The Yips: A Phenomenological Investigation into the Experience of a Lost Movement

This dissertation investigates the experience of the yips, a phenomenon in athletics in which individuals lose the ability to perform a basic, habitual movement of their sports. There is a growing body of research which frames the yips as a movement disorder with possible physical or psychological etiologies, or with components of both. This study centers on the experiences of athletes with the yips, seeking to understand the nature and meaning of the relationship between yips-experienced individuals and their yips, as well as what these meanings reveal about the yips in general. A qualitative study was conducted using semi-structured interviews with four participants with experiences with the yips. Two participants experienced the yips in golf and two in baseball. Interviews were analyzed according to hermeneutic phenomenological methods and five primary themes were identified and described: the yips are an experience of the ‘anonymous body;’ the yips are revealed in social relationships; the yips phenomenon is distributed in time; the yips shows itself as a whole-person contraction within the phenomenal field; and expansive experiences help athletes regain their lost movement. This study suggests that the yips phenomenon exists in a complex matrix of personal history, social relationships, and embodied activity, and that probing this dynamic interplay of personal factors can contribute to our overall understanding of the yips phenomenon. Additionally, these findings support recent research that emphasizes psychological factors in the genesis of the yips

A preliminary clinical prediction model for upper-extremity injury in collegiate baseball: a single-center retrospective study

Context: Evidence-based practice (EBP) has become a point of emphasis in athletic training education and clinical practice. One approach to EBP is utilizing clinical prediction models (CPM) to assist clinicians in the screening, diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of injury. A number of isolated risk factors, which can be categorized as: (a) self-report outcome scores, (b) sport performance factors, or (c) functional performance measures (FPMs), have been identified and suggested to be causal with regard to upper-extremity (UE) sports related injury (SRI) in baseball athletes. Objective: to develop a preliminary CPM for UE SRI derived from multiple factors specific to self-reported outcome measures, sport performance risk factors, and FPMs. Design: Retrospective cohort study. Setting: National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I baseball program. Subjects: Thirty-six athletes who completed the preseason pre-participation examination, the Kerlan-Jobe Orthopaedic Clinic overhead athlete shoulder and elbow score (KJOC-SES,) and the Targeted Enhanced Athletic Movement Screen (TEAM-S). Main Outcome Measures: Independent variables for this study included the self-reported outcome measures (KJOC-SES), sport performance risk factors, and FPMs (TEAM-S). The dependent variable for this study was self-reported history of UE SRI. Results: Univariate analyses identified nine predictor variables that differed between injured and non-injured athletes (p ≤ 0.10): KJOC-SES, playing position (pitcher), single leg squat stride foot, single leg squat balance foot, shoulder mobility test throwing arm, shoulder mobility test non-throwing arm, CKCUEST (TEAM-S score), and CKCUEST (absolute score). Forward step-wise logistic regression yielded a resultant two-factor clinical prediction model consisting of playing position and KJOC-SES. The two-factor CPM based on KJOC-SES scores ≤ 86 and playing position (pitcher) yielded diagnostic utility measures as follows: Sensitivity of 83% (95% CI: 0.55 to 95); Specificity of 95% (95% CI: 79 to 99); Positive likelihood ratio of 22.0 (95% CI: 2.88 to 138.5); and negative likelihood ratio of 0.17 (95% CI: 0.04 to 0.61). Conclusion: A preliminary two-factor CPM comprised of KJOC-SES (≤ 86) and playing position (pitcher) retrospectively predicted UE SRI in a cohort of baseball players with strong diagnostic utility

Robo-Ump: A Study of the Prospective Impact of Automated Strike Zone Use in Major League Baseball Games from the Perspective of Broadcasters and Media

A qualitative analysis of the Major League Baseball industry’s perspective on the use of technology within the game, specifically the incorporation of an automated strike zone in place of traditional umpires, through targeted survey results from current MLB broadcasters and journalists or media members. Evidence from the research suggests that though those who are in favor of umpires being replaced by technology within the game, at least in some fashion, there are concerns that the technology in place is currently ready to provide the type of experience desired for MLB play when it comes ruling on balls and strikes with an automated system. In addition, there was a sentiment that the human element within the game as it relates to umpires has value and the complete loss of the human element would not be wanted. The evidence also shows there is a belief that an automated strike zone within MLB games could have a profound impact on the balance between offense and pitching that could change the game considerably. In terms of the impact an automated strike zone would have on the work of media and broadcasters, it was generally considered limited, though broadcasters did note that there would be a change in their rhythm and timing of calls on pitches and the data illustrate that a move to automated strike zone would provide a new topic for media to discuss. Advisor: Richard Allowa

The Twelve-Year-Old Girl\u27s Lawsuit That Changed America: The Continuing Impact of Now v. Little League Baseball, Inc. at 40

In 1972, Little League\u27s national office forced 12-year-old Maria Pepe off her Hoboken (N.J.) team because [g]irls are not eligible. The New Jersey Division on Civil Rights sustained her gender discrimination claim in 1973, and the courts upheld the administrative decision a year later. National reaction to Maria Pepe\u27s courageous insistence on gender equity helped sustain the evolution in gender roles that had accelerated since the Women\u27s Movement of the 1960s. Her landmark legal action also likely influenced the Supreme Court\u27s gradual movement toward intermediate scrutiny of gender discrimination claims; the 1975 federal regulations that assured Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 a prominent role in elementary, secondary and higher education; and children\u27s socialization concerning gender roles in our society

Major League Baseball\u27s Monopoly Power and the Negro Leagues

This article argues that the demise of the Negro Leagues was caused by the confluence of several factors. First, the Negro Leagues operated with weak relational contract structures, a condition exacerbated by their over-reliance on star players. Second, and perhaps most important, integration forced the Negro Leagues to compete in a market dominated by the monopoly power of the Major Leagues. By 1922, perhaps earlier, the Major Leagues had acquired a monopoly over the market for White professional baseball players in the United States through its reserve system. Thereafter, the Major Leagues strengthened that monopoly with the development of Branch Rickey’s other great innovation: the development of the minor leagues as the farm system for the Major Leagues. Finally, the owners of the Negro Leagues appear to have accepted the inevitability of extinction. This article first describes the relational contract structures of the Negro Leagues. Second, it examines the possible circumstances under which the Negro Leagues or some remnant could have survived after the integration of the player market. Third, the article describes how the Major Leagues acquired and maintained a monopoly over the market for White professional players through the reserve system, and the subsequent inclusion of Black players. That part further explains how the use of that monopoly power destroyed the Negro Leagues. Finally, the article discusses various legal strategies that the Negro Leagues could have used in trying to survive