The purposes of this study is to determine: (a) the relationship between the dependant variables, (b) the relationship between the Borg pain scale and the performance tests, (c) the difference in performance between involved and uninvolved extremities, and (d) the effects of the three different therapeutic exercise treatments on selected performance tests and pain free isometric strength testing. Fifty subjects with physician diagnosed anterior knee pain (AKP), completed initial performance testing and 14 subjects completed initial testing, therapy and six weeks later final performance testing. The 14 subjects were randomly assigned to one of three therapeutic exercise treatment groups. The performance tests included; pain free isometric strength tests (90, 60, 45, and 15 degrees knee flexion), stair test, timed hop, triple hop, crossover hop, Figure 8 and Borg pain scale rating for each performance test. The results indicated a significant correlation between performance tests and pain free isometric strength tests. There was no relationship indicated between the performance tests, Borg pain scale ratings. The contrast between the injured and uninjured extremities performance test values of the fifty subjects that completed the initial testing indicated no significant (p< 0.05) difference. The results of this study indicated that there was no significant difference between the therapeutic exercise treatment groups. In conclusion, the three anterior knee pain treatments had no effect on strength and performance. / School of Physical Education

The purpose of this study was to determine the degree of self-actualization (SA) as measured by the Personal Orientation Inventory (POI) among various groups of male intercollegiate athletes at the University of the Pacific. The subjects (N = 111) were golf (N = 8), tennis (N = 5), swimming (N = 6), baseball (N = 25), basketball (N = 14), and football (N = 53). The subjects were categorized into three sub-groups: (1) individuals sport members (golf, tennis, swimming) and team sport members (baseball, basketball, football); (2) good players, regular players, and substitutes; and (3) upper-division athletes and lower-division athletes.

Thesis (M Sport Sc (Sport Science))--Stellenbosch University, 2005. / Talent identification has been defined as the process by which children are measured on a number of physical and performance variables that are perceived to be a requisite for success within a given sport (Abbott & Collins, 2002:158). One important element in talent identification testing is the capacity to interpret scores. This requires the development of relevant norms for the populations groups who will be involved. The purpose of this study was to generate norms for the interpretation of scores earned by children with disabilities on a basic talent identification screening test battery. The study was focused only on children with intellectual impairments, children with hearing impairments and children with visual impairments. The Talent Search test battery as prescribed by DISSA (Disability Sport South Africa, 2002) found in their screening manual for basic sporting ability of persons with disabilities was used to assess subjects on performance variables. This included body height, sitting height, arm span, body mass, eye-hand coordination, sound localization and eye- hand coordination (for the those with VI), upper body power, leg power, agility, running speed and aerobic fitness (cardiovascular endurance). The group of 140 subjects included 49 children with intellectual impairments (N=27 males and N=22 females), 58 children with hearing impairments (N=35 males and N=23 females) and 33 children with a visual impairment of which 11 (N=7 males and N=4 females) needed to run with a guide and 22 (N=17 males and N=5 females) where independent runners. The descriptive data was processed to produce percentile tables. One problem area was found with testing the eye-hand coordination of children with intellectual impairment, where more than 50% of the children were not able to obtain a score at all. It was also found that some children with hearing impairments had slow running times for the agility run test item, which led to the conclusion that vestibular etiology must be identified prior to the interpretation of test scores.

[Truncated astract] Talent Identification (TI) in sports begins by mass screening individuals' motor abilities. du Randt (2000) wrote that, as test items from one country might not necessarily suit another, appropriate basic motor skill test items are important for developing a TI mass screening instrument. Three hundred and thirty Malaysian adolescents aged from 12-15 years were tested on three motor skill test batteries: the McCarron Assessment of Neuromuscular Development (MAND, McCarron, 1982); the Australian Talent Identification Test (AIS, Australian Sports Commission, 1998); and a Balance and Movement Coordination Test which was specifically developed for this project. In the current research, the motor performance data recorded from the adolescents underwent several types of analyses. Principal Component analyses were conducted on the MAND, AIS and BMC motor skill instruments to understand what the three motor skill instruments were assessing globally in the Malaysian adolescents. Then, first-order and higher-order factor analyses were conducted on the 13 parameters making up the AIS+BMC motor skill instrument to examine the concept of general motor ability (GMA). After descriptive analyses of the adolescents' motor skill performances, age and gender differences were examined using two (gender) by four (age) ANOVAs. Finally, stepwise discriminant function analyses were conducted on a combined AIS+BMC motor skill instrument to determine the best sub-set of motor skills that reliably classified the Malaysian adolescents into three levels of motor performance.... Two stepwise discriminant analyses were undertaken to find the best set of motor skills for classifying Malaysian adolescents into three motor coordination groups based on scores on the MAND and three motor ability groups derived from scores on the motoric 'g'. The ability of a combined AIS+BMC motor skill instrument to classify Malaysian adolescents into the three groups was good for those classified as Normal, not so great for those adolescents classified as High, and poor for those adolescents classified as Low. The motor skills consistently reported across both sets of analyses were Balance-Eyes-Open, Balance-Eyes-Closed, Dynamic Balance, Hopping Speed, Quadrant Jump, Hopping-in-Square, Basketball Throw and Shuttle-Run-with-Object. Hence, motor skills assessing static balance, dynamic balance and postural control appeared to reliably discriminate the Malaysian adolescents into three motor performance groups. Finally, an examination of the misclassifications found in the discriminant analyses revealed two things. Those individuals being predicted into a lower group performed a large number of the motor skills to a lesser standard when compared with their correctly classified cohorts. Conversely, those predicted into a higher group performed a number of motor skills to a standard higher than their correctly classified cohorts. Thus, at a global level, certain individuals could be overlooked for further athletic development and is a concern when developing a rigorous TI program. Therefore, practitioners need to be cautious of any single ability score, and how that represents an individual's athletic potential. These results are discussed, limitations noted, and directions for future research provided.

Recent literature reveals that sex differences in performance actually might be reflections of sex differences in perceptions about the sex-appropriateness and the masculinity and femininity of certain activities. Therefore, this study was designed to determine the effects of perceived sex-appropriateness of a task upon performance of selected sport skills.