Defining the attributes for specific playing positions in football match-play: A complex systems approach

ABSTRACT

Introduction

Talent identification and development programmes that retain and develop athletes are integral to the sporting success of National Governing Bodies in football. Currently, player attributes are studied in isolation without considering the complexity of interacting components of football performance. The current study applied a systems analysis framework to describe, in a structured and systematic way, the attributes for specific playing positions in football match-play. Methods: Eight high-level football coaches were interviewed. Models of the interacting attributes were developed for each position using Work Domain Analysis (WDA). Results: Six WDA models detail the attributes associated with each playing position. The models identified purposes of playing positions (restrict opposition actions, organise and coordinate, building up of offence, goal scoring and stretch opposition), performance-related measures and the functions required to achieve the playing position purposes (game play, psychological functions, time and space and player actions). Critically, the relationships between the purposes, measures, functions, processes, and objects are described in the models.     

Creating Prep to Play PRO for women playing elite Australian football: A how-to guide for developing injury-prevention programs

BackgroundDeveloping context-specific, evidence-informed, and implementable injury-prevention programs is challenging. Women playing in the elite Australian Football League for Women are at high risk of serious knee injuries, and no specific injury-prevention program exists. The objective of the study was to describe the collaborative process used to create a context-specific injury-prevention program.MethodsA previously used intervention-development process was modified to incorporate a partnership with the sport's governing organization and focus on engaging program implementers. The Reach Effectiveness Adoption Implementation and Maintenance (RE-AIM) Sports Setting Matrix guided program development and implementation strategies.ResultsThe 7-step process, aligned with the RE-AIM Sports Setting Matrix, was applied to develop the injury-prevention program and was titled Prep to Play PRO. The steps were: (Step 1) gaining organizational support and establishing a project partnership; (Step 2) using research evidence and clinical experience; (Step 3) consulting content and context experts; (Step 4) engaging the organization, experts, program implementers, and end-users to concreate the intervention and develop implementation strategies; (Step 5) testing the intervention acceptability and feasibility; (Step 6) evaluating the intervention and implementation strategies against theory; and (Step 7) obtaining feedback from early implementers and end-users.ConclusionEngaging critical stakeholders at multiple ecological levels (organization, team, and athlete) throughout program development and implementation planning support real-world use. The processes and activities described can guide future sports injury-prevention program development and implementation.     

A practitioner-focused approach to the provision of psychological support in soccer: adopting action research themes and processes

In this review, we explore a practitioner-focused approach to the provision of psychological support in soccer. Support is depicted to be a collaborative exercise and is associated with action research themes and processes. Various procedures and perspectives that are associated with action research are outlined. The ideas presented suggest that many soccer-based practitioners (coaches, managers and physiotherapists) have the capacity to influence how sport psychology practice might be experienced by players. The sport scientist is depicted here as someone who acts as a critical friend to those practitioners who are interested in developing aspects of their own working practice. Having established these ideas, the review provides an illustration of how a combination of action research themes and qualitative research techniques has been used to influence and support heads of education and welfare in UK soccer academies across the north-west of England.     

The new sporting Cold War: implications of the Russian doping allegations for international relations and sport

Abstract

This article examines current state of the new sporting cold war in the world of sports. It provides an examination of the 2014–2018 Russian doping scandal. Political and ideological prerequisites that triggered this scandal are considered, and based on obtained observations, an analysis of possible scenarios in the development of events is made as are recommendations for future progress in ending this unnecessary neo-cold war.     

河池市公益性大众体育赛事现状及对策研究——以篮球赛事为例

以河池市公益性大众篮球赛事为例,运用文献资料法、归纳法、逻辑分析法及问卷调查法,对体育赛事的现状、对策等进行了论述.     

Forecheck,backcheck, health check: the benefits of playing recreational ice hockey for adults in Canada

More than 1 million Canadian adults play recreational ice hockey. Compared to elite players, very little is known about the physical and health characteristics of people who play the game for fun. Analyzing data from Statistics Canada’s 2011/12 Canadian Community Health Survey, the paper found that there is an association between physically active males age 35 or over who play ice hockey regularly (at least once a week) and enhanced health more so than other physically active males. While these players are larger in body size, they have significantly lower rates of diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease and report significantly higher rates of self-assessed health. Given the potential health benefits associated with this high intensity sport, the paper discusses ways in which participation can be promoted among less physically active adults and people who are new to the game or who have historically lower levels of participation including women and recent immigrants. Finally, the paper argues that compared to the very high costs associated with child and youth hockey, participation in adult recreational ice hockey is quite affordable.     

沈阳市体育场地对外开放现状研究

对沈阳市体育场地开放现状进行调查分析,结果表明:沈阳市体育场地对外开放可挖掘的空间很大,体育场地的效益有待提高;对外开放的体育场地以不具备遮风挡雨条件的露天场地为主,不对外开放体育场地以教育系统比例最大;沈阳市体育场地对外开放与其归属关系密切,需要观念的更新和政策的扶持并举.     

第51届世乒赛丁宁技战术分析

通过对丁宁在第51届世界乒乓球锦标赛女子单打四分之一决赛、半决赛、决赛这三场比赛中各项技术的统计与技战术分析,找出其优势与不足,旨在为其在今后的技战术训练和比赛提供参考.     

The effect of smartphones and playing video games on decision-making in soccer players: A crossover and randomised study

ABSTRACT

The objective of this study was to analyse the effect of the use of social networks in smartphones or playing video games on the passing decision-making performance in professional soccer athletes. Participants were 25 male professional soccer athletes (mean ± SD: age 23.4 ± 2.8 years). The participants performed three randomised conditions divided into three groups: control (CON), smartphone (SMA), and video game (VID). Before and after each experimental condition, the Stroop Task assessed the level of induced mental fatigue. Then, the athletes performed a simulated soccer match. A CANON® camera recorded the matches for further analysis on passing decision-making performance. A group effect was identified (p < .01) with impairment on passing decision-making performance for the SMA (p = .01, ES = 0.5) and VID (p = .01, ES = 0.5) conditions. We concluded that the use of social networks on smartphones and/or playing video games right before official soccer matches might impair the passing decision-making performance in professional soccer athletes.     

中央苏区赤色体育对发展新农村体育的启示

中央苏区的赤色体育,是在中国共产党领导下,以工农劳苦大众为主体的新式体育运动.她的开展,增强了军民的体魄,丰富了业余生活,为革命的胜利奠定了基础.通过对中央苏区赤色体育运动的特征和当代农村体育现状的分析,认为中央苏区赤色体育对当代农村体育的发展具有重要启示.要发展农村体育,必须普及健身知识,全面落实体育政策;广辟农村健身渠道,形成健身的长效机制;突出"地方"特色,创新农村体育.     

2018年世界杯预选赛亚洲区12强赛中国队小组对手进攻特征分析

采用文献资料法、数理统计法、录像观察法,对中国男足12强赛小组赛对手在40强赛中39场比赛的125粒进球进行分析,结果表明:中国队小组对手攻击能力都比较强,且进攻点呈现多元化:比赛上下半场16～30min为进球频发阶段;各队进攻方式以边路进攻为主.     

A survey of literature on the history of sport in Britain

Truistically, sport reflects political, ideological, economic, social and religious precepts and practices. Anthropologists, sociologists and historians for some time have produced a growing body of knowledge on sport, indicating that it can be studied from various disciplinary perspectives and shed light on issues ranging from social class conflict and gender inequalities, to nationalism and colonialism. [1 [1] Cashmore, Making Sense of Sports; Jarvie and Maguire, Sport and Leisure. ] Within the Jewish community of British-ruled Palestine, the conflict between the religious Judaic commandment on refraining from any work and the playing of sport on the Sabbath, the Jewish day of rest, became a public issue. This paper describes the conflict over sport on the Sabbath in Jewish Palestine in the 1920s and 1930s in two specific settlements. This conflict offers evidence of a historical approach from which to view broader historical phenomena, including ideological disagreement regarding the role of religion in modern Jewish nationalism, muscular Christian legacies and anti-imperial assertion.     

(Dis)playing the indigenous body: the case of Indigenous Tribal Games (ITG) in the Philippines

Abstract

A project approved by the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC), the Indigenous Tribal Games (ITG) advocates for indigenous empowerment through traditional sports. To accomplish this, a requisite for participating in the ITG is belonging to any indigenous group. Since the audience includes non-indigenous spectators, bringing indigenous players to the fore transports the ‘Other’ to the colonizer’s consciousness that the indigenous player can not only play, but even excel, in Olympic-patterned sports. This article focuses on two ITG competitions participated in by 43 Iraya-Mangyan players of Abra de Ilog and Puerto Galera, Mindoro (2013 and 2014). The findings suggest that ITG enabled a space for the players’ performative (dis)play. Transgressions through neocolonial impositions were necessary in awakening the players’ indigenous consciousness. The ITG advocates sought to empower their contested and tentative performative identities but it has also led to their disempowerment; that is, their ‘inclusion’ has unwittingly, yet also forcibly, ‘excluded’ them.     

National structures for building and managing sport facilities: a comparative analysis of the Nordic countries

Abstract

Sport facilities are instrumental in keeping the population fit and healthy. Governments worldwide are thus engaged in devising policies, programs and projects for building such facilities, with the aim of providing citizens with opportunities for a healthy lifestyle. This feature is prominent in the Nordic countries, which have incorporated sport, leisure and physical activity into their universal welfare models. Understanding policies and politics for building sports facilities has therefore become a cornerstone in the understanding of conditions for sport and physical activity for all. In this paper, we investigate and compare the national structures for building and managing sports facilities in the Nordic countries, in order to add to the understanding of how policies and politics for building sport facilities can add to or hamper the sport-for-all ambitions salient in most of today’s western societies.