Community sport and social inclusion: international perspectives

Abstract

This opening article examines the relationship between community sport and social inclusion in research and practice. We discuss the notion of community sport, its multifarious meanings and diverse applications in different parts of the world. We further explore the conceptual and practical links between community sport and different conceptions of social inclusion. In doing so, the article draws together key themes, issues and debates addressed in the collection of articles in this special issue. We conclude by formulating implications and directions for future research and practice.     

田径表演赛可行性探析

随着科技水平的发展，电视、多媒体网络等各种传播媒介的迅速发展，体育产业的迅速崛起，人们生活质量的提高、财富的积累，使得人们对体育的诉求也在不断的发生着变化。各种体育赛事逐步融入了表演赛，来扩大本项运动的国际影响力。由于体育明星效应，使得一些体育运动在国内一度掀起过高潮。那么，我们可以借鉴这种市场化的操作方式，从宏观的角度论述田径表演赛，通过明星效应，结合市场管理的方法，提升对田径运动兴趣，加大对田径运动知识的了解、认识，从而起到缓解瓶颈期学校体育中田径常年不受学生青睐的尴尬局面，迎来田径发展新“春天”。     

我国青年阶段篮球竞赛体系现状分析及发展研究

随着高校篮球赛事的发展与繁荣,原有的青年联赛受到了冲击,我国青少年篮球人才的培养模式处在了一个转型期,并伴随着诸多问题与困惑。如何协调各联赛间的关系,加速培养目标的实现,是现阶段我国青年篮球人才培养面临的一大课题。本文在大量文献资料分析及走访专家的基础上,提出了我国青年阶段篮球竞赛体系今后发展的思路和构想。     

体育舞蹈对培养大学女生体育兴趣的探究

围绕大学女生对体育的认识、理解、参与、情感投入和媒体宣传的关注等．对湖南城市学院和华东师范大学两所高校不同专业女学生进行问卷调查。结果显示这些大学女生的体育行为与运动项目存在着差距，对此提出了改革措施与建议．     

Evaluation of an anti-doping intervention for adolescents: Findings from a school-based study

The present study investigated the effectiveness of a school-based intervention in promoting an anti-doping culture in adolescents. Participants were 218 high school students attending Health Education programs in Greek secondary education. Students completed a questionnaire including measures of attitudes towards nutritional supplement and doping use, social norms and norm salience, and values and harms of sport. The intervention consisted of 10 teaching units focusing on the health, moral, social and psychological aspects of nutritional supplement and doping use. The results showed that intervention group participants reported significantly weaker attitudes towards doping use, and increased norm salience. Health was ranked as the most important value of sport in both intervention and control groups, and doping use was ranked as the most important threat to the integrity of sport in the intervention group. The findings are discussed with respect to policy making and the role of school-based interventions in promoting an anti-doping culture in young people.     

Young people's perspectives of parent volunteerism in community youth sport

This interpretive study sought to critically examine young people's subjective meanings and experiences related to parent volunteerism in community youth sport. Using a constant comparative method of data analysis, the perspectives of 19 participants from 7 different family units (9 sons and 10 daughters) in Ontario, Canada were examined. The findings call attention to the gendered importance of fathers in highly visible volunteer roles (e.g., coach, game announcer) and the lack of recognition or appreciation for mothers’ formal volunteer roles (e.g., assistant coach, league's board of directors) as well as informal volunteer roles (e.g., fundraiser). Moments of conflict in relation to peer groups as well as siblings and the potential for volunteerism to enhance a sense of connection through moments of togetherness and skill development are also emphasized.     

In pursuit of becoming a senior coach: the learning culture for Australian Football League coaches

Background and Purpose: Given the turbulent and highly contested environment in which professional coaches work, a prime concern to coach developers is how coaches learn their craft. Understanding the learning and development of senior coaches (SCs) and assistant coaches (ACs) in the Australian Football League (AFL – the peak organisation for Australian Rules Football) is important to better develop the next generation of performance coaches. Hence the focus of this research was to examine the learning of SC and AC in the AFL. Fundamental to this research was an understanding that the AFL and each club within the league be regarded as learning organisations and workplaces with their own learning cultures where learning takes place. The purpose of this paper was to examine the learning culture for AFL coaches.

Method: Five SCs, 6 ACs, and 5 administrators (4 of whom were former coaches) at 11 of the 16 AFL clubs were recruited for the research project. First, demographic data were collected for each participant (e.g. age, playing and coaching experience, development and coach development activities). Second, all participants were involved in one semi-structured interview of between 45 and 90 minutes duration. An interpretative (hierarchical content) analysis of the interview data was conducted to identify key emergent themes.

Results: Learning was central to AFL coaches becoming a SC. Nevertheless, coaches reported a sense of isolation and a lack of support in developing their craft within their particular learning culture. These coaches developed a unique dynamic social network (DSN) that involved episodic contact with a number of respected confidantes often from diverse fields (used here in the Bourdieuian sense) in developing their coaching craft. Although there were some opportunities in their workplace, much of their learning was unmediated by others, underscoring the importance of their agentic engagement in limited workplace affordances.

Conclusion: The variety of people accessed for the purposes of learning (often beyond the immediate workplace) and the long time taken to establish networks of supporters meant that a new way of describing the social networks of AFL coaches was needed; DSN. However, despite the acknowledged utility of learning from others, all coaches reported some sense of isolation in their learning. The sense of isolation brought about by professional volatility in high-performance Australian Football offers an alternative view on Hodkinson, Biesta and James' attempt in overcoming dualisms in learning.     

Eating disorder prevention initiatives for athletes: A review

A substantial amount of evidence suggests that collegiate and elite athletes involved in weight-sensitive sports are at greater risk of developing eating disorders (EDs) than the general population. With the limited effectiveness of treatment for EDs, prevention of EDs has been broadly considered in the literature. The present paper reviewed the existing literature on ED prevention programmes for athletes in order to determine the current status of prevention programmes and recommend future directions. The available literature suggests that selective, primary interventions with multiple targets and an interactive multimodal approach appear most effective. Current challenges in the field, including lack of longitudinal research, hesitation by the sport community to be involved in ED research and poor cross-field communication and collaboration, are also explored. The lack of dissemination of evidence-based prevention programmes and the simultaneous promotion of prevention programmes that have not yet been empirically examined are also discussed. Based on these observations future directions are recommended.     

Inter-participant variability in daily physical activity and sedentary time among male youth sport footballers: independent associations with indicators of adiposity and cardiorespiratory fitness

Participation in youth sport is assumed to promote and contribute towards more physically active lifestyles among children and adolescents. The aim of this study was to examine inter-participant variability in objectively measured habitual physical activity (PA) behaviours and sedentary time among youth sport participants and their implications for health. One-hundred-and-eighteen male youth sport footballers (Mean ± s = 11.72 ± 1.60) wore a GT3X accelerometer for 7 days. Average daily PA [min · day^?1, in light (LPA), moderate (MPA), vigorous (VPA) and combined moderate-to-vigorous (MVPA)] and sedentary time were calculated. Participants’ body mass index adjusted for age and sex (BMI–standard deviation score), per cent body fat (BF%), waist circumference and cardiorespiratory fitness were assessed. Results revealed that variability in daily PA behaviours and sedentary time (min · day^?1) was associated with BMI–standard deviation score [VPA (?), MVPA (?)], BF% [sedentary time (+), VPA (?), MVPA (?)], waist circumference [sedentary time (+), LPA (?)] and cardiorespiratory fitness [sedentary time (?), MPA (+), VPA (+), MVPA (+)]. Whilst sedentary time and MVPA were not related to health outcomes independent of one another, associations with markers of adiposity and cardiorespiratory fitness were stronger for sedentary time. Sedentary time was also significantly positively related to waist circumference independent of VPA. Results demonstrate inter-participant variability in habitual PA and sedentary time among youth sport participants which holds implications for their health. Thus, promoting PA and, in particular, reducing sedentary time may contribute towards the prevention of adverse health consequences associated with a physically inactive lifestyle for children and adolescents active in the youth sport context.