M.Phil. / In the South African context, sport plays an important role in uniting and uplifting the morale of people. Francois Pienaar, leading the Springboks (Amabokoboko) to victory in the 1995 Rugby World Cup Final at Ellis Park, filled many young talented South-African rugby players with the hope of succeeding at international level. As public figure, the elite rugby player requires many different skills to equip him for circumstances with which he might be confronted in lieu of his professional commitments. The professional sports person has become a commodity product through whom sponsors market their products. The dilemma professional rugby players encounter is that not only do they participate in the sport, but provide an input towards sport production. This involvement in the sports industry becomes important because of the image, which needs to be portrayed by all role players. Therefore it is necessary that research be done to offer guidelines for the holistic development of players. Addressing this problem South African role players need to facilitate sport development, which enables multi-dimensional and optimal personal- and career development of the elite rugby player.

Thesis (D.Phil.(Biokinetics, Sport and Leisure Sciences))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Summary in English and Afrikaans. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (PhD)--University of Stellenbosch, 2008. / Bibliography. Also available via the Internet.

The inception of rugby as a workforce in 1995 created a range of new issues surrounding sport as a vocation. With professional rugby often wearing the glamorous coat of fame and fortune, young athletes sacrifice education and learning additional life-skills in pursuit of well-paid contracts and glitzy lifestyles unaware of the realities rugby as a profession holds. One such reality is the relatively short lifespan of a professional rugby career and the fact that transition to a whole new career is firstly inevitable and secondly a very challenging process. Traditional retirement has been associated with the end of a long working career, making comprehensive lifestyle- and financial planning part of the preparation process. This process helps the retiree anticipate and understand the expected demands of life beyond a working career. In rugby however, the retirement experience of a player can be extremely difficult to cope with, especially if the player is not adequately prepared or has not planned for such an event. This leaves players vulnerable for the imminent new phase of life and often leads to physiological - and other challenges players are not able to withstand in a world outside sport (Price, 2007). The aim of this study is to identify the different aspects that influence a professional rugby player’s retirement – and transition experience into a new profession. The researcher believes that an increased understanding of how current and retired professional rugby players perceive/experienced the retirement process would assist current players to better plan and prepare for this phase of life. This ultimately would reduce the anxiety and uncertainty for life after rugby. If players are more relaxed and stress-free about their future, more focus could also be placed on the here-and-now, leading to greater performance on the current field of play. The views of both current and retired professional rugby players were captured through questionnaires distributed all around South Africa. The researcher utilised a mixed mode paradigm of both positivistic and interpretive research methods. This approach enabled him to best compare the views of the two groups and test the developed theories and hypothesis. Ultimately, the research revealed that the presence of the following variables will have a positive influence on a player’s retirement and transition experience: A) Leadership, advice and planning for retirement B) Tertiary education and additional work skills C) Popularity amongst fans and other influential people D) Sufficient wealth and E) A self-selected retirement. With these findings the researcher will develop some specific guidelines for current professional rugby players to help them firstly better prepare for their life beyond sport and secondly successfully switch to a new career. A few valuable recommendations were also made to other stakeholders to better assist and support players in their preparation and transition process.

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

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

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego and San Diego State University, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 266-274).

Thesis (M.A.(Biokinetics, Sport and Leisure Sciences))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Summary in English and Afrikaans. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M. in Technology: Chiropractic)--Technikon Witwatersrand, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 89-91). Also available online (PDF file) by a subscription to the set or by purchasing the individual file.

Thesis (M. Tech.)--Technikon Witwatersrand, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 89-91).