نشریه رشد و یادگیری حرکتی - ورزشی
پیاپی 55 (بهار 1403)

Sports injuries are often associated with emotional and psychological challenges. Psychologists and team physicians should examine emotional reactions in addition to assessing physical factors. This research aimed to investigate the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral group therapy on anxiety, depression, and anger caused by the psychological trauma of injury in injured athletes.

The statistical sample of the research was 32 professional athletes injured due to psychological trauma who were selected conveniently, purposively, and with the approval of the experts from the Sports Medicine Federation. The athletes were randomly assigned into two groups of 16 people consisting of a treatment group and a control group. After applying the treatment, a post-test and a two-month follow-up test were conducted. The measurement tools in this research were Spielberger's State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory–2 (STAXI-2), Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), and Beck Depression Inventory - Second Edition (BDI-II). The data were analyzed using the repeated measures analysis of variance statistical method (P<0.05).

The results showed that the difference between the experimental and control groups in reducing behavioral problems in the post-test and follow-up phase was significant. The follow-up results after two months also showed that there was a difference between the experimental and control groups in the amount of psychological reactions and the effectiveness of the treatment remained after 2 months.

The results indicated that cognitive-behavioral therapy focused on psychological trauma reduces the psychological problems of athletes such as anxiety and depression, but does not affect anger control.

Menopause is the beginning of a new era in a woman's life. This period, like all other stages of life, has positive and negative aspects. The present study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of Pilates exercises on serum BDNF level, balance, and quality of life in menopausal and non-menopausal women.

The current study was a quasi-experimental research with a pre-test and post-test design that included two experimental and two control groups. The sample consisted of 60 menopausal and non-menopausal women (age 45.77±1.77 years) who were voluntarily selected and randomly assigned into four groups of 15 people. Fasting blood was drawn from all the participants 48 hours before the start of training and after the end of the training period. Then both experimental groups performed Pilates exercises for 12 weeks, three sessions per week and each session lasted 60 minutes. Also, the participants similarly performed the Y dynamic balance test and completed the World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL) questionnaire in pre-test and post-test.

The results of Mixed ANOVA showed a significant difference between the pre-test and the post-test of menopausal and non-menopausal women in relevant variables, so it can be said that probably 91%, 76%, and 94% of the changes in serum BDNF levels, balance and quality of life of menopausal and non-menopausal women are influenced by Pilates exercises. However, no significant effect was observed in the relevant variables of control groups (P≤0.05).

Pilates exercises can be an effective strategy to improve serum BDNF levels, balance, and quality of life in menopausal and non-menopausal women.

This study aimed to investigate the effect of morning exercise based on coordinated movements on the process of cognitive self-regulation of emotions in second-grade male elementary school students.

The current research was a quasi-experimental type with a pre-test and a post-test along with a control group design. For this purpose, 40 students from the second-grade elementary school were selected by the available sampling method and then randomly assigned into two experimental and control groups. Garnefski and Kraaij’s Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ) was used in both the pre-test and post-test phases. According to the instructions of the Sports for All Federation and the researcher's design, the experimental group participated in morning exercise based on coordinated movements for 8 weeks, 5 days a week, and for 20 minutes every day. The control group did not receive any intervention. Data analysis was done through analysis of covariance with a significance level of 0.05 via SPSS 24 software.

Morning exercise had a significant effect on the improvement of students' self-regulated emotion and caused an increase to it. The results of the Wilk’s Lambda test (P=0.0001) and the within-group and between-group contrast test in the experimental group (P=0.0001) and the control group (P=0.09) showed the progress and significant difference of the experimental group compared with the control group.

Participating in morning exercise based on coordinated movements increases students' self-regulation of emotion. Therefore, it is suggested that sports coaches and relevant officials of schools consider morning exercise in the daily schedule of schools.

One of the most complex processes in the field of sports expertise is decision-making. In this respect, this study aimed to investigate the effect of decision training on anticipation and creative decision-making in badminton.

The current research is a quasi-experimental type with a pre-test and post-test design. The statistical population of the present study was all female students aged 20 to 30 years, from which 40 female students were selected by the available sampling method and randomly assigned into two decision training and control groups. A creative decision-making questionnaire, video camera, laptop, and projector were the tools used in the research. In the pretest, creative decision-making and anticipation were measured with 20 video clips while watching a badminton overhead shot through a video clip that was interrupted at the moment of racket-ball contact. The training group practiced 400 decision training trials and the control group just recognized the direction of the shots. A post-test was taken after 48 hours.

The result revealed that in the post-test, the decision training group had more creativity in decision-making than the control group (F=2.64) and in the training group, the skill of anticipating the direction of the shots was better than the control group (F=4.17).

According to the results, the decision training made the players of the training group recognize the direction and landing place of the shot with more creativity and provide several solutions for each shot. It seems that decision training has a significant effect in facilitating and providing different solutions.

The present study aimed to investigate the effect of anodal and cathodal brain tDCS and stimulus-response asynchrony on the backward-compatibility effect (BCE) in conditions of acute mental fatigue.

The participants were 39 boys (20 to 24 years old). The instruments included the informed consent form, the Edinburgh handedness questionnaire, the dual reaction time instrument, the Stroop software, the visual analog scale to evaluate fatigue severity (VAS-F), and the tDCS device. The participants in the pre-test were tested in two conditions of non-fatigue and mental fatigue with a dual reaction time instrument. The tests consisted of two three-choice visual stimulus-response (letters and colors) with ten different stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs). Then the subjects were randomly assigned to three Anodal, Cathodal, and Sham stimulation groups. The intervention consisted of four consecutive 20-minute sessions of tDCS stimulation on the DLPFC area. One day and four days after the last stimulation session, the tests were repeated. For inferential data analysis, Mixed Model ANOVA and One-way ANOVA tests were used at a significance level of 0.05.

The results showed that there is a difference between different SOAs in response time to the first stimulus (RT1) which is a representation of backward adaptation, and at lower SOAs, the RT1 is shorter. Also, there is a difference in RT1 at low SOAs between fatigued and non-fatigued conditions. However, the effect of cathodal and anodal tDCS on RT1 was very small.

In general, the results showed that at least some central aspects related to the response can be processed in parallel. Fatigue also affects this parallel processing.

The present study aimed to investigate the effect of the combination of action observation and imagery on the accuracy of aiming and catching skills in children with developmental coordination disorder.

This was a quasi-experimental study with a pre-test, post-test, and a control group design. 44 participants with the age range of 7 to 9 years were selected purposively from girls and boys with developmental coordination disorder in Qom City and were assigned to four Action Observation, Imagery, Action Observation + Imagery (combined), and Control groups. In the pre-test phase, the participants threw 10 balls towards the wall and simultaneously caught the returned ball. The intervention phase was conducted in six weeks and three sessions per week and each session lasted 10 minutes. The post-test phase was conducted similar to the pre-test phase. The data were analyzed using one-way ANCOVA.

The results showed that both the imagery and the action observation interventions and also the combination of these two interventions have a significant effect on improving the performance of the children’s aiming and catching skills (P<0.05). Also, results showed that the combination of action observation and imagery interventions significantly led to a better performance of aiming and catching skills in participants.

Based on the results of the present study, it is possible to use the combination of action observation and imagery interventions to improve the performance of the aiming and catching skill in children with developmental coordination disorder.