ISSN: 1543-9518|Vol. 24

The J-Motion Squat: An Ancillary Lift for Enhancing Olympic-Style Lifts and Power

Submitted by: Robert W. Pettitt – Minnesota State University, Mankato; Cherie D. Pettitt, Steven R. Murray – Mesa State College

Abstract

The J-motion squat—J refers to the trajectory of the hip during the squat—is a dynamic action combining the benefits of front and parallel squatting. The J-motion squat accentuates pelvic movement and enables the lifter to better utilize the hamstrings for further strength and power development. We describe the J-motion squat and provide a review of the practical benefits of teaching it as an ancillary lift within training programs for power athletes.

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2016-10-20T11:36:01-05:00July 7th, 2008|Sports Exercise Science, Sports Studies and Sports Psychology|Comments Off on The J-Motion Squat: An Ancillary Lift for Enhancing Olympic-Style Lifts and Power
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Program and Facility Emergencies in Youth Sports, Part II: Dealing with the Event

Submitted by: Richard Gershom, Ashland University and Kimberly Peer, Kent State University

Communication
plays an integral role in the prevention of youth sport injuries, as the
evidence in Part I of this paper suggested. Communication regarding
expectations, policy and procedures, and post-injury protocol can facilitate a
safe youth sport environment. However, preventing youth sport injuries also
involves several other areas, such as protective equipment, strength and
cardiovascular conditioning, environmental and facility management, proper
coaching, and proper nutrition and hydration. According to the American College
of Sports Medicine (1993), 50% of injuries that occur in children and
adolescents are preventable. Even when steps are taken to ensure safe
participation in youth sport programs, however, injuries will happen; what happens
before, during, and after an emergency can make the difference in the eventual outcome
of injuries.

Dealing with
emergencies in youth sport requires sufficient preparation and planning to
ensure prompt resolution of the event. Prevention measures preclude injury or
have the potential to reduce the severity of injuries and should thus be
considered most effective (Roberts, 1998). League administrators and youth
coaches must ask and answer several questions: Who is the most qualified
individual to treat injuries? Are the persons dealing with the emergencies
adequately prepared for a variety of emergency situations? Are coaches properly
trained to coach? Are there mechanisms in place for prompt medical care? Coming
prepared with this kind of information prior to any emergency can promote
optimal medical care and prevent litigation.

Coach and Parent Education

To make decisions
in answer to the questions just reviewed, league administrators must understand
the qualifications of coaches. The National Association of Sports and Physical
Education (NASPE) has developed standards of fundamental competency that
communities, school systems, private leagues, parents, and athletes should require
of coaches. League administrators and parents are responsible for ensuring that
youth coaches are appropriately qualified to supervise the sport in question and
to maintain a safe playing area and environment. Moreover, coaches should be
required to complete (at a minimum) a community course in first aid and CPR;
there are several sport safety courses available as well that are recommended
for all youth coaches.

A critical
component of caring for an injured athlete is familiarity with the medical
history and condition of the athlete. Before activity commences in any sport, each
athlete should undergo a pre-participation physical examination. This examination
should be required of all athletes prior to participation and should be
comprehensive. Necessary checks include a medical physical to assess heart and
lung function; a medical history to identify any pre-existing problems and
family health history; a musculoskeletal examination assessing alignment,
strength, flexibility, and laxity; a “vitals” examination ensuring heart rate,
blood pressure, height, and weight are appropriate for the individual; body
composition assessment; vision screening; and finally, a sport performance
assessment determining whether the individual’s cardiovascular condition
and strength are appropriate for the anticipated exertion.

First Aid Equipment

In addition to
familiarity with each athlete’s health status, it is also key to have
appropriate emergency medical supplies available. Most youth leagues provide
first aid kits or small athletic trainer kits for each team. When preparing a
kit for a team in a given sport, it is crucial to plan for a broad scope of
needs, stocking the kit properly to address all of them. Kits must be prepared before
each practice or contest in order to be of reliable use. Having the correct
supplies could be the difference in delivering essential care to an injured
athlete appropriately.

Although a wide
variety of first aid supplies can be helpful depending on the sport, there are
items of common value across sports. Key items include the following:

  1. information such as phone
    numbers, release forms, and emergency cards (as well as paper and pen)
  2. instruments including paramedic
    scissors, tape cutters, tweezers, fingernail clippers, fingernail files,
    and a microshield or CPR mask
  3. bandages and related supplies including
    athletic tape, tape adherent, underwrap, elastic tape, band-aids, gauze
    pads, ace wraps, and petroleum jelly
  4. splinting supplies including slings,
    safety pins, finger splints and other splints, and crutches
  5. eye care kit including contact
    solution, contact case, saline, and a pocket mirror
  6. miscellaneous items including
    rubber gloves, antiseptic cleaning solution, insect repellent, water
    bottles, ice chests and/or coolers, tongue blades, and felt or foam
    padding material

This list is not exhaustive but it provides
the foundation of a well-stocked sport first aid kit. In some sports, kits may
need to be augmented with items such as mouth pieces, nose plugs, analgesic rub,
hand cream, sun glare, and feminine hygiene products. Organization of the kit
is important in emergency situations when first aid must be provided quickly.
Similar items should be stored in the same area of the kit; there should be
nothing unnecessary in the kit obscuring needed items that need to be located
quickly following an injury.

Administrators and
supervising coaches must make certain that each youth coach is qualified to use
and comfortable in using all first aid kit supplies. A general rule is not to
pack in the kit any supply with which the coach or coaches are uncomfortable.
It is important to designate one person to maintain the first aid kit and order,
as needed, items replenishing the kit’s supply.

Although they can
be expensive, first aid kits are highly recommended for all youth sport
programs. League commissioners typically determine who purchases kits and supplies
to stock them. When there is no funding for emergency medical supplies, asking
health care facilities and drug stores to donate supplies is a potential
course; firefighting and other emergency departments may also be willing to
help. League administrators and/or coaches are ultimately responsible for
providing players with the best possible first aid should they be injured; the
expense of good first aid kits is, ultimately, relative.

After an Injury

Providing care is a
top priority in an emergency. Care can be provided best and most quickly when
those involved remain calm while activating appropriate medical assistance. When
a young athlete may be injured, it must always be remembered that nothing less
than his or her well-being is at stake. It is therefore better to err on the side
of cautiousness, when in doubt about the injury or first aid, by seeking
additional medical assistance immediately. It should also be remembered that
children’s and adolescents’ bodies are distinct from the adult’s and cannot
always be treated in the same way. Therefore, it is always recommended that a
young athlete seek medical attention from a physician for any injury that does
not improve in a short period.

Fortunately, most
injuries in youth sports are not complicated and can be resolved with little
medical intervention. Often, the best approach is what has been called, for
ease of memory, RICE, which stands for rest, ice, compression,
and elevation. Rest the injured area by supporting it with a sling, splint,
or crutches. Ice the injury for approximately 20 min at a time. Compress the
area with an elastic bandage to control swelling. Finally, elevate the area
above the level of the heart, also to manage swelling. These steps comprise a standard
and long-advocated treatment for many sport injuries.

When an emergency
has occurred and first aid has been rendered, notification of certain
individuals becomes necessary, when those individuals are not present at the
sport facility. Again, parent phone numbers and the league commissioner’s phone
number, along with emergency numbers, should be kept easily available in the
front of the first aid kit. It is also recommended that useful emergency information
is provided as a courtesy to each visiting team, for example on a reference
card. Having access to emergency numbers and directions to nearby hospitals is
greatly appreciated by teams unfamiliar with an area.

Conclusion

All sports pose
some injury risk. While coaches and administrators should make every effort to
keep that risk as low as possible, they must also ensure that appropriate care
is available in the event an injury does occur. Injury-prevention programs are
advocated by the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons and are readily
available to the general public (Purvis & Burke, 2001). Completing the programs
can help prepare youth coaches to manage emergency situations. Furthermore,
youth sports leagues are well advised to maintain a written emergency plan that
staff know how to implement. The plan should be reviewed yearly by league
officials, coaches, parents, and care providers from the local community’s emergency
medical service. It is important that this plan be reviewed yearly due to the
typically high number of changes in coaching staff each year.

References

American
College of Sports Medicine (1993). The prevention of sports injuries of
children and adolescents. Medicine and Science in Sports Exercise, 25(8),
1–7.

National
Association of Sport and Physical Education. National standards for athletic
coaches. Reston, VA: Author.

Purvis,
J. M., & Burke, R. G. (2001). Recreational injuries in children: Incidence
and prevention. Journal of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, 9(6),
365–374.

Roberts,
W. O. (1998). Keeping sports safe: Physicians should take the lead. The
Physician and Sports Medicine, 26(5).

2017-08-07T11:43:32-05:00July 7th, 2008|Sports Coaching, Sports Exercise Science, Sports Management, Sports Studies and Sports Psychology|Comments Off on Program and Facility Emergencies in Youth Sports, Part II: Dealing with the Event
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Sport and Spirituality: A Comparative Perspective

Submitted by: Therese Miller

Abstract

Responding to recent highly publicized sport scandals that so often tarnish the character of athletics, this writing defends the innate sanctity and redeems the potential of sport by exploring sport as a spiritual enterprise. Spirituality, generally conceptualized at three levels of connection (to self, others, and a higher being or purpose), is explored using 10 dominant themes of the world’s sacred scriptures. Examples of these 10 themes from the domain of sport and athletics are offered, as follows: supreme being and the mystery of sport; self and play in the zone; spiritual paths and practice; knowledge–wisdom and creativity–innovation in sport; the “good life” and the team; love and service as sportsmanship; devotion and worship through love of the game; fate and free will in “miracle and madness”; death and the “big picture”; and the spiritual sage and the sport hero.

Sport and Spirituality: A Comparative Perspective

My sport-and-spirituality venture began when I was a daring toddler chinning my way up the splendid chair-leg pedestals of my mother’s fine dining room furniture, eventually reaching the summit and setting up camp, temporarily, on the sacred heights of the table sanctuary. It was an enchanting escape, fashioning new and intriguing possibilities. Later such impulses would be disciplined by years of gymnastics training, following the singular path of a 4-in. balance beam or swinging unwittingly on two wooden spindle bars. Now, as a soccer mom, I watch as my children devoutly absorb themselves in the disciplined challenge and exhilarating excitement of sport and athletics. Life is good.

I never suspected inner rumblings among the community of believers until one night at dinner our family was discussing a recent barrage of player suspensions mounting on previous dismissals of athletes from a nearby university basketball program. My son drolly asked, “Who hasn’t assaulted someone?” His amused and also cynical rebuttal beckoned me to justify and defend the integrity of an activity to which I and many others have eagerly surrendered hours of dedicated practice; an activity leading to moments of unexpected and unrelenting joy, bewildering us with setbacks and conversion; an activity of obvious physical attributes but also imparting spiritual value to generations of players. I began to consider the message that was not being communicated from the sport pulpit to its eager and interested congregation. The spiritual essence of sport is rarely linked with the physical performance and competitive outcomes of sport in the context of popular sport promotion. Nevertheless, in its most fundamental and pure form, sport is spiritual. The spiritual is defined as that which raises the human condition to a higher level of personal awareness and interpersonal consciousness and heightened realization of a grand scheme of things.

To see the soul of sport, we must look beyond both the superficial, if spectacular, physical feats and the much-publicized aggression, anger, and greed in sport. Because sport is spiritual as well as physical, it can lead an athlete to personal transfiguration, revival of communal understanding, and redemption of life’s purpose and possibilities. The precisely executed tennis topspin, the gutsy 50-ft platform dive, the harmoniously choreographed triangle offense, the undeniable magic of the miracle game or perfect golf round can offer the deepest kind of meaning. Sport’s contribution to spiritual advancement cannot be underestimated. Just imagine where we would be had Adam and Eve tossed or teed off that shiny red orb from the Garden of Eden.

Each person’s spiritual venture involves three levels of connection: to the self (inner strength), to relationships (our undeniable union with others), and to a higher being or purpose. It is important to preserve the distinction between spiritual venture and organized religion; nevertheless, the quest for spiritual relevance is often grounded in the practices, teachings, and rituals of the world’s many religions. Religious scripture renders verbal descriptions and explanations to clarify complex spiritual themes. While the sacred scriptures of the world’s religions read differently, their messages and themes are often similar. They have been said to share 10 common themes: the idea of a supreme being, of the self, of the spiritual path, of knowledge and wisdom, of the “good life,” of love and service, of devotion and worship, of fate and free will, of death, and of the spiritual sage (Freke, 1998). This paper draws analogies between these themes and sport not to make sport a religion, but to present sport as an intriguing, insight-generating, exhilarating, and joyful means of awakening a lethargic soul, grasping an unresponsive heart, and enlightening feeble and fragile imagination to robust possibilities and convincing realities.

Supreme Being and the Mystery of Sport

Some would accuse popular culture of proclaiming sport as God. Spiritual text, however, tells us that God is one, yet God is all—a profound but confusing mystery. In depicting the supreme being with a human face, theologians of many faiths have tried to draw that being nearer to us and make it easier for us to conceptualize God (Freke, 1998). Capturing this powerful image in our hearts can be profound when we recognize and appreciate the wonder of God in our everyday lives. Recognition may come in something as simple and subtle as a rainbow’s faint appearance, or in something as intense and marvelous as a friend’s first struggling words after brain surgery. Recognition of God in our everyday lives may also arise at the unexplainable synchrony of a heavyweight boxer’s feather-light, floating grace and stinging punch; or at the gritty determination of the Korean breaststroker in the 2001 Paralympic Games sleekly slithering through the water like a squid, powerfully thrusting himself through each armless stroke with the force of his legs, bracing for each poolside head-butt turn of the race. Inexplicable skills and exquisite performances in sport expose the wonder of a higher power. As the Christian Bible’s book of Matthew offers, “With God all things are possible” (Matt. 19:26, New International Version).

The Self and Play in the Zone

One demanding scriptural theme that challenges our essential nature is the perplexing premise that God is within us. As expressed in the Christian Bible, “He is not far from each one of us,” for “In him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17: 27– 28). In the realm of sport, God-within-us is perhaps epitomized in the experience of flow. Also experienced by accomplished artists and musicians, flow is described by many athletes as being “in the zone”: a state of harmonious union of body and mind wherein the two work together effortlessly, leaving the individual with an undeniable feeling that something special has occurred (Jackson & Csikszentmihalyi, 1999). The Chicago Bulls’ Michael Jordan was in the zone, for example, in Game 1 of the 1992 National Basketball Association Finals against Portland, when in the first half he sank six 3-point shots. At the time, reportedly, a broadcast crew member gestured at Jordan to as if to ask, “How did you do that?” In reply, Jordan shrugged the famous shrug acknowledging the wonder and mystery of his “out-of-body” experience, the only part of which he understood was that he couldn’t miss! In flow, there is the uncanny realization that what has been experienced is an undeniable sense of peace (“Classic NBA Quotes,” 2008).

The Spiritual Path and Practice

The spiritual path is humankind’s virtuous attempt to navigate toward a life of personal fulfillment and ultimate discovery, embodied in human compassion. Scriptural texts prescribe various codes, practices, and rituals as learning guides on the sacred journey represented by the spiritual path. Within Buddhism, “the Middle Way” is the prescription for enlightenment (Freke, 1998), as follows:

There are two extremes, O Bhikkhus, which he who has given up the world, ought to avoid. . . . By avoiding these two extremes, the Tathagata has gained the knowledge of the Middle Path which leads to insight, which leads to wisdom, which conduces to calm, to knowledge . . . to Nirvana (Mahavagga, I, 6, 17–18). (p. 48)

Sport, in its fashion, captures the essence of the Middle Way. An athlete’s success is marked by steady, relevant progress on sturdy grounding—neither surrender to the marshy swampland of lethargy nor a dash to the insecure precipice of training obsession. On one hand, those who study flow report that the seemingly effortless performances of accomplished athletes are anchored in hours of practice, careful attention, and critique. On the other hand, those who study the body’s adaptation to sport training warn of a subtle tipping point at which both strength and spirit are diminished: overtraining.

In shaping their unique paths to success, some athletes have demonstrated one extreme or the other. For example, Allen Iverson, a guard with the NBA’s Denver Nuggets, apparently disgruntled with the intense requirements of the training pilgrimage, persistently and nearly to the point of being comical denies the value of practice. In doing so, he discounts not just his own but his teammates’ sacrifices as they have invested themselves in the pilgrimage. Conversely, Olympic runner Suzy Favor-Hamilton chronicled her resurrection from the perils of an unrelenting training schedule (throughout high school and college she never took one day off from running) accompanied by unscrupulous dieting, noting how excess led to plummeting performance, devastating injuries, and psychological burnout.

Surely, the provisional aspect of the journey is the delicate maneuvering and incredible grounding necessary to balance between life’s extremes. Scripturally, the curious balance required constitutes the fascinating effort–grace paradox, whose analogue in athletics is the tension between the bulging muscle of our personal efforts and the supple support of God’s grace. The spiritual journey’s ultimate mystical destination is our realization and understanding that we are where we need to be, always part of the One, and always remembering the One. The scriptures of Islam are among those that address such truth, as in for instance the Hadith of Tirmidhi, which states, “For everything there is an appropriate way of polishing; the heart’s polishing is the remembrance of God” (Freke, 1998, p. 45). For the athlete, sincere preparation for competition marks the sign of the cross, so to speak, reminding us of this silent, polishing communion with God.

Knowledge and Wisdom as Creativity and Innovation in Sport

Where athletics and sport have the potential to score a spiritual “10” is in the leap from prescribed dictates of a spiritual code, to the realm of experiential knowledge and wisdom. When to the insights bestowed by observant teachers and ingenious coaches athletes add personal knowledge gained from playing, they are freed from limited perception. As the Hindu scripture known as the “Ashtavakra Gita” advises, “Give up conceptualizing altogether. Have no beliefs or concepts of any kind. You are the ever-free Consciousness. How can any thinking help you in any way?” (Freke, 1998). As such, the athlete is a rendering of God’s creation. The knowledgeable athlete redefines the boundaries of his or her game. Freed from defined constructs, the competitor is keenly aware of the self, with its strength and spirit, and in the innovative performances fostered by such freedom, sport’s reality is redefined.

Edson Arantes Do Nascimento, the unassuming, average-sized man better known as Pelé, scored 1,280 goals in 1,360 games over a 20-year career (1956–1977) as he revolutionized the game of soccer. Of his incredible speed and balance, tremendous vision, excellent ball control, and powerful, accurate shooting with either foot and with his head, Pelé has said, “It seems that God brought me to Earth with a mission to play soccer” (Gonzalez, n.d.). Track and field star Dick Fosbury stunned spectators at the 1968 Summer Olympics as his unconventional jumping technique led him to a gold medal in the high jump. Fosbury’s “flop” quickly came to replace traditional dive-and-straddle high jump technique. At the 1972 Olympics, Olga Korbut reinvented gymnastics with feats of athleticism never before seen in the sport. Her back flip–catch off the top of the uneven parallel bars revolutionized gymnastics. Like Pelé and Fosbury, Korbut’s skill mastery fashioned new forms and meanings in the sport. This acknowledgement must be made, however, in the context of such scriptural reminders as Zen Buddhism’s cautionary note on recreated knowledge: It is only “a finger pointing at the moon but not the moon itself,” since human knowing can never match God’s greater wisdom (Freke, 1998).

The “Good Life” and the Team

Religions around the world expect a spiritual follower to live a “good life,” endorsing various codes of righteous behavior. Christians hold fast to the imperatives of the “Ten Commandments”; Buddhists adhere to the “Noble Eightfold Path.” Hindus strive to obey their “Laws of Life”; Taoists pursue the “Natural Way.” All of these faiths’ codes of behavior share in common a conviction that a good life is in the making when a person contributes to the perfection and harmony of a larger whole. But here our human vulnerabilities can be harshly exposed. Tolle (2005) translates and describes sin, the opposite of goodness, as “missing the mark, as an archer who misses the target. . . . [T]o sin means to miss the point of human existence. It means to live unskillfully, blindly and thus to suffer and cause suffering” (p. 9). Tolle adds as well that being good requires a shift in consciousness. For the athlete, such a shift of consciousness comprises the humble displacement of self for the benefit of the team.

Athletes who pursue self-aggrandizement (like their counterparts in domains other than sport) will, the scriptures of various faiths agree, be humbled. In sport, the cost of vice is the destruction of the team and the burden of the whole, which is exponentially greater than the burden of each individual. Even as the National Football League legislated against impudence in the sport, the gods may have shown their take on unnecessary celebration, evening the score—no, raising the New York Giants’ score­—in Super Bowl 2008, after Randy Moss’s audacious appropriation of power over the universe, motioning for the seas to part after a late-game score.

Becoming a good sport suggests personal and interpersonal transformation and is necessary to be a true athlete. The concept of moving beyond the individual self to the collective team may be the most challenging aspect of spirituality in power cultures like professional sports. Tolle’s shift in consciousness is a marked change, and interestingly, the word sport can mean (in a definition employed within the biological sciences) “an organism that shows a marked change from the normal type or parent stock, typically as a result of mutation.”

Unfortunately, as is true of sin and disharmony, denying the collective is tremendously destructive to the individual, the community, and the promise of all that is good in sport. The shift from ego focus to collective consciousness in the world of sport relies on humility, repentance, forgiveness, compassion, and more (the spirit not the letter, perfect liberty). The marring and tarnishing of beauty, grace, and accomplishment is a failure of the whole. Marion Jones, in her public confession of her steroid use, asked forgiveness. She earnestly apologized for besmirching the sport that she had trained so hard for and dedicated her life to; in painfully exposing her failure, she paradoxically revealed her inner strength and goodness. Humans cannot know the individual predicaments that other humans face in their lives, and to reestablish harmony requires empathy and an unwillingness to stand in judgment. Public forgiveness was necessary to reunite Jones with the community. As Islamic scriptural text maintains, “The best deed of a great man is to forgive and forget”; or as Judaism’s Talmud phrases it, “When we know we are all one . . . forgiveness is natural” (Freke, 1998).

Love and Service Seen As Sportsmanship

The most seemingly absurd association between spirituality and sport is the notion that the spiritual undertaking of love and service coexists with athletic achievement and success—victory over others. But it is the connection between compassion and sport that can be most inspiring. Sport provides an alternative impression of the clash between collective egos, the us versus them. As Los Angeles Lakers coach Phil Jackson wrote in his book Sacred Hoops, “There has to be another way, an approach that honors the humanity of both sides while recognizing that only one victor can emerge. . . . a wide-angle view of competition that encompasses both opponents as partners in the dance.” Ultimately, Jackson (1995) compares competition and sport to battle, stating that, “The challenge of warriorship is to step out of the cocoon, to step out into space, by being brave and at the same time gentle” (Jackson, 1995). This unconventional model of competition builds not on humiliation, power, and aggression but on honor, respect, and yielding. Such mutual respect and admiration is seen in the world of sport. Steve Nash of the Phoenix Suns, for example, and Dirk Nowitzki of the Dallas Mavericks demonstrate fierce competitiveness while maintaining the integrity of a several-year friendship.

Devotion and Worship Seen As Love of the Game

While healthy competition and sportsmanship define the promise of the sport experience, when athletes play with special reverence for the tradition and legacy of “the game,” they achieve an even higher level of consciousness. Spiritual mystics have long affirmed and expressed the sacredness of life and celestial wonders through dedicated worship and praise. In a similar way, devoted athletes may demonstrate their respect and honor for the game through gestures observed as ritual. Ritual, according to Marty (1998), comprises conscious, voluntary, repetitious and stylized symbolic bodily actions, centered on cosmic structures and/or sacred presences; sport, Marty continues, thus embraces ritual, since “Sports involve sacrifice of energy and limb . . . [and] who sacrifices without ritual?”

In Sacred Hoops, Jackson describes how he adopted Vince Lombardi’s ritual of “crossing the line.” Lombardi, legendary football coach who led the Green Bay Packers to five league championships in his nine years of coaching, asked his players to walk over the line, symbolically confirming their consent and commitment to practice every day. By creating a sacred space with Lakota symbols of balance, harmony, power, prosperity, and good fortune, Jackson similarly established a holy sanctuary within which athletes mindfully attend to the task at hand. Such rituals and symbols establish an atmosphere of mindful attention to purpose. Freke (1998) notes that Judaism’s “Book of the Secrets of Enoch” states, “It is good to go morning, midday, and evening into the Lord’s dwelling, for the glory of your creator. Because every breathing thing glorifies him and every creature visible and invisible returns him praise” (p. 111).

Fate and Free Will and the “Miracle and Madness”

While rituals may help us organize and fashion that which is so vulnerable and unpredictable in our lives, ultimately the spiritual uncertainty of free will and fate emerge. The investment of whatever amount of energy, commitment, and rite does not guarantee success. As Freke (1998) noted, “Human life is the interaction of fate and freedom of choice” (p. 120). Spiritually, we are advised to make choices pursuant to the good life; we are reminded that we cannot control the world and that God is in the driver’s seat. We can only control our responses to what befalls us. Judaism acknowledges the spiritual paradox and mystical truth that fate and human will mysteriously coincide, that life leads us along the road that we have actually chosen. Jewish spiritual text, as cited in Freke, holds that “Everything is foreknown, but man is free” (p. 36). The doctrine of karma, too, explains fate as the outcome of our previous choices. But lightning strikes, and stunning rainbows emerge from dreary skies.

There is no better illustration of this paradox than the miracles and madness of sport—unexplained victories and devastating, unpredictable losses. The United States ice hockey team’s 4–3 victory over the Soviet Union during the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics has been called the “miracle on ice.” The Russian team was in peak form and comprised both mature veterans and ambitious young talent; it had just annihilated the National Hockey League all-star team 6–0 in the deciding game of a challenge series. It was unfathomable that a team of U.S. college players had a chance against such fierce competition. Certainly U.S. players’ strenuous conditioning and meticulous strategic and tactical preparation had an impact, but it has struck many experts that nothing short of a miracle allowed them to emerge victorious (Fitzpatrick, 2008). Observing such turns of event in sport, we realize we are not necessarily in control—an understanding that returns us to the sheer joy of child’s play and surrender to the moment.

Death and the Big Picture (Field of Dreams)

Sacred scripture intimates that by examining our beliefs about and attitudes toward death, we become truly free to live our authentic lives. Similarly for the athlete, the desperation of a defeat, devastation of injury, or struggle of a losing season can bring perspective, making the opportunity to play more pleasurable. Mortality certainly helps define humankind’s place in the big picture; acknowledging it as our own, we become enraptured of the pleasures of participating in life. The Shinto religion offers a scripture (Tenrikyo Ofudesaki 3.41) that says, “All human bodies are things lent by god. With what thought are you using yours?” (Freke, 1998, p. 142). Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre, at 38 playing a sport that most athletes survive in for only a handful of years, has achieved many football mileposts, for example most wins by a starting quarterback, most consecutive games played by a quarterback, and most touchdown passes thrown. But his physical achievements pale next to his fervor to stay in the game despite numerous setbacks. He nearly died in a car accident; was diagnosed with avascular necrosis, a degenerative hip condition; lost his father and also his brother-in-law in accidents; watched his wife battle breast cancer; and saw his hometown ravaged by Hurricane Katrina. Favre admits to behaving recklessly on field and off at points in his past, but we have seen him mature without losing any of his youthful love for of football. Shipnuck (2007) explains that Favre’s favorite career memories are not what might be expected:

‘The funny thing is, it’s not only about the touchdowns and the big victories. If I were to make a list, I would include the interceptions, the sacks, the really painful losses. Those times when I’ve been down, when I’ve been kicked around, I hold on to those. In a way those are the best times I’ve ever had, because that’s when I’ve found out who I am. And what I want to be.’

In confronting our own challenging moments, athletes and the rest of us realize a personal potential that surpasses human understanding and the typical experiences of life. We discover our innate potential and embody the full measure of life’s opportunities.

The Spiritual Sage and the Sport Hero

Occasionally there emerge from among us mortals who, like the society of saints, challenge and inspire us with their lives of transcendence. We are awakened by their selfless compassion and stand in awe of the harmony they create with all others as they accept life on its terms. They are spiritual sages or spiritual heroes, projecting what a human was truly created to be. The dutiful sport hero models the same wholeness in living. According to Buddhist scripture, enlightenment is gained when we see that suffering in life is diminished by moving from the ignorance of separation to the knowledge of wholeness, which is our true enlightened nature. As Freke (1998), explains, the enlightened have “traveled from the ignorance of separation to the further shore of enlightenment . . . concerned with relieving the suffering of others” (p. 166).

Sacred scripture variously affirms that the spiritual sage is characterized by humility and compassion (Jewish, Christian); by detached selflessness (Hindu); and/or by integrity, respectfulness, and unwillingness to stand in judgment of another (East Asian thought generally). The ethical sport hero exemplifies the same qualities. Baseball hall of fall honoree Roberto Clemente came to the Pittsburgh Pirates from humble beginnings as the youngest of seven in a family in Puerto Rico. When he died in the 1972 crash of a plane enroute to deliver relief supplies to survivors of the great earthquake in Nicaragua, his remarkable accomplishments in his sport (lifetime batting average of .371 with 240 homeruns and 1,305 RBI) were preempted by his dedication to others. According to Price (2001), Peter Williams describes Clemente’s martyr-like status as resulting from two characteristics, (a) that Clemente died without warning and (b) his ethical heroism was primarily active:

In other words he died, as he had lived, doing charitable work for the disadvantaged. In this, he was very much a hero in tune with the social activism of his time; and the response to his death, showing an awareness of this, ended by strengthening a heroic image that was already established.” (p. 102)

In offering a perspective on such a state of self-actualization, the Buddhist Diamond Sutra explains that enlightened beings cannot even think of themselves as enlightened, for this would involve the idea of a self, whereas “enlightenment is an impersonal happening, not a personal achievement” (Freke, 1989, p. 170).

As we head into the 2008 Summer Olympic Games, this discussion reminds us of the fundamental nature of sport: its surge of innocent vitality, its ingenuous dance with others, its trusting application of ourselves to the challenge. Among others, Johann Olav Koss, a four-time Olympic speed skating medalist and three-time world record holder, has argued there is a basic human need for play, sport, athletics. Witnessing children confined to an Ethiopian refugee camp playing soccer in the dirt with a rolled-up shirt as ball, he resolved to work on such children’s behalf “until everyone believes in Olympic Aid’s motto: ‘Every child has the right to play’” (Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee, 2008). The Jesuit scholar Hugo Rahner (cited in Lawrence, 2005) in his writings emphasizes the spiritual force of play and sport. “To play,” he explains, “is to yield oneself to a kind of magic . . . to enter a world where different laws apply, to be relieved of all the weights that bear it down, to be free, kingly, unfettered and divine.” In tossing the apple, we play, create, cooperate, challenge, dream, and grow.

Reference List

Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad. (n.d.). Olympic stories: Johann Koss. Retrieved May 2, 2008, from
http://en.beijing2008.cn/ education/stories/n214077679.shtml

Favor-Hamilton, S., & Antonio, J. (2004). Fast track: Training and nutrition from America’s top female distance runner. New York: Holtzbrinck.

Fitzpatrick, J. (n.d.). About.com: Hockey—Miracle on ice: American hockey’s defining moment: How the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team created its “miracle on ice.” Retrieved May 2, 2008, from
http://proicehockey.about.com/cs/history/a/miracle_on_ice.htm

Freke, T. (1998). The illustrated book of sacred scriptures. New Alresford, Hampshire, England: Godsfield Press.

Gonzalez, O. (n.d.). Latino legends in sports: Edson Arantes “Pele” Nascimento. Retrieved May 2, 2008, from http://www.latinosportslegends.com/Pele_bio.htm

Jackson, P., & Delehanty, H. (1995). Sacred hoops: Spiritual lessons of a hardwood warrior. New York: Hyperion.

Jackson, S. A. & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1999). Flow in sports: The keys to optimal experiences and performances. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.

Lawrence, I. (2005, April 8). The emergence of “sport and spirituality” in popular culture. The Sport Journal, 2(8). Retrieved May 2, 2008, from
http://www.thesportjournal.org/article/emergence-sport-and-spirituality-popular-culture

Marty, M. E. (1998, August). Last word: Ritual in sports, sports as ritual. The Park Ridge Center Bulletin, 5. Retrieved May 2, 2008, from http://www.parkridgecenter.org/Page127.html

National Basketball Association (n.d.). NBA encyclopedia playoff edition: Classic NBA quotes: Michael Jordan. Retrieved May 2, 2008, from
http://www.nba.com/history/Classic_NBA_Quotes_Jordan.html

Price, J. L. (Ed.). (2001). From season to season: Sports as American religion. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press.

Shipnuck, A. (2007, December 3). 2007 Sportsman of the Year. Sports Illustrated. Retrieved May 2, 2008, from
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/magazine/specials/sportsman/2007/12/03/sportsman.2007/index.html

Tolle, Eckhart. (2005). A new earth: Awakening to your life’s purpose. New York: Penguin.

2017-08-07T11:44:23-05:00July 7th, 2008|Contemporary Sports Issues, Sports Management, Sports Studies and Sports Psychology|Comments Off on Sport and Spirituality: A Comparative Perspective
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The Impact of the HIPAA Privacy Rule on Collegiate Sport Professionals

Submitted by: Richard Bell, Mesa State College, United States Sports Academy National Faculty, Sarah Elizabeth Ratzlaff, Disney Sports, Steven Ross Murray, Mesa State College

Abstract

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was enacted on August 21, 1996. Its fundamental purpose was to improve both the portability and the continuity of health insurance coverage. Title II of the act, intended to reduce paperwork, contained a clause called the Privacy Rule. The Privacy Rule is responsible for much confusion and controversy, particularly in collegiate sport settings. This paper identifies issues with the HIPAA Privacy Rule and suggests methods with which collegiate sport professionals can deal with those issues.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was enacted on August 21, 1996, by the 104th U.S. Congress as Public Law 104-191 (29 U.S.C. §18). The act amended both the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, or ERISA [29 U.S.C.§1182(a)(1)], and the Public Health Service Act [42 U.S.C.§ 6(a)]. Its main purpose was to improve both the portability and continuity of health insurance coverage for workers and their families, especially as individuals changed employers. Title II of the act was intended to reduce paperwork—making it easier to detect and prosecute fraud and abuse—and to streamline industry inefficiencies (Office of Civil Rights, 2003). However, one specific clause in title II part C, titled “Administrative Simplification,” has had implications beyond the original intent of the act. This clause is referred to as the Privacy Rule; it was effective on October 15, 2002, and is responsible for much confusion and widespread controversy (Kuczynski & Gibbs-Whalberg, 2005), especially in collegiate sport settings.

“Standards for Privacy of Individually Identifiable Health Information” is the Privacy Rule (45 CFR parts 160 and 164). The Privacy Rule implements the privacy requirements of the Administrative Simplification subtitle of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. The Privacy Rule was added to the legislation at the request of the insurance industry. It was intended to be a confidentiality provision—controlling the use and disclosure of health information—by establishing for the first time a set of national standards for the protection of personal health information. Before the enactment of this act, an individual’s health information was readily available and able to be shared among insurance companies. The resulting effect of this ethically questionable, yet legal, sharing of health information was across-the-board rejections of many persons who requested, and often needed, health insurance.

The Department of Health and Human Services is responsible for the enforcement and implementation of HIPAA. Being a federal agency, its power is far-reaching and at times intimidating. The passage of HIPAA and more specifically of the Privacy Rule has had an immediate impact on sporting organizations and personnel, especially with the normative method by which injuries are reported and information concerning athletes is released. The challenge facing sport professionals is determining if HIPAA applies to them, and if it does, establishing protocol for performing their duties adequately while being in compliance with the federal regulations. This paper will identify issues with the HIPAA Privacy Rule and suggest methods with which sport professionals can cope with these issues.

Operational Definitions

Personal health information is defined by HIPAA as individually identifiable health information. This includes any demographic or personally identifiable data relating to physical or mental health conditions, as well as information relating to the provision of health care and payment; however, patient information that is redacted for identifiable information is not subject to HIPAA guidelines (Jones, 2003). The Privacy Rule (also known as “Standards for Privacy of Individually Identifiable Health Information”) is in title 45 of the Code of Federal Regulations, part 160 and subparts A and E of part 164. The full text of the Privacy Rule can be found at the HIPAA privacy website of the Office for Civil Rights, http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/hipaa.

The Privacy Rule specifies that all covered entities follow five steps to ensure the privacy of patients’ health information (Dolan, 2003):

  1. Notify patients about their rights and inform them of how their information will be used.
  2. Adopt and implement privacy procedures.
  3. Train employees on privacy procedures.
  4. Designate an individual to be responsible for ensuring that privacy procedures are adopted and followed.
  5. Ensure that patient records containing individual identifiable health information are secure.

Some of the problems encountered from the Privacy Rule are best reflected in the following two questions: What constitutes a covered entity, and how does HIPAA interact with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA) in the collegiate sport setting? In addition, the Privacy Rule also affects how information about an athlete’s injury can be provided to the media as well as to coaches and athletic administrators (Wyatt & Carden, 2003).

Covered Entities

The Administrative Simplification standards adopted by the Department of Health and Human Services under HIPAA apply to any entity that is a health-care provider that conducts certain transactions in electronic form; or is a health-care clearinghouse; or is a health plan. An entity that is one (or more) of these types of entities is referred to as a “covered entity” in the Administrative Simplification regulations found at http://www.cms.hhs.gov/HIPAAGenInfo/06_AreYouaCoveredEntity.asp. Covered entities are expected to adhere to the policies of the Privacy Rule. Any organization that bills for medical services or transmits personal health information electronically will fall under the guidelines of the Privacy Rule.

A college, university, or high school, then, is not automatically a covered entity simply because it has an athletic trainer on staff. Only if the athletic trainer bills the student-athlete or the student-athlete’s insurance plan for outside treatment may the institution become a covered entity. Further, a physician who bills, transmits claims to a health plan, or receives payments through some type of electronic form is considered a covered entity under HIPAA regulations (Magee, Almekenders, & Taft, 2003). Moreover, hybrid entities exist: organizations including some part that is a covered entity and another part that is not. This typically transpires in a university setting in which the student medical and health centers are covered entities, but the rest of the departments are not. HIPAA regulations allow an institution to designate which components are involved and which individuals are covered within the respective components. This allows the institution to place HIPAA requirements on a specific category of persons it has defined as its health-covered components (Hill, 2003).

Questions also have arisen about whether non-covered entities that interact and share information with covered entities consequently become covered. Though the distinction is a bit murky, the answer seems to be no. Information communicated from a covered entity to a non-covered entity is no longer subject to the Privacy Rule, and the non-covered entity does not change its status (Office of Civil Rights, 2003).

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which oversees the regulation of HIPAA, has established the following website with information about the law along with a tool that can be used to see what qualifies as a covered entity: www.cms.hhs.gov/hipaa/hipaa2/support/tools/decisionsupport/default.asp. Additional online resources are available from HHS that provide a general overview and an explanation of individual rights; see the website www.hhs.gov/ocr/hipaa/consumer_rights.pdf.

HIPAA and FERPA

The interaction of HIPAA’s Privacy Rule with the FERPA adds to the confusion surrounding HIPAA. FERPA applies to all schools receiving federal funding. The intent of the act is to allow parents access to information about their children, while safeguarding information from release to other parties. However, the act does allow for information to be released, without consent, to school officials who have a legitimate educational interest in the student (e.g., faculty advisors, registrars). Exempted from the definition are education records, as those are defined in and covered by FERPA, and also treatment records of students 18 years of age or older that are made and maintained by the student’s treating physician or other medical professional and are available only to that physician or professional. Under HIPAA, protected health information excludes individually identifiable health information in education records that is covered by FERPA (Windley & Walueff, 2005). It appears that FERPA’s application takes precedence over HIPAA (Pitz, 2003).

HIPAA and the Athlete

Within sport, it has been standard practice for information about players’ injuries to be communicated to a wide range of individuals, from physicians and athletic trainers to coaches, school administrators, and even the media. The biggest concern for many sport organizations has been how the privacy act will affect these procedures. Professional teams have feared that athletes may withhold injury information before signing contracts (Jenkins, 2003). Both professional and college teams are unsure if information can be provided to trainers and coaches by team physicians. Another major concern for both types of teams is what, if any, information can be provided to the media (Elmore, 2002), as it disseminates information rapidly and readily to the populace as a whole.

For professional teams, health and injury information is considered criteria for employment, because of the nature of the job. Therefore, an injured athlete would not be able legally to withhold injury information from a team to whom he or she is contractually obliged. This also means that health and treatment information could be shared with coaches and team owners (Magee, Almekinders, & Taft, 2003).

Depending upon the status of a team physician for college teams, there are different stipulations about what information can be shared. Some team physicians conduct part of their practice through the student health center. In this case, the physician falls under the guidelines of FERPA and should be allowed to share information with coaches and athletic trainers. A physician not employed by a university-run health center will be subject to the HIPAA guidelines. In this case it is possible that, in order for any information to be released to athletic trainers, an authorization form would need to be signed. An exception to HIPAA exists that specifically states that information can be released to another provider for treatment purposes. What is unclear, however, is whether or not a trainer is considered a provider under HIPAA guidelines (Hill, 2003).

For coaches and other school administrators, an authorization would need to be provided before this information could be shared. Another concern is on-field evaluations information. Can this be shared with the necessary parties? The answer, it seems, is that these evaluations would fall under the category of emergency evaluations, for which prior authorization is unnecessary.

Finally, regarding the sharing of information with the media, this issue is clear-cut. Under HIPAA, personal health information can be provided to sports information staff or the media only with authorization from the athlete (Magee et al., 2003).

Solutions

Any sport entity that is covered under HIPAA needs to review its existing practices, policies, and procedures. Relationships with other businesses also will need to be reviewed as they fall under HIPAA guidelines. Utilizing experienced legal counsel to determine status under HIPAA and also to recommend authorization forms, privacy notices, and business-associate contracts is recommended (Kibbe, 2005).

One way that some schools are fulfilling the authorization constraint is by requiring athletes to sign authorization forms in order to participate in athletics. Signing the form is mandatory if the student-athlete wants to participate in athletics. Surprisingly, HHS approved this measure (Hill, 2003). Other schools that have not implemented such a policy suggest always getting permission from athletes when reporting to the media. Even when an athlete has consented to the sharing of information with one media outlet, consent should be given for each media entity that subsequently becomes involved.

Schools choosing to opt for signed consent and authorization should ensure that their forms meet the requirements of HIPAA. Authorization forms should contain a statement about what information will be shared and with whom and for how long; moreover, the form must have an expiration date. The form should be specific about who may disclose the information and about what information may be disclosed and to whom. The form also should state that the athlete cannot be denied treatment for refusing to sign and that, if information is disclosed to a non-covered entity, it may no longer be protected under HIPAA. The form also needs to contain a statement that an athlete has a right to revoke authorization at any time (Hill, 2003).

Consequences of Inappropriate Release of Information

The Department of Health and Human Services has stated that most of its enforcement will be compliance-driven and that the rule focuses on seeking voluntary compliance and providing technical assistance to covered entities. Entities found in violation will be given opportunities to demonstrate compliance or to submit a corrective action plan. However, HHS has outlined both a civil penalty of up to $25,000 per person per year per standard, and the following criminal penalties for knowingly disclosing information (Jones, 2003): knowing disclosure, $50,000 and 1 year imprisonment; false pretenses, $100,000 and 5 years’ imprisonment; intent to sell, $250,000 and 10 years’ imprisonment.

HHS has released information about filing a complaint against a covered entity that is non-compliant. Individuals who believe their privacy rights have been violated must file complaints in writing, either electronically or on paper, within 180 days of when they knew or should have known that the act or omission occurred. A form was developed by HHS to assist anyone who wants to file a complaint and is available at www.hhs.gov/ocr/hipaa.

To safeguard protected information, covered entities need to ensure that personal health information is secure. Any records need to be kept in locked file cabinets. When athletic trainers treat athletes, they need to make sure information about the athletes is not discussed where others can hear it. Any consultation with parents or other involved parties needs to be done with a degree of privacy. Moreover, computer security measures must comply with the HIPAA standards.

HIPAA and Sport Managers and Their Employers

The largest concern for most institutions relates to treatment and injury information for student-athletes. Sport managers need to investigate their institutions’ status as a covered entity and review their compliance with HIPAA and the Privacy Rule. If an institution is a covered entity, the sport manager will need to fully understand the implications of HIPAA and insure that the department is in compliance by safeguarding personal health information, training staff, and obtaining the appropriate authorizations. A further implication of HIPAA concerns the status of sport facilities. If medical information about patron accidents is kept or if a facility employs a nurse or EMT unit, then it is considered a covered entity.

Though HIPAA and the Privacy Rule may seem daunting, most institutions and organizations have only had to make a few changes to their policies to be in compliance. As the act is relatively new, however, sport managers need to continue to update their knowledge of HIPAA to ensure full compliance.

References

Dolan, T. G. (2003). PTs respond to HIPAA: The real world experience. PT Magazine of Physical Therapy, 11(7), 52–56.

Elmore, L. (2002). Law injects confusion into injury reporting. Street and Smith’s Sports Business Journal, 5(26), 30.

General Overview of Standards for Privacy of Individually Identifiable Health Information, 45 CFR Part 160 and Subparts A and E of Part 164 (2003).

Hill, D. (2003). A matter of privacy. Athletic Management, 15(2), 37–42.

Jenkins, D. (2003, September 12). Hiding the hurt: Privacy act puts twist on obtaining injury reports. Chattanooga Times Free Press, p. D5.

Jones, D. (2003). HIPAA: Friend or foe to athletic trainers? Athletic Therapy Today, 8(2), 17–19.

Kibbe, D. C. (2005). 10 steps to HIPAA security compliance. Family Practice Management, April, 2005, 43–49.

Kuczynski, K., & Giggs-Wahlberg, P. (2005). HIPAA the health care hippo: Despite rhetoric, is privacy still an issue? Social Work, 50(3), 283–287.

Magee, J. T., Almekinders, L. C., & Taft, T. N. (2003). HIPAA and the team physician. Sports Medicine Update, March–April, 2003, 4¬–7.

Office for Civil Rights. (2003). Summary of the HIPAA privacy rule, (May 2003). Retrieved March 28, 2007. http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacysummary.pdf

Pitz, S. M. (2003). HIPAA and the sports media: Separating fiction from reality. Nevada Lawyer, 11(8), 12–14.

Windley, V. R., & Walueff, G. (2005, June). HIPAA, right to privacy, contracts. NAEB Journal, 4–6. Retrieved from the Internet March 28, 2007. http://wikis.oet.udel.edu/uapp667sinesummer05/index.php/Main/HIPAA

Wyatt, B. M., & Carden, K. E. (2003, April). The HIPAA privacy regulations and access to athletes’ medical information. Ropes & Gray Sports Law Newsletter, 6–7. Retrieved from the Internet March 28, 2007. http://www.ropesgray.com/files/Publication/3b22be16- 0237-4e05-9e11-af29b45830aa/Presentation/PublicationAttachment/0e23970d-d944- 4ace-acce-893ed0f9dba7/Newsletter_April%202003_Sports%20Law%20Group.pdf

2013-11-25T21:55:05-06:00April 2nd, 2008|Sports Coaching, Sports Management, Sports Studies and Sports Psychology|Comments Off on The Impact of the HIPAA Privacy Rule on Collegiate Sport Professionals
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Relationship of Selected Pre–NBA Career Variables to NBA Players’ Career Longevity

Submitted by: William Abrams, East Lansing, Michigan,
John C. Barnes, University of New Mexico,
Annie Clement, Ph. D., J.D., Saint Leo University

Abstract

Given the change in the business nature of the National Basketball Association (NBA), the player evaluation process has become increasingly important. The methods discussed in this article can aid general managers and owners in the player acquisition process by providing a means of evaluating talent. The purpose of the study was to identify the relationship between pre–NBA career statistical variables and career longevity, measured as the number of seasons in the NBA. Data from the 1988–2002 collegiate basketball seasons were analyzed. Participants consisted of 329 NBA guards, forwards, and centers who entered the NBA in 1988 and ended their careers during or before the 2002 NBA season. The study included 11 independent variables: points, rebounds, assists, steals, blocks, fouls, turnovers, minutes played, free throw percentage, field goal percentage, and 3 point percentage. There was a single dependent variable, career longevity. Data analysis comprised multiple regression tests to determine the relationship between the independent variables and the dependent variable. The multiple regression tests revealed a relationship between pre-career statistical variables and career longevity for guards and forwards. However, no such relationship was found for centers.

Introduction

The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a multimillion-dollar professional sport business. The value of team franchises has grown dramatically since David Stern became NBA commissioner in 1984. That season, the average team value was around $15 million (Smith, 2003). The figure had risen to around $300 million by 2003 (Smith, 2003). The increased revenues in the game have led to higher player salaries, which mean more pressure on individual players to perform. The business nature of basketball has put a premium on the selection of players and on the process—an imprecise science—that goes into selection. Owners and general managers are desiring to operate their teams according to corporate models, by controlling escalating player salaries (Sandoval, 2003). Front-office executives want to reduce the risk of bad draft picks and overpaid free agents (Sandoval, 2003).

Given the financial structure and business nature of the game, how do general managers and owners measure and evaluate a player’s potential for success? Additionally, how do they make personnel decisions in a league in which the stakes are so high that one bad decision can make for disaster in the form of millions of dollars lost? One important aspect of building a championship NBA team is how the general manager constructs the team roster. It is expected that the general manager will attempt to acquire the most talented players when building a team (Staw & Hoang, 1995). How to accomplish this is the problem that owners and general managers continually face. Berri (1999) stated that, “[W]ithout an answer, one is unable to ascertain who should play, what free agents should be pursued, or what trades should be consummated” (p. 411).

In the current era of professional basketball, with the average player salary reaching over $5 million, owners want to operate their businesses more efficiently by controlling costs and risks (Sandoval, 2003). The goal is to reduce the number of bad draft picks and avoid signing the least productive players (Sandoval, 2003).

The evaluation of potential playing talent is a difficult task (Berri & Brook, 1999). In professional basketball, using selected statistical variables to measure a player’s prospective success is considered an important part of the player evaluation process (Berri & Brook, 1999). Assembling players who produce at statistically high levels may ultimately improve a team. Berri (1999) identified a link between player statistics and team wins. The NBA draft is one of the primary methods by which teams acquire talent. Staw & Hoang (1995) found that the order in which players were drafted correlated with their playing time and the length of their careers.

The NBA draft’s importance becomes even clearer when one considers how the draft inevitably represents a set of lost opportunities (Staw & Hoang, 1995). In selecting any one particular player, a team may be passing over the next all-star or superstar player (Staw & Hoang, 1995). The NBA draft is thus very risky (Amico, 2001). History has shown that the projection of player development is not a precise science, and that teams may be in need of effective evaluative methods when scouting talent (Amico, 2001). The risks of the draft were made widely known by the Portland Trail Blazers when, in 1984, that team anticipated greater benefits from signing Sam Bowie than from signing Michael Jordan. And in the same draft, Dallas selected Sam Perkins and Terrance Stansbury instead of Auburn University’s Charles Barkley and Gonzaga University’s John Stockton (Staw & Hoang, 1995). Selection of the right players through the NBA draft is important (Staw & Hoang, 1995).

The NBA draft used to require relatively little work or resources (Shouler, Ryan, Koppett, & Bellotti, 2004). Teams had small scouting staffs to evaluate college players, yet by the time the draft came around, every team knew who the best players were and which ones they wanted to draft (Shouler et al., 2004). As basketball became more of a business, general managers, owners, and team presidents had to change their approach. Even as the process changed, however, the goal stayed the same (Popper, 2004). It is to improve the team through selection of the best, most valuable player available at the time a team is making a selection (Popper, 2004).

Each NBA team has a player personnel staff that spends most of its time searching out less obvious candidates for the draft (Wolff, 2001). These scouts identify prospective players by attending games, analyzing game films, or both. When NBA scouts observe players in person, they typically use subjective evaluation based on detailed information they gain in eight areas of basketball: physical characteristics, mental characteristics, ball skills, offense, rebounding, defense, knowledge, strengths, and weaknesses (Wolff, 2001).

Currently, there is no known research that looks to pre-career statistical data to determine longevity of NBA play (although, again, NBA experts view potential career longevity as an important factor characterizing NBA draft prospects, according to Amico, 2001). Those studies that are available did not examine relationships between predictor variables and career longevity. According to Oliver (2005), the value of individual NBA players can be assessed using traditional statistical categories. Previous studies looked at the statistics for NBA players recorded during their play in the league; they sought to identify alternative methods of evaluating talent (Ballard, 2005). The success of the NBA players was measured using the traditional statistical categories (points, rebounds, field goals attempted, field goals made, etc.) (Ballard, 2005). Thus while most of these studies obtained traditional player statistics, they did not go on to look for relationships between those statistics and the players’ career longevity (i.e., number of seasons in the NBA). Some research, however, indicates that there is a positive relationship between traditional player statistics and the length of NBA players’ careers (Staw & Hoang, 1995).

Major League Baseball was the first league to experiment with statistical predictor models. Specifically, the Oakland Athletics’ general manager began to evaluate talent primarily by looking at player statistics, and he both drafted players and acquired free agents based on this nontraditional method (Lewis, 2003). This method of evaluation became known as the money ball theory, reflecting its capacity to identify productive players available at below-market value, whom traditional scouting methods would not view as commodities (Lewis, 2003). Money ball theory has proved a success for the Oakland Athletics and for another team that uses statistical methods to evaluate talent: the Boston Red Sox.

The reasoning underlying the use of player statistics in professional baseball is rooted in the idea that college players generate meaningful statistics (Lewis, 2003). College players play more games than high school players, and the level of competition is enhanced at the collegiate level as opposed to the high school level (Lewis, 2003). Collegiate statistics, then, reflect a sample size large enough to accurately picture the underlying reality (Lewis, 2003). Projecting the ongoing success of college players is thus easier than making such projections for high school players (Lewis, 2003).

The statistics that can be garnered from college play enable baseball executives and scouts to see past all kinds of visual scouting prejudices (Lewis, 2003). Indeed, it has been argued that what is most important about a baseball player is not the player’s character but the picture drawn by his statistics (Lewis, 2003).The belief of experts who employ predictor statistics in baseball is that a player “is” what he has already done, not what he looks like or might become (Lewis, 2003). It is a belief that runs counter to the thinking of the traditional baseball scout, to whom what matters is what the scout can envision the player doing (Lewis, 2003).

The concept of statistical analysis of talent in baseball was brought to bear on efforts to make the development of players more efficient. As Lewis (2003) stated, the statistics used to evaluate baseball players were probably far more accurate than anything used to measure the value of people who didn’t play baseball for a living. Adding a statistical model to traditional scouting and player evaluation methods can better inform owners and general managers about talent, permitting them to identify skill sets related to career longevity. In basketball, too, better gauging of players’ potential success may lead to a more efficient process of putting together an NBA team roster.

Method

The purpose of the study was to identify the relationship between selected pre–NBA career statistical variables and NBA players’ career longevity (measured as the number of seasons in the NBA). Specifically, the following two questions were addressed:

    1. Can 1 or more of the 11 traditional player statistics, recorded during the year preceding entry into the NBA, predict the career longevity of NBA guards, NBA forwards, and NBA centers?
    2. Can 1 or more of the 11 traditional player statistics, recorded during the 2 years preceding entry into the NBA, predict the career longevity of NBA guards, NBA forwards, and NBA centers?

The study questions were built around 1-year and 2-year collegiate statistics on the assumption that performance during these specific periods is the best indicator of NBA potential. This is assumed because, statistically speaking, it is during these periods that college players who subsequently entered the NBA played their best collegiate seasons.

Data Collection

For this study, the researcher measured collegiate statistics for the following 11 areas of basketball: points, rebounds, assists, steals, blocks, field goal percentage, free throw percentage, fouls, 3 point percentage, minutes played, and turnovers. In 9 areas, the totals were used; for field goal percentage, free throw percentage, and 3 point percentage, however, raw percentages were used rather than totals, since percentages provide better analysis of shooting accuracy. The study evaluated minutes played rather than games played, because use of the two is linearly correlated; added together, both supply no better information than is obtained by evaluating only minutes played. The decision to use these particular statistics in this study was informed by the history, within professional basketball, of the use of the statistics. Dating back to the 1949 merger of the Basketball Association of America and National Basketball League that formed the NBA, this set of player statistics has been the primary method of analyzing the game (Lahman, 2004).

The particular statistics chosen for the present study’s multiple regressions were based on the history of players’ statistical production at the position of guard, of forward, and of center. Historical statistical production by guards, forwards, and centers in the 11 basketball activities thus provided the basis for the present analysis. Over the history of basketball, the players occupying the three positions produced proficiently in those statistical areas which the present study has associated with each position, as follows: (a) guards—field goal percentage, 3 point percentage, free throw percentage, assists, steals, turnovers, points, personal fouls, and minutes played; (b) forwards—rebounds, 3 point percentage, points, free throw percentage, steals, blocks, field goal percentage, turnovers, personal fouls, assists, and minutes played; and (c) centers—rebounds, free throw percentage, field goal percentage, blocks, personal fouls, turnovers, points, and minutes played.

The statistics themselves were obtained from an unofficial professional and collegiate basketball website, Database Basketball (located at http://www.databasebasketball.com). Database Basketball is a primary Internet resource for gathering players’ statistical data at both levels. It houses information on all college players who played in the NBA and on those who were NBA draft picks. The website also provided for the study the total number of players playing in the NBA from 1987–88 to 2001–02. The study employed the collegiate statistics from the year immediately preceding a study participant’s entry into the NBA.

Participants

The present study included 329 players who entered the NBA during or after the 1987–88 and ended their playing careers with the 2001–02 season or earlier; the study excluded players who entered the NBA directly from high school, directly from junior college, or from an overseas league. The sample was furthermore limited to NBA athletes who had played at NCAA member institutions for at least two seasons. The time frame 1987–88 to 2001–02 was deemed recent enough to be relevant to the present; it also included enough time to obtain a representative number of players for study. Beyond the specified time frame and the exclusion of players lacking an NCAA collegiate record or transferring from overseas leagues, study participants had to have played in at least one NBA game. Those players who entered in the 1987–1988 season were the most relevant sample, because of changes marked that season in both the NBA style of play and its draft structure. The latter change led NBA general managers to try new and different draft strategies than in years past.

Design and Analysis

The data were analyzed using SPSS (Version 12.0). A multiple linear regression analysis was conducted involving the dependent variable, career longevity, and 2 or more of the 11 criterion variables. Multiple regression analysis was used in order to find the variable or combination of variables yielding the most accurate prediction of NBA career longevity (Thomas & Nelson, 2001). Multiple regression analysis made it possible to combine the variables from collegiate statistics to produce optimal assessment of their relationship with the independent variable, NBA career longevity (Allison, 1999). Alpha level for the analyses was set at p < 0.05.

Six multiple regressions were conducted to assess the relationship between pre–NBA career statistical variables and NBA career longevity. Each of the regressions conducted was based on player position, with guard, forward, and center positions being analyzed. In three regressions (one per position), the 2-year collegiate statistics (statistics for the two college seasons immediately prior to the player’s entering the NBA) constituted the independent variables; in the remaining three regressions (one per position), the 1-year collegiate statistics (statistics for the college season immediately preceding NBA entry) constituted the independent variables. Career longevity (i.e., number of seasons in the NBA) was the outcome variable in all of the regression analyses.

Results

Of the 329 NBA players included in this study, 133 were listed as guards, 142 were forwards, and 54 were centers. The average length of their NBA careers was 4.81 seasons (SD = 3.69).

1-Year Statistics

A significant (p < .05) overall regression was found for guards during analysis of the 1-year statistics (F = 3.218), with an R of .437. The individual statistics measuring assists, turnovers, and points had significant beta scores (Table 1).

Table 1

Summary of Regression Analysis for one-year statistics for guards prior to entry into the
NBA.

Variable B SE B β
(Constant) 4.106 4.266
FGP -.703 .935 .063
TPP 1.188 .018 .195
FTHP -6.033 5.113 -1.180
ASST 0.02151* .008 .362
STEAL 0.02025 .017 .124
TURN -0.03933* .019 -.237
POINT 0.009410* 003 ..386
PF -0.01436 .020 -.065
MIN -0.00006548 .000 -.015

*p <.05

A significant (p < .05) overall regression was also found for the NBA forwards during analysis of the 1-year statistics (F = 2.531), with an R of .449. Field goal percentage, free throw percentage, and assists had significant beta scores within the equation (Table 2). For the 1-year totals for the center position, neither overall significance nor significant beta scores were found.

Table 2

Summary of Regression Analysis for one-year statistics for forwards prior to entry into the NBA.

Variable B SE B β
(Constant) -12.424 4.971
REB 0.006540 .006 .130
TPP 1.954 1.347 .136
POINT -0.0004532 .001 -.069
FTHP 7.629* 4.227 .169
STEAL 0.03883 .025 .174
BLOCK 0.006794 .013 .050
FGP 20.291* 6.800 .300
TURN -0.01215 .020 -.073
PF -0.006445 .021 -0.33
ASST 0.03073* .014 .270
MIN -0.002766 .002 -.143

*p <.05.

2-Year Statistics

In the three multiple regressions run using the 2-year statistics (combined totals), a significant (p < .05) overall regression was found for guards (F = 3.706), with an R of .462. Assists, steals, turnovers, and points generated significant scores during the analysis (Table 3).

Table 3
Summary of Regression Analysis for two-year statistics for guards prior to entry into the NBA.

Coefficients Table

Variable B SE B β
(Constant) -3.726 5.370
FGP 10.914 6.844 .140
TPP 1.954 1.347 .136
FTHP -4.098 5.764 -.070
ASST 0.01140* .005 .340
STEAL 0.01725* .010 .193
TURN -0.02513* .012 -.255
POINT 0.004940* .002 .351
PF 0.001047 .011 .009
MIN 0.0001264 .000 .031

*p <.05.

Though no significant overall regression was found for the NBA forwards, out of all the independent variables, field goal percentage, free throw percentage, and assists showed a significant relationship with career longevity (Table 4).
Table 4
Summary of Regression Analysis for two-year statistics for forwards prior to entry into
the NBA.

Coefficients Table

Variable B SE B β
(Constant) 1.216 2.703
REB 0.007322* .004 .257
TPP 1.954 1.347 .136
POINT -0.0002758 .001 -.045
FTHP -0.03481 .109 -.028
STEAL 0.002473* ..014 .020
BLOCK 0.003627 .008 .044
FGP .795 2.140 .033
TURN -0.01922 .012 -.196
PF -0.002314 .012 -.020
ASST 21.13 .008 .346
MIN -0.001758 .002 -.015

*p <.05.

The statistical analysis of players at center position produced neither a significant overall regression score nor significant beta scores for the 2-year data.
Discussion

The purpose of this study was to identify the relationship between selected pre–NBA career statistical variables and the career longevity of players, measured as number of seasons in the NBA. The overall regression employing guards’ 1-year statistics revealed an R score of .437. The R² was .191, meaning 19.1% of the variation in career longevity is explained by the differences in points, assists, and turnovers. Among forwards, the overall regression score was .449, with an R² of .202, meaning 20.2% of the variation in career longevity is explained by the differences in field goal percentage, free throw percentage, and assists.

First Research Question
Guards

With respect to the first research question, the study found that, statistically, assists, points, and turnovers were significantly related to guards’ longevity in the NBA Similarly, field goal percentage, free throw percentage, and assists were found to be significantly related to forwards’ longevity in the NBA. These results tend to support the evaluation process currently used by NBA teams to select guards and forwards. Guards are players who control the tempo of the game, protect the basketball, and run a team’s offense. At the guard position, then, assists and turnovers are important factors, as the regression demonstrated. Scoring (i.e., points) was also shown to be important with former college guards going on to long careers in the NBA. Turnovers, too, are important at the guard position, because guards control the basketball on offense. Each turnover indicates lack of continuity during a game that can largely be attributed to those team members who control the basketball (Zak, Huang, & Sigfried, 1979). The data demonstrate that every possession is important in basketball, and guards are in control of the ball. Moreover, the significance of assists, also established by the data, can be attributed to the fact that, in running the offense, guards create scoring opportunities for teammates. Assists highlight aspects of ball handling and teamwork, as well as a positive contribution to output (Zak et al., 1979). Turnovers and assists were expected to be significant indicators of career longevity among guards; points were an additional statistical category that proved significant, for the reason that, on most NBA teams, shooting guards are called upon to be point scorers.

Forwards
For players at the position of forward, those basketball activities measured in the field goal percentage, free throw percentage, and number of assists proved statistically significant during the present study’s regression analyses. Such findings no doubt reflect the fact that some forwards, called power forwards, play with their backs to the basket, while others, known as small forwards, play more like guards. As demonstrated by the statistically significant data obtained here for field goal percentage, free throw percentage, and assists, basketball forwards must be very versatile players. They must shoot well, play aggressively enough to reach the free throw line thus placing the opponent in “foul trouble,” and pass just as effectively as guards in order to involve teammates in play. Forwards clearly, from a statistical standpoint, play an integral role in NBA contests.

High field goal percentages and free throw percentages are an important contribution to team output and have impact on the game (Zak et al., 1979). With other factors held equal, the better a team shoots the ball, the larger its output; field goal percentage suggests how efficiently a team shoots (Zak et al., 1979). The study data thus suggest a need for NBA forwards to be very efficient and accurate players. They are asked to do many things on the basketball court, at different times. In terms of their skill at assists, small forwards must be very versatile and must share some of the same skill sets as guards, becoming play makers on occasion. Assists—highlighting as they do aspects of ball handling and teamwork (Zak et al., 1979)—thus constitute a significant indicator of NBA career longevity.

Centers
Unlike the data for forwards and guards, the data for centers in the present study produced no significant results. This may be attributable to the number of subjects in the study. The number of centers playing in the NBA has decreased over the years, a fact reflected in the minimal number of centers in this study (N = 54). Both the guards and the forwards studied here numbered about twice the center subsample.

Second Research Question
Guards
With respect to the second research question, the findings of analyses of the 2-year data show NBA career longevity to be predicted by certain basketball activities to a statistically significant degree. A significant regression equation was found (R = .462, R² of .213) for players at the guard position: 21.3% of the variation in NBA career longevity among guards is explained by the differences in points, assists, turnovers, and steals. In analyzing steals recorded by guards, adding an additional year of collegiate statistics produced a significant result. A measure of a player’s defensive ability, steals represent a change in possession (Berri & Brook, 1999). Because guards play the passing lanes on defense and apply defensive pressure on the perimeter, this statistic should be significant among guards.

Forwards
For the 2-year data on the NBA forwards, the overall regression model did not prove significant; however, two variables, assists and rebounds, did prove significant. It is of special interest that the rebound statistic achieved significance with the 2-year totals but not with the 1-year data. Rebounding is important to scouts, because its impact is seen in each game, as well as on the individual player (Zak et al., 1979). When a team outperforms an opponent in terms of rebounding, its chance of victory increases (Zak et al., 1979). Each rebound a team obtains represents a gain of possession; defensive rebounding indicates how frequently an opponent fails to convert a possession (Berri & Brook, 1999). Assists, as has been discussed in terms of the first research question, highlight aspects of both ball handling and teamwork and make a positive contribution to output (Zak et al., 1979).

Centers
In the analysis of 2-year data from the position of center, no statistics reached the level of significance, nor was the overall regression model significant. As in the case of the first research question, this finding can be attributed to the size of the sample of NBA centers.

Position-Based Differences
It is believed that the three positions (guard, forward, center) generated very different analytical results because they serve very different purposes in the game. At the guard position, assists, steals, turnovers, and points were significant indicators of NBA career longevity, because the guard position most lends itself to the keeping of such statistics. Guards are quick, agile, versatile, athletic players with extremely high basketball IQs. In terms of statistics-keeping, they find themselves involved in many aspects of a basketball game. The nature of the position requires guards to be proficient in a number of categories, and their proficiency is easily witnessed by scouts, coaches, commentators, and fans. Guards’ impact on the game is readily quantified and measured by statistics.

The present study suggests that for forwards, in contrast, it would be difficult to predict NBA longevity using collegiate statistics. The position of forward is probably the most difficult from which to retrieve statistical data. For instance, in the NBA forwards are asked to play dual roles, with the position broken down into the small forward and the power forward. The small forward must be a fundamentally sound offensive and defensive player possessing some of the same skills that point guards and shooting guards possess. Small forwards must be able to pass the basketball, enabling teammates to score, as well as be able to score points themselves. Power forwards, on the other hand, are asked to play more like centers: They are the muscle of the team, playing strong inside, rebounding, and providing defense, though not relying on extreme quickness and athletic ability. While the results for forwards in this study are very difficult to assess, the results are understandable from a basketball standpoint.

Relative to guards and forwards, centers’ performance is less easily measured with statistics. The reason is that the tasks falling to centers are frequently among the intangibles of the game. At center, the player who can demand the attention of the opposing defense possesses a relatively great capacity to set up his teammates. This cannot always be measured with statistics, since the center can set up another player without having the basketball. In addition, centers who can face the opponent’s defense and play with their backs to the basket create numerous problems for the defense that cannot be measured statistically. Centers are usually proficient at blocked shots, rebounds, points, and field goal percentage. Good centers also drive a defense to “play honest,” preventing teams from overextending on the perimeter and forcing double teams. Furthermore, successful centers are physical and maintain good position while boxing out. Neither of these things can be measured with statistics, but both are essential to a team’s success. The intimidation factor of a 7-ft player may not show up in box scores either, but being able to tap that factor to alter opponents’ shots (if they cannot be blocked) is very important to success at the center position.

Between 1983 and 1987 a number of elite centers moved from the college ranks to the NBA, including Ralph Sampson, Hakeem Olajuwon, Patrick Ewing, Brad Daugherty, and David Robinson (Luft, 2001). These centers were drafted by the NBA in the 1980s. Since that decade, however, the only centers drafted during the top pick were Shaquille O’Neal, Michael Olowokandi, Yao Ming, and, most recently, Greg Oden (Luft, 2001). There appear to be far fewer true centers in the NBA lately, leading to statistics’ inability, in this study, to measure performance at the center position. The lack of traditional centers may be a result of the increasingly superior quality of basketball athletes. As they become quicker, more versatile, more athletic generally, those who might have become centers can instead play power forward. The center position is thus left to a small group of players who are relatively nonproductive, statistically speaking, and thus cannot be measured in the same way as forwards and guards (Luft, 2001).

Implications for General Managers
While the results of this study suggest that collegiate statistics offer little predictive power in terms of centers’ NBA career longevity, they also show that some statistical categories used by the NBA are predictors of the longevity of players at the guard and forward positions. The implication of the data analysis is thus that statistics, when used to augment scouts’ customary analysis of videotapes, should yield a sound assessment of a prospective player’s potential. Scouts typically prefer to observe an athlete in person to get a better feel for the athlete’s game and to note physical aspects of the athlete that may not appear on tape or in statistics. However, because it is a fact that players can go hot or cold on any given night, scouts should also acknowledge the extreme importance of statistical analysis. Statistics in basketball offers a powerful tool for avoiding bad player selections, although it is important always to remember that statistical analysis is one tool, not the ultimate word on player quality.

By gathering as much statistical information about a player as possible, a scout or general manager can make an informed decision supported by numbers, not reliant solely on emotion or other subjective criteria. Statistics may, furthermore, make it possible to identify undervalued skill sets offered by players at certain positions. In short, statistical analysis has a place in player evaluation strategies aimed at efficient use of draft choices and money.

Conclusions and Recommendations
A review of the literature shows the basketball scouting and player evaluation process leading to the NBA draft to be a difficult process and one that could benefit from more information in the form of statistical analysis. The data in the present study demonstrate that there is a relationship between collegiate play described statistically and career longevity in the NBA, as follows:

  • Assists, turnovers, and points recorded by guards over the year of college basketball play immediately preceding entrance into the NBA are related to NBA career longevity.
  • Assists, steals, turnovers, and points recorded by guards over 2 years of college basketball play immediately preceding entrance into the NBA are related to NBA career longevity.
  • Field goal percentage, free throw percentage, and assists recorded by forwards over the year of college basketball play immediately preceding entrance into the NBA are related to career longevity in the NBA.
  • Assists and rebounds recorded by forwards over 2 years of college basketball play immediately preceding entrance into the NBA are related to career longevity in the NBA.
  • The results of this study show a relationship between basketball’s statistics categories and NBA career longevity, but more work is needed to fully understand the predictive mechanism and provide general managers with more precise information. In addition, future studies should seek out data for the years prior to 1987–88 and following 2001–02, to begin to track historical trends in the relationship.

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Author Note
William Abrams is an attorney who studied law at Boston College and received his undergraduate degree from Michigan State University. He can be reached at abramswi@yahoo.com.

2013-11-25T22:03:05-06:00April 2nd, 2008|Contemporary Sports Issues, Sports Management, Sports Studies and Sports Psychology|Comments Off on Relationship of Selected Pre–NBA Career Variables to NBA Players’ Career Longevity
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