Research – Page 27 – The Sport Journal

Factors Triggering Pressure on Basketball Coaches’ In-Game Decision-Making

Authors: E. Nicole McCluney, Bryan A. McCullick, Paul G. Schempp

Corresponding Author: Bryan A. McCullick, Ph. D.
355 Ramsey Center
Department of Kinesiology
University of Georgia
Athens, GA 30602
bamccull@uga.edu
706-542-3621

E. Nicole McCluney is a doctoral candidate at the University of Georgia. Bryan A. McCullick is a Professor in the Department of Kinesiology at the University of Georgia. Paul G. Schempp is a Professor in the Department of Kinesiology at the University of Georgia.

Factors Triggering Pressure on Basketball Coaches’ In-Game Decision-Making

ABSTRACT
High-stakes decision-making has been long studied in psychology and business, however, scholars have only recently begun to focus attention towards this type of decision-making in the coaching field. Coaches make a multitude of decisions many of which may be high-stakes (22), but there has yet to be an empirical investigation of coaches’ in-game decision-making under pressure. The purpose of this study was to determine which performance-related factors (stressors) create the greatest pressure (strain) on basketball coaches’ in-game decision-making. Male and female basketball coaches (N=205) with an average of 19.77 years’ experience were asked to separately rate 14 stressors based on whether it caused intense (1), moderate (2), or low (3) pressure on in-game decision making. Descriptive statistics were calculated to determine which stressors caused intense, moderate, and low pressure on coaches’ in-game decision making for the entire sample and based on gender, years of experience, current coaching position, educational level, gender of athletes coaching, and level of athletes coaching. Stressors rated as creating the most intense pressure on these coaches’ in-game decision-making were Expectations of Self, Importance of Eventual Outcome, and Quality of Preparation. The stressors rated as creating low pressure were Others’ Expectations, Venue, and Your Physical Well-Being. Coaching position, gender of coach, years of experience, and the gender of athletes coaching, all rated Expectations of Self, Quality of Preparation and Importance of Eventual Outcome as the stressors creating the most intense pressure. The level of athletes being coached yielded a minor difference as more high-school level coaches rated Amount of Preparation as creating intense pressure as opposed to college coaches who rated Importance of Eventual Outcome as creating intense pressure in their in-game decision-making. The results provide some of the first data regarding which factors create the most pressure on coaches’ in-game decision-making. Differences between high-school and college coaches may be indicative that the type of decision, whether high-stakes or not, significantly impacts the level of pressure experienced by coaches during competition. These data are important as they can provide guidance to researchers in how to design studies of coaches’ pressurized, in-game decision-making processes.
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U.S. Sports Academy2018-05-24T14:17:21-05:00June 28th, 2018|Research, Sports Coaching|Comments Off

Update in Attitudes Towards Wage Equality in Gendered Professions

Author: Emily Dane-Staples

Corresponding Author:
Dr. Emily Dane-Staples
3690 East Avenue
Rochester, New York, 14618
Phone: 585-899-3803
Fax: 585-385-7311
edane-staples@sjfc.edu

Emily Dane-Staples, PhD is an Associate Professor of Sport Studies in the School of Arts & Sciences at St. John Fisher College in Rochester, New York

Update in Attitudes Towards Wage Equality in Gendered Professions

ABSTRACT
Employment research has asked diverse questions about job satisfaction, gender appropriate work, wage and compensation satisfaction and parity, and advancement. Most existing research has explored gender discrimination in traditional professions such as engineering, law, education, and medicine; notably absent is the billion dollar industry of sport. This research sought to remedy that shortcoming by exploring attitudes towards wage equality across gender for eight different professions, including coaching positions and that of a professional athlete. Survey results found that most respondents were in favor of wage equality across all professions, but the sport professions showed the greatest amount of variation. Differences in attitude were attributed to a respondent’s gender, personal sport participation, and gender majority of the profession they would be entering. Additionally, qualitative responses indicated that revenue/profit factors and outcome-based considerations were influential in making attitude determinations.
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U.S. Sports Academy2018-05-25T15:35:00-05:00June 19th, 2018|Research, Sports Studies and Sports Psychology|Comments Off

The effects of Perceptual-Cognitive training on Subjective Performance in Elite Athletes

Authors: F. Moen1, M. Hrozanova2, and A. M. Pensgaard3

Centre for Elite Sports Research, Department of Education and Lifelong Learning, Faculty of Social and Educational Sciences, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway, 2Centre for Elite Sports Research, Department of Neuromedicine and Movement Science, Faculty of Medicine and Health Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway, 3Department of Coaching and Psychology, The Norwegian School of Sport Sciences, Oslo, Norway

Corresponding Author:
Frode Moen
E-mail address: frode.moen@ntnu.no
Tel. : +47 932 487 50
Postal address: Department of Education and Lifelong Learning
Norwegian University of Science and Technology
N-7491 Trondheim, Norway

Frode Moen is currently the head manager of the Norwegian Olympic Sports Center in the Mid-Norway region, where he also has a position as a coach / mental trainer for elite athletes and coaches. He also is an associate professor at the Department of Lifelong Learning and Education at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. He previously has worked as a teacher in high school where sport was his major subject, and he has been a coach for the national team in Nordic combined in Norway for several years. Frode received his Ph. D. in coaching and performance psychology from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. His research focuses mainly on coaching in business, coaching in sport, communication, performance psychology and relationship issues.

The effects of Perceptual-Cognitive training on Subjective Performance in Elite Athletes

ABSTRACT
This current study examines if a perceptual-cognitive training program, such as the Neurotracker (NT) 3-dimensional (3D) multiple object tracking (MOT) device, has the potential to improve elite athletes’ performances in dynamic sports. Fifty-four elite athletes from boxing, wrestling, women handball, women soccer, orienteering, biathlon, alpine skiing, sled hockey, badminton and table tennis completed a pre-post quasi experiment over a period of 5 weeks (46% males and 54% females). The results show that the NT baseline scores and subjective performance improved significantly during the experiment. However, subjective performance improved only when learning rate and number of targets were controlled for. The results are discussed in regard of applied implications and possible future research.
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U.S. Sports Academy2018-05-02T13:03:13-05:00May 31st, 2018|Research, Sports Studies and Sports Psychology|Comments Off

Sports Coach Mentoring – Impacts on the Mentors, not the ‘Mentees’. A Case Study of the Active Sussex Coach Support Officers Scheme.

Authors:Philippe Crisp
University of Chichester
College Lane, Chichester, West Sussex
PO19 6PE, United Kingdom
e) phil.crisp@chi.ac.uk, tel.) 01243 816000

Abstract

In the field of learning theories associated with coach education, there exists an understanding that the use of informal learning has a greater impact and importance on the development of coaching practice than that of formal coach education (10, 17, 21). Many National Governing Bodies (NGBs), sports providers, and sports clubs have increasingly turned to the use of mentoring as a learning and support strategy for their coaches. There is now much literature supporting the positive effects that mentoring programmes can have on those mentored (2, 8, 33). However, there is to date relatively little literature concerning the effect that the mentoring programmes may have on the mentors themselves.

This study presents data accrued from a collaborative mentoring project developed by the author and Active Sussex, one of the 45 County Sports Partnerships (CSP) in England that act as part of the Sport England delivery system. The key findings from the study are threefold and suggest that 1) formalised mentoring programmes can benefit both the mentee and mentor through shared experience and problem solving; 2) that developing communities of learning for the mentors helps support and contextualise problems with others in similar positions and facilitates time and space to maximise learning through social interaction; and 3) that working together not only helps the coaching practice of the mentors, but likewise can also help with an increase in their professional profile and differences in how external agencies viewed their practice and perceptions of them as ‘experts’ – because of their involvement in the scheme.
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U.S. Sports Academy2018-04-26T10:43:17-05:00May 17th, 2018|Research, Sports Coaching|Comments Off

Mindfulness Meditation Intervention with Male Collegiate Soccer Players: Effect on Stress and Various Aspects of Life

Authors: Zeljka Vidic, Mark St. Martin, Richard Oxhandler

Corresponding Author:
Zeljka Vidic, Ph.D.
1903 West Michigan Avenue
Kalamazoo, MI 49008-5426
Zeljka.vidic@wmich.edu
269-387-2677

Zeljka Vidic is an Assistant Professor/Program Coordinator for the M.A. Coaching Sport Performance and the Undergraduate Coaching Minor at Western Michigan University

Mindfulness Meditation Intervention with Male Collegiate Soccer Players: Effect on Stress and Various Aspects of Life

ABSTRACT
Collegiate athletes face a unique set of challenges in an environment that demands their best in the athletic, academic, and personal arenas of their lives. In recent years, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has increased its attention towards the enhancement of collegiate athletes’ overall mental health with the goal of helping athletes cope more effectively on- and off-the court. One technique that has gained attention in the sport setting due to its all-around beneficial effects on health and well-being and athletic performance is the practice of mindfulness. This mixed-method study investigated the effects of a 6-session mindfulness meditation intervention on a United States NCAA Division III men’s soccer team’s (n=18; ages 18-22) stress levels and various aspects of their lives. Qualitative results revealed that athletes had overall positive perceptions of the mindfulness meditation intervention across various aspects of their lives in the form of: enhanced focus, increased calmness, improved awareness, and being more present-oriented. Quantitative results demonstrated overall decreases in stress over the course of intervention, however these findings did not reach statistical significance. Overall, the findings of this study suggest that mindfulness meditation training has the potential to be an effective approach to assisting athletes derive positive benefits on- and off-the court.
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U.S. Sports Academy2018-04-23T13:08:09-05:00May 10th, 2018|Research, Sports Studies and Sports Psychology|Comments Off