Early anterior knee pain in male adolescent basketball players is related to body height and abnormal knee morphology.

To compare knee torque, range of motion, quality of movement, and morphology in dominant and nondominant legs of male adolescent basketball players with and without anterior knee pain and untrained peers.Cross-sectional.Sports performance laboratory.Male basketball players aged 14-15 years with and without anterior knee pain and healthy untrained subjects (n = 88).Basketball players were allocated to a symptomatic or asymptomatic group based on self-reported anterior knee pain. Associations between pain and body mass, height, passive range of motion, muscle peak torque, coactivation, neuromuscular control, proprioception, and ultrasound observations were investigated.The prevalence of pain did not differ significantly between sides. Of 176 knees inspected, 44 were painful, and 26 of these exhibited abnormalities in ultrasonography. Symptomatic players were 5.0 and 6.9 cm taller than asymptomatic players and controls, respectively (P < 0.05). In athletes with knee pain, the odds ratios of morphological abnormalities and greater height were increased by 8.6 and 5.0 times (P < 0.001).Knee pain prevalence in adolescent basketball players was not related to differences between sides but was higher in tall players. Knee pain was accompanied by morphological abnormalities detected with ultrasound

Effects of pitch size and skill level on tactical behaviours of Association Football players during small-sided and conditioned games

In Association Football, the study of variability in players' movement trajectories during performance can provide insights on tactical behaviours. This study aimed to analyse the movement variability present in: i) the players' actions zones and ii), distances travelled over time, considered as a player's positional spatial reference. Additionally, we investigated whether the movement variability characteristics of players from different skill levels varied. Two groups of U-17 yrs players of different performance levels (national and regional) performed in three small-sided games with varying pitch dimensions (small, intermediate and large). Linear and non-linear analyses were used to capture the magnitude and structure of their movement variability. Results showed that increases in pitch size resulted in more restricted action zones and higher distance values from personal spatial positional references for both groups. National-level players were more sensitive to pitch modifications and displayed more variability than regional-level players in the small and intermediate pitches. These findings advance understanding about individual tactical behaviours in Association Football and have implications for training design, using pitch size manipulation

Evaluation of the relationship between youth entrepreneurship and emigration intentions: theoretical-methodological aspects

Purpose – the purpose of this article is to investigate the relationship between youth entrepreneurship and emigration attitudes by presenting a method for evaluating the link between youth participation in entrepreneurship promotion initiatives, entrepreneurship and emigration attitudes, and also to check its validity. Research methodology – the quantitative test method presented in the article consists of 3 key parts that have their own specifics of evaluation and different methodologies. Findings – the results of the study did not show the correlation between the analyzed elements. Research limitations – although a method test made it possible to verify its suitability, a more representative sample of respondents is needed to provide valid results about the correlation of above mentioned 3 elements. Practical implications – based on the methodology evaluated, everyone familiar with the material will be able to initiate surveys and/or scientifically based researches at a different territorial level on youth entrepreneurship and emigration intentions and to evaluate the extent of the youth involvement in entrepreneurship promotion initiatives and its relationship with the entrepreneurial spirit of the individual. Originality/Value – this study contributed to the existing research on entrepreneurship, supplementing it with new insights on the existence of a relation between entrepreneurship promotion, entrepreneurship, and the tendency to emigrate, which, as far as the authors are aware, was researched neither in Lithuania nor globally