Profiling the Australian high performance and sports science workforce

Australia is viewed as leader in the field of sports science, with Australian sports scientists highly sought after and respected worldwide. However, despite the important contribution of sports scientists to the development of professional sport in Australia, we know little about these sport professionals who play an important role in the development and success of athletes, teams and sport organisations.
This report provides a more formal understanding of the high performance and sports science workforce with the purpose of informing the policy development of Australia’s sport governing bodies and education providers to inform sport management practices that will enhance the support and development of current and future high performance managers and sports scientists. The data presented in this report provides valuable insight about the scope of the profession to enable further development of strategic plans for the industry.

The association between sports participation, alcohol use and aggression and violence: a systematic review

Objectives
To review the current research on alcohol-related violence and sports participation.

Methods
The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines were used to identify relevant studies for inclusion. A search of six databases (EBSCOhost) was conducted.

Results
A total of 6890 studies was were identified in the initial search. Of these, 11 studies met the inclusion criteria. The majority of the studies were from the US (n = 10) and focused on collegiate athletes (n = 7), adolescents (n = 3), professional/former professional athletes (n = 1).

Conclusion
The reviewed research indicates higher rates of alcohol use and violence in athlete populations when compared against non-athlete populations. Masculinity, violent social identity and antisocial norms connected to certain sports stand out as potential factors that may impact the association between sport and violence in athlete populations.

The long term effects of sports concussion on retired Australian football players: a study using Transranial Magnetic Stimulation

This study investigated corticomotor excitability and inhibition, cognitive functioning, and fine motor dexterity in retired elite and amateur Australian football (AF) players who had sustained concussions during their playing careers. Forty male AF players who played at the elite level (n=20; mean age 49.7±5.7 years) or amateur level (n=20; mean age 48.4±6.9 years), and had sustained on average 3.2 concussions 21.9 years previously, were compared with 20 healthy age-matched male controls (mean age 47.56±6.85 years). All participants completed assessments of fine dexterity, visuomotor reaction time, spatial working memory (SWM), and associative learning (AL). Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) was used to measure corticospinal excitability: stimulus-response (SR) curves and motor evoked potential (MEP) 125% of active motor threshold (aMT); and intracortical inhibition: cortical silent period (cSP), short-interval intracortical inhibition (SICI), and long-interval intracortical inhibition (LICI). Healthy participants performed better in dexterity (p=0.003), reaction (p=0.003), and movement time (p=0.037) than did both AF groups. Differences between AF groups were found in AL (p=0.027) and SWM (p=0.024). TMS measures revealed that both AF groups showed reduced cSP duration at 125% aMT (p>0.001) and differences in SR curves (p>0.001) than did healthy controls. Similarly, SICI (p=0.012) and LICI (p=0.009) were reduced in both AF groups compared with controls. Regression analyses revealed a significant contribution to differences in motor outcomes with the three measures of intracortical inhibition. The measures of inhibition differed, however, in terms of which performance measure they had a significant and unique predictive relationship with, reflecting the variety of participant concussion injuries. This study is the first to demonstrate differences in motor control and intracortical inhibition in AF players who had sustained concussions during their playing career two decades previously.

Analyses and comparison of counter-movement jump performance and self-rated recovery in state under-18s Australian Rules Football players during a national championship

Recovery of team sport athletes during multiple competitive games is an important area for strength and conditioning coaches to monitor as it facilitates for athletes to be ready to perform (11,13). Utilising athletic performance data in conjunction with self-rated reporting measures can help determine if in fact a player or team has recovered sufficiently or shown a trend towards recovery prior to a competitive match (11). Positive improvement in recovery variables can provide confidence in the effectiveness of recovery methods used and assist in determining the training schedule in order to positively manipulate the fitness-fatigue relationship (3).

Various methods of analysing the recovery of athletes have been reported in the literature and are available to the strength and conditioning coach. These include subjective, self-rated scales and perceived level of recovery questionnaires (11,12,13). Athletic performance measures during exercises such as the counter movement jump (CMJ) have also been analysed, predominantly utilising force plates to obtain kinetic data. (5,13,14). However, such equipment can be difficult to transport, requires continual calibration and is costly to purchase. A linear transducer can provide important information on CMJ variables in the assessment of athletic movements and due to its size and portability could serve as a valuable tool to assist strength and conditioning coaches, (8,10), and potentially enable the monitoring of recovery.

Previous studies have investigated the fatigue effects of competitive games in various sports (11,13,14) including Australian Rules Football (AFL) at the senior elite league level (5, 6). To the authors’ knowledge, however, there is yet to be a study investigating the recovery response in AFL players, specifically in players 18 years and under competing in the National Under 18s Championships. Australian Rules football is an extremely physically demanding and fatiguing sport where players participate in games time exceeding 120 minutes duration, covering large distances (~12-18km, position dependent) with many high intensity efforts performed at random times throughout the game (2,6,16). Hence, it would seem pertinent to analyse the fatigue effects of competitive matches in an Australian Rules Under-18’s National Championship and the subsequent recovery from these games.

The aim of this study was to analyse and compare two self-rated subjective measures of recovery; they being muscle soreness (MS) of the lower body, overall perceived total recovery (TR), and the performance measure of peak velocity (PV) obtained from a CMJ analysed with a linear transducer. Data collection occurred between rounds four and five of the Australian Football League Under-18’s National Championship, representing a four-day recovery analysis period between matches.

Iranian women's sports fandom : gender, resistance, and identity in the football movie offside

As sport enters new global territories, attending to questions of cultural difference is increasingly important to studies of women’s sports fanship. This article draws on theories of transnational feminism and feminist sports scholarship to contemplate the cinematic portrayal of the non-Western female football supporter. Women sports fans rarely appear as film protagonists, with the notable exception of the 2006 movie Offside, which tells the story of Iranian women soccer fans attending a World Cup qualifying match. By focusing on the ways that women fans negotiate their marginal status in the sporting arena, I argue that the film unsettles cultural associations between masculinity and football in Iran, and confounds the oppositional construction of the “other” woman as a passive victim of, or freedom fighter against, Islam. 

The gendered world of sports reporting in the Australian print media

The mainstream news media have long been charged by feminist and critical media scholars of largely excluding women from its sports coverage, and concomitantly highlighting the ongoing relative absence of female sports reporters. With the 2012 London Olympic Games just past, it is timely to reflect on two areas of sports journalism that recieve sparse scholarly interest from the majority of Australian journalism academics, as technology issues and the future of journalism debates take precedence. The Olympics typically generate more media exposure for female athletes than usual, nevertheless, it remains that there are particular types of 'gender appropriate' events that attract mainstream news media attention during the Games, and other sporting events in general. This paper analyses a month of pre-Olympic sports coverage and general sports coverage in two major Australian newspapers, finding that while pre-Olympic coverage includes more women's sport than in general sport, sportsmen and men's sport remains highly privileged in both areas. The fact that horseracing recieves three times more media coverage than women's sports in this study clearly identifies sportswomen's marginalised status. The paper also maps the number of female sports reporters at these two newspapers, and concludes with some insights into a newsroom culture that typically rejects women as athletes and as sports reporters

Scandal thresholds for sports celebrities as charitable ambassadors

This paper considered the charitable ambassador role sports celebrities assume. The research analysed the media attention and the impact on organisations when celebrities transgressed.

Monitoring athletes through self-report: factors influencing implementation

Monitoring athletic preparation facilitates the evaluation and adjustment of practices to optimize performance outcomes. Self-report measures such as questionnaires and diaries are suggested to be a simple and cost-effective approach to monitoring an athlete’s response to training, however their efficacy is dependent on how they are implemented and used. This study sought to identify the perceived factors influencing the implementation of athlete self-report measures (ASRM) in elite sport settings. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with athletes, coaches and sports science and medicine staff at a national sporting institute (n = 30). Interviewees represented 20 different sports programs and had varying experience with ASRM. Purported factors influencing the implementation of ASRM related to the measure itself (e.g., accessibility, timing of completion), and the social environment (e.g., buy-in, reinforcement). Social environmental factors included individual, inter-personal and organizational levels which is consistent with a social ecological framework. An adaptation of this framework was combined with the factors associated with the measure to illustrate the inter-relations and influence upon compliance, data accuracy and athletic outcomes. To improve implementation of ASRM and ultimately athletic outcomes, a multi-factorial and multi-level approach is needed.

The role of a self-report measure in athlete preparation

Athlete self-report measures (ASRM) are a common and cost-effective method of athlete monitoring. It is purported that ASRM be used to detect athletes at risk of overtraining, injury or illness, allowing intervention through training modification. However it is not known whether ASRM are actually being used for or are achieving these objectives in the applied sport setting. Therefore the aim of this study was to better understand how ASRM are being used in elite sports and their role in athletic preparation. Semi-structured interviews were conducted one-on-one with athletes, coaches and sports science and medicine staff (n=30) at a national sporting institute. Interview recordings were transcribed and analysed for emergent themes. Twelve day-to-day and seven longer-term practices were identified which contributed to a four-step process of ASRM use (record data, review data, contextualize, act). In addition to the purported uses, ASRM facilitated information disclosure and communication amongst athletes and staff and between staff, and improved the understanding and management of athlete preparation. These roles of ASRM are best achieved through engagement of athletes, coaches and support staff in the systematic, cyclic process.

Supporting healthy communities through sports and recreation programs

There is some evidence, in the form of critical descriptions of programs and systematic reviews, on the benefits to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities from participation in sport and recreational programs. These include some improvements in school retention, attitudes towards learning, social and cognitive skills, physical and mental health and wellbeing; increased social inclusion and cohesion; increased validation of and connection to culture; and crime reduction.Although the effects of sports and recreation programs can be powerful and transformative, these effects tend to be indirect. For example, using these programs to reduce juvenile antisocial behaviour largely work through diversion, providing alternative safe opportunities to risk taking, maintenance of social status, as wellas opportunities to build healthy relationships with Elders and links with culture.Although Indigenous Australians have lower rates of participation in sport than non-Indigenous people, surveys suggest that around one-third of Indigenous people participate in some sporting activity (ABS 2010). That makes sports a potentially powerful vehicle for encouraging Indigenous communities to look at challenging personal and community issues.Within Indigenous communities, a strong component of sport and recreation is the link with traditional culture. Cultural activities such as hunting are generally more accepted as a form of sport and recreation than traditional dance. Therefore sport and recreation are integral in understanding ‘culture’ within Indigenous communities, as well as highlighting the culture within which sport and recreation operate.