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Do you have students who get intimidated by team sports? Learn strategies to help modify popular team sports to promote success and life long participation

My big interest in sports was what shaped my choice of subject for the essay. The purpose of this study has been to explore the social meaning of team sports for functionally impaired persons. In order to fulfil the purpose of the essay I formed following questions: How do the actives experience their participation in team sports? And how important is the social intercourse in team sports to the individual welfare? The methods I’ve used have been qualitative with an ethnographic approach. I have used participant observations and field interviews to gather my empirical material. To analyze this material I have used theoretical concepts such as: group membership, social skills, social interaction, social inclusion and social exclusion. In this essay I have found out that team sports promotes people’s social skills. Therefore team sports are, according to my studies, a beneficial form of social work.

The following research aims to examine the interaction of law, either hard law (legislation) or soft law (governing body regulation), on achieving a balance between racial equality and success in sport. Nearly all national jurisdictions have legislated to some degree in an attempt to affect equality or equality of opportunity for its citizens. This might be based on achieving equality of opportunity or by means of affirmative action. The research aim is to ascertain how far racial discrimination laws have positive or negative impacts on the success of sports in different countries. The research also has a series of supplementary objectives: to ascertain and consider critically the extent to which the law in various jurisdictions (Malaysia, South Africa, England and the United States) has been used to promote equality; to develop a sequential model to describe general trends to predict the influence of affirmative action and equal opportunity legislation upon the potential success of countries’ sporting achievements; to review tensions inherent in reconciling the equality of citizens at a national level and their impacts upon the international sporting success of that nation; to establish a correlative relationship between the types of anti-discrimination law within nations and the impact of these upon the degree of international sporting success of those nations. The research conducted concentrates primarily on qualitative methods by first adopting a doctrinal approach in a comparative legal study of four jurisdictions (Malaysia, South Africa, England and the United States). A non-doctrinal approach is then adopted and a qualitative intrinsic case study completed, including interviews concerning the subject area. Thus, the research has used multi-method qualitative approaches. The research indicated different anti-discrimination approaches taken in achieving equality. This can be typified by countries such as the United States or England based primarily on meritocracy and countries such as South Africa and Malaysia based primarily on preferential treatment. There is evidence to suggest that these approaches do have a certain correlation, albeit not similar in the outcome of achieving equality for selection. From the evidence presented, the overall study illustrates that racial discrimination laws in the four jurisdictions produced a mixed outcome in relation to the success of professional team sports. Specifically, England and the United States witnessed a positive impact in terms of achieving international success in sports even though there are inherent difficulties in reconciling the equality of citizens at a national level. For Malaysia and South Africa, the result tends to be positive in general at this stage although it is equally recognised that this approach might result in some negative impacts in the long run. The research however is subject to certain limitations which are outside the scope of this thesis, but it is recognised that these might affect the overall success of professional team sports within those countries.

In this thesis, a model based on the continuous-time Markov process is built and implemented and later applied on an one chosen collective game. An extensive analysis of available data is carried out to build a regression model to estimate parameters of the game model. An usableness of the game model is shown by a simulation process. Pros and cons are evaluated in a comparison analysis against the application of the discrete-time Markov chains, how it was described in my bachelor thesis [Roman Zákutný (2007)]. In conclusion are discussed possible extensions for other collective games.

Bakgrund: Psykisk ohälsa ökar bland unga. Underlag finns som säger att träning ger psykologiska hälsovinster. Evidensläget är dock bristfälligt avseende unga. Få studier har hittats som jämför hälsorelaterad livskvalitet hos flickor som utövar lag- respektive individuell sport samt som undersöker sambandet mellan mängden träning och det psykiska måendet i gruppen. Syfte: Syftet var att jämföra generell hälsorelaterad livskvalitet och det psykiska måendet mellan flickor på gymnasiet som utövade lag- respektive individuell sport, samt att undersöka sambandet mellan mängden träning och det psykiska måendet av hälsorelaterad livskvalitet. Metod: En kvantitativ, icke-experimentell, jämförande och korrelerande tvärsnittsstudie gjordes baserad på insamlad data från idrottsföreningar i Uppsala Län.  Resultat: Ingen skillnad förelåg i generell hälsorelaterad livskvalitet. De som tränade i lag hade något bättre psykiskt mående. Sambandet mellan mängden träning och psykiskt mående var mycket svagt, om något alls, i hela undersökningsgruppen.  Slutsats: Båda grupperna hade hög livskvalitet och ingen skillnad fanns mellan grupperna. Resultatet visar en antydan till att flickor som tränar i lag mår bättre vilket överensstämmer med tidigare forskning. Detta kan indikera att Fysioterapeuter i större utsträckning borde rekommendera lagsport för flickor med psykisk ohälsa. / Background: Mental illness is growing among young people. Exercise improves psychological health. The evidence is inadequate for young people. Few studies have been found comparing health related quality of life (HRQOL) and who investigates the correlation between exercise and mental health in girls who practice in team sports and individual sports.  Aim: The aim was to compare HRQOL and mental health between girls in high school who were physical active in team sports and individual sports, and to investigate the correlation between the amount of exercise and mental health of HRQOL. Method: A quantitative, non-experimental, comparative and correlating cross-sectional study was made based on data from sports clubs in Uppsala County.  Results: There was no difference in HRQOL. Those who practiced in team sports had better mental health. The correlation was very small, or zero, between the amount of exercise and the psychological subscale in the whole group.  Conclusion: Both groups had high HRQOL and there was no difference between them. The results shows a trend that girls who are physical active in team sports feel better which is consistent with previous research. This indicates that physiotherapist possibly should recommend team sports for girls with mental illness.

Le football de haut niveau a été décrit comme une activité à très haut risque de blessure. La charge de travail a été identifiée comme un facteur de risque de blessures dans de nombreuses activités sportives. Dans le football, l’un des outils le plus utilisés pour mesurer la charge de travail interne est la méthode de la séance basée sur la perception de l’effort, dans laquelle il est demandé aux joueurs d’évaluer subjectivement l’intensité globale de la séance. La charge de travail est calculée en multipliant la valeur d’intensité perçue lors de la séance par le temps de séance ou de match. Cependant, le niveau d’évidence scientifique concernant l’association entre la charge de travail interne et l’incidence des blessures dans le football de haut niveau est faible. Ainsi, l’objectif de cette thèse est d’évaluer l’association entre plusieurs indicateurs de la charge de travail interne et l’incidence des blessures chez des footballeurs de haut niveau.Pour répondre à cet objectif, la thèse s’articule autour de cinq grandes parties. La première partie concerne l’introduction. La seconde partie porte sur une revue de littérature. Cette revue de littérature intègre la mesure de la charge de travail, l’interaction entre cette charge de travail et l’amélioration de la condition physique,l’épidémiologie des blessures dans le football de haut niveau, l’interaction entre charge de travail et blessures. La troisième partie correspond aux études de cohorte effectuées pour répondre aux objectifs de cette thèse. La quatrième partie correspond à la discussion générale en articulant les résultats des études menées et ceux de la littérature. La dernière partie concerne la conclusion.Les principaux résultats de ces études de cohorte indiquent des relations entre différents indices dérivés de la charge de travail interne chez les footballeurs professionnels et l’incidence des blessures. Des associations entre la charge de travail mesurée à l’aide de la charge interne et l’incidence des blessures chez de jeunes joueurs de haut niveau issus de centre de formation ont été observées. Enfin, si la charge de travail est associée à l’incidence des blessures, la charge de travail ne peut pas être considérée comme prédictive de la blessure.Les résultats de cette thèse fournissent des informations sur la manière dont la charge de travail peut être utilisée par les praticiens, et sur la manière d’interpréter ces indicateurs dans la prise de décision. / Elite football has been described as an activity with a very high level of injury risk. Workload has been associated with injury incidence in several activities. In football, one of the most common tools used to quantify the internalworkload is a method based on the perceived exertion. With this method, the players are asked to subjectivelyassess the global intensity of the session. The workload is calculated by multiplying the perceived intensity by theduration of the session. However, the scientific level of evidence concerning the association between the internalworkload and the injury incidence in elite football is low. Therefore, the aim of this thesis is to evaluate theassociation between several internal workload indicators and the injury incidence in elite level football players.This thesis is based on 5 different parts. The first part is the introduction. The second part is a review of literatureabout the workload monitoring, the relationship between the workload and the level of performance in elitefootball, the injury epidemiology in elite football, and the relationship between the workload and the injuryincidence in elite football. The third part of this thesis described the 3 cohort studies led to reach the aims of thisthesis. The fourth part corresponds to a general discussion in which the results of the cohort studies are discussedbased on the literature. The last part is a general conclusion.The main results of the prospective cohort studies led indicate associations between internal workload indicatorsand injury incidence with elite football players. Associations have been identified between the internal workloadand injury incidence with elite level players from a youth academy. The results of these studies also indicate thateven if the workload is associated with the injury incidence in football, the workload cannot be considered as aninjury prediction tool.The results of this thesis give information about the way the workload can be monitored by practitioners and onthe way the workload indicators should be used to help the decision making process.

Introduktion: Den vertikala hoppförmågan är viktigt för prestationen inom många idrotter. Att använda sig utav komplexträning som benböj och vertikala upphopp har i tidigare forskning visats ge signifikant förbättrad kraftutveckling. Post-Activation Potentiation (PAP) är ett fysiologiskt fenomen som ökar muskelspänningen och kraftutvecklingen i de arbetande musklerna, vilket kan implementeras under komplexträning. Syftet med studien var att undersöka om idrottare inom basket, fotboll, handboll och volleyboll får en gynnsam ökning på Countermovement jump with arm swing (CMJa) om de genomför benböj med en belastning på 50% och 80% av deras estimerade eller faktiskt uppmätta 1 repetition maximum (RM) innan test av CMJa. Metod: 9 män och 2 kvinnor, ålder 20.6±3.3, 181.4±7.4 cm, vikt, 76.9±12.6 kg, deltog där samtliga deltagare var aktiva inom någon av idrotterna basket, fotboll och handboll. Testdeltagarna utförde två set tunga benböj följt av fem set CMJa på en infraröd sensor. Resultat: Resultatet visade ingen signifikant förbättring över tid i hopphöjd hos aktiva bollidrottare (p=0.98). Slutsats: Resultatet tyder på att användandet av PAP med tunga benböj inte leda till förbättrad prestation på hopphöjden vid genomförande av CMJa hos bollidrottare. Resultatet i den här studien stödjer inte tidigare forskningsresultat om att det finns en positiv skillnad på hopphöjd efter tunga benböj över tid. / Introduction: The vertical jump ability is essential for performance in many sports. The use of complex training has in previous research been shown to provide significantly improved power development. Post-Activation Potentiation (PAP) is a physical phenomenon that increases muscle tension and the force development of the working muscles which can be implemented in complex training. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether athletes in basketball, football, handball and volleyball will have a favorable increase in Countermovement jump with arm swing (CMJa) if they perform heavier squats with a load of 50% and 80% of their estimated or measured 1 repeat maximum (RM) before CMJa. Method: 9 men and 2 women, age 20.6±3.3 years, height 181.4±7.4 cm, 76.9±12.6 kg body mass participated in the study. All participants were active in one of the sports basket, football, handball or volleyball. The participants performed two set of squats followed by five set of two repetition CMJas with a five minutes rest in between. An infrared sensor MuscleLab was used to analyze the jump height. Results: The result showed no significant difference between heavy squats and jump height in CMJa over time (p=0.98). Conclusion: Squats with 50% and 80% of 1RM do not seem to improve jump height performance in CMJ on team sports players. The result in this study does not support the results in previous studies showing a positive effect of heavy squats on maximal jump height.

Abstract: When playing in teams, communication is important, not just communication with words but also non-verbal communication such as gestures and body languish. The purpose with this study is to see how there is a co-op among communicating players , between leaders and players and to examine what meaning communication and culture got  in a youth team. The ambition with this study was to increase our knowledge about communication and communicationculture in the youth floorball team. This study is qualitative and was inspired by an ethnographical method so we got the information from observations of a youth floorball team, totally we made four observations. The result were analyzed and categorized from our observation papers. The results where categorized into four headlines, One and two-way communication, Artifacts, The communicationculture of the youth team and actions. The leader got a very important role as communicator and pedagogical leader for the communicationculture that the individual of the group wants to be used in order to promote the development in the team. In the future, more teams needs to be studied to get a more reliable source of information that can be used on a greater populace.

Syftet med studien var att studera sambandet mellan elitjuniorers ledarskapspreferenser och deras personlighet. Urvalsgruppen bestod av 167 elitjuniorer, i åldrarna 16-20 år (M=17,29). Försökspersonerna var av både manligt (116 st) och kvinnligt (51 st) kön, vilka var aktiva inom interaktiva bollsporter. Deltagarna fick svara på tre olika frågeformulär (1) Demografisk fakta (2) Leadership Scale for Sports (LSS) (3) NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI). Efterföljande korrelationsanalyser visade signifikanta samband mellan Extraversion, Demokratiskt ledarbeteende och Positiv Feedback, samt mellan Neuroticism och Socialt stödjande ledarbeteende. Resultatet visade även ett signifikant samband mellan personlighetsdraget Trevlighet och Autokratiskt- och Socialt stödjande ledarbeteende. En slutsats utifrån resultatet är att prefererat ledarskap formas av olika personlighetsdrag, och varierar bland individer genom dess personlighet. I diskussionsdelen föreslås att ledarskapet inom idrotten bör präglas av en flexibilitet och anpassas till enskilda individer i större utsträckning. Exempel på praktiska implikationer och framtida forskning ges. / The purpose of the study was to examine the relationship between elite junior athlete’s   leadership preferences and their personality. Study participants consisted of 167 elite juniors, aged 16-20 years (M = 17,29). Subjects were both male (116) and female (51), and active in interactive sports. Participants were asked to answer three questionnaires (1) Demographic facts (2) Leadership Scale for Sports (LSS) (3) NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI). Subsequent correlation analyses showed significant associations between Extraversion, Democratic behavior and Positive Feedback, and between Neuroticism and social supportive behavior. The results also showed a significant correlation between the personality trait Agreeableness and Autocratic and Social support behavior. One conclusion from the results is that preferred leadership is a function of the athlete’s personality traits. This suggests that leadership in sports should be characterized by flexibility and adaptation to athlete’s individual differences to a greater extend. Examples of practical implications and future research are presented.