Perspectives of applied collaborative sport science research within professional team sports

The purpose of the study was to examine the perspectives of both academics and practitioners in relation to forming applied collaborative sport science research within team sports. Ninety-three participants who had previously engaged in collaborative research partnerships within team sports completed an online survey which focused on motivations and barriers for forming collaborations using blinded sliding scale (0–100) and rank order list. Research collaborations were mainly formed to improve the team performance (Academic: 73.6?±?23.3; Practitioner: 84.3?±?16.0; effect size (ES?=?0.54), small). Academics ranked journal articles’ importance significantly higher than practitioners did (Academic: M_rank?=?53.9; Practitioner: 36.0; z?=??3.18, p?=?.001, p?q). However, practitioners rated one-to-one communication as more preferential (Academic: M_rank?=?41.3; Practitioner 56.1; z?=??2.62, p?=?.009, p?q). Some potential barriers were found in terms of staff buy in (Academic: 70.0?±?25.5; Practitioner: 56.8?±?27.3; ES?=?0.50, small) and funding (Academic: 68.0?±?24.9; Practitioner: 67.5?±?28.0; ES?=?0.02, trivial). Both groups revealed low motivation for invasive mechanistic research (Academic: 36.3?±?24.2; Practitioner: 36.4?±?27.5; ES?=?0.01, trivial), with practitioners have a preference towards ‘fast’ type research. There was a general agreement between academics and practitioners for forming research collaborations. Some potential barriers still exist (e.g. staff buy in and funding), with practitioners preferring ‘fast’ informal research dissemination compared to the ‘slow’ quality control approach of academics.     

The relationship among motor proficiency, physical fitness, and body composition in children with and without visual impairments

This study compares the motor skills and physical fitness of school-age children (6-12 years) with visual impairments (VI; n = 60) and sighted children (n = 60). The relationships between the performance parameters and the children's body composition are investigated as well as the role of the severity of the impairment. The degree of VI did not differentially affect the outcomes. Compared to their sighted peers, the children with VI scored lower on the locomotor and object control skills as assessed with the Test of Gross Motor Development-2, and the physical fitness (Eurofit) parameters of plate tapping, the standing broad jump, the modified 5 x 10-m shuttle run, and 20-m multistage shuttle run (20-MST). Their body mass and body fat indexes were inversely correlated with the standing broad jump and the 20-MST but positively correlated with handgrip strength. Moreover significant inverse correlations were found between their locomotor and object control skills on the one hand and plate tapping and the 5 x 10-m shuttle run on the other hand. Given the relatively high proportion (25%) of overweight/obese children within the VI sample, educators are recommended to promote health-related activities and help enhance motor skills in this population.     

Multidimensional performance characteristics and standard of performance in talented youth field hockey players: a longitudinal study

To identify performance characteristics that could help predict future elite field hockey players, we measured the anthropometric, physiological, technical, tactical, and psychological characteristics of 30 elite and 35 sub-elite youth players at the end of three consecutive seasons. The mean age of the players at the end of the first season was 14.2 years (s = 1.1). Repeated-measures analyses of covariance, with standard of performance and measurement occasion as factors and age as a covariate, showed that the elite players fared better than the sub-elite players on technical and tactical variables. Female elite youth players also scored better on interval endurance capacity, motivation, and confidence. Future elite players appear to have excellent tactical skills by the age of 14. They also have good specific technical skills and develop these together with interval endurance capacity better than sub-elite youth players in the subsequent 2 years. To verify our conclusions, we will be tracking these players into adulthood.     

Are We Ready to Recommend a College Readiness Index? A Reply to Gaertner and McClarty (2015)

In an article published in Educational Measurement: Issues and Practice, Gaertner and McClarty (2015) discuss a college readiness index based, in part, on nonacademic or noncognitive factors measured in middle school. Such an index is laudable as it incorporates important constructs beyond academic achievement measures that may be important in assessing college readiness. It also holds potential in identifying areas of need at a critical time and can theoretically inform important interventions that may be necessary prior to the later stages of high school. However, one of the noncognitive factors—motivation—appeared to be theoretically incomplete, underrepresented, and contained items irrelevant to the construct of academic motivation. We offer our concerns about the validity of this factor as measured by the index and the associated implications about the consequences of using this to inform educational interventions. Through this commentary, we hope to offer constructive feedback on future research that can build upon Gaertner and McClarty's important work.     

Priming institutional change through effective project management:A case study of the Chic project

This paper explores how learning and teaching innovations undertaken by externally funded projects, with a fixed remit and lifecycle, can be integrated successfully into institutional educational developments. The example and methods of one particular project, in embedding its work within and relating it to the context of wider, nationally-promoted educational designs, is utilized to illustrate the possibilities for fostering institutional change. Such change relies upon working to promote a climate whose norms support a culture of trust, where team-working can forge a broader ownership of innovation     

Free the sheep: improvised song and performance in and around a minecraft community

Recent work around the use of virtual world video games in educational contexts has conceptualised literacies as communal processes, whilst considering complex notions of collaboration through participants' multiplicity of presence in hybrid virtual / physical locations. However, further research is necessary in order to help us understand how the complex interactions afforded by such spaces influence ‐ and are influenced by ‐ children's social relationships. This article draws upon data from a year‐long ethnographic study, investigating a group of ten and eleven year old children's engagement with the video game ‘Minecraft’ as they collaborate to build a ‘virtual community’. With a particular focus on the children's improvised singing and use of song during the club, I examine how their creative practices ‐ drawing on a wide range of self‐selected resources, played out both in and out of the virtual world ‐ help to fundamentally shape the nature of the space around them. Furthermore, through examination of one particular performance, I demonstrate the importance of ensuring that such details are not written out of accounts of children interactions around technology, if we are to understand the true potential of such environments.     

Test-retest reliability of a battery of field-based health-related fitness measures for adolescents

The main aim of this study was to determine the test-retest reliability of existing tests of health-related fitness. Participants (mean age 14.8 years, s?=?0.4) were 42 boys and 26 girls who completed the study assessments on two occasions separated by one week. The following tests were conducted: bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) to calculate percent body fat, leg dynamometer, 90° push-up, 7-stage sit-up, and wall squat tests. Intra-class correlation (ICC), paired samples t-tests, and typical error expressed as a coefficient of variation were calculated. The mean percent body fat intra-class correlation coefficient was similar for boys (ICC?=?0.95) and girls (ICC?=?0.93), but the mean coefficient of variation was considerably higher for boys than girls (22.2% vs. 12.2%). The boys' coefficients of variation for the tests of muscular fitness ranged from 9.0% for the leg dynamometer test to 26.5% for the timed wall squat test. The girls' coefficients of variation ranged from 17.1% for the sit-up test to 21.4% for the push-up test. Although the BIA machine produced reliable estimates of percent body fat, the tests of muscular fitness resulted in high systematic error, suggesting that these measures may require an extensive familiarization phase before the results can be considered reliable.