Visual Perception Strategies during Anticipation of the Kuda and the Sila Service in Sepak Takraw

Two major types of services in sepak takraw are kuda and sila services. Even though both services are delivered at high speed, each is composed of different kinematic features. As a result, the receiver in the game is constantly playing under severe time constraint in his effort to intercept the service action from the opponent. The purpose of the study was to determine the fundamental differences in perceptual strategies in anticipating the kuda and sila services. It was hypothesized that players would employ different perceptual strategies to overcome the time constraint. The receiver of the game in sepak takraw makes decisions under severe time constraint in both spatial and temporal uncertainty. Previous research showed that success in the game depended on visual perception of the players as well as the efficiency and accuracy of the interceptive actions. There were also evidence of players using advance visual kinematic cues to guide their anticipatory responses. The ability to use kinematic cues is extremely crucial in ballistic sports where speed of the game and velocity of the ball dictate the decision which must often be made ahead of time. Thus, this study was conducted on the premise that anticipation depends upon kinematic information. In turn, kinematic information induces varying anticipatory demands. To test the research hypotheses, the study was conducted in two phases; (i) temporal analyses of the kuda and sila services and (ii) visual perceptual strategies in anticipating the kuda and sila services. Kinematic data for the first phase of the study was obtained from a video recording of a sepak takraw match during the Kuala Lumpur Sea Games 2001. Peak Motus 7.0 software was used to perform a three dimensional temporal analysis on 50 randomly selected services of each type. The main focus of the first phase of the study was to conduct temporal analyses on the movements for each type of services based on pre determined temporal phases. The second phase of the study examined two groups of 12 players each; the experts and the novices. Players’/ The visual perceptual displays in anticipation of the kuda and sila services were prompted using video stimulations consisting of 7 temporal occlusions t1 (240 milliseconds at pre-contact), t2 (160 milliseconds at pre-contact), t3 (80 milliseconds at pre-contact, t4 (0 millisecond at contact), t5 (80 milliseconds at post-contact), t6 (160 milliseconds at post-contact), and t7 (no occlusion). The findings of the study revealed that there were significant differences in the temporal features of kuda and sila services during the pre-contact [F(1,99) = 3421.25; p< .05], contact [F(1,99) = 31.96; p< .05], post-contact [F(1,99) = 91.93; p< .05], and movement time of the receiver [F(1,99) = 409.39; p< .05]. Confidence interval analyses showed significant differences among experts in anticipating kuda service at t1. Significant differences amongst expert players in anticipating kuda and sila services were at t1 [F(14,180) = 2.37; p< .05], t2 [F(14,180) = 5.60; p< .05], t3 [F(14,180) = 3.81; p< .05] dan t4 [F(14,180) = 2.00; p< .05]. Similar comparisons at t5, t6, and t7 did not yield any significant differences. In addition, there were significant differences amongst novice players in anticipating kuda and sila services at t2 t2 [F(14,180) = 2.27; p< .05], t3 [F(14,180) = 1.94; p< .05], t4 [F(14,180) = 2.61; p< .05], and t5 [F(14,180) = 9.38; p< .05]. However, significant differences were not observed at t1, t6, and t7 amongst these same players. Two hypothetical models have been established from the study of temporal analyses, namely Hypothetical Model of the Kuda Service and Hypothetical Model of the Sila Service. The study showed that expert players found it harder to anticipate kuda service compared to sila service at t1. Hence, the kuda service is more difficult to anticipate than sila service. The participants of this study demonstrated a more effective/ efficient visual perceptual strategy to counterattack a sila service than they would a kuda service. Finally, it is proposed that a combination of spatial occlusion and point light display be utilized to identify the types of information that players should focus on as anticipatory cues. Future study should look into the combination of both motor and perceptual skills in facilitating better decision making by players. In addition, further exploration using semi-longitudinal study, 3D image technique, and varying time frames is strongly recommended

Psychological skills assessment and referee rugby sevens performance

This study aims to examine the psychological skills that are commonly used among referees rugby sevens and their relationship with referees’ performance. The Psychological Skills Inventory for Sports (Mahoney, Gabriel, & Perkins, 1987) was adapted and modified specifically for use by rugby sevens referees. It was administered to 132 rugby sevens referee (mean age 33.4 + 1.5 years; 132 males) of the Malaysian Rugby Union (MRU) which has been refereed in 10 rugby sevens tournament in Malaysia. The psychological skills variables employed in the questionnaire included confidence, anxiety management, mental preparation, motivation and concentration. The IRB Referee Sevens Performance Evaluation Form (r=0.94) was used to evaluate referee performance. These instruments measure the performance variable that contains the dimensions of control, communication, application of the law and the positioning. The descriptive statistics of the variables are Psychological skills (M= 120.14, SD= 6.97) and performance (M= 136.45, SD= 4.47) identified at a moderate level. Findings indicated no significant differences [F= (3, 72) =.636, p>0.05] in psychological skills across age levels but there are significant differences [F= (3, 128) =57.616, p<0.05] across experience levels. Highly experienced referees scored significantly higher in all psychological constructs compared to less experienced referees. Variables that showed strong and positive relationships with performance were anxiety management (r= .61), concentration (r= .57), confidence(r= .54) and motivation (r= .50). In conclusion, the psychological skills assessment can improve the efficacy of rugby referees and recommends that referee coaches increase the use of psychological skills in competitions and future training. Researchers should investigate the effectiveness of applied sport psychology interventions in enhancing referee performance in the future

Psychological skills assessment and referee rugby sevens performance

This study aims to examine the psychological skills that are commonly used among referees rugby sevens and their relationship with referees’ performance. The Psychological Skills Inventory for Sports (Mahoney, Gabriel, & Perkins, 1987) was adapted and modified specifically for use by rugby sevens referees. It was administered to 132 rugby sevens referee (mean age 33.4 + 1.5 years; 132 males) of the Malaysian Rugby Union (MRU) which has been refereed in 10 rugby sevens tournament in Malaysia. The psychological skills variables employed in the questionnaire included confidence, anxiety management, mental preparation, motivation and concentration. The IRB Referee Sevens Performance Evaluation Form (r=0.94) was used to evaluate referee performance. These instruments measure the performance variable that contains the dimensions of control, communication, application of the law and the positioning. The descriptive statistics of the variables are Psychological skills (M= 120.14, SD= 6.97) and performance (M= 136.45, SD= 4.47) identified at a moderate level. Findings indicated no significant differences [F= (3, 72) =.636, p>0.05] in psychological skills across age levels but there are significant differences [F= (3, 128) =57.616, p<0.05] across experience levels. Highly experienced referees scored significantly higher in all psychological constructs compared to less experienced referees. Variables that showed strong and positive relationships with performance were anxiety management (r= .61), concentration (r= .57), confidence(r= .54) and motivation (r= .50). In conclusion, the psychological skills assessment can improve the efficacy of rugby referees and recommends that referee coaches increase the use of psychological skills in competitions and future training. Researchers should investigate the effectiveness of applied sport psychology interventions in enhancing referee performance in the future

Managing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): A case study at an aerospace manufacturing facility

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) is a performance measurement tools that an Aerospace Manufacturing facility has decided to implement in order to remain cost competitive. Since KPIs was a new concept that the company was embracing, the challenge was on managing the KPIs throughout the entire organization.This study is focused on the planning, designing, and implementing the KPIs project.Methodologies such as the semi-structure interview, focus group discussion, benchmarking were used in order to identify the gap, prepare crucial information for the development of the KPIs and gauge KPIs knowledge level of the top management who are going to be responsible for the development and deployment of the company’s KPIs. Results of a successful KPIs design and deployement will also be discussed in this paper

The effect of Facebook use on academic job performance / Nina Farisha Isa... [et al.]

As an academic use of social networking sites (SNS) has been playing a vital role in the way of doing business in education industry. Therefore, the present study is to propose a concept of ‘task characteristics’ using task- technology fit model. In this regard, this paper extend knowledge from Lee and Lee (2018) model that examine the use of Facebook on office workers. However, there is still lack of study about the relationship between SNS use and job performance in the context of academic industry especially in hospitality and tourism faculty. Thus, this study has implications for academic industry that are concerned about formulating policies related to academic use of SNS

News Reporting of Injury Prevalence in Football: A Study of Selected Nigerian Online Newspapers

Despite the importance of football as an effective means of developing physical activity and fitness, routine data of football-related injuries are either inadequate or underreported, particularly in Nigeria. To develop an understanding of the football-related injuries and determine the prospects for prevention, logical and useful information specifying the occurrence of these incidents is necessary. Using a content analysis of 94 football-related news articles, this study identified the most commonly reported football-related injuries in Nigerian newspapers and determined their extent of coverage from agenda-setting perspectives. Altogether, five national newspapers with the highest readership and online popularity were selected using purposive sampling. Only football-related news articles were collected from the respective websites of the newspapers using internet-based searches between January 2015 and September 2019.The findings showed that knee, ankle, and hamstring are the most commonly affected locations in football-related injuries according to the news reports.This study shows that media-based analysis of football-related injuries could supplement other methods, such as prospective and retrospective analyses, particularly in the Nigerian context

The application of support vector machine in classifying potential archers using bio-mechanical indicators

This study classifies potential archers from a set of bio-mechanical indicators trained via different Support Vector Machine (SVM) models. 50 youth archers drawn from a number of archery programmes completed a one end archery shooting score test. Bio-mechanical evaluation of postural sway, bow movement, muscles activation of flexor and extensor as well as static balance were recorded. k-means clustering technique was used to cluster the archers based on the indicators tested. Fine, medium and coarse radial basis function kernel-based SVM models were trained based on the measured indicators. The five-fold cross-validation technique was utilised in the present investigation. It was shown from the present study, that the employment of SVM is able to assist coaches in identifying potential athletes in the sport of archery

The Identification of High Potential Archers Based on Fitness and Motor Ability Variables: A Support Vector Machine Approach

Support Vector Machine (SVM) has been shown to be an effective learning algorithm for classification and prediction. However, the application of SVM for prediction and classification in specific sport has rarely been used to quantify/discriminate low and high-performance athletes. The present study classified and predicted high and low-potential archers from a set of fitness and motor ability variables trained on different SVMs kernel algorithms. 50 youth archers with the mean age and standard deviation of 17.0 ± 0.6 years drawn from various archery programmes completed a six arrows shooting score test. Standard fitness and ability measurements namely hand grip, vertical jump, standing broad jump, static balance, upper muscle strength and the core muscle strength were also recorded. Hierarchical agglomerative cluster analysis (HACA) was used to cluster the archers based on the performance variables tested. SVM models with linear, quadratic, cubic, fine RBF, medium RBF, as well as the coarse RBF kernel functions, were trained based on the measured performance variables. The HACA clustered the archers into high-potential archers (HPA) and low-potential archers (LPA), respectively. The linear, quadratic, cubic, as well as the medium RBF kernel functions models, demonstrated reasonably excellent classification accuracy of 97.5% and 2.5% error rate for the prediction of the HPA and the LPA. The findings of this investigation can be valuable to coaches and sports managers to recognise high potential athletes from a combination of the selected few measured fitness and motor ability performance variables examined which would consequently save cost, time and effort during talent identification programme