Her Life Depends on it III: Sport, Physical Activity and the Health and Well-being of American Girls and Women

Her Life Depends On It III is the Women's Sports Foundation's comprehensive report that reviews existing and emerging research on the links between participation in sport and physical activity and the health and wellbeing of American girls and women. As with the previous editions in 2004 and 2009, this study also confirms that physical activity and sport provides the critical foundation, in no small part, that allows girls and women to lead healthy, strong, and fulfilled lives. Ten years since its first publication, the updated Her Life Depends On It provides an even more comprehensive review of the ever-expanding body of research that demonstrates how important it is for girls and women to participate in sport and physical activity. The report's contents reflect the review of 1,500 studies, nearly 400 covered since the previous edition

Eye quietness and quiet eye in expert and novice golf performance: an electrooculographic analysis

Quiet eye (QE) is the final ocular fixation on the target of an action (e.g., the ball in golf putting). Camerabased eye-tracking studies have consistently found longer QE durations in experts than novices; however, mechanisms underlying QE are not known. To offer a new perspective we examined the feasibility of measuring the QE using electrooculography (EOG) and developed an index to assess ocular activity across time: eye quietness (EQ). Ten expert and ten novice golfers putted 60 balls to a 2.4 m distant hole. Horizontal EOG (2ms resolution) was recorded from two electrodes placed on the outer sides of the eyes. QE duration was measured using a EOG voltage threshold and comprised the sum of the pre-movement and post-movement initiation components. EQ was computed as the standard deviation of the EOG in 0.5 s bins from –4 to +2 s, relative to backswing initiation: lower values indicate less movement of the eyes, hence greater quietness. Finally, we measured club-ball address and swing durations. T-tests showed that total QE did not differ between groups (p = .31); however, experts had marginally shorter pre-movement QE (p = .08) and longer post-movement QE (p < .001) than novices. A group × time ANOVA revealed that experts had less EQ before backswing initiation and greater EQ after backswing initiation (p = .002). QE durations were inversely correlated with EQ from –1.5 to 1 s (rs = –.48 - –.90, ps = .03 - .001). Experts had longer swing durations than novices (p = .01) and, importantly, swing durations correlated positively with post-movement QE (r = .52, p = .02) and negatively with EQ from 0.5 to 1s (r = –.63, p = .003). This study demonstrates the feasibility of measuring ocular activity using EOG and validates EQ as an index of ocular activity. Its findings challenge the dominant perspective on QE and provide new evidence that expert-novice differences in ocular activity may reflect differences in the kinematics of how experts and novices execute skills

Unexpected and Usual Breaks\u27 Impact on Body Composition in College Athletes

Body composition is an important factor that determines athletic performance. At the elite level, margins of victory are narrow, with small changes in performance making the difference between victory and defeat. Changes in body composition affect performance, in both improvements and decrements. Athletes regularly experience breaks from structured activity and resources caused by expected circumstances (school breaks, off-season) and unexpected circumstances (injury, COVID-19). Due to differences in diet, physical activity, and other factors, breaks may cause changes in body composition that can hinder or help the athlete upon return to structured resources. Currently, there is a plethora of cross-sectional research about body composition in athletes and changes over the course of a competitive season. However, research about body composition change over breaks is lacking. The purpose of this dissertation was to examine changes in body composition among college athletes over a variety of breaks. Investigation of pre and post measures of body composition were completed during the COVID-19 lockdown (aim 1), winter breaks (aim 2), and summer training cycle (aim 3). Collectively, the results indicated that body composition changes over breaks (aims 1, 2, and 3) and that those changes are sex specific (aims 1 and 2). Aim 1 showed a loss of body fat for males and a gain of body fat for females. Aim 2 showed that males gained body fat during an extended winter break. Aim 3 showed male collegiate basketball players gained fat-free mass and lost fat mass during summer training, partly during a four-week break. Future research should determine how weight-impacting behaviors such as diet and physical activity differ when college athletes are on campus versus on breaks. This research can help athletics staff develop strategies to help athletes maintain optimal body composition and performance during breaks

Cardiac cycle oscillatory dynamics in a self-paced precision task

Purpose. A gradual and transient lengthening of the cardiac cycle (cardiac deceleration) is typically observed in the few seconds leading to self-paced precision actions and is reported as a feature of expertise. This study aimed to explore the time-frequency dynamics of this phenomenon.Method. Sixteen young adults of varying expertise (novices to experts) performed 60 golf putts at a 4-m distant target on a flat surface while their performance and electrocardiogram were recorded. We measured the intervals between consecutive R waves to examine variations in cardiac cycle length. We then applied continuous Morse wavelet transform to extract time-frequency normalized power and phase, respectively indicating the relative magnitude and the position of cardiac cycle oscillations. We used cluster-based permutation statistics to evaluate the linear correlation between cardiac cycle metrics and variable error of performance outcome as a reverse index of task precision.Results. Greater precision was associated with cardiac cycle lengthening (cardiac deceleration) not only in the final 5 s before movement but also around 10 s before movement and even with cardiac cycle shortening (cardiac acceleration) around 5 and 15 s before movement. Time-frequency analyses revealed that greater precision was associated with (a) lower normalized power for frequency content above 0.2 Hz and below 0.08 Hz, (b) greater cross-trial consistency of both normalized power and phase, and (c) a specific oscillatory phase consistent with a 0.15-Hz cardiac cycle lengthening beginning around 2.5 s before movement.Conclusion. This study provides evidence that the cardiac deceleration expertise effect may be part of a broader peripheral-nervous-system phenomenon consisting of 0.08-0.2 Hz oscillations, positioned in time so that the heart rate decelerates just before and during movement.<br/

The Role of Growth and Maturation During Adolescence on Team Selection and Long-term Sports Participation

Background: Increases in growth and maturation result in physiological improvements, which influence performance. Older, more mature athletes are often seen as more talented and selected onto teams. Those born early in the selection year (termed relative age (RA)) have an advantage over those born later. Little is known as to whether selection onto a team influences an individual’s long-term sports participation. The aims of this study were; (i) to investigate the relationship of RA, anthropometrics, and maturity to team selection and (ii) to investigate the long-term (3 years) consequence of selection on sports participation. Methods: 851 participants (580 male and 271 female) were recruited at bantam level sport tryouts in six team sports (soccer, hockey, football, basketball, volleyball, and baseball). Individuals’ date of birth, date of test, height, sitting height and weight were measured. Parental height was acquired. Age at peak height velocity (APHV) and predicted final height were estimated. Current sports participation was acquired via questionnaire. For analysis, athletes were grouped by team-selection, sex, sport and birth month quartiles. Birth month quartile analysis was done via chi-square goodness of fit test. Growth and maturation differences between selected and not selected groups was done via one-way ANOVA. Results: In the whole sample, first and second birth month quartiles were overrepresented (p 0.05). Male selected soccer players were significantly shorter and male selected hockey players were significantly taller (p < 0.05) than their non-selected counterparts. In soccer, basketball, and volleyball, selected athletes are more likely to continue in the sport, and not selected athletes are more likely to change sports. Discussion: While some differences exist between the growth and maturation of selected and not selected athletes during bantam tryouts, most sports appear not to be influenced. However, it would appear that, as a whole, athletes attending these tryouts already showed some bias in their dates of birth and anthropometrics. Over a 3-year period, sports selection did not appear to have a relationship with sports participation

An analysis of motor coordination in fit versus less fit young adult males

The purpose of this study was to compare the motor coordination components of movement between young adult males who are physically fit versus those who are less fit

The Influence of Training Load on Musculoskeletal Injury Risk Variables, Objective Fatigue, Subjective Well-Being, and Performance in Baseball Athletes

Baseball’s unique sport demands lead to a high prevalence of time-loss injuries. Previously identified injury risk factors in baseball include decreased shoulder strength, decreased shoulder range of motion, increased self-reported fatigue, excessive participation and limited rest and recovery. Sport participation may be monitored via training loads, which longitudinally track the physical work performed and the perception of difficulty of activity to identify when excessive participation occurs. Excessively high training loads and large changes to training loads influence injury risk in field sports, but there is no evidence in baseball players to indicate if training loads influence changes to musculoskeletal variables linked to injury. The purpose of this research study was to determine the influence of training load on musculoskeletal injury risk variables, objective fatigue measures, subjective well-being measures, and baseball performance. Baseball players were assessed every 4 weeks over the course of the fall semester for musculoskeletal injury risk variables, and objective fatigue measures. Participants provided daily reports of baseball-specific training load and subjective well-being variables. Baseball performance variables, average weekly fastball speed, weekly average fastball spin, and weekly average exit velocity were collected at each competition during the fall season. The results from this study indicate that baseball specific training load has significant effects on subjective well-being measures, including weekly average readiness, weekly average stress, and weekly average soreness. Baseball-specific training load had a mild effect on very few musculoskeletal injury risk variables and objective fatigue measures, including the functional reach tests and grip strength. There was almost no effect of baseball-specific training load on shoulder rotation range of motion, shoulder strength, single leg bridge test, jump height, jump power, or any baseball performance variable. Baseball-specific training loads influence variables that may play a role in illness and injury in athletes, so utilizing training loads to monitor baseball participation may be useful to determine when baseball players are at risk for injury and illness. Future research should continue to investigate baseball-specific training loads to understand how they specifically influence injury risk in baseball players.Doctor of Philosoph