The Role of "Non-Traditional" Physical Activities in Improving Balance in Older Adults: A Review

Recent research indicates that the number of people aged over 60 years is rising faster than any other age group which will put increased financial and social strains on all countries. One major focus of various health and social care agencies is not only to keep these older individuals healthy but also physically active and independent. Many older people lead inactive lives which together with the ageing process lead to physiological changes which have potentially damaging effects on balance control and are risk factors for falls. Research shows that physical activity improves mental health, often stimulates social contacts and can help older people remain as independent as possible. This paper has attempted to review existing research on physical activities and exercise intervention used to improve balance in older adults. Using relevant databases and keywords, 68 studies that met the inclusion criteria were reviewed. Results indicate that many traditional activities can help to improve balance in older adults. However, further investigations need to be conducted into activities that are not generally considered appropriate for older people but may be enjoyable and have health benefits and may help to improve balance in this population

Attention and time constraints in performing and learning a table tennis forehand shot

This is a section on p. S95 of article 'Verbal and Poster: Motor Development, Motor Learning and Control, and Sport and Exercise Psychology' in Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 2010, v.32, p.S36-S237published_or_final_versio

Stories for Change

This compendium of nearly 50 best practices showcases the notable strategies that increase access to arts and culture for older adult and immigrant populations. Newcomers and older adults (65 +) are two of the fastest growing populations -- communities across the country are grappling with a demographic makeup that is increasingly diverse and proportionally older than in the past. Arts and cultural organizations have the opportunity to reach-out, to increase resources in the community, and to engage populations that are at risk for being overlooked."Stories for Change" is a compelling collection, brimming with new ideas brought to fruition by many types of organizations including: museums, libraries, community development organizations, theaters, orchestras, dance ensembles, area agencies on aging, transportation bureaus, parks, botanic gardens, universities, and more. Organizations that hope to enhance the lives of their older and immigrant residents can find approaches portrayed in these Stories that can be adapted to meet the needs of their communities.Best practices include the well-known Alzheimer's Project of the Museum of Modern Art, which has been adapted to museums around the country, and Circle of Care, a unique ride share program that partners young people with older adults to attend free arts performances in Boulder, Colorado. Stories are located in rural, mid-size, and metropolitan settings; many can be easily implemented, and do not require a major overhaul of staffing, operations, or an organization's mission

The frequency of falls in children judo training

Purpose: Falling techniques are inseparable part of youth judo training. Falling techniques are related to avoiding injuries exercises (Nauta et al., 2013). There is not good evidence about the ratio of falling during the training in children. Methods: 26 children (age 8.88±1.88) were video recorded on ten training sessions for further indirect observation and performance analysis. Results: Research protocol consisted from recording falls and falling techniques (Reguli et al., 2015) in warming up, combat games, falling techniques, throwing techniques and free fighting (randori) part of the training session. While children were taught almost exclusively forward slapping roll, backward slapping roll and sideward direct slapping fall, in other parts of training also other types of falling, as forward fall on knees, naturally occurred. Conclusions: Judo coaches should stress also on teaching unorthodox falls adding to standard judo curriculum (Koshida et al., 2014). Various falling games to teach children safe falling in different conditions should be incorporated into judo training. Further research to gain more data from groups of different age in various combat and non-combat sports is needed

Fear of crime and victimization among the elderly participating in the self-defence course

Purpose. Self-defence training could enhance seniors´ defensive skills and fitness. There is lack of evidence about fear and concerns of seniors participating in the self-defence course. Methods. 18 elderly persons (16 female, 1 male; age 66.2, SD=5.86) participated in the self-defence course lasting 8 training units (each unit 60 minutes). Standardized tool for fear of crime and victimization analysis previously used in Euro-Justis project in the Czech Republic (2011) was used in pretest and posttest. Results. We explored the highest fear of crime by participants in their residence area after dark (mean=2,77; median=3; SD=0,80), lower fear at the night in their homes (mean=2,29; median=2; SD=0,75) and in their residence area at the daytime (mean=2,00; median=2; SD=0,77) at the beginning of the course. We noticed certain decrease of fear of crime after the intervention. Participant were less afraid of crime in their residence area after dark (mean=2,38; median=2; SD=0,77), they felt lower fear of crime at the night in their homes (mean=2,00; median=2; SD=0,48) and in their residence area at the daytime (mean=1,82; median=2; SD=0,63). Conclusions. The approach to self-defence teaching for elderly should be focused not just on the motor development, but also on their emotional state, fear of crime, perception of dangerousness of diverse situations and total wellbeing. Fear of crime analysis can contribute to create tailor made structure of the self-defence course for specific groups of citizens

Enhancing Technical Proficiency of Collegiate Ballet Dancers through Customized Strength and Conditioning Programs: An Empirical Study

Objective: This empirical study was designed to compare the effectiveness of a structured strength training program to a skill-based conditioning program, enhancing ballet-specific movement efficiency. The selected parameters include hip external rotation, hip hyperextension strength, single leg jump height, dynamic balance, and technique proficiency. Methodology: Participants (n=10) were randomly assigned to a six-week intervention: Progressing Ballet Technique (PBT) or Weight Training (WT). Data was collected from the following assessments at baseline and collected again following the six-week intervention:single-leg jump height (JH), single-leg center of pressure (COP) landing deviations, dance- specific star balance excursion test (dsSEBT), hip external rotation (HER), hip hyperextension strength (HES). Participants also participated in a technique performance assessment (TPA) evaluated by qualified external examiners. Rater scores were averaged over both assessments: adagio (slow, sustained movements), petit allegro (quick, fast movements). Results: TPA: The PBT group had nonsignificant (p=0.098) improvements for the adagio (pre: 4.80±1.33; post: 5.26±1.33) and petit allegro (p=0.874) assessment scores (pre: 4.63±1.65; post: 4.77±2.16). The WT Adagio also had nonsignificant (p=0.319) improvement for the adagio (pre:5.66±0.95; post: 6.26±1.00), and significant (p=0.018) petit allegro scores (pre: 5.17±1.62, post: 6.78±1.15). Further analysis and discussions of these results can be found in the full text. Conclusion: These investigations showed that while neither group proved statistically superior, Weight Training (WT) may be favorable due to the all-around potential benefits. Dynamic balance improvements may have a relationship with adagio skills. Still, the small intervention groups and six-week duration may not have demonstrated the full capacity of either intervention

EEG coherence between the verbal-analytical region (T3) and the motor-planning region (Fz) increases under stress in explicit motor learners but not implicit motor learners

This journal supplement contains abstracts of NASPSPA 2010Free Communications - Verbal and Poster: Motor Learning and Controlpublished_or_final_versionThe Annual Conference of the North American Society for the Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity (NASPSPA 2010), Tucson, AZ., 10-12 June 2010. In Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 2010, v. 32 suppl., p. S13

Dance and Sport

The purpose of this research is to investigate dance and sport as two individual yet intertwining fields. Areas of inquiry include the artistic/aesthetic sports of the Olympic Games particularly rhythmic gymnastics, synchronized swimming, and ice dancing; the artistry and athleticism of cheerleading, dance team, and dancesport; the athleticism in dance companies such as STREB, Pilobolus, Bandaloop, and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre; and the athleticism in the dance training system of Lester Horton. Similarities in corporeal and intellectual practices of athletes and dancers are also explored as they manifest in cross-training, somatics, dance and sports medicine, higher education, and collaboration. The culmination of my research is the creation of Sound Mind Sound Body, a choreographic work bringing a team of dancers together to collaborate and train as athletes as well as performing artists.SUNY BrockportDanceMaster of Fine Arts in Dance (MFA)Dance Master’s These

Dance injury monitoring, strength and conditioning training for decreasing injury incidence for Chinese pre-professional dancers

A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of Wolverhampton for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.The high prevalence of dance injuries affects elements of training, rehearsals, performance, and even the daily lives of those involved. Therefore, reducing and preventing dance injuries is an ultimate goal. Previous studies have evidenced that greater levels of physical fitness have been linked to decreased injury incidence and improved dance performance, whilst they had not been reviewed. The systematic review, for the first time, systematically reviewed the efficacy of physical fitness training on dance injury. It included 10 studies that met the inclusion criteria from an initial 2450 publications. These studies offered physical fitness training for professional (n = 3) and pre-professional dancers (n = 7), participant sample size ranged between 5 to 62, ages from 11 to 27 years, and most participants were females. Assessment scores were classified as Fair (n = 1), Limited (n = 7), and Expert Opinion Only (n = 2) and risk of bias scores ranged from 22.7% to 68.2 %. After physical fitness training, 80 % of studies reported significant benefits in injury rate, the time between injuries, pain intensity, pain severity, missed dance activities and injury count. This review suggests that physical fitness training could have a beneficial effect on injury incidence in dance. The evidence is limited by the current study methodologies. Based on this evidence, the following studies (studies 1-4) focused on improving the level of evidence in study design, dance injury tracking methods, physical fitness training content and load, and dance injury reduction. In addition, previous research has mostly focused on Western populations, with only a few studies examining Chinese dancers. Therefore, using exclusively Chinese dancers, the aims of this thesis were fourfold: (a) to investigate and compare injury prevalence, causes, and risk factors before and during the COVID-19 lockdown, (b) to develop a dance injury monitoring tool on a weekly basis and examine its efficacy of weekly reporting and respondent compliance, (c) to determine injury incidence and injury severity of Chinese full-time pre-professional dancers using the injury monitoring tool, and (d) to examine the efficacy of strength and conditioning training on dance injury, physical fitness, and dance performance. Study 1 investigated dance injury in 2086 full-time Chinese pre-professional dancers pre- and post-COVID lockdown. Self-reports revealed that injury prevalence dropped significantly from 39.6% to 16.5% during this period (p<0.01). During the lockdown, the injuries on the lower back, feet and shoulders decreased significantly (p<0.01), but the knee, ankle and groin joint injuries remained the same. Fatigue and the recurrence of an old injury remained reported as the top two perceived causes of an injury between the two periods. Study 2 developed a weekly online dance injury monitoring tool and examined its efficacy. A total of 756 respondents from 16 different Chinese dance schools engaged in the survey. Over a two-semester period, the dropout rate was 70.1%, with student respondents under 18 years of age having a slightly lower drop-out rate than adult respondents (69% vs 71%). It was concluded that the researchers would need to weigh reduced completion rates (<100%) against data efficacy to achieve generalizability. Study 3 determined dance injury incidence and severity in full-time Chinese pre-professional dancers using the injury monitoring tool developed in Study 2. A total of 450 individuals’ data from 11 different schools were included in the analyses. The injury prevalence was 64.9%, and the injury incidence was 5.51 injuries per 1000 hours. Forty-eight percent of the injuries were minor severity and 41% were of moderate severity. Female dancers are at a higher risk of injury and reported higher levels of injury severity than male dancers (p<0.001). Study 4 examined the effects of a strength and conditioning training intervention on dance injury, physical fitness and dance performance. A total of 89 full-time pre-professional dancers participated. Sixty-seven dancers volunteered for a 12-week strength and conditioning training intervention (2-session/week, 40-60-min/session), and 22 dancers acted as controls. The injury was self-reported using the dance injury monitoring tool (Study 2). The intervention group significantly increased physical fitness (p0.05). The intervention group reported lower injury prevalence (28% vs 15%, p<0.001) and injury incidence (8.09 vs 5.16 injuries per 1000hrs, p<0.05) than the previous year. In conclusion, this thesis examined dance injury epidemiology following the COVID-19 arrival for a sizable sample size of Chinese pre-professional dancers and then determined injury incidence at a higher level of evidence using an innovative self-developed dance injury monitoring tool. Building on this, this thesis reinforced the positive effect of strength and conditioning training on dance injury incidence. The thesis has contributed to moving one step closer to reducing and preventing dance injuries and enriching the diversity of participants in dance injury studies.China Scholarship Council