Physical activity monitoring in Europe : the European physical activity surveillance system (EUPASS) approach and indicator testing.

Objectives: The main objective of this paper is to describe the approach and specific findings of the European Physical Activity Surveillance System (EUPASS) research project. In particular, the analysis presented aims at testing the reliability, comparability and predictive power of different sets of physical activity (PA) indicators. Design: First, a panel study based on computer-aided telephone interview (CATI) was designed to report PA data of a representative, selected group of about 100 persons per country at three points in time. Second, a CATI time series survey was carried out with the goal of realising about 100 interviews per month over six consecutive months. Setting: The project was carried out in eight European countries to support the development of the European Union's (EU) Health Monitoring Programme. Subjects: Random population samples (subjects aged 18 years and older) were drawn from each participating country. Results: While many PA indicators used in EU countries to date as well as the psychosocial and environmental measures tested in the present study had acceptable to good reliability coefficients, the test–retest reliability scores of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) version tested (the short (last 7 days) telephone interview IPAQ; IPAQ-S7T) were rather low. The comparability between extant national PA items and the IPAQ-S7T was low for all countries. The strongest predictors of perceived health were the psychosocial and environmental PA indicators. Conclusions: According to the results of the present study, more research is needed to further investigate and improve the quality of the IPAQ. In addition, the specific predictive power of the tested psychosocial and environmental PA indicators on perceived health should be of particular interest for designing health surveillance activities in the future

From Youth Team to First Team: An Investigation into the Transition Experiences of Young Professional Athletes in Football

Using Wylleman and Lavallee (2004) and Stambulova (2003) models of transition as conceptual frameworks for the current study, we aimed to explore United Kingdom (UK) professional soccer players’ (N = 5) experiences going through a youth-to-senior career transition to first team level, and assess the immediate changes that occur during the move. Few studies have assessed this process, and no studies have focused on assessing the changes that may occur between pre and post transition. Data collection lasted 1 month with players interviewed twice, 2 weeks before, and 2 weeks after their transition to the first team. Data were abductively thematically content analyzed. Prior to transition, players reported high motivation to be successful, but also feeling anxious about the transition to senior sport. Post-transition, players felt more confident about their ability to succeed in senior sport and maintained high levels of motivation to succeed. Family, friends, coaches, and teammates provided emotional, technical, and tangible support to the players throughout the transition, but were also sources of stress for athletes moving to senior sport. These findings suggest ways to assist transitioning athletes, such as the use of buddy systems with senior players

Factors contributing to the quality of the junior-to-senior transition in Greek athletes

The aim of this study was to investigate which factors contribute to the quality of the junior-to-senior transition (JST) which includes adjustment to senior level, sport and life satisfaction in Greek athletes. The sample consisted of 177 aspiring young Greek athletes who were in the process of JST. Participants completed a Greek version of the Transition Monitoring Survey (TMS) developed by Stambulova et al. (Stambulova, N., Franck, A., & Weibull, F. (2012). Assessment of the transition from junior-to-senior sports in Swedish athletes. International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 10(2), 79–95). Multiple regressions were used to assess how key factors related to the JST contribute to the adjustment of athletes to senior level in sport, to their sport and life satisfaction. Results showed that personal resources (p

Changes in the perception of action possibilities while climbing to fatigue on a climbing wall

In two experiments we examined changes in the perception of action possibilities as a function of exertion. In Experiment 1, participants repeatedly climbed on a climbing wall in a series of trials that progressively increased in number to 10 trials, resulting in increased exertion. Before and during climbing, the participants judged their maximum reaching height and perceived exertion. On a separate day, participants climbed another 10 trials while performing actual maximum reaches. Higher perceived exertion was associated with decreases in perceived maximum reach while the actual reaches did not decrease. However, the perceptual changes occurred early during task execution when the participants were not yet fatigued. When exertion set in, neither perceived nor actual maximum reaching appeared to be affected. In Experiment 2, we included exhaustion trials. The findings replicated the early changes in perception observed in Experiment 1, which may be explained by hands-on experience with the task. Furthermore, while climbing to exhaustion, perceptual judgements largely changed in keeping with changes in the actual maximum reach. Thus, there appeared to be a functional relationship between participants' actual action capabilities, rather than their state of physical fatigue per se, and perceived action possibilities

Sport for development. African international university Initiative (s.f.d-a.i.u.i.) justification and basic assumptions of a sport and development study programme in Southern Africa

This paper gives the vision of the initiators of the programme on the two basic elements of the title: 'Sport for Development' and 'African International Interuniversity Initiative'. This vision is already partly put in concrete actions, however partly still under discussion between the interested partner universities. The explicit formulation and justification of the basic assumptions may help to find in an open discussion a creative solution for all challenges that may slow down or impoverish the realisation of the initiative