Optimised force-velocity training during pre-season enhances physical performance in professional rugby league players

ABSTRACT

The effectiveness of 8-week force-velocity optimised training was assessed in highly trained professional rugby league athletes. Players (age 24 ± 3 years; body mass 94.9 ± 21.6 kg; height 181.3 ± 6.0 cm) were strength-matched and assigned to a force-velocity optimised group (OP; n = 15) or a general strength-power group (GP; n = 14). Tests included 10-m, 20-m sprints, 3 repetition-maximum squat and squat jumps over five load conditions to ascertain vertical force-velocity relationship. ANCOVA revealed there was a group effect for force-velocity deficit (P < 0.001), with the OP two-fold greater than the GP group (OP pre: 51.13 ± 31.42%, post: 62.26 ± 31.45%, GP pre: 33.00 ± 19.60%, post: 31.14 ± 31.45%, P < 0.001). There were further group effects for 3RM squat (OP pre: 151.17 ± 22.95 kg, post: 162.17 ± 24.16 kg, GP pre: 156.43 ± 25.07 kg, post: 163.39 ± 25.39 kg, P < 0.001), peak power (OP pre: 3195 ± 949 W, post: 3552 ± 1033 W, GP pre: 3468 ± 911 W, post: 3591 ± 936 W, P < 0.001), and SJ (OP pre: 39.79 ± 7.80 cm, post: 42.69 ± 7.83 cm, GP pre: 40.44 ± 6.23 cm, post: 41.14 ± 5.66 cm, P < 0.001). Prescribing F-V deficit training is superior for improving physical performance within highly trained RL players.     

Who are We?

This article scrutinises the usage of the words “we”, “us” and “our” by BBC radio journalists when reporting and discussing news and current affairs. By analysing reports and discussions on the “flagship” Radio 4 Today, a daily news programme whose centrality to political and public debate is widely recognised, the article raises substantive questions about clarity, accuracy and impartiality in senior broadcast journalists’ choice of language. In exploring the assumptions which may underlie the invocation, via such language choices, of an implied community, and against the backdrop of the BBC's commitment to impartiality in its Editorial Guidelines, the article identifies numerous recent examples where the choice of words and identifiers can be seen as undermining the BBC's impartiality and which show several of its senior journalists adopting the first-person plural “we” when reporting on matters of public policy. The findings therefore indicate a general need to codify norms which are seen to integrate the need for accuracy as well as impartiality, and for these norms to take into account issues which might at first glance seem to be inconsequential, micro-level features of the journalists’ language. The evidence suggests that more fine-grained guidelines on permissible circumstances for BBC journalists’ usage of “we” and “our” need revising and disseminating in the light of these findings.     

Conflict and the friendship relations of young children

The purpose of this investigation was to compare conflicts occurring between young children and their friends to those occurring between nonfriends. 53 children with a median age of 4 years, 3 months were observed and interviewed to determine who were mutual friends, unilateral associates, or neutral associates. 146 conflicts were also observed. Conflicts between mutual friends, as compared to those occurring between neutral associates: (a) did not occur less frequently, differ in length, or differ in the situations that instigated them, but (b) were less intense, were resolved more frequently with disengagement, and more frequently resulted in equal or partially equal outcomes. Continued socialization was also more likely following conflicts between friends. Conflicts between unilateral associates resembled those between nonfriends, although postconflict interaction resembled that between mutual friends. Conflict resolution strategies favored by friends maximize the likelihood that their interaction and their relationships will continue.     

Coming Back from Disaster: Progress to Date and Next Steps at Elliot Lake Public Library

In this article, I do two things. First, I describe and evaluate progress that has been made to date on implementing five recommendations made by the author to the leadership of Elliot Lake Public Library in 2014, intended to assist in disaster recovery efforts following the destruction of the library in an anthropogenic disaster in 2012. Second, I provide three revised recommendations, this time intended to assist library leadership address some continuing challenges that are preventing the complete recovery of the library, and ultimately, negatively impacting the effectiveness of the library within the community.     

Toward collaborator selection and determination of data ownership and publication authorship in research collaborations

This study examined factors that might affect researchers' willingness to collaborate with a specific researcher and the priorities given to those factors. In addition, it investigated how researchers determined the ownership of collaborative project data and how they determined the order of authorship on collaborative publications in condensed matter physics. In general, researchers rated their intrinsic motivations the highest, such as the quality of ideas a potential collaborator might have and their satisfaction with a past collaboration, followed by their extrinsic motivations, such as the complementary knowledge, skills, or resources the collaborator could provide. In addition, researchers who had a greater number of collaborative projects and researchers who had served as a project PI or co-PI valued the deep-level, personality-related characteristics of a collaborator higher than did those who had not. Younger researchers were more risk averse and more concerned with a collaborator's reputation and the possible cost of a collaboration decision. Additionally, younger researchers indicated more often than older researchers that they did not know whether their project teams followed any rules or norms or engaged in negotiation to determine the order of authorship on collaborative publications.     

University Counselling Service Utilisation by Local and International Students and User Characteristics: A Review

This paper reviews research on students’ usage of university counselling services across countries and their demographic and psychological characteristics. In doing so, emphasis is given to reported distinctions between local and international university students. Utilisation rates, encouraging factors and barriers to utilisation, presenting problems, and methodological problems with existing studies are each examined. The findings suggest that only a minority of between 2% and 4% of university students access such services, with females being more likely to use them than males. International students in particular underutilise these services, and this is primarily due to such students’ preference for seeking help from family or friends over outside sources. When students do seek assistance, their presenting issues most commonly involve symptoms of depression or anxiety, as well as academic and relationship difficulties.     

The antecedents of teacher satisfaction with professional development programs

Literature has shown that on-the-job professional development programs are most beneficial when they are long-term, focused on students’ learning, and linked to the curricula. We hypothesized that the higher the control teachers have over job professional development processes, and the greater the resemblance of these processes to the typical teaching culture in classrooms, the greater the teachers’ satisfaction with job professional development processes. The findings of this study demonstrate that the main factors affecting teachers’ satisfaction with the instructional programs are related to their desire to maintain instructional processes “close to home”, and to shape these processes in accordance with their needs and expectations. The implications of the study are discussed with relation to decision-makers in the school setting and at the local authorities’ level.