Using cases to frame parental support of high school basketball players in Japan

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異なるスポーツ競技種目のエキスパート・コーチを対象としたコーチング・コンセプトの定性的分析

Ericsson等(1993)は、スポーツ、音楽、芸術、科学等、様々な領域における卓越したパフォーマンスが、10年以上に渡って継続的に蓄積された合理的で構造的な練習(deliberate practice)によるとする研究成果を報告している。この合理的で構造的な練習とは、「現在のパフォーマンスを向上させることのみが目的とされた活動」であり、「高度に構造化されており、楽しみを伴わないが故に遊びとは区別され」、また「直接的な報酬を伴わないため仕事とは異なる活動」と定義づけられている(Ericsson等、1993)。こうした「熟達化」解釈の文脈の中で、視点を卓越したパフォーマーから指導者へと移した場合、指導者の役割は「選手が合理的な構造的練習に専心するよう様々な阻害要因を取り除くこと」にあると考えられる(Salmela、1996)。本稿の目的は、異なるスポーツ競技種目の日本人エキスパートコーチを対象とし、彼等彼女等がもつコーチング・コンセプトを定性的に掘り起こし分析することにある。20名のコーチを対象に一人約90分間、1対1の半構造的自由回答的調査面接を実施した。調査面接後直ちに作成されたトランスクライブ・データをもとに、Cote等(1993)による定性的データ分析法を用いた分析作業を行った結果、empowering(自己統制への委譲)、directing(目的達成への教示)、およびorganizing(環境設定)の3つの大カテゴリーが抽出された。各カテゴリーの分析結果から、異なる競技種目の日本人エキスパート・コーチは選手の卓越性獲得に向け、選手自身による自己統制を形成すると同時に、コーチ自身による徹底した目的追求を合理的に追求し、選手と指導者を取り巻く環境を最大限改善していくという構図が明らかにされた。そこでは環境、動機づけ、および専心性の3領域に存在する卓越性獲得の阻害要因を最小限にとどめ、合理的で構造的な練習に選手が継続的に専心できるよう具体的な行動が発揮されている点が確認された。The purpose of this study was to describe the perceptions of coaching concepts of professional coachies in Japan. Fifteen professional coaches served as participants for this study . In-depth, open-ended interviews were conducted with twenty coaches, and the data. The inductive analysis process resulted in regrouping these interview transcripts into three categories which show a significant agreement between coaches\u27 perceptions of the concepts on how they evaluated their coaching activities in relation to performance enhancement of the players and how therole of deliberate practice affects the development of expertise in Japan: 1) empowering, 2) directing, and 3) organizing. For example, the requirement of task analysis and rationalizing training were essential parts of deliberate practice. In addition, it is important to explain the vision and to keep physical and human resources in good condition to direct the plaers to go through deliberate practice and attain their ultimate goal. The strong relationship between empowering, directing, and organizing indicates that coaches direct players to deloberate practice as a way of overcoming the three constrants for talent development: motivation, effort, and resource.論

The Nature and Conceptualisation of Career Transitions in Sport

First paragraph: While an athlete’s sports career may seem to develop in a smooth and continuous way from beginning to end, it is in fact characterized by specific phases and transitions. Asked to describe its development, athletes highlight their athletic career, for example, in terms of specific moments or situations which occurred throughout their career (Wylleman & De Knop, 1997a,b). These moments or situations do not only require athletes to cope with specific changes, but are also perceived by the athletes to influence the quality of their participation at their current competitive level. The occurrence of phases and transitions in the athletic career can also be illustrated by chronologically pin-pointing athletes’ sport achievements (e.g., a first national championship title) and selections (e.g., selection for the national team). Comparison of such developmental data has revealed many similarities in (elite) athletes’ athletic careers (Stambulova, 1998; Wylleman & De Knop, 1998): athletes start out in their sport at the ages of approximately 8 to 12 years-of-age; one or two years later athletes start competing at club level, and go, some three to four years later on to national level; a first selection for a national team occurs somewhere between 17-19 years-of-age, while a first Olympic selection is achieved during their early twenties; and finally, athletes do end their involvement in highlevel competitive sport at approximately 30 years-of-age (3). In fact, researchers have been able to identify a sequence of career developmental phases, not only with elite level athletes, but with talented performers in general, namely an initiation, a development, a mastery, and a post-career phase (e.g., Bloom, 1985; Salmela; 1994)

Formal vs. informal coach education

The training of coaches is considered central to sustaining and improving the quality of sports coaching and the ongoing process of professionalisation. Sports coaches participate in a range of learning opportunities (informal to formal) that contribute to their development to varying degrees. In this article, we present our collective understanding on the varying types of learning opportunities and their contribution to coach accreditation and development. The authors presented these views (from a sports pedagogy perspective) as part of a workshop entitled "Formal vs. Informal Coach Education" at the 2007 International Council of Coach Education Master Class in Beijing. These reflections seek to stimulate the on-going, and often sterile, debate about formal versus informal coach education/learning in order to progress scholarship in coaching

Analysis of high-depth sequence data for studying viral diversity: a comparison of next generation sequencing platforms using Segminator II

Background: Next generation sequencing provides detailed insight into the variation present within viral populations, introducing the possibility of treatment strategies that are both reactive and predictive. Current software tools, however, need to be scaled up to accommodate for high-depth viral data sets, which are often temporally or spatially linked. In addition, due to the development of novel sequencing platforms and chemistries, each with implicit strengths and weaknesses, it will be helpful for researchers to be able to routinely compare and combine data sets from different platforms/chemistries. In particular, error associated with a specific sequencing process must be quantified so that true biological variation may be identified. Results: Segminator II was developed to allow for the efficient comparison of data sets derived from different sources. We demonstrate its usage by comparing large data sets from 12 influenza H1N1 samples sequenced on both the 454 Life Sciences and Illumina platforms, permitting quantification of platform error. For mismatches median error rates at 0.10 and 0.12%, respectively, suggested that both platforms performed similarly. For insertions and deletions median error rates within the 454 data (at 0.3 and 0.2%, respectively) were significantly higher than those within the Illumina data (0.004 and 0.006%, respectively). In agreement with previous observations these higher rates were strongly associated with homopolymeric stretches on the 454 platform. Outside of such regions both platforms had similar indel error profiles. Additionally, we apply our software to the identification of low frequency variants. Conclusion: We have demonstrated, using Segminator II, that it is possible to distinguish platform specific error from biological variation using data derived from two different platforms. We have used this approach to quantify the amount of error present within the 454 and Illumina platforms in relation to genomic location as well as location on the read. Given that next generation data is increasingly important in the analysis of drug-resistance and vaccine trials, this software will be useful to the pathogen research community. A zip file containing the source code and jar file is freely available for download from http://www.bioinf.manchester.ac.uk/segminator/

The Developpement and maintenance of expert athletic performance: perceptions of wordl and olympic champions

Social anxiety is a common disorder characterized by a persistent and excessive fear of one or more social or performance situations. Behavioral inhibition is one of the early indicators of social anxiety, which later in life may advance into a certain personality structure (low extraversion and high neuroticism) and the development of maladaptive cognitive biases. While there are several effective psycho- and pharmacotherapy options, a large number of patients benefit insufficiently from these therapies. Brain and neuroendocrine research can help uncover both the biological basis of social anxiety and potentially provide indicators, 'biomarkers', that may be informative for early disease detection or treatment response, above and beyond self-report data. Several large-scale brain networks related to emotion, motivation, cognitive control, and self-referential processing have been identified, and are affected in social anxiety. Social anxiety is further characterized by increased cortisol response and lower testosterone levels. These neuroendocrine systems are also related to altered connectivity patterns, such as reduced amygdala-prefrontal coupling. Much work is needed however to further elucidate such interactions between neuroendocrine functioning and large-scale brain networks. Despite the great promise of brain research in uncovering the neurobiological basis of social anxiety, several methodological and conceptual issues also need to be considered

The knowledge of high-performance gymnastic coaches : competition and training considerations

Etude du rôle des entraîneurs experts de gymnastique en compétition et à l'entraînement. Types d'intervention, type de feedback délivré, connaissances et compétences mises à contribution (compétences techniques, mentales...) auprès de leurs athlètes