Kinematic and kinetic analysis of the goalkeeper’s diving save in football

Kinetics and full body kinematics were measured in ten elite goalkeepers diving to save high and low balls at both sides of the goal, aiming to investigate their starting position, linear and angular momentum, and legs' contribution to end-performance. Our results showed that goalkeepers adopted a starting position with a stance width of 33 ± 1% of leg length, knee flexion angle of 62 ± 18° and hip flexion angle of 63 ± 18°. The contralateral leg contributed more than the ipsilateral leg to COM velocity (p < 0.01), both for the horizontal (2.7 ± 0.1 m·s^?1 versus 1.2 ± 0.1 m·s^?1) and for the vertical component (3.1 ± 0.3 m·s^?1 versus 0.4 ± 0.2 m·s^?1). Peak horizontal and peak angular momenta were significantly larger (p < 0.01) for low dives than for high dives with a mean difference of 55 kg·m·s^?1 and 9 kg·m²·s^?1, respectively. In addition, peak vertical momentum was significantly larger (p < 0.01) for high dives with a mean difference between dive heights of 113 kg·m·s^?1. Coaches need to highlight horizontal lateral skills and exercises (e.g. sideward push-off, sideward jumps), with emphasis on pushing-off with the contralateral leg, when training and assessing goalkeeper’s physical performance.     

‘A lesson in football wisdom’? Coverage of the unofficial women’s World Cup of 1971 in the Mexican press

ABSTRACT

When Mexico hosted the 1971 Women’s World Cup, it raised considerable challenges for local journalists. The domestic game had never received significant press attention, but mounting public interest in such a prestigious tournament demanded a response from national and sporting newspapers. In this chapter, we analyse the extent to which the masculine hegemonic environment of the newsroom dictated the perspective, language, and imagery deployed by journalists in their reports. While underlying sexism and cynicism characterised more traditional, conservative sections of the printed media, our analysis reveals a surprising degree of willingness to adapt and learn new ways. In tracing the dynamics of this process we assess the extent to which a more enlightened appreciation of Mexican women’s football only lasted for as long as they continued to win matches.     

More decision-aid technology in sport? An analysis of football supporters’ perceptions on goal-line technology

The introduction of decision-aid technology in sport, such as goal-line technology (GLT) in football, has generated minimal literature on supporters’ perspectives. This paper aims to investigate Scottish football supporters’ perceptions towards GLT. Two hundred and seventy Scottish supporters completed a questionnaire to assess their satisfaction with GLT and factors that influence their level of satisfaction. The majority of Scottish supporters trust the technology applied in football and favours its use. However, they are dissatisfied with GLT in part because GLT is considered to detract from the atmosphere resulting from contentious goals which supporters appreciate and lessen the debate around crucial decisions. Findings also showed that football supporters are against GLT viewing in the stadium and do not welcome future decision-aid technology in football.     

A Bourdieusian analysis of cultural reproduction: socialisation and the ‘hidden curriculum’ in professional football

This article draws on the theoretical concepts of Pierre Bourdieu to provide an explanatory account of how socialisation and the hidden curriculum within coaching practice contribute toward the formation of social identities and powerful schemes of internalised dispositions. Drawing on a 10 month ethnography within professional football, the research found that day-to-day practice was ideologically laden and served the production, reproduction and incorporation of socialised agents into the prevailing ‘legitimate’ culture. The legitimacies embodied included respect for authority, hierarchical awareness, control, obedience, collectivity, work ethic and winning.     

An exploration of young professional football players’ perceptions of the talent development process in England

The identification and development of players in English professional football has become an increasingly significant topic of debate given the historical perceived underperformance of the English national team at international tournaments. To enhance understanding of the challenges and barriers experienced by English youth footballers, the authors explore the developmental experiences of English professional football players from different levels of the English football pyramid. Professional players (N = 11) from football clubs in the top four professional divisions in England took part in individual semi-structured interviews, which were analysed inductively using thematic analysis. The data revealed three interrelated themes that were perceived to mediate player identification and development pathways at professional clubs. Pathways for young players to progress and experience first-team competitive football differed when the level of the league that the players operated within was considered, with significant issues also raised relating to the suitability of the under 21 league structure, the importance attached to the educational welfare of young players, and variations in the identification of player attributes. This study sheds new light on the priorities and processes of talent development and education provision in English football.     

‘It’s like equality now; it’s not as if it’s the old days’: an investigation into gender identity development and football participation of adolescent girls

This article explores the influence participating in football has on the development of adolescent girls’ gender identity, an area which currently lacks academic attention. Data are taken from an ethnographic study with a group of adolescent girls and boys and compared to Jeanes’ research. A social constructionist framework was deployed with links to both critical theory and feminist literature. Qualitative and participatory methods were used to fully engage with the complex issue of gender identity. The girls within this study were aware of the normative gender expectations linked to ‘being a female’ but did not find this restrictive. The girls moved between many changing identities and organized their ‘web of selves’ accordingly. The apparent need to measure success by the parameters of male standards created a barrier to girls’ identity development.     

The ‘origins of football debate’ and the early development of the game in Nottinghamshire

This article continues the debate on the origins of football. It contains new data which note early football activity and initial club formation in Nottinghamshire. The authors reach the conclusion that former public schoolboys were prominent in the development of football in that particular area and see this as further confirmation of their hypothesis that many of these individuals should be seen as important in the establishment of football as a modern sport.     

For a ‘United’ Kingdom and a ‘Greater’ Britain: the British Olympic Association and the limitations and contestations of ‘Britishness’

During the first two decades of the twentieth century, the Home-Nations of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales joined forces in competing in the Olympic Games under the banner of ‘Great Britain’ (or deviations thereof). The Olympics served as an important symbolic site for fostering and promoting a broader ‘British’ national identity. In practice, however, the prevalence and persistence of competing national identities and allegiances roiled early attempts to create a unified British Olympic team. These counter-prevailing forces of nationalism further served to undermine the British Olympic Association's ambitious attempt to unite the British Empire in a ‘Greater Britain’ team for the 1916 Berlin Olympic Games. As this work will reveal, ‘Britishness’ was a layered, contested and racially homogenous term that was interpreted and applied differently across various parts of the British Isles and its Empire.     

The impact of the supporters’ trust movement on women’s feelings and practices of their football fandom

This article looks at the ways in which female football fans in England have responded to and become involved in the cooperative supporters’ trust movement. It examines the history and development of the movement, which offers a new, democratic and equitable way for supporters to become involved in the life of their club, and become part of a new, wider fan community, broader than simple club allegiance. The involvement of respondents in the supporters’ trust movement is explored, profiling the ways in which they have immersed or distanced themselves from the trust concept and community, and comparing their experiences as they have described them in interview. I argue that the trust movement offers the opportunity for supporters to help the game progress in a way that is advantageous to all fans, not just females; and this seems to be an element of the movement that has great appeal to women.     

The ‘inclusion’ of elite athletes with disabilities in the 2002 Manchester Commonwealth Games: An exploratory analysis of British newspaper coverage

The XVII 2002 Commonwealth Games held in Manchester, England, was the first major international multi-sport event to include elite athletes with disabilities (EADs) in its main sports programme and medal table. In this exploratory article we seek to examine some of the complex issues surrounding the inclusion of EADs in the Manchester Games by analysing the coverage afforded those athletes by six national British newspapers. The results suggest that: (1) there was a tendency by the British media to discuss the performances of EADs in terms more-or-less consistent with a medicalized understanding of disability; (2) the inclusion of EADs in the Games signalled the ‘end of a sporting apartheid’ between ‘able-bodied’ athletes and EADs; and (3) that the participation of EADs in the Games was said to reflect the alleged growing ‘inclusion’ of people with disabilities in the wider society more broadly. The paper concludes by discussing some of the unintended consequences of including EADs in the Games, including those brought about by the classification system used to group athletes into events according to their particular impairment. Those which were associated with the supposed need for greater media coverage of EADs in ‘able-bodied’ sports competitions such as the Commonsealth Games.     

Does elite success trigger mass participation in table tennis? An analysis of trickle-down effects in Germany,France and Austria

ABSTRACT

There is a widespread belief that success at the elite level leads to increasing mass participation in sports. However, this assumption is merely supported by empirical evidence and is analyzed here for the case of table tennis. Therefore long-term data (1964–2014) on participation in Germany, France and Austria is statistically tested for effects of success by the countries’ athletes at international competitions. Results indicate that no general trickle-down effect can be confirmed for table tennis in the countries observed. Rather, findings are ambivalent, as a strong positive effect was found for the Austrian case, but a paradox relation for the German case, where elite success has been accompanied by decreasing participation in the last decades. Accordingly, as an “automatic” trickle-down effect is unlikely, more specific analyses and strategies seem necessary to use elite success as a lever for the promotion of the sport.     

‘Amathe Nolimi’ (it is saliva and the tongue): contracts of joy in South African football c. 1940–761

Homo Ludens, man at play, is surely as significant a figure as man at war or at work. In human activity the invention of the ball may be said to rank with the invention of the wheel. Imagine America without baseball, Europe without soccer, England without cricket, the Italians without bocci, China without Ping-Pong, and tennis for no one.     

Attacking beautifully or defending efficiently? A sociological analysis of the prevalence and effect of football strategies

Football ideology is built upon an antagonism between offensive and defensive and effective and beautiful football: attack beautifully and lose, or, defend efficiently and win! In this article, I address the validity of this hegemonic understanding and investigate the extent to which (i) modern football actually practises one or the other – scoring goals or avoids conceding – and (ii) how the two strategies actually pay off. The case is 65 years of Scandinavian male football. I start with an overview of numbers of scored goals and variation in scoring. Next, I look at whether success depends on scoring the most or conceding the least. Finally, I analyse how many positions each goal is worth. In general terms, the finding is a defensive trend where modern football has fewer and more valuable goals, but that this trend has clear wavelike patterns, indicating that which strategy being profitable varies.     

Is football now feminist? A critique of the use of McCaughey’s physical feminism to explain women’s participation in separate leagues in masculine sports1

Over the past two decades, there have been a number of sociological investigations of participation by women in sports that had previously appeared to have been played exclusively by men. These investigations have rightly celebrated this participation as examples of greater physical empowerment, choice and freedom for women in sport. Several of these investigations have gone further by utilizing McCaughey’s notion of physical feminism to argue that participation in these sports is indicative of a broader feminist political challenge. This paper contends that this characterization of the broader political challenge is a misinterpretation of McCaughey’s physical feminism. Further, this misinterpretation is indicative of the theoretical underpinnings of the shift from a second wave radical feminism to a third wave celebrity feminism. This paper proposes a set of commitments that would be necessary, although not sufficient, to see these women’s leagues as feminist organizations that politically challenge patriarchal power.     

The relevance of media in football coaching: the case of José Mourinho’s leadership approach

This article examines the leadership approach of the football coach José Mourinho, particularly of the relevance of the media for his top performance at Porto (2002–2004), Chelsea (2004–2007), Inter Milan (2008–2010) and Real Madrid (2010–2013). The perspective from which we analyse the work of Mourinho in that period, and his presence in the media, is based on what science calls the paradigm of complexity. This is a relational perspective which, in this case, means not only focusing upon the actions ‘central’ to the activity in question – the technique, tactics, physical preparation and so on – but, with particular relevance, detail and in an integrated fashion, also focusing on the media and the cultural context in which the activity takes place. Key to the transformational work of José Mourinho is his presence in the media, the managing of fame, the challenges and ambitions of the players, the fans and the general public. At stake is a personification of a global system of significance.     

‘Race’, politics and local football – continuity and change in the life of a British African-Caribbean local football club

This paper focuses on the role of a local sports club in shaping the lives of British African-Caribbean males in one British city over a 40-year period. The paper describes how the ‘Meadebrook Cavaliers’ has transitioned from its origins as an East Midlands parks-based football team in 1970 to a successful senior-level local football club by the early 1980s, before finally achieving a further social and financial organizational complexity in its charitable status, attained in 2009. Attention is paid specifically to the social formation of this largely masculine ‘black’ sport space over time and on how, and in what ways, these developments in local sport in one club in one British city are also intimately connected to wider social, economic and political developments in the UK. In doing so, the paper demonstrates, both theoretically and empirically, how the emergence of ‘black’ local football resonates with social change around ‘race’ politics in Britain during the period 1970–2010. By the same token, this mainly black male sporting space continues to reflect and influence change in the wider political, social and sporting terrains within which the club has been located – and within the dynamic black African-Caribbean communities which constitute it.     

‘Who is zooming who’? A study of young PE-students in their figurations

The article presents an analysis of 93 essays written in an upper secondary school context. The essays were collected in relation to a larger research project, which went on for 5 years in a Danish upper secondary school (2010–2015). The material represents both genders and the students are 15–17 years old. We deploy a theoretical framework taken from Norbert Elias’ notion on established-outsider relations [Elias, N., &; Scotson, J. L. (1994 [1965]). The established and the outsiders. London: SAGE] as well as his use of personal pronouns [Elias, N. (1978). What is sociology? London: Hutchinson, Elias, N. (2001). The society of individuals. New York: The Continuum International Publishing Group] in illustrating how people negotiate, position and navigate within figurational contexts [Elias, N. (1994 [1939]). The civilizing proces. Oxford: Blackwell.]. We do this in an effort to interpret how young people negotiate ‘we-I-relations’ when it comes to their sporting identity. Elias’ processual framework provides a tool for a much needed analysis of how young people continually orientate and develop their sense of selves. The web of human interdependencies and processes of change are key words when it comes to understanding the social practices and doings of the students’ constructions of self-steering. What social scientists may see as laziness and drop-outs of sports [Seippel, Ø. (2016). Prek, vekker og kjedelig? Trening og mening blant ungdom: 1985–2013. In Ø. Seippel, M. K. Sisjord, &; Å Strandbu (Eds.), Ungdom og Idrett. Oslo: Cappelen Damm Akademisk] can in the essays of students be analysed as a struggle for group connectedness and social inclusion in the classroom. The results of our research show that identity is a multiple concept and an ongoing process of emotional work [Elias, N. (1987). On human beings and their emotions: A process-sociological essay. Theory Culture Society, 4, 339–361], but also a power balance of playing and presenting what is imagined as the right performance as not being shamed as outcasts.