Force transducer system for measurement of ice hockey skating force

The purpose of this study was to develop a portable force measurement system for ice hockey skating. The system consisted of three strain gauge pairs affixed to an ice hockey skate’s blade holder with wire leads connected to a microprocessor controlled data acquisition device carried in a backpack worn by the skater. The configuration of the strain gauges simultaneously determined the vertical and medial–lateral force components experienced by the blade holder with a resolution accuracy of 1.9 N and a coefficient of variation of 9.2%. On-ice testing of this system with subjects performing forward start, acceleration, and constant velocity skating permitted unencumbered, natural movement and demonstrated clear, unambiguous signal responses, high trial-to-trial repeatability, and easy data retrieval. The practicality and accuracy of this testing approach have many applications, such as a quantitative tool for skating force assessment to aid athletes and coaches, as well as providing the means to examine other skill-specific dynamics.     

Starting with a clean slate: An analysis of member identification with a new sports team

Soccer in Australia underwent a series of changes following a Federal Government inquiry into its future. A report into the Structure, Governance and Management of Soccer in Australia (2003) recommended a process of structural change, aimed at repositioning and re-branding soccer as association football. The restructure yielded the replacement of the National Soccer League with the A-League, five new Australian teams and a concerted attempt to separate soccer from its ethnic ties in the antipodes. This paper examines member identification in relation to a specific A-League club’s members. Using the Sports Spectator Identity Scale (Wann & Branscombe, 1993) to measure sport fan identity in a new team context, a survey of club members of Sydney FC (n = 510), was undertaken. Survey findings indicated that members of Sydney FC reported relatively strong team identification in the first year of the new competition, with some nuanced differences based on age and income. The SSIS demonstrated a good level of fit in relation to a new sports team, although it is evident that rivalries and identification with a new team need time to develop fully.     

Understanding the role of shaft stiffness in the golf swing

Theoretically, shaft stiffness can alter shot distance by increasing clubhead speed or altering clubhead orientation at impact. A 3D forward dynamics model of a golfer and flexible club simulated the downswing. A genetic algorithm optimized the coordination of the model’s muscles (four torque generators) to maximize clubhead speed. The maximum torque output and maximum rate of torque development from the torque generators were varied to simulate the swing of golfers that generate different clubhead speeds. Four shafts of varying stiffness (flexible, regular, stiff, and completely rigid) were entered into these simulations to examine the role that shaft flexibility had on clubhead speed and orientation at impact. Shaft stiffness was found to have a meaningful effect only on clubhead orientation (dynamic loft and dynamic close) at impact. There was no evidence to support the premise that matching the stiffness properties of the shaft with the golfer would improve clubhead speed.     

The Bottom Line for Education and Training

Because business and industry training has become a major economic investment for the companies that support it, training managers are increasingly called upon to demonstrate that their interventions are not only effective but also cost-effective. This article describes a cost-effective methodology. It points out how cost-effectiveness differs from cost-benefit analysis. The technique combines meta-analytic and simple accounting procedures to yield an index of relative cost-effectiveness of training interventions. Using examples from the schools and corporate training, the authors demonstrate how the analysis can be applied to a large variety of training situations.     

The changing of the sponsorship market

Since the time of state socialism, Hungarian sport has been totally financed by the state. Therefore, Hungarian soccer and sponsorship market is a relatively new and unexplored subject of research in the field of sports sponsorship, as most studies so far have focused on the major European soccer leagues. The main objective of this paper, focusing on the Hungarian soccer sponsorship market, was to evaluate the range of soccer sponsorship objectives and the range of evaluation tools that sponsors use to measure the effectiveness of their sponsorships. A combined approach of qualitative and quantitative research methods served as the methodological foundation of this study. In the quantitative phase, representatives of the sponsor companies (n=103) were asked to rate the importance of the sponsorship objectives and the importance of the evaluation techniques used to measure the effectiveness of their sponsorships. The results of this study have implications for the sports sponsorship industry, the Hungarian soccer club sponsors, and the sport properties too. According to the research results, many of the Hungarian sponsor companies have failed to assess the effectiveness of sponsorship in meeting their objectives. The research can be used to bridge the gap between the theory and practice of soccer sponsorship in Hungary.     

The alpha and split-half reliability of the teacher stress inventory

The internal consistency and split-half reliability of the Teacher Stress Inventory (TSI) was investigated based on data provided by 3,478 teachers, representing 22 individual and two aggregate samples from six states. The data indicate for both the strength and frequency dimensions that the TSI is highly reliable in terms of both its regular and short-form length, and that the two short forms are highly correlated with one another.