expectation of pass destination. Study 2 aimed to understand the extent to which knowledge is transferable. The results indicated that elite players’ knowledge is relatively domain specific although some elements of underlying task strategy may transfer. The objective of Study 3 was to explore the means by which elite and non-elite players in football and hockey identify and differentiate between possible decisions. Results showed elite players’ rationale was based on deeper theoretical principles whilst non-experts utilised relatively superficial information and naïve theories. Study 4 focussed on problem representations of elite and non-elite football players. Results revealed elite players’ representations were more pertinent, connected and articulated in a more effective manner. Overall, the findings from the current thesis provide advanced understanding of the knowledge bases responsible for perceptual-cognitive and decision making skill, and such understanding may assist attempts to enhance athletes’ performance and support future research.

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Dowdell, Trevor John, and N/A. "Measuring Sports Class Learning Climates - the Development of the Sports Class Environment Scale." Griffith University. School of Education and Professional Studies, 2007. http://www4.gu.edu.au:8080/adt-root/public/adt-QGU20071217.121601.

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Teaching (in this study, coaching) is a key determinant in learning any sports skill. The coach-athlete relationship is one of the most important influences on athlete's motivation and performance (Mageau & Vallerand, 2003). One of the key leadership roles the coach has in this relationship is the creation and maintenance of the sports class learning climate. The joint influence of the athlete's motivation and the environmental press (class learning climate) can determine the cognitive, affective, and performance patterns regularly displayed by athletes (Ntoumanis & Biddle, 1999). A sports class' learning climate is a set of internal characteristics that has an important role in shaping an athlete's motivational and behavioural pattern (Ames, 1992) and is a key characteristic of class effectiveness. In sports classes, motivational climate is a sub-set of the overall learning climate and is created primarily by the sport class coach. Motivational climate can be described as the participants' relatively persistent collective perceptions of the achievement goal structure of that setting. Recent studies of motivational climate in sport have provided insight into coaching behaviour and its effect on sports class motivational climate (Ntoumanis & Biddle, 1999). In spite of the potential value of class learning climate research to the field of sports class behavioural studies, no research has consolidated the fields of classroom learning climate research and sports class motivational climate studies. This study provides a model for the investigation of gymnastics sports class learning climates that involves a consolidation of the dimensions and items of the Perceived Motivational Climate in Sport Questionnaire-2 (Newton, Duda, & Yin, 2000) and the Classroom Environment Scale (Moos & Trickett, 1987). The development and validation of a new, unique learning climate scale - the Sports Class Environment Scale (SCES) - constitutes the focus of this research. The process of developing this consolidated instrument began with the production of an initial scale, and was followed by a review by a panel of experts in coaching and independent university researchers in sport and physical education. The SCES draft was then pilot tested with a small group (n = 41) of competitive gymnasts to prompt some changes to the scale. Initial field-testing of the SCES occurred with 28 male and 180 female competitive gymnasts from 6 metropolitan and 4 regional competitive gymnastics clubs in Queensland, Australia. Exploratory factor analysis provided a revised SCES with five subscales labeled Task Involvement and Improvement, Ego Involvement and Mistakes, Coach-Athlete Communication, Effort, Order and Organization, and Affiliation. Using the revised SCES subscales as dependent variables, multivariate analyses of variance were conducted to compare club type, gender, and competitive level. In this study, the low training hours and the high training hours gymnastics classes were different in their perceptions of the Ego Involvement of their class climate. Male and female gymnasts were different in their perceptions of Ego Involvement, Affiliation, and Effort, Order and Organization aspects of their class climates. This study demonstrates the potential utility of creating class learning climates high in both Task Involvement and Ego Involvement for competitive gymnastics clubs. This study breaks new ground, and may lead to novel insights into sports class learning climates. Because class learning climate is easier to manipulate than individual achievement goal dispositions (Whitehead, Andree, & Lee, 1997) and because perceptions of learning climate account for variance in learning outcomes beyond that attributable to student ability (Fraser, 1994, 1998, 2002), class learning climate is an important variable that should be better understood, described, developed, and manipulated. Effective measurement of sports class learning climates using the SCES may lead to a greater understanding of effective sports classes, and of coach and athlete behaviours in those classes, and provides a first step in monitoring sports class learning climates.

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Dowdell, Trevor John. "Measuring Sports Class Learning Climates - the Development of the Sports Class Environment Scale." Thesis, Griffith University, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/10072/365757.

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Teaching (in this study, coaching) is a key determinant in learning any sports skill. The coach-athlete relationship is one of the most important influences on athlete's motivation and performance (Mageau & Vallerand, 2003). One of the key leadership roles the coach has in this relationship is the creation and maintenance of the sports class learning climate. The joint influence of the athlete's motivation and the environmental press (class learning climate) can determine the cognitive, affective, and performance patterns regularly displayed by athletes (Ntoumanis & Biddle, 1999). A sports class' learning climate is a set of internal characteristics that has an important role in shaping an athlete's motivational and behavioural pattern (Ames, 1992) and is a key characteristic of class effectiveness. In sports classes, motivational climate is a sub-set of the overall learning climate and is created primarily by the sport class coach. Motivational climate can be described as the participants' relatively persistent collective perceptions of the achievement goal structure of that setting. Recent studies of motivational climate in sport have provided insight into coaching behaviour and its effect on sports class motivational climate (Ntoumanis & Biddle, 1999). In spite of the potential value of class learning climate research to the field of sports class behavioural studies, no research has consolidated the fields of classroom learning climate research and sports class motivational climate studies. This study provides a model for the investigation of gymnastics sports class learning climates that involves a consolidation of the dimensions and items of the Perceived Motivational Climate in Sport Questionnaire-2 (Newton, Duda, & Yin, 2000) and the Classroom Environment Scale (Moos & Trickett, 1987). The development and validation of a new, unique learning climate scale - the Sports Class Environment Scale (SCES) - constitutes the focus of this research. The process of developing this consolidated instrument began with the production of an initial scale, and was followed by a review by a panel of experts in coaching and independent university researchers in sport and physical education. The SCES draft was then pilot tested with a small group (n = 41) of competitive gymnasts to prompt some changes to the scale. Initial field-testing of the SCES occurred with 28 male and 180 female competitive gymnasts from 6 metropolitan and 4 regional competitive gymnastics clubs in Queensland, Australia. Exploratory factor analysis provided a revised SCES with five subscales labeled Task Involvement and Improvement, Ego Involvement and Mistakes, Coach-Athlete Communication, Effort, Order and Organization, and Affiliation. Using the revised SCES subscales as dependent variables, multivariate analyses of variance were conducted to compare club type, gender, and competitive level. In this study, the low training hours and the high training hours gymnastics classes were different in their perceptions of the Ego Involvement of their class climate. Male and female gymnasts were different in their perceptions of Ego Involvement, Affiliation, and Effort, Order and Organization aspects of their class climates. This study demonstrates the potential utility of creating class learning climates high in both Task Involvement and Ego Involvement for competitive gymnastics clubs. This study breaks new ground, and may lead to novel insights into sports class learning climates. Because class learning climate is easier to manipulate than individual achievement goal dispositions (Whitehead, Andree, & Lee, 1997) and because perceptions of learning climate account for variance in learning outcomes beyond that attributable to student ability (Fraser, 1994, 1998, 2002), class learning climate is an important variable that should be better understood, described, developed, and manipulated. Effective measurement of sports class learning climates using the SCES may lead to a greater understanding of effective sports classes, and of coach and athlete behaviours in those classes, and provides a first step in monitoring sports class learning climates.
Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
School of Education and Professional Studies
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Ford, Paul. "Skill in sport : the role of action-effect representations." Thesis, Liverpool John Moores University, 2006. http://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/5803/.

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Five experiments were conducted to examine the role of ball trajectory information in the planning, execution, and evaluation of a complex motor skill as a function of skill. This sensory information source could either be predicted to become either more (Koch et al., 2004) or less (Schmidt, 1975) important as skill is acquired. In Experiments 1,2, and 3 the importance of ball trajectory information in the execution of a soccer kick to a target as a function of skill was examined using visual occlusion (Exp 1 and 2) and perturbation (Exp 3) techniques. Skilled performers were able to maintain accuracy when vision of ball trajectory was occluded, although they were shown to use this information when it was available but perturbed. The accuracy of less-skilled performers decreased when vision of ball trajectory was occluded. Across skill groups, variability in knee-ankle coordination also decreased under these conditions. Although these finding was taken as evidence that across skill levels action effects information is used to execute the action when it is available, only at the lower levels of skill did this information aid outcome attainment. In Experiments 4 and 5 the importance of ball trajectory information in the planning of a soccer kick to a target as a function of skill was examined. Skilled and novice soccer players were instructed to plan the action in terms of the ball's trajectory or in terms of the body movements. There was little evidence that actions are more effectively planned by anticipation of their effects or that the ability to do so is skill-dependent (Koch et al., 2004). However, there was some evidence that a body-related focus was detrimental to performance in comparison to control conditions when feedback was removed (McNevin et al., 2003). Although ball trajectory information does not seem to be critical for task success, there was evidence that it is used to plan and perform actions across skill levels. Skilled performers were shown to be less reliant on this information compared to less skilled.

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Cothran, Donetta J. "Six Volleyball Skill Tests as a Predictor of Game Performance." TopSCHOLAR®, 1992. http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/theses/1656.

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The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship of six selected volleyball skill tests to actual volleyball game performance. The six skill test items were administered to 64 subjects, who were all members of a college level introductory volleyball course. Based on the ratings of a panel of experts, subjects were rated during game play as good, average, or poor performers. The stepwise discriminant analysis was used to analyze the relationship between skill tests and game performance. Four of the six skill tests were identified as significantly contributing to group membership. These tests, in order of the magnitude of their standardized discriminant function coefficients were: 1. Brumbach Serve Test, 2. AAHPER Wall Volley test, 3. AAHPERD Wall Spike Test, and 4. AAHPERD Serve Test. It was concluded that a volleyball skill test battery consisting of these four items would objectively measure volleyball playing ability and discriminate between players of various skill levels. The results of this test battery could be used for classification, diagnosis, motivational purposes, and grading.

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Coyne, Joseph. "The relationship between subjective training load and performance in open and closed skill sports." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2021. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/2427.

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Training load (TL) monitoring is considered important to understand an athlete’s ability to perform in training and competition along with their risk of any injury and illness. By assessing the physical work an athlete performs in training (i.e., external TL) and/or the athlete’s response to that training (i.e., internal TL), a basic model of an athlete’s response to training can be estimated by the difference between chronic “fitness” (positive) and acute “fatigue” (negative) functions. Subjective measures of TL, which includes sessional ratings of perceived exertion (sRPE), and differential ratings of perceived exertion, are both considered measures of internal TL. Of these, sRPE is the most common, is recommended as the primary TL measure in team sports, is also widely used in endurance-based sports and is the principal focus of this thesis. When examining relationships between sRPE-TL with performance, there has been very little research in this area but there does appear to be some level of relationship in both open (OS) and closed skill (CS) sports. The difference between OS and CS sports is of interest as research suggests that any TL relationship with performance may be influenced by mental fatigue and mental fatigue experienced by athletes may differ between OS and CS sports. To date, the research investigating TL and the relationship to performance has been focused on sports that are relatively similar in terms of skill nature and mental fatigue. There exists a gap in the literature examining sRPE-TL relationship with performance, if this relationship exists across OS and CS sports and how mental fatigue may influence sRPE-TL. Alongside this, there are also issues with how TL measures are calculated and how subjective TL measures relate to other objective markers of athlete readiness (e.g., heart rate variability). Therefore, the central aim of this thesis was to examine the relationship between TL and performance in different OS and CS sports and to determine if there were differences in TL measures between successful and unsuccessful performances in these sports at an elite level. Alongside this, further examinations into the different TL calculation issues (including the issue of mathematical coupling in the acute to chronic workload ratio (ACWR)), the influence of mental fatigue on sRPE-TL and the sRPE-TL relationship with athlete readiness markers in athletes at an elite level were also warranted as secondary aims for this thesis. The main finding of this thesis was that there appeared to be a relationship between subjective TL and performance measures for elite Olympic level athletes in both CS and OS sports. Other secondary findings from the thesis included i) the influence of the mathematical coupling inherent in the ACWR appeared trivial, despite other critical issues with the ratio; ii) mental fatigue did not seem to significantly influence sRPE scores from individual training sessions when accounting for nature of the sport (OS versus CS), duration of training and influence of injury/illness, and iii) there were trivial small correlations between sRPE-TL and objective markers of athlete readiness (heart rate variability and direct current potential) in both OS and CS sports.

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Halverson, Paula Dee. "The effects of peer tutoring on sport skill analytic ability /." The Ohio State University, 1987. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1487331541710629.

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Li, Sau-sau Esther. "Can analogies be used as an attention focusing strategy to prevent skill failure under stress? /." View the Table of Contents & Abstract, 2005. http://sunzi.lib.hku.hk/hkuto/record/B31941412.

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Li, Sau-sau Esther, and 李秀秀. "Can analogies be used as an attention focusing strategy to prevent skill failure under stress?" Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2005. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B45013901.

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Downs, Holly Elizabeth. "The Effects of Video Self-Evaluation on Skill Acquisition with Yoga Postures." Scholar Commons, 2013. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/4885.

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This study evaluated the use of video self-evaluation and video feedback procedures to enhance the accuracy of yoga poses. In the self-evaluation intervention participants watched their behaviors via video and scored task analyses for feedback for each pose. In the video feedback intervention, the participants and the researcher together scored the task analyses for the behaviors along with practice during video recordings. The interventions were assessed in a multiple baseline across behaviors design. Results showed that both video self-evaluation increased the accuracy of all poses and video feedback further increased the accuracy on one pose for one participant

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Elliott, Andrea. "Impact of batting skill on pacing during repeated sprints between the wickets." Thesis, Rhodes University, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013546.

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Introduction: With batting in cricket, there is no known end point, making the allocation of resources and the development of a suitable pacing strategy more difficult. How batsmen allocate resources and pace themselves when repeatedly sprinting between the wickets is therefore not known. According to the ‘anticipatory feedback’ model, the level of expertise/experience has a substantial influence on the development of a suitable pacing strategy. Skilled or experienced batsmen may therefore have a greater ability to develop and implement a pacing strategy compared to that of novice or less-skilled batsmen. Purpose: To assess whether the absence of a known end point at the beginning of repeated sprint bouts between the wickets effects how batsmen pace themselves comparing skilled and less-skilled batsmen. Methods: Twenty-four male cricketers from a university league were selected. Twelve skilled batsmen (players in the top five batting order), and 12 less-skilled batsmen (players in the bottom five batting order) completed three experimental. All trials required batsmen to complete the same number of shuttle sprints (14 shuttles and therefore 28 runs), while only the information provided before each trial differed. Control Trial: This trial is also referred to as the ‘informed’ trial as the batsmen are aware of the exercise requirements (end point). Unknown Trial: The batsmen were not informed of the exercise end point and were required to run on command for an indefinite period (28 runs). Deceptive Trial: Batsmen’ were incorrectly informed with regards to the number of sprints (told they were only doing 14 runs when in fact they were doing 28 runs). Muscle activity, sprint times and RPE measures were obtained during all three trials and compared. Results: Significant (p<0.05) group effects were apparent for sprint times and, ‘central’ and ‘local’ RPE. Specifically, skilled batsmen obtained the faster mean sprint times, and less-skilled batsmen reported the higher mean ‘central’ and ‘local’ RPE values in all three experimental trials. There were no significant group effects for muscle activation. Skilled batsmen did however have lower muscle activation compared to less-skilled batsmen in all three trials. Furthermore, general trends revealed that sprint times and muscle activation decreased over time (from shuttle 1 to shuttle 14), and RPE (‘central’ and ‘local’) ratings increased, regardless of the experimental trials. Skilled batsmen performed the best in all three trials. This was determined by the attainment of faster sprint times, lower muscle activation and low RPE ratings in each of the three trials. The assessment of the relationship of the dependent variables measured in each trial, did however suggest that skilled batsmen performed best in the deceptive trial while less-skilled batsmen performed best in the control trial. Skilled batsmen thus showed superior performance when trial requirements were unclear. Less-skilled batsmen however, were seen to experience decrements in performance when information regarding the end point was unknown or misleading. Conclusion: It can thus be concluded that previous experience facilitates in the obtainment of improved sprint times between the wickets, especially when the exact end point is unknown.

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Donohoe, Kaitlyn G. "The collegiate athletic trainer’s role in mental preparation and mental skill development of college athletes." Miami University / OhioLINK, 2010. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1281637226.

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Douka, Angeliki 1962. "Effects of mental practice on the performance of male water polo players at different skill levels." Thesis, McGill University, 1990. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=60037.

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The purpose of the study was to examine the effects of mental practice on the shooting accuracy performance of male water polo players at three skill levels. Thirty-six right handed athletes from the Quebec League, assigned by experienced coaches to novice, intermediate and elite groups according to their overall water polo playing ability, served as subjects. They were tested on shooting accuracy by the average score of ten shots in the beginning of the study, after a two-week mental practice treatment, and after a one-week break with no treatment.
A 3 way ANOVA with repeated measures on the last factor was conducted on the shooting accuracy scores. Those who received the mental practice program had significantly higher post-treatment scores than their control group counterparts who had received a relaxation training program during the treatment period. As noted above, the experimental group improved significantly from Pre to Post1 test-time, and there was no change in performance between the two Post-tests. There was no significant difference in shooting performance between Intermediate and Elite skill groups but both of them scored significantly better than the Novice group.

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Hankes, Douglas M. (Douglas Michael). "Applied Sport Psychology Consultation: Effects of Academic Training, Past Athletic Experience, and Interpersonal Skill on Female Athletes' Ratings." Thesis, University of North Texas, 1996. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc277678/.

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Applied sport psychology consultation is a relatively new phenomenon with limited empirical underpinnings. The purpose of the study was to evaluate three applied sport psychology consultant personal and professional characteristics within Strong's social influence model that have been suggested to impact consultants' effectiveness in working directly with athletes and their performance problems. The three consultant characteristics were academic training, past athletic experience, and interpersonal skill. Division I female athletes (N = 187) read written preconsultation information and watched a 10- minute vignette between a consultant and an athlete. Participants completed the Counselor Rating Form-Short (CRFS), the Sport Psychology Consultant Evaluation Form (CEF), and questions concerning willingness to work with the consultant. The data from the dependent measures were analyzed by a 2 (level of consultant academic training) X 2 (level of consultant past athletic experience) X 2 (level of consultant interpersonal skill) MANOVA. Results indicated that applied sport psychology consultants' academic training and past athletic experience had only limited influence on the participants' perceptions about the consultants. The Division I female athletes unambiguously rated consultants with positive interpersonal skills more favorably on all dependent measures regardless of the consultants' level of academic training or past athletic experience. Directions for future research and implication of the findings on training and certification in applied sport psychology are discussed.

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Le, Cao Cuong. "Effects of high-intensity position-specific drills on physical and technical-skill performance in young soccer players." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2020. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/2329.

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Soccer is the most widely played sport in the world, and physical preparation for soccer players has been extensively researched over the years. As the average intensity of a soccer match is close to 80-90% of maximal heart rate (HRmax), it is necessary to train at or above this intensity. Thus, high-intensity interval running and small-sided games are often used to improve aerobic capacity and repeated sprint ability (RSA). However, neither of these approaches consider positional variations in the frequency and type of specific technical skills required in real match situations. Thus, the purpose of this study was to investigate the feasibility, and short-term effects of a novel position-specific conditioning training (PSCT) on the physical and technical abilities of young soccer players. This study recruited 15 male Vietnamese youth soccer players (16.1 ± 0.4 years, 171.7 ± 4.8 cm, 63.9 ± 3.8 kg) who frequently played in youth national tournaments. PSCT consisted of a specific drill for attackers, defenders and wingers, respectively. The intensity and duration were designed to be the same for all three drills (i.e., 4 × 4-min at 90-95% HRmax, separated by 4-min active recovery at 70% HRmax), but differentiated by the technical and tactical actions performed during high-intensity efforts and pitch location. All players participated in a 3-week control period of high-volume training, followed by a 3- week intervention period with PSCT drills added to usual team practice and matches twice a week. Criterion measures included Yo-Yo intermittent recovery test – level 1 (YYIRT1), repeated sprint ability (RSA) assessed by the total time of 6 x 30m sprint with 30-s passive recovery, and 10m and 30m sprint time. The Loughborough soccer passing test (LSPT) was used to assess the players’ technical skills in a fatigued and non-fatigued state. These measures were taken at baseline, after the control period and after the intervention period. The results showed that PSCT drills induced a desirable intensity for effective conditioning purpose (89.0 ± 2.1% HRmax) with low inter-player variability (CV = 2.4%). The weekly total training volume in terms of the distance covered during the control period was 45.45 ± 3.82 km, which was 11.97 km greater (P=0.017, ES= 1.82) than that of the intervention period (33.48 ± 6.40km). The distance covered in the YYIRT1 increased (P0.05) were observed from the baseline (26.21 ± 0.5 s) to post-control period (26.26 ± 0.8 s) and postintervention period (26.32 ± 0.8 s). This was also the case for 10m sprint time (baseline: 1.80 ± 0.1 s, post-control: 1.80 ± 0.1 s, post-intervention: 1.77 ± 0.1 s) and 30m sprint time (4.20 ± 0.1 s, 4.26 ± 0.1 s, 4.26 ± 0.2 s). No significant changes (p>0.05) were found for any parameter of the LSPT over time (from baseline to post-intervention) for both fatigued and non-fatigued conditions. These results confirmed the feasibility of PSCT as a novel high-intensity training for soccer players, but it did not affect the physical and technical measures investigated in the present study in the time frame. Future research should further investigate the use of PSCT as a position-specific test and/or a novel conditioning approach by comparing PSCT to small sided games (SSG) or other forms of HIIT without ball contact in longer-term interventions

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Barnett, Lisa Michele. "The Physical Activity and Skills Study." University of Sydney, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/5444.

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Doctor of Philosophy(PhD)
PURPOSE:The aims of this study were to i) investigate the relationship between childhood motor skill proficiency and adolescent physical activity participation, cardiorespiratory endurance (fitness) and perceived sports competence, ii) assess the long-term impact of a one year primary school intervention to improve motor skills on physical activity and motor skill proficiency and iii) determine whether the observed relationships varied according to gender.METHODS: The Physical Activity and Skills Study (PASS) followed up participants of a primary school intervention (Move It Groove It - MIGI) to improve motor skill proficiency. Participants were initially assessed in 2000 as part of the intervention. In 2006/07, they were re-assessed for motor skill proficiency and also measured for physical activity level (Adolescent Physical Activity Recall Questionnaire), cardiorespiratory fitness (Multistage Fitness Test) and perceived sports competence (Physical Self-Perception Profile). Composite object control (kick, catch, throw) and locomotor (hop, side gallop, vertical jump) skill scores were constructed for analysis. Linear regressions examined relationships between childhood skill proficiency and adolescent: i) time in physical activity intensities and type, controlling for gender and school grade and ii) cardiorespiratory fitness, controlling for gender. Structural equation modelling was used to determine whether perceived sports competence mediated between childhood object control skill proficiency and subsequent adolescent physical activity and cardiorespiratory fitness. A general linear model examined the relationship between being an intervention/control student and time in physical activity adjusting for childhood skill and gender. RESULTS:From 928 original participants in 2000, 481 were located in 28 schools and 276 (57%) were assessed with at least one follow-up measure in 2006/07. Slightly more than half were female (52.4%) with a mean age of 16.4 years (range 14.2 to 18.3 yrs). Childhood object skill proficiency significantly impacted on later skill proficiency, physical activity and fitness, for both genders. Furthermore, perceived sports competence acted as a mediator between childhood object control skill proficiency and subsequent adolescent physical activity and fitness. Locomotor proficiency was not predictive of any outcome variable. Six years after the intervention, participants from the intervention schools still performed better than controls in one object control skill, but were no more active.CONCLUSION: Childhood proficiency in object control skills is an important influence on subsequent positive health-related behaviours and outcomes. Childhood interventions to improve object control skills may have a lasting impact. Results may inform intervention designs to promote physical activity and fitness in youth.

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Ferguson, Taylor Easton. "Using Auditory Feedback to Improve the Performance of Judokas during Uchi Komi." Scholar Commons, 2014. https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/5014.

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Auditory feedback has been shown to be highly effective at teaching new skills to athletes in a variety of sports. This method consists of targeting a routine, breaking down the specific skills required to complete the routine, and training an individual on those skills using an auditory device to provide feedback on correct responses. This study evaluated the effectiveness of auditory feedback for improving a judo technique. One set of techniques taught in judo are standing throws, which require a partner to receive the technique (uke.) These throws require specific skills to successfully implement the technique. Auditory feedback was evaluated within a multiple baseline across participants design to increase skills for one specific standing throw, ippon seoi nage (one armed shoulder throw.) The skills were scored on a seven item checklist. All participants improved their performance on ippon seoi nage at a quicker pace than what was observed during baseline.

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Billew, Barrett Slade Billew. "Holding on to the basics: using the 3-D performance pyramid to improve skill retention in the introduction to acting classroom." Bowling Green State University / OhioLINK, 2016. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1467057899.

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Keller, Bradley Scott. "A profile of game style, physical, technical and tactical skills, and the pathways that underpin expertise in Australian youth soccer players." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2018. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/2145.

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The attainment of expertise has been the focus of research in many domains including music, chess and sport. This research has progressed with many theories detailing the best way to develop expertise and nurture talent in sport. Soccer is a multifaceted sport which requires a number of physical, technical and tactical skills to be successful, making it difficult to achieve expertise. Although Australia’s performance on the international stage is improving, there is a lack of evidence to inform the most effective development pathways to support the next wave of talented youth soccer players. Therefore, the aim of the thesis was to understand what is required to be an expert in Australian youth soccer, and which environmental factors can influence the development of expertise in youth soccer players. To enhance our understanding of the development of expertise in Australian soccer, the current thesis was guided by the Expert Performance Approach (Ericsson & Smith, 1991) and included three individual studies which captured expert performance, identified underlying mechanisms and examined how expertise was developed. Sixty-two male soccer players (17.0 ± 0.61 y) who represented three cohorts in Australian youth soccer; national elite (Australian Institute of Sport), state elite (state institute) and sub-elite (state league) participated in this study. Study One captured expert performance through an in-depth analysis of the match characteristics of the three levels of expertise. A total of 24 matches across the three levels of expertise in Australian youth soccer were analysed, with each match videoed and manually coded using SportsCode according to frequently used match characteristics from the literature. A hierarchical cluster analysis was used to see if teams with similar technical characteristics could be grouped together in order to make inferences about distinctive tactics and game styles. There were three game styles identified across the cohorts, with the state and national elite cohorts forming two distinct clusters, whilst the sub-elite teams clustered together based on technical output. More specifically, the two elite cohorts executed two different possession styles of play, while the sub-elite cohort played a direct style of game. Although it was clear that technical output and game styles differed across cohorts, it was not clear which underlying mechanisms allowed teams to play this way. The aim of Study Two was to identify which skills could distinguish the three levels of Australian youth soccer players and contribute to an explanation of the different game styles identified in Study One. This was done using a multifaceted testing battery including physical, technical and tactical tests. The physical tests included intermittent endurance, sprinting, change of direction and vertical jumps, the technical tests included short and long passing, dribbling and shooting, while the tactical test was a perceptual-cognitive decision-making task which required players to choose the correct option in a video-based task. There were a number of physical, technical and tactical outcome measures that could distinguish between cohorts based on the Receiver Operating Characteristic curves. The most prominent tests included the Yo-Yo Intermittent Recovery Test Level 1, 30m sprint and 20m flying start, height, Loughborough Soccer Passing Test, long passing test, ball control, shooting test and perceptual-cognitive decision-making task. Furthermore, the multidimensional analysis could clearly differentiate players from each cohort based on a Cumulative Total Score for each player. It is evident that the underlying mechanisms for expert performance in Australian youth soccer included elements of physical, technical and tactical prowess which may contribute to the differences in game styles observed in Study One. Study Three examined how expertise is developed in Australian youth soccer players. The participants completed the Development History of Athletes Questionnaire (DHAQ) (Hopwood, Baker, MacMahon, & Farrow, 2010). A decision tree induction analysis was used to determine which developmental factors contributed most to the predictor variable, the Cumulative Total Score. The amount of sport specific practice distinguished the two highest skilled groups from the lower skilled players. There were then two distinct pathways taken by the elite Australian youth soccer players. The first pathway included players who were later born in their family and had older siblings that participated in other sport, which contributed to their development in soccer. The second pathway included those players who were born early in their family (first or second), with this group specialising later in soccer (after the age of 13), compared to the second tier of athletes. Overall it was clear that there were distinguishing game styles for various levels of Australian youth soccer players. The elite players had underlying physical, technical and tactical attributes that allowed them to execute a possession-based game style. This thesis has provided evidence that the national elite players had followed a different pathway and been exposed to different environmental influences compared to the sub-elite players, factors that had contributed to their current level of expertise and success. This work provides Football Federation Australia and associated personnel with a strong framework upon which to base their talent identification and development programs given this thesis was able to provide evidence of distinct game styles, physical, technical and tactical skills distinguishing playing levels and differing pathways exhibited by the athlete cohorts.

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Krukauskas, Frank Krukauskas. "Using Auditory Feedback to Improve Striking for Mixed Martial Artists." Scholar Commons, 2016. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/6529.

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The purpose of this study was to evaluate, auditory feedback as a training procedure to increase the effectiveness of throwing a "right cross.” Auditory feedback was evaluated in multiple baselines across behaviors design with 4 mixed martial arts students, two males and two females, 25-54 years old. The percentage of correct steps of the right crosses.” was stable .during baseline for all participants improved substantially following the introduction of the auditory feedback, and maintained at 90 percent or more for all participants during follow-up.

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Newman, Tarkington J. "Exploring Life Skill Development and Transfer: Experiences of Youth in a Community Sport-Based Positive Youth Development Program." The Ohio State University, 2019. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1553692981574171.

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Woods, Carl T. C. "The development of an objective multi-dimensional approach to talent identification in junior Australian football." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2015. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/1672.

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Talent identification (TID) is a pertinent component of the sports science discipline given the considerable influence it may have within the pursuit of excellence. Thus, research has attempted to identify the determinants of a talented performance through the use of objective testing procedures. However, many of these ‘traditional’ approaches have been operationalised by mono-dimensional objective physical performance tests that do not inherently account for the multi-dimensional requisites of game-play, particularly within a team sporting context. This is problematic when attempting to identify talent, as a successful performance in team sports is often the combination of physical, technical and tactical elements. For example, a physically inferior junior may still succeed against their physically superior counterparts given additional technical and tactical skills; commonly referred to as a compensation phenomenon. Hence, forecasting longitudinal performance based upon one element of effective play (e.g. physical) will likely lead to an unsubstantiated and biased identification. Despite the aforementioned, TID practices in junior Australian football (AF) are predominately facilitated by physically biased objective performance tests. Given the combative nature of game-play, physicality is an important attribute, but solely basing identification and selection on isolated physical attributes can be misleading given the previously mentioned compensation phenomenon. This mono-dimensionality is somewhat expected as to date there is a scarcity of objective tests measuring the multidimensional characteristics of AF game-play. Thus, through the consolidation of a number of theoretical concepts and recommendations proposed within the literature, this thesis aimed to develop a multi-dimensional objective approach to TID in junior AF, and in doing so, identify the determinants of a talented performance. To address this aim, objective physical, technical and tactical measurements were taken on both talent identified and non-talent identified junior AF players through the use of representative performance tests. Indeed, this reflected the first stage of the Expert Performance Approach (Ericsson & Williams, 1991; Williams & Ericsson, 2005) and the Model of a Skilful Player (Launder, 2001). Throughout each research study, talent identified players were defined through participation within the West Australian Football League (WAFL) State Under 18 (U18) Academy (an elite talent development program), whilst non-talent identified players were randomly chosen from the remaining cohort of WAFL U18 players not participating in the State Academy program. Thus, a cross-sectional observational research design was employed for each experimental procedure used throughout this thesis. It is of note that the first three studies utilised players from the 2013 sample, whilst the fourth research study utilised players from the 2014 sample. In the first of four research studies, a range of sport specific physical characteristics were found to differ between talent identified and non-talent identified junior AF players. However, a binary logistic regression model indicated that it was the measurements of standing height, lower body power and maximal aerobic capacity that provided the greatest prediction of talent, and thus important physical determinants of talent in AF at an U18 level. The second study investigated if measurements of technical skill could be used to accurately identify talent in junior AF. Despite the range of technical skills required in AF, the two modes of ball disposal (kicking and handballing) have been deemed critical for success based upon recent research (Parrington, Ball, MacMahon, 2013; Sullivan et al., 2014). Consequently, two representative skill tests were described; the Australian Football Kicking (AFK) test and the Australian Football Handballing (AFHB) test. Results indicated that the majority of the talent identified players possessed superior ball disposal skills in comparison to their non-talent identified counterparts. Specifically, measures of accuracy and ball speed on both the dominant and non-dominant sides reflected the strongest prediction of talent for the AFK test, and measures of accuracy on both dominant and non-dominant sides reflected the strongest prediction of talent for the AFHB test. These results reinforced the construct of each test, and highlighted their effectiveness for use as an objective TID tool in AF. Research had yet to investigate if decision-making skill was predictive of talent in junior AF despite its suggested importance for the exhibition of an expert performance in the game. The third study in this research series attempted to fill this remaining gap and objectively quantify decision-making skill through the use of a video-based decision-making task. In order to construct such a task, video footage was obtained from the Australian Football League (AFL) using an aerial behind-the-goal camera perspective. Through the use of an expert coaching panel, 26 clips out of an initial sample of 52 were deemed applicable, as each consisted of approximately three to five possible decision-making options. Results indicated that the talent identified players performed the task more accurately in comparison to their non-talent identified counterparts, and was thus a valuable objective tool for identifying talent at an U18 level. The fourth and final study in this research series investigated if the application of a multi-dimensional battery of objective performance tests provided more accurate TID in AF when compared to isolated performance measures. The construction of this test battery was informed by the results of studies one, two and three, but to ensure the translation of this test battery, it was applied to the 2014 U18 cohort, not the 2013 cohort which was done in the previous studies. However, the definition of talent identified and non-talent identified remained consistent with the previous studies. Results indicated that the majority of the talent identified players possessed a superior combination of physical, technical and tactical characteristics in comparison to their non-talent identified counterparts. Specifically, a receiver operating curve indicated a classification accuracy of 95% when summating the total scores obtained for each physical, technical and tactical test. This classification accuracy supports the implementation of multi-dimensional objective designs over the traditional monodimensional designs when attempting to identify talent in team sporting contexts. This thesis was motivated by the need to enhance the accuracy and reliability of current TID practices in AF by developing an objective multi-dimensional approach. In doing so, it contributes an important body of research to the study of TID by providing a conceptually translatable means in which the development of such an approach can be undertaken in other team sports.

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Marnewick, Michel. "Can a cross training program improve rugby skills in adolescent male rugby players?" Click here to access this resource online, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/10292/732.

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The purpose of this study was to find whether cross training could improve male adolescent rugby skills. Three major sports (soccer, basketball and wrestling) were selected to form the base of the cross training intervention program. Pre- and post-tests were performed with the entire rugby squad (24 participants) prior to and at the conclusion of the intervention program. After pre-testing, the participants were grouped into either the intervention (12) or the control group (12). Supervised cross training sessions were performed twice a week for 10 weeks as well as traditional rugby training twice a week for 10 weeks with the intervention group. The control group performed supervised conventional rugby training twice a week for 10 weeks. All participants (24) played in a rugby match once a week during the 10 week period of the study.

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Freed, Calyn. "Autism and the Performing Arts: Using BST to Teach Dance to Children with ASD." Scholar Commons, 2017. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/7025.

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Behavioral skills training (BST) has been proven effective in helping children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) acquire new skills. Little research had been done to evaluate the effect of BST on the acquisition of sport skills within this population, and no research exists in regards to using BST to teach dance skills to individuals with ASD. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of BST for teaching dance steps to children diagnosed with ASD. This study used a multiple baseline across behaviors design. The dance movements that were targeted consisted of a tap step, a leap, and a turn. Skill acquisition was scored using a task analysis for each dance step to calculate percentage correct. This study found that the use of BST increased the percentage correct of each dance step from baseline levels in all three participants.

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Souza, Marina Gusman Thomazi Xavier de. "A aprendizagem motora de idosos na perspectiva do efeito da interferência contextual." Universidade de São Paulo, 2014. http://www.teses.usp.br/teses/disponiveis/39/39132/tde-20022015-094652/.

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É sabido que a população idosa vem aumentando em números relativamente altos, gerando preocupações em relação aos cuidados que necessitam. Uma forma de idosos se manterem ativos é através da aprendizagem de novas habilidades motoras. Neste sentido, foram encontrados poucos estudos envolvendo a população idosa e o efeito da interferência contextual, particularmente estudos que utilizassem habilidades esportivas como tarefa. O objetivo do estudo foi investigar se há o efeito da interferência contextual na aprendizagem de uma habilidade esportiva em idosos. Foram selecionados para participar do estudo quarenta idosos (65-80 anos), fisicamente ativos, que foram divididos aleatoriamente em dois grupos: prática variada aleatória; e prática variada em blocos. A tarefa praticada foi o arremesso a ponto do jogo de bocha e bola deveria atingir três alvos nas distâncias de 2, 4 e 6 metros. A prática constou de 120 tentativas divididas em duas sessões de prática. Foram realizados dois testes de Retenção (10min e 24h) e também dois testes de Transferência (24 horas), sendo um realizado com a mão preferencial e outro com a mão não preferencial do participante, com o alvo à 5 metros. As medidas de desempenho utilizadas foram o erro radial, o desvio padrão do erro radial e a frequência de erros grosseiros. Também foram realizadas medidas cinemáticas, como amplitude, velocidade média e pico de aceleração de deslocamento da bola no forwardswing; e velocidade de soltura da bola. Na comparação entre os grupos de prática, não foi encontrada diferença no erro radial ou no desvio padrão do erro (p > 0,05), mas na frequência de erros grosseiros houve diferença entre os grupos apenas na fase de aquisição (p < 0,05). Além disso, as análises inferenciais referentes às medidas cinemáticas nos testes de retenção e transferência, tanto da velocidade média como da velocidade de soltura, mostraram que os idosos de ambos os grupos mudaram a velocidade nos testes (p < 0,05), provavelmente procurando ajustar o movimento. Correlações de Pearson foram realizadas entre medidas de desempenho e medidas cinemáticas e observou-se apenas uma correlação fraca entre o erro radial e a amplitude de deslocamento da bola no teste de transferência com a mão não preferencial (p < 0,05). Em conjunto, os resultados mostraram que os grupos apresentaram desempenho semelhante em ambas as estruturas de prática (aleatória e blocos) e, portanto, não houve efeito da interferência contextual na aprendizagem de idosos nesta habilidade esportiva. No entanto, pode ser argumentado que o controle adequado de força necessário no arremesso a ponto possa exigir maior tempo de prática para ser adquirido
It is known that the elderly population is increasing in relatively high numbers, generating concerns about the care they need. A form of seniors remain active is through the learning of new motor skills. In this sense, few studies involving the elderly population and the contextual interference effect have been found, particularly, studies that used sports skills as task. The objective of this study was to investigate if there is the contextual interference effect on sports skill learning in elderly. We selected 40 old persons (65-80 years old), physically active, which were divided randomly into two groups: random varied practice; and practice varied in blocks. The task was the throwing practiced at the bocce game, in which the ball should reach three targets at distances of 2, 4 and 6 meters. The practice consisted of 120 attempts divided into two practice sessions. Two Retention tests were conducted (10 min and 24 hours) and also two Transfer tests (24 hours), being performed with the preferential hand and also with the non-preferential hand of the participant, with the target at 5 meters. The performance measures used were the radial error, the standard deviation of radial error and frequency of gross errors. Kinematic measures were also used, such as amplitude, average speed and peak of acceleration in the displacement of the ball on the forwardswing; and also, speed of release of the ball. Comparisons between the practice groups, found no difference in the radial error or the standard deviation of the error (p > 0.05), but in the frequency of gross errors, there was a difference between the groups only at the acquisition phase (p < 0.05). In addition, the inferential analysis on retention and transfer tests, both the average speed as the speed of release, showed that the elderly of both groups have changed the speed (p < 0.05), probably trying to adjust the movement. Pearson correlations were performed between performance and kinematic measures and there was only a weak correlation between the radial error and amplitude on the transfer test with the non-preferential hand (p < 0.05). Overall, the results showed that the groups have similar performance on both practice structures (random and blocks) and, therefore, there was no effect of contextual interference in learning this sport skill by the elderly. However, it can be argued that the proper control of force needed in this task may require more practice time to be acquired

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Allen, Georgia. "From the sports hall into the classroom : learning life skills through sport." Thesis, Brunel University, 2013. http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/8512.

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This study draws upon a wide range of research to examine underachievement in UK schools. With underachievement continuing to be present within the UK’s educational system, it is essential that a remedy is found. The notion that physical activity is linked to an increase in academic performance is not a new concept; however researchers are still trying to determine the scope of such a claim. There is a widespread belief that sport can be used as a vehicle to promote positive youth development. In particular, using sport to teach adolescents various life skills has become popular over the previous decade. However, little research has looked at the transfer of life skills into other academic and life domains. Therefore the overarching purpose of this study was to determine if an after-school, sports based life skills programme had any impact on male underachievement within the UK education system. The Transfer-Ability Programme (TAP) was a multi-faceted intervention, which sought to teach twenty underachieving, male students life skills through sport. The results have been presented in three phases with Phase 1 determining the impact of TAP on academic performance in Science, Phase 2 examined the perceptions of the twelve-thirteen year old participants on whether they transferred life skills from the sports hall into the classroom during TAP, and Phase 3 explored the enablers and barriers that facilitated or prevented life transfer. Statistical results indicate that the intervention groups’ academic grades significantly improved during the intervention to a level above teaching prediction. This suggests that teaching life skills through sport may reduce male underachievement. T-tests show that the participants in the intervention group perceived their learning of life skills to significantly increase pre-post TAP. Interview data also supports the notion that the intervention group participants perceived to have learnt the life skills and then transferred them into other academic domains. Phase 3 highlighted five themes that enable or prevent life skill transfer; Support from peers, Pride, Opportunities, Rewards and Transfer experience. These themes are collectively referred to as the SPORT model. The results show that young adolescent males can learn and transfer life skills if deliberately taught to do so. Finally, the findings are discussed with reference to how teachers and physical educators may teach life skills within their lessons, and how life skill transfer may be supported.

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Campher, Jolene. "The role of visual skills and its impact on skills performance of cricket players." Diss., Pretoria : [S.n.], 2009. http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-10202009-142417.

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Bettadapura, Vinay Kumar. "Leveraging contextual cues for dynamic scene understanding." Diss., Georgia Institute of Technology, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/1853/54834.

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Environments with people are complex, with many activities and events that need to be represented and explained. The goal of scene understanding is to either determine what objects and people are doing in such complex and dynamic environments, or to know the overall happenings, such as the highlights of the scene. The context within which the activities and events unfold provides key insights that cannot be derived by studying the activities and events alone. \emph{In this thesis, we show that this rich contextual information can be successfully leveraged, along with the video data, to support dynamic scene understanding}. We categorize and study four different types of contextual cues: (1) spatio-temporal context, (2) egocentric context, (3) geographic context, and (4) environmental context, and show that they improve dynamic scene understanding tasks across several different application domains. We start by presenting data-driven techniques to enrich spatio-temporal context by augmenting Bag-of-Words models with temporal, local and global causality information and show that this improves activity recognition, anomaly detection and scene assessment from videos. Next, we leverage the egocentric context derived from sensor data captured from first-person point-of-view devices to perform field-of-view localization in order to understand the user's focus of attention. We demonstrate single and multi-user field-of-view localization in both indoor and outdoor environments with applications in augmented reality, event understanding and studying social interactions. Next, we look at how geographic context can be leveraged to make challenging ``in-the-wild" object recognition tasks more tractable using the problem of food recognition in restaurants as a case-study. Finally, we study the environmental context obtained from dynamic scenes such as sporting events, which take place in responsive environments such as stadiums and gymnasiums, and show that it can be successfully used to address the challenging task of automatically generating basketball highlights. We perform comprehensive user-studies on 25 full-length NCAA games and demonstrate the effectiveness of environmental context in producing highlights that are comparable to the highlights produced by ESPN.

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Denkert, Ellinor, and Erik Friberg. ""Got Skills...?" : En kvalitativ studie om kompetensutveckling baserat på StarCraft II." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för informatik och media, 2012. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-168542.

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The use of computer games has grown exponentially in the past few years and StarCraft II is one of the most popular e-sports today, played by millions of people worldwide. This study investigates the game’s effect on skills, as perceived by the players of StarCraft II. The study was conducted by using an empirical survey and interviews. The skills being investigated were both physical and mental in their nature. The conclusion was that the majority of players perceived that their skills regarding reaction speed, multitasking, APM, analysis and strategy were increased the most, while there was a smaller change in social skills and language skills. Additionally, people who played team games of StarCraft II did, however, feel that their teamwork, conflict management and leadership capabilities increased.
Under de senaste åren har användandet av datorspel vuxit explosionsartat. StarCraft II är ett utav dagens mest populära e-sporter och spelas av miljontals människor runt om i världen. Studien undersöker om spelare uppfattar kompetensförändringar av att spela StarCraft II. Studien utfördes med hjälp utav en enkät och intervjuer. Kompetenserna vi undersökte var av både fysiska och mentala i sin karaktär. Av resultaten kan man se att majoriteten av spelarna uppfattade en ökad kompetens inom reaktionshastighet, multitasking, APM, analytisk- och strategisk förmåga, medan man ser en mindre förändring inom social kompetens och språklig kompetens. Resultaten visar även att de som valde att spela lagspel uppfattade en ökad kompetens inom samarbete, konflikthantering och ledarskap.

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Ibrahim, Halijah. "Assessing general motor ability and tests for talent identification of Malaysian adoloescents." University of Western Australia. School of Sport Science, Exercise and Health, 2009. http://theses.library.uwa.edu.au/adt-WU2010.0109.

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[Truncated astract] Talent Identification (TI) in sports begins by mass screening individuals' motor abilities. du Randt (2000) wrote that, as test items from one country might not necessarily suit another, appropriate basic motor skill test items are important for developing a TI mass screening instrument. Three hundred and thirty Malaysian adolescents aged from 12-15 years were tested on three motor skill test batteries: the McCarron Assessment of Neuromuscular Development (MAND, McCarron, 1982); the Australian Talent Identification Test (AIS, Australian Sports Commission, 1998); and a Balance and Movement Coordination Test which was specifically developed for this project. In the current research, the motor performance data recorded from the adolescents underwent several types of analyses. Principal Component analyses were conducted on the MAND, AIS and BMC motor skill instruments to understand what the three motor skill instruments were assessing globally in the Malaysian adolescents. Then, first-order and higher-order factor analyses were conducted on the 13 parameters making up the AIS+BMC motor skill instrument to examine the concept of general motor ability (GMA). After descriptive analyses of the adolescents' motor skill performances, age and gender differences were examined using two (gender) by four (age) ANOVAs. Finally, stepwise discriminant function analyses were conducted on a combined AIS+BMC motor skill instrument to determine the best sub-set of motor skills that reliably classified the Malaysian adolescents into three levels of motor performance.... Two stepwise discriminant analyses were undertaken to find the best set of motor skills for classifying Malaysian adolescents into three motor coordination groups based on scores on the MAND and three motor ability groups derived from scores on the motoric 'g'. The ability of a combined AIS+BMC motor skill instrument to classify Malaysian adolescents into the three groups was good for those classified as Normal, not so great for those adolescents classified as High, and poor for those adolescents classified as Low. The motor skills consistently reported across both sets of analyses were Balance-Eyes-Open, Balance-Eyes-Closed, Dynamic Balance, Hopping Speed, Quadrant Jump, Hopping-in-Square, Basketball Throw and Shuttle-Run-with-Object. Hence, motor skills assessing static balance, dynamic balance and postural control appeared to reliably discriminate the Malaysian adolescents into three motor performance groups. Finally, an examination of the misclassifications found in the discriminant analyses revealed two things. Those individuals being predicted into a lower group performed a large number of the motor skills to a lesser standard when compared with their correctly classified cohorts. Conversely, those predicted into a higher group performed a number of motor skills to a standard higher than their correctly classified cohorts. Thus, at a global level, certain individuals could be overlooked for further athletic development and is a concern when developing a rigorous TI program. Therefore, practitioners need to be cautious of any single ability score, and how that represents an individual's athletic potential. These results are discussed, limitations noted, and directions for future research provided.

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Wheaton, Kerry-Ann. "A psychological skills inventory for sport." Thesis, Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch, 1998. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/16461.

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Thesis (M Sport Sc)-- Stellenbosch University, 1998.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT:The purpose of this study was to develop a practical, reliable psychological skills inventory to assess the psychological skills of athletes. This primarily involved identifying the relevant psychological skills that affect sport performance. A variety of developmental procedures were applied in the construction of this inventory, including the consultation of sport psychology literature, identification of articles which characterise successful athletes, analysis of research articles pertaining to the psychological Skills, and review of available psychological tests. The initial inventory consisted of 82 items which evaluated six psychological skills: achievement motivation, goal setting, anxiety control, maintaining confidence, concentration and mental rehearsal. The inventory was completed by 304 students from the Department of Human Movement Science at the University of Stellenbosch. The respondents' data were divided into two groups depending on their achievement in sport. The results indicated that the inventory was able to differentiate between successful and less successful athletes on the psychological skills measured. Other aspects were statistically analysed, namely language, age, and gender differences, correlation between individual item and achievement level, and the contri,bution of each item to its psychological skill. The final inventory consists of 60 items, with ten items from each of the six psychological skills. Information obtained from the inventory can identify the strengths, weaknesses and deficiencies in the psychological skills of athletes, so that a psychological skills training programme can be developed.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING:Die doel van hierdie studie was om 'n praktiese, betroubare sielkundige inventaris te ontwerp om die sielkundige vaardighede van sportlui vas te stel. Dit het hoofsaaklik bestaan uit die identifisering van relevante sielkundige vaardighede wat sportprestasie beinvloed. 'n Verskeidenheid van prosedures was toegepas in die konstruksie van die inventaris, insluitend konsultasie van sportsielkundeliteratuur, identifesering van artikels wat suksesvolle sportlui beskryf, ontleding van narvorsingsartikels met betrekking tot sielkundige vaardighede en 'n oorsigstudie van relevante sielkundige toetse. Die aanvanklike inventaris het bestaan uit 82 items, wat ses sielkundige vaardighede getoets het, naamlik prestasiemotivering, doelwitstelling, aktiveringsbeheer, handhawing van selfvertroue, konsentrasie en verstandelike oefening. Die inventaris is deur 304 studente van die Departement Menslike Bewegingskunde aan die Universiteit van Stellenbosch voltooi. Die respondente se data is in twee groepe, afhangende van hul prestasie in sport, verdeel. Die resultate het aangedui dat die inventaris tussen suksesvolle en minder suksesvolle atlete onderskei met betrekking tot die sielkundige vaardighede wat gemeet is. Ander aspekte is statisties ontleed, naamlik taal, ouderdom, geslag, korrelasie tussen afsonderlike items en prestasievlak, asook die bydrae van elke item tot sy sielkundige vaardigheid. Die finale inventaris behels 60 items, met tien items van elk van die sielkundige vaardighede. Inligting wat van die inventaris verkry word, kan die sterkpunte en tekortominge van atlete bepaal, wat as basis vir die ontwikkeling van 'n sielkundige program kan dien.

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Asamoah, Benjamin. "The role of mental toughness, psychological skills and team cohesion in soccer performance." Thesis, Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/85729.

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Thesis (MScSportSc)-- Stellenbosch University, 2013.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: There is a relative lack of information in sport psychology research literature about the role of psychological dimensions in team sport – especially in soccer (Reilly et al., 2000). It is consequently not surprising that research on applied strategies in soccer has concentrated mainly on technical, tactical and physiological aspects. This defies anecdotal evidence and literature reports alluding to the importance of psychological and team factors in achieving sport excellence. This study examined the role of mental toughness, psychological skills and team cohesion in soccer performance. It also considered differences between individuals from different playing positions regarding these modalities. A total of 263 male soccer players aged between 17 and 32 years from 16 South African tertiary institutions participated in the study. A cross-sectional study design was used to determine the players’ mental toughness, psychological skills and team cohesion by means of the Sports Mental Toughness Questionnaire (SMTQ); the Athletic Coping Skills Inventory-28 (ACSI-28); and the Group Environmental Questionnaire (GEQ). The final log standings at the 2012 University Sport South Africa (USSA) Soccer Championship were used as an indication of team performance. The results yielded differences between successful and less successful teams with regard to age, previous tournament experience, and the time players had been part of their respective teams. There were no significant differences between the teams for any of the mental toughness and psychological skills scores. However, group cohesion did play a role in team performance. The more successful teams scored better than their less successful counterparts in the following subscales of the GEQ: Individual attraction to group-social and individual attraction to group-task. However, the less successful teams scored better than their more successful counterparts regarding group integration-task, and group integration-social. Practical significant differences of moderate magnitude were observed for five of the 96 player positional comparisons. Midfielders scored higher than the defenders and forwards on the control subscale of the SMTQ. The forwards recorded higher scores than midfielders with regard to the GEQ subscale of group integration-task, whereas goalkeepers yielded higher scores than midfielders on the group integration-task subscale. There was a difference between the scores on the constancy subscale of the SMTQ where the defenders outscored the midfielders. No positional differences were recorded for any of the psychological skills. The overall results revealed that at the developmental level of the study sample, team cohesion and other moderating variables might be the key to enhanced performance of soccer teams. In addition, the results supported the general assumption that a relationship exists between playing positions in team sports and various psychological variables.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Daar is ’n relatiewe gebrek aan navorsingsliteratuur in sportsielkunde oor die rol van sielkundige dimensies in spansoorte – veral in sokker (Reilly et al., 2000). Dit is gevolglik logies dat navorsing oor toegepaste strategieë in sokker hoofsaaklik fokus op tegniese, taktiese en fisiologiese aspekte. Dit druis in teen anekdotiese getuienis en opvattings wat dui op die belangrikheid van sielkundige en spanfaktore in die bereiking van sportuitnemendheid. Hierdie studie ondersoek die rol van geestelike taaiheid, sielkundige vaardighede en spankohesie in sokkerprestasie. Dit bestudeer ook die verskille tussen individue van verskillende speelposisies met betrekking tot hierdie modaliteite. ’n Totaal van 263 manlike sokkerspelers tussen die ouderdom van 17 en 32 jaar, van 16 Suid-Afrikaanse tersiêre inrigtings, het aan hierdie ondersoek deelgeneem. ’n Dwarsdeursnitstudie-ontwerp is gebruik om spelers se geestelike taaiheid, sielkundige vaardighede en spankohesie te bepaal deur middel van die Sports Mental Toughness Questionnaire (SMTQ); die Athletic Coping Skills Inventory-28 (ACSI-28); en die Group Environmental Questionnaire (GEQ). Die finale posisies van spanne op die punteleer na afloop van die 2012 Universiteit Sport Suid-Afrika (USSA) sokkertoernooi is gebruik as aanduiding van hul prestasie. Die resultate het verskille opgelewer tussen suksesvolle-en minder-suksesvolle spanne met betrekking tot ouderdom, vorige toernooi-ervaring, en die tydperk wat spelers lede van hul onderskeie spanne was. Daar was geen beduidende tellingverskille tussen spanne rakende enige van die geestelike taaiheid en sielkundige vaardighede nie. Groepkohesie het egter ’n rol in spanprestasie gespeel. Die meer-suksesvolle spanne het beter gevaar as die minder-suksesvolle spanne in die volgende subskale van die GEQ: Individuele aantreklikheid van die groep-sosiaal; Individuele aantreklikheid van die groep-taak. Die minder-suksevolle spanne het egter beter gevaar as die meer-suksesvolle spanne met betrekking tot: Groepintegrasie-taak, en Groepintegrasie-sosiaal. Prakties beduidende verskille is waargeneem vir vyf van die 96 speelposisie-vergelykings. Middelveldspelers het hoër tellings behaal as verdedigers en voorspelers op die beheer-subskaal van die SMTQ. Voorspelers het beter tellings aangeteken as middelveldspelers op die GEQ subskaal groepintegrasie-taak; terwyl doelwagters hoër tellings as middelveldspelers op die subskaal groepintegrasie-taak aangeteken het. Daar was ’n verskil in die konstantheid-subskaal van die SMTQ waar verdedigers beter as middelveldspelers gevaar het. Daar was geen beduidende verskille tussen speelposisies rakend enige van die sielkundige vaardighede nie. Die oorkoepelende bevindinge dui daarop dat op die ontwikkelingsvlak van die studiesteekproef, spankohesie, en ander prestasiedimensies moontlik die sleutel bevat vir verhoogde prestasie-uitkomste van sokkerspanne. Verder ondersteun die resultate die algemene aanname dat daar ’n verband bestaan tussen speelposisies in spansportsoorte en verskeie sielkundige veranderlikes.

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Ortega, Elizabeth. "The Effects of a Task Analysis and Self-Evaluation on the Acquisition of Yoga Postures." Thesis, University of South Florida, 2018. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10784301.

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There is a growing amount of research evaluating behavioral approaches for skill acquisition in sports. Few of these studies have focused on yoga and skill acquisition. There is a need for a low effort yet effective way to teach yoga postures to individuals who do not take private yoga classes and may practice at home. This study evaluated the effects of using a picture-based task analysis and self-evaluation on the skill acquisition of yoga postures. A multiple baseline across yoga postures was used. During the task analyses intervention, the participants received a task analysis, performed the posture, and scored the task analysis upon the completion of the posture. Results showed that the task-analysis and self-evaluation increased the accuracy of all the poses.

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Burns, Anne-Marie. "On the Relevance of Using Virtual Humans for Motor Skills Teaching : a case study on Karate gestures." Phd thesis, Université Rennes 2, 2013. http://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-00813337.

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The main question of that thesis is on the relevance of using virtual humans to teach complex motor skills. The first study explores the question of the feasibility of learning by imitation of a virtual human by comparing the improvement of the performance on three karate gestures for three groups, namely a traditional class, a video-based group and a virtual reality group. The second study investigates the influence on the learning task of having a self representation in the virtual environment. The participants have a feedback of their movements represented on a mirrored cylindrical gray avatar. The impact of that avatar on the learning task of the participants is assessed by two means. Performance evaluations are performed and give an external perspective on the learning. Evocation interview are also performed to get an insight of the learning task from the participants point of view. Finally, these two studies are completed by a third one investigating the possibility to have an automatic performance evaluator in order to reduce grading discrepancies generated by humans graders. Such a tool would be required to have an objective performance evaluation of all the participants in order to compare the four learning environments presented in that thesis and eventual further iteration of these environments. The conclusion our the studies presented in that thesis are that learning motor skills from the imitation of a virtual human is possible. Consequently, virtual learning environments for motorskills teaching are relevant. Furthermore, these environments can be used in various types of applications. They can be used as a study tool for standard and controlled investigation of teaching by demonstration. They can also be used in an engineering loop for the development of further learning environments and training accelerators. They also have a potential usage in the development of exergames in response to the international obesity crisis

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Shambrook, Christopher J. "Adherence to mental skills training for sports performance." Thesis, University of Brighton, 1995. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.284045.

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White, Alison Elizabeth. "Imagery and sport performance." Thesis, Bangor University, 1996. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.320414.

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Masters, R. S. W. "Implicit knowledge, stress and skill failure." Thesis, University of York, 1992. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/2501/.

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Williams, Andrew Mark. "Perceptual skill and soccer performance." Thesis, University of Liverpool, 1995. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.309973.

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Campbell, Heather, and n/a. "Cross-age tutoring : an effective leadership alternative for sports skills." University of Canberra. Sports Studies, 1999. http://erl.canberra.edu.au./public/adt-AUC20060623.161717.

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The purpose of the present study was to determine the effect of cross-age tutoring upon leadership style and self-esteem for the tutors, and children's attitudes toward physical activity and motivation to participate in sport for primary school children. Although the process of peer tutoring and/or cross-age tutoring is not a new concept, this form of transmission of information and skill within the educational sporting environment in Australia, and particularly in the A.C.T, is relatively new, and is an area which has received very little empirical attention. Comparisons between the three cross-age tutoring programs were made in terms of primary school students' attitudes toward physical activity and motivation to participate in sport, as well as leadership style and self-esteem for the tutors. Four hundred and eighty-eight primary school students (7 to 12 years of age) were administered an adaptation of Gill, Gross, & Huddleston's (1982) Participation Motivation Questionnaire; and Schutz, Smoll, & Wood's (1985) Children's Attitudes Towards Physical Activity Inventory, both before the program and again at the end of the program. Further, one hundred and twenty-six secondary students (from Years 9 & 10) were administered an adaptation of Coopersmith's (1967) Self-Esteem Inventory; and a modified version of Chelladurai's (1980) Leadership Scale for Sports. A modified questionnaire from Clough & Traill's (1992) Sportsfun program evaluation was designed and implemented to measure attitudes about participating in sporting activities, as well as to obtain ideas about changes or benefits for each group from their viewpoint. This evaluation sheet was given to the tutors and tutees following the completion of the program Statistical analyses revealed that involvement in cross-age tutoring programs in the field of sport and physical education did not provide significant results in the areas of self-esteem or leadership style for the tutors, or in the areas of attitudes towards physical activity or participation motivation for the tutees. In other words, these results indicated that the act of participation in a cross-age tutoring program in sport and physical activity did not enhance and develop these attributes for either the tutors or the tutees. Conversely, though, the results did not reveal significant outcomes to indicate that participation in a cross-age tutoring program would lower or negatively affect the existing levels of self-esteem, leadership behaviour, attitudes towards physical activity or motivation to participate in sporting activities for the tutors or tutees. However, from the qualitative data obtained during the interview questionnaire following participation in the cross-age tutoring programs, it could be concluded that cross-age tutoring programs in the area of sport and physical education have merit because they seem to serve different needs for the different groups of people involved in them, including the tutors, tutees, teachers and participating schools. By providing cross-age tutoring programs in sport, children and tutors have the opportunity to develop sports skills and enhance leadership/coaching abilities which are consistent with the participant's individual personalities and aspirations.

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Jasevičiūtė, Simona. "Sportuojančių ir nesportuojančių mokinių socialinių įgūdžių ypatumai: lyginamoji analizė." Master's thesis, Lithuanian Academic Libraries Network (LABT), 2012. http://vddb.laba.lt/obj/LT-eLABa-0001:E.02~2012~D_20120803_122119-54173.

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Sportas užima vis reikšmingesnę vietą visuomenės gyvenime. Dauguma sporto tyrinėtojųlinkę pripažinti ugdomąją sporto funkciją kaip humanistinių vertybių perdavimo priemonę, o sportinę veiklą – kaip socialinį reiškinį, galintį paveikti žmonių elgesį.Šiuolaikiniame sporte neskiriama pakankamai dėmesio harmoningo sportininko asmenybės sklaidai. Todėl ypatingai aktualūs tampa sportininkų socialinių įgūdžių tyrimai, kurie pagrįstų daugelio mokslininkų tyrimus, kad sportas yra priemonė ugdyti ne tik fizines, bet ir psichologines, socialines asmenybės savybes.
Sport takes big part in social pubic life and becoming more important. The majority of the researches agrees that the upbringing sports function are the measure of humanistic values where sport activities are defined as social phenomena which influences an individual’s ski.

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Kabush, Danelle. "Focusing skills in a risk-endurance sport." Thesis, University of Ottawa (Canada), 2001. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/9146.

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Studies have shown the importance of focusing skills at the elite level. For example, Orlick and Partington (1988) found that attentional focus was one of the two most important skills related to high level performance at the Olympic games. However there has been minimal research investigating how athletes themselves perceive focus. Furthermore, the question of how athletes develop focus and what kinds of focusing skills they use in order to eliminate distractions, to keep concentrated on the immediate task, and to get properly aroused for the task at hand has not been fully answered in the literature. The research objectives of this study on focusing skills among elite athletes in a risk-endurance sport (cross-country mountain bike racing) were fivefold. The first objective was to advance our knowledge on how elite athletes perceive and define focus in relation to their sport. The second and third objectives were to assess what focusing skills the athletes used before and during competition, as well as what kinds of focusing skills the athletes used in training. The fourth objective was to shed light on how the athletes developed and improved their focusing skills. The final objective was to discover other concepts that may have interacted with focus. The present study provides a clearer understanding of how elite athletes perceive focus and the different dimensions it entails. The findings also present a clearer picture of how focus is developed over the course of an athlete's career. There were both commonalities among the athletes and a uniqueness in the way each athlete perceived and developed focusing skills. These findings may enable coaches and sport psychologists to prevent or work more effectively with potential problems and issues that can hinder a great focus in the sport of mountain biking.

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Alexander, Melissa Grace Fraser. "Social skills and sports (S³) program : developing the social skills of young adult Special Olympics athletes." Diss., Connect to online resource - MSU authorized users, 2008. http://www.oregonpdf.org/index.cfm.

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Holland, Mark Joseph Greer. "The role and development of life skills in young sports participants." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2012. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/3449/.

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Under the umbrella of positive youth development, life skills represent an important area of research for young people. The personal competencies a young person possesses determine his or her capacity to effectively navigate the turbulence of adolescence and grow into adulthood. An increased understanding of the role, function, and enhancement of life skills therefore serves a great purpose in the design and evaluation of youth development programs. This thesis aimed to extend the current knowledge and practices through targeting the gaps in the life skills literature. First, using a qualitative design, the specific needs of young elite athletes were investigated while outlining a proposed methodology for future needs analyses. The importance of developing life skills in young athletes was emphasised as it was found that young athletes required a range of both sport specific and life skills. Second, an investigation into the function of life skills found that reported possession of key life skills partially mediates the relationship between youth experiences and well-being, illustrating this role for the first time. However, within youth samples there was a broad range in the degree to which these skills are applied and transferred, reinforcing the call for deliberate developmental programming. The lack of adequate measures in life skills research was addressed through the validation of BRSQ with young sports participants. Support for the utility of this measure allows for the greater investigation into the mechanisms through which life skills function. Finally, a life skills program was designed following the recommendations of the predominant youth development frameworks and comprehensively evaluated. This thesis progresses existing literature regarding the role and function of life skills as well as providing insight into how to best promote and evaluate the teaching of life skills in applied research programs.

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Alamo, Jesuel. "A Phenomenological Study: Coping Skills of Gay Men in Amateur Sports." ScholarWorks, 2017. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/3740.

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The world of sports has traditionally been known for promoting masculine behaviors, including a resistance to homosexuality. Research supports that gay men in sports have historically encountered prejudice and discrimination. Although the social climate has experienced change regarding homophobic discrimination and prejudice, research shows that challenges still exist for gay men who participate in sports; furthermore, to date, research could not be located that addresses the coping skills of gay men in amateur sports. This research addressed the lack of qualitative studies on the experiences of gay men who participate in amateur sports and on their use of coping skills. The purpose of the study was to describe the lived experiences of 8 gay men in amateur sports and to identify the coping skills, whether adaptive or maladaptive, used in sports environments. This study examined current literature on the consequences of prejudice and discrimination against gay men in sports environments. The conceptual framework for this study was based on the minority stress theory. The methodology was a phenomenological inquiry to gain an understanding of the lived experiences of this population. The 3 themes that emerged from the data were situation modification coping, emotion-focused coping, and minority stress. Understanding the experiences of gay men in amateur sports contributes to positive social change by identifying adaptive coping strategies, resulting in positive outcomes such as decreased stress and anxiety. Moreover, the lived experiences provided by this study's participants can provide direction for additional research to improve the experiences of gay men in sports.

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Edwards, David John. "Sport psychological skills training and psychological well-being in youth athletes." Pretoria : [s.n.], 2007. http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-08112008-122715.

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Carnebratt, Jakob, and Simon Sevholt. "Mindfulness korrelationer med påverkansmekanismer, idrottspsykologiska färdigheter och prestation hos idrottare." Thesis, Högskolan i Halmstad, Akademin för hälsa och välfärd, 2015. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hh:diva-27930.

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Syftet med föreliggande studie var att empiriskt undersöka en teoretisk modell för korrelationer mellan dispositionell mindfulness, påverkansmekanismer och idrottspsykologiska färdigheter (Birrer, Röthlin & Morgan, 2012). Modellen testas genom att (1) undersöka korrelationer mellan dispositionell mindfulness och påverkansmekanismer (Emotionsreglering, Klarsynthet och Ältande). (2) Undersöka korrelationer mellan påverkansmekanismer och idrottspsykologiska färdigheter (Motoriska färdigheter, Anspänningsreglering, Motivation och Copingförmåga). (3) Dessutom undersöktes även korrelationer mellan idrottspsykologiska färdigheter och självskattad idrottsprestation (Tävlings- respektive träningsprestation). I studien deltog 242 elitidrottare från idrottsföreningar i sydvästra Sverige. Den aktuella studien stöder Birrer med kollegors (2012) modell då resultatet (1) visade signifikanta korrelationer mellan dispositionell mindfulness och samtliga tre påverkansmekanismer. (2) Vidare visade resultatet i aktuell studie att Emotionsreglering är relaterat till bättre Copingförmåga, Inre motivation och Anspänningsreglering. Resultatet visade att bättre Klarsynthet om sitt inre känsloliv är relaterat till bättre Copingförmåga, Inre motivation och Anspänningsreglering. Resultatet visade även att mindre Ältande är relaterat till bättre Copingförmåga och Anspänningsreglering. (3) Bättre Copingförmåga och högre grad av Yttre motivation visades vara relaterat till högre självskattad tävlingsprestation. Till sist visade resultatet att bättre Copingförmåga och högre grad av Inre motivation är relaterat till högre självskattad träningsprestation. Resultatet diskuterades i relation till forskning och teoretiska referensramar.
The purpose of present study was to empirically examine a theoretical model for correlations between dispositional mindfulness, impact mechanisms and sport psychological skills (Birrer, Röthlin & Morgan, 2012). The model is tested by (1) to examine the correlations between dispositional mindfulness and impact mechanisms (Self-regulation, Clarity and Rumination). (2) To examine correlations between impact mechanisms and sport psychological skills (Motor Control Skills, Arousal Regulation Skill, Motivation and Coping Skills). (3) In addition was also correlations between skills and self-rated sport performance (competitive and training performance) examined. The study involved 242 competitive athletes from sports clubs in southwestern Sweden. The current study supports Birrer with colleagues' (2012) model when the results (1) showed significant correlations between dispositional mindfulness and all three impact mechanisms. (2) Furthermore, the results showed that Self-Regulation is related to better Coping Skills, Intrinsic Motivation and Arousal Regulation Skill. The results showed that better Clarity about its inner emotional life is related to better Coping Skills, Intrinsic Motivation and Arousal Regulation Skill. The results also showed that less Rumination is related to better Coping Skills and Arousal Regulation Skill. (3) Better Coping Skills and higher levels of External Motivation appeared to be related to higher self-rated competitive performance. Finally, the results showed that better Coping Skills and higher levels of Intrinsic Motivation are related to higher self-rated exercise performance. The results were discussed in relation to research and theoretical frameworks.

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Jones, Martin I. "Positive youth development through sport : teaching life skills." Thesis, Loughborough University, 2007. https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/2134/8030.

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This thesis aimed to develop an intervention to improve the life skills of British adolescent competitive sport participants, who are in full time education. Study one investigated the life skills needs of adolescent competitive sport participants and provided a participant-centred definition of life skills. The problem exists that it is unclear which life skills are needed by adolescent competitive sport participants and which life skills should be included in life skills programmes. As such, existing programmes may not reflect the needs of adolescents. The aim of this study was to examine the life skills needs of competitive adolescent sports participants from the perspective of youth sport participants, coaches, and experts in sport psychology and youth sport. Eighteen adolescent sports participants, fourteen coaches, and four experts in sport psychology and youth sport participated in a series of focus group interviews. An inductive analysis revealed how participants defined life skills and which life skills adolescent sports participants need. Life skills were defined as ranges of transferable skills needed for everyday life by everybody, that help people thrive above and beyond the normal requirements of everyday existence. Participants described the need for interpersonal skills including social skills, respect, leadership, family interactions, and communication. Personal skills including organisation, discipline, self-reliance, goal setting, managing performance outcomes, motivation, and identity were also reported. Participants described communication skills and organisation as the most important life skills for British adolescent competitive sport participants to acquire. Study two presents an in-depth, idiographic study illustrating how life skills were learnt through the experience of sport. The aim of the current study was to investigate how life skills could be learnt and improved through experiences in sport. (Continues...).

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Harwood, Chris Grant. "Pre-competition achievement goals within young sports performers." Thesis, Loughborough University, 1997. https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/2134/6778.

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This thesis attempted to develop a clearer understanding of the pre-competition achievement goal perspectives that are held by young performers. The programme of research moves through three transitional stages incorporating three different methodologies. Specifically, the first two investigations which comprised Study 1 adopted a quantitative research methodology; Study 2 incorporated qualitative techniques; and the final investigation addressed the research question on an idiographic basis via a single subject design study. Firstly, an attempt is made to identify the major antecedents or precursors to states of goal involvement prior to a specific competitive situation. The first study examined the antecedents of pre-competition state goals within adolescent swimmers from an interactionist perspective. Results showed how levels of task and ego involvement prior to a specific race were related to both dispositional tendencies and situational factors within the race context. However, task orientation appeared to play a more powerful role than ego orientation in predicting their respective goal states. Furthermore, ego involvement was more strongly predicted by situational factors. The second investigation extended this question by investigating a sample of elite junior tennis players prior to a competitive match at the National Championships. In this way, the nature of the competitive context, with respect to goal or reward structure, changed from being more task-involving (individualistic-focused) to being more ego-involving (competitive-focused). Results showed how the players' goal states were related much more to perceptions of the context than to their reported goal orientation. Furthermore, task orientation did not emerge as a significant predictor of goal involvement. With these results in mind, the second stage of the thesis involved investigating, to a much greater depth, the motivational criteria which appeared to contribute to the development of goal orientation and the activation of goal involvement in the context of competition. For this purpose, qualitative interview techniques and an inductive content analysis were applied to a sample of seventeen elite junior tennis players. The findings suggested that the development of goal orientation and activation of pre-competition goal involvement rested on a complex interaction of internal and environmental factors. Specific general dimensions of influence included cognitive-developmental skills and experience, the motivational climate conveyed by significant others, the social and structural nature of tennis, and the match context. The information gathered from this study provided the impetus, rationale and theoretical foundation for the final study in this thesis. Employing a single subject multiple baseline across subjects design, the study investigated the effects of a structured environmental and task-based intervention programme which sought to influence precompetition goal involvement and related competitive cognitions within a small sample of adolescent national standard tennis players. Following a three month intervention period, the three targeted players reported pre-competition goal states which showed increased activation of the self-referent conception of achievement. Furthermore, each player fostered an attitude which valued the challenge of winning matches for internal reasons, as opposed to reasons associated with favourable social approval. These findings reinforced the practicability of educationlaction-based interventions designed to develop more adaptive motivational responses to competitive situations. The programme of research conducted in this thesis, therefore, highlights how precompetition achievement goal perspectives within young performers may be influenced, provided that one has a detailed understanding of the antecedents of this process. In so doing, this thesis alerts future research to the importance of working within an interactionist paradigm and with a measurement technology which can accurately assess goal states in a diverse number of sporting situations. In this way, our understanding of goal involvement, as an important achievement-related attentional state, may be greatly facilitated.

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Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Sports Skill'

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