Background: Despite their prominence in the sport and human movement sciences, to date, there is no systematic insight about the development and content of movement quality assessments in athletic populations. This is an important gap to address, as it could yield both practical and scientific implications related to the continued screening of movement quality in athletic contexts. Hence, this study aimed to systematically review the (i) developmental approach, (ii) movements included, (iii) scoring system utilised, and (iv) the reliability of movement competency assessments used in athletic populations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn a recent issue of Psychological Research, Bock, O., Huang, J-Y., Onur, O.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: To explore the relationships between physical fitness and i) technical skills and ii) time-loss from Australian football injury in female players across the talent and participation pathways.
Methods: This study uses a subset of data from two cross-sectional and one prospective cohort studies. A total of 223 female Australian football players across five competition levels (elite/non-elite senior, high-level junior, and non-elite junior (14-17 years)/(10-13 years)) were included in this study.
In our societally extractive age, sport science risks being swept up in the intensifying desire to commodify the experiences of those that scientists proclaim to study. Coupled with the techno-digital revolution, this stems from a vertical (onto)logic that frames the sporting landscape as a static space filled with discrete objects waiting for us to capture, analyse, re-present and sell on as knowledge. Not only does this commodification degrade primary experience in the false hope of epistemological objectivity, it reinforces the unidirectionality of extractivism by setting inquirer apart from, and above of, inquiry.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSocio-cultural constraints shape behaviour in complexifying ways. In sport, for example, interconnected constraints play an important role in shaping the way a game is played, coached, and spectated. Here, we contend that player development frameworks in sport cannot be operationalised without careful consideration of the complex ecosystem in which they reside.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Observational tools can help refine practice design and guide the creation of effective learning environments. The intention of this study was to design and validate an observational instrument for assessing physical literacy that remains more faithful to the philosophically complex and holistic nature of the concept.
Methods: Framed by concepts of ecological dynamics, the emergent games-based assessment tool enables capture of children's interactions with their environment, providing insight on the manifestation of physical literacy within physical education games.
Despite the importance placed on the design and delivery of formal coach education programs by Football Australia, there remains a lack of research relating to how formal coach education strategies support Australian football (i.e., soccer) coaches and their coaching practices.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis conceptual analysis aims to challenge the state of high-performance sport by questioning the concept of . To start, we offer a brief, but critical overview of what specialization currently entails. Then, shifting the paradigm, we suggest an expansion rather than a reduction of developmental possibilities once an athlete reaches the "top".
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Sedentary, digital screen time in children represents a major concern due to its detrimental effect on children's development. Nowadays, however, advances in technology allow children to actively interact with a digital screen using their whole body (e.g.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn professional team sports, like Rugby League, performance analysis has become an integral part of operational practices. This has helped practitioners gain deeper insight into phenomena like team and athlete behaviour and understanding how such behaviour may be influenced by various contextual factors. This information can then be used by coaches to design representative practice tasks, inform game principles and opposition strategies, and even support team recruitment practices.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEvaluating practice design is an important component of supporting skill acquisition and improving team-sport performance. Constraint manipulations, including creating a numerical advantage or disadvantage during training, may be implemented by coaches to influence aspects of player or team behaviour. This study presents methods to evaluate the interaction between technical, tactical and physical behaviours of professional Australian Football players during numerical advantage and disadvantage conditions within a small-sided game.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTo examine the repeated bout effect (RBE) following two identical resistance bouts and its effect on bowling-specific performance in male cricketers. Male cricket pace bowlers (N = 10), who had not undertaken resistance exercises in the past six months, were invited to complete a familiarisation and resistance maximum testing, before participating in the study protocol. The study protocol involved the collection of muscle damage markers, a battery of anaerobic (jump and sprint), and a bowling-specific performance test at baseline, followed by a resistance training bout, and a retest of physical and bowling-specific performance at 24 h (T24) and 48 h (T48) post-training.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAn important consideration for sport practitioners is the design of training environments that facilitate skill learning. This study presented a method to determine individual (age, games played, height, mass, and position), environmental (activity type) and task (pressure and possession time) constraint interaction to evaluate player training behaviour. Skill actions (n = 7301) were recorded during training activities (n = 209) at a single professional Australian Football club and four measures of player behaviour were determined: disposal frequency, kick percentage, pressure, and possession time.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWhat would it mean to consider research in the sport sciences as a sustainable practice? Taking a step back, in such a context, what would sustainability even mean? The time is ripe to address such questions, and what we lay out here are our initial thoughts on this most contemporary of issues. We start by exploring what is meant by the term 'sustainability'. Rather than following mainstream thinking-the harnessing of earthly resources commodified and exploited as 'renewables'-we situate it in the sport sciences as a continuing response-ability to the experiences of others.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEdwards, T, Weakley, J, Woods, CT, Breed, R, Benson, AC, Suchomel, TJ, and Banyard, HG. Comparison of countermovement jump and squat jump performance between 627 state and non-state representative junior Australian football players. J Strength Cond Res 37(3): 641-645, 2023-This cross-sectional study investigated differences in lower-body power of state and nonstate representative junior Australian football (AF) players through countermovement jump (CMJ) and squat jump (SJ) performance.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn this paper, we consider how youth sport and (talent) development environments have adapted to, and are constrained by, social and cultural forces. Empirical evidence from an 18-month ethnographic case study highlights how social and cultural constraints influence the skill development and psychological wellbeing of young football players. We utilized novel ways of knowing (i.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDuration is a key component in the design of training activities in sport which aim to enhance athlete skills and physical qualities. Training duration is often a balance between reaching skill development and physiological targets set by practitioners. This study aimed to exemplify change point time-series analyses to inform training activity duration in Australian Football.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: To examine physical fitness profiles of female Australian football players and investigate differences according to competition level.
Methods: A testing battery of 28 physical fitness assessments was undertaken with 240 players across five competition levels: elite senior (≥18 years), non-elite senior (≥18 years), high-level junior (<18 years), non-elite junior (14-17 years), and non-elite junior (10-13 years). Physical fitness profiles were examined and competition level differences were investigated using multivariate analyses of variance.
Objectives: To profile the kicking and handballing accuracy of female Australian football (AF) players and investigate potential differences across five competition levels.
Methods: Female AF players were classified into five competition levels: elite senior (≥18 years) (=35), non-elite senior (≥18 years) (=58), high-level junior (<18 years) (=32), non-elite junior (14-17 years) (=38), and non-elite junior (10-13 years) (=42). Modified AF kicking and handballing tests examined accuracy outcomes.
Information technology has been integrated into most areas of sport, providing new insights, improving the efficiency of operational processes, and offering unique opportunities for exploration and inquiry. While acknowledging this positive impact, this paper explores whether sufficient consideration has been directed towards what technology risks detracting from the learning and developmental experiences of its users. Specifically, viewed through the philosophical lens of the device paradigm, and considering a more ecological account of technological implementation, we discuss how technology use in sport could subtly disengage educators and applied sports scientists from performance environments.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: To describe injury profiles of Australian football players and explore trends across five, women's and girls' competition levels.
Design: Prospective cohort study.
Methods: Injuries were prospectively recorded by team personnel across one or two seasons of Australian football (2017-18 and/or 2018-19) including five, women's and girls' competition levels (elite senior, non-elite senior, high-level junior, non-elite junior (14-17 years), and non-elite junior (10-13 years)).
The aim of this study was to explore differences in the physical fitness and anthropometric profiles between birth year quartiles of players attending the Australian Football League (AFL) National Draft Combine. Date of birth, anthropometric, 20 m sprint, vertical and running vertical jump, AFL planned agility, and 20 m Multi-Stage Fitness Test (MSFT) data were obtained for players selected to attend the Combine between 1999 and 2019 (n = 1549; M = 18.1; SD = 0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe current study examined the acute effects of a bout of resistance training on cricket bowling-specific motor performance. Eight sub-elite, resistance-untrained, adolescent male fast bowlers (age 15 ± 1.7 years; height 1.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe promotion of inter- and multidisciplinarity - broadly drawing on other disciplines to help collaboratively answer important questions to the field - has been an important goal for many professional development organisations, universities, and research institutes in sport science. While welcoming collaboration, this opinion piece discusses the value of transdisciplinary research for sports science. The reason for this is that inter- and multidisciplinary research are still bound by disciplinary convention - often leading sport science researchers to study about a phenomenon based on pre-determined disciplinary ways of conceptualising, measuring, and doing.
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