What are Coaches Afraid of? An Exploration of Courage and the Path to Coaching Mastery

Coaching is a growing industry focusing on helping individuals perform better at work and in their lives. Coaches specialize in facilitating a conversational, relationship-based process that assists individuals in attaining meaningful personal and professional goals. As clients work side by side with coaches, they may experience varying degrees of internal psychological, and emotional barriers. As a result, courage for the client has often been discussed in popular coaching literature (Kimsey-House, Kimsey-House, Sandahl, & Whitworth, 2011), and is considered an important aspect of the client’s success much of the time. However, during a review of the psychological literature on courage it was determined that, compared with the client, courage of the coach is something that has been explored much less, or not at all. More precisely, the internal psychological or emotional barriers coaches often face, and whether or not courage is seen as an important aspect of a coach’s ability to deliver high quality coaching are concepts that appear to have no empirical foundation. The objective of this study is to better understand the experience of leading coaches. Specifically, the following qualitative interview-based research aims to explore opinions and attitudes regarding common professional obstacles, primarily centered on the emotion of fear. This series of structured interviews asked participants to report on their own professional experiences and to articulate steps they have taken in facing and overcoming fear within their professional role, and throughout the course of their coaching development. Additionally, the interviewers inquired as to whether or not participant coaches perceived the construct of courage as an important factor in the professional development of coaches, in delivering high quality coaching, and ultimately in achieving mastery as a coach

Racial and athletic identity of African American football players at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) and Predominantly White Institutions (PWI)

This study examined racial and athletic identity among African American football players at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) and Predominantly White Institutions (PWI). Negotiating the dualism of racial and athletic identities can be problematic because both roles are subject to prejudice and discrimination, particularly for student-athletes in revenue producing sports like football. Results indicated that seniors at both institution types reported significantly lower levels of Public Regard, and that lower levels of Public Regard predicted higher levels of college adjustment. Senior football players reported a greater acknowledgement that society does not value African Americans, and this acknowledgment predicted greater college adjustment. No differences between institution types in racial Centrality emerged, but football players at PWI reported higher levels of Athletic Identity. By garnering a better understanding of the psychosocial needs of African American football players, these results can inform college student personnel who can prioritize facilitating student-athlete academic and life skills with the same attention given to ensuring their athletic success

Conceptual Design Methodology for the Fan-in-Wing VTOL Aircraft

The Fan-In-Wing (FIW) aircraft concept is one of the most compelling solutions for missions demanding jet-like cruise speeds and Vertical TakeOff and Landing (VTOL) capability. However, despite years of interest and documented improvements in lift-fan technology, there exists little in the way of an adequate theory for conceptual design of a fan-in-wing aircraft. To address this issue, a general conceptual design methodology has been developed as a source of guidance for the FIW designer. Through this work, the top-level requirements ranking the fan-in-wing concept above other VTOL aircraft have been defined, while a cross-comparison between the FIW concept and conventional aircraft reveals major discrepancies in their design philosophies, constituting the need for a separate design algorithm. The final conceptual design methodology emerges from an elaborate technique of relating the FIW concept’s major cruise and hover performance metrics to a physical disk area constraint imposed by the size of its wing reference area. Out of this process, a theoretical and practical design space for sizing the FIW concept has been defined, and as a result, the FIW aircraft designer is given an effective means of iterating on the initial size of their wings and lift fans to meet a set of cruise and hover performance requirements. A final demonstration of how the conceptual FIW design methodology is implemented in practice has been included using an example case study

Muscularity Beliefs of Female College Student-Athletes

Female athletes in the United States face the paradoxical challenge of acquiring a degree of muscularity to be successful in their sport, yet they also endure pressure from societal expectations of femininity that often don’t conform with the notion of muscularity. To address research questions about how female student-athletes balance muscularity and femininity, we conducted a mixed-methods study to examine muscularity beliefs among female student-athletes, female college students, and male college student-athletes. We quantitatively examined Drive for Muscularity Scale (DMS) scores from 221 participants attending college in the Midwestern US. Results indicated that female student-athletes reported significantly higher DMS scores than female students, but male student-athletes reported the highest DMS scores in the sample. Qualitative results indicated that female student-athletes wanted to be muscular for these reasons: functionality (45%), health (42%), external gratification (21%), internal gratification (18%). Only 16% of female student-athletes did not want to be muscular, whereas every male student athlete reported a desire to be muscular. The results of this study can be used to better understand the unique drive for muscularity among athletes, particularly female college student-athletes who live the paradox of negotiating societal standards of femininity with this desire to be muscular. This enhanced understanding can help create more nuanced interventions for coaches, administrators, and mental health professionals to use to help female student-athletes create space to resist constraining societal gender ideologies. Doing so can help these student-athletes actualize their athletic potential on the field as well as their interpersonal and intrapersonal potential off the field

Do Market Anomalies Add Up?

This is a study about abnormal characteristics in the stock market and how to successfully use them in personal portfolios. Market anomalies are unexpected excess returns that occur in relation to certain variables. Five commonly known market anomalies (market cap, price-earnings ratio, price-book value, momentum, volatility) are tested to give evidence for their presence. Existing variables are then combined in different portfolios in order to observe whether they generate greater excess returns combined rather than individually. This study will also reveal whether long-term holding is possible and how the anomalies react in bullish and bearish markets

Breadcrumbs and the Children Who Left Them

“Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed.” - G.K. Chesterton There has been a longstanding notion that childhood equates to innocence. The cliche that adults are the force of molding, protection, and education so as to maintain a child’s virtue perpetuates the dangerous precedent that without them, children are frail, dependent beings who are vulnerable to the threats of the world. These said adults either provide at the expense of a child’s overall well-being, or neglect their needs entirely. The children of the fairy tale universe know only too well what it means to make their own way, holding their own amidst great adversity in the process. What I seek to expose throughout my collection of stories and narrative poetry was the cruel, selfish nature of those in authority who are often found in positions of trust - more specifically, those in authority who represent particular institutions where children should have found safety. The idea of an institution was birthed so as to establish a social order intended to meet the needs of its people, but particularly children. When a particular institution does not do this, the child is forced into an ethos where the idea of a need must be redefined so that they can attempt to meet it themselves. Children will either prosper in such a quest, or lack severely the ability to function healthily as an adult. When you meet the children of my work, I hope you see that through their resistance to submit themselves to those who don’t have their best interests at heart, they are thriving all on their own

Moral Atmosphere and Masculine Norms in American College Football

This study examined on-field antisocial sports behaviors among 274 American football players in the United States. Results indicated that moral atmosphere (i.e., teammate, coach influence) and conformity to masculine norms were significantly related to participants’ moral behavior on the field (i.e., intimidate, risk injury, cheat, intentionally injure opponents). In other words, the perception that coaches and teammates condone on-field antisocial behaviors—in addition to conforming to societal expectations of traditional masculinity—is related to higher levels of antisocial behaviors on the football field. In addition, conformity to traditional masculine norms mediated the relationship between moral atmosphere and on-field aggressive sports behaviors, suggesting a relationship between social norms and moral atmosphere. Results of this interdisciplinary endeavor are interpreted and situated within the extant literature of both the fields of sport psychology and the psychological study of men and masculinity. Sport psychologists can use results to design interventions that incorporate moral atmosphere and conformity to masculine norms in an effort to decrease aggressive sports behaviors in the violent sport of football

Masculinity, Moral Atmosphere, and Moral Functioning of High School Football Players

In order to identify factors associated with on-field moral functioning among student athletes within the unique context of football, we examined masculine gender role conflict, moral atmosphere, and athletic identity. Using structural equation modeling to assess survey data from 204 high school football players, results demonstrated that moral atmosphere (i.e., the influence of coaches and teammates) was significantly associated with participants’ process of on-field moral functioning across the levels of judgment, intention, and behavior. Neither masculine gender role conflict nor athletic identity significantly predicted moral functioning, but the results indicated that participants’ identification with the athlete role significantly predicted conflict with socialized gender roles. Results suggest that in the aggressive and violent sport of football, coaches can have a direct influence on players’ moral functioning process. Coaches can also have an indirect effect by influencing all the players so that a culture of ethical play can be cultivated among teammates and spread from the top down

Bullying Among Adolescent Football Players: Role of Masculinity and Moral Atmosphere

Identifying practices of masculinity socialization that contribute to the establishment of gender privilege can help address violence and bullying in schools (Connell, 1996). Because the sport of football is considered an important contributor to masculinity construction, establishing peer networks, and creating hierarchies of student status, this study examined the influence of social norms (i.e., moral atmosphere, meanings of adolescent masculinity) on bullying beliefs and behaviors of 206 high school football players. Results demonstrated that moral atmosphere (Peer Influence, Influential Male Figure) and adherence to male role norms significantly predicted bullying, but the strongest predictor was the perception of whether the most influential male in a player’s life would approve of the bullying behavior. In addition to prevention interventions highlighting the role of influential men and masculinity norms in this process, implications for practice suggest that football players can use their peer influence and status as center sport participants to create a school culture that does not tolerate bullying

Atlantic CFC data in CARINA

Water column data of carbon and carbon-relevant parameters have been collected and merged into a new database called CARINA (CARbon IN the Atlantic). In order to provide a consistent data set, all data have been examined for systematic biases and adjusted if necessary (secondary quality control (QC)). The CARINA data set is divided into three regions: the Arctic/Nordic Seas, the Atlantic region and the Southern Ocean. Here we present the CFC data for the Atlantic region, including the chlorofluorocarbons CFC-11, CFC-12 and CFC-113 as well as carbon tetrachloride (CCl4). The methods applied for the secondary quality control, a crossover analyses, the investigation of CFC ratios in the ocean and the CFC surface saturation are presented. Based on the results, the CFC data of some cruises are adjusted by a certain factor or given a “poor” quality flag