A comparison of motivations of American and Japanese volunteers in ladies professional golf association tournaments

This exploratory study examined and compared primary motives influencing American and Japanese volunteers of the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA). Data were collected from 281 volunteers who participated in LPGA tournament events in America and Japan. Japanese volunteers were found to be more involved in volunteer service due to “Social/Leisure” and “Material” reasons, while American volunteers were found to be associated with “Egoistic” and “Purposive” motivations. There was no significant difference in the “External Influences” factor. The study contributes to personnel and administration research and provides insight on the ways in which the LPGA event volunteers are managed in America and Japan...

Economic impact of 2003 South Pacific Games on Fiji

Analyzes the economic impact of the 2003 South Pacific Games (SPG) hosted by the Fiji Islands. Sources of income that can be generated from the SPG events; Overview of the economic impact studies; Theoretical structure of the Fiji computable general equilibrium model.

Experiences of Australian professional female tennis players returning to competition from injury

Background: This study examined the experiences of professional female tennis players returning to competition from injury.

Methods: In a study commissioned by Tennis Australia, 55 Australian professional female tennis players responded anonymously to a questionnaire developed for the purposes of this study. The questionnaire consisted of open and closed questions that assessed a player’s attribution style, the occurrence and effect of minor and major injuries, frequency and type of treatment sought, attitudinal chances following injury and preventative injury factors.

Results: The quantitative and qualitative analyses of participants’ responses revealed players generally displayed an internal attribution style with the majority of minor injuries involving lower limb injuries (attributed to playing on hard surfaces). Players reported these injuries were addressed in a variety of ways including self-treatment. The majority of severe injuries were upper limb/shoulder and these were generally treated at tournament sites with some requiring surgery.

Conclusions: Players adopted a range of measures to assist recovery from severe injury including the services of health professionals. In further findings, a player’s attribution style was not a predictive variable, except in terms of the number of tournaments missed for minor injuries. Implications of the study’s results and future research directions for cross-cultural studies are highlighted.

Win at all costs or lose gracefully in high-stakes competition? Gender differences in professional tennis

This article examines line-call challenges by male and female professional tennis players in major tournaments around the world. In terms of utilization rates, we find that the genders behave similarly. Nevertheless, we do detect some intriguing gender differences in these challenges. First, male players’ challenges are more likely to be provoked by those of their opponents. More importantly, at tiebreaks, females are more likely to reverse an umpire’s unfavorable call, while males make relatively more unsuccessful challenges. Furthermore, we find that men are a lot more likely to make “embarrassing” line-call challenges at tiebreaks and offenses (i.e., when the shot lands at the opponent’s side of the tennis court) than women. These significant gender differences suggest that women particularly diverge from men at crucial junctures of the match such as tiebreaks. Differences in factors such as risk aversion, overconfidence, pride, shame, and strategic signalling behavior might help us to explain these gender-difference findings in line call challenges.

Activity profiles and demands of seasonal and tournament basketball competition

UNLABELLED: Competition-specific conditioning for tournament basketball games is challenging, as the demands of tournament formats are not well characterized. PURPOSE: To compare the physical, physiological, and tactical demands of seasonal and tournament basketball competition and determine the pattern of changes within an international tournament. METHODS: Eight elite junior male basketball players (age 17.8 ± 0.2 y, height 1.93 ± 0.07 m, mass 85 ± 3 kg; mean ± SD) were monitored in 6 seasonal games played over 4 mo in an Australian second-division national league and in 7 games of an international under-18 tournament played over 8 days. Movement patterns and tactical elements were coded from video and heart rates recorded by telemetry. RESULTS: The frequency of running, sprinting, and shuffling movements in seasonal games was higher than in tournament games by 8-15% (99% confidence limits ± ~8%). Within the tournament, jogging and low- to medium-intensity shuffling decreased by 15-20% (± ~14%) over the 7 games, while running, sprinting, and high-intensity shuffling increased 11-81% (± ~25%). There were unclear differences in mean and peak heart rates. The total number of possessions was higher in seasonal than in tournament games by 8% (± 10%). CONCLUSIONS: Coaches should consider a stronger emphasis on strength and power training in their conditioning programs to account for the higher activity of seasonal games. For tournament competition, strategies that build a sufficient aerobic capacity and neuromuscular resilience to maintain high-intensity movements need to be employed. A focus on half-court tactics accounts for the lower number of possessions in tournaments.