The effects of an unanticipated side-cut on lower extremity kinematics and ground reaction forces during a drop landing

Unanticipated direction to cut after landing may alter the lower extremity landing biomechanics when performing landing motions. These alterations may potentially increase the risk of ACL injury. The purpose of this study was to determine if an unanticipated side-cut affects lower extremity landing biomechanics in females. Eighteen recreational female athletes participated in two blocks of testing: the first block of testing consisted of three acceptable trials of anticipated dominant limb and non-dominant limb 45-degree diagonal cutting after landing, which were performed in a counterbalanced order. The second block of testing consisted of three acceptable trials of unanticipated dominant limb and non-dominant limb diagonal cutting after landing. Data analysis mainly focused on the dominant limb landing biomechanics. Unanticipated side-cut landing, compared (paired t-test, p < 0.05) to the anticipated landings, resulted in less hip abduction and tibial internal rotation angle at initial contact (IC) and a lower maximum ankle inversion angle and a greater maximum knee abduction angle, and knee and hip displacement. Also, greater posterior GRF and a longer time to peak medial GRF were exhibited. These outcomes indicate that athletes may adapt their landing mechanics to land unsafely when encountering an unanticipated event.     

Para-adventure: a hyper-dynamic problem for the inclusive coach

Recent research has recognized sports coaching as complex, chaotic and cognitively taxing for coaches. Against this backdrop, the present paper explores challenges faced by high-level coaches working with disabled performers. Specifically, it seeks to understand how coaches create mental models of performance in adventure sports and para-canoe. Five coaches were purposively sampled and underwent a semi-structured interview. A thematic analysis revealed conceptualizing the mental model as being mechanically related for all and as including a social construction within the para-canoe coaches. Reflection on the coaching process and on personal characteristics were perceived as important to individualized inclusive coaching. Coach training should particularly emphasize the need for critical judgement and decision-making skills within a similarly oriented social structure of coaches and support staff where applicable.     

The Use of Structure Coefficients to Address Multicollinearity in Sport and Exercise Science

A common practice in general linear model (GLM) analyses is to interpret regression coefficients (e.g., standardized β weights) as indicators of variable importance. However, focusing solely on standardized beta weights may provide limited or erroneous information. For example, β weights become increasingly unreliable when predictor variables are correlated, which is often the case in the social sciences. To address this issue, structure coefficients, which are simply the bivariate correlation between a predictor and the synthetic ? variable, should also be interpreted. By examining β weights and structure coefficients in conjunction, the predictive worth of each independent variable can be more accurately judged. Despite this benefit, researchers in the field of sport and exercise science have rarely reported structure coefficients when conducting multiple regression analysis. Thus, the purpose of the present article is to discuss problems associated with the sole interpretation of β weights and to demonstrate how structure coefficients can be incorporated to improve accuracy of interpretation. Additionally, a content analysis was conducted to examine current trends in reporting multiple regression results within sport and exercise science research.     

Boxing: from male vocation to neurotic masculinity

This paper explores the cultural significance of boxing in its relationship to concepts and practices of masculinity, recently much discussed, but here reviewed specifically in European and American literary texts from the end of the nineteenth to the end of the twentieth centuries. Focussing on key moments of change in boxing’s significance in relation to male vocation, the paper will in particular investigate the extent to which literary responses to the sport cast light on the crisis masculinity has undergone since the start of the twentieth century. Changing attitudes to boxing will thus be interpreted as symptoms of modification in the concept and practice of manliness, successively from boxing as rite of passage, as profession or occupation, as idea, as fantasy and finally as image or neurosis. This evolution will be traced successively in four early twentieth-century European literary writers: Maurice Maeterlinck (first decade), Arthur Cravan (second decade), Robert Musil (third decade), and Malcolm Lowry (fourth decade). Little studied to date in this context, these writers together provide evidence of symptoms that will subsequently be clarified by contemporary American authors, whether of fiction (Chuck Palahniuk) or of socio-psychological study (Gerald Early, Carlos Rotella).     

Professionals under stress: A review of burnout among the helping professions with implications for school psychologists

Based upon a review of the literature regarding burnout among the helping professions, this article discusses organizational, interpersonal, and intrapersonal conditions that may create or exacerbate problems of burnout among school psychologists. Suggestions for coping with burnout in school settings are presented. The need for a research agenda related to burnout among school psychologists is underscored.     

A framework to determine when the school psychologist should counsel

The major goal of this paper is to identify a “five-level framework of psychological adjustment” specifically for use by school psychologists. The levels range from one of excellent adjustment to severe psychopathology. The school psychologist is guided toward interaction with clients based on a differential scale of adjustment.