The aim of this project was to investigate the mechanics of the sprint start through the use of computer simulation. Experimental data was collected on one male athlete in accordance with a procedure agreed by Loughborough University Ethical Advisory Committee. The data provided subject specific data for the creation of a four and fourteen segment, angle and torque driven models of the sprint start. The models simulated the start from the moment of onset of force production until takeoff from the starting block. The four segment model comprised a head and trunk, thigh, shank and foot whilst the fourteen segment model also included a lower spine and pelvis, upper arms, forearms and hands, as well as the other leg including two segment feet. Subject specific torque data was combined with EMG data to provide input to the torque models Results from the four segment angle driven model demonstrated that the participant will benefit from using smaller joint angles than usual in the set position as this resulted in increased velocity on takeoff with minimal increase in movement time. The model also showed large joint torques during such starts and so suggested that this is likely to limit start performance. The four segment torque driven model also revealed that optimal joint angles exist for the hip and knee but such a result was not clear for the ankle. For this model the optimum angle at the hip was 73 (the smallest tested) and 108 at the knee which was the athlete's usual angle. Increasing the athlete's strength parameters resulted in a small increase in horizontal velocity on takeoff for some simulations and all simulations had enhanced acceleration. Increasing initial muscle activations didn't increase horizontal takeoff velocity but did also increase horizontal acceleration. The fourteen segment angle driven model was used to optimise spring parameters for input into a torque driven model. The fourteen segment torque driven model simulated movements and forces realistically but an adequate match was not found to the sprint start performance of the participant due to long simulation times and lack of computing power.

Background: Post activation potentiation (PAP) is an increased muscular performance thatoccurs after maximal voluntary contraction. Previous studies have shown a significantincrease in explosive movements, such as sprint and jump performance, as an effect ofthese maximal contractions. Aim: The aim of this study was to analyze if PAP, in terms of heavy squats, has aperformance enhancing effect on 30 meter sprint, with a hypothesis that the maximal effortin the squat has a performance enhancing effect on 30 meter sprint. Method: Twelve healthy male Crossfit athletes from Crossfit Halmstad, age between x-x,volunteered to participate in the study, eleven of these completed all of the test sessions in thiscross-sectional study. During the first test session, the subjects attempted to set a onerepetition max (1RM) in the back squat. During the second and third test session, the subjectswere randomly divided into two groups and the subjects got to perform both the non-PAP andthe PAP protocol during different sessions, depending on which group they were in. Thesprint time was measured with a handheld stopwatch. Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test was usedto determine significant differences between sprint time after the two different protocols, andthe level of significance was set at p < 0.05. Result: The result showed that there was no significant difference between PAP and non-PAPprotocols (p = 0,679). With a median value of 4,78 seconds, a minimum value of 4,59seconds and a maximum value of 5,54 seconds for the sprint trials after PAP and a medianvalue of 4,82 seconds, a minimum value of 4,59 seconds and a maximum value of 5,31seconds for the sprint trials without PAP, the results did not confirm the hypothesis. Conclusion: As an effect from the low number of participants, the result could be deceptive.The study could have show a different result if the number of participants would exceed atleast 25 subjects. There are no performance enhancing effects in the sprint after PAP, in thisstudy. Further research is required, to determine possible performance enhancing effectsfrom PAP.

The purpose of this dissertation is to better understand the role of repeated-sprint ability (RSA) and resulting fatigue in cyclists; how it relates to measures of aerobic power and strength and power performance indices- due to the nature of cycling competitions and the necessity of RSA for success. The first part of this dissertation attempted to elucidate the relationship between RSA and aerobic power and strength/ power measures in competitive cyclists. The purpose was to potentially illustrate the importance of the inclusion of strength and power training in the training regimen of cyclists. The findings showed several statistically significant relationships between variables of RSA and aerobic power or the isometric squat test. The second part of the dissertation examined the effects of fatigue induced from the acute bout of repeat sprint exercise on strength and power measures in three different recovery periods. It is commonplace for cyclists to have several heats in one day of racing. Examining the effects of fatigue on strength measures such as peak force and rate of force development could begin to delineate how an individual experiences fatigue based on their own characteristics, enabling them to design a training program to address these strengths/ weaknesses to optimize performance and decrease fatigue. The results from a repeated measures analysis of variance found no statistically significant effect on PF or RFD. Additional comparisons showed moderate effects of fatigue on RFD throughout the three post-RSE trials. There was also a moderate correlation between the RSE fatigue % decrement score and the isometric RFD fatigue % decrement score. What we may conclude from this dissertation is that fatigue has various causes and can vary with an individuals’ unique physiology and how they respond to performance variables on any specific day can vary. Development of increased strength and subsequent power, or “explosive strength”, may have advantages in competitive cycling. Coupling proper strength and power training with an aerobic training regimen, may greatly benefit the athlete by increasing their peak power output, economy of movement, delaying fatigue, improving anaerobic capacity, and overall enhancing their maximal speed.

Agile development is a software development methodology that originated in 2001 (Beck, et al.). It has since gained wide recognition and use in the software industry, and is characterized by iterative development cycles. Organizations outside of the software industry are also finding ways to adapt Agile development to their contexts. BYU Independent Study (BYUIS) is an online education program at Brigham Young University that provides online courses at the high school and university levels. In April 2016, BYUIS implemented the Agile development process to the design and development of online courses. This thesis is a case study that looks specifically at the adoption of Agile at BYUIS, from its implementation in April 2016 to the time of this study in summer of 2017. The question this qualitative study seeks to answer is as follows: how and why did the adoption of the Agile development methodology to instructional design practices at BYUIS reflect or differ from the 12 principles of Agile development? To answer this research question, the researcher used multiple data sources: semi-structured interviews with three administrators, two production team managers, and three instructional designers; surveys for BYUIS student employees (i.e., scrum team members) after each week of observation; and field note observations of three Agile scrum teams for two weeks each. The data from each of these sources was analyzed through a descriptive coding process and then organized into a thematic network analysis. The Results section analyzes evidence from the interviews, surveys, and observations that reflect or differ from each of the 12 principles of Agile. The Discussion addresses three main issues of implementing Agile at BYUIS: how to accommodate for part-time schedules, the complexity of working on different projects, and how to facilitate communication in scrum teams if co-location is not possible. It also looks at how these three issues could be manifest in other organizations and introduces potential solutions. The researcher then presents suggestions for future research on Agile in instructional design or other contexts.

It has been shown that a high level of aerobic fitness is important for athletes participating in intermittent (team) sports. The majority of studies investigating the effects of traditional and sport-specific aerobic interval exercise on physiological measures and performance have involved field-based team sports. In some instances the effectiveness of sport-specific aerobic training has been questioned. To date, no study has investigated the influence of a sport-specific training approach in the sport of basketball. Purpose: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a basketball specific endurance circuit on improving measures of aerobic fitness. Methods: Ten male high school basketball players, age 16.4 ± 1.2 years, ranked by fitness level and randomly assigned to a training group (N = 6) or control group (N = 4) participated in the study. The sport-specific aerobic endurance training replaced the fitness component of regular training and was performed during the competitive season. The sport-specific training consisted of interval training using a basketball specific endurance circuit, four times 4 min at 90-95% HRpeak with a 3 min recovery at 60-70% HRpeak, twice per week for 6 weeks. During this time the control group performed regular basketball training. Results: For both the training and control groups the actual mean training intensity for total training duration were 77.4 ± 2.9% HRpeak and 74.1 ± 6.7% HRpeak, respectively. The actual mean training intensity during the work intervals in the training group was 84.1 ± 2.3% HRpeak. There were no clear differences between effects of the two training approaches for measures of maximal oxygen uptake (3.3%; 90% confidence limits, ± 19.3%), running economy (-3.3%; 90% confidence limits, ± 14.2%), repeated sprint ability (0.6%; 90% confidence limits, ± 5.7%) and anaerobic power maintenance during the repeated sprints (-13.7%; 90% confidence limits, ± 49.0%). However, a clear non-trivial effect on sub-maximal heart rate was observed (-7.3%; 90% confidence limits, ± 2.0%) suggesting a beneficial training effect after training. Some evidence for attenuation of speed (-1.8 to -2.8%; 90% confidence limits, ± 3.4 to 5.7%) and power (-1.7%; 90% confidence limits, ± 17.1%) was apparent. Conclusion: Although clear changes in sub-maximal HR responses were observed in the training group, the data in the present study suggests that a basketball specific endurance circuit has little effect on other laboratory and field-based measures of aerobic fitness. In fact, the basketball specific endurance circuit may lead to reduced improvements in jumping and sprinting performances. Further research is required to clarify the effect of aerobic training approaches on basketball-specific fitness and performance.

<p>The purpose of this study is to investigate if students with CLIL-education (Content and Language Integrated Learning) in Sweden receive an extended knowledge of English compared to students with traditional education. I have conducted this study by comparing the results from national tests in the English A-course and the English B-course performed by both students with CLIL-education and those with traditional education. The result of my study shows that the students with CLIL-education manage to reach a higher score on the tests than the pupils with traditional education both in the A-course and in the B-course. However, both groups reduced their result equally from the test in the A-course to the test in the B-course. There are several potential reasons for this development, but on the basis of my analysis of other research carried out in the field, I suggest the following three reasons: the students with CLIL-education talk less during the lessons, they have a greater amount of teacher supervised lessons and work a lot on their own.</p><p> </p>

The purpose of this study is to investigate if students with CLIL-education (Content and Language Integrated Learning) in Sweden receive an extended knowledge of English compared to students with traditional education. I have conducted this study by comparing the results from national tests in the English A-course and the English B-course performed by both students with CLIL-education and those with traditional education. The result of my study shows that the students with CLIL-education manage to reach a higher score on the tests than the pupils with traditional education both in the A-course and in the B-course. However, both groups reduced their result equally from the test in the A-course to the test in the B-course. There are several potential reasons for this development, but on the basis of my analysis of other research carried out in the field, I suggest the following three reasons: the students with CLIL-education talk less during the lessons, they have a greater amount of teacher supervised lessons and work a lot on their own.

Background: Several field-based team sports contain repeated, maximal effort sprints with varying rest lengths in between. This puts high demands on athletes’ metabolic and neuromuscular systems. Testing the anaerobic capacity of athletes is essential to improve and evaluate the progression. One test being utilised for assessing anaerobic capacity is the 300-yard shuttle run test. The test is field-based with stopwatches as the sole equipment. However, the test has not been properly tested for reliability.   Aim: The aim of this bachelor thesis was therefore to investigate the reliability of the 300-yard shuttle run test. Methods: The study was performed with a test-retest method and included a familiarisation meeting, test session and retest session.  Test subjects performed the 300-yard shuttle run test at two different occasions with seven or fourteen days in between. The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and 95% confidence interval (CI) was utilised to quantify the reliability. An ICC&gt;0.8 was considered acceptable. Results: 17 American football players participated in the study (median age 20, min. =18, max. =38 y; median weight 83, min. =67, max. =133 kg; median height 184, min. =169, max. =194 cm). The ICC for the test-retest was 0.97 (95% CI  0.91-0.99). Conclusion: Based on the results of this study 300-yard shuttle test is proposed as a test providing reliable results.

L'objectif de la présente étude était double : (i) étudier le lien entre la force, la puissance musculaire des membres inférieurs et l'aptitude à répéter des sprints linéaire ou quadrangulaire chez les footballeurs U17 (ii) confronter les astreintes cardiovasculaires et bioénergétiques imposées par ces deux types de sprints. Dix-sept (n=17) footballeurs d'élite Canadien U17 ont effectué dans un ordre randomisé deux types de sprints répétés, linéaires ou quadrangulaires (40 m linéaire ou sur un carré de 4x10 m) étant séparés l'un de l'autre de 48 heures. Les deux types d'exercices ont consisté en la répétition de 6 sprints (6 x 40-m/20-sec) linéaire (RSL) ou quadrangulaire (RSQA). La puissance anaérobie des membres inférieurs était mesurée avec le test de Wingate (30-sec) quant à la force et la puissance explosive étaient évaluées à l'aide d'un accéléromètre (Myotest) au cours d'un test de détente verticale (DV) de type Squat Jump (90°). La fréquence cardiaque (FC) était enregistrée par télémétrie battement à battement en mode R-R et la concentration du lactate plasmatique ([La-]) était dosée 2 minutes après chaque type de sprint ainsi que le test de Wingate. Ces mesures étaient complétées par une mesure de la perception de l'effort sur l'échelle de Borg (RPE). Trois indices de performance ont été calculés pour les exercices de sprints répétés (RSL et RSQA), le meilleur sprint sur 40 m, la moyenne des 6 sprints et l'indice de décrément (ID). On a noté une forte corrélation entre le meilleur sprint linéaire (40 m) avec la force et la puissance musculaire (moyenne et le pic) développées au test de DV (r2=0.56 et 0.46, p<0.0, respectivement). La corrélation de la moyenne des temps en RSL (6 x 40 m) avec le pic de puissance et l'indice de fatigue (IF) mesurée avec le test de Wingate était statistiquement faible (r2=0.29 et 0.31, p<0.05 respectivement). Par ailleurs, aucune corrélation n'a été retrouvée entre les indices de l'aptitude à répéter des sprints linéaire et quadrangulaire. Les réponses physiologiques (FC [La-] et le RPE) étaient nettement plus élevées (p<0.001) lors de la RSQA comparée à la RSL. La force et la puissance (pic et moyenne) musculaire mesurées avec le Myotest sont de meilleurs prédicteurs de l'aptitude à répéter des sprints linéaires que les performances (puissance et IF) dérivées du test de Wingate. Par ailleurs, la sollicitation cardiaque et bioénergétique est plus importante lors de la RSQA comparée à la RSL. Décidément, nous concluons que l'aptitude à répéter des sprints linéaires et celle à répéter des sprints quadrangulaires sont deux habiletés motrices de registre physiologique différent qui doivent être entraînées et évaluées séparément. ______________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : Football, physiologie, test de Wingate, Myotest, sprints répétés.

Although soccer is one of the more researched intermittent team sports, there is a surprisingly modest amount of information available on the effects of fatigue on skill performance. The main reasons for this are due to the problems of overcoming the barriers of controlling the many variables in the field and a lack of reliable and valid skill tests. The Loughborough Intermittent Shuttle running Test (LIST) is a recently developed exercise protocol which closely simulates the demands of multiple-sprint sports such as soccer in a controlled environment. Furthermore, the Loughborough Soccer Passing Test (LSPT) and Loughborough Soccer Shooting Test (LSST) were developed (and modified further as part of this thesis, Chapters 5 and 6) and found to be reliable and valid indicators of soccer skill. Therefore, one of the main aims of this thesis was to investigate the influence of 90 min of the LIST on soccer skill performance. Early researchers (e. g. Karlsson, 1969 and Saltin, 1973) reported the -benefits of maintaining a high muscle glycogen content on soccer performance and more recent investigators looked at the effect of providing carbohydrate (CHO) during exercise on work rate and soccer skill. However, many of these experiments were completed in the field setting and used poor tests of skill. Therefore, the primary aim of these series of experiments was to determine the influence of ingesting a carbohydrate-electrolyte (CHO-E) solution during the LIST on soccer skill performance. There was an 8% deterioration in LSPT performance following 90 min of intermittent high-intensity running, even with fluid ingestion (p<0.05). Furthermore, the ingestion of a CHO-E solution during exercise showed tendencies for better maintenance of skill performance towards the end of exercise. Moreover, CHO-E supplementation better maintained sprint performance and a higher relative exercise intensity during exercise (p<0.05). This is crucial in soccer perfon-nance, as players who are unable to sprint to get to the ball will be unable to perform the necessary skill. From the results of Chapters 5 and 6 it was found that the modified passing (LSPT) and goal-shooting (LSST) tests were valid and reliable tests of soccer skill. Moreover, they were found to be more repeatable when higher calibre players performed the tests. As in previous studies there was a speed-accuracy trade-off' in LSST performance i. e. subjects increased the time taken to complete each shot sequence and reduced the shot speed to maintain shooting accuracy post-LIST. There was a trend for CHO-E ingestion to maintain a better shot speed and time taken for each sequence. The ingestion of CHOE also reduced the perception of effort (p<0.05) and led to more positive feelings of affective valence during the last 30 min of the LIST. Therefore, based on these findings, it was concluded that the ingestion of CHO-E solutions over water alone should be encouraged to soccer players because of the tendency to better maintain soccer skill and the associated physiological, biochemical and psychological benefits during such exercise.