United States Sports Academy - "America's Sports University"

Abstract

Athletes who have experienced an upsetting competitive experience not
only may perceive competition negatively but relive the upsetting performance
event when they approach competition or contemplate competition which
results in an increase in anxiety. EMDR was performed with competitive
swimmers to aid them in reprocessing an upsetting swimming event. Their
coping beliefs were measured and level of anxiety prior and after the
EMDR. Vignettes are presented as examples of the changes in the athletes'
level of anxiety coping beliefs after three sessions.

Abstract

A study was conducted to assess how the sports segment within the local
television newscast is changing. Literature suggests that many stations
are eliminating or otherwise revising the sports segment in response to
industry conditions.

Abstract

The objective of this program was to improve the 40-yard sprint time
in junior varsity and varsity high school football players. A 4-½ week
speed-training program was designed for 38 high school athletes. The
athletes participated 3 days per week in the program. The program consisted
of specific form running on a 40-yard course at various downhill degrees
of slope in addition to the normal workout of agility and lateral speed
training. Each participant was timed on a flat track prior to the start
of the training program and upon its completion. The overall results showed
an average decrease in time in the 40-yard sprint of 0.188 seconds (range
+0.01 to -0.9). All but 5 participants demonstrated an improved time.
These results suggest that a standardized training program emphasizing
acceleration, starting ability, stride rate, speed endurance, and stride
length can improve performance in the 40-yard sprint.

Scope and Purpose

Cross country runners will improve their performance, and coaches can
experience the empowerment of their vocation when pinpointed physiological
methods and competitive focusing techniques are bonded together in periodically
based training schedules. This seasonal training guide contains a definitive
coaching approach to the sport of cross-country and includes a mental
awareness component that compliments the physical training. In many instances
an unforgettable season can occur not because the coach wins every contest
he enters but because the sport of cross-country itself is transformed
into a new form of interaction—one in which the composite of the
season’s experience is as important as the final team scores.

A Brief Evaluation of Development of Turkish Sport from 1839 to 1923

Although the modern Turkish Republic was officially established in 1923,
the liberalization, secularization and the democratization process of
the Republic was initiated in 1839. All of these three phases occurred
in conjunction with the Tanzimat reforms, which granted partial constitutional
rights to the Turkish people.

After the Tanzimat, the Turkish people reorganized their lives and established
organizations on voluntary and constitutional principles. The formation
of such organizations also provided leadership for sports activities within
the country. Eventually, the sport movement gained momentum. According
to Fisek, "Despite the discouragement of government, the popularity
and enthusiasm for sports were manifested" (p. 270). However, Turkish
sport had not yet set national objectives nor defined goals.

1 Introduction

"Olympic education" is a term which first appeared in sports education
and Olympic research only in the 1970s (cf, N. MOLLER 1975b). Does "Olympic
education" mean the revival of the educational ideals of ancient Greece,
or is its purpose merely to bring credibility to the marketing of Olympic symbols?
The question must be answered in terms of principles, and the answer ranges
deep into the history and concept of the modern Olympic Movement. Its founder,
the Frenchman Pierre DE COUBERTIN (1863-1937), saw himself first and foremost
as an educator, and his primary aim was educational reform (cf, RIOUX 1986).
His aim, initially restricted to France and the French schools, was to make
modern sport an integral part of the school routine, and so introduce into that
routine a sports education which would embrace both body and mind. He had learned
from modern sport in England, and especially from his knowledge of public school
education at Rugby, that the moral strength of the young can be critically developed
through the individual experience of sporting activity and extended from there
to life as a whole. COUBERTIN did not use the term "Olympic education",
but referred initially to "sporting education", and indeed that was
the title of the book he published in 1922, Pedagogie sportive. Since
as early as 1900, and not exclusively within schools, he had been encouraging
the idea of making sport accessible to adolescents and even to older people
as a newly discovered part of a complete education (cf. COUBERTIN 1972).

Preliminary Remark

Today, in many countries Sport and the Environment is understood as a
highly important subject. Scientists deal with this issue as well as authorities,
sports associations and conservation groups.

Above all, since the World Conference 1992 in Rio de Janeiro questions
of lifestyle are on the agenda for the environmental debate.

Sport represents a significant part of our different lifestyles and thus
automatically becomes a subject of discussion.

Many sports associations have built up professional and voluntary structures
and include environmental issues in their public relations.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC), in close cooperation with
the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), hosted a World Conference
on Sport and the Environment in 1995 at which IOC President Samaranch
expressed: "The International Olympic Committee is resolved
to ensure that the environment becomes the third dimension of the
organization of the Olympic Games, the first and second being sport and
culture. "

Subsequently to this conference a working group Sport and the Environment
was established by the IOC.

Abstract:

In different countries there are between 5% and 50% of left-handed people;
most of them living in Africa. Some say there are over 240 million
left-handed people around the World. Living in right-handed society do
they have to adapt? Because of spreading democracy and tolerance there
is a possibility of maintaining the peculiarity, i.e., of left-handiness. In
sport like in other spheres of life, the tolerance is an achievement. It
means in practice the possibility of taking part in training prepared
for right-handed people or its special version for left-handed people. The left-handed
person usually have to adjust to the training prepared for right-handed.
Realisation of a certain fragment of the training prepared for left-handed
is a great achievement. Usually it is a left-handed person initiative
and his own program. It is hard to define the percentage of left-handed
sportsmen using this kind of self perfection. In my many years studies
I have not found program of teaching or individualisation of training
adequate for left-handed people. Since the problem was non existing it
the theory of training, it was hard to expect a different situation in
practise. It was not mentioned neither in theory of movement learning,
antropokinetics (Szopa, 1992) nor in sport kinetics (Hirtz, et al., 1994).
One of the antropokinetics handbook (Celikowski, et al., 1979) mentioned
the problem but did not tried to solve it. Only one book (Osiński,
1993) took the effort to treat it seriously. The problem of different
sport training for the left-handed people is still unsolved, regardless
of the fact that it vital for the big part of the population. Basing on
own and others autos researches this work tries to bring a solution for
this problem.