A developmental outlook on the role of cognition and emotions in youth volleyball and artistic gymnastics

Developmental and cognitive psychology recently started to take an interest in the sports domain, exploring the role of either cognitive functions or emotions in youth sport. However, to the extent that cognition and emotions are inextricably linked, studying them jointly from a developmental perspective could inform on their interplay in determining performance in different sports. This research examined the role of general cognitive abilities, attentional style, and emotions (controlling for age and experience), in predicting performance in youth volleyball and artistic gymnastics. A total of 218 female participants, of which 114 volleyball players and 104 artistic gymnasts (11-17 years old) were administered two measures of working memory and six measures of executive functions (namely inhibition, updating, and shifting). They also completed an attentional style and an emotion-related questionnaire. For each volleyball player, an individual performance index based on every gesture performed during the games and controlled for the team performance was computed. As a measure of gymnasts' performance, scores in 2017-2018 competitions were used. Regression analysis showed that the main predictor of the volleyball players' performance (R-2 = 0.23) was a working memory-updating factor (ss = 0.45, p = 0.001), together with experience (ss = 0.29, p = 0.030) and high-arousal unpleasant emotions (ss = 0.30, p = 0.029), which positively predicted performance. Experience (ss = 0.30, p = 0.011), age (ss = -0.036, p = 0.005) and high-arousal unpleasant emotions (ss = -0.27, p = 0.030) were the predictors of gymnasts' performance (R-2 = 0.25). These results represent a first step in understanding if and how youth female athletes of open- and closed-skills sports rely on different psychological abilities. This line of research could offer insight to practitioners regarding which psychological abilities could be more relevant to train depending on the type of sport

Fan Motives for Identifying with Professional Tennis Players

The purpose of this study was to examine motivations used by tennis fans in identifying with professional tennis players and thereby developing fan loyalty and support. No prior work has focused on fan motivations toward individual players in an individual sport. This non-experimental study design used an online survey technique to solicit responses from adult tennis fans through a variety of tennis organizations, tennis clubs, tennis training facilities, and tennis websites and blogs. Surveys responses were solicited from January through February 2017. Of the original 460 total respondents, 28% (n = 101) reported having no favorite professional tennis player and were excluded from the analysis. The remaining sample (n = 359) was uniformly divided by gender (male fans = 49.5% and female fans = 50.5%). A favorite male professional tennis player was reported by 98.5% of tennis fans and a favorite female professional tennis player was reported by 56.8% of tennis fans. Fan status was divided between player and spectator (93.3% of respondents, n = 335) or spectator only (6.7% of respondent, n =24). Experience for player and spectator fans was M = 26.5 years (SD = 15.2) and for spectator only fans was 26.9 years (SD = 14.8). Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) validated the proposed eight-factor motivation model for the intended purpose in this study. Principle components analysis (PCA) revealed two components accounting for 57.6% of the total variance: Component 1 (43% of total variance) revealed highest loadings for professional athlete reputation, behavior, personality, philanthropy, and athlete as a hero. Component 2 (14.6% of total variance) revealed highest loadings for athlete physical attractiveness and vicarious identity. Physical attractiveness of male professional tennis players and female professional tennis players was a significant motivation (p = .0005) for both male tennis fans and female tennis fans. Fans identifying as player and spectator (78% of total) ranked player skills, behavior, reputation, and personality as the top four motivations (based on ranking of mean scores) toward both male and female professional tennis players. Male professional tennis player behavior (p = .022), reputation (p = .035), and philanthropy (p = .033) were significant motivations based on fan experience and the importance of each appeared to increase with increasing fan experience. Male professional tennis player skills were significant (p = .010), did not trend with fan experience, but appeared most important to those fans with the most experience. In contrast, female professional player as a hero (p = .015) was a significant motivation based on fan experience, but was least important among those fans with the most experience. These findings add to the basic literature concerning fan motivations and may be used by promoters of major tennis events to increase fan attendance and to enhance the fan experience and loyalty. Professional tennis players may also consider these findings as a guide by which they may enhance or repair their standing with tennis fans

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

A multicomponential examination of tennis players’ emotional responses to music

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.The principal aim of this research programme was to examine multiple components of competitive tennis players’ emotional responses to pre-performance music. To this end, four objectives were defined: First, to develop a grounded theory (Glaser & Strauss, 1967) of players’ use of music to manipulate emotional state; second, to examine the impact of altering music tempo and intensity on players’ affective and behavioural responses; third, to identify neural origins for these phenomena; and fourth, to elucidate the role of motoneuron excitability in behavioural responses observed. These objectives were realised in four interrelated studies. First, 14 players provided quantitative and qualitative interview, questionnaire, and diary data to detail their use of personally emotive music; a grounded theory and associated model were consequently developed to facilitate future research and practice. Participants used music to attain five broad emotional states, including psyched-up; this was associated with faster tempi and louder intensities (volumes). Study 2 was conceived to examine the effects of manipulating these variables on 54 players’ affective and behavioural states, using measures based on Russell’s (1980) affective circumplex and reaction times (RTs). Faster tempi elicited higher valence and arousal, loud intensity yielded higher arousal and shorter RTs; and higher arousal was associated with shorter RTs. Functional magnetic resonance imaging was utilised in Study 3 to identify neural bases for 12 participants’ emotional responses to the same music manipulations; emotion-processing, visuomotor and sensorimotor structures were activated under high-arousal conditions. Transcranial magnetic stimulation and electromyography were used in Study 4 to investigate changes in 10 participants’ corticospinal excitability as a result of listening to purposively selected music; optimised music elicited higher arousal and reduced corticospinal response latencies. The foremost contribution of this thesis is to show that music variables may be carefully selected and/or manipulated to maximise performance-facilitating emotional responses to music in tennis

PLAY THE BALL WITH YOUR COGNITIVE RESOURCES , STICK THE LANDING WITHOUT ANXIETY. A Study on Cognition and Emotions in Youth Volley Ball Players and Artistic Gymnasts

This study aims to address two shortcomings in sport psychology research: the scarcity of cognitive and developmental psychology studies in sports (Furley &amp; Wood, 2016), and the lack of an integrated approach, i.e. comprising both cognition and emotion, to study sports performance. The aim of this research is to examine the role of general cognitive abilities, attentional style and emotions in predicting performance in different sports, namely volleyball and artistic gymnastics. We tested 218 youth participants (104 artistic gymnasts and 114 volleyball players, aged between 11 and 17 years) with different measures of working memory capacity and executive functions (i.e. updating, shifting and inhibition). They completed two self-report measures, a Test of Attentional and Interpersonal Style and a questionnaire on the emotions experienced before a competition. For each participant, we collected the age and years of experience. The scores collected in 2017 competitions were the artistic gymnasts\u2019 performance measures. For each volleyball player, we computed an individual performance index, by asking two independent judges to rate their video-recorded performances in 2017-18 competitions. Then we derived, from our measures, ten predictors, namely a working memory-updating factor, an inhibition-shifting factor, four attentional style indicators and four groups of emotional states derived from the crossing of two dimensions, specifically the arousal (high activation or low activation) and the hedonic tone (pleasant or unpleasant). The regression analyses pointed to a clear dissociation. On the one hand, the working memory-updating factor was the only predictor (together with the experience) of the volleyball players\u2019 performance, with a moderation effect of emotional arousal on this relationship. On the other hand, experience and higharousal unpleasant emotions (the latter with a negative coefficient) were the only predictors of artistic gymnasts\u2019 performance. This evidence underlines how performance in open-skills sports (volleyball), where athletes need to process a significant amount of information, mainly depends on working memory, while in closed-skills sports (artistic gymnastics), where gestures are highly automatized, it is affected by emotion regulation. Further differences between the sports sample are also described in the dissertation

Media portrayals of athletes in televised sports: a content analysis of ice hockey broadcasts during the 2010 Winter Olympic Games

The Winter Olympic Games are probably the best time for casual sports fans to watch women\u27s ice hockey at its finest, and the commentary of sports broadcasters can greatly shape viewers\u27 impressions of the sporting event. This study explored ways in which the NBC broadcasts of the 2010 Winter Olympic ice hockey tournament differed based on the sex of the ice hockey players including differences in production value, the use of gendered language, and the commentators\u27 portrayals of female and male ice hockey players. The primary method for ascertaining differences was content analysis using a mixed-methods approach to analyze the descriptions of athletes. Chi-Square analysis was used to compare category frequencies between female and male athletes. Results showed similar levels of production value other than the use of the telestrator in which all uses were during the men\u27s games. Gendered language was also present. For example, the women\u27s competition was gender marked frequently as women\u27s hockey, there were many references to female players with male-gendered terms such as defensemen, and commentators named female players by just their first names. Finally, the coding of the informative, descriptive, and evaluative commentary showed that female athletes were portrayed as athletes first with the top-ranked description being their fine technical skills. However, commentators also focused on the female players\u27 emotions and personalities indicating that these aspects also contribute to their success and thus perpetuating that gendered stereotype in sports

A study of athlete engagement, athlete identity and individualism: Collectivism cultural behaviours among Filipino Athletes compared with US American Athletes

The focus of this study is the Filipino athlete, how they engage with their sport and the influence in this process of their cultural background and the way in which they construct their personal identity as athletes. These aspects are further studied in comparison with a sample of their US American counterparts. Athlete Engagement (AE) is a fairly new concept in sport psychology. It has been developed from the concept of employee engagement in industrial/organizational psychology where it was operationalised with the dimensions of vigour, dedication and absorption (Hakanen, Schaufeli & Aloha, 2008). Similar dimensions were explored in the first two research studies on AE by Lonsdale, Hodge and Raedeke (2007) and Lonsdale, Hodge and Jackson (2007). AE has been found to be “a persistent, positive, cognitive-affective experience in sport characterized by confidence, dedication and vigour” (2007, p.451). The first study in the present enquiry surveyed 70 Filipino and 62 US American athletes. AE was explored in relation to the athletic identity and the individualism- collectivism cultural behaviours of these athletes. AE was measured through the use of the Athlete Engagement Questionnaire (AEQ); athletic identity was measured through the Athletic Identity Measurement Scale-Plus (AIMS-Plus); and individualism- collectivism cultural behaviours were measured through the Auckland Individualism Collectivism Scale (AICS). No differences were found between the levels of global AE reported for the two national groups (p=.489). However at the level of the subscales the US sample engaged with greater confidence (p=.014) and dedication (p=.001) whereas the Filipino group engaged with more vigor (p=.023) and enthusiasm (p=.044). There was no difference found between the two groups for their individualist behaviours (p=.236) or the strength of their athletic identities (p=.739). It was therefore concluded on the basis of these findings that, regardless of their national cultural background, athletes were primarily individualistic and had high levels of athletic identity. The second study sought to explore these differences further through the use of qualitative techniques. Following the model applied by Lonsdale, Hodge and Raedeke (2007) with a sample of New Zealand athletes, the Scanlan Collaborative Interview Method was used to gather information from 10 Filipino and 10 US American athletes. It was found that although both samples experienced the same engagement dimensions, their experiences were also strongly influenced by their cultural orientation identified as spirituality' among the Filipinos and 'character' among the US American athletes. Both spirituality and character were initially considered as AE dimensions before being interpreted as moderating variables. The third study examined differences in the way that athletes engage at two different points in the same season, namely before and after a major competition. Filipino (n=26) and US American athletes (n=l 8) from two university elite soccer teams were the subjects. Surveys were conducted two weeks before their major tournament and two weeks following. Two-way ANOVA with level of AE as the dependent variable, showed no main effect for time (p=.990) but a significant main effect for nationality (p=.013). The US athletes reported significantly higher levels of engagement both before and after the competition. There were no interactions observed (p=.243). Stepwise regression analysis showed that for the US American athletes a model with AI as a significant variable (p<.001; p=.013) was able to significantly predict AE both at the pre- competition stage (R square = .554) and at the post- competition stage (R square=.559) . For the Filipino samples a model containing both individualism (p=.001) and collectivism (p=.017) strongly predicted engagement at the pre- competition stage (R square=.637), whereas at the post competition stage a model (R square=.585) containing only the variable AI (p<.000) provided the best prediction of engagement. It was concluded that the explanation for these differences lay in the interaction of national cultural characteristics with the specific socio-environmental circumstances experienced by the athletes themselves. It is concluded from this program of studies that the concept of AI has relevance in enhancing AE even where cultural and socio-economic circumstances might provide obstacles to optimal achievement in sport. As such awareness of this is important for athletes, coaches, trainers and sport psychologists in collectivist cultures as they work together to create and implement training programs for athletes to help them perform at the optimal level

The feasibility of sports grips customisation using rapid manufacturing methodologies

In many sports where an implement is used to strike a ball, the grip is typically the sole point of contact between the player and implement. The grip significantly influences how a player wields an implement and is also a means for a player to experience impact forces and vibration. This transmission of force and vibration to the hand can affect a player's control, perception of the equipment, and also expose a player to injury or provoke degeneration of existing maladies. In general, the grip is the least expensive component of an implement. Little development over the previous two decades has been invested on the grip when compared to the vast changes in design, geometry and materials used in the implements which they are attached to. The development and flexibility of a group of manufacturing processes collectively known as rapid manufacturing have begun to introduce customised products to the mass-market. The main advantage of rapid manufacturing processes is the lack of tooling required, allowing parts to be produced directly from 3D CAD models using an expanding range of polymers and other materials. The integration of rapid manufactured parts into recreational sports equipment has not previously been attempted and is the focus of this work, with tennis selected as the candidate sport. [Continues.