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

All across the United States each year many individuals make the conscious
decision to try out for interscholastic athletic teams in the hopes of
being part of something great. These individuals also understand that
prior to the last cut; they will need to sacrifice time, energy and social
gatherings to make the team successful. However, what many of these individuals
do not recognize and understand is that try-outs don’t always end
when the last cut is made and the final team list is posted. In recent
years, an old, but very much alive problem has begun to resurface in sports,
and that is the issue of humiliating and victimizing rookie athletes through
hazing rituals. These horrible acts leave victims debilitated in many
capacities, and such practices break down the institution of sport which
has been noted for building such positive character qualities as strength,
discipline, and a strong work ethic.

ABSTRACT

Accurate kinematic analysis of human movement is a significant factor
for the improvement of movement performance and for the reduction of injuries.
A polynomial method for 3-D analysis was implemented to determine the
knee kinematic parameters during level and 9% downhill grade running.
The knee kinematic parameters for the level and downhill running were:
20.9 o and 17 o degrees for the flexion angle in foot strike, 36.2 o and
43.1 o for the peak flexion angle in stance phase, and 7.1 rad.sec -1
and 7.4 rad.sec -1 the peak flexion angular velocity respectively. The
knee kinematic characteristics, determined using a polynomial method,
were within the range of the respective values reported in previous studies,
indicating that the polynomial method used is adequate for accurate 3-D
kinematic analysis. The results indicate that the knee extensor muscle
group is worked over a greater range during downhill running than in level
running and furthermore, during the footstrike, the knee flexion angle,
in level running is higher than in downhill running, which probably could
be affected to the magnitude of the compression forces applied to knee
during downhill running

Abstract

Teaching physical education and sports activities are among the indispensable
occupations of our time. Sports, apart from being an occupation of entertainment
and free time, have also a function that develop health and contributes
joy and happiness to the participants’ daily lives. Physical education
and sports activities have become signs of contemporariness. In Turkey,
the average beginning age for children’s participation in many or
team or individual sport activities is between ages 8 and 12. This is
also the average age level that most children start to participate in
school Physical Education and Sport courses. Physical Education is not
an elective course. It therefore is a core course and Turkey has a national
physical education teaching program. Despite the fact physical education
teachers are educated in various public and private physical education
programs, the core of the curriculums are very similar. All of the Physical
Education Teacher Education programs for the eight-year mandatory elementary
schools are monitored and constituted through the ministry of education.
While entire P.E. curriculums for education teachers are administrated
centrally and monitored by the ministry of education, there are few special
programs that training and preparing quality physical education and sports
teachers to teach high level physical education and sports courses at
8-year compulsory basic education institutions. The effectiveness of the
current programs that applied at most of compulsory basic education institutions
of eight years is a significant concern of this study. The purpose of
this research is to determine to what extent the physical education teacher
training programs that are currently used by those universities are effectively
and successfully training preparing physical education teachers to teach
at compulsory eight-year elementary schools.

The XIX. Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City 2002 seemed to be a
great success for the Salt Lake Organizing Committee (SLOC). Consequently,
Research Team Olympia from the University of Mainz/Germany had favorable
conditions for an empirical investigation of the spectators at the biathlon
venue “Soldier Hollow”.

The Origin of the Idea of Peace in the Modern
Olympic Movement

The Olympic Games took place in ancient Greece 293 times from 776 B.C.
up to 393 A.D., i.e. over a period of almost 12 centuries, in contrast
to modern times without interruption.

The book is well structured. It presents a valid historical description
of the history of track and field and the evolution of multi-event contests
followed by the biographical sketch of twenty-two of the greatest All-around
athletes.

How To Raise a Successful Athlete is a great text for the ‘layman’
interested in expanding his or her knowledge of basic sport-related topics.
It is easy to comprehend the information regarding nutrition, physiology,
biomechanics, strength training, sport psychology, as well as coaching
and medical topics. The book describes the common occurrences of injury,
appropriate treatments and home care information so the parent or guardian
recognizes the importance of proper therapeutic remedies.

An Overview on Issues of Cross-Cultural Research and Back-Translation

Abstract

There are numerous studies which have been conducted in the field of sport based on an adapted or translated instrument across countries. However, using an adapted or translated instrument does not ensure that the adapted or translated one measures the same constructs as the original one does as a result of the cultural and lingual differences. Therefore, researchers who would like to adapt or translate in instrument from English version into different language version should be cognizant of such potential problems. The purpose of this paper is to provide researchers with an overview of issues regarding the cross-cultural study as well as the adapting or translating an instrument. In addition, the practical guidelines and the possible methods that can detect such problems are also included.

Introduction

The academic field of media communication inquires into diverse phenomena about information delivery and cultural production made through media such as newspapers, television, films, the Internet, etc. According to James Carey (1992), there are two views of communication in the history of American thought: a transmission view of communication and a ritual, or cultural, view of communication. A transmission view sees communication as a process by which information is delivered and distributed over distances. On the other hand, a ritual view of communication understands it as a symbolic representation whereby cultural beliefs and social reality are presented in order to draw people together in commonality. Until recently, communication research has been dominated by the transmission view of communication, which is characterized by so-called “effects research.” Carey, however, argues that without a consideration of the cultural aspects, the whole picture of communication phenomena cannot be properly understood.

Abstract

Game promotions are believed necessary to help increase attendance in minor league baseball. As such, many game promotions are presented. In major league baseball as well as for many other products, a watering down effect exists when sales promotions are offered too frequently. As minor league baseball offers more promotions than major league baseball, it is reasonable to expect to find a similar condition. Attendance and promotion data were collected from 31 randomly selected minor league teams over the course of an entire season. Regression analysis showed that a watering down effect was present only for price game promotions. For non-price game promotions and for game promotions overall, there was no watering down effect.