Exploring taboo issues in professional sport through a fictional approach

While the need to consider life course issues in elite sport research and practice is increasingly recognised, some experiences still seem to be considered too dangerous to explore. Consequently, stories of these experiences are silenced and the ethical and moral questions they pose fail to be acknowledged, understood or debated. This paper presents an ethnographic fiction through which we explore a sensitive set of experiences that were uncovered during our research with professional sportspeople. Through a multi‐layered reconstruction, the story reveals the complex, but significant, relationships that exist between identity, cultural narratives and embodied experiences. After the telling we consider how the story has stimulated reflective practice among students, researchers and practitioners. While there are risks involved in writing and sharing taboo stories, the feedback we have received suggests that storytelling can be an effective pedagogical tool in education and professional development

We haven't got a seat on the bus for you or All the seats are mine: Narratives and career transitions in professional golf

In this article we explore how the stories an athlete tells throughout life in sport affect her career transition experiences. We base our enquiry on a social constructionist conception of narrative theory which holds that storytelling is integral to the creation and maintenance of identity and sense of self. Life stories were gathered through interviews with two professional women golfers (Christiana and Kandy) over a six‐year period. Through a narrative analysis of structure and form we explored each participant’s stories of living in and withdrawing from professional golf. We suggest Christiana told monological performance‐oriented stories which, while aligning with the culture of elite sport, resulted in an exclusive athletic identity and foreclosure of alternative selves and roles. On withdrawal, Christiana experienced narrative wreckage, identity collapse, mental health difficulties and considerable psychological trauma. In contrast, Kandy told dialogical discovery‐oriented stories which, while being in tension with the dominant performance narrative, created and sustained a multidimensional identity and self. Her stories and identity remained intact, authentic and continuous on withdrawal from tournament golf and she experienced few psychological problems

Stories of success: Cultural narratives and personal stories of elite and professional athletes

Using a narrative methodology to explore the stories Olympic and elite athletes tell about success, we identified three alternatives to the dominant conception of success as the achievement of performance outcomes. In these alternatives, success is storied as: (1) ‘I did the best that I could’ – a controllable and sustainable story of effort and application; (2) ‘It’s the closest thing you can get to flying’ – a story where success relates to embodied experience and discovery; (3) ‘People I made the journey with’ – which prioritises relationships and connection between people. We reflect on three key insights: (1) success is a multidimensional concept, broader than the singular conception encapsulated within the dominant performance narrative; (2) through various narrative strategies, experienced athletes resist cultural pressures towards a singular conception of success; (3) for long-term performance and well-being, it is necessary to work towards multiple forms of success over time and across contexts

Applications of Hilbert Module Approach to Multivariable Operator Theory

A commuting $n$-tuple $(T_1, \ldots, T_n)$ of bounded linear operators on a Hilbert space \clh associate a Hilbert module $\mathcal{H}$ over $\mathbb{C}[z_1, \ldots, z_n]$ in the following sense: $$\mathbb{C}[z_1, \ldots, z_n] \times \mathcal{H} \rightarrow \mathcal{H}, \quad \quad (p, h) \mapsto p(T_1, \ldots, T_n)h,$$where $p \in \mathbb{C}[z_1, \ldots, z_n]$ and $h \in \mathcal{H}$. A companion survey provides an introduction to the theory of Hilbert modules and some (Hilbert) module point of view to multivariable operator theory. The purpose of this survey is to emphasize algebraic and geometric aspects of Hilbert module approach to operator theory and to survey several applications of the theory of Hilbert modules in multivariable operator theory. The topics which are studied include: generalized canonical models and Cowen-Douglas class, dilations and factorization of reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces, a class of simple submodules and quotient modules of the Hardy modules over polydisc, commutant lifting theorem, similarity and free Hilbert modules, left invertible multipliers, inner resolutions, essentially normal Hilbert modules, localizations of free resolutions and rigidity phenomenon. This article is a companion paper to "An Introduction to Hilbert Module Approach to Multivariable Operator Theory".Comment: 46 pages. This is a companion paper to arXiv:1308.6103. To appear in Handbook of Operator Theory, Springe

On-ice measures of external load in relation to match outcome in elite female ice hockey

The aim of this study is to investigate the differences between select on-ice measures using inertial movement sensors based on match outcome, and to determine changes in player movements across three periods of play. Data were collected during one season of competition in elite female ice hockey players (N = 20). Two-factor mixed effects ANOVAs for each skating position were performed to investigate the differences in match outcome, as well as differences in external load measures during the course of a match. For match outcome, there was a small difference for forwards in explosive ratio (p = 0.02, ES = 0.26) and percentage high force strides (p = 0.04, ES = 0.50). When viewed across three periods of a match, moderate differences were found in skating load (p = 0.01, ES = 0.75), explosive efforts (p = 0.04, ES = 0.63), and explosive ratio (p = 0.002, ES = 0.87) for forwards, and in PlayerLoad (p = 0.01, ES = 0.70), explosive efforts (p = 0.04, ES = 0.63), and explosive ratio (p = 0.01, ES = 0.70) for defense. When examining the relevance to match outcome, external load measures associated with intensity appear to be an important factor among forwards. These results may be helpful for coaches and sport scientists when making decisions pertaining to training and competition strategies.York University Librarie

A decision-based perspective for the design of methods for systems design

Organization of material, a definition of decision based design, a hierarchy of decision based design, the decision support problem technique, a conceptual model design that can be manufactured and maintained, meta-design, computer-based design, action learning, and the characteristics of decisions are among the topics covered