Establishing the Test–Retest Reliability & Concurrent Validity for the Repeat Ice Skating Test (RIST) in Adolescent Male Ice Hockey Players

In this study the authors examine the test–retest reliability and concurrent validity of the Repeat Ice Skating Test (RIST). This was an on-ice field anaerobic test that measured average peak power and was validated with 3 anaerobic lab tests: (a) vertical jump, (b) the Margaria–Kalamen stair test, and (c) the Wingate Anaerobic Test. The participants (n?=?14) were 11- to 12-year-old males selected from a Peewee “A” level ice hockey team (Thunder Bay, Canada). The results of the test–retest reliability estimation showed that the RIST was a reliable test at measuring average peak power in watts (R = .99, C.I._95% = 0.97 to 0.99) and watts per kilogram (R = .98, C.I._95% = 0.94 to 0.99). The RIST was also a valid test when correlated with the 3 anaerobic lab tests for measuring peak power in watts: vertical jump (r = .86, C.I._95% = 0.72 to 0.94), Margaria–Kalamen stair test (r = .66, C.I._95% = 0.39 to 0.83) and Wingate Anaerobic Test (r = .86, C.I._95% = 0.72 to 0.93). The test is considered promising because it does not require any specific equipment, and is a sport-specific, on-ice test, that can be administered during a regular ice hockey practice session.     

Tactical proficiency among table tennis players with and without intellectual disabilities

Abstract

The effect of intellectual impairment on sports performance has received limited attention by researchers. As a contribution to closing this gap, the purpose of the present investigation was to examine the differences in tactical proficiency between table tennis players with and without intellectual disabilities (ID). These groups were matched for training-volume and experience and consisted of 41 male (age = 27±8) and 30 female (age= 28±8) elite players with ID and a reference group of 12 male (age= 24±12) and 5 female (age= 20±9) players without ID. In two different test settings – one a World Championship and the other a training camp – the players in each group performed 60 semi-standardised rallies against the same opponent. Players were told that 12 sets of five identical services would be delivered, and their goal was to return the service with the intention of ‘winning the point’. The test results were validated for this study, to compute tactical proficiency scores (maximal score of eight points) for each player. A two-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) revealed significantly lower proficiency scores for players with ID than for those without ID. Repeated-measures ANOVA revealed that within each series of five rallies, starting with identical services, all participants were able to significantly improve their tactical proficiency gradually, but players without ID scored 4.3±0.5 from the first ball on, and while athletes with ID only 3.3±0.7 after five balls. The results of this study indicate that ID is associated with decreased tactical proficiency in table tennis.     

Teamwork in sport: a theoretical and integrative review

A commonly held belief in sports is the need for team members to be able to work well together in order for that team to be successful. Despite this assumption, research in the field of sport psychology has yet to formally or sufficiently conceptualize what is meant by teamwork. In this theoretical and integrative review, we draw from the extant organizational psychology and team development literature to present a multidimensional conceptual framework of teamwork in sport. We provide a working definition of teamwork in sport and discuss how teamwork sits within a broader model of team effectiveness. We conclude by providing an overview of salient research avenues on teamwork and team effectiveness in sport, which have potential implications for guiding interventions with sports teams.     

Especial skill vs. quiet eye duration in basketball free throw: Evidence for the inhibition of competing task solutions

Abstract

The quiet eye (QE) is a gaze phenomenon that has been studied over more than two decades. However, the underlying mechanisms of the well-known expertise effect, namely, longer QE durations in experts when compared to less-skilled athletes remain unclear. Therefore, from a functional perspective, an inhibition hypothesis was proposed that explains long QE durations in experts with increased inhibition requirements over movement parametrisation. This hypothesis was tested by making use of the especial-skill effect in basketball free throw which refers to the observation of higher actual performance than would be predicted on the basis of performance at the nearby locations. In line with the expectations, from the distance of the free-throw line, higher actual than predicted shooting accuracy and longer actual than predicted QE duration were revealed. This suggests that when performing free throws prolonged QE durations are required to shield the optimal against alternative task solutions within the very dense sub-space of this especial skill. These findings suggest an inhibition function of long QE durations in expert athletes.     

Childhood practice and play as determinants of adolescent intrinsic and extrinsic motivation among elite youth athletes

Abstract

The study empirically tested the postulate of the Developmental Model of Sport Participation (DMSP; Côté, J., Baker, J., & Abernethy, B. (2007). Practice and play in the development of sport expertise. In R. Eklund & G. Tenenbaum (Eds.), Handbook of sport psychology (pp. 184–202). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley) that diversified childhood self-led sport play will beneficially affect future, adolescent intrinsic motivation. Participants were 178 elite youth athletes (age 15.3?±?1.5 years) from several game and non-game sports; 117 were members of the federal state or national junior squad in their respective sport. A questionnaire measured current (adolescent) intrinsic and extrinsic motivation of the youth athletes using the Sport Motivation Scale (Pelletier, L. G., Fortier, M. S., Vallerand, R. J., Tuson, K. M., Brière, N. M., & Blais, M. R. (1995). Towards a new measure of intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, and amotivation in sports: The sport motivation scale (SMS). Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology, 17, 35–53) and their earlier volume of childhood engagement (through 12 years) in coach-led practice and self-led play in their respective main sport and other sports. Analyses revealed that adolescent intrinsic motivation was not significantly correlated with earlier childhood self-led sport activities, self-led play in particular, or childhood sports diversification. Furthermore, considering all different types of childhood sport activities together in multiple regression analyses, they did not provide meaningful explanatory power regarding adolescent intrinsic or extrinsic motivation. In summary, the results did not provide support for the postulate of the DMSP among elite youth athletes. The findings suggest that future research may seek to enable more robust empirical substantiation of the DMSP postulate.     

The human factor in the historical development of the media: Israeli sports pages as a case study 1

The current study attempts to present a unique, initial contribution to existing models of communication media's historical development, by calling attention to the parallel processes taking place within the journalist community itself. By means of in-depth interviews with male and female sports journalists in Israel, breakthrough, establishment, defense and adaptation mechanisms to a new journalistic reality can be identified as part of the generational and societal changes that have taken place in the newsroom.     

Olympic Games Legacy: From General Benefits to Sustainable Long-Term Legacy

The purpose of this article is to map and contextualise the evolution of the concept of legacy over time using bid and final report documentation from Olympic Games host and candidate cities. As a result of the increased importance of legacy in the modern Olympic movement, many trends have emerged. Examples of modern trends include numerous new legacy themes (e.g. environmental, information, educational); changes in the types of legacy being emphasised (e.g. closer links to city and regional planning initiatives and legacy sustainability), its increasing complexity and interconnectedness found within the typology of legacies, and legacy's overall governance including major influencers and decision makers.     

‘Too Semitic’ or ‘Thoroughly ‘Anglicised’? The Life and Career of Harold Abrahams

Harold Maurice Abrahams (1899–1978) – the British-Jewish athlete made famous by the film Chariots of Fire – won gold for Britain in the 100 m sprint in the 1924 Paris Olympics. Far from being the ‘outsider’ depicted in Chariots of Fire, however, Abrahams’ ‘Anglicisation’ was extensive and played an important role in his life before, during and after his athletics career. Abrahams’ integration went hand-in-hand with his sporting success – something which was celebrated by British Jewry. Such was his assimilation, that by 1936 – a year when Abrahams courted controversy over his stance on the Berlin Olympics – he was criticised for having ‘lost’ all attachment to the community of his birth. In contrast to the film, where Abrahams is seen to be ‘too Semitic’, the Bedford athlete was actually ‘thoroughly Anglicised’. A desire to move into or support middle-to-upper class British society characterised Abrahams’ personal and sporting life much more so than his Jewishness. As time progressed, Abrahams’ Jewish origins meant less and less, both to Harold himself and to those around him.     

In the Shadow of Myron: The Impact of the Discobolus on Representations of Olympic Sport from Victorian Britain to Contemporary China

Without doubt, the most famous and instantly recognisable work of art associated with the Olympic Games is Myron's Discobolus. Originally produced in bronze in the fifth century BC, the work is now known primarily through later Roman copies in marble, discovered in Italy during the eighteenth century. Whilst much has been written about the Discobolus as an exemplar of antique art, less attention has been paid to the reception of the work in the modern era. Accordingly, this article shifts attention to the impact made by Myron's work in visual culture produced during the period of the modern Olympic Games; that is from the late nineteenth century to the present day. From Victorian public sculptures, to official Olympic films and posters, and even contemporary art produced for the Beijing Games of 2008, Myron's work has continued to cast an influential shadow over art practices related to the Games themselves, as it has been adopted, adapted and transformed to signify a host of new and frequently diverse meanings. The prominent display of the work at the British Museum in London during the Games of 2012 offers testimony to the work's enduring legacy and its relevance for spectators of the present day.     

Mobilising the Modern Industrial Landscape for Sports and Leisure in the Early Twentieth Century

By the 1930s, it was common for large corporations to construct recreation parks for employee sports and other outdoor leisure activities. These were designed according to developing theories of sports and recreation and the kinds of recreation space required for modern industrial nations. Some companies provided recreation grounds for their employees of a similar or superior scale and sophistication to those provided by municipal authorities, including state-of the art pavilions and swimming pools, pleasure gardens and picnic areas. In Britain and the USA, from 1890–1940 the park designs of two companies – Cadbury Brothers at Bournville, UK and the National Cash Register Company, Dayton, Ohio, USA – became role models for the development of corporate recreation and industrial sports that remained influential through the 1960s. Landscape architects added value to the companies by creating useful and effective recreation parks. These parks were modern in that they served the more leisured societies of modern industrial nations in a rational way. The design, construction and maintenance of these parks also reveals that industrial sports policies in Britain and the USA made a distinctive and significant contribution to the industrial landscape as well as to the sporting ‘revolution’ of the period.