J Sport Sci Med
-
Few studies have examined physical activity and inactivity levels in an urban South African setting across 12 years of formal schooling. This information is important for implementing strategies to curb increasing trends of physical inactivity and related negative consequences, especially in low to middle income countries facing multiple challenges on overburdened health care systems. We examined levels of physical activity and sedentary behaviour cross-sectionally over 12 school years from childhood to adolescence in Black, White and Indian boys and girls. ⋯ Key pointsRegardless of race, inactivity levels are related to body mass. In an ethnically diverse urban group of South African school children, there exists an age related decline in physical activity and increase in time spent in front of a screen. Ethnic and gender disparities exist in physical activity and sedentary activity levels and this may echo a mix of biological and cultural reasons.
-
Sports with a predominance of forward-bending and extension postures have been associated with alterations in the sagittal spinal curvatures and greater risk of spinal injury. Because, the tennis players adopt these postures, the aims of this study were: 1) to describe spinal curvatures and pelvic tilt in male and female highly trained adolescent tennis players during relaxed standing posture and with thoracic spine corrected (in prone lying on the floor); and 2) to determine the frequency of thoracic hyperkyphosis and lumbar hypo/hyper lordosis in these postures. Forty adolescent tennis players (24 male and 16 female) aged 13-18 years, participated voluntarily in this study. ⋯ Female tennis players showed statistically significant greater anterior pelvic tilt, lumbar lordosis and lower thoracic kyphosis than male tennis players. The high percentage of neutral thoracic kyphosis and lumbar lordosis posture in both groups of young tennis players in relaxed standing might affirm that tennis does not negatively affect sagittal spinal posture at these ages. A specific postural program could be recommended to improve the slumped sitting and maximal trunk flexion in knees extended postures.
-
The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of a 12 week conditioning programme involving speed, agility and quickness (SAQ) training and its effect on agility performance in young soccer players. Soccer players were randomly assigned to two groups: experimental group (EG; n = 66, body mass: 71.3 ± 5.9 kg; body height: 1.77 ± 0.07 m) and control group (CG; n = 66, body mass: 70.6 ± 4.9 kg; body height: 1.76 ± 0.06 m). ⋯ This suggests that SAQ training is an effective way of improving agility, with and without the ball, for young soccer players and can be included in physical conditioning programmes. Key pointsSAQ training appears to be an effective way of improving agility with and without the ball in young soccer playersSoccer coaches could use this training during pre-season and in-season trainingCompared with pre-training, there was a statistically significant improvement in all but one measure of agility, both with and without the ball after SAQ training.
-
The present study aimed to analyze the water polo matches of the men's World Championships, comparing technical and tactical aspects of winning and losing teams, during closed (≤ 3 goals of margin of victory at the end of the 4(th) quarter; winning, W; losing, L) and unbalanced (>3 goals; winning, MW; losing, ML) games. Therefore, 42 of the 48 (6 were draw at end of the 4(th) quarter) matches were considered. According to each game situation (i.e., even, counterattack, power-play, transition), a notational analysis was performed in relation to the following aspects: occurrence of actions, action outcome, execution and origin of shots, and mean duration. ⋯ Closed matches are mainly characterized by a high occurrence of the opponent's exclusion fouls to perform the power-play actions. For the unbalanced matches, a divergent grade of defensive skills between teams has been highlighted. Coaches can improve their training, considering the opponent's exclusion fouls to perform the power-play actions towards a closed match, and caring the defensive skills of each game situation towards an unbalanced match.
-
The specific aim of this study was to examine whether motivational climate, perceived physical competence, and exercise motivation predict enjoyment in school physical education within the same sample of adolescents across three years of secondary school. A sample of 639 students (girls = 296, boys = 343) aged between 13- to 15-years at the commencement of the study completed the Intrinsic Motivation Climate in Physical Education Questionnaire, Physical Self-Perception Profile, Physical Education Motivation Scale, and Physical Education Enjoyment Scale. Results derived from path analyses indicated that task-involving motivational climate predicted enjoyment in physical education via perceived physical competence and intrinsic motivation in both girls and boys. ⋯ Ego-involving climate did not fit either the data for the girls or boys, as PE lessons based on ego-involving motivational climate did not significantly influence on the level of PE enjoyment. The results of the current study and previous practical findings support task-involving teaching methods to promote adolescent's PE enjoyment through secondary school years. School PE could be most effective if based on task-involving motivational climate, in which the main objective is increasing students' perceived physical competence, intrinsic motivation, and enjoyment.