Kinematic and kinetic comparisons between American and Korean professional baseball pitchers

The purpose of this study was to quantify and compare kinematic, temporal, and kinetic characteristics of American and Korean professional pitchers in order to investigate differences in pitching mechanics, performance, and injury risks among two different cultures and populations of baseball pitchers. Eleven American and eight Korean healthy professional baseball pitchers threw multiple fastball pitches off an indoor throwing mound positioned at regulation distance from home plate. A Motion Analysis three-dimensional automatic digitizing system was used to collect 200 Hz video data from four electronically synchronized cameras. Twenty kinematic, six temporal, and 11 kinetic variables were analyzed at lead foot contact, during the arm cocking and arm acceleration phases, at ball release, and during the arm deceleration phase. A radar gun was used to quantify ball velocity. At lead foot contact, the American pitchers had significantly greater horizontal abduction of the throwing shoulder, while Korean pitchers exhibited significantly greater abduction and external rotation of the throwing shoulder. During arm cocking, the American pitchers displayed significantly greater maximum shoulder external rotation and maximum pelvis angular velocity. At the instant of ball release, the American pitchers had significantly greater forward trunk tilt and ball velocity and significantly less knee flexion, which help explain why the American pitchers had 10% greater ball velocity compared to the Korean pitchers. The American pitchers had significantly greater maximum shoulder internal rotation torque and maximum elbow varus torque during arm cocking, significantly greater elbow flexion torque during arm acceleration, and significantly greater shoulder and elbow proximal forces during arm deceleration. While greater shoulder and elbow forces and torques generated in the American pitchers helped generate greater ball velocity for the American group, these greater kinetics may predispose this group to a higher risk of shoulder and elbow injuries.     

Defining sport tourism: a content analysis of an evolving epistemology

ABSTRACT

This paper conducts a systematic evaluation of one of the primary journals in the field of sport tourism research since its establishment in 1993. Drawing on extant literature with varying disciplinary approaches, this meta-review traces the development of key concepts and definitions underlying an evolving epistemology connected to sport tourism, as evidenced within the Journal of Sport & Tourism (JS&T). It does so by examining research specific to content previously unexplored. The study first conducted a content analysis based upon a keyword search, focusing on phrases in which sport and tourism appeared together. The study reviewed all texts, including articles, book chapters and editorials (n?=?517), for the years 1993–2014. We then constructed a thematic analysis based upon the most common defining elements found within these texts. These extracted definitions were analyzed according to their paradigmatic elements. Based on these findings, this paper suggests the need to further define the epistemological boundaries of sport tourism for the twenty-first century.     

The effects of psoas major and lumbar lordosis on hip flexion and sprint performance

In this study, we analyzed the correlations between hip flexion power; sprint performance, lumbar lordosis (LL) and the cross-sectional area (CSA) of the psoas muscle (PM). Ten young adults performed two sprint tests and isokinetic tests to determine hip flexion power. Magnetic resonance imaging was used to determine LL and PM CSA. There were correlations between hip flexion power, sprint performance, and PM CSA, but LL showed no correlation with any parameter The impact of hip flexion power and LL on sprint stride pattern efficiency was considered. Hip flexion might not have a simple role in the passive knee replacement of the stride pattern; instead, it may be an active parameter. Other investigations are needed to determine the influence of pelvic architecture on sprint performance.     

Institut Superieur de Technologie: Institution of Higher Technical Education of the Grand‐Duchy of Luxemburg

This paper gives an overview of the Institut Superieur de Technologie (Institution of Higher Technical Education of the Grand‐Duchy of Luxemburg): history, aims, courses, set‐up, external relations and R&D.     

DEVELOPMENT AND DIVERSIFICATION OF THE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC FUNCTIONS OF FRENCH UNIVERSITIES

With special reference to the Paul Sabatier University of Toulouse, the authors trace the development of the French universities from the élitist Napoleonic institutions that they still were in the early 1960's to the mass, diversified institutions of today. They stress the importance of the events of 1968 as a major turning point which had a particularly strong impact because they occurred during a period of prosperity. Thus the wide‐scale expansion, democratization, diversification, and massification which occurred led to a positive reaction to the call for increased vocationalization and co‐operation with industry which characterized the lean years that followed. Other stimuli for change and adaptation have been modifications in the legal structure of higher education, the need to increase offerings in continuing education, policies favouring decentralization and regionalization, and the influence of European Union higher education policies. The need to provide high quality higher education in a number of areas to a very large proportion of the age cohort is understood to be a social and economic necessity. The evolution of French higher education since 1968 could offer lessons and examples to the higher education systems of eastern and central Europe in their efforts to cope with transition. The role of universities in the modern world has been greatly enhanced. Important changes have occurred in French higher education over the past twenty‐five years, the resultpartly of the adoption of new laws, of social evolution, of economic needs and challenges, and of individual initiatives undertaken and voluntary policies adopted by universities.     

Approche du nombre par des enfants de 6 à 7 ans

Sans résumé     

In brief

GROWING UP IN AMERICA by Fred M. and Grace Hechinger. New York: McGraw‐Hill, 1975. 451 pp. $15.00.

FAREWELL TO ALEXANDRIA: SOLUTIONS TO SPACE, GROWTH, AND PERFORMANCE PROBLEMS OF LIBRARIES edited by Daniel Gore. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1976. 184 pp. $12.50.

POLICYMAKING IN AMERICAN EDUCATION: A FRAMEWORK FOR ANALYSIS by John Thomas Thompson. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice‐Hall, Inc., 1976. 278 pp. $10.95.

THE ORDINARY AND THE FABULOUS by Elizabeth Cook. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976. xx + 182 pp. $15.95.

EDUCATING A PROFESSION by Robert B. Howsam, Dean C. Corrigan, George W. Denemark, and Robert J. Nash. Washington, D.C.: American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, 1976. 117 pp.

ON WRITING WELL by William Zinsser. New York: Harper&; Row, 1976. 151 pp. $5.20.

PRIORITIES FOR POSTSECONDARY EDUCATION IN THE SOUTH. Atlanta, Georgia: Southern Regional Education Board, 1976. v + 36 pp. $2.00.

THE UNIVERSITY: THE ANATOMY OF ACADEME by Murray G. Ross. New York: McGraw‐Hill, 1976. xii + 310 pp. $11.95.