Mixed messages: pre-service Health and Physical Education teachers’ understandings of health and the body and the expectations of the Australian curriculum

This paper explores how a cohort of pre-service Health and Physical Education (HPE) teachers from an Australian university describe and construct their understandings of health and the body. Given that the courses that these undergraduates take in their degree programme present different perspectives on health and the body, a relevant question is to what extent these perspectives adequately equip these future HPE teachers to successfully teach the recently released Australian HPE curriculum. The participants in this study were 14 pre-service teachers, 11 females and 3 males, aged between 18 and 26 at the time of the first interview. The data used for this paper were taken from a larger study and were generated through interviews, the analysis of two undergraduate course profiles and an analysis of the new National HPE curriculum. Results reveal that there are some dominant discourses in health-related courses that may have a significant impact on these students. The purpose of HPE, the role of the HPE teacher and the idea of the HPE teacher as role model are also discussed. The results suggest that pre-service teachers face several challenges and dissonances between what they learn during their undergraduate programme and what the Australian HPE curriculum expects them to teach. How pre-service HPE teachers think about and relate to health and the body is important in terms of how they think about their professional practice and the influence they may have on their future pupils.     

“All the Winners and the Half Times…”

Brutality and violence are, according to many observers, an increasing feature of modern sports. Violence in sport receives publicity through its spectators and the media. Because many forms of sport violence are legitimate, they act as reinforcers, particularly among children and youth.     

Ethnography and the Italian Ultrà

Abstract

I was enthralled by the energy at the stadium. I was captivated by the visual choreography and visceral energy of fans chanting, jumping and shouting together. For me, the anonymous individuals at the stadium were the spectacle. In graduate school, I learned systematic approaches to research, but the tools of analysis never interested me as much as the thing itself – the social life that occurs in and around a stadium. My goal was to get to the heart of football fandom in Rome, plain and simple. Ultimately, I tried to conceptualize the culture, and wrap my findings into an academic narrative that expresses how important fandom is to the people in the stands. Football fandom is about passion that transcends rationality, and makes life more meaningful for those who partake. The question of how to articulate that phenomenon is an open one. This essay grapples with that question.     

Purism and the category of ‘the aesthetic’: the drama argument

This paper examines one component of Stephen Mumford’s case for the claim that we should regard sport, art and the aesthetic as more closely connected than has tended to be the case, under the influence of the work of David Best, in recent years. Mumford’s rejection of what I call ‘the drama argument’ is examined in detail and it is argued that all but one element of his case fails to do the job he envisages.     

Russians are the fastest and the youngest in the “Comrades Marathon”

The present retrospective study intended to determine age, performance, the role of nationality and participation trends across calendar years in runners competing in “Comrades Marathon”, the ultra-marathon with the longest tradition and the highest number of finishers worldwide. We analysed 235,467 finishers (40,211 women and 195,256 men) competing between 1994 and 2017. In women and men, Russians were the fastest (12.55 ± 2.03 km/h and 12.24 ± 2.93 km/h, respectively) and Indians the slowest (7.87 ± 0.64 km/h and 7.91 ± 0.60 km/h) (p < 0.001, η2 = 0.053 and η2 = 0.010, small effect size, ES). Also, Russians were the youngest (33.9 ± 4.6 and 36.3 ± 5.9 years, respectively) and Japanese the oldest (49.3 ± 9.6 and 51.4 ± 12.3 years, respectively) (p < 0.001, η2 = 0.011, small ES). Performance improved (r = 0.90 in women and r = 0.92 in men), age of finishers (r = 0.91 in women and r = 0.97 in men), participation (r = 0.92 in women and r = 0.87 in men) and sex difference in age increased (r = 0.71), whereas men-to-women ratio (r = ?0.91) and sex difference in performance (r = ?0.68) decreased across calendar years (p < 0.001). In summary, runners from Russia were the fastest and the youngest in both sexes. The knowledge of the relationship of nationality with performance, age and participation trends of finishers, and changes across calendar years are of practical importance for ultra-runners and coaches working with them.     

Ancient Greek ‘Amateurism’, the NCAA and the Courts

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has recently been the target of many lawsuits challenging its definition and regulation of amateurism, which it holds as providing unique moral and social benefits for both its scholar-athletes and society at large. This conception of amateurism is inherited from nineteenth-century models of ancient Greek athletics via figures such as John Mahaffy and E.N. Gardiner. This influence is evident in legal cases involving the NCAA or athletics in general, and hence amateurism is cited by judges and others as a long-standing Western cultural tradition which encourages moral and social development. This is problematic, however, as not only is it historically questionable, but also the citation of cultural heritage in legal dicta has seen legal criticism or reversal.     

George Walker and the ghost: the chess-player in urban and literary culture, 1840–51

This article aims to contextualise the nineteenth-century chess-player and writer George Walker’s involvement within urban and literary culture. Continuing research published in two recent Sport in History articles concerning Walker’s essays on the chess-player in Victorian Paris, this article considers another side to the chess-player’s cultural image in a different urban setting within Walker’s historical-fiction ‘A Night in York – A Chess Adventure of 1842’, in which the author imagines a night-time meeting with a ghostly medieval chess-player. George Walker’s life was marked by an involvement within the sites of nineteenth-century literary and urban chess-play. One notable feature of Walker’s writing was his constant return to the history of the game and its influence on the present day. Indeed, the interplay between chess past and chess present has been seen as a problematic aspect of his literary output. This article considers this theme and contends that Walker’s regard for the past should be seen within the context of modernity and an attempt to recover and pay sufficient attention to the historic game before its traces and fragments disappeared forever, while acknowledging the futility of the effort.     

Sport and the sociologist 1890–1914

This essay is a response to Paul Ward’s piece ‘Last Man Picked. Do Mainstream Historians Need to Play with Sports Historians?’ (The International Journal of the History of Sport (2012), doi:10.1080/09523367.2012.726617). While Ward admits that his work is a polemic and is inspired largely by events in his youth, this response nevertheless questions the decision to critique an entire sub-discipline based on childhood experiences. Ward’s criticisms, however, are also practice-based, and this response also critically examines the lack of fresh evidence to support Ward’s claims regarding sports history’s existence outwith mainstream historical academia, and its supposed privileged place within the wider world of leisure history. The author makes that case that not only does sports history to take part in a wider historical dialogue, but must necessarily look to engage with sports studies practitioners. Finally, in the face of Ward’s criticisms, this essay reiterates what makes sport a vital subject for historians, in regional, national and international contexts.     

Assembling the privatisation of physical education and the ‘inexpert’ teacher

In this article, I examine the practice of outsourcing physical education (PE) lessons to external sports organisations. I draw from ethnographic research conducted with two primary schools in New Zealand to illuminate how outsourcing interconnects with the privatisation of education. Using Foucault's notion of government, I demonstrate how schools’ employment of four outside providers worked to govern teachers towards certain ends. In addition, I drew on the analytical framework of the assemblage to examine how the dual notions of the inexpert classroom teacher and the expert outside provider converged with the discourse of ‘PE as sport’, neoliberalism, Kiwisport, National Standards, professional development and multi-sector partnerships to form a privatisation assemblage. I argue that the privatisation assemblage worked to restrict and constrain teachers’ possible thoughts and actions, making teachers’ ‘choice’ to outsource PE one that they understood as both pragmatic, in terms of time investment, and educationally valuable, in so far as they perceived themselves as lacking the requisite expertise. I also argue that outsourcing and the privatisation of PE is problematic as it did not necessarily work in the best interests of teachers or students. I suggest further research is necessary to interrogate and make visible how the disparate elements of the privatisation assemblage are made to hold together, as well as how the fragile connections between these elements may be placed under pressure. The notion that outside providers are expert PE teachers and classroom teachers are inexpert is a critical aspect of the assemblage that should be challenged and resisted.     

Modeling and simulating the dynamics of the “Death Star” shotgun target

Modern competitive shooting is a strenuous test of the human perceptual and motor systems. Like driving a race car or piloting a high performance aircraft, speed shooting matches require precise, rapid movements coordinated using a careful mixture of planning and reaction. In some disciplines of competitive shooting, this mixture is further complicated by complex moving targets. This paper develops a set of state space equations for a moving, reactive steel target used in professional 3-Gun competition. The equations for target motion are nonlinear, time-varying, and chaotic in certain regions of the state space. Once derived, the equations for target motion are validated against motion extracted from video. Then, the calibrated equations are implemented in real-time on a portable, laser-activated simulator. Applications of the simulation environment to marksmanship training and human motor control studies are also discussed.     

On the 09 Type Qingdiquan＇s Action Characteristics and the Teaching Methods

09式擒敌拳是现阶段最新的一套警拳,它是在前面两套擒敌拳的基础上创编的,保留部分实用动作,同时也更新了许多新内容,更突显了它的实用性,美观性。它是广大警察院校警务技能的必修课程,文章对09式擒敌拳动作特点及教学方法进行初步探讨,期望能对擒敌拳的教学起到一定的参考作用。     

The Decline of the ‘Elite’ Sport Officials and the Dissolution of the Israeli Sport Association

This historical study will examine the rise of a hegemonic group of sports officials in Israel during the period between 1948 and 1996. The formation of this group is a unique phenomenon of the Israeli sport society. The main argument of the study is that officials of rival sport centres, ‘Hapoel’ and ‘Maccabi’, founded a joint elite group as a side effect of the ‘fifty-fifty’ agreement, signed in 1951. The agreement stated that the Israeli Sport Association, the National Olympic Committee and the Israeli Football Association would be mutually led by officials of both organizations. The members of this elite group, who enjoyed access to economic resources and other benefits, adopted a hedonistic lifestyle, in contrast to the social ethos of Israeli society in the first and second decades of the State. Three events dismantled the group in the middle of the 1990s. The first one was the establishment of the Elite Sport Department in 1984. The second was the establishment of independent Federations by Yadin Machnes. The third was the Maliniak Commission Report. These three events led to the collapse of the Israeli Sport Association in 1996 and to the fall of the Israeli hegemonic group.     

The inextricable link between sport and the press in the Victorian era: the example of the ‘Sentinel Cup’

During the Victorian era sport underwent what has been described by academics as a ‘revolution’. What began the nineteenth century as largely informal, recreational pastimes with few written rules and a small commercial fringe was transformed into a codified, commercialised, mass-spectator entertainment industry. During this period an inextricable link developed between sport and the press and both became mutually beneficial; sport provided a continuous conveyor belt of content for journalists to report whilst newspapers provided enhanced publicity and exposure in return. However, the press were not merely commentators and observers of sport and several publications took a more central role in its development and organisation. This is exemplified by the Staffordshire Sentinel, a regional newspaper that circulated across North Staffordshire and South Cheshire, which established the self-titled ‘Sentinel Cup’ in 1892. The competition was officially created to develop junior association football in the region, although key stakeholders also had other alternative motives, and it has been contested for 125 consecutive years, making it the longest continuous football cup in Britain. This paper uses the ‘Sentinel Cup’ as an exemplar of how the press became increasingly involved in sport during the Victorian era and explores the competition’s inauguration.     

Turning the Country into an “Immense and Clamorous Stadium”: Perón,the New Argentina,and the 1951 Pan-American Games

Abstract

During the Peronist regime (1946–1955), the Argentine government encouraged and financed a wide variety of sports activities. This investment bore fruit internationally and Juan Perón tried to make political capital out of the achievements of Argentine individual athletes or national teams in international competitions. Such achievements were presented as a collective victory of Argentine society, transcending the divisions of social class, ethnic origins, place of residence, or political affiliation. Argentine participation in the London Olympics in 1948, the hosting of the world basketball championship in Buenos Aires in 1950, and above all the organization of the first Pan-American games in the Argentine in March 1951, all, served to promote patriotism and national unity at home and improve the country’s image in the international scene. This paper focuses on an analysis of a 250-page book published by the sports magazine Mundo Deportivo, sponsored by the Peronist government, on the eve of the games. Both the text and the images attest to its populist character, its quest for modernity, emphasis on social mobility, and an authoritarian way of imposing national unity. The initiative to hold such games in Argentina dated back to 1940 but it had to be postponed twice: first to 1948 because of the Second World War, and then to 1951 because of the London Olympic Games. Perón’s government wanted these games to serve as a proof of the regime’s success. To that end, the president urged the organizers to ‘spur no effort’, promising them any financial assistance they might need. A year and a half before the inaugural ceremony, held at the Racing stadium (officially named the President Perón Stadium), the organizational effort moved into high gear, and Perón supervized it personally. Argentina was indeed the big winner in this event, its athletes capturing a total of 153 medals.     

Sport and the New Culture of the ‘Second Golden Age’: Amsterdam’s Sporting Entrepreneurs in the 1880s and 1890s

Abstract

In the second half of the nineteenth century, Amsterdam underwent important changes in its economic, social, and cultural life as the city entered what is often referred to as its ‘Second Golden Age’. Old elites gave way to new and a new more entrepreneurial culture emerged focused on mass, visible, and consumable activities, including sport, in which the body played a central role. This was especially apparent from the late 1870s and 1880s when spatial changes within the city helped to ensure that sport was increasingly the location for new kinds of associational activity and the development of new products, all underpinned by the potential for profit. Entrepreneurs such as Perry & Co., De Gruyter, and the Amsterdamsche Sport-Club were able to effect strategic combinations between the new body culture and consumerism, producing a range of new products and exploiting new technologies to create new markets. In seizing these opportunities, Amsterdam's entrepreneurs were also reproducing the concept of the trainable, measurable, and consumable body.     

‘Being in your body’ and ‘being in the moment’: the dancing body-subject and inhabited transcendence

Sports studies is currently dominated by the intellectualist approach to understanding skill and expertise, meaning that questions about the phenomenological nature of skilled performance in sport have generally been overshadowed by the emphasis on the cognitive. By contrast, this article responds to calls for a phenomenology of sporting embodiment by opening up a philosophical exploration of the nature of athletic being-in-the-world. In particular, the paper explores the conceptualisation of immanence and transcendence in relation to the embodied practice of dance, engaging with Merleau-Ponty’s important insight that the body can be a source of transcendence. I also draw on data from in-depth qualitative interviews with professional contemporary dancers to explore dancers’ concepts of ‘being in your body’ and ‘being in the moment’, and to suggest that during the actual embodied practice of dance, dancers do not experience transcendence and immanence as they are conceptualised in philosophy. Rather, I argue, dancers experience a third mode of being that is somehow in-between these two binary terms. I have called this ‘inhabited transcendence’.     

White is the new black? Football,media and the New Zealand imagination

This paper interrogates the media articulation of football/soccer to New Zealand national consciousness during the 2010 FIFA World Cup. 541 articles from national and regional newspapers and Internet news sites were gathered and analysed using a critically discursive approach. I argue that the press re-framed football within the national sporting imagination in the context of a narcissistic nationalism. Coverage was underpinned by several interlocking themes. First, falsely positing football as ethnically inclusive by emphasizing Māori players’ presence in the national team. Second, the entrenchment of archetypes and caricatures of both others and the national self. This included the evocation of a mythic New Zealand masculinity, with specific individuals lionized as key embodiments of the fictive national character. Third, the caricaturing of other nationalities is also used to bolster the national self – in particular the Italians and Australians. Such framings resonate with long-standing themes in the selective construction of a settler-informed New Zealand nationalism. Coverage, however, ignores the complexity of how individuals are flexibly and ambiguously articulated to the nation, particularly in the context of the global football labour market.     

Influence of single‐leg training on muscle metabolism and endurance during exercise with the trained limb and the untrained limb

We have previously shown that single‐leg training results in improved endurance for exercise with the untrained leg (UTL) as well as for exercise with the trained leg (TL). The purpose of this study was to see whether the improved endurance of the untrained leg could be explained on the basis of changes in muscle metabolism. Exercise time to exhaustion at 80% of maximum oxygen uptake (VO₂ max) was determined for each leg separately, pre‐ and post‐training. Muscle metabolite concentrations were measured pre‐ and post‐training in biopsy samples obtained immediately before this endurance test and at the pre‐training point of exhaustion (END1). After six weeks of single‐leg training endurance time was increased for both the UTL and the TL (UTL 34.0+16.4 min vs 97.9±26.3 min, P<0.01; TL 28.3 + 10.1 min vs 169.0 + 32.6 min, P < 0.01). No changes in muscle metabolite concentrations were found in resting muscle. Training increased muscle ATP (P <0.05) and glycogen (P <0.01) concentrations and decreased muscle lactate concentration (P<0.05) in the TL at END1. No significant changes in muscle metabolite concentrations were found for the UTL. The improved endurance of the contralateral limb after single‐leg training could not be explained on the basis of changes in muscle metabolism.     

Going Solo: the spectre of the 1999ers and Hope Solo as the ‘conscious pariah’

Abstract

Although US goalkeeper, Hope Solo, had guided the women’s national soccer team to the semi-finals of the 2007 Women’s World Cup, head coach Greg Ryan benched Solo in favour of 1999 World Cup winning goalkeeper, Briana Scurry. The US lost, 4 – 0, the worst loss ever in World Cup play. The loss did not capture news headlines; rather, Hope Solo’s post-game comments about Ryan’s decision to bench her went viral. I contend that Solo’s outburst interrupted the historical narrative of the US women’s national soccer team. Solo’s action revealed an oppressive team culture of female containment. In a 30-second sound bite, Solo disrupted the discourse of power on the team and in the media, temporarily producing a space for various conceptions of the female athlete to be recognized.     

Israel–Malaysia Relations and the Place of Football

Abstract

While seeking to establish their respective international positions following their foundation, Israel and Malaysia also interacted with each other. However, in light of the Israeli–Arab conflict, and mainly due to Malaysia’s domestic considerations and geo-political interests, the interactions remained limited and official relations were not established. This study relies on the notion that sport is potentially an important tool for engagement between states. It examines contemporaneous Israeli and Singapore press and brings together the various episodes and voices pertinent to the way Israel–Malaysia relations unfolded through football until the 1970s. The paper offers an historical perspective on the relations by focusing on a game that was highly popular in both countries. I argue that, while considering the various limitations that were involved, the Prime Minister of Malaysia and President of the Asian Football Confederation, Tunku Abdul Rahman, cautiously maintained the football channel with Israel open. Accordingly, in light of the significantly low-level of other means of contact, football functioned as a carefully managed yet meaningful line of communication by involving a prime minister, senior sports administrators, athletes, football fans, journalists, and sports readers. The essay thus contributes a case study to the emerging body of literature on football relations between states.