published_or_final_version / Sports Science / Master / Master of Science in Sports Science

published_or_final_version / abstract / Linguistics / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

In a standard tennis match each player has an unlimited opportunity to challenge an umpire’s call, but if three incorrect challenges are made in a set he is not allowed to challenge anymore in that set. If the set goes into a tie break the limit on incorrect challenges increases by one. These limited incorrect challenges are not carried over from one set to another. So this is kind of a limited resource available to the player and if he knows how to use this resource in a best possible way, there is a scope for increasing his overall chances of winning a match. With the motive of gaining insight on when to challenge a call, we have modeled a single game in a tennis match as a Markov decision process. We have also studied the impact of variables like player’s probability of winning a point, the player’s perception of the challengability of a call and proportion of challengable calls on the decision making process. / text

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This thesis attempted to develop a clearer understanding of the pre-competition achievement goal perspectives that are held by young performers. The programme of research moves through three transitional stages incorporating three different methodologies. Specifically, the first two investigations which comprised Study 1 adopted a quantitative research methodology; Study 2 incorporated qualitative techniques; and the final investigation addressed the research question on an idiographic basis via a single subject design study. Firstly, an attempt is made to identify the major antecedents or precursors to states of goal involvement prior to a specific competitive situation. The first study examined the antecedents of pre-competition state goals within adolescent swimmers from an interactionist perspective. Results showed how levels of task and ego involvement prior to a specific race were related to both dispositional tendencies and situational factors within the race context. However, task orientation appeared to play a more powerful role than ego orientation in predicting their respective goal states. Furthermore, ego involvement was more strongly predicted by situational factors. The second investigation extended this question by investigating a sample of elite junior tennis players prior to a competitive match at the National Championships. In this way, the nature of the competitive context, with respect to goal or reward structure, changed from being more task-involving (individualistic-focused) to being more ego-involving (competitive-focused). Results showed how the players' goal states were related much more to perceptions of the context than to their reported goal orientation. Furthermore, task orientation did not emerge as a significant predictor of goal involvement. With these results in mind, the second stage of the thesis involved investigating, to a much greater depth, the motivational criteria which appeared to contribute to the development of goal orientation and the activation of goal involvement in the context of competition. For this purpose, qualitative interview techniques and an inductive content analysis were applied to a sample of seventeen elite junior tennis players. The findings suggested that the development of goal orientation and activation of pre-competition goal involvement rested on a complex interaction of internal and environmental factors. Specific general dimensions of influence included cognitive-developmental skills and experience, the motivational climate conveyed by significant others, the social and structural nature of tennis, and the match context. The information gathered from this study provided the impetus, rationale and theoretical foundation for the final study in this thesis. Employing a single subject multiple baseline across subjects design, the study investigated the effects of a structured environmental and task-based intervention programme which sought to influence precompetition goal involvement and related competitive cognitions within a small sample of adolescent national standard tennis players. Following a three month intervention period, the three targeted players reported pre-competition goal states which showed increased activation of the self-referent conception of achievement. Furthermore, each player fostered an attitude which valued the challenge of winning matches for internal reasons, as opposed to reasons associated with favourable social approval. These findings reinforced the practicability of educationlaction-based interventions designed to develop more adaptive motivational responses to competitive situations. The programme of research conducted in this thesis, therefore, highlights how precompetition achievement goal perspectives within young performers may be influenced, provided that one has a detailed understanding of the antecedents of this process. In so doing, this thesis alerts future research to the importance of working within an interactionist paradigm and with a measurement technology which can accurately assess goal states in a diverse number of sporting situations. In this way, our understanding of goal involvement, as an important achievement-related attentional state, may be greatly facilitated.

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Proprioceptive information appear to play an important role in stability and movements of shoulder joint in sporting activities especially in tennis. The purpose of this study was to measure the shoulder proprioceptive differences, and assess proprioceptive sense between dominant and non-dominant shoulders between male tennis players and controls between ages 14 - 16. 15 young male tennis players with a mean age 14.6 &plusmn / 0.7 years and 15 young male sedentary individuals with a mean age 14.8 &plusmn / 0.9 years participated in this cross-sectional descriptive study. Average height, weight, and BMI of the players were 169.4 &plusmn / 5.9 cm., 63.9 &plusmn / 5.5 kg., and 22.2 &plusmn / 1.0 kg/m2 respectively. Mean height, weight, and BMI of the non-players were 168.3 &plusmn / 5.3 cm., 64.4 &plusmn / 10.2 kg., and 23.1 &plusmn / 3.9 kg/m2 respectively. Proprioceptive sense was measured with an isokinetic dynamometer. Measurements were made in two positions: &lsquo / sitting&rsquo / versus &lsquo / standing&rsquo / for service, forehand, and backhand positions. Differences between players and control groups were investigated by MANOVA. Paired t-test was used to evaluate differences between dominant and non-dominant shoulders and sitting and standing positions. There was no statistically difference between players and non-players in means of age, body height, weight, and BMI. The study revealed the following results: 1) There was a significant difference between shoulder proprioceptive senses of players and controls (p &lt / 0.05) at service, forehand, and backhand positions. 2) Significant difference between dominant and non-dominant shoulders at 15&ordm / and 30&ordm / was not observed (p &lt / 0.05). 3) No significant difference was observed between sitting and standing positions at 30&ordm / (p &lt / 0.05). It was concluded that tennis players had better proprioceptive sense than their age matched sedentary controls.

Zugl.: Göttingen, Univ., Diss., 2004 u.d.T. Winiarska, Dorota: Relikte der bürgerlichen Sportkultur in den ehemaligen Ostblockländern am Beispiel der Volksrepublik Polen und der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2008. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 159-169).

Thesis (M. S.)--Florida State University, 2005. / Advisor: Dr. Gershon Tenenbaum, Florida State University, College of Education, Dept. of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed June 24, 2005). Document formatted into pages; contains vii, 40 pages. Includes bibliographical references.