The aim of the present study was to identify volleyball skills that best discriminate between winning and losing in a set with the minimum score difference of men’s and women’s volleyball. The data have been collected for men from 140 and for women from 98 teams’ performances in all sets finished with 2 points difference between the top four teams in the final ranking during the men’s and women’s Greek

The study’s objective was to map ethical positions with regard to the way in which 219 participants (45 non-athletes, 91 amateur athletes, 28 professional athletes, 17 amateur coaches, 8 professional coaches, and 30 physiotherapists) used various informational cues (an athlete’s indispensability for the team, the importance of the competition, the opinion given by sports medicine professionals, and

Pacing is arguably more crucial for optimal performance in swimming than in land-based sports, however little is known about the process of developing pacing skills in swimmers. The aim of this study was to examine the current practices of high-performance swimming coaches in relation to pacing entrainment and competition preparation. Twenty-one swimming coaches who were currently coaching or had coached

This study sought to longitudinally and retrospectively determine the relationship between professional career attainment and the development of anthropometric and physical qualities in junior Australian footballers. Eighty adolescent male Australian footballers from a single state academy previously selected onto an under 16 s talent development squad were classified by career attainment (professional

The construct of care within the coach–athlete relationship has only recently been examined. However, this research has yet to include athletes’ perceptions of caring coaching practice. Thus, the primary purpose of the current study was to examine self-described Christian student-athletes’ perceptions of coach caring practices. Therefore, the guiding research questions were: (a) in what ways do student-athletes

This study aimed to investigate rugby league coaches’ perceptions of physical qualities for current and future performance, while also establishing the training practices of under-16 and under-19 players. Twenty-four practitioners (rugby coach, strength and conditioning coach) working within nine Super League clubs completed a questionnaire. The questionnaire required practitioners to rank eleven physical

This study aimed to determine whether players selected for the under 11 team of a professional youth football academy outperform their deselected peers in physical, technical and gross motor coordination skills, or in psycho-social capacities. Of the young players active at different amateur clubs yearly 2% were scouted to participate at trainings and matches from an academy before the first objective

The present study examined the roles of coaching experience and coach training on coaches’ perceived life skills teaching. Canadian high school sport coaches (N = 1356) completed a demographic questionnaire and the Coaching life skills in sport questionnaire. Results suggested that coaches with more experience perceived themselves to discuss and practice life skills and transfer to a greater extent

The agile footwork is a basic but important skill, how to efficiently grasp and improve its performance has always interested coaches and athletes, beginners particularly. The purpose of this study was to investigate the differences in kinetics and kinematics of the cross step between professional athletes and novice athletes using the Oxford foot model. Twenty-two male participants (professional athletes

The aim of this study was to describe and identify the weight of some key career indicators (KCI) on the competitive level of retirement (professional vs. non-professional) of Portuguese football players. Three thousand five hundred retired Portuguese football players born between 1950 and 1989, and registered on Portuguese Football Federation were considered in this study. Descriptive analysis and

In sports like association football, professional teams are increasingly devoting resources to the role-based development of individual athletes and sub-groups. By employing ‘specialist coaches’ into athlete-support structures, clubs aim to facilitate individualised athlete training programs to enhance performance preparation as well as skill learning and talent development. Here, we discuss how contemporary

According to the constraint-led approach,1–3 motor skill learning can be conceptualized as emerging from a change in the interaction of performer, task and environmental constraints. Consequently, skill learning is not uniquely determined by changes within the performer, but encompasses an improvement in the relationship between performer and environment.1,4 Hence, interventions to promote learning

To determine if training age – rugby league training age, resistance training age and cardiovascular training age – was predictive of changes in physiological performance in developmental rugby league players. Developmental rugby league players from one elite club (n = 147, mean age = 15.8 ± 1.1 years) playing at Under 16 and Under 18 representative levels were tracked longitudinally over two consecutive

Student-athletes may have high stress, and the level of their subjective well-being could be low due to the dual role of being a student and an athlete. In the field of sport psychology, social support has received focal attention to identifying its impact on individuals’ subjective well-being. However, there is a lack of research that focuses on teammate support and subjective well-being. Thus, this

Prior research did not provide data on acute adaptations to changes in saddle height as commonly performed in bicycle fitting. This study assessed the acute responses from recreational cyclists to changes in saddle height using dynamic bicycle fitting. Ten recreational cyclists completed five trials using three saddle heights (Preferred, High and Low), one Sham-height trial and a final repeated trial

The block start and initial steps following block exit are fundamental aspects of sprinting and their development is key to junior athletes’ progression. This study assessed the difference in force production between elite senior (including two sub-10 s 100-m sprinters) and junior academy sprinters during the block phase and the first two steps of a sprint. Thirty-seven male sprinters (17 senior, 20

The hypothesis that sport-specific skill learning is correlated with earlier childhood multi-sport practice experiences was empirically studied among youth soccer players. Fourteen youth soccer coaches (38.1 ± 12.0 years) evaluated 100 youth players (11.8 ± 0.7 years) regarding their progress in soccer-specific skill learning through the course of a one-year season. The players completed a questionnaire

Coaches consider various competencies (e.g. conditioning, nutrition, skills and tactics), when planning sessions, though rarely the impact of menstruation on the efficacy of training and competition performance for athletes. Given the impact menstrual symptoms can have on athletes, the management strategies that athletes may use to minimise any potential impact, and the mechanisms that provide barriers

Due to the nature of rugby, concussions are a frequent occurrence and can go undetected by different stakeholders. Knowledge regarding identification of symptoms, management and prevention of re-injury is crucial for the welfare of players. The aim of the study was to determine the concussion knowledge and attitudes among different community club rugby stakeholders. The study gathered quantitative

There is a trend in soccer to ensure comprehensive player preparation including fitness, technical and tactical, as well as mental aspects. It has been emphasized many times that personality traits (neuroticism, conscientiousness, extraversion) are significant for the effectiveness of performance in soccer. The question of why these relations occur has been considered relatively rarely. Therefore,

Recent performance analysis techniques have attempted to move beyond a narrow focus on game outcomes by considering the game, team, group and individual tactical levels. Goals are decisive in football, yet the extent to which the individual goalkeeper had been studied was unknown. We therefore systematically searched the literature to determine the extent of studies that included actions related to

The ability to accurately project (e.g. throw, kick, hit) an object at high speed is a uniquely human skill, and this ability has become a critical feature of many competitive sports. Nonetheless, in some sports, the target or end-point for a projected object is often not reached because an opponent intercepts or returns the object; thus, a player cannot use object landing location information to inform

The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of the use of bounce on performance in wheelchair tennis. Data pertaining to all the hits on the ball (n = 4021) were recorded from 16 men’s singles professional matches. Performance parameters regarding to players’ skill level (high- and low-ranked) the game situation (players and the serve-return situation), technical-tactical aspects (hitting

Athletes’ optimal training progression can be supported by reliable and valid monitoring tools. This systematic review aims to investigate tools that have been most frequently in the field used by coaches and practitioners of sports of any level. PyscINFO, Scopus, MEDLINE and SPORTDiscus databases were searched. Search terms used include: overreaching, overtraining, recover, fatigue, overload, train;

Previous research has shown no significant differences in time required to reach a base when sliding head-first or feet-first, but few studies have compared running through and sliding into first base in baseball players, and none have included softball players. The purpose of the present study was to examine differences in time required to reach first base when running, sliding head-first, and sliding

Coach developers play essential roles in “coaching the coaches,” and investigating their lifelong learning pathway is key for better understanding the mechanisms that lead certain coaches to become coach developers. Thus, the purpose of the paper was to conduct a case study to investigate the lifelong learning pathway of a coach developer operating in a national sport federation. The case investigated

The aim of this study was two-fold: (i) to identify differences in the game performance profiles of basketball players in Euroleague and European national championships; and (ii) to analyse the influence of player-related (e.g. age or court-position) and contextual variables (e.g. distance travelled or game break) in players’ game-related statistics. Archival data from 2014/2015 and 2015/2016 seasons

This study examined the differences in the bench press one-repetition maximum obtained by three different methods (direct method, lifts-to-failure method, and two-point method). Twenty young men were tested in four different sessions. A single grip width (close, medium, wide, or self-selected) was randomly used on each session. Each session consisted of an incremental loading test until reaching the

Match warm-ups in association football represent well-respected practice in order to prepare and optimise performance. While the structure of warm-ups is commonly studied from a physiological perspective, the skill and performance training approaches influencing warm-ups prior to major professional football competition appear to be particularly underexplored. Using the largely under-researched context

This study aimed to identify the effects of manipulating the ball type in players’ physical, technical, creative and tactical performance in two small-sided games situations: 4-a-side and 6-a-side. There were four conditions: (i) Football, using regular football ball; (ii) Handball, using handball ball; (iii) Rugby, playing with rugby ball, and (d) Mixed, at every 2 min the ball type was randomly changed

Talent development in sport is a comprehensive area of research with various conceptualisations of how the body moves and how skills are developed. The sports coaching environment is often criticised for a lack of evidence-based approaches to talent development, driven by limited access to appropriate sources of information. The current conceptualisation of motor learning, which harnesses dynamical

Tanking, the act of deliberately dropping points or losing a game in order to gain some other advantage, is usually seen as being against the spirit of sports. It can be even more serious if playing a draw is a (weakly) dominant strategy for both teams in a match, since this may lead to collusion. We show that such a situation occurred in a particular football match. As our generalisation reveals,

Conceptualized by youth soccer players, parents, and coaches, the fun integration theory's FUN MAPS identify 11 fun-factors and 81 fun-determinants. The purpose of this study was to conduct a secondary analysis of those data to explore the extent to which the parents (responsible for supporting) and the coaches (tasked with delivering soccer programs) perceived importance of the factors and determinants

The purpose of this study was to evaluate ACTive: Athletic Concussion Training using Interactive Video Education, an interactive e-learning program designed to train community coaches of youth ages 10-18 in effective sports concussion prevention and management practices. Seventy-five youth sports coaches from across the country completed the study over the Internet. Results of a randomized control