Effect of a health-improvement pilot programme for older adults delivered by a professional football club: the Burton Albion case study

Older adults are a priority within policy designed to facilitate healthy lifestyles through physical activities. Golden Goal is a pilot programme of physical activity-led health improvement for older adults, 55?years and older. Activities were delivered at Burton Albion Football Club. Sessions involved weekly moderate to vigorous intensity exercise sessions including exer-gaming (exercise-orientated video-games), indoor bowls, cricket, new age curling, walking football, and traditional board games and skittles. Secondary analysis of data collected through the original programme evaluation of Golden Goal investigated the impact of the intervention on participants. Older adults completed self-reports for demographics, health screening/complications and quality of life. Attendees, n?=?23 males (42.6%) and n?=?31 females (57.4%) with a mean age of 69.38 (±5.87) (n?=?40), ranging from 55–85?years took part. The mean attendance was 7.73 (±3.12) sessions for all participants, (n?=?51). Older adults with two or more health complications (n?=?22, 42.3%) attended fewer sessions on average (6.91?±?3.322) compared to those reporting less than two health complications (8.65?±?2.694). Self-rated health was higher for women (87.32?±?9.573) vs. men (80.16?±?18.557), although this was not statistically significant (U?=?223.500, p?=?0.350). Results support the potential of football-led health interventions for recruiting older adults, including those reporting health problems.     

From bastard child to a place in Australia’s family; the Federal Government’s role in repositioning Australian soccer as a legitimate,mainstream sport: a qualitative study

Abstract

Following over a century on the margins, soccer moved into the mainstream of Australian sports culture in 2003. This resulted from the intervention of the Federal Government via a review into the sport’s governance and structure, the reform led by high-profile recruit Frank Lowy. By 2015, the men’s national team had won the Asian Cup, qualified for three consecutive FIFA World Cup Finals’ appearances and the men’s professional A-League had successfully completed its tenth season. Australian Soccer was now perceived to be part of the sporting mainstream. This qualitative study utilized semi-structured interviews of a purposive sample from politics, sport and business (N?=?22), and identified four key transformative mechanisms: Federal Government intervention, the recruitment of Frank Lowy, implementing credible governance and structure, and leveraging the game’s traditional popularity. Soccer’s reformation was aimed, in part, to provide Australia greater leverage in Asia, the region where Australia’s interests are significantly influenced by the geo-political axis between the USA and China.     

3D与2D电视体育收看体验的对比研究

3D技术是体育电视发展的必然趋向。运用传播心理学的方法,通过心率监测仪等器械的实证研究,我们对受众对3D和2D的体育节目观测体验进行了对比研究。虽然仍有很多人对这一技术存在疑问,但研究结果证明3D体育转播的前景仍然是值得期待的。     

Moving mountains stone by stone: Reforming rural education in China

The widely reported economic divide between the richer eastern provinces and the poorer western provinces in China has an exact parallel in the development of basic education. As a result of geographical, historical and social factors the quality and management of the education system lags considerably behind the east coast.     

Laying the foundations for physical literacy in Wales: the contribution of the Foundation Phase to the development of physical literacy

Background: The Foundation Phase in Wales is a play-based curriculum for pupils aged 3–7 years old. Children learn through more holistic areas of learning in place of traditional subjects. As such, the subject of physical education in its traditional form no longer exists for pupils under the age of 7 in Wales. In light of the role of physical education in developing physical literacy and in particular the importance of this age group for laying the foundations of movement for lifelong engagement in physical activity, the disappearance of physical education from the curriculum could be deemed to be a concern.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore the Foundation Phase as a naturalistic intervention and examine its contribution to the development of physical literacy.

Participants and setting: Participants included year 1 pupils (N?=?49) aged 5 and 6 from two schools in contrasting locations. A smaller group within each class was selected through purposive sampling for the repeated measures assessments (N?=?18).

Research design and methods: A complementarity mixed-method design combined quantitative and qualitative methods to study the Foundation Phase as a naturalistic intervention. Quantitative data were generated with the Test of Gross Motor Development-2 administered to the sample group of children from both schools as a quasi-repeated measure, the physical competence subscale of the Pictorial Scale of Perceived Competence and Social Acceptance and the Leuven Involvement Scale for Young Children. Qualitative data were generated throughout the study from the analysis of video and field notes through participant observation. Data from the mixed methods were analysed through complementarity to give a rich insight into pupils’ progress and experiences in relation to physical literacy.

Results: Overall analysis of the data from TGMD-2 showed significant improvements in the Gross Motor Quotient and Locomotor skills from T1 to T3, but no significant improvement in object control. Data from qualitative methods were analysed to explore processes that may account for these findings. Video and field notes complement the quantitative data highlighting that children were developing their locomotor skills in many aspects of their learning. Observations using the Leuven Involvement Scale indicated that children had high levels of involvement in their learning and apparent in video and field notes was pupils’ motivation for movement. Paired sample t-tests (N?=?18) conducted on the Harter and Pike perceived physical competence six-item score subscales (T1 and T3) indicated a significant difference in the mean perceived physical competence scores on the six-item scale between T1and T3. Qualitative data explored pupils’ confidence for movement in many areas of learning.

Conclusion: The combination of quantitative and qualitative data indicates that the Foundation Phase is an early childhood curriculum that lays the foundations of physical literacy with the exception of aspects of the physical competence, specifically object control skills. Although these skills only contribute to psychomotor aspects of physical literacy they are strongly associated with later engagement in physical activity. The development of specific physical skills such as object control skills may need more specialist input with early childhood pedagogy teachers trained in motor development to see significant improvements.     

Sodium bicarbonate improves 4 km time trial cycling performance when individualised to time to peak blood bicarbonate in trained male cyclists

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO₃) on 4 km cycling time trial (TT) performance when individualised to a predetermined time to peak blood bicarbonate (HCO₃^?). Eleven male trained cyclists volunteered for this study (height 1.82 ± 0.80 m, body mass (BM) 86.4 ± 12.9 kg, age 32 ± 9 years, peak power output (PPO) 382 ± 22 W). Two trials were initially conducted to identify time to peak HCO₃^? following both 0.2 g^.kg^?1 BM (SBC2) and 0.3 g^.kg^?1 BM (SBC3) NaHCO₃. Thereafter, on three separate occasions using a randomised, double-blind, crossover design, participants completed a 4 km TT following ingestion of either SBC2, SBC3, or a taste-matched placebo (PLA) containing 0.07 g^.kg^?1 BM sodium chloride (NaCl) at the predetermined individual time to peak HCO₃^?. Both SBC2 (?8.3 ± 3.5 s; p < 0.001, d = 0.64) and SBC3 (?8.6 ± 5.4 s; p = 0.003, d = 0.66) reduced the time to complete the 4 km TT, with no difference between SBC conditions (mean difference = 0.2 ± 0.2 s; p = 0.87, d = 0.02). These findings suggest trained cyclists may benefit from individualising NaHCO₃ ingestion to time to peak HCO₃^? to enhance 4 km TT performance.     

Shyness and Trajectories of Functional Network Connectivity Over Early Adolescence

High shyness during early adolescence is associated with impaired peer relationships and risk for psychiatric disorders. Little is known, however, about the relation between shyness and trajectories of brain development over early adolescence. The current study longitudinally examined trajectories of resting‐state functional connectivity (rs‐fc) within four brain networks in 147 adolescents. Subjects underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging at three different time points, at average ages 10.5 (range = 7.8–13.0), 11.7 (range = 9.3–14.1), and 12.9 years (range = 10.1–15.2). Multilevel linear modeling indicated that high shyness was associated with a less steep negative slope of default mode network (DMN) rs‐fc over early adolescence relative to low shyness. Less steep decreases in DMN rs‐fc may relate to increased self‐focus in adolescents with high shyness.     

Disentangling the antecedents of ambidexterity: Exploration and exploitation

We view ambidexterity as a paradox whereby its components, exploration and exploitation, generate persistent and conflicting demands on an organization. Drawing on the attention based view of the firm (ABV), we examine three antecedents of organizational ambidexterity that reflect ABV’s three principles ? the principle of focus of attention; the principle of situated attention; and the principle of structural distribution of attention. Specifically, we examine the influence of top management team (TMT) composition, whether or not the firm has a clear written vision, and the extent to which organizational attention is focused on investments in R&D, and continuous improvement. We empirically validate our model on a sample of 422 small and medium-sized enterprises in the UK and find that ambidexterity is supported by a blend of integration and differentiation approaches.