Annals of Applied Sport Science
Volume:8 Issue: 4, Autumn 2020

Today, management and development of sports brands are not only limited to sports goods, teams and leagues, but also recognized by professional and elite athletes.

So, the purpose of the present study is to analyze awareness of the components of personal brand image of male and female national team athletes and Taekwondo elite players of Iran.

This study is applied and descriptive-analytical in terms of the purpose, and survey in terms of methodology. The statistical population of this study included all Iranian elite male players with a history of attending national teams. The sample size was considered as population by census and finally 150 persons formed the final sample of the study. The standard questionnaire of personal brand image of Safar et al. (2016) was used for data collection. The validity of the tool was confirmed by sport management experts and its reliability was confirmed by Cronbach’s alpha of 0.87.

The descriptive and inferential statistics (second-order factor analysis) at the significant level of 0.05 were used to analyze the data. The results showed that among the factors that constitute the brand image, skill and style of competition had the most influence. The results also showed that the knowledge of Taekwondo elite about the components of personal brand image is at a desired level.

According to the results, careful consideration and understanding of moral factors, skills and consulting with sports marketing and branding specialists are among the cases suggested for forming and developing a desired personal brand image for Taekwondo national and elite players.

Creating proper contexts to maximize sport participation of women with physical-mobility disabilities requires identifying barriers to their participation. It is essential to develop a valid and reliable tool to identify existing barriers.

The aim of the present study was to develop and validate a questionnaire for assessing barriers to participation in team sports for women with physical-mobility disabilities.

The data were collected through theoretical literature, observation and semi-structured interviews with experts and professors of disability sports and women with physical-mobility disabilities selected through purposeful and snowball sampling methods. The main barriers were identified and the questionnaire was then prepared. To carry out statistical analysis on reliability and validity of the tool using factor analysis, the above questionnaire was distributed among 300 statistical samples selected by proportional stratified sampling across the country.

Results of factor analysis showed that it was logical to maintain 10 factors that explained 65.5% of the total variance. All items had a positive contribution to overall reliability.

The final questionnaire (10 factors and 48 questions) was developed that could be a reliable tool for future researches, the results of which can be used by disability sport administrators to adopt policies to ensure active sport participation of women with physical mobility disabilities.

Several researchers have studied the effects of type of feedback on learning motor skills, but there are few studies on the interaction between personality traits and the type of feedback.

This study aimed at investigating the effect of type of feedback on intrinsic motivation and learning volleyball jump serve in students with neuroticism.

A total of 59 female-16-17 year old students were classified into 4 groups based on their psycho inventoryical neurosis and type of feedback. Research tools included NEO five factors and intrinsic motivation inventories. The participants’ goal was volleyball jump serving. In the acquisition phase, the participants performed 96 volleyball jump serves in four blocks of trials of 24. The retention test was conducted two weeks after the acquisition phase. Before and after the acquisition phase, participants completed the intrinsic motivation inventory.

The type of feedback had an effect on acquisition (p=0.33), retention (p<0.001), and intrinsic motivation (p<0.001), and the positive normative feedback group had better intrinsic motivation and better learning than the negative normative feedback group. The effect of personality type on acquisition and intrinsic motivation was significant, and highly neurotic students (Score 81 to 105) had lower scores on acquisition phase and lower intrinsic motivation. However, the effect of personality type on retention scores was not significant.

Positive normative feedback for learning of the volleyball jump serve is better than negative normative feedback for beginners.

The apoptotic inducing factor (AIF) level increases in the brain of patients with diabetic disease.

This study aimed to investigate whether endurance training could alleviate apoptosis in the cerebellum of diabetic rats.

Twenty rats were randomly allocated in four groups including 1) healthy control 2) healthy trained 3) diabetic and 4) diabetic trained groups. Diabetes was induced by intraperitoneal injection a single dose of Streptozotocin (45 mg/kg). Training programs on the treadmill were performed at moderate intensity 5 days a week for 6 weeks. The activities apoptotic inducing factor was analyzed in cerebellum of animals at the end of experiment by ELISA method.

Our results showed that following six weeks endurance exercise training decreased cytosolic release of apoptotic inducing factor (AIF) in cerebellum of diabetic rats.

Our results confirmed that endurance training may be improves brain functions. Understanding mechanisms of exercise on brain functions may lead to the development of novel therapeutic strategy for neurodegenerative disorders such as type 1 diabetes.

Due to the lack of sufficient information about the interactive effects of high intensity intermittent training (HIIT) and blood flow restricted (BFR) exercises on angiogenic variables of skeletal muscle, it seems that integration these training models can influence skeletal muscle angiogenesis in the long term over the individual application of each of these training methods.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of eight weeks of HIIT and BFR on protein expressions (VEGF and eNOS) in vastus lateralis of male runners.

For this purpose, 15 runners (age: 23±3) voluntarily participating in this study were divided into three groups: 1) Control 2) HIIT and 3) HIIT+BFR. The experimental groups were practicing (three sessions a week and six attempts each session for eight weeks). Before and at the end of eight weeks, the biopsy samples were collected from vastus lateralis muscle and the protein expression levels of the VEGF and eNOS were studied by immunohistochemical method.

The findings of this study showed that the levels of the VEGF and eNOS were significantly increased in the experimental groups compared to the control group (p<0.001). There was also a significant difference between experimental groups in the VEGF protein expressions (p<0.05).

The HIIT and BFR training can effectively increase the protein expression levels of the VEGF and eNOS in vastus lateralis muscle of runners.

It is well known that overarm throwing is one of the most performed activities in the handball. Shoulder and glenohumeral injuries incidence are high in handball because of both pass, and shooting activity was executed repeatedly in high angular speed.

This study set out to investigate the usefulness of inexpensive commercial inertial movement sensors for prediction of throwing velocity in handball.

After the IMU sensor (500 Hz) placed to the wrist of the dominant arm, players (n=4; 24.4 ±1.4 years, 181.75 ±11 cm height, 84.58 ±16 kg weight) performed 30 standing overarm throwings from a seven-meter distance with 1-minute rest between trials. Throwing velocity compared between radar speed gun and estimations of accelerometer data. Recorded acceleration data filtered (Butterworth 20 Hz 2nd order) than the acceleration vector magnitude calculated. Each throwing data aligned such as 125 data points of before and after the peak acceleration (250ms). Performance metrics of prediction models (Generalized Linear Model, Gradient Boosted Trees, and Support Vector Machine) calculated with root mean square, absolute error, and correlation coefficient parameters.

There were reasonably small absolute errors and root mean square values of the machine learning models. Also, there was a very high correlation between measured and predicted velocities with all three models.

This is the first study to examined machine learning models to predict handball throwing velocity using a high-frequency triaxial accelerometer. The finding of the present study revealed that the wrist-attached accelerometer precisely estimates the throwing velocity in handball. Further research is required to quantifying the overarm activities in handball, which included block, defensive contact, passing, or shooting. Therefore the accelerometer-based collected data may provide detection of movement in game-play automatically so that the upper extremity load of players can be monitored and avoid the possible overuse injury risk.

The acute ingestion of ketone body supplements can improve exercise responses such as oxygen consumption and blood lactate. Additionally, ketone body supplements show increases in circulating βhb concentration, matching those of someone in a state of nutritional ketosis. Studies testing ketone body supplements have reported different results in exercise response and varying gastrointestinal discomfort.

This study aimed to compare the effects of exogenous ketone supplements on submaximal exercise response in a group of trained male cyclists.

A randomized, double-blind study was conducted. Forty-four males were randomly assigned to one of four supplement groups, i.e., high ketone (HKET) (10g βhb); low ketone (LKET) (4g βhb); carbohydrate (CHO); or placebo (PLA). Oxygen consumption and blood lactate were measured as markers of exercise response and blood βhb as a marker for ketosis, during a submaximal cycle protocol (30 min at 60% VO2max).

Two of the three supplements increased oxygen consumption (CHO: p<0.0005; and HKET: p=0.015). The HKET group experienced an increase in maximal blood lactate (P = 0.010) and a decrease in lactate threshold (d=0.93). Additionally, the HKET group showed the largest increase in circulating βhb concentration (P = 0.004) 30 minutes following ingestion. The respiratory exchange ratio, heart rate, and plasma glucose were not affected.

Although the exogenous ketone supplements were able to induce a mild state of ketosis (>0.5 mmol/L),  no positive effect on exercise response was shown.

The badminton forehand overhead jump smash is one of the high speed and powerful motions among various racket sports.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the effect of fatigue on the kinematic variable movement changes during overhead jump smash in badminton.

This study is descriptive quantitative research with the pre-test and post-test design methods used to obtain data from 15 male badminton players, aged 19.4 ± 1.6 years, height 1.73 ± 0.12 m, and weight 60.8 ± 3.7 kg. The study used three high-resolution handy-cams, motion software Frame DIAZ IV, and 14 point manual markers to analyze body segments’ movement when carrying out a jump smash. Furthermore, an ergo treadmill was used to test the players’ level by running.

The results showed that the shuttlecock velocity was faster during pre-fatigue (188 km/h) than under the condition (145 km/h). A significant difference showed in the angle of shoulder internal rotation (p=0.048) and wrist palmar flexion (p=0.037) at the instant of maximal shoulder external rotation phase. Furthermore, there were significant differences in the shoulder’s internal angular velocity (p=0.042), elbow extension (p=0.035), forearm supination (p=0.024), and wrist Dorsi dorsiflexion.040).

 In conclusion, fatigue reduces players’ performances during jumping smash in badminton, thereby leading to slower shuttlecock speed and changes in body segment movements.

This paper investigates the pillars of content strategy and fan engagement in social networks during 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics and Paralympics.

The purpose of this paper is to seek reasons behind the differences in fan engagement in social media channels of PyeongChang Winter Olympics and Paralympics.

Facebook and YouTube channels are used to analyze engagement and growth. Subsequent effects of fans engagement with different social media content have also been analyzed in the study. Data were collected using the Social Bakers Suite platform for the period of fifteen days of the Winter Paralympics. For the purpose of analysis 3 platforms have been used for 25 different analysis. From 25, the most significant analysis was presented in the findings. Content and sentiment analysis is used as a main research methodology.

The findings of this paper showed that the fans are more engaged with the contents of the Paralympic channel even though the number of followers were almost as half as the Olympics channel. The contents that were generated through marketers/organizer did not perform as well as user/fan generated content.

This study will add to the body of academic practitioner research on social media content creation and will provide an opening for marketers to leverage social media networks for marketing communications. This cross‐channel study of the Olympics and Paralympic channels found positive effects on content consumption and in the promotion of fan engagement.

Novices in sport possesses similar visual skills to that of experts, however there may be major differences in magnitude of performance in these skills, with expert athletes only demonstrating superiority in specific vision skills and not all aspects of vision.

In this vain, the aim of this study was to discern whether Premier League rugby players has enhanced visio-spatial skills in comparison to First Division rugby players.

Thus, the present study compared the performance of Premier League rugby players (n = 40) and First Division rugby players (n = 40) on six specific components of vision, namely; accommodation facility, saccadic eye movement, speed of recognition, peripheral awareness, visual memory, and hand-eye coordination.

Premier League rugby players performed significantly (p = 0.001) better than the First Division rugby players in five of the six tests. but were found to be similar in visual memory performance (p = 0.810).

While this study substantiates the proposal that expert athletes, and specifically rugby players, have superior visual expertise to novice athletes, this study also found that this is not the case with all vision skills. The present study’s findings suggest that sport-specific vision testing batteries may be required to distinguish high performers from low performers in the same vein as physical tests are utilised in the selection and recruitment of athletes.