A monitoring program is essential in assuring goal attainment and reducing the risk of overtraining or undertraining, establishing long-term athlete development, and ensuring success. This monitoring program needs to be integrated into the training process, developed, and executed by both the sport science and coaching staff. This staff forms the SPEG (sports performance enhancement group), which is athlete centered and coach driven. The purpose of this dissertation was to create an evidence based, or white box approach, to collegiate distance running by identifying key characteristics, utilizing appropriate monitoring tools, and examining the annual plan. Collegiate distance runners took part in a monitoring program through East Tennessee State University, which included vertical jumps, V̇O2max, running economy, anthropometrics, isometric mid-thigh pull, performance results and ultrasound measurements. There were strong correlations between performance results and monitoring data, and there were significant changes that occurred throughout the monitoring program. The results indicate the importance of V̇O2max in collegiate runners and that monitoring variables, including performance, sum of skinfolds, ultrasound and vertical jumps significantly change throughout the competitive season. The results also identify characteristics of a high-level runner and indicate the impact that a strength program can have on monitoring variables and performance. Results further suggest that strength can be a critical component of a training program, can be tracked through systematic monitoring, and is associated with an increase in performance.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the kinetic and morphological adaptations that occur during distinct phases of a block periodized training cycle in weightlifters. Monitoring data from nine experienced collegiate weightlifters was examined retrospectively. Isometric mid-thigh pull and ultrasonography results from pre and post three specific training phases within a macrocycle leading up to a competition were compared. Changes in isometric rate of force development and vastus lateralis cross-sectional area reflected the expected adaptations of each training phase.

This study used Ajzen's (1991) Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) to explore Polynesian student-athletes' motivation to improve academic performance (AP), while participating in Division I (D1) college football. Specifically, this study examined how attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control influence motivation to achieve a higher GPA. Furthermore, ethnic identity, family obligation and cultural values were examined as potential contributors to subjective norms. The sample consisted of 70 Polynesian football student-athletes at 10 U.S. D1 universities. A modified TPB questionnaire was used to assess the TPB variables (attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control) as contributors to Polynesian football student-athletes academic, athletic, and career motivation toward achieving a higher GPA. A factor analysis indicated family obligation and cultural values were contributors to subjective norm. Further, a stepwise regression analysis indicated subjective norm was a consistent predictor of academic, athletic, and career motivation. Positive relationships were also found between perceived behavioral control and athletic motivation, as well as, attitude and academic motivation. Although AP was not predicted in this study, findings highlight the impact of Polynesian football student-athletes perceived social pressure from family and culture on their academic, athletic, and career motivations. Findings provide implications for advisors, administrators, and scholars.

The purposes of this study were to investigate effects of partial block periodized strength training on physical performance and to examine relationships between initial muscle strength measured with isometric mid-thigh pull (IMTP) and performance changes after 7 weeks of strength training. Seventeen collegiate male soccer players participated. Initial muscle strength was determined using IMTP while physical performance included 10 m and 20 m sprints and static vertical jump with a polyvinyl chloride pipe (SJ0), 20 kg barbell (SJ20), and barbell loaded to 40 kg bar (SJ40). Performance testing was performed at three points: before first week (baseline), fourth week (T1), and seventh week (T2). Statistically small to moderate changes were found from baseline to T2 in peak power (PP; < 0.001, ES = 0.49), net impulse (NI; < 0.001, ES = 0.49), peak velocity (PV; < 0.001, ES = 0.62), allometrically scaled PP (PPa; < 0.001, ES = 0.62) in SJ20 and jump height (JH) in SJ40 ( < 0.001, ES = 0.36). Moderate to large correlations were found between isometric peak force and the changes from baseline to T2 in SJ20 PP ( = 0.04, = -0.49), SJ20 PF ( = 0.03, = -0.52), PPa ( = 0.04, = -0.50), and SJ20 allometrically scaled peak force ( = 0.04, = -0.49). Properly structured strength training maximizes task-specific physical performance. Initial muscle strength negatively affects the magnitudes of adaptations to physical performance.

The success of performance in basketball may rely on both optimal body composition and nutrient intake. To our knowledge this is the first study to examine dietary intake adequacy and season-long effects on body composition and metabolism. The purpose of this study was to examine seasonal changes in body composition (BC), resting metabolic rate (RMR) and respiratory quotient (RQ), while also examining the dietary intake adequacy of NCAA DI male basketball players. BC, RMR and RQ were assessed during pre-season, in-season, and post-season (September, December, and March), while dietary assessment was collected in September and February. Results of this study indicated that players consumed inadequate amounts of energy (ppp< 0.0001) relative to the recommendations for exercising individuals during the October baseline period. However, following analysis and consultations, athletes increased intake and received adequate amounts of energy and protein during follow-up, yet carbohydrate (p=0.0025) was still significantly lower. Results also revealed that there was a decrease in percent body fat (%BF) during season, an increase in Lean Body Mass from preseason to postseason, a peak in RMR during season and an increase in RQ post season. These findings indicate that significant metabolic and body composition changes occur in players over the season and suggest nutritional strategies employed concomitantly may be beneficial.

Several researchers as well as high-profile female athletes have recently challenged the longstanding view that pregnancy/motherhood mark the termination of an elite athlete's career in sport. While these conversations have sparked change concerning the degree to which pregnant/parenting athletes are accepted within the sport industry, elite athletes continue to face discriminatory policies and practices as they navigate parenthood alongside their elite athletic pursuits. My thesis is presented in the publishable papers format. In my first paper, I used new masculinities theory, community-based participatory research, and semi structured interviews to explore the experiences of 10 elite/international and world-class male athletes (9 fathers, 1 expectant father) and the impact of children on their athletic careers. Through critical discourse analysis, I found that fatherhood both improves and impedes elite athlete-fathers' athletic performance. In my second paper, I used feminist poststructuralist theory, feminist participatory action research, and semi-structured interviews to explore the perspectives of 21 pregnant and parenting elite/international and world-class athletes (11 women, 10 men) on the developing degree of acceptance of parenthood in elite athletics. Through critical discourse analysis, I identified that, despite considerable recent advancements, there is still a need for increased acceptance of pregnant/parenting athletes. Taken together, these two papers advance understandings regarding athletes' perspectives on the current shifts surrounding parenthood and athletics. Further, the recognition of fathers' involvement in childcare underscores how male athletes represent an untapped resource for allyship for female athletes. My findings also call for significant continued change and action to better support pregnant/parenting athletes.

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The objectives of this dissertation include 1) to review athlete monitoring strategies and the physical performance demands of female soccer match-play and to provide practical application of athlete monitoring programs, 2) to examine individual and group relationship between training load (TL) and subjective recovery and stress state and neuromuscular performance, and 3) to investigate acute effects of match-play on neuromuscular and subjective recovery and stress state in National Collegiate Association Athlete (NCAA) division I collegiate female soccer. TL was assessed using 10Hz Global Navigation Satellite System units. Subjective recovery and stress state was measured using the Short Recovery and Stress Scale (SRSS) consisting of 8 subscales including Physical Performance Capability (PPC) Mental Performance Capability (MPC), Emotional Balance (EB), Overall Recovery (OR), Muscular Stress (MS), Lack of Activation (LA), Negative Emotional State (NES), and Overall Stress (OS). Neuromuscular performance was assessed using countermovement jump (CMJ) with a polyvinyl chloride pipe (CMJ0) and 20kgs bar (CMJ20). CMJ variables included body mass (BdM), jump height (JH), modified reactive strength index (RSI), peak force (PF), relative peak force (RPP), eccentric impulse (EI), concentric impulse (CI), peak power (PP), relative peak power (RPP), eccentric average peak power (EAP), and concentric average power (CAP). Results of this dissertation showed that 12 individual players demonstrated negative correlations between total distance and MPC (p≤0.05, r=-0.78 to -0.34, number of significant individual correlations [N]=3) and OR (p≤0.05, r=-0.91 to -0.08, N=3). Positive correlations were observed between MS and total distance among all individual players (p≤0.05, r=0.21 to 0.82, N=3) while the group correlations were moderate to large (p≤0.001, r=0.55). Results of this dissertation also demonstrated that significant moderate to large decreases were observed at 12 hours post-match in JH, RSI, CI, PP, RPP, and CPA in CMJ0 and CMJ20 (p

<p> Considerable controversy exists about how motor skills come to be represented in memory as a product of practice. One line of research advocates specificity effects, whereby skills are considered highly specific to the conditions under which they are learned. An alternative view suggests that motor control is flexible and non-specific; that motor skills are represented in a more general manner, whereby the representation is an abstraction of the products ofpractice. Although experimental findings exist that support both specificity and generality of motor skills, such evidence has emerged from very different experimental conditions and paradigms, making direct comparisons difficult. An important and interesting question then is what would happen if both specificity and generality effects could be documented within a single paradigm? And what could be said about motor control theory if such effects co-exist? </p> <p> The possibility that a single memory representation may be developed for an entire class of skills (i.e., generality), but that performance of one member of that class may be distinguished from the rest (i.e., showing specificity effects) was examined. The basketball set shot (characterized by the feet remaining planted on the floor during execution) performed by highly-skilled players represents such a class of skills. Skilled performers have massive numbers of practice attempts of the set shot, however taken predominantly at 15-ft. (free-throws from the foul-line), with only minimal practice at other locations (in front of and behind the foul-line or at different angles to the basket). The six experiments presented here examined the nature of learned memory representation of the basketball set shot in highly skilled players. </p> <p> In an initial series of experiments, skilled basketball players were required to perform a series of shots from several target locations spanning 9-to 21-ft. in line with the basket, including the foul-line at 15-ft. This task was completed using two different types of basketball shots (set shots; Experiments 1and2,jump shots; Experiment 3). Results revealed that set shot performance at the 15-ft. location was significantly better than predicted by a regression equation based on the performance at the other locations in Experiment 1 and replicated in Experiment 2. However, the superior performance at the foul line was not found in novice players (Experiment 2b) or when individuals performed jump shots (in Experiment 3). Instead, performance was accurately predicted by the regression equation. We suggested that a massive amount of practice accrued over many years of basketball shooting establishes the free throw as an especial skill -one that represents a highly specific capability among the general class of set-shot skills. </p> <p> In a follow-up series of experiments, we examined potential mechanisms underlying the emergence of the especial free throw skill with an attempt to reconcile our findings with theories of motor control. In Experiments 4 and 5 two possible explanations for the specificity effect were examined: the visual-context hypothesis (unique visual context including the visual distance and visual angle to the basket) vs. the learned-parameters hypothesis (over learned specifications for the parameterizations of the set shot at 15 ft). In Experiment 4, skilled players performed set shots from the foul line (15 ft) and locations that were equidistant (15ft) but at different angles to the basket (15°, 30°, 45° to the left and right of the foul line). Performance of the set shot at the foul line was superior to the other locations, which is consistent with our previous specificity findings. In Experiment 5, players performed set shots and jump shots at the foul line and at player-chosen "favorite" locations on the court. A double dissociation was found: performance of the set shot was superior to the jump shot at the foul line but was inferior to jump shot performance at the players' favorite locations. These results are contrary to the learned-parameters hypothesis, but consistent with the visual-context hypothesis. In our last experiment, invariance in the timing structure of set shot execution of skilled players was examined to determine if the free throw was represented by the same or a distinct generalized motor program. Results revealed that the especial free throw is not represented in memory by a separate motor program compared to other set shot skills. </p> <p> Overall, these experiments provided evidence that the free-throw is an especial skill, one which, as a result of massive amounts of practice, has a special status within a generalizable class of motor skills, and which is distinguished by its enhanced performance capability relative to the other members of the same class. The co-existence of skills represented by both specificity and generality effects have theoretical and practical implications which are discussed and warrant further investigation. </p> / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

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