How can we identify and emerge from the chain of bodies, territories and cultures, called 'my body', my 'self'? Can the performing body transcend cultural boundaries? What would such transcendence look like? If it happens, what can it say about a possible intercultural body format? How to create a performance with an extracultural approach? Invasion, migration, and population dislocation over the last five centuries has caused significant movement amongst global populations. Cross-cultural performances have developed from these invasions, migrations, and dislocations. The late 20th and early 21st Centuries have seen the development in the 'West' of intercultural and extracultural theatre/performance. This project presents a performance derived from the unique combination of Brazilian and Australian performance practice. It sheds light on the power of the theatrical event for disparate audiences, and on the performer’s experience of the creative process while generating a new performance text that addresses the questions: What is it to 'be' 'Brazilian'? Does 'Brazil' exist? What is it to be 'Latin American'? Does 'Australia' exist? This project, Little World: Four 'Autoethnographic' Performances, explores the author/performer’s 'being' 'Brazilian', being 'Latin American' in 'Australia', and a 'performer' in 'theatre', through autobiographical and autoethnographic performance drawing on the writings of Clarice Lispector, Franz Kafka, and Guillermo Gómez-Peña, and the performance practices of Brazilian Candomblé and Japanese Butoh. It attempts to place the spectator in the position of the performer, encountering 'Australia' through another culture and language. And following Oswald de Andrade’s 'anthropophagy', it proposes and enacts the cannibalising of the 'foreign(er)', the digestion of foreign stereotypes to produce new identities. The thesis component of the project will provide a first person autobiographical and autoethnographic account addressing the questions raised above; the performance-making processes; and the social and theoretical contexts and the aesthetic elements of the performance.

Pre-competitive preparations in elite sport have been shown to be important to performance. In particular, mental preparation and mental readiness have been shown to be important determinants of successful performance. For example, Orlick and Partington (1988) highlighted that mental preparation in Olympic athletes was perceived to be important to successful performance. In the search for understanding of performance excellence researchers (e.g., Durand-Bush & Salmela, 2002, Mahoney & Avener, 1977; McCaffey & Orlick, 1989; Orlick & Partington) have highlighted the role of the coach in the development and maintenance of elite performance. Above all, the coach has been found to be a critical element of performance and has been perceived to be influential to athletic performance in both a positive or negative manner. In addition, researchers have highlighted that coaches and the coaching processes/practices that they adopt are influential in constructing a performance environment that could aid or hinder athletes preparing for and performing in competition (Côté & Sedgwick, 2003). In particular, coach-athlete interactions immediately prior to performance are suggested to be an important determinant of mental preparation and performance (Gould, Guinan, Greenleaf, Medbery, & Peterson, 1999). There is limited information, however, on coach-athlete interactions immediately prior to performance and the influence on mental preparation and performance. In this thesis, I investigated coach-athlete interactions immediately prior to performance in semi-elite basketball teams. The participants in the study were four single sex (2 male and 2 female) coach-athlete dyads competing in Australian Basketball Association (ABA) conferences. I applied a multi-method study comprising the following four linked phases for each dyad. Phase 1, involved a semi-structured interview with the coach focused on their coaching intentions/practices immediately prior to a game. Phase 2, involved observation of training and of the final hour prior to a game. Phase 3, involved a semi-structured interview with a targeted player on their perceptions of the coach prior to performance. Phase 4, involved a Verbal Cued Stimulated Recall Interview (VCSRI) with the coach. The VCSRI was focused on the coaches’ explanations and reflections on their actions and communications immediately prior to the game recorded in Phase 2. The data were analysed using ground theory methods and constant comparative analysis. Overall, I found that the four coaches aimed to construct a pre-performance environment that fostered players’ physical preparation, mental preparations and readiness, and reinforced the game plan and tactics practiced during the week. In addition, coaches were also found to spend time focused on personal preparation in order to ready themselves mentally for their role in the pre-game period and in the game. Coaches suggested that a key aspect of mental preparation was the use of pregame routines. All four coaches proposed that pre-game routines either individual or team based aided their own and athletes’ mental preparation for competition. In particular, pre-game routines facilitated athletes into a game centred focus and narrowed their attention onto the game, the team, and their individual role within the team. Coaches’ were found to have structured the pre-game preparations differently depending on the preferences of the team or their own preferred coaching style, giving players more or less free time to complete their own pre-game routines. A number of external factors mediated the structure and style of the pre-game routines. These factors included the time of the season, the level of development, player experience, and the coaches’ assessment of player preparations prior to the game. To aid players’ mental preparation coaches were found to apply a combination of motivational strategies (praise, positive reinforcement, and confidence). In particular, coaches stated that they used individual interactions to focus players and aid the players in mentally preparing for the game. The coaches achieved this through structured warm-ups, individual interactions and individual coaching, motivational strategies, player assessment, and the pre-game talk. I also found that coaches monitored their players throughout the preperformance period and used their background knowledge of the players’ personality, preferred coaching style, game state, current form, and body language to assess the progress to assess the mental readiness of players before a match. Coaches applied this mental framework to players’ pre-game preparations to assess their progress. If coaches perceived one of their players to be unprepared they would take them aside and speak individually to the player and try to refocus them by showing confidence in their ability, praise, encouragement, and individual goal setting. A key finding related to the players perception of their coach. The majority of players perceived their coaching to be a positive influence on their preparations, a source of motivation, and confidence. Players’, however, did not always agree with their coach’s decisions and style of coaching before a game. Specifically, players’ were found to have perceived coaches as organisers and facilitators, whom aided them to reach their optimal preparation for performance. The interactions between coach and player were found to differ depending on several mediating factors. The mediating factors included players’ level of development, time of the season, player’s form, opposition, the teams place on the ladder, and players’ preferred coaching style. The mediating factors determined the content and focus of the pre-game talk and the interactions with players. The results depicted in the Pre-Performance Coaching Model (VRICPP). The VRICPP model depicts the processes and interacting factors that influence coaches and athletes during the pre-game preparation, in particular mental preparation and performance. The model highlights the interaction between coach and player personal variables, the coach-athlete relationship, mediating factors, mental framework of players, coach intervention, preparation, and performance. In conclusion, coach-athlete interactions immediately prior to performance are focused on the optimal mental and physical preparation, player mental readiness and game focus, positive reinforcement of team plan/strategies, team cohesion, and coach preparation. Coach-athlete interactions were focused on motivation, confidence, positive reinforcement, and game focus. Importantly, coaches needed to be aware of all aspects of their players’ behaviour and personality in order to be an effective coach. Furthermore, coaches’ interventions were a compromise between players’ needs, what was best for the team, and what coaches perceived to be best for the player. In addition, a key aspect of coach-athlete interactions before a game was open and honest communication. Coaches and players needed to be able to openly communicate important information under pressure and with limited time available. The results from this study have important implications for coaches and athletes. In particular, knowledge of players preferred coaching style and knowledge of players’ form, mental state, and preparation before matches are important skills for elite coaches to know. In addition, coaches need to know how to effectively intervene with each player in order to aid players’ mental and physical readiness.

This thesis reports on an original qualitative study of older people’s perceptions about how they benefited from participating in a creative arts program. The study brought together the research fields of leisure, arts and ageing well to explore the meaning that 10 older people gave to their creative leisure experiences. Narrative data from in-depth interviews were analysed using a qualitative approach. The major finding of this study was that creative activities, particularly group arts activities, can be a powerful mode for delivering leisure benefits to enhance ageing well. Many participants attributed a sense of a new lease of life to the stimulating opportunities they now had for self-expression. This new lease of life resulted from the benefits of heightened enjoyment along with a strengthened sense of life purpose and meaning. Sharing a common interest was identified as vital to enjoyable social interactions and a sense of belonging. The findings of this study indicate that there is certainly scope for the arts, leisure and aged care fields to provide a more stimulating and developmental range of creative programs to benefit older people. Furthermore, this study identified specific facilitating strategies that leisure providers can incorporate into program design to enable older people to reap the potential benefits that creative leisure can bring to their lives.

This laboratory has shown that exercise in humans impairs skeletal muscle Na+,K+-ATPase maximal in vitro activity, whilst in isolated rat muscles, Na+,K+-ATPase inhibition with ouabain leads to early muscle fatigue. Hence, Na+,K+-ATPase function is likely to be important for skeletal muscle performance. Digoxin is a specific inhibitor of the Na+,K+- ATPase and is used to treat patients with severe heart failure. This thesis investigated whether in-vivo inhibition of Na+,K+-ATPase by digoxin adversely effected muscle performance and Na+,K+-ATPase isoform expression and protein abundance in skeletal muscle of healthy individuals. Ten active, but not well-trained healthy volunteers (9 M, 1 F) gave written informed consent. Subjects performed incremental cycle ergometer exercise to measure VO2peak and to determine 33, 67 and 90% VO2peak workrates. Exercise tests were performed after taking digoxin (DIG, 0.25 mg.d-1) or a placebo (CON) for 13 day (Cybex) or 14 day (cycling), in a randomised, counterbalanced, cross-over, double-blind design, with trials separated by at least 6 weeks. On day 13 subjects performed tests of quadriceps muscle strength and endurance of the dominant leg, on a Cybex isokinetic dynamometer ( Cybex Norm 770, Henley Healthcare, USA). On day 14 subjects completed 10 min cycling at each of 33% and 67% VO2peak, then to fatigue at 90% VO2peak on cycle ergometer (Lode Excalibur, Groningen, the Netherlands), with arterial blood sampling for plasma [K+] determinations. A muscle biopsy was taken at rest, after exercise at 67% and 90%VO2peak and at 3 hr recovery. Muscle was analysed for Na+, K+-pump isoform (alpha1-alpha3, beta1-beta3) mRNA expression (real-time RT-PCR, GeneAmp 7500 Sequence Detection System) and whole homogenate protein abundance (immunoblotting, Kodak Digital Science Image Station 400CF, Eastman Kodak Company, CT, USA). Serum digoxin was 0.7±0.1 nM at day 13 and 0.8±0.1 nM at day 14 (Mean±SEM) and was less than the lowest detection limit of 0.4 nM in control trials. There were no differences in VO2 or time to fatigue (DIG 262±156 vs CON 254 ±125 s) between DIG and CON during exercise. Arterial plasma [K+] increased above rest at 67% VO2peak and increased further at fatigue (P<0.05). No significant differences were found in [K+] between DIG and CON. Peak torque during dynamic isokinetic contractions was less at each increasing velocity (P<0.05). No differences were found in muscle strength between DIG and CON. Similarly, there were no differences in the leg extensor fatigue index between trials (DIG 0.54±0.03 vs CON 0.57±0.03). The mRNA expression of the alpha1, alpha2, alpha3, beta1, beta1 or beta3 isoforms was not significantly changed by DIG. However, DIG increased the total alpha mRNA expression (sum of alpha1, alpha2, alpha3) and also the total beta mRNA expression (sum of beta1, beta2 and beta3) at rest by 1.9- and 0.6-fold, respectively (P<0.05). An exercise effect was observed for alpha3 mRNA expression, which was 2.1-and 2.4-fold higher at 3 h post-exercise, than during exercise at 67% VO2peak and fatigue, respectively (P<0.05). Similarly, beta3 mRNA expression was increased at 3 h post-exercise by 1.8-, 1.4- and 1.6-fold, compared to rest, 67% VO2peak exercise and fatigue, respectively (P<0.05). No other significant changes with exercise or recovery were seen in mRNA expression. In resting muscle, protein relative abundance was not significantly changed by digoxin for alpha1 (1.14±0.19, P=0.50), alpha3 (1.12±0.18, P=0.52), beta1 (1.19±0.18, P=0.32), beta2 (1.86±0.57, P=0.17), beta3 (0.85±0.17, P=0.39) compared to control (1.00) although a tendency was observed for an increase in alpha2 with DIG (1.44±0.23, P=0.096). However, exercise affected both beta1 and beta3 isoform protein abundance. The beta1 protein abundance was increased at 3 h post-exercise by 2.2-and 1.5-fold compared to during exercise at 67% VO2peak and fatigue, respectively (P<0.05). Similarly, beta3 protein abundance was increased at 67% VO2peak and 3 h post-exercise compared to rest, by 1.5-and 1.6-fold, respectively (P<0.05). In summary, despite elevation of serum digoxin to therapeutic levels, quadriceps muscle strength, muscle fatiguability and arterial plasma [K+] were each unchanged by DIG. Furthermore, digoxin treatment had only minimal effects on skeletal muscle Na+,K+- ATPase isoform mRNA expression and protein abundance in healthy individuals. Nonetheless Na+,K+-ATPase alpha subunit and beta subunit total mRNA expression in resting muscle was increased with digoxin, suggesting an effect of digoxin on Na+,K+-ATPase gene expression. Whilst no significant change was detected in protein abundance of any isoform with digoxin in resting muscle, a tendency forwards an increase in alpha2 protein abundance was observed (P=0.096). Together these suggest a possible compensatory upregulation with digoxin in muscle Na+,K+-ATPase in these healthy individuals.

This thesis is about Middendorf breathwork, a way of cultivating breath and body awareness developed by Ilse Middendorf (b.1910, Berlin), based on sensing subtle bodily movements that occur with breath as it is allowed to come and go on its own. Drawing on the author’s personal experience, together with interviews and formal workshops with peer participants, the thesis describes the practice of Middendorf breathwork, traces Middendorf’s forebears and contemporaries, situating her work in relation to other somatic bodies of work, and discusses the significance of Middendorf breathwork in relation to contemporary discourses around breath, embodiment, and experience. The author proposes that the practice of Middendorf breathwork invites a different experience of embodiment through an integration of the kinæsthetic realm with thought, emotion, and intuition through breath. This practice can connect the individual with the somatic ‘intelligence’ of their body and offer an experience of how this links them in to a greater whole. Such an experience, it is argued, is a valuable redress to experiences of bodily abstraction in an increasingly technoscientific world.

The importance of regular and life long physical activity, both from a physical and medical perspective and from a psychological well-being perspective, is well documented. Also well documented is the reduction, below sufficient levels, in physical activity participation, particularly for populations such as young and mid-life adult women. Physical activity promotion is, thus, of great importance in modern society. In this thesis, my primary aim is to develop ways to enhance the adoption and maintenance of physical activity in young and midlife women. To do so, I have utilised the theoretical conceptions from a dominant social cognitive model, the theory of planned behavior (Ajzen, 1985). Subjective norm has not been a strong predictor of intention or behaviour in research on the theory of planned behavior in physical activity contexts (Symons Downs & Hausenblas, 2005), the reasons for which have been the subject of much debate in the literature. To date, there is disagreement about the conceptualization, measurement, and importance of the variable. In this thesis, I examined the potential of the social identity approach as a basis for making subjective norm more meaningful. In this approach, rather than assessing the influence of a random collection of important others as in the original definition (Ajzen, 1985), subjective norm is conceptualised as the perceived pressure from specific reference groups relevant to self, a conceptualization more in keeping with the social identity approach (Terry & Hogg 1996). I expected that the social identity approach to subjective norms would enhance its ability to predict intentions and be the basis of an effective physical activity intervention. Specifically, I expected that physical activity norms, when presented to women from members of a shared social identity would influence both intentions and behaviour. In the first study, I surveyed 214 women between the ages of 25 and 45 to obtain a list of the potential reference groups that would be relevant for young and midlife women. I asked women to list their self-characteristics and then to rate them on Simon’s (1997) social self-categorisation index. I sorted the self-characteristics into types, and listed the frequency and social identity potential for each type. From the most frequently listed self-characteristic types, I found that the personality-based selfcharacteristics, such as strong independent woman, and spiritual caring woman, had more social identity potential, than the role-based self-characteristics, such as wife or professional. I used these personality-based self-characteristics as the basis for my intervention study. In the second study, I conducted a 3-month physical activity study based on the social identity approach to subjective norm. The intervention was for sedentary women (25 to 45 years), who engaged in less than 150 minutes of exercise per week. In two social identity conditions (SI), I conducted a social identity-based subjective norm manipulation. The first SI condition was for women (n = 26) who identified as strong independent women. The second SI condition was for women (n = 17) who identified as spiritual caring women. In these SI conditions, I made salient the relevant identity, and then provided them with video taped normative support for physical activity from similar women (ingroup). In the personal identity (PI) condition (n =21), I asked women to focus on their individuality and provided them with video-taped information about the importance of physical activity presented by health professionals. Women in all conditions completed physical activity questionnaires preintervention, 2-weeks post-intervention, and questionnaires 3-months later to followup. TPB variables were measured as well group norm (re-conceptualised subjective norm). At the 2-week post-test, I found that women from all conditions increased their level of physical activity and there was no difference between the conditions. At the 3- month post-test, however, only the women in the SI conditions maintained their increased level of physical activity. The physical activity levels for women in the PI condition dropped back to pre-intervention levels. These results indicate that subjective norm-based physical activity interventions can be successful in enabling women’s adoption and maintenance of physical activity, more so, than interventions focused on women’s personal identities. Regression analyses in the second study, conducted to examine the TPB provided some support for the social identity-based approach to subjective norm because subjective norm was shown to be a significant predictor of intention for the SI conditions, but not for the PI condition. In the PI condition, only perceived behavioural control predicted intention. These results indicate that norms can be significant predictors of intention, but only in contexts in which women’s social, rather than personal, identities are salient. Contrary to the theory of planned behavior, however, intention did not predict physical activity in either the PI or SI conditions, indicating that action is not influenced by good intentions alone. Before considering the impact of methodological issues on the findings, I investigated the other factors that were operating in the SI conditions, which could explain the increased and maintained physical activity in the absence of an intention-based explanation. This investigation led me to conclude that the social identity approach to subjective norm I used in the SI intervention conditions created the foundation for automatic goal activation based on auto-motive theory (Bargh, 1990), in which the women were able to bypass the more effortful, intentional route in order to execute their physical activity goals. Much future research is, nevertheless, needed to substantiate this conclusion. In the final study, I conducted focus group discussions about the 3-month physical activity study with 38 women from both the PI and SI intervention conditions. The aim of this study was to provide some evidence for the theoretical explanations I made when discussing the lack of an intention – behaviour relationship in my intervention study. I found some evidence that goals were activated automatically in the SI conditions but not the PI condition, and thus, provided some support for automotive theory, but more controlled experimental research is needed to further substantiate the argument. Overall this thesis shows that a physical activity intervention based on the social, rather than personal, level of self is more effective in enhancing both adoption and maintenance of physical activity for young and midlife women. At this social level of self, I found that subjective norm has more of an influence on intention than the personal variables of attitude and perceived behavioural control, but, for young and midlife women, intention is not a strong predictor of behaviour. This means that enhancing the intentions of young and midlife women to exercise may not be enough to influence their exercise behaviour and that other theoretical approaches should be considered. My research shows that an understanding of the social identity approach and auto-motive theory may enable the development of useful strategies to enhance women’s abilities to convert their intentions into action.

Falls in older adults has long been recognised as a significant public health problem requiring urgent intervention. Tripping while walking is one of the most commonly cited reasons for falls, however, little research has focused so far on foot motion characteristics and their contribution to the likelihood of tripping while walking. Even fewer studies have examined tripping on unseen obstacles while obstacle negotiation (i.e. tripping on seen obstacles) has received more attention. The primary aim of this research was to examine foot motion during long-term (e.g., 30 minutes) continuous treadmill walking by measuring minimum toe clearance (MTC), the very small distance the foot clears the ground during swing phase of gait. Examining MTC of each stride allowed an estimation of the likelihood of an individual tripping on unseen obstacles while walking. Since cognitive decline and reduced ability to multitask (reduced divided attention capacity) has been observed in older adults and has been linked to falls risk, this research also examines foot kinematics during distracted walking conditions. Foot motion was analysed during undistracted and distracted walking using various short (turning the head to identify objects to the left and then the right; reacting to a visual stimulus by pressing a hand-held button; reaching into a waist pouch to retrieve a handkerchief; and a cough) and prolonged distractions (counting backwards by threes; and watching a video) that could be encountered in normal everyday life. This enabled an evaluation of the types of distractions and situations that might increase the risk of tripping in healthy elderly females. This research, therefore: (1) focused on healthy elderly females (n = 18, mean age 71.3 years, SD = 3.6 years) and healthy young females (n = 18, mean age 21.8 years, SD = 3.6 years); (2) utilised a 2D model of the foot to using shoe dimension to calculate MTC at midswing; (3) calculated probability of tripping for each subject based on individual MTC distributions; and (4) examined MTC descriptive statistics during undistracted walking at a self-selected comfortable walking speed on the treadmill for ~20 minutes and during various everyday distractions (short and prolonged) for 10 minutes. Descriptive statistics of individual MTC distributions, which included between 906 to 1253 strides per subject, were examined. For undistracted walking, the elderly adults had lower measures of all variables in the lower end of the MTC distribution, namely minimum (minMTC) (1.08cm vs. 1.42cm, p<.05), first percentile (PC1MTC) (1.35cm vs. 1.68cm, p<.05), fifth percentile (PC5MTC) (1.50cm vs. 1.81cm, p<.05), and first quartile (Q1MTC) (1.80cm vs. 2.00cm, p<.05). The higher skewness of MTC distributions (0.60 vs. 0.33, p<.05) in the elderly, however, suggests some attempt was made to reduce the frequency of MTC in the lower portion of the distribution. It was discovered that an individual’s calculated frequency of tripping was approximately once every second stride when MTC was approximately equal to the individual’s MTC distribution central tendency (median). Elderly subjects had greater calculated probability of tripping (PT) between MTC(y) = 0.9cm – 2.0cm (p<.05). The elderly also had higher intra-individual variability in MTC as measured by interquartile range (IQRMTC) (0.44cm vs. 0.28cm, p<.01). For normal undistracted walking, the elderly are at an increased risk of tripping on unseen obstacles given the smaller MTC and greater variability in MTC. For the distracted walking conditions, the elderly had significantly lower medianMTC compared with the young for most distraction tasks (p<.05). The elderly also typically had lower minMTC and higher IQRMTC compared with the young. The lower MTC and higher intra-individual variability due to distractions places the elderly at an increased risk of tripping on small unseen obstacles compared with the young. The distraction eliciting the smallest MTC was a prolonged task (60 seconds) and involved structural interference where vision was focused on the task as well as maintaining posture and balance (video task). Distractions such as observing the scenery while walking therefore could increase the likelihood of tripping. The largest MTC was during the head turn task, where subjects turned the head to identify objects to the left and right. This large MTC could have been an attempt to reduce the likelihood of tripping.

In skeletal muscle, the Na+,K+-ATPase enzyme regulates trans-membrane Na+ and K+ fluxes during contractions, and therefore also affects muscle excitability and plays an important role in delaying muscle fatigue. Consequently, any modulation of Na+,K+-ATPase content or activity has the potential to affect muscle fatiguability. Thus, this thesis investigated three factors thought to impair or down-regulate the skeletal muscle Na+,K+-ATPase – acute exercise, renal disease and digoxin. The related effects on plasma [K+] during exercise and on muscle performance were also examined. This thesis firstly investigated the acute effects of brief intense exercise on muscle Na+,K+-ATPase content and maximal activity (Study 1). Study 2 investigated the effects of end-stage renal disease on plasma [K+] regulation during exercise; examined the relationship between impaired [K+] regulation and muscle performance, and investigated the effects of endurance training in these patients. Study 3 investigated the impacts of end-stage renal disease and renal transplantation on skeletal muscle Na+,K+-ATPase and its relationship with muscle performance. Finally, Study 4 investigated the effects of chronic digoxin administration on skeletal muscle Na+,K+-ATPase content and maximal activity and on muscle performance in healthy humans.

In this thesis, I investigated the influence of personality and situational variables on the experience of flow in order to enhance flow state in tennis competition. Based on propositions of the sport-specific flow model (Kimiecik & Stein, 1992), I conducted three interconnected studies. In Study 1, I examined the relationship between personality variables and flow. In Study 2, I tested the effect of the interaction between two key personality variables, trait sport confidence and action control, and key situational variables, self- and externally-paced tasks, on flow state and performance. Finally, in Study 3, I investigated the efficacy of an imagery intervention designed to enhance confidence and action control to increase flow state and self-paced and externally-paced performance in tennis competitions. The purpose of Study 1 was to investigate the influence of personality variables on dispositional flow and state flow in junior tennis players. I entered personality variables, which demonstrated moderate correlations with flow, into regression equations. Except for the Tellegen Absorption Scale (TAS), I entered the Action Control Scale-Sport (ACS-S), the Sport Imagery Questionnaire (SIQ), and the Trait Sport Confidence Inventory (TSCI) as predictor variables into stepwise multiple regression analyses with the Dispositional Flow Scale-2 (DFS- 2; N = 271) and the Flow State Scale-2 (FSS-2; N = 134), respectively, as criterion variables. The results showed that trait sport confidence was the strongest predictor of dispositional flow, accounting for 32.83% of the variance, and action control was the strongest predictor of state flow, explaining 15.52% of the iii variance. On a DFS-2 subscale level, confidence was the main predictor for challenge-skills balance and sense of control, whereas imagery use was the main predictor for clear goals, unambiguous feedback, concentration on the task at hand, and autotelic experience. In the FSS-2 regression analyses, action control was the strongest predictor for most of the entered criterion variables of state flow subscales, namely clear goals, unambiguous feedback, and sense of control. The purpose of Study 2 was to test the Kimiecik and Stein’s (1992) hypothesis that person and situation factors interplay in the generation of flow state. Based on the findings in the previous study, I chose examine interaction and main effects between two key personality characteristics, namely trait sport confidence and action control, and situational variables, such as a self-paced service task and an externally-paced groundstroke task, on flow state and performance in tennis. Following service and groundstroke performance, the participants, junior tennis players (N = 60) between 12 to 18 years, completed the FSS-2. Based on a median split on the TSCI, I assigned participants to groups of high or low confidence. I carried out a two-way repeated-measures ANOVA on flow state with high and low confidence as levels of the independent group factor and self-paced and externally-paced tasks as levels of the repeated measures factor. The results showed a significant main effect between groups of high and low confidence and flow, F(1, 58) = 6.82, p < .05, ç² = .11. The interaction for flow state was not significant, but revealed a moderate effect size, F(1, 58) = 2.64, ns, ç² = .04. I carried out similar ANOVAs on performance showing a significant main effect for performance. Participants demonstrated a greater accuracy in the groundstroke task than in the service task, showing a large effect size, F(1, 58) = 12.74, p < .001, ç² = .18. Analyses of interaction effects between high and low confidence and self- and externally-paced tasks on performance outcome showed a moderate effect size, but was not significant, F(1, 58) = 2.97, ns, ç² = .05. Following the same procedure for action control, I used a median split to divide participants into groups of action orientation and state orientation. There were no significant main or interaction effects between action- and state-oriented groups and flow. With regard to performance, a significant main effect was found for task type, with participants scoring higher on the groundstroke than the service task, and performance outcome, F(1, 58) = 12.13, p < .001, ç² = .17, indicating a large effect size. The purpose of Study 3 was to examine the effect of an imagery intervention on flow state and performance in tennis competition. The study included an A-B design with a baseline and post-intervention phase to evaluate the efficacy of imagery, using a standardised imagery script. I measured flow state and performance over a range of official ranking-list tournaments. I developed the imagery script based on findings of Study 1, taking into account correlational results between personality variables of action control, imagery use, and trait sport confidence and dimensions of flow. The script consisted of three parts, starting with a relaxation component, then imagery on self-paced performance of first and second serves, and, finally, imagery in externally-paced performance situations, including forehand and backhand groundstrokes. For the intervention, four male junior tennis players between 13 and 15 years of age worked with the imagery script three times a week for four consecutive weeks. Participants were of an advanced skill level, being ranked between 203 and 244 in the Australian Junior Ranking List at the beginning of the study. After the four-week intervention phase, all participants demonstrated an increase in service and groundstroke performance winners. In addition, participants increased their ranking-list position from beginning to end of the study between 24 and 145 positions. Visual inspection of the data revealed that three participants increased in state flow intensity across phases. In a social validation interview, which I conducted at the end of the study, three participants confirmed an increase in flow and confidence level after the intervention. Overall, results confirmed several propositions of Kimiecik and Stein’s (1992) sport-specific flow model. Firstly, dispositional personality variables, action control, imagery use, and trait sport confidence demonstrated a moderate relationship with flow. Secondly, significant and near-significant main and interaction effects were evident between situational and personal variables on the experience of flow state. Thirdly, an imagery intervention showed an increase in flow and performance. With regard to future research, I recommend the use of the flow model, as proposed by Kimiecik and Stein (1992), to further assess the influence of personality and situation characteristics and their interaction on flow. In addition, more studies on the flow-performance relationship would be fruitful to enhance theoretical understanding and to inform applied work.

To maintain consistently low riding-eights, many jockeys engage in repetitive cycles of rapid, short-term weight loss, termed "wasting". The physical and psychological effects of "wasting" are not well understood, although several recent studies suggest that, at least in the short-term, they may be numerous, and with any one of them having a potentially detrimental effect on both the health and riding performance of jockeys. The major aims of the research reported were to investigate the weight-management experiences of jockeys in Australia, and to examine a range of cognitive and other psychological effects of rapid weight loss in this professional athlete population. The methodological framework used to address these aims incorporated both quantitative and qualitative techniques. Four focused case studies illustrated that cognitive responses to weight fluctuations and competition were generally idiosyncratic, with variations within individuals across a range of cognitive functions and testing conditions. The exception to this finding was attentional processing speed, which appeared to be impaired in response to weight loss in most cases. Collectively, the results of the three studies indicate that the need for wasting, and the lack of safe and effective options to meet this need, continue to be pervasive and problematic facets of life for professional kockeys, in terms of their effects on psychological well-being and cognitive function.