The thesis evaluated the positional physical demands of sub-elite youth football using acceleration/deceleration profiles, and accelerometer derived metrics, which were used to inform the derivation of a field based testing protocol.

Strain within the hoof capsule is unknown and difficult to estimate and limited information is available on motion of all the distal joints of the forelimb. Consequently, how impact is attenuated in the hoof, distal joints and suspensory system is still not fully understood. This study aims to develop instrumentation capable of measuring internal hoof strain in conjunction with a method of recording the three dimensional (31)) kinematics of the joints of the distal. forelimb. Instrumented plugs were developed and validated and radial strain was measured in equine hooves at the dorsum together with lower forelimb kinernatics and kinetics during in vitro simulations of walking. 3D kinematics were recorded from the lower forelimb of 4 ponies at the walk using non-invasive cluster markers and the Calibrated Anatomical Systems Technique. Soft tissue artefacts using this method were assessed in vitro. Relationships between radial strain and locomotion were investigated. Tensile radial strain is predominant in normal hooves at the dorsum with magnitudes in the region of 500 pE in the stratum medium at midstance during simulated walking. Compression was recorded in the hoof strata of limbs with chronic laminitis. Radial strain was moderately correlated with proximal interphalangeal joint (PIPJ) flexion (r = -. 519). Large reductions in radial strain were found in simulated impact and heel lift positions. As the PIPJ flexes at impact passive loading of the deep digital flexor tendon (DDFT) due to weight bearing is more gradual, so direct radial stress in the stratum me&m is reduced. Radial stress in the stratum medium is also reduced as a proportion of the ground reaction forces are redirected through the heels. This vital role needs further investigation in vivo with improved non-invasive techniques.

Within the past two decades, the snowboard and freeski disciplines of halfpipe, slopestyle and big air (collectively Park & Pipe) have progressed dramatically in objective performance levels while transitioning into Olympic sports. This thesis investigates the nature and impact of this transition, with a focus on athlete performance and coaching. A general overview of the sport from a biopsychosocial perspective is followed by a more specific investigation into skill acquisition and the role of the coach in Park and Pipe as an action sport. A retrospective analysis of trick progression amongst eight elite performers at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics is complemented by interviews with ten current elite Park and Pipe coaches and an athlete survey to achieve triangulated perspectives exploring approaches to training and associated coaching methods. The inherent risk of injury in action sports is considered throughout, along with approaches to managing this risk at an athlete, coach and systemic level. A suite of both formal and informal tools is presented including the application and use of professional judgment and decision making (PJDM, Collins & Collins, 2014). This thesis provides insight for the action sports athlete, coach, high performance support team and management, exploring theory and application, examining change, success, failure, and providing a number of solutions to the optimal performance challenge. By establishing what current Park and Pipe best coaching practice looks like and comparing this to athlete preference, this research provides a picture of where the sport is currently at, proposes direction for the future, and highlights potential transfer to other action sports. Specific areas of focus and contribution to existing knowledge include sport progression modelling, holistic long-term athlete development, the use of motor imagery in skill acquisition, risk management, decision-making, and the periodisation of risk.

Research on lesbian athletes’ experiences is dated, with the majority being conducted in the 1980s and early 1990s. However, the 1980s represent a unique socio-cultural period, one Anderson (2009b) describes as homohysteric. Thus, as society has become more inclusive in previous generations, including within women’s sport (Fink et al 2012; Anderson & Bullingham 2013) and men’s sport (Anderson 2000, 2002, 2005a, 2005b, 2009b, 2011a; Adams & Anderson 2011) there is a need to reconsider the relationship between homophobia and sport. Semi-structured interviews from 31 lesbian athletes (from beginner to international standard players) were analysed using the coding procedures within Charmaz’ approach to grounded theory (Charmaz 2006). Results were subsequently applied to the adapted model of homohysteria (Anderson 2009b; Worthen 2014). Memos were used throughout the coding procedure to aid reflexivity and to ensure that results were grounded in data. Results show athletes competing in a positive environment, gaining support from teammates and coaches. Social situations were fully inclusive, including attending socials in LGBT friendly bars, demonstrating that fear surrounding the lesbian label has declined. Language has helped to develop this inclusive atmosphere; talking about sexuality has been shown to negate the environment of silence formerly experienced by lesbian athletes. This change in environment has changed how athletes ‘come out’. No longer do athletes need to prepare a statement; in fact coming out has become something of a non-event. Some athletes were even able to demonstrate an improvement in their professional lives, due to the diminished requirement to conceal their (homo)sexuality. However, some athletes still shunned the lesbian label, not through fear but by deeming it an unimportant facet of their individuality. Additionally, players’ athletic capital had no effect on their acceptance within the team, with the exception of international athletes. Participants faced very limited incidence of homophobia, but in those cases where homophobia was experienced, they would actively challenge the negative behaviour or language, as would their teammates. The supportive environment extended to providing advice and comfort to any athletes struggling with the process of coming out. In addition, participants in some cases became role models for their teammates. While the majority of the results were positive, there remained room for improvement in certain areas. There is still clear evidence that the environment has not changed for all athletes and there remain some areas to be addressed by sporting administrations. Old stereotypes of the predatory lesbian or the affective nature of sport on sexuality were raised by participants but tended to refer to historic events (over 10 years old).

The Munich Air Disaster claimed the lives of 23 people in a plane crash in Munich in 1958. It is a significant event within modern England’s cultural history as a number of Manchester United footballers, known as the Busby Babes were amongst the dead. The players who died have continued to be extensively commemorated, especially Duncan Edwards. This research considers the commemorative activity associated with Edwards since his death and was initiated when the researcher pondered the extensive commemorative activity by strangers that she encountered at the family grave of her cousin Edwards. The commemoration of the Disaster and of Edwards has been persistent and various with new acts of commemoration continuing conspicuously even after fifty years since the event. Such unique activity particularly demonstrated at Edwards’ grave was considered worthy of further investigation to ascertain why such activity was occurring at such a volume. Although general historical and biographical accounts of the Disaster and Edwards are apparent, specific research concerning the commemoration of the event was not evident. The researcher set out to identify who the commemorators were, why they were undertaking dedicatory acts and what those acts manifest as. At Edwards’ grave the offerings left upon it were regularly documented from 2010-2014 and analysed. Interviews with identified significant commemorators were undertaken including Edwards’ family members and fans. A comprehensive literature review was undertaken and relevant online sources and data were also examined in order to inform a distinct social and cultural analysis of the event within the context of its commemoration. The study focussed upon the researcher’s connection to the subject, commemorators, memorials, commemorative objects and sites. Although there was a distinct personal element to the research, the data collected was analysed in the wider context of commemoration, the perception of heroes and attitudes towards the dead, death and dying. This research specifically considers the commemoration of Disaster victim Duncan Edwards as a local sporting hero. The unique contribution to the knowledge and understanding of this research topic is principally through the generation and interrogation of new research data, created from fieldwork undertaken at Edwards’ grave and from interviews with significant commemorators. The interview-generated research data from certain Edwards’ family members was only possible to attain because of the researcher’s particular ancestral link to the interviewees.

Altitude training has been the subject of much research over the past forty year. However, research has focused on endurance performance and prolonged exposures to hypoxia have generally been employed to bring about improvements in performance. Few studies have investigated the responses to very short duration altitude exposures and its effects on performance. Moreover, research into the benefits of altitude training for improving the restoration of sprint performance during high intensity intermittent sports remains scarce. Therefore, this thesis aimed to determine the very acute responses to hypoxic exposure and the efficacy of repeated very short duration hypoxic exercise on recovery of sprint performance during intermittent activity. In addition, the thesis also aimed to determine the effect of such a training modality on oxidative stress levels and cellular damage during repeated sprint activity. Study one investigated the acute cerebral and skeletal oxygenation and cardiorespiratory responses to a single bout of very short duration (15 mm) hypoxic exposure (3048 m; F102 = 0.143) at rest and during exercise, and compared these to normoxic values. Both exercise conditions were performed at 65% of AP4lR max. The results of the study found that very short duration, hypoxic training stimulated significantly greater decreases in cerebral TOl over normoxic exercise (55.73 ± 2.77 and 64.02 ± 7.28%, respectively). Cerebral AHHb (31.07 ± 14.20 pmoFL 1 ) was also found to be significantly greater during hypoxic exercise than normoxic exercise (6.42 ± 8.04 pmoFLj and resting hypoxia (19.06 ± 7.40 pmohL 1 ). Skeletal TOI was not significantly different across all test conditions. However, skeletal AHH b (32.22 ± 20.81 pmolL 1 ) was significantly greater during hypoxic exercise than during resting hypoxia (10.23 ± 6.97 pmolL 1 ). Oxygen uptake and respiratory rate were not significantly different between normoxic and hypoxic exercise conditions, with mean V02 being 1.89 ± 0.03 and 1.83 ± 0.34 Lmin 1 for normoxic exercise and hypoxic exercise, respectively. Mean respiratory rates were 27.32 ± 6.27 and 24.63 ± 5.24 breaths.min for normoxic exercise and hypoxic exercise, respectively. These significant differences between conditions suggest greater 02 extraction rates during very short duration hypoxic exercise than during normoxic exercise or resting hypoxia. It was therefore proposed that a short course of very short duration hypoxic exposure may elicit improvements in the efficiency of 02 uptake and utilisation during intermittent exercise and subsequently lead to a reduction in oxidative stress during such activities. Resulting from the findings of study one, study two investigated the cerebral and skeletal oxygenation, cardiorespiratory and haematological changes in response to very short duration (15 mm) hypoxic training (HT) 3 times per week for three weeks compared to comparable normoxic training (NT). In addition, the study also evaluated the effectiveness of the hypoxic training programme on restoring sprint performance during an intermittent performance test (IPT) and the effects this protocol had on oxidative stress levels, as determined by MDA analysis. The results found that very short duration HT significantly increased RBC and F -id postintervention by 8.39% and 5.89% respectively, whilst Hb increase by 5.38% postintervention, though this was not to a level of significance. In contrast the NT group reported non-significant decreases post-intervention for Hb (3.36%) and RBC (0.61%), whilst Hd decreases significantly (5.31%). No significant differences were reported for MDA either pre or post-intervention or between groups. No significant differences were reported between the HT and NT groups or pre and post-intervention for any cerebral or skeletal tissue oxygenation variables. However, the HT showed greater increases in skeletal AHHb over the NT group during the sprint efforts of the IPT (79.99 ± 30.17 and 55.46 ± 29.00 pmolL 1 , respectively). Similar observations were also reported during the IPT's recovery periods, with mean AHHb being 64.53 ± 23.04 and 48.29 ± 28.31 pmoFL 1 , for the HI and NT groups, respectively. Additionally, no significant differences were found for sprint Wmean and Wak between the groups post-intervention. However, the HT group increased Wmean by 11.99% post-intervention compared to the 3.75% increase by the NT group. Comparable increases were also noted for W 3k, with the HT group improving 11.82% post —intervention and the NT group improving only 3.45%. No significant differences were found between the HI and NT groups or pre and post-intervention for V02 or respiratory rate during both sprint and recovery periods. However, the HI group generally showed non-significant decreases in both parameters, whilst the NT group showed no change from pre-intervention levels. This thesis found that despite significant improvements in haematological variables in the HT group over the NT group, very short duration hypoxic training does not improve the restoration of sprint performance during intermittent activity significantly more than comparable normoxic training. However, in general, the hypoxic training group did elicit greater levels of improvement. Thus, the results of this thesis may reflect more, the relatively low number of participants in the studies, and not that the changes reported were meaningless. Improvements of approximately 5% in blood parameters and almost 12% in power output are still likely to be of interest to the intermittent sports performer, as such improvements may make a difference during critical periods of a match or race.

Despite an array of research focusing on elite sport in the UK, less attention has been afforded towards academy football within these elite environments, particularly in relation to the educational programmes that the players aged 16-18 are required to undertake. Little is known about the perspectives of these players and therefore the aim of this thesis was to explore their attitudes towards education and identify the factors that influenced them. A relativist ontological position was adopted in fitting with the constructivist paradigm in an attempt to understand the phenomenon from the perspective of the scholars focusing on one specific Premier League club. A phenomenological case study approach was adopted to understand the shared meanings created by the scholars in relation to their educational programme at the club. After undertaking eight focus groups and a further six in-depth interviews six main themes emerged in relation to the scholars’ attitudes and the factors that influenced them. It was clear from this research that the scholars at this club were diverse by way of past educational attainment and levels of engagement, they had mixed views of their educational programme at the club and their attitudes towards education were influenced to varying degrees by parents, peers and experiences with teachers. The scholars were focused more on their football ambitions and their intentions were to pursue careers in elite football with education being perceived as a back-up. Staff changes at the club resulted in a renewed focus on education, yet this was still set against the backdrop of the ambiguous and uncertain world of professional football. Due to the methodological approach that underpins this study, the findings are not expected to be regarded as generalisations across all elite level football clubs. They are intended to serve as a starting point for practitioners in these settings to develop practice accordingly.

The purpose of this research is to examine the significance of, to use their own term, ladies' football in the context of shifting social values with regard to gender roles and the socialisation of working - class women c. 1916 - 1960. The thesis will focus on ladies' football in Lancashire and surrounding districts from the end of the First World War, to the beginnings of the second wave of feminism, which marked the end of an era for the sport. Firstly, it is important to explain the use of the term ladies' rather than women's football. The term ladies' football was imposed by the patriarchal structures from which it developed in order to feminise the game and distinguish it from male football. This was consented to by the players who did not wish to be considered 'mannish'. The term lasted until the 1960's, when women began to take control of their own game. The term 'girls' is my own term and is used to describe the age group of the majority of the players. This must not be confused with the terms girlish' or girly', which are often used in a derogatory manner to undermine women's sports. Ladies' football developed out of the circumstances of the First World War. As a result of the war women were thrown into male spheres in the home, work place and sports field. Munitions girls were encouraged play football and take part in athletic competitions as a morale boosting exercise to raise money for war related charities. This behaviour, although contrary to traditional gender roles, was approved by the establishment as part of the 'plucky heroine' ideology of munitions work. However, this was only a temporary sanctioning and in the drive to return to pre - war social forms, football was amongst the many male spheres women were expected to relinquish. However, despite ideological and legislative pressure, the sport continued as a subculture throughout the 1920's, 1930's and the period after the Second World War until the early 1960's, when it was eftectively reorganised into its present format. Despite its early success, ladies' football has received limited attention from academics. The objective of this thesis is to evaluate the significance of ladies' football in terms of gender roles and the socialisation of working - class women in Lancashire. The thesis will address five salient themes starting with the development of the sport in munitions factories during the First World War. It will go on to explore the sporting 'entente cordiale' that developed as a result of international ladies' football matches arranged between Britain and France immediately after the war. Furthermore, the study will address how the popularity of such teams as Dick, Kerr's Ladies inspired women and girls from mining communities in the north - west and north - east to form their own teams for the duration of the 1921 Miners' lock - Out, in order to raise money to fund the pea - soup' kitchens that fed the miners' children. In 1921, the Football Association banned ladies' football from being played on its grounds, with devastating consequences for the game. The thesis looks closely at the social and political context of this decision and the pro - natalist ideology that governed attitudes towards women's sport until the 1960's. Ladies' football became a very important part of popular culture during and immediately after the the First World War and in the opinion of certain writers, the struggle with the Football Association represented women's struggles to maintain the social and economic advantages they had gained in other spheres. From 1921 - 1925, the 'football heroine' became a significant feature in popular sporting fiction for working - class girls. The thesis looks at the intent of this fiction, and evaluates its didactic role in informing young women about the importance of keeping hold of the rights and freedoms they had gained during the war. Finally, the study will conclude by asking the question: to what extent was ladies' football a victim of its own early success? By examining these salient themes, this thesis challenges notion that ladies' football was insignificant and explores a whole new area of hitherto unanswered questions with regard to working - class women's physical culture.