Back injuries and the fast bowler in cricket

Here, I review research that has investigated the aetiology of injuries experienced by adolescent and adult fast bowlers. Mechanical factors play an important role in the aetiology of degenerative processes and injuries to the lumbar spine. This is particularly so in fast bowling, where a player must absorb vertical and horizontal components of the ground reaction force that are approximately five and two times body weight at front-foot and rear-foot impact, respectively. Attenuated forces are transmitted to the spine through the lower limb, while additional foces at the lumbo-sacral junction are caused by trunk hyperextension, lateral flexion and twisting during the delivery stride. Fast bowlers are classified as side-on, front-on or mixed. The mixed action is categorized by the lower body configuration of the front-on action and the upper body configuration of the side-on technique. This upper body configuration is produced by counter-rotation away from the batsman in the transverse plane about the longitudinal axis of the body of a line through the two shoulders. Counter-rotations of 12–40° during a delivery stride have predicted an increased incidence of lumbar spondylolysis, disc abnormality and muscle injury in fast bowlers. During the delivery stride, the mixed bowling action also shows: more lateral flexion and hyperextension of the lumbar spine at front-foot impact, and a greater range of motion of the trunk over the delivery stride when compared with the side-on and front-on techniques. The pars interarticularis of each vertebra is vulnerable to injury if repetitive flexion, rotation and hyperextension are present in the activity. Fast bowlers should reduce shoulder counter-rotation during the delivery stride to reduce the incidence of back injuries. When a player is required to bowl for extended periods irrespective of technique, overuse is also related to an increased incidence of back injuries and must be avoided.     

Physiological Responses to Maximal Treadmill and Handweighted Exercise

Abstract

The purpose of this investigation was to compare the peak physiological responses among four protocols that employed different amounts of handweighted exercise in 16 males (aged 26.3 ± 4.1 years). The four protocols were (a) uphill treadmill running (UR; 3.36 m-s¹, 2.5% grade increase-3 min¹); (b) uphill treadmill walking while pumping 1.36kg handweights (HW) (UWHW; 1.79ms¹, 5.0% grade increase-3 min¹; (c) treadmill walking while pumping .91-kg HW (WHW; 1.79 m-s¹, 0% grade, .91kg HW increase-3 min¹); and (d) standing in place and pumping HW (SHW; arm work as described in WHW). It was hypothesized that the peak responses would be inversely proportional to the estimated muscle mass activated (i.e., UR = UWHW > WHW > SHW). Dependent variables included peak oxygen uptake (VO₂ peak), peak heart rate (HRpeak), peak ventilation (V_epeak), and peak respiratory exchange ratio (RERpeak). No differences were noted between UR and UWHW with respect to any of the dependent variables. All variables (except RERpeak) were greater (p < .01) in UR and UWHW than either WHW or SHW. RERpeak was greater (p < .01) in UR and UWHW than in WHW. VO₂peak and HRpeak were greater (p < .01) in WHW when compared to SHW. Mean VO₂peak was 97.5, 69.7, and 60% of UR for UWHW, WHW, and SHW, respectively. Therefore, walking and pumping handweights provides a maximal stimulus to the oxygen transport system.     

Discriminating talent-identified junior Australian football players using a video decision-making task

This study examined if a video decision-making task could discriminate talent-identified junior Australian football players from their non-talent-identified counterparts. Participants were recruited from the 2013 under 18 (U18) West Australian Football League competition and classified into two groups: talent-identified (State U18 Academy representatives; n = 25; 17.8 ± 0.5 years) and non-talent-identified (non-State U18 Academy selection; n = 25; 17.3 ± 0.6 years). Participants completed a video decision-making task consisting of 26 clips sourced from the Australian Football League game-day footage, recording responses on a sheet provided. A score of “1” was given for correct and “0” for incorrect responses, with the participants total score used as the criterion value. One-way analysis of variance tested the main effect of “status” on the task criterion, whilst a bootstrapped receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve assessed the discriminant ability of the task. An area under the curve (AUC) of 1 (100%) represented perfect discrimination. Between-group differences were evident (P < 0.05) and the ROC curve was maximised with a score of 15.5/26 (60%) (AUC = 89.0%), correctly classifying 92% and 76% of the talent-identified and non-talent-identified participants, respectively. Future research should investigate the mechanisms leading to the superior decision-making observed in the talent-identified group.     

Contract research,the university,and the academic

With the decline in the funding of university research activities from traditional sources, many universities are instigating contract research programs as a means of funding research. This article examines some of the implications of university-based contract research, drawing largely on the author's own experiences. The problems which are examined include the moral and ethical implications, the legal aspects, problems over ownership of research results, the implications for staff rights, the status of contract researchers, the implications for publication, problems of authority, responsibility and social justice, and the conflicts between teaching and research. The article concludes with eleven points for successful university-based contract research.     

Finding a Golden Mean in Education Policy: Centering Religious and Public Schools

The separation between Church and State, private and public education, is blurring, and coming together, as the government gives families vouchers to attend private and religious schools. Religious groups are starting and supporting their own charter schools, and local jurisdictions (cities and counties) are providing free transportation and food services to children attending private schools. What emerges, and is the focus of this analysis, is the new “middle ground,” a “golden mean,” by which public schools learn diversity and choice while private/religious schools are helped by public programs and funds. The oldest, perhaps, was Lyndon Johnson's compromise with the Catholics to get Title 1 passed as part of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act that sends public school teachers into private schools to help children in need. This study examines the emergence of a middle group in public–private education, and how the policies are working and what's changing. It argues that the child is the center of education, and government and private agencies are changing and should come together to serve the clients, the children.     

Emotion discourse, social cognition, and social skills in children with and without developmental delays

This study examined parent-child emotion discourse, children's independent social information processing, and social skills outcomes in 146 families of 8-year-olds with and without developmental delays. Children's emergent social-cognitive understanding (internal state understanding, perspective taking, and causal reasoning and problem solving) was coded in the context of parent-child conversations about emotion, and children were interviewed separately to assess social problem solving. Mothers, fathers, and teachers reported on children's social skills. The proposed strengths-based model partially accounted for social skills differences between typically developing children and children with delays. A multigroup analysis of the model linking emotion discourse to social skills through children's prosocial problem solving suggested that processes operated similarly for the two groups. Implications for ecologically focused prevention and intervention are discussed.