2018 – Page 3 – The Sport Journal

An Investigation of Youth Football Players’ Participation Motivations and Health Related Behaviors

Authors: Zhenhao Zeng, Andria Cuello, Jonathan Skelly, Christopher Gigliello, Steven Riveras

Corresponding Author:
P.I. Zhen Hao Zeng, D.P.E. Professor of Sport Pedagogy
Department of Kinesiology, Brooklyn College of
The City University of New York, USA
hzeng@brooklyn.cuny.edu
718-951-5014

Zhen Hao (Howard) Zeng is an associate professor of the Department of Kinesiology at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York, USA. He has a doctoral degree in physical education and sport pedagogy; his fields of study are youth sports, teaching strategies in physical education and sports.

An Investigation of Youth Football Players’ Participation Motivations and Health Related Behaviors

ABSTRACT
Scientific studies investigating youth athletes have become increasingly broader and deeper since the first Youth Olympic Summer Games in 2010. This study examined the motivation factors that actually inspired the youth football athletes (YFAs) engaged in football practices and competitions and their health-related behaviors. Participants were 223 YFAs (age 16-18) from 10 high schools of New York City, USA. Adapted Questionnaire of Football Athlete’s Motivation and Health Related Behaviors (AQFAMHRB) was employed for data collection. The AQFAMHRB contains 19 questions examining participants’ motivation factors (MFs) and 27 questions investigating health-related behaviors. Data analysis included a 2 Supports (By-parents, By-school) x 2 Goal-Settings (For professional, For non-professional) MANOVA and other suitable methods. The top three scores from the 19 MFs from the AQSAMHRB were: “High technical-content” of Football, “For develop unique skill”, and “For shape body”, all three of these MFs are in the ‘Intrinsic motivation’ category and possess higher impact power on these YFAs’ participation motivation. The 2 x 2 MANOVA revealed that: no significant difference exists in the ‘Supports’ aspect (p >.70); however, significant difference was found in ‘Goal-settings’ (p < .00). Then a follow-up MANOVA determined: 13 out of 19 MFs comparisons in “Goal-settings” showed significant difference (p <. 05) with ‘For professional’ scored higher than ‘For non-professional’. The following MFs possess higher impact on YFAs: ‘to contest winners’, ‘to become a professional player’, ‘to establish prestige’, and ‘to become a coach’. Besides, both intrinsic and extrinsic MFs have significant impact on these YFAs’ motivations. Who “Support” their engagement is not the determinant but what goals the YFAs have set-up for themselves matter. Furthermore, to the 27 health-related behaviors in the AQSAMHRB, frequency and percentage data were summarized and analyzed. Findings from this aspect provided the first hand information about the YFAs’ ‘Eating Habits’, ‘Nutrition Knowledge and Status’, ‘Risk Behaviors’, and ‘Hygiene Behaviors’. These features of the YFAs’ health-related behaviors possess important meanings for improving YFAs’ coaching and management. (more…)

U.S. Sports Academy2018-10-01T08:21:48-05:00October 18th, 2018|Sports Studies and Sports Psychology|Comments Off

Playing with Pain: Social Class and Pain Reporting among College Student-Athletes

Author: James N. Druckman

Corresponding Author:
Department of Political Science
Northwestern University
601 University Place
Evanston, IL 60208
Phone: 847-491-7450
Fax: 847-491-8985
druckman@northwestern.edu

Jacob E. Rothschild
(JacobRothschild2014@u.northwestern.edu)
Department of Political Science
Northwestern University
601 University Place
Evanston, IL 60208
Phone: 847-491-7450
Fax: 847-491-8985

Playing with Pain: Social Class and Pain Reporting among College Student-Athletes

ABSTRACT
Socio-economic class affects a variety of health outcomes – this includes the experience of pain. Little work, however, explores how class affects pain experiences of college student-athletes. This gap is notable given injuries frequently occur in this population. We argue that lower class student-athletes will ironically be more likely to experience pain but less likely to report it. We find evidence for this claim with a large survey of student-athletes from a major National College Athletic Association conference. We further present evidence that class may influence pain reporting via identity, experiential, and social pathways. Our results highlight how potentially vulnerable student-athletes may “play with pain.” The findings also suggest that practitioners should pay particular attention to self-reports of pain by lower class student-athletes.
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U.S. Sports Academy2018-08-30T16:40:58-05:00October 11th, 2018|Sports Medicine|Comments Off

The impact of relative age on sampling and performance in Swedish age-group swimming system

Authors: Torsten Buhre and Oscar Tschernij

Corresponding Author:
Torsten Buhre, PhD
Department of Sport Sciences
Malmö University
20506 Malmö
Sweden
+46-40-665845
torsten.buhre@mah.se

Torsten Buhre is the senior physiologist at the Department of Sport Sciences at Malmö University

The impact of relative age on sampling and performance in Swedish age-group swimming system

ABSTRACT
The phenomena of relative age effect (RAE) has been investigated thoroughly in the sport and school settings. However, different measures and research designs have been applied in the various settings. At the same time different constructs, such as sampling, participation, and performance have been investigated in separate studies. Most interpretations have been done in a de-contextualized manner. That is, results have not been interpreted based on the functioning of the age-grouping system over time, but rather on a general level of grouping individuals based on chronological age. The purpose of this study was to investigate the occurrence of RAE in sampling, competitive participation, and selection for national competition in the Swedish age-group swimming system based on a thorough understanding of the specific impacts of age and gender of this system over time.

Results show that there is inconclusive evidence suggesting that RAE occurs due to the age-grouping system in Swedish swimming. The system does not create a bias based on either relative age difference or gender. Based on this study and future suggestions the continued research on RAE should be expanded to include longitudinal studies following specific age by gender groups over time. In addition, measures of performance and criteria of selection should be investigated in order to draw conclusions if systematic discrimination is embedded within a specific country and sport age-grouping system in favor of athletes that could be attributed to a relative age.
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U.S. Sports Academy2018-10-22T15:24:56-05:00September 30th, 2018|Research, Sports Studies and Sports Psychology|Comments Off

Pep Guardiola and Manchester City, 2017-2018: A Case Study

Authors: Jeff Segrave, Tim Spenser, and Kevin Santos

Corresponding Author:
Jeffrey O. Segrave, PhD
Department of Health and Human Physiological Sciences
Skidmore College
Saratoga Springs, NY 12966
jsegrave@skidmore.edu
518-580-5388

Jeff Segrave is professor of health and human physiological sciences at Skidmore College, Saratoga Spring, New York, USA.

ABSTRACT
The purpose of this paper is to offer a case study of Pep Guardiola and Manchester City’s 2017-2018 historic season. More specifically, the paper examines how, from a tactical perspective, the Premier League became suited to Pep’s style and leadership, prior to and upon his arrival, analyzes the tactical framework of City’s style of play, and looks at the players who realized Pep’s philosophy. When analyzing Pep’s system and style of coaching, we look at positionality of possession with purpose, aspects of distribution, and transitioning and pressing.
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U.S. Sports Academy2018-09-28T13:44:51-05:00September 27th, 2018|Commentary, Research, Sports Coaching|Comments Off

Church & Sport in Alabama

Authors: Joseph C. Spears, Jr., Erica Hernandez, Ph.D.

Corresponding Author:
Joseph C. Spears, Jr., Ed. D
Assistant Professor Sport Management
Faculty Athletic Representative
Bowie State University
15402 General Lafayette Blvd
Brandywine, MD 20613
Phone: (301) 860-3778
jcspears@bowiestate.edu

Dr. Joseph C. Spears, Jr. is an assistant professor of Sport Management at both Bowie State and Liberty Universities. At Bowie State, he also serves as faculty athletic rep and chaplain of the football team. Dr. Spears has an Ed.D in sports management from the United States Sports Academy and has completed a masters in higher education from Morgan State, a masters in divinity from Virginia Union and a B.A degree in Christian education from Logos Christian. College. Dr. Spears understands the need and importance of developing families and communities spiritually, socially and economically. To that end, Dr. Spears utilizes sports as a framework to partner with other community organizations and leaders to provide educational and informational programs that promote the well-being of the entire community. His sports background is long-distance road, trail running, and mountain biking and boxing.

Dr. Erica Hernandez is an assistant professor of psychology at Bowie State University. She earned an M.A. and Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology from the University of Southern Mississippi. Dr. Hernandez has been teaching psychology for over 10 years and has research interests in a variety of areas spanning psychology, education, and finance.

Church & Sport in Alabama

ABSTRACT
Can a Sports Ministry program positively impact the church’s mission among its members? Previous research with commitment theory in psychology as it relates to sports and religious activity (2, 19) indicates that what benefits that church members get out of attending church activities will impact their frequency of attendance and commitment to their church. Sports activities have long been used as a tool to bring people into the church and increase fellowship and evangelism (11). To date, there has been little empirical research into the specific benefits of a sports ministry in the opinion of the church leaders who have sports activities in their church.
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