Leveraging community sport organizations to promote community capacity: Strategic outcomes,challenges, and theoretical considerations

Community sport organizations (CSOs) provide valuable contexts for promoting community development. These initiatives are most effective when they involve local stakeholders in the process of development. A key first step to achieving this objective is building community capacity, defined as local stakeholders’ skills, knowledge, and resources that may be leveraged for change. Interestingly, despite this conceptual importance, few researchers have focused on capacity building in the sport context. This has limited the theoretical advancement of community capacity theory as it relates to CSOs and community development. Using a qualitative case study approach, the authors analyze the outcomes and challenges of implementing community capacity building strategies in an American CSO, and draw on the empirical data to contribute to this theoretical conversation. Interviews, participant observation, and document analysis were used to generate data, and deductive techniques were used for thematic analysis. The results highlight the outcomes of the capacity building strategies and challenges associated with implementation. In addition, the conclusion focuses on theoretical contributions to community capacity theory, namely the role of sport in facilitating inter-community relations across social groups and the link with process models of organizational capacity.     

An Investigative,Cooperative Learning Approach to the General Microbiology Laboratory

Investigative- and cooperative-based learning strategies have been used effectively in a variety of classrooms to enhance student learning and engagement. In the General Microbiology laboratory for juniors and seniors at James Madison University, these strategies were combined to make a semester-long, investigative, cooperative learning experience involving culture and identification of microbial isolates that the students obtained from various environments. To assess whether this strategy was successful, students were asked to complete a survey at the beginning and at the end of the semester regarding their comfort level with a variety of topics. For most of the topics queried, the students reported that their comfort had increased significantly during the semester. Furthermore, this group of students thought that the quality of this investigative lab experience was much better than that of any of their previous lab experiences.     

A systematic approach to analysing sports performance

A systematic approach to the analysis of sporting events is discussed. The basic tenet is that objective quantification of critical events is required for a complete analysis. This approach encompasses diverse areas of methodology and research, such as quantification, biomechanics and physiology. The theoretical underpinnings are behavioural, in so far as athletes produce observable behaviour that can be quantified and ultimately changed. Several areas of analysis are linked together in a general framework and each one of these areas is dealt with in detail.     

The Effects of Experience on the Detection and Location of Performance Differences in a Gymnastic Technique

Abstract

Four hundred male subjects between the ages of 8 and 83 were measured for reaction time and movement time. A statistical analysis of the data permits the conclusion that reaction time and movement time are significantly related.     

The Effects of Static Stretching and Warm-Up on Prevention of Delayed-Onset Muscle Soreness

Abstract

It has been suggested in the lay literature that static stretching and/or warm-up will prevent the occurrence of Delayed-Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS). The primary purpose of this study was to determine the effects of static stretching and!or warm-up on the level of pain associated with DOMS. Sixty-two healthy male and female volunteers were randomly assigned to four groups: (a) subjects who statically stretched the quadriceps muscle group before a step, (b) subjects who only performed a stepping warm-up, (c) subjects who both stretched and performed a stepping warm-up prior to a step test, and (d) subjects who only performed a step test. The step test (Asmussen, 1956) required subjects to do concentric work with their right leg and eccentric work with their left leg to voluntary exhaustion. Subjects rated their muscle soreness on a ratio scale from zero to six at 24-hour intervals for 5 days following the step test. A 4×2×2 ANOVA with repeated measures on legs and Duncan's New Multiple Range post-hoc test found no difference in peak muscle soreness among the groups doing the step test or for gender (p > .05). There was the expected significant difference in peak muscle soreness between eccentrically and concentrically worked legs, with the eccentrically worked leg experiencing greater muscle soreness. We concluded that static stretching and!or warm-up does not prevent DOMS resulting from exhaustive exercise.     

In search of invariant athletic behaviour in sport: An example from championship squash match‐play

Analysis of competitive sport performance from a priori observation is frequently used to prepare an athlete for a future contest. This practice necessarily assumes that the observed athletic behaviours are invariant, in that the data from an earlier contest apply to the next. We report different analyses of championship squash matches from 1987 and 1988 in search of such invariance and thus a general signature of athletic behaviour. The results show that once the preceding condition to an athletic response (shot) becomes more detailed, by either accounting for where on court the previous shot was played to, or by pairing the previous shot with its own antecedent, the corresponding response becomes more predictable (P > 0.25). This is especially the case for a squash champion when the forehand and backhand characteristics of his shot response are accounted for. The finding that the champion is more consistent if his forehand and backhand shot responses to a preceding shot are analysed separately, shows that the level of analytic detail is an important consideration if the derived information from sport analysis is to prepare an athlete reliably for future sport competition. Finally, we consider sport competition from an ecological perspective with regard to the natural organization and stability of non‐linear systems in an attempt to explain the empirical data.     

Analysis and modification of verbal coaching behaviour: The usefulness of a data‐driven intervention strategy

This study tested a computer‐aided coaching analysis instrument (CAI) as part of an intervention strategy designed to modify verbal coaching behaviour. Four coaches were observed and analysed over 12 practice sessions. Coaches A, B and C received intervention feedback through CAI data, where selected behaviours were highlighted for discussion, and videotape images were used to illustrate discussion points. Coach D was provided with videotapes of his own performance and told to formulate and implement any of his own recommendations. The CAI data are primarily quantitative, so target values were created for the different dimensions of verbal behaviour. This benefited the coaches in interpreting their effectiveness and provided a reference to evaluate the magnitude of change. Written journals and audiotape recordings were also used to promote insight into the complexity of verbal behaviour and the ‘human factors’ (e.g. relationship with players, attitude to researcher) that affect behaviour modification.

Instructional effectiveness was assessed by time‐series analysis. There was evidence from each behaviour dimension that change can occur and be maintained as a result of exposure to the CAI intervention strategy. However, this is clearly contingent upon the coach understanding what is asked of him or her, and remains focused and committed to changing these particular behaviours. The analysis of Coach D's behavioural change suggests there are limitations to the sensitivity of discretionary viewing, as only two dimensions of behaviour were identified for, and resulted in, positive change. The results of this study provide support for Locke's (1984) contention that behaviour modification can occur by using data as direct feedback, as reinforcement and as information in the form of recommendations. However, the study also illuminates several factors that can negate the modification and maintenance of verbal coaching behaviour.     

You betcha it's random: riffle shuffling in cards games – when is enough,enough?

When playing card games, how many times should a deck be shuffled in order to achieve randomness? This article shows how card shuffling can be used as a classroom exercise to reinforce construction and interpretation of confidence intervals.     

Engaging MSW Students in Faculty Research: Students’ Perspectives of Involvement in a Program Evaluation

Engaging social work students in research is challenging, in part, because of the way research is taught in the classroom and the need for learners to effectively develop connections between the “abstract world” of research concepts with the “real world” of professional experiences. This article describes the experiences of graduate social work students involved in a process and outcome evaluation of a community-based program. Analysis of student learning outcomes and the team-based model used to engage students in the evaluation are provided to put forth a paradigm of teaching social work research through direct, supervised, and collaborative engagement.