THE EFFECT OF CONCUSSiON HISTORY ON POSITIONAL BALANCE ABILITY IN RUGBY UNION ATHLETES

Head traumas account for 29% of all injuries in professional rugby. Concussions are thought to have only a short-term effect on balance. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether concussion history affected a rugby team's ability to maintain balance and determine which sensory system was most affected. Thirty male academy rugby athletes separated into backs and forwards performed the m-CTSIB on the Biodex Balance SD system. The forwards, who had more rugby experience and concussions in comparison to the backs, produce substantially larger sway index scores (worse balance) in all four conditions. Useful future research could involve a longitudinal study which allowed baseline balance scores to be established and compared over time

The Effect of Coupled Shoulder Girdle and Hip Extensor Strength Training on Sprint Performance and Ball Speed in Youth Field Hockey Players

Sprint performance is important in many team sports including field hockey. Despite this, so far no studies have examined the effect of strength training on sprint performance in this cohort. Previous studies in other sports have shown a positive association between the increases in lower body strength and improvements in sprint performance. An often overlooked aspect of sprinting is the role of the upper extremities in the sprint action. Another key skill in field hockey is shooting where a player’s ability can be evaluated based on ball velocity and the time taken to execute a shot. Similarly to sprinting no studies have examined the effect of strength training on ball speed in field hockey. Research looking at both sprinting and ball striking in other sports have highlighted the importance of both the shoulder girdle and hip extensor musculature. Therefore it was the aim of this thesis to ascertain whether strengthening the hip extensors and shoulder girdle specifically could improve both sprint performance and ball speed in youth hockey players and establish inter-relationships between sprint speed, ball velocity, shoulder girdle and hip extensor strength in hockey players. Chapter 3 presents the reliability for two novel isometric assessments, the isometric lateral pulldown (ILP) and isometric hip thrust (IHT), amongst 10 male participants with at least 2 years of structured resistance training. The IHT had a relatively small (6%) mean difference (MDiff) and effect size ([ES] 0.14) indicating moderate to good reliability between testing sessions. A test-retest intraclass correlation (ICC) of 0.97 in combination with a coefficient of variation (CV) of 7.3% indicated a small average variability. A small MDiff (4%) and ES (0.17) are indicators of good reliability for ILP’s inter-session performance. While an ICC of 0.9 and a CV of 8.1% indicated that the average variability between sessions was small. Using these methods Chapter 4 determined the relationship between impulse generated and both sprint and ball striking performance in 23 youth male secondary school representative youth field hockey players. No significant relationships were found between sprint times and either of the isometric strength measures. Significant (p=0.000) large and positive correlations (r=0.68) were found between forehand ball release speed and isometric hip thrust results. Significant (p=0.046) moderate and positive correlations (r=0.42) were found between forehand ball release speed and isometric lateral pulldown results. Significant (p=0.025) moderate and positive correlations (r=0.47) were found between reverse ball release speed and isometric hip thrust results. Chapter 5 investigated the effects of a five week specialised strength training programme, targeting the shoulder girdle and hip extensor, on sprint performance and ball speed in a group of 10 youth male secondary school representative youth field hockey players. The programme resulted in significant large and positive improvements in both isometric hip thrust (p=≤0.000, ES = 1.21, +52.6%) and isometric lateral pulldown (p=0.007, ES = 1.46, +63.4%) and non-significant trivial and small positive improvements in forehand and reverse ball speed respectively (p=0.813, ES = 0.09, +1.15%, p=0.303, ES = 0.27, 4.95%). However, significant small and negative decrements were experienced in 10-m (p=0.03, ES = 0.57, 2.67%), 30-m (p=0.016, ES = 0.44, 2.21%) and 40-m (p=0.016, ES = 0.43, 2.24%) sprint performance while non-significant (p=≤0.07) small and negative decrements (ES = 0.31, 1.55%) were found for 20-m. For this thesis it was determined that strengthening the shoulder girdle and hip extensors specifically may increase ball speed but not sprint performance in youth hockey players

Coaches’ Perceptions of Common Planning Concepts Within Training Theory: An International Survey

Abstract Background The planning of training is a popular yet controversial topic among coaches and sports scientists. Periodisation is often presented in the literature as the most efficacious approach to planning training. While historically surveys of coaches appeared to support this a key failing was that no unified definition of periodisation exists. Recent surveys offering a periodisation definition and an alternative planning methodology found many choosing the alternative therefore questioning periodisation’s wide acceptance. The current survey looked to explore how coaches perceived specific concepts, drawn from the literature, that relate to the planning of training. Methods 106 coaches [age range: 18–65+ years, 31% 15+ years coaching, 58% individual-events/sports and 32% international level] from across the world completed a novel cross-sectional online survey on the planning of training and the training process. Topics included use of periodisation, division of time into discrete periods, assignment of goals and training to pre-determined periods and the adaptability of pre-established plans. Results The majority described their planning approach as training periodisation (71%). Similarly, there was strong agreement with the necessity to determining a goal for the season (85%) and divide the season into distinct manageable periods of time (73%). When examining whether physical adaptations are achievable within specific and fixed timeframes only a minority (33%) agreed, a similar result was found for training physical capacities in a sequential order (37%). Finally, there was limited support for training targets remaining fixed over a training period (10%). Conclusions As a tool for the planning of athlete’s training, periodisation is often presented as the best and most popular approach. Recent research however has highlighted possible discrepancies in its usage among practitioners. The results of this survey echo this and question the acceptance of periodisation concepts even among periodisation users. In part this may be due to key tenets of periodisation no longer being supported by research or practice. A lingering question then is whether the beliefs of coaches, developed through experience and supported by research, will continue to be marginalized. If sports scientists wish to aid coaches then they need to be engaged in future research initiatives as co-collaborators

Coaches’ perceptions of factors driving training adaptation:an international survey

Objective We surveyed coaches’ views on topics related to the training process to elucidate whether their opinions are aligned with the current literature. Here the results for a sub-set of questions regarding factors affecting the training adaptation process are presented and discussed. Methods 106 coaches [age range 18–65+years, 31% 15+years coaching, 58% individual-events/sports and 32% international level] from a number of countries completed a novel cross-sectional online survey about the planning of training and the training process. Results Only 28% of participants indicated that physical training was the most important factor in determining sport performance; whereas 99% indicated non-physical factors influence physical training response. The top five factors in modifying an athlete’s ability to physically adapt to a training plan, as rated ‘absolutely essential’, were ‘coach-athlete relationship’ (56%), ‘life stress’ (41%), ‘athletes’ belief in the plan’ (37%), ‘psychological and emotional stress’ (35%) and ‘physical training’ (33%). Conclusions Amongst coaches surveyed less than a third rated physical training as the most important factor in determining sports performance. Non-physical factors were acknowledged by the majority to exert an influence on physical training response and adaptation, despite the lack of discussion in training research, though there was no consensus on the relative importance of each individual factor. We echo previous sentiments that coaches need to be engaged in the research process. If training research continues as present the field runs the risk of not only becoming detached but increasingly irrelevant to those it is trying to help.</p