Variability in clubhead presentation characteristics and ball impact location for golfers' drives

The purpose of the present study was to analyse the variability in clubhead presentation to the ball and the resulting ball impact location on the club face for a range of golfers of different ability. A total of 285 male and female participants hit multiple shots using one of four proprietary drivers. Self-reported handicap was used to quantify a participant's golfing ability. A bespoke motion capture system and user-written algorithms was used to track the clubhead just before and at impact, measuring clubhead speed, clubhead orientation, and impact location. A Doppler radar was used to measure golf ball speed. Generally, golfers of higher skill (lower handicap) generated increased clubhead speed and increased efficiency (ratio of ball speed to clubhead speed). Non-parametric statistical tests showed that low-handicap golfers exhibit significantly lower variability from shot to shot in clubhead speed, efficiency, impact location, attack angle, club path, and face angle compared with high-handicap golfers.     

Effects of golf shaft stiffness on strain, clubhead presentation and wrist kinematics

The aim of this study was to quantify and explain the effect of shaft stiffness on the dynamics of golf drives. Twenty golfers performed swings with two clubs designed to differ only in shaft bending stiffness. Wrist kinematics and clubhead presentation to the ball were determined using optical motion capture systems in conjunction with a radar device for capturing ball speed, launch angle, and spin. Shaft stiffness had a marginally small effect on clubhead and ball speeds, which increased by 0.45% (p < 0.001) and 0.7% (p = 0.008), respectively, for the less stiff club. Two factors directly contributed to these increases: (i) a faster recovery of the lower flex shaft from lag to lead bending just before impact (p < 0.001); and (ii) an increase of 0.4% in angular velocity of the grip of the lower flex club at impact (p = 0.003). Unsurprisingly, decreases in shaft stiffness led to more shaft bending at the transition from backswing to downswing (p < 0.001). Contrary to previous research, lead bending at impact marginally increased for the stiffer shaft (p = 0.003). Overall, and taking effect sizes into account, the changes in shaft stiffness in isolation did not have a meaningful effect on the measured parameters, for the type of shaft investigated.     

The effects of sodium bicarbonate ingestion on cycling performance and acid base balance recovery in acute normobaric hypoxia

This study investigated the effects of two separate doses of sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO₃) on 4 km time trial (TT) cycling performance and post-exercise acid base balance recovery in hypoxia. Fourteen club-level cyclists completed four cycling TT’s, followed by a 40 min passive recovery in normobaric hypoxic conditions (FiO₂ = 14.5%) following one of either: two doses of NaHCO₃ (0.2 g.kg^?1 BM; SBC2, or 0.3 g.kg^?1 BM; SBC3), a taste-matched placebo (0.07 g.kg^?1 BM sodium chloride; PLA), or a control trial in a double-blind, randomized, repeated-measures and crossover design study. Compared to PLA, TT performance was improved following SBC2 (p = 0.04, g = 0.16, very likely beneficial), but was improved to a greater extent following SBC3 (p = 0.01, g = 0.24, very likely beneficial). Furthermore, a likely benefit of ingesting SBC3 over SBC2 was observed (p = 0.13, g = 0.10), although there was a large inter-individual variation. Both SBC treatments achieved full recovery within 40 min, which was not observed in either PLA or CON following the TT. In conclusion, NaHCO₃ improves 4 km TT performance and acid base balance recovery in acute moderate hypoxic conditions, however the optimal dose warrants an individual approach.     

New Visuality in Art/Science: A Pedagogy of Connection for Cognitive Growth and Creativity

New visuality in art/science pedagogies challenges teachers to rethink their curriculum and the role of digital new media in facilitating conceptual thinking and the role of the creative representation of knowledge. Recent neuroscientific research on cognition, perception, memory, and emotion inform and provoke implications for 21st-century learning. Analysis of student artwork uncovers pedagogical challenges for teachers. Teachers use visual learning and its forms of higher process thinking to allow students to make cognitive connections with images, giving them the capacity to integrate concepts for the communication of art/science learning. Examples of student learning from years 3–5 and 15–17 illustrate these ideas.     

Match-Fixing: Working Towards an Ethical Framework

How does match-fixing, or other unfair manipulation of matches, that involves under-performance by players, or refereeing and umpiring that prevents fair competition, be thought of in ethical terms? In this article, I outline the different forms that match-fixing can take and seek to comprehend these disparate scenarios within Kantian, Hegelian and contractualist ethical frameworks. I tentatively suggest that, by developing an ethical opposition to match-fixing in sport, we can give much greater substance to popular phrases such as ‘respect for the game’, encompassing the value of sport itself and respect for other players, fans, sponsors and organisers. Arguing that match-fixing denies recognition to these ‘others’ demonstrates how fundamentally match-fixing ‘hollows out’ sport because a fixed match is of no worth: the whole value of the game has literally been evacuated.     

Analysis of Open Access Landscape

This paper is created by bounding 5 editorials of Public Library of Science （PLoS） which have written on various aspects of open access. It covers wide range topics of important open access issues, such as from paying for open access to copyright to open access as a public issue, which may be more or less of interest of our audience.     

A call for more mixed methods in sport management research

Despite the popularity and strong advocacy for combining quantitative and qualitative methods, few mixed methods approaches are found in the sport management research. As a result, this article examines the frequency with which mixed methods research has been used in recent sport management research, and demonstrates ways in which mixed methods can help improve the validity of research findings in sport management related topics. Because research in sport management often is concerned with causal questions, this article provides mixed methods designs for improving causal inference. Examples are provided from three areas of sport management research, including marketing, organizational behavior, and finance. The designs that are provided are based on the mixed methods design dimensions of time order and priority of quantitative and qualitative data.