Giving presentations and workshops

Now you've done it — agreed to give a workshop or presentation. The self-doubts begin. “I don't know anything more than they do.” “I'm not good in front of a group.” “What if they ask a question I can't answer?” All of the above are common concerns presenters have about themselves and their skills.     

Kinesiology’s Tower of Babel: Advancing the Field with Consistent Nomenclature

The knowledge base of kinesiology can be compared to the construction of a fragmented, diffuse tower. Much of the lack of identity and progress of kinesiology as the leader in the study of human physical activity may result from inconsistent nomenclature. Several examples of improper and inconsistent use of kinesiology nomenclature are noted and three solutions are proposed. A call to action for kinesiology organizations, editorial boards of kinesiology journals, and individual scholars on standardizing kinesiology terminology is presented to advance kinesiology knowledge and recognition of the field, and to support integrated, interdisciplinary scholarship.     

Use of deterministic models in sports and exercise biomechanics research

A deterministic model is a modeling paradigm that determines the relationships between a movement outcome measure and the biomechanical factors that produce such a measure. This review provides an overview of the use of deterministic models in biomechanics research, a historical summary of this research, and an analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of using deterministic models. The deterministic model approach has been utilized in technique analysis over the last three decades, especially in swimming, athletics field events, and gymnastics. In addition to their applications in sports and exercise biomechanics, deterministic models have been applied successfully in research on selected motor skills. The advantage of the deterministic model approach is that it helps to avoid selecting performance or injury variables arbitrarily and to provide the necessary theoretical basis for examining the relative importance of various factors that influence the outcome of a movement task. Several disadvantages of deterministic models, such as the use of subjective measures for the performance outcome, were discussed. It is recommended that exercise and sports biomechanics scholars should consider using deterministic models to help identify meaningful dependent variables in their studies.     

Elementary-school principals and their political settings

This study utilizes a stratified (on SES) sample of Detroit metropolitan elementary-school districts to examine political settings of principals. Altogether 18 principals were interviewed in 1981 and 1984. Twelve more were interviewed in the Lansing area in 1985. Upper income districts were found to have bureaucratic settings as did the lower income, even where their districts were poor or anomic. Principals in the latter viewed the central office more negatively than did the former. Middle income districts were more typically bargaining. Some schools in middle and upper income districts were impacted from the neighborhood especially when the latter was relatively poor.