Grass Roots: The Development of Tennis in Britain, 1918–1978

Most research on British tennis has focused on social exclusion at the tennis club, on its middle-class image, and on the ‘shamateurism’ of the pre-1968 era. This paper will chart the development of the sport at grass-roots level. It will demonstrate that tennis in the workplace and public parks allowed lower income families to play and that significant numbers did so in less formal settings than those overseen by regional Lawn Tennis Associations. It will suggest that a concentration on the wealthy south-east of England has distorted our impression of the sport itself and the ‘average’ club. Evidence from club histories, official handbooks, company archives and detailed local studies presents a very different picture from that of the suburban ‘garden party’.     

The ‘Ubiquitous Apostle of International Play’, Wilberforce Vaughan Eaves: The Forgotten Internationalist of Lawn Tennis

In the context of sustained imperial dominance during the late Victorian era, foreigners perceived British playing styles, methods and approaches to lawn tennis as ‘blueprints’ for aspiring players. Those seeking to learn the game were largely dependent on observing skilled performers, however before the mid-1890s, most of the best British players declined to venture to Australasia and America, perceiving the opposition as inferior and their championships unworthy of their participation. Moreover, while British-trained coaching-professionals – widely considered the world’s best – offered instruction in a small number of clubs, they also rarely ventured outside of Europe. Alongside these barriers, the parochial and ethnocentric Lawn Tennis Association was less than proactive in their approaches to fostering international relations. One man, however, Dr Wilberforce Vaughan Eaves, did more for the internationalization of the sport than anyone else during this period, travelling extensively in America, South Africa and Australasia, demonstrating his skills, offering instruction and advising officials. Consequently, he helped develop the sport’s international character, laying the foundations for the Davis Cup, helping to foster Anglo-Australasian and Anglo-American relations, and hastening the development of foreign players, particularly in Australasia. This paper assesses the notable contributions of a player, coach and diplomat who has been largely ignored.     

Playing on the Field of Social and Technical Innovation: The Impact of the Sale of Lawn Tennis Sets in the Netherlands, 1874–1887

In 1874, after tennis had been played indoors for centuries, British officer Walter Wingfield introduced an open-air version of the game, which he called sphairistike or lawn tennis. He developed a lawn-tennis box that was easy to carry and that contained all the necessary equipment for playing. Wingfield's concept was innovative, not only technologically in both game and design, but also socially. He made it clear, for instance, that lawn tennis was also intended for ladies and he fabricated lighter rackets for women. Little is known, however, about the introduction of lawn tennis in the Netherlands. Our study reveals that the strong sales and marketing concept of Wingfield – and his competitors – also facilitated a quick diffusion of the game in the Netherlands. The first places where lawn tennis was played were estates owned by nobility, seaside resorts such as Domburg and Noordwijk, attracting well-to-do ‘Brits’ for recreational purposes, and – interestingly – also farms. Soon, the first ‘one box clubs’ arose as precursors of the formally established clubs. For most upper-class players, tennis was a leisure-time activity, yet the organization of the first national tennis tournament in 1887 shows that some already had lucrative business models in mind.     

The Social Background of Ireland’s Pre-World War I Association Football Clubs,Players and Administrators: The Case of South and West Ulster

This paper examines the development of association football in the South and West Ulster counties of Fermanagh, Tyrone, Cavan, and Monaghan in the pre-World War One era against the backdrop of the sporting ‘revolution’ and the political and social climate in Ireland at that time. While the Irish Football Association was founded in Belfast in 1880 and the game’s early growth in Ireland was centred in East Ulster, South and West Ulster were areas which were rather dislocated from the hearth of soccer in the province’s largest city, where professional structures were in place by 1894 and where senior and junior association football clubs were strongest. The origins of a number of clubs are examined and it will be shown that despite a lack of major industry and a professional structure, by the early 1900s, the game of soccer had established a strong role within society in many local communities in the area. An examination of the social backgrounds of players and administrators illustrates that leagues and cups were played on a cross-community basis in many areas and that patronage, as well as player participation and administration, came from nationalists as well as unionists.     

Reply to Glazier: “Comment on ‘Influence of shaft length on golf driving performance’”

Abstract

In this study we compared the kinematic features of the throwing motion between young baseball players of different age groups. Forty‐four Japanese baseball players aged 6.1 to 12.3 years who regularly played baseball, including pitchers and position players, had their throwing actions analyzed three‐dimensionally using high speed videography. Of this sample, 26 players aged above 9 years of age were categorized as the senior group, while the remaining 18 were categorized as the junior group. Senior group throwers had greater height and body mass, and produced a greater ball speed than junior group throwers. The throwing arm movement of senior group throwers was similar to that of adult skilled players. However, in the junior group throwers, the shoulder horizontal adduction angle was larger during the arm acceleration phase, and the maximum angular velocities of elbow extension and shoulder internal rotation occurred later than in senior group throwers. These results indicate that players aged above 9 years can acquire a mature throwing arm movement, while players younger than that will use an immature motion. A possible reason why these differences were shown is that the official baseball is relatively heavy for junior group throwers; they would be better advised to use a lighter ball in throwing practice.     

Performance Enhancement and Politicisation of High-Performance Sport: The West German ‘air clyster’ Affair of 1976

While the politicisation of high-performance sport is perceived to represent one of the driving forces behind doping, we know not much how exactly the cold war in sports has affected sporting misconduct in western societies. Therefore, we propose here to distinguish between ideological and institutional politicisation and explicit and implicit acceptance of dubious practices. We apply our framework to analyse the West German ‘air clyster’ affair of 1976 in order to examine to what extent the politicisation of high-performance sport during the cold war affected the search for innovation in performance enhancement. We find that political pressure for improved competitiveness in West German sport had served to create a semi-autonomous high-performance sport sector in West Germany where blurred lines of accountability allowed questionable practices to prosper. While the public despised the use of questionable methods, sportive nationalism served to eclipse dubious practices. West German sport leaders adopted insofar a permissive attitude towards questionable practices as sporting misconduct was not sanctioned. Thus, our results strongly suggest that sport's politicisation during the cold war facilitated the search for performance-increasing methods in western societies.     

Weighing in on NBC’s The Biggest Loser

Previous analyses (i.e., Bernstein & St. John, 2006; Sender & Sullivan, 2008) of the television show The Biggest Loser have detailed its negative presentation of the obese body, potential consequences for viewers, and its role as a technology of governmentality. However, there has been little exploration of how audience members conceptualize and enact the messages communicated in the show within these intricate frameworks. The current research used information from semistructured interviews with 40 dedicated viewers to capture the salient meanings they ascribed to The Biggest Loser within the themes of governmentality and self-concept. Overall, the group experienced the program as a transformative, entertaining, and inspirational event that produced little change in their exercise behavior. Thus, the role of reality television in creating healthy behavior change is potentially limited.     

The Influence of Goal Setting on Vocational Colleges Students＇ Exercise Perseverance

通过对武汉地区高职学生体育现状分析,发现多数学生未能养成经常锻炼身体的习惯。导致学生体育锻炼坚持性差的原因是多方面的,本文运用体育管理学的基本原理,采取分析和调查的方法,论证体育教学中目标设置对提高学生体育锻炼坚持性及减小体育锻炼中断率具有十分重要的作用。并提出强化体育理论课教学,培养学生体育意识为先导,以体育教学中进行有效目标设置为核心,以引导、帮助学生制定锻炼计划为重点,改善和丰富体育设施和条件为保障的设想;提出提高学生体育锻炼坚持性、培养体育锻炼习惯的形成为目标,进一步深化体育教学改革的对策。     

Effects of Lawn Tennis Association mini tennis as task constraints on children’s match-play characteristics

The Lawn Tennis Association’s mini tennis (MT) is a modified version of tennis consisting of progressive stages; however, there have been few attempts to evaluate how MT might shape performance behaviours. Here, we examine effects of playing MT on the emergence of children’s match-play behaviours in 48 junior tennis players. Performance in 1010 match-play points were filmed and coded across 4 tennis stages (MT Red, MT Orange, MT Green and Full Ball), using a notational analysis system. Recorded performance variables included rally length, first serve percentage and shot type, for the purpose of analysing inter-stage comparisons. Results showed a series of specific adaptations to playing characteristics across the stages, including rally length, shot variety and serve success. MT Red rallies (7.36 ± 6.06) were longer than Full Ball rallies (3.83 ± 2.40), and a higher percentage of forehands were played at MT Red (66.40 ± 8.49%) than at Full Ball stage (45.96 ± 6.47%). Findings suggested that MT stages can afford children more opportunities to develop their skills and elicit different match-play characteristics than Full Ball task constraints. Coaches, therefore, should consider the nature of emergent adaptations when designing practice environments to facilitate learning in young tennis players.     

‘That Excellent Sample of a Professional’: Dan Maskell and the Contradictions of British Amateurism in Twentieth-century Lawn Tennis

This article critically examines the life and career of Daniel ‘Dan’ Maskell OBE CBE (1908–1992), the much-loved British professional coach and BBC commentator for Wimbledon. It positions his social ascendancy during the inter-war and post-war periods within the contexts of shifting class relations in British society, and the professionalisation of tennis and growing performance orientation of amateur tennis authorities in Britain. Given his working-class origins, Maskell's gradual acceptance into the British lawn tennis fraternity and rise to become ‘the voice of Wimbledon’ and, for some, the personification of traditional British sporting amateur values, was something of an enigma, and reflected key contradictions in what amateurism constituted in the twentieth century. Despite enduring systematic discrimination in clubs and exclusion from amateur competitions, as a consequence of him being a ‘professional’, he remained a chief proponent of the amateur ideology throughout his lifetime and exhibited numerous personal qualities that endeared him to the upper-middle-class establishment: modesty, loyalty, integrity, conservative views on player behaviour, deference to authority, strong work-ethic, and a good-humoured nature. Once tennis went ‘open’ in 1968, and throughout a period when professionalism and commercialism threatened to undermine the sport's core ideals, Maskell continued to represent and promote amateur ideals through his broadcasting ethics and values.     

Influence of occupational socialization on beginning teachers’ interpretation and delivery of sport education

The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which newly qualified teachers employed the Sport Education (SE) model. In addition, we attempted to discover factors that led to and facilitated beginning teachers employing the model and those that did not. Participants were six American and four British beginning teachers. Data were collected by formally interviewing each teacher. Analysis procedures employed were analytic induction and constant comparison. Occupational socialization was the theoretical framework that guided data collection and analysis procedures. The results indicated that teachers interpreted and delivered SE in one of three different ways: full version, watered down version and cafeteria style. Moreover, the teachers’ acculturation, professional socialization and organizational socialization largely explained why teachers interpreted and delivered SE as they did.     

Comment on ‘Performance analysis in football: A critical review and implications for future research’

Abstract

MacKenzie and Cushion (2013) recently reviewed performance analysis research in association football (soccer). Their critical review focused on several themes related to methodological approaches such as sample size, match context and operational definitions and the implications of research findings to professional practice. In this response letter, we comment on additional pragmatic concerns regarding these key themes as well as some of the difficulties commonly faced when conducting performance analysis research.     

The effect of westward travel across five time zones on sleep and subjective jet-lag ratings in athletes before and during the 2015’s World Rowing Junior Championships

This study examined sleep-wake habits and subjective jet-lag ratings of 55 German junior rowers (n = 30 male, 17.8 ± 0.5 years) before and during the World Rowing Junior Championships 2015 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Athletes answered sleep logs every morning, and Liverpool John Moore’s University Jet-Lag Questionnaires each evening and morning. Following an 11-h westward flight with 5-h time shift, advanced bedtimes (?1 h, P < .001, η_p² = 0.68), reduced sleep onset latency (P = .002, η_p² = 0.53) and increased sleep duration (P < .001, η_p² = 0.60) were reported for the first two nights. Jet-lag symptoms peaked upon arrival but were still present after 6 days. Sleep quality improved (P < .001, η_p² = 0.31) as well as some scales of the Recovery-Stress Questionnaire for Athletes. Participation was successful as indicated by 11 of 13 top 3 placings. Overall, the initial desynchronisation did not indicate negative impacts on competition performance. As travel fatigue probably had a major effect on perceptual decrements, sleep during travel and time to recover upon arrival should be emphasised. Coaches and practitioners should consider higher sleep propensity in the early evening by scheduling training sessions and meetings until the late afternoon.     

“The process isn’t a case of report it and stop”: Athletes’ lived experience of whistleblowing on doping in sport

Whistleblowing is effective for exposing doping in sport, garnering increased support and promotion within the global anti-doping community. However, limited attention has been afforded towards understanding the doping whistleblowing process. In response, the authors convey a sense of the whistleblowing context by using the actual words of whistleblowers to illuminate their experience. To achieve this aim, the authors have adopted a narrative approach. Three doping whistleblowers were interviewed regarding their lived experiences of whistleblowing on doping and the data has been represented in the form of one composite creative non-fiction story. The story narrates the whistleblowing experience as a process whereby individuals must (a) determine what they witnessed and experienced was doping, (b) make the decision and take action to report it, and (c) deal with the myriad of consequences and emotions. It also highlights the dilemma faced by whistleblowers who are likely equally compelled to adhere to the moral of loyalty and fairness; yet in this context they are unable to do both. Stemming from the story presented and the forms of retribution experienced, the authors offer practical suggestions for sporting organisations to address in order to empower others to whistleblow on doping in sport. Specifically, organisations should establish and implement whistleblowing policies that: (a) provide protection for whistleblowers, (b) mandate whistleblowing education, and (c) identify an independent person for individuals to seek guidance and support from before, during and following the act of whistleblowing.     

The influence of body discourses on adolescents’ (non)participation in physical activity

Drawing on semi-structured interviews with older adolescents, this article examines how healthism, ideal body discourses and performative body discourses influence their (non)participation in physical activity (PA) and their identity construction concerning exercise, sport and physical education. We illustrate that body transformation through PA, and related slim body desire and the fear of masculinised female bodies, affect adolescents’ decisions to engage in or drop out of sport. Also, a non-hegemonic body shape combined with a display of low physical competence triggers classmate and teachers’ rejection and marginalisation, affecting adolescents’ construction of embodied identities and preventing them from being active. Finally, adolescents who are competent in sport are less influenced by ideal body discourses than by performative body discourses. We highlight the health promotion effects of these hegemonic discourses and suggest strategies to challenge them.     

The effect of abusive leadership by coaches on Division I student-athletes’ performance: The moderating role of core self-evaluations

The aim of this study was to increase our understanding of the harm of abusive leadership on followers’ performance. Student-athletes (N = 145) at a US institution completed surveys. The authors used hierarchical regression analysis and an independent samples t-test to assess the hypotheses. Consistent with core self-evaluations theory, results revealed that core self-evaluations moderate the negative relationship between abusive leader behavior and student-athlete performance, such that the negative relationship is weakened for those with higher, rather than lower, levels of core self-evaluations. Results further indicated that women student-athletes are likely to have lower levels of core self-evaluations than are men, thus highlighting the potential increased impact that abusive leadership may have on women and their performance. Implications of these findings for research, theory and practice on abusive leadership and performance are discussed.     

The ‘Chimera’ of Origins: Association Football in Australia before 1880

It is generally accepted that organised Association football (soccer) commenced in Australia in Sydney in 1880. This article challenges that starting point by revealing earlier games of codified soccer – not in order to establish an earlier point of origin but to challenge the very idea of origins. Recent work on football in Australia in the 1850s has begun to gather the unearthed traces of rule-bounded small-sided games brought to Australia from Britain and Ireland. Some of these were games with a strong developmental link to present day soccer in Australia. Yet the nearly disabling problem for this kind of research is that as researchers venture archivally backward in time the images become more blurred and the distinctions between codes become harder to make. Even as potential origin points become temporally closer they recede into the shadows of archival absence. The dilemma for football historians lies in the necessity of engagement with the established origins that lie at the heart of the historiography of all major sports, origins that both orient and limit debate. Present-day administrators use anniversaries of origin to generate publicity. They help to get stories rolling: ‘Once upon a time Wills or Webb Ellis or Doubleday did something so special that they got a great game started.’ Aside from often being simply incorrect, origin theses tend to nurture hegemonic narratives that by their very nature rule counter-narratives out of bounds.     

Sport managers’ perspectives on poverty and sport: The role of local sport authorities

Poverty and social exclusion are ‘wicked issues’ and require a joint approach from a wide array of policy fields. As practicing sport has become a customary activity, it has a part to play in fighting social exclusion. But to what extent is this a realistic expectation? Drawing on qualitative data gathered from semi-structured interviews at twenty local sport authorities in Flanders (Belgium), the aim of this study is to gain insight in the experiences of local sport authorities with people in poverty, and to identify barriers and facilitators for investing in the inclusion of this social group. Results indicate that facilitating inclusion for people in poverty is a challenging task for local sport managers. Policy initiatives, if any, often remain limited to providing financial discounts. Only a minority of local sport managers reported more comprehensive policies, involving different strategies. A major problem is the limited understanding and expertise of local sport managers with regard to poverty. Therefore, cooperation between sport managers and organisations from the social sector is crucial. Recommendations as to how the role of local sport authorities as a facilitator of social inclusion can be strengthened are formulated.