Differences in the Motor Coordination Abilities among Adolescent Gymnasts, Swimmers, and Ice Hockey Players

© 2017 Human Movement. Purpose. Motor coordination is proposed to be a relatively stable age-related construct, unlikely to be influenced by aligned experiential factors such as intensive sport-specific training. The purpose of the study is to investigate if there are differences in motor coordination abilities among young artistic gymnasts, swimmers, and ice hockey players. Methods. The participants of the study were 508 female and 258 male adolescents (age, M = 12.80, SD = 1.10) comprising artistic gymnasts (n = 463), swimmers (n = 70), and ice hockey players (n = 233). The KTK-test protocol was used to analyse their gross motor coordination abilities. Results. The results of the study demonstrated that gymnasts scored better than ice hockey players and swimmers in the test of walking backwards along a beam, and better than ice hockey players in total motor coordination, hopping over an obstacle, and the test of moving sideways on wooden boards. However, ice hockey players scored higher than swimmers and gymnasts in the test of jumping from side to side. Subsequently, swimmers obtained better results in the test of moving sideways on wooden boards as compared with ice hockey players. Conclusions. The study results indicate that intensive sport-specific training may extend young athletes′ motor coordination characteristics in the ability areas representative of the sport in which they engage

Teacher perspectives on language learning psychology

Research into the psychology of language learning has grown exponentially in the last decade, yet, teacher perspectives on the field have been surprisingly absent from this body of research. The present study was designed to address this gap. Drawing on a survey with 311 foreign language teachers working at different school levels in 3 European countries, and on individual, semi-structured interviews with 11 teachers, the study focuses on the psychological aspects of language learning which teachers felt were particularly important in their own settings. In particular, teachers’ beliefs, experiences and teaching strategies were explored. The data also revealed strong interconnections between language learning psychology constructs, differences across contexts, and a perceived link between learner and teacher psychology

Девочки чаще учатся на спортивных сборах по сравнению с мальчиками: роль тренера в гендерном разделении двух карьерных путей спортсменов

Рукопись поступила в редакцию: 21.01.2022.Received: 21.01.2022.В статье даются результаты исследования о роли тренера в мотивации спортсменов на построение двух карьер, а также их взглядов на двойную карьеру девушек и юношей. Результаты показали, что учащиеся-спортсмены в старших классах спортивных школ часто воспринимали созданный тренером мотивационный климат как нацеленный на достижение спортивного результата. Опрошенные спортсмены объяснили, что такой подход не мотивировал их на учебный процесс, а скорее обесценивал их образовательные цели. Выявлено, что тренеры, хотя и подчеркивали важность получения спортсменами среднего образования, не могли обосновать, как данные идеи включены в тренерскую практику. Тренеры согласились с тем, что те спортсмены, которые переходят в элитный спорт, должны сосредоточиться на развитии своей спортивной карьеры, при этом требования элитного спорта и высшего образования часто считались как несовместимые. Результаты показали, что стили коучинга играют важную роль в поддержке мотивации спортсменов к достижению целей двух карьер.The article presents the results of a study on the role of a coach in motivating athletes to build two careers, as well as their coaches’ views on the dual careers of girls and boys. The results have showed that student-athletes in high school of sports schools often perceived the motivational climate created by the coach as a process aimed at achieving sports results. The interviewed athletes explained that this approach did not motivate them to the learning process, and moreover, devalued their educational goals. It was revealed that although the coaches emphasized the importance of receiving secondary education for athletes, they could not justify how these ideas were included in coaching practice. The coaches have agreed that those athletes who switch to elite sports should focus on developing their sports career, while the requirements of elite sports and higher education were often considered incompatible. The results have showed that coaching styles play an important role in supporting the motivation of athletes to achieve the goals of two careers

From primordial black holes abundance to primordial curvature power spectrum (and back)

In the model where Primordial Black Holes (PBHs) form from large primordial curvature (C) perturbations, i.e., CPBHs, constraints on PBH abundance provide in principle constraints on the primordial curvature power spectrum. This connection however depends necessarily on the details of PBH formation mechanism. In this paper we provide, for the first time, constraints on the primordial curvature power spectrum from the latest limits on PBH abundance, taking into account all the steps from gravitational collapse in real space to PBH formation. In particular, we use results from numerical relativity simulations and peak theory to study the conditions for PBH formation for a range of perturbation shapes, including non- linearities, perturbation profile and a careful treatment of smoothing and filtering scales. We then obtain updated PBH formation conditions and translate that into primordial spectrum constraints for a wide range of shapes and abundances. These updated constraints cover a range of scales not probed by other cosmological observables. Our results show that the correct and accurate modelling of non-linearities, filtering and typical perturbation profile, is crucial for deriving meaningful cosmological implications