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This thesis has two purposes: firstly, to develop grounded theory methodology and secondly, to apply it in order to establish and further investigate those processes which structure young peoples' participation in physical activity. To satisfy the first of these aims, the Helix Model was created to provide a systematic framework to the grounded theory analysis. This Model was then employed to address the second aim, as it was used to analyse interviews conducted with a mixed sex sample of twenty nine very active and very inactive children and their parents. These young people were selected as a result of completing, on four occasions, a 24 hour self-report questionnaire specifically designed for them. The grounded theory analysis identified a series of interrelated 'gatekeeping processes' which construct those opportunities for young people to participate in physical activity. Several evolving processes, varying according to the context and nature of the physical activity, interrelate with one another to create a complex causal web. The gatekeeping processes are consciously, as well as unconsciously, manipulated relative to the social and physical context in which the young person and the other gatekeeping agents (parents, school, peers) exist and find themselves. The interrelationships between these agents, especially the young person and their parents, work through compromise and coercion to satisfy each of their personal agendas. The nature of each agenda is based on the definition associated with the three roles which gatekeepers adopt (guardian, facilitator, enforcer). The definition of each role affects the manner in which young people individually, as well as collectively with the gatekeepers, construct networks to accomplish an evolving combination of: independence, maximisation of the available resources, rewards, and care and control. The interrelationship between these factors and the extent to which participation in physical activity can achieve them, is what determines the likelihood of the young person's participation in that activity. However, physical activity has to compete with a myriad of the other activities the young person is involved in. These are activities, which for the more sedentary young person, are perceived to be more successful at providing the desired rewards.

Sport and tourism have received considerable attention in the research literature, but until recently as separate spheres of activity. However, an international review of sports-tourism literature conducted by Jackson and Glyptis (1992) revealed much evidence of a significant interrelationship, and identified the need for more empirical work. This research contributes to the more detailed and systematic quantification of the significance of sport as a tourism generator, which cannot be effectively established from existing tourism statistics, and towards the more effective analysis of the volume of sports-related tourism, and associated behaviour. The research provides a number of detailed primary case studies of what are now increasingly typical, yet under-researched, styles of sports-related tourism behaviour. The first study focuses on research with Butlins Holiday Worlds and provides evidence of sports-related tourism behaviour in a traditional holiday setting. Activity holidays represent another growing area of sports-related tourism. Twr-Y-Felin is one of the largest outdoor activity holiday organisations in Wales, in terms of volume and diversity of courses offered. This second case study reviews the holiday motivations, activity styles, holiday patterns etc. of a large sample of sports activity holiday takers. Analysis of the 1994 World Athletics Cup, the third case study, provides significant data on sports spectator behaviour, including the significance of the event in generating tourist trips, associated activity whilst travelling for sports spectating, distances travelled, length of stay, spending patterns etc. The final case study focuses on the most dedicated and committed of sports tourists; those representing their Country in international sport. A detailed case study of international athletes examines the generation of tourism through elite level sports participation, competition and training. The thesis proposes that sports-related tourism behaviour can be conceived as a continuum from, at one extreme, incidental and sporadic sports activity whilst on holiday, to tourism behaviour driven exclusively by the needs of, and interest in particular sports activities. This research has synthesised the findings from the four case studies and draws overall conclusions regarding sports tourism behaviour. In attempting to more clearly conceptualise this field and broaden understanding, this work highlights the various behavioural types and also identifies where other research contributions can be made.

In the most recent survey, Performance Directors and Sports Scientists highlighted talent identification to be the top priority for research within Great Britain (Burwitz, 1999). However, the identification of talent is only the first stage of a continuous process of development through which sporting excellence may be realised. The contribution of talent identification to the attainment of excellence in Women's Artistic Gymnastics has yet to be conclusively determined. Moreover, as a result of the lack of longitudinal research in this area, the impact of growth and maturation upon the development of talent characteristics in the young female gymnastics not fully understood. A longitudinal study was conducted to examine the identification and development of talent within a mixed ability sample of 48 young female gymnasts. Potentially prognostic talent characteristics from social-demographic physical, perceptual-motor and psychological dimensions of performance were assessedin an 'initial' measurement session (September 1996). The 'future' performance of the gymnasts was assessed 17 months later (February 1998) using a composite index of competitive performance and technical skill acquisition. The performance of gymnasts was classified as successful or unsuccessful according to this index. The relationship between the 'initial' talent characteristics and 'future' gymnastic performance was examined using principal components analysis and logistic regression. Using a similar approach, the extent to which a reduced battery of talent characteristics was able to distinguish between the gymnasts and a group of 15 untrained control subjects was determined. Finally, to provide an insight into the longitudinal development of the talent characteristics, the initial test battery was administered to the gymnasts on two further occasions separated by a measurement interval of six months. The results indicated that the profile of the young female gymnast is multidimensional. It is recommended that information should be analysed within each dimension of performance before being combined to produce a multidimensional profile. The physical characteristics were found to be the most prognostic indicators of talent and were recommended for inclusion in both the initial identification and subsequent monitoring processes. Support was also provided for the predictive validity of perceptualmotor characteristics, however, the contribution of these characteristics may be enhanced by further improvements in measurement reliability. Recommendations were drawn from the social-demographic and psychological dimensions concerning the most effective organisation of the training environment. The results from each dimension were combined to produce guidelines for the initial identification and subsequent development of talent within young female gymnasts.

This thesis is a discursive and conversation analytic study of how people talk about gender in the context of discussions about leisure. The data comprise a corpus of over 600 pages of transcribed talk-in-interaction from a variety of sources, including dinner discussions, focus groups, informal interviews, newspaper and magazine articles, television talk shows and documentaries. In contrast to most feminist leisure research, I take participants' talk as my starting point. I explore how gender is made relevant by participants and constituted in the course of their discussions, and what these constructions are used to do interactionally. The thesis works on two levels. First, it provides a distinctive contribution to leisure research, sport sociology and psychology. It explores what leisure theorists have themselves constructed as 'the problem' in leisure theory, and demonstrates how a discursive, conversation analytic approach can help transcend some of these theoretical and methodological 'problems' - including the way that the concept of leisure itself might be conceived and studied. It identifies three structuring concerns in feminist leisure theory, and provides a discursive and conversation analytic reworking of each of them: (i) Justifications for the Non-Participation of Women in 'Male-Identified' Activities; (ii) Hegemonic Masculinity; and (iii) Heterosexism. Second, it provides a distinctive contribution to discursive and conversation analytic approaches to gender, by problematizing and developing our understanding of the way femininity, sexism, masculinity and heterosexism 'get done' in talk. It concludes with a discussion of the implications of this approach for feminist leisure theory, discursive psychology and conversation analysis, and challenges researchers with an interest in 'ideology' and 'power' to take this approach seriously. It finishes with some questions for future analysis.

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