The Graston Technique® is a common treatment that combines a warm-up, Instrument Assisted Soft Tissue Mobilization (IASTM), stretching, and strengthening protocols. The treatment is commonly chosen by clinicians to treat musculoskeletal injuries. The purpose of this study was to determine how the Graston Technique® is used in clinical practice by certified athletic trainers to compare to recommendations made by the Graston Technique®. Factors such as time, expense, lack of training in the Graston Technique®, availability of resources, and an overall lack of evidence-based recommendations may have influenced inconsistencies in clinical practice. Although the technique is not always performed according to recommendations, these findings suggest both clinicians and patients report objective and subjective improvements when treating musculoskeletal pathologies regardless of the techniques used.

The pressure on athletes to perform and stay healthy is ever more intense. This being the case, athletes suffering injuries of the operative nature with extensive rehabilitation protocols are more prone to psychological ramifications related to their injury and rehabilitation. Literature has addressed some of the issues; however the role of self-efficacy on rehabilitation adherence has not directly been evaluated. Furthermore, the particular nature of self-efficacy related to athletic participation, injury, and subsequent rehabilitation, as well as the role an athletic trainer plays in enhancing or diminishing one's sense of self-efficacy has not specifically been evaluated. Therefore the purpose of this study is to uncover some of the literature gaps and is two-fold: (i) to evaluate how an athlete's sense of self-efficacy impacts his/her adherence to their rehabilitation program, and (ii) to assess the impact an athletic trainer may have on an athlete's self-efficacy during rehabilitation. Results of this study are intended to enhance the quality and efficiency of athletic injury rehabilitation and have been designed with the athletic training professional in mind .

Very little research is available to identify how attire in the athletic training field impacts perceptions of professional knowledge and competence. The purpose of this study was to identify the effect of attire on high school athletic directors’ perceptions of an athletic trainer’s professional knowledge and competence. The researcher emailed a questionnaire to ninety-four high school athletic directors from the state of California. The questionnaire measured the effect of attire on the perceptions of skills, knowledge, approachability, experience, education level, overall competence, and representation of an athletic trainer and focused on the difference between khaki attire, professional attire, and workout attire in relationship to perceived knowledge and competence. The respondents rated khaki attire highest followed by professional attire and workout attire when evaluating skills, approachability, overall competence, experience, and knowledge. Representation and education level rated khaki attire as the highest, followed by professional attire, and workout attire rated the lowest. These results indicate khaki attire as the most appropriate attire for high school athletic trainers to wear to achieve the highest perceptions of competence and knowledge from high school athletic directors.

This study investigated the academic and athletic experiences of African-American males in a Division I football bowl subdivision football program. Critical race theory, identity development model, and social learning model were the theoretical frameworks used as the critical lenses in a qualitative design to examine the participants. The participants’ responses were analyzed and interpreted using thematic analysis. A qualitative research design, which included individual interviews with 10 second year African-American male football players, was used to address this research problem. The goal was to bring together both the psychological and sociological perspectives and to challenge participants to candidly describe their academic and athletic experiences and attitudes toward obtaining an undergraduate degree. Four themes were determined in the data analysis: differential treatment and determining oneself, time management, relationships, and career aspirations. In relation to the theoretical frameworks, the development of self-confidence and knowledge of balancing their academic and athletic schedules was critical for all participants. The sense of feeling different and challenged because of the differences in culture and experience was evident. From this study, university and collegiate athletics administrators may better understand the backgrounds, challenges, and learning needs of this population. As a result, higher education personnel may improve the services they provide these young men in hopes of educating and developing whole persons—physically, emotionally, intellectually, socially, and spiritually—to become well-rounded and functional in contemporary society.

This qualitative study examined the athletic retirement processes of Finnish female elite distance runners retrospectively, and was loosely based on the theoretical-conceptual background of sport career transition models (Stambulova, 2003; Taylor & Ogilvie, 1994). The participants were Finnish female distance runners who have competed at the national level, or at the international level as members of the Finnish national track and field team. In Finland, the athletic retirement process has not been studied extensively, especially among distance runners. A total of nine former female runners who had retired 10 years prior and no less than one year ago participated in the study. The qualitative data were collected by conducting semi-structured interviews in Finland, using an interview guide constructed by Kadlcik and Flemr (2008) as a model. Seven of the interviews were performed face-to-face, one via Skype, and one via telephone. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and a total of seven themes with 25 subthemes emerged from the data. The themes that emerged included: (1) avenues to become a distance runner, (2) meaning of running, (3) pre-retirement conditions, (4) retirement, (5) factors affecting quality of retirement, (6) major effects of retirement, and (7) current life. Several reasons for sport career termination were identified, loss of motivation being the most prevalent. Most athletes did not have a plan for how to deal with retirement, although studying and other interests played an important role when methods of adaptation were discussed. As in previous studies conducted in other countries, the former Finnish athletes experienced significant changes in many aspects of their lives, including social, psychological and health. Overall, the participants reported a challenging, but not overwhelming athletic career retirement process, with two out of nine participants stating that the transition was somewhat difficult. Recommendations for researchers and practitioners are also discussed. / Kinesiology

A review of the literature indicates that there has been no previous studies on Virginia Athletic Directors (ADs) and their knowledge of school law. Several researchers have studied other educators' knowledge of school law. In general, previous studies on educators' knowledge of school law demonstrates that educators do not have a comprehensive working knowledge of school law. ADs differ from those studied previously due to the lack of unified certification requirements for ADs in the Commonwealth of Virginia. This study was designed to measure Virginia interscholastic ADs' knowledge of job related school law. In addition, the study analyzed the data for any significant relationships between ADs' knowledge of school law and other variables. Such variables include age, experience, size of school district, level of education, administration and supervision endorsement, type of legal training, methods for obtaining current school law information and/or updates, membership in professional organizations, national certification level. Of the 315 Virginia public high school Ads, 305 were surveyed and 140 responded, for a response rate of 45.9%. Results were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-tests, and ANOVA analysis. Statistical analysis revealed that ADs in larger schools scored significantly higher than ADs in smaller schools. Also, ADs with that possessed the 'Certified Athletic Administrator' (CAA) credential scored significantly higher than ADs that have not attained the CAA certification. Lastly, ADs that are members of both the state and national ADs association (VIAAA and NIAAA, respectively) scored significantly higher than ADs who are not members of both associations. / Ed. D.

Tittle: Childrensˈopinions on Track and Field and their attitudes towards the practices in athletic clubs of Prague 6 (comparative study) Student: Bc. Lucie Drncová Supervisor: PhDr. Aleš Kaplan, Ph.D. Main goals: an investigation of the attitudes and opinions towards Track and Field and athletic practices for school age children in the selected clubs in Prague 6, a monitoring of selected world and Czech popular track and field athletes and also an exploration of the knowledge of important track and field athletes by children in this age group. Methodology: A survey was used in order to meet the main goals of this work. Four athletic clubs from Prague 6 that work with the youth were asked to participate in this survey. N = 154 completed questionnaires were collected. Questionnaires were divided into categories by gender and also by age. The interviewees were between the ages of 8 and 12. The main scope and purpose of the research was to investigate the attitudes, beliefs and motivation of children to do track and field and its various disciplines. In this study we were also interested in the children knowledge of the most famous world and Czech athletic personalities. Results: Research has shown that there are no major differences in attitudes and opinions between the boys and girls or between the...

The aim of the study was to examine perceived challenges and coping strategies of Swedish elite show jumpers from the holistic perspective. A mixed-methodology was used with a dominant qualitative design and a supportive quantitative design. Semi-structured interviews based on the holistic athletic career model and two surveys developed from the qualitative results were used to collect the data. The participants of the study were 5 Swedish elite show jumpers between the age of 24-29 (M=26.4, SD=2.06). The qualitative findings resulted in two category profiles of perceived challenges and use of coping strategies. The quantitative findings resulted in two individual profile for each participant. The findings identified five higher order themes of perceived challenges (psychological, financial, psycho-social, athletic and vocational) and three higher order themes of coping strategies (social support, problemfocused coping and emotion-focused coping). The individual profiles showed both similar patterns and individual nuances between the participants. Major challenges for the equestrians were financial, injuries and dealing with identity foreclosure. This study represents an effort to highlight the challenges met and coping strategies used by equestrians on elite level, to prevent ineffective coping and negative consequences such as a premature dropout. / Syftet med studien var att undersöka svenska elithoppryttares upplevda utmaningar och coping strategier utifrån ett holistiskt perspektiv. En mixad metod användes med en dominant kvalitativ design och en stödjande kvantitativ design. Semistrukturerade intervjuer baserade på den holistiska karriärutvecklingsmodellen samt två enkäter utvecklade ur det kvalitativa resultatet användes för att samla in data. Deltagarna i studien utgjordes av 5 svenska elithoppryttare i åldrarna 24-29 (M=26.4, SD=2.06). Det kvalitativa resultatet gav två kategoriprofiler av upplevda utmaningar och användandet av coping strategier. Det kvantitativa resultatet gav två individuella profiler för varje deltagare. Resultatet identifierade fem överordnade teman av upplevda utmaningar (psykologiska, finansiella, psyko-sociala, idrottsliga och yrkesmässiga) och tre överordnade teman av coping strategier (socialt stöd, problemfokuserad coping och emotionsfokuserad coping). De individuella profilerna visade både liknande mönster samt individuella nyanser mellan deltagarna. De största utmaningarna för ryttarna var finansiella, skador och att hantera en sluten idrottsidentitet. Denna studie representerar ett försök till att belysa vilka utmaningar och coping strategier som används av ryttare på elitnivå, för att undvika ineffektiv coping och negativa konsekvenser så som ofrivilligt avslut av idrottskarriär.

In NCAA Division I, academic eligibility standards are national in scope and are the same for all institutions. In NCAA Division III, there are no national standards; rather each member institution establishes its own academic eligibility standards. However, information on these standards has never been collected and published, leaving a significant hole in the research in this area. The problem addressed by this study was to collect this academic eligibility information on the members of one Division III conference. A number of questions were addressed in the study. One was, how do Division III eligibility standards compare to Division I standards? Another was, how do eligibility standards in the Division III institutions studied compare to each other? Since differences were found, a final question addressed was, do the differences in academic eligibility standards between the Division III institutions lead to competitive equity issues. Data on academic eligibility standards from 15 members of one Division III conference were collected through interviews of Compliance Officers at each institution. The data were compared to the NCAA national standards for Division I. The data were also analyzed for differences among the Division III institutions studied. A correlation analysis was used to determine if a relationship existed between academic eligibility standards and competitive equity. The findings of the study were that on most of the academic eligibility variables, the Division III institutions studied had lower standards than the national standards for Division I. In the comparison of Division III institutions to each other, differences were found for high school core course requirements, transfer and continuing student credit hour requirements, and exceptions to the rules. While the study found pronounced differences in competitive equity among the Division III institutions studied, there was no clear indication of any relationship between eligibility requirements and competitive equity. This study provided some interesting information about the institutions in one Division III conference. However, the study raised as many questions as it answered. More work needs to be done to determine whether the policies followed by NCAA Division III institutions are truly different from those followed by Division I institutions. / text

published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Architecture