Дисертації з теми "Athletes’ health recreation"

The success of Chinese professional athletes is attributable to the government-run elite sport system; it is seen as one of the most effective and successful systems at nurturing high-skilled athletes. However, within the Chinese professional sport system, tensions between athletes' athletic skills and overall personal development have been widely documented. Among all studies, very few have employed in-depth interviews with professional wushu athletes. In this study, the researcher utilized in-depth semi-structured interviews with professional wushu athletes from three of the 25 professional wushu teams in mainland China. The study was conducted in order to understand the potential conflicts between athletes' athletic skills development and overall personal development. Findings revealed that athletes bear the training at great cost to their future potential as self-sufficient members of Chinese society. Their academic, social, and vocational skills are subject to deep neglect that negatively impacts their post-competition careers. The system considers investment in preparation for the post-competitive lives of the athletes to be a distraction from, or even an impediment to, their success in competition. It is suggested that the Chinese sport system undertake a review and reformation of its approach to wushu training to provide athletes with the skills needed to successfully navigate a life outside of athletics.

The current study investigated ratings of coaches and their athletes on the Coaching Efficacy Scale. Coaches (n = 12) and athletes (n = 177) were recruited from several Southwestern universities and community colleges to participate in this study. The purpose of this study was to compare coaching efficacy ratings of coaches to those of their athletes to determine how similarly coaches and athletes perceive the coach’s efficacy. Coaches and athletes from a variety of team and individual sports, including male teams, female teams, and teams with a mixture of males and females participated in this study. Results indicated that there is a difference between coaches’ ratings of themselves and athletes’ ratings of their coaches. Differences were found in athlete gender as well as gender matching of coaches and athletes.

The Female Athlete Triad is a syndrome defined by disordered eating, amenorrhea, and osteoporosis seen in female athletes. This directed project presented the assessment of knowledge and the importance of education among female athletes regarding the Female Athlete Triad. The researcher worked with the athletic department and the female athletes at California State University, Long Beach. A quantitative study, quasi-experimental, one-group design was completed. A one-group pretest- posttest was used on 45 female athletes to evaluate their knowledge base before and after the educational intervention.

Results indicated a significant increase in the athletes' scores for knowledge of the Female Athlete Triad between the pretest and posttest ( p < .01). The increase in scores signified that a 1-hour education session improved the knowledge base for the female athletes of the Female Athlete Triad. A major recommendation would be to include coaches, trainers, and parents in the educational process.

Competitive surfing requires athletes to transfer force from their core musculature to maneuver a surfboard successfully with powerful, rotational movements on an unpredictable wave's surface. The purpose of this study was to test athletic performance outcomes in junior elite male surf athletes using a battery of field tests specific to the sport of surfing and determine the effects of a core strength training program (CSTP) on athletic performance outcomes. Nineteen junior elite surf athletes completed a pretest, 8-week CSTP, and posttest of rotational power, lower body power, core strength, core endurance, and rotational flexibility. Means, standard deviations, paired t-tests with a significance of p < 0.05, and effect size was computed. Results demonstrated significant differences in time to peak maximal acceleration, left rotational power, core strength, core endurance, and rotational flexibility. This study concludes implementation of the CSTP enhances athletic performance measurements which is likely to increase overall surfing performance.

Proper evaluation of postural stability is an integral part of the comprehensive management of concussed athletes. Clinicians are in need of a cost-effective and objective tool to assist them in their assessments performed in a variety of health care settings. This non-experimental design compared the Wii Balance Board (WBB), a recreational gaming system, to the Balance Error Scoring System (BESS), a tool developed for sports medicine clinicians for the assessment of postural stability in concussed athletes. The WBB has been proven to be used in various settings for rehabilitation but has not yet been used for the assessment of postural stability (Butler et al., 2010). This study hypothesized whether the WBB, when compared to the BESS, is an objective tool that can be used as an acceptable measurement of postural stability in college athletes. Ninety-one male collegiate football players participated in the study and were measured for postural stability both with the WBB and the BESS tool. Findings revealed that there was a direct and positive correlation between these two instruments. The WBB when compared to the BESS is found to valid tool in assessing postural stability. These results lay the foundation for future research on the WBB and its' usefulness in measuring postural stability. The portable and cost effective WBB potentially could be used in various settings to aid in the concussion management of athletes. It is imperative that nursing becomes more actively involved in the research, prevention and education of concussions. Nursing plays an integral role in the management of concussions and future research on concussions should be conducted by nurse scholars.

There is an increasing amount of evidence indicating potentially devastating long-term effects of subconcussive impacts in the absence of clinical symptoms of concussion in high school football players.

Purpose: To determine whether subconcussive head impacts produce any immediate cognitive, postural, and physiological changes after athletic participation.

Methods: Fifty-nine interscholastic football (FB), soccer (SOC), and track (RUN) athletes provided baseline and post-participation data. Four cerebral acoustic response variables were examined using the Brain Acoustic Monitor (BAM) (Active Signal Technologies, Linthicum Heights, MD). Oculomotor function was assessed via the King-Devick (K-D) test. Balance was evaluated using a computerized version of the Balance Error Scoring System (BESS).

Results: Significant changes in left-brain ratio were observed in football players postgame (p = 0.023). Between-group analysis of baseline data for left- and right-brain divergence noted differences as well (FB vs. SOC, p = 0.012, p = 0.008, respectively; FB vs. RUN, p < 0.001, p < 0.001, respectively). There were no significant differences with either oculomotor or balance variables.

Conclusions: One game may not provide enough head impact exposure to elicit detectable changes with the utilized instrumentation. Unexpectedly, there were differences observed in football players' baseline BAM scores in the absence of significant differences in baseline and post-participation K-D test and BESS scores across all groups, possibly indicating that prior exposures to subconcussive impacts in this cohort of football players may be present.

The purpose of this directed project was to develop a web-to-mobile meal-planning program, entitled The AMP (Automated Meal Planner) App. Specifically, this program generates pre-, during-, and post-workout meal plans for male and female athletes 20 to 45 years of age. This evidence-based meal-planning program was designed to provide athletes and active individuals instant access to healthy, nutritional lifestyle practices that ensure nutritional adequacy and bridge the gap between sports nutrition research and sports nutrition practice.

The metabolic "windows of opportunity" (pre-, during-, and post-workout) are the central focus of this meal-planning program. Meal plans are structured by nutrient timing (NT) to deliver precise amounts of nutrients at precisely the right times. Current sports nutrition research, principles and protocol were paired with an athlete questionnaire and a nutrient database through programmed algorithms. The algorithmic merger instantly generates personalized meal plans, which include foods, portion sizes, hydration, recipes, and timing.

Almost every athlete will experience at least one sport related injury (SRI) during his or her career in sport. Because of these injuries, there is often a period of time that the athlete is removed from play and forced to complete a rehabilitation program. In order to enhance this rehabilitation process, researchers have investigated various mental skills used by athletes to enhance their recovery process. Two of the areas that research has reviewed in terms of injury rehabilitation have been imagery and self-efficacy. However, there is a lack of research in which an imagery education intervention has been implemented to see how athletes in a rehabilitation program respond in terms of their imagery use, levels of self-efficacy, and speed of recovery. Therefore, this study investigated the use of an imagery education program, and its effect on athletes' imagery use, self-efficacy and rehabilitation time. This was done through the use of the Athletic Injury Imagery Questionnaire-2 (AIIQ-2) and the Athletic Injury Self-Efficacy Questionnaire (AISEQ). Due to a high attrition rate in participation, inferential statistics were not able to be conducted in order to truly assess the effectiveness of the imagery education program. However, other conclusions were drawn based on the completion rates and various variables that may have affected those rates. The study found that female, freshman were most likely to complete the entire study, while male juniors were least likely to complete the requirements of the study.

This is a pilot study of a proposed model for examining the main and interactionist effects of achievement goal orientations on moral function and the role of perceived ability as a potential moderator in sport morality levels through cluster analysis procedures. One hundred and three elite (103) athletes participating in Division I wrestling completed the Task Ego Orientation in Sport Competition Questionnaire (TEOSQ-COMP; Harwood, 2002), Perceived Ability Inventory Subscale (PAI; Lemyre, et al., 2002), and Hahm-Beller Values Choice Inventory (HBVCI; Hahm, Beller, & Stoll, 1989). Analysis of motivation involved the investigation of motivation from a goal profile standpoint through cluster analysis. Cluster analysis revealed three emergent goal profile combinations: Cluster 1 – High-Ego/Moderate Task; Cluster 2 – Low-Ego/Moderate-Task; Cluster 3 – Moderate-Ego/High-Task. The emergent cluster profiles were then examined for between group interaction effects of goal orientation and perceived ability upon moral function. ANOVA revealed strong interactions between ego orientation and moral function for Clusters 1 and 2, but not at significant effect. As well the moderating interaction of perceived ability upon moral function for Clusters 1 and 2 was strong, but again not at significant levels. These findings help encourage dialogue about the impact the motivational climate of Division I Athletics has upon its participants. By building upon the investigation of competition as a contextualized variable of impact on motivation and moral function (Harwood, 2002; van de Pol & Kavussanu, 2012), this study proposes a more advanced model for investigating the interactionist effect between these two and the motivational climate of Division I sport.

The areas of motivation and family structure have been well researched in various studies. However there is limited research on the effects of family structure on motivation, and no research on the effect of family structure on an athlete's motivation. Therefore research on the relationship of family structure and motivation in sport will be performed. The purpose of the current study is to investigate the effects of family structure on an athlete motivation. It is hypothesized that athletes from single parent families will be more extrinsically motivated than those athletes from two parent families. Participants were college athletes from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville and Saint Francis University (PA) who agreed to participate in a study on family structure and motivation. The study had a sample size of 114 participants the various sports teams associated with the universities. Participants were gathered by emailing all the athletes from the various athletic teams at the two universities. The hypothesis that athletes from single parent families would be more extrinsically motivated than athletes from two biological parent families was found to be partially supported. The research showed that athletes from non-traditional families were more extrinsically motivated in the area of external regulation than athletes from two biological parent families. As there is no previous research on this topic, this study provides a starting point to a subject with numerous possibilities for future research.

Peer assessment is used by health care professionals as a way to share knowledge and evaluate the performance of colleagues. Peer assessment is used widely in medical education as a preparatory tool for students, but peer assessment research in athletic training education is lacking. Athletic trainers are healthcare providers with a similar skill-set to physicians, thus, athletic training education can benefit from the use of peer assessment. Athletic training educators need to research the use of peer assessment as an evaluation tool in order to better prepare students to practice as healthcare professionals. This study investigated the accuracy and reliability of undergraduate athletic training students in their ability to assess their peers. This quasi-experimental study used between-group and within-group designs to answer the research questions. Junior-level students, senior-level students, and their instructors were enrolled as participants. Each student group’s ratings of clinical skills and professional behaviors were compared to instructor ratings to measure accuracy, and each student group’s ratings were compared for reliability. Cohen’s kappa coefficient measured inter-rater agreement for all statistical analyses. Both groups of students were accurate raters (p < .05) of their peers on clinical skills, but only the senior-level students were accurate in rating professional behaviors. Both groups of students were reliable in rating their peers on about half of the clinical skills. The senior-level students were also reliable in evaluating professional behaviors, but the junior-level students were not. The data for this study showed high levels of observed agreement for most clinical skills, subscales and the professional behaviors, but some items had low Cohen’s kappa values, most likely due to a known paradox that occurs with the kappa statistic. As the first study in athletic training education to use undergraduate students, live data collection, and rating of professional behaviors, the findings were promising for future research. Future research needs to include training in peer assessment, use of repeated measures, and comparison of instructor scores in order to better understand peer assessment in this population. Additionally, there is a need to establish consistent, quality measures in peer assessment research, including those used in athletic training education.

Context: Entry-level athletic trainers enter the workforce with the skills taught to them by athletic training programs (ATPs) using the Competencies developed by our accrediting body.

Objective: These competencies are developed using data collected from athletic trainers in the field with no input from the consumers of athletic training services.

Design: This study used a 3-round Delphi questionnaire.

Setting: Secondary schools located South Louisiana.

Participants: Six experts in the field of athletic training.

Data Collection and Analysis: In round 1, participants were first asked to identify individual skills within predetermined skill categories created from the Competencies and existing research. In rounds 2 and 3, participants ranked and rated their responses from round 1. Using Delphi methodology with qualitative and quantitative analysis, a Duty-Task List (DTL) was created from the data, which identified the essential skills for entry-level athletic trainers.

Results: Ranking of the skill categories produced four tiers, the top tier consisting of skill categories developed from the Competencies. The bottom tier consisted of two items, both from the Competencies: use of evidence-based medicine in practice and therapeutic interventions. Data further revealed communication, its many different forms, was the most important individual skill for entry-level athletic trainers.

Conclusions: The Delphi methodology used in this study was once again shown to be as effective as DACUM in producing an industry-supported DTL. In doing so, the participants gave a clear conceptualization of the essential skills needed as an entry-level athletic trainer, while also identifying some skills missing from the Competencies. Consideration should be given to the consumers of athletic training services when the next version of the Competencies is created. The athletic trainers on the panel consistently ranked higher skill categories from the Competencies, while the administrators on the panel ranked the non-competency skill categories higher. Additionally, there is still some resistance to increased use evidence in practice, which may be further proof of the chasm between what is considered desirable by clinical setting athletic trainers and academic setting athletic trainers.