Evaluating the experience of the Olympic and Paralympic Games in the career histories of elite equestrian athletes.

Equestrian sport has been present on the Modern Olympic programme since 1900 with Para-Equestrian Dressage making its debut at the 1996 Paralympic Games. Due to the combined governance of Olympic and Paralympic versions of the sport, the mixed gender of competition and the potential age range of competitors, equestrian sport provides an opportunity through which to understand a unique context of athlete experience. This thesis has sought to identify and evaluate athlete experience within the context of the Olympic and Paralympic Games and to place this experience within the wider career histories of members of the British Equestrian Team. This study utilised a combination of a systematic literature review methodology and ethnographic data collection and analysis with a critical realist approach, creating a framework that values interpretive insights into how the subjects perceive and construct their world whilst at the same time considering ways in which the literature and individual subjects identify, comment on, and frame the reality of the world of equestrian sport. This study has resulted in the emergence of six themes pertaining to experiencing the games; equestrian sporting culture, identity, values, challenges, performance support and success. Results show many similarities and shared experiences for both the Olympic and Paralympic equestrian athletes. The differences regarding the lived experience for these athletes are predominantly associated with the development of the sport, the relative short Paralympic history of equestrian sport in comparison to the Olympic disciplines, and the place of the Games in the context of the riders career histories. Recognising and understanding the kinds of satisfactions and challenges that individuals experience, the significant features of their athlete identity, and the structural constraints and opportunities of their environment may help identify and design the services and provision required to support the athletes through this elite sporting experience

The Dutch National Research Agenda in Perspective

The Dutch National Research Agenda is a set of national priorities that are set by scientists working in conjunction with corporations, civil society organisations, and interested citizens. The agenda consolidates the questions that scientific research will be focused on in the coming year. This book covers the current status of the Dutch National Research Agenda and considers what changes and adjustments may need to be made to the process in order to keep Dutch national research at the top of the pack. Beatrice de Graaf holds one of the chairs of the Dutch National Research Agenda and is chair of History of International Relations and Global Governance at Utrecht University. Alexander Rinnooy Kan holds the other chair of the Dutch National Research Agenda and is university professor of economics and business studies at the University of Amsterdam. Henk Molenaar is the secretary of the Dutch National Science Agenda

Development of a practical model for coaches to use mental skills training to enhance psychological strengths for athletes

This thesis investigated the effectiveness of mental skills training. A meta-analysis (Study 1) was conducted to examine the existing evidence on mental skills training interventions: goal setting, self-talk, relaxation, imagery and multicomponent as performance enhancing strategies in the sporting domain. A total of 128 studies with 684 effect sizes were included in the final meta-analysis. Overall, mental skills training had a moderate, positive association with performance outcomes (d = .72, 95% CI = [.60, .85]). The I2 analysis showed that 18% of the variation was attributable to differences within study and 70% was attributed to between studies. Mental practice length was a significant moderator, showing that comparatively shorter duration of mental practice improved performance more substantively. An intervention research approach was undertaken to investigate the effectiveness of the mental skills training with football players in Fiji. Test of Performance Strategies, short form (TOPS 2S) was developed (Study 2) and utilised for the intervention in a cross-cultural setting in Fiji (Study 3). There were three parts in the intervention study, which examined the following: the cross-validation of the TOPS 2S (Part A); intervention effects on mental skills use (Part B1), psychological strengths (mental toughness, self-concept, life effectiveness, and flow, Part B2); and football performance (Part C). Part A, the cross-validation results, showed that the TOPS 2S had consistent moderate reliability and acceptable (Hu & Bentler, 1999) fit indices. Part B, the quantitative component of the intervention study, showed the significant intervention effect on the use of goal setting, self-talk, relaxation and imagery. Furthermore, there were mediation effects on the psychological strengths; mental toughness, self-concept, flow, and life effectiveness. Part C, the qualitative component of the intervention, was the school coaches’ perception of the intervention, and the findings demonstrated that the “train the trainer” model was an effective form of intervention delivery for the players, as well as coaches. The coaches reported that the multicomponent program not only helped the players improve their football performance, but also enhanced their well-being. Coaches, who were classroom teachers, incorporated mental skills programs in their teaching practice to enrich student learning, and reported personal gains such as better emotion regulation and improved classroom and behaviour management

Sociological approaches to the sexed running body and its construction through magazine and memory 1979-1995

This thesis explores the transforming embodiment of sex that is integral to the development of running/jogging culture between 1979-1995. Actor-network theory, a foucauldian approach and critical realism are each used to elucidate different aspects of running including the way it defines sex through the body, clothing, space and the rules and practices of running, jogging and racing

Constructive expertise: a critical, ecological and micro-developmental perspective on developing talent

A multitude of performance domains pursue the goal of understanding how we develop talent and expertise. Therefore, the main objective of the present work was to embrace this pursuit whilst operating in a sporting context. The work initially adopted an exploratory, critical and investigative approach to the problem with the remaining series of studies emerging from these initial findings. Study 1 utilised ethnographic enquiry over an eighteen month period whilst working in collaboration with the Rugby Football Union Elite Referee Unit. The study found shifts in existing perspectives of expertise and talent development including a) the movement from a descriptive and phase-staged approach to one which is dynamic and non-linear, b) nonnormative as well as normative influences, c) recognition of an 'expert self as intrapersonal, interpersonal, group and social, d) expertise development existing at micro-, meso- and macrodevelopment levels, e) an integrative, contextualised and multiplicative nature of expertise, f) emergent as well as planned development, g) identification of a 'nested' and ecological outlook of expertise acknowledging the necessity of a positive 'talent development environment'. Additionally, mechanisms of expertise expanded on the existing theory of deliberate practice to include 'deliberate experience' and 'transfer of skills'. In sum- study 1 encountered an approach to expertise which embraced complexity and paradox, was equally psycho-social dynamic than intrapersonal and fostered the necessity for a creation of contexts from which elite performance can morph. From these findings, and alternative studies and readings, a period of reflection occurred where models of 'non-linear and dynamical systems', 'talent development environments', 'adaptive expertise', 'fractal models' and the promotion of adaptive expertise, self-regulation and meta-cognitive skills required to negotiate the complex pathway associated with eminent performance was explored before a final sense-making notion of 'expertise as constructivism' was embraced. The remainder of the work embraced this constructivist approach of expertise and talent development which was then researched in collaboration with the Scottish Small-Bore Shooting team over a two year period. The period of work embraced 'constructivism as action research'. Study 2 utilised an 'ecological task analysis' of the Scottish Small Bore Shooting team and its members to identify constraints and affordances of excellence. It also served as a benchmark of existing levels of expertise which were evaluated at the end of the action research. Study 3 served as the primary research study and assessed the overall efficacy of the constructivist developmental approach inclusive of major transition processes over the two year period as served by the constructivist design. The program was deemed successful in relation to performance outcomes at the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games. Study 4 focused on the importance of creating constructivist 'talent development environments' in comparison to an existing work of literature. Findings suggest a constructivist talent development environment which attends to both the planned and emergent nature of expertise requires fostering. Finally, a theoretical model of constructivist expertise and talent development is offered encompassing the overall findings of the work

"It's not about luck": the production of Australian elite athletes

This thesis examines the mechanisms of athletes’ training to explore the production of Australian elite athletes within a premier national sports training institution in Canberra, Australia. Drawing on the twenty months of ethnographic fieldwork I undertook while living on campus at the institution, this thesis analyses the everyday practices and the numerous training processes of athletes as well as the contributions of coaches and sports science and sports medicine experts involved in crafting athletes into distinctive, elite subjects. Situated in the sporting embodiment literature within the broader field of the anthropology and sociology of sport, this project advances the empirical research on elite athletes, on elite sports institutions and on the complex mechanisms of training elite athletes. I explore the linking mental, moral, emotional, temporal, physiological and subjectified mechanisms of training that inform athletes’ daily lives and lived embodiment. Much of the existing research has examined one single sport, and relatively homogenous demographics of sporting participants. In contrast this thesis looks at male and female athletes in senior and junior levels of elite sport across a range of sports. In doing this, it sheds light on the shared experiences of the multiple mechanisms of elite training to create elite athletes. Through the theoretical lens of Michel Foucault and a phenomenological understanding of habitus I explore how the disciplinary techniques of training produced by multiple agents influence elite athletes’ embodiment and experiences of the cultural norms of elite sport. Through the investigation of the mental, moral, emotional, temporal, physiological and subjectified mechanisms of training, I observe how the production of elite athletes is particularly marked by temporally informed micro-regimes, Hochschild’s (1979 and 1983) ‘emotion work’ and Mauss’s (1973) ‘techniques of the body’. In examining the influence of an elite athlete work ethic discourse and the moral code of elite sport on athletes through interlinking mechanisms of training, I argue that the production of Australian elite athletes is not about luck. Instead, an elite athlete’s habitus is reconstituted through interlinking mechanisms of training that are produced by multiple agents, including coaches, sports science and sports medicine experts and athletes alike, which craft elite athletes as distinct subjects

Reservoir Computing: computation with dynamical systems

In het onderzoeksgebied Machine Learning worden systemen onderzocht die kunnen leren op basis van voorbeelden. Binnen dit onderzoeksgebied zijn de recurrente neurale netwerken een belangrijke deelgroep. Deze netwerken zijn abstracte modellen van de werking van delen van de hersenen. Zij zijn in staat om zeer complexe temporele problemen op te lossen maar zijn over het algemeen zeer moeilijk om te trainen. Recentelijk zijn een aantal gelijkaardige methodes voorgesteld die dit trainingsprobleem elimineren. Deze methodes worden aangeduid met de naam Reservoir Computing. Reservoir Computing combineert de indrukwekkende rekenkracht van recurrente neurale netwerken met een eenvoudige trainingsmethode. Bovendien blijkt dat deze trainingsmethoden niet beperkt zijn tot neurale netwerken, maar kunnen toegepast worden op generieke dynamische systemen. Waarom deze systemen goed werken en welke eigenschappen bepalend zijn voor de prestatie is evenwel nog niet duidelijk. Voor dit proefschrift is onderzoek gedaan naar de dynamische eigenschappen van generieke Reservoir Computing systemen. Zo is experimenteel aangetoond dat de idee van Reservoir Computing ook toepasbaar is op niet-neurale netwerken van dynamische knopen. Verder is een maat voorgesteld die gebruikt kan worden om het dynamisch regime van een reservoir te meten. Tenslotte is een adaptatieregel geïntroduceerd die voor een breed scala reservoirtypes de dynamica van het reservoir kan afregelen tot het gewenste dynamisch regime. De technieken beschreven in dit proefschrift zijn gedemonstreerd op verschillende academische en ingenieurstoepassingen

2011, UMaine News Press Releases

This is a catalog of press releases put out by the University of Maine Division of Marketing and Communications between January 3, 2011 and December 30, 2011