1,108 research outputs found
The Open Society and coach education: a philosophical agenda for policy reform and future sociological research
Background: The realisation of the strategic importance of high quality coaching to the achievement of national sport policy objectives is resulting in extensive movements to professionalise the coaching industry. Interest in coach education is therefore growing among academics and policy-makers alike. A recent review of literature in this field, however, reveals a troubling problem situation: formal coach education is important for coach learning but tends to be expensive, inflexible and overly technical and therefore has little real impact on coaching practice. The solutions offered by many academics are, unfortunately, vague and often philosophically flawed. This is particularly so when the descriptive model of communities of practice (CoP) is suggested as a prescriptive model for coach education. The first part of the paper, therefore, ends with an extended critique of the use of CoP as a model for coach education. Purpose: To provide a clear philosophical argument for the direction of reform for coach education, drawing on a normative theory of the ideal conditions for the growth of knowledge. Discussion: Starting with the argument that any descriptive (or âevidence-basedâ) model is inherently conservative, the second part of the paper offers an alternative solution to the problem of coach education that is openly prescriptive (or normative). It is the Popperian ideal type of an Open Society (OS). It is argued that the concept of an OS is a better prescriptive model for coach learning for a number of reasons. First, it is based on a logically sound epistemological theory of the ideal social conditions for the growth of knowledge. Second, it is simple and easy for lay people to understand. Third, as an ideal type, it offers a target or goal against which progress towards a better method of coach education can be measured. In this final sense, it also offers a clear agenda for policy reform and future sociological research. Conclusions: The paper makes a series of practical recommendations for reforming coach education and its institutions based on the model of the OS. Foremost among these are making learning resources free at the point of use and using Web 2.0 technologies to democratise educational episodes and widen participation in coach education programmes of all kinds
Widening Participation in Golf: Barriers to Participation and GolfMark
This research was commissioned by the EGU and R&A in 2010. The aims of the research project were threefold:
1) To review the academic literature on barriers to participation in sport, especially golf;
2) To survey clubs, members and nomadic golfers to describe their perceptions of GolfMark and the issues it intends to address;
3) To gather in-depth data from a range of golf clubs to help understand how different club cultures may lead to the exclusion of underrepresented demographic groups
A correction to the enhanced bottom drag parameterisation of tidal turbines
Hydrodynamic modelling is an important tool for the development of tidal
stream energy projects. Many hydrodynamic models incorporate the effect of
tidal turbines through an enhanced bottom drag. In this paper we show that
although for coarse grid resolutions (kilometre scale) the resulting force
exerted on the flow agrees well with the theoretical value, the force starts
decreasing with decreasing grid sizes when these become smaller than the length
scale of the wake recovery. This is because the assumption that the upstream
velocity can be approximated by the local model velocity, is no longer valid.
Using linear momentum actuator disc theory however, we derive a relationship
between these two velocities and formulate a correction to the enhanced bottom
drag formulation that consistently applies a force that remains closed to the
theoretical value, for all grid sizes down to the turbine scale. In addition, a
better understanding of the relation between the model, upstream, and actual
turbine velocity, as predicted by actuator disc theory, leads to an improved
estimate of the usefully extractable energy. We show how the corrections can be
applied (demonstrated here for the models MIKE 21 and Fluidity) by a simple
modification of the drag coefficient
Turbulence-resolving simulations of wind turbine wakes
Turbulence-resolving simulations of wind turbine wakes are presented using a
high--order flow solver combined with both a standard and a novel dynamic
implicit spectral vanishing viscosity (iSVV and dynamic iSVV) model to account
for subgrid-scale (SGS) stresses. The numerical solutions are compared against
wind tunnel measurements, which include mean velocity and turbulent intensity
profiles, as well as integral rotor quantities such as power and thrust
coefficients. For the standard (also termed static) case the magnitude of the
spectral vanishing viscosity is selected via a heuristic analysis of the wake
statistics, while in the case of the dynamic model the magnitude is adjusted
both in space and time at each time step. The study focuses on examining the
ability of the two approaches, standard (static) and dynamic, to accurately
capture the wake features, both qualitatively and quantitatively. The results
suggest that the static method can become over-dissipative when the magnitude
of the spectral viscosity is increased, while the dynamic approach which
adjusts the magnitude of dissipation locally is shown to be more appropriate
for a non-homogeneous flow such that of a wind turbine wake
Shooting for Lithuania : Migration, national identity and men's basketball in the East of England
The accession of the âA8 statesâ into the European Union initiated considerable migration into Western Europe. The impact upon local communities has seen significant attention, yet little research exists that focuses upon migrant experiences and identity specifically in sport. This study used a figurational framework to investigate the lived experiences of basketball among male Lithuanian migrants in the rural east of England. Semistructured interviews highlighted participantsâ motivations to migrate, their acculturation experiences and the role that basketball played during their sojourn. Participants considered basketball a significant means for the expression of national identity and as a focus for their resistance to local racializing processes. Conversely, conflict with established local basketball communities and perceptions of marginalization among migrants were common, creating divisions in local basketball competitions
Integrating Research Data Management into Geographical Information Systems
Ocean modelling requires the production of high-fidelity computational meshes
upon which to solve the equations of motion. The production of such meshes by
hand is often infeasible, considering the complexity of the bathymetry and
coastlines. The use of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) is therefore a
key component to discretising the region of interest and producing a mesh
appropriate to resolve the dynamics. However, all data associated with the
production of a mesh must be provided in order to contribute to the overall
recomputability of the subsequent simulation. This work presents the
integration of research data management in QMesh, a tool for generating meshes
using GIS. The tool uses the PyRDM library to provide a quick and easy way for
scientists to publish meshes, and all data required to regenerate them, to
persistent online repositories. These repositories are assigned unique
identifiers to enable proper citation of the meshes in journal articles.Comment: Accepted, camera-ready version. To appear in the Proceedings of the
5th International Workshop on Semantic Digital Archives
(http://sda2015.dke-research.de/), held in Pozna\'n, Poland on 18 September
2015 as part of the 19th International Conference on Theory and Practice of
Digital Libraries (http://tpdl2015.info/
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