Title: Football as an extracurricural activity in the first grade of elementary school The goal of this thesis is to explore the role of football in the first grade of elementary school as an extracurricular activity from the child, parent, and coach perspectives. I assessed the frequency of this sport through carefully directed interviews with elementary school children. I conducted yet more interviews at football practices at different competitive levels to determine the popularity amongst players and its influence on them. I further examined the financial and time demands of this extracurricular activity through sending out surveys to parents. Last, I surveyd coaches to find out about the quality and type of football practices. Key words: football training, age patterns, coach, child, parents

Title: Research of football popularity in the Czech republic Objectives: The aim is to determine the public attitude to football, and public opinion on the football competitions. I own contribution will be recommendations for the Football Asocciation of the Czech republic, clubs and media, that could help increase interest in football. Methods: For questioning the Czech public a method of the German marketing agency UFA Sports Hamburg was used and adjusted for Czech conditions. A method of electronic questioning was used in order to obtain the data from respondents. By evaluating the research results the methods data analysis and measuring of dependence were used. Results: Upon the research a relationship between the public and the Czech and world football was discovered as well as the public opinions relativ to football competitions. On the base of the obtained information, some recommendation or problematic questions werw specifik, that the Football associations of the Czech republic, clubs and media should have been focused on in an effort to increase the popularity of football. Keywords: marketing research, popularity of sport, football

Name: Analysis of an individual playing perfomance for younger pupils Objective: The aim of this study is to determine the technical level of the younger pupils AC Sparta Praha and SK Slavia Praha against Bohemans 1905. It is specifically the percentage success collecting of the ball, pass and shot. Further, as I will be interested in the failing collecting, shooting and passing the ball skills. Methods: The method that I used for processing work is called indirect observation of previously recorded video. Data were processed mainly quantitative method. Results: Using the results, we found that a skill that is among hard according to the literature, and handling of the ball had the highest success rate of all monitored. Furthermore, what I found is that the players have many more attempts each game activities played under pressure than no pressure on the players. Keywords: Football, pass, shoot, ball collecting

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work / Don L. Kurtz / This study explores existing beliefs and often unspoken social structural arrangements related to male privileges by examining three different, but rather important, American social organizations—the NFL, U.S. military and higher education institutions. With queries from the Google image database, I analyzed images for themes from search terms of organizations thereby tapping into the consciences of society. Since a high volume of images are produced by Google Image search, a maximum of 25 results of each search term are included as potential sources of images for this study. The primary category of non-specific gender search terms of Google images are: NFL Players, U.S. soldiers, and college students. In addition, this study also utilized a subset category of gender and sexuality specific Google search terms that are related to the primary category search terms. The subset category of gender and sexuality specific Google search terms of images are: women of the NFL, NFL gay players, U.S. female soldiers, U.S. gay soldiers, college volleyball players, and fraternity life. Both the U.S. military and the NFL presented images of men preforming competitive or aggressive activities that can be defined as masculine labors. These images are reflections of the ideal masculine male playing a special role in U.S. society—the “warrior” male. Yet most images depicted U.S, soldiers in clean combat uniform with military weapons at a ready to engage in battle. This suggests that either U.S. military have some control over images that can be displayed on popular websites. Even though page ranking software gives the appearance that popular websites are the product of algorithm but there is some evidence that ranking can be manipulated by organizations. Colleges take manipulating popular websites to another level to reach their potential clients. Unlike the U.S. military and the NFL’s search terms results that presented images of men preforming masculine activities, college students’ search term results images are images of students displaying activities that show individuals in the act of being polite and pleasant to others, as well as being supportive. I suggest that the idea behind presenting images with a feminine slant is to attract the group that is most likely to attend college after high school, which is female. College websites will most likely to have staged images of study groups and professors teaching to a small group of students. The websites featured staged images of students, in which students are almost flawless in appearance, a phenomena that could only be achieved through doctoring, cosmetics, and computer retouching. This type of images is more likely to be attractive to potential students that are searching the internet for potential colleges to attend in the future. Moreover, Photoshop images of students assist colleges and universities in controlling the images they want to introduce to potential students and media. Colleges are prudent on how much to display in images of heterosexual relationships. Most staged images that displayed heteronormativity are male and female students studying within each other personal space. It would seem that images of homosexual relationships are still taboo on college websites because there are no staged images that indicated homosexual relationship between college students. I believe that these reflections are presented as organizational websites’ marketing strategies. The marketing strategies of website designers are to implement a group think mentality of those seeking information of a specific term. This action is caused by search engine page ranking software in order to organize highly interconnected websites toward one idea thus influencing a large number of potential and current customers’ decisions. In today’s technologically connected society, societal perception of what constitutes masculinity, femininity and sexuality starts with a well-designed website. The findings will perhaps have important implications for understanding to how the negative outcomes of male privileges remain entrenched in social institutions and benefit certain segments of society at the cost of others.

M.Phil. / Previously, not much attention was given to vision and visual skills in the everyday sport setting. The attention that it did get was not from optometry and ophthalmology, these two were late comers on this subject, but more and more athletes and coaches are realizing the importance of vision in their sport performance, although vision training were done inadvertently in the past. Sport performance involves motor and vision aspects. If the motor section does not work efficiently, the vision section will be hampered; in return, if the vision section does not work efficiently, the motor section will also be hampered. For this reason, vision was investigated. In this study an investigation was done on 17-year old (n = 35) and 15-year old (n = 28) rugby players. The aim of this study was to determine whether the visual skills of the 17-year-old boys would be better than that of the 15-year-old boys. Both groups were subjected to a battery of eleven rugby related visual tests. The results obtained, show that in some of the software skills such as eye-hand coordination, eye-body coordination and visual reaction time the 17-year-old group performed statistically better (p<0.05) than the 15-year-old group. The latter group only performed statistically better (p<0.05) in skills classified as hardware skills such as static visual acuity, contrast sensitivity and stereopsis. The results showed a general lack of visual skills. Sport specific visual training programmes will be needed to motor performance training if these athletes are going to develop in elite performers. / Professor Jannie Ferreira

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of aerobic fitness level on concussion risk, severity and recovery in high school football players. Participants (N=158) completed aerobic fitness (i.e., estimated VO2 max) and baseline neurocognitive tests (i.e., ImPACT). Concussed athletes completed ImPACT every 24-72 hours until they were asymptomatic or returned to baseline levels. A post-season questionnaire assessed unreported concussions and symptoms. Twenty players incurred concussions. Previously concussed athletes were 3.71 times more likely to be concussed than those with no concussion history. Severely concussed participants reported lingering symptoms. Previously concussed athletes high in aerobic fitness reported fewer symptoms than those low in aerobic fitness. Non-significant trends suggested that aerobic fitness might be related to faster recovery times and fewer symptoms. Twenty-eight percent (n= 38) of non-concussed participants reported a potential concussion and symptoms that were not recorded by medical staff during the season.

M.Phil. / This study consists of three separate publications. The first article attempts to evaluate the difference in the visual skill level of professional versus non-professional rugby players. The software visual skills, involving skills such as eye-hand coordination, eye-body coordination, central-peripheral awareness, and reaction time, were examined. The results indicate that the professional players did out perform the non-professional players on all these skills except for visual concentration. Not all the results were however statistically significant. The importance of the above skills in the game of rugby is discussed and recommendations as to the implementation of vision enhancement programmes are made. The second study explores the importance of the ‘hardware’ factors of the visual system in the game of rugby. A group of professional and club rugby players were tested and the results compared. The results were also compared with the established norms for elite athletes. The findings indicate no significant difference in hardware skills between professional and club players. Compared with the norms for elite athletes, performance of most of the rugby players were average or even worse. This suggests that in the game of rugby the hardware skills may be of lesser importance and that visual enhancement programmes should focus more on improving the players’ software skills. The hardware visual skills should not be neglected though because these provide a base from where the software skills can develop. Thirdly we wanted to determine whether there are a statistically significantly difference between the visual skill levels of forward and back line players in rugby and whether they performed visually according to the norms established for elite athletes. The results indicates that there is much room for improvement for both forward and back line players in eye-hand coordination, visual concentration and central-peripheral awareness because these skills, play an important role in a sport like rugby and because the players under performed according to the established norms. Thus attention should be given to develop the hardware visual skills like accommodation and fusion to an average level of performance, to eliminate any potential limits on the software visual skills. Consistent, position specific visual training should be incorporated in the daily training routine of these players to develop the software visual skills to their full potential. / Prof. Jannie Ferreira

ABSTRACT Common lower extremity injuries in female high school soccer players in Johannesburg east district Mtshali P.T.S. Background and purpose of research As the number of females participating in sports has increased, so has the necessity of understanding the effect of female growth and development in participation, athletic ability and injury patterns. Soccer is one of the sports where South Africa has seen an increase of youth and adult females’ participation. Aim: To establish the prevalence of and extrinsic risk factors contributing to injuries in the lower extremity in female high school soccer players in the Johannesburg east district. Method: A retrospective descriptive questionnaire – based study of 103 first team high school female soccer players in the Johannesburg east district was conducted. This was to determine point and one year prevalence of injuries, profile of injuries that affect female soccer players, associations between injuries and player position, age, use of equipment, frequency of play, and training duration and also to identify possible risk factors that contribute to injuries. Results: The one year prevalence of injured players was 46.1% and point prevalence was 37.8%. Knee injuries (18.6%) and ankle injuries (17.6%) were reported for one year prevalence and for point prevalence knee injuries were 13.3% and ankle injuries 18.9%. An extended duration of skills (p=0.0001) and fitness (p=0.02) training in this population reduced the likelihood of incurring an injury and the older (p=0.01) the players, the more chances of sustaining injuries. The players who wore shin guards were less prone to shin/leg injuries (p=0.01) and the relative odds were 0.35 (CI 0.16-0.79). The midfielders had more foot and toe injuries (p = 0.05). Starting age (p=0.78), frequency of play (p=0.83) wearing of shoes (p=0.54) and stretching had no influence on injury. Conclusion: The knee and ankle were the main locations of injury with defenders and midfielders mostly being injured. The increased duration of training for both skills and fitness and not wearing shin guards are risk factors for injury in female soccer players in high school.

Syftet med det här arbetet är att tydliggöra vad svenska fotbollsagenter gör samt redogöra hur legitimitet skapas i en bransch som kantas av kriminalitet och bristfällig transparens. Kvalitativa intervjuer har använts för att besvara de två forskningsfrågorna som lyder: Vad gör fotbollsagenter i Sverige och vad erbjuder de fotbollsspelare och fotbollsklubbar för tjänster? Samt, hur konstruerar fotbollsagenter legitimitet i en bransch med dåligt rykte? Respondenterna till studien är tagna från tre olika yrkesgrupper: tre fotbollsspelare, tre fotbollsagenter och tre sportchefer. Resultatet visar att fotbollsagenter i Sverige primärt jobbar med kontraktsförhandlingar, kontaktskapande, scouting och karriärrådgivning. Några agenter erbjöd även spelare möjligheten till extra träningspass, matchanalys och rehab. Utöver detta framkom det att det förekommer agenter i Sverige som arbetar med oetiska arbetsmetoder som exempelvis att muta spelare. När det kom till hur agenter konstruerar legitimitet handlar det huvudsakligen om att skapa tillit från andra aktörer i fotbollssverige. Detta görs främst genom att få externa godkännanden från andra aktörer inom fotbollen. Utöver detta handlade det om att följa den reglering som finns och hålla sig borta från allt som kan associeras med den mörkare sidan av agentbranschen. / The purpose of this thesis is to clarify what a football agent does in Sweden and describe how legitimacy is created in an industry that is associated with crime and a lack of transparency. Qualitative interviews have been used to answer the two main issues that follows: What do football agents do in Sweden and what services do they offer football players and football clubs? And how do football agents construct legitimacy in an industry with a bad reputation? The respondents were picked from three different professions: three footballers, three football agents and three sports directors. The result shows that football agents in Sweden mainly worked with contracts negotiation, professional contact creation, scouting and giving career advice. Some agents even offered their players the opportunity for extra training sessions, match analysis and rehabilitation. The result also shows that some agents in Sweden uses work methods that could be considered unethical, for example giving bribes to players. When it came to how agents constructed legitimacy, it was mainly about creating a trust between themselves and other actors in Swedish football. This was done mostly through gaining external approval from other actors in football. In addition, it was about following the regulations that exist and staying away from anything that can be associated with the shadier side of the football agent industry.

Thesis advisor: Stephanie Greene / This paper addresses the recent concerns about concussions in the sport of football and elaborates on the medical findings, litigation, and ethical questions that have surrounded the issue. The goal is to present a compelling case for change in how concussions are viewed and handled in the sport. By using concrete examples to explain the lasting effects concussions have had on players after their careers have ended, I hope to show the need for change. I will explore the most recent developments of chronic traumatic encephalopathy in order to show its harmful reach and will touch upon litigation that has been filed by players who experienced post career problems. In addition, through the insight of current college players as well as referencing my own experience as a Division I College Football player, I wish to establish an emotional connection in the paper and unveil the roots of the problem – the toxic nature of the football culture. I am optimistic that this inquiry will help cultivate a culture change through a variety of approaches. First, I indicate the need for a transformation of the football culture. Second, I suggest a formal, mandatory education to inform players at all levels about concussions, subconcussive hits, and the potential diseases that can stem from. Third, I propose new penalties for players, coaches, support staff, and all involved in player safety in an attempt to further prevent head injuries. This thesis attacks the issue of concussions in football from all angles. It calls for the football community to accept the severity of concussions, educate on concussions, and prevent repeated concussions in order to prompt action. / Thesis (BS) — Boston College, 2016. / Submitted to: Boston College. Carroll School of Management. / Discipline: Departmental Honors. / Discipline: Other.