U.S. Sports Academy

Service Personnel as a Key Success Factor in a Sports Environment

Authors: Philipp Sauer, Brandon D. Spradley, Fred J. Cromartie

Affiliations: United States Sports Academy

Corresponding Author:
Philipp Sauer, Ed.D.
Breddestr.36
58452 Witten
Germany
japhil@t-online.de
+49 151 44510307

Philipp Sauer received his doctoral degree (Ed.D.) in Sports Management from the United States Sports Academy. Furthermore, he is an alumnus of the University of Liverpool, UK and the European University of Applied Sciences, Germany. His academic work mainly focuses on service and customer relationship management.

ABSTRACT
Organizations have learned that services contribute largely to the success of product selling. The arrival of the Internet has transferred power from the suppliers to the customers. There are several industries, which have experienced heavy changes in the last few decades. The financial and travel industries are two prime examples of how rigid structures have changed significantly.

Like organizations from traditional industries, sport organizations face the challenge of meeting the rising expectations of spectators. A successful philosophy that focuses on total quality orientation in the transaction of the provider with the consumer asks organizations to clearly define their customers for being able to identify and respond to needs, but also to influence what is perceived service quality by the targeted segment of the market (Papadimitriou & Karteroliotis, 2000).

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U.S. Sports Academy2017-02-14T08:59:39-06:00March 16th, 2017|Sports Management|Comments Off

The Home Court Advantage: Evidence from Men’s College Basketball

Author: David T. Yi

Corresponding Author:
David T. Yi
Department of Economics
Xavier University
3800 Victory Parkway
Cincinnati, Ohio 45207
Email: yid@xavier.edu
Phone: 513-745-2933.

David Yi is Chair and Associate Professor of Economics at Xavier University in Cincinnati Ohio.

The Home Court Advantage: Evidence from Men’s College Basketball

ABSTRACT
The home court advantage in team sports is a well-established phenomenon whose true causes are not yet fully known despite the varying range of theories. In this paper, the researcher employs a stochastic production frontier model and explains the home court advantage phenomenon as an efficiency-enhancing phenomenon. Home teams, when supported by the home team’s crowd, play better with enhanced game efficiency. It is not simply playing aggressively at home or the familiarity of the home court that gives the home teams advantage over visiting teams, but rather the home court atmosphere enhances the home teams to play up to their potential.

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U.S. Sports Academy2017-02-13T13:05:55-06:00March 9th, 2017|Sports Studies and Sports Psychology|Comments Off

The Role of Emotions for 4 Athletes in Nordic Combined in Ski Jumping Competitions in World Cup

Authors: F. Moen, J. Vitsøe, V. Rasdal, K. Myhre and Ø. Sandbakk

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

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

ABSTRACT
This study looks at how emotions were associated with ski jumping competitions in world cup for four athletes representing the Norwegian national team in Nordic combined. The athletes documented their emotional experiences during competition rounds (trial-, and competition rounds) and non-competitive episodes (the period just after the competition round). The results in this study show that there is no clear relationship between emotions and performance between- and within the different episodes among the athletes. However, both hedonic emotions and eudaimonic emotions were experienced at high levels across all the measured episodes. Eudaimonic emotions were significantly higher during competing episodes (trial- and competition round) compared with non-competing episodes. Anger and sadness were higher after both trial jumps and competing jumps, whereas the opposite pattern was found for fear: more fear was experienced during jumps than after jumps. The results are discussed in regard of applied implications and possible future research.

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U.S. Sports Academy2017-03-08T08:12:50-06:00March 2nd, 2017|Sports Studies and Sports Psychology|Comments Off

Ethics, Integrity and Well-Being in Elite Sport: A Systematic Review

Authors: Deborah Agnew, Philippa Henderson and Carl Woods

Corresponding Author:
Deb Agnew, PhD
GPO Box 2100
Adelaide, South Australia, Australia 5001
deb.agnew@flinders.edu.au
+61 8 8201 3456

Dr. Deborah Agnew: is a lecturer in the School of Education at Flinders University in South Australia. Her research interests include Australian football, masculinity, sports retirement and men’s health. She is a member of the Flinders SHAPE (Sport, Health and Physical Education) Research Centre and teaches in the Bachelor of Sport, Health and Physical Activity.

Ms. Philippa Henderson: has a Masters degree in public health and teaches across a wide variety of health topics in the School of Education and the School of Health Sciences at Flinders University in South Australia. Her research interests include sport, physical activity and well-being as well as the health and well-being of children.

Dr. Carl Woods: is a lecturer of Skill Acquisition and Motor Learning in the Discipline of Sport and Exercise Science at James Cook University. His research primarily focuses on talent identification, talent development and coaching in junior team sports; with a particular interest in Australian football. He currently provides research support to Australian football State Academy programs; with this being oriented around different aspects of performance analysis, skill acquisition and coach education.

Ethics, integrity and well-being in elite sport: A systematic review

ABSTRACT
Background: Athletes are expected to be good role models, compete fairly and allow the public insight into their personal lives away from sport.
Objective: The purpose of this paper was to conduct a systematic review on integrity, ethics and well-being in elite level sport.
Methods: A systematic search of SPORTDiscus, ScienceDirect, Taylor & Francis and Informit was conducted. The selection criteria were; published between 2006-2016, full-text availability, peer reviewed and English language. Twenty-three articles met the criteria for inclusion in this review and were analysed through an inductive thematic synthesis approach.
Results: Three themes emerged through the inductive thematic synthesis approach; sportspersonship and ethics, scandal and well-being. The concept of sportspersonship extends beyond the rules of sport and is strongly linked to the character of athletes. Sports environments are a key factor in the well-being of athletes and contribute to the expectations placed on athletes, particularly with regard to winning.
Conclusions: Ethics, integrity, sportspersonship and well-being are interrelated concepts in elite sport. Expectations placed on athletes may be unrealistic and may have negative consequences on well-being. It is important to understand the factors contributing to athlete well-being in order to develop strategies to minimize the adversities faced by athletes.

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U.S. Sports Academy2017-01-19T09:14:49-06:00February 23rd, 2017|Sports Studies and Sports Psychology|Comments Off

Democratic Leadership Preferred by Male Student Athletes in Middle School Athletic Programs

Authors: Raymond Tucker

Corresponding Author:
Raymond Tucker, D.S.M, CSCS, FMSL1, USATFL1, USAWLP-1
Assistant Professor of Kinesiology
University of Houston at Victoria
3007 N. Ben Wilson
Victoria, Texas 77901
Phone: (361)-570-4381
rtbills2001@gmail.com

Raymond Tucker is an assistant professor of Kinesiology at the University of Houston at Victoria. He is a graduate of the United States Sports Academy with a Doctorate in Sports Management, and he is a certified strength and conditioning specialist by the National Strength and Conditioning Association. He is also a certified coach by the United States Track and Field Association, United States Weightlifting Federation, and Functional Movement Systems. He is certified by the state board of educator certification in Texas in health grades (EC-12) and secondary physical education (6-12).

Democratic Leadership Preferred by Male Student Athletes in Middle School Athletic Programs

ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to determine the perceived behavior style of leadership male student athletes in middle school athletic programs prefer their coaches use in their daily relations with their athletes. This study compared male athletes’ perception of their coach’s behavior style of leadership at three different middle schools to determine if the perceived behavior style of leadership is comparable between male coaches at the respective middle schools in this study.

Results of a previous study entitled “Male Athletes Perception of Coaches Behavior in University Interscholastic Middle School Middle Athletic Programs”, detected a statistically significant difference in the behavior styles of leadership perceived by male athletes at the respective middle schools in this study in the following dimensions. 1) democratic training, instruction, (2) autocratic, training, and instruction, (3) social support and training instruction, (4) positive feedback and democratic behavior, (5) positive feedback and autocratic behavior, and (6) positive feedback and social support. This previous study did not disclose a statistically significant difference between middle schools in the dimensions of (1) positive feedback, training, and instruction, (2) autocratic and democratic behavior, (3) social support and democratic behavior, (4) social support and autocratic behavior. The data collected from this study was based on male athlete’s perception of the behavior style of leadership used by their coaches. The results of this study revealed a high mean score for the democratic behavior style of leadership compared to autocratic behavior, positive feedback, social support, training, and instruction. Based on the results of the data for this study, we can conclude the democratic behavior style of leadership is the behavior style of leadership used by coaches at the respective middle schools in this study. What follows is the basis for this study, procedures used to conduct the research, an analysis of the data, conclusions, application in sport, and finally, recommendations for further research on this topic.

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U.S. Sports Academy2017-01-18T10:18:40-06:00February 16th, 2017|Sports Coaching|Comments Off