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

FOREWARD

The United States Sports Academy, in cooperation with the Supreme Council for Youth and Sport, presents the Arab world with its own International Physical Fitness Test Manual based on norms collected and processed on Arab youth, ages 9 to 19. This fitness test is one of the few developed outside the Western world and is believed to be the only such test battery that measures the basic components of all physical activity, i.e. speed, strength, suppleness, and stamina.

This test was introduced to 199 physical education teachers by Dr. Thomas P. Rosandich on 15 January 1977 in Manama. This test was initially developed by the International Committee for Physical Fitness Testing in Tokyo in 1964 at which time Dr. Rosandich served that committee as its first Secretary.

KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA. This past week on campus at the United States Sports Academy we had Tan Sri Dato' Elyas Omar, the former Lord Mayor of Kuala Lumpur, the magnificent capital city of Malaysia, to receive an honorary doctorate during our 26th Annual Graduation Celebration.

Dato' Elyas served for more than a decade as the Lord Mayor of Kuala Lumpur and was perceived to be the second most powerful man in Malaysia next to the Prime Minister. He had a rather unlimited budget during the heyday of Malaysia, when they were showing a national growth of nearly 20% per year. He built the very beautiful city of Kuala Lumpur, a mix between Asian and Western architecture, into a bustling capital city with buildings that are the highest in Asia, and a fast transit system that takes the people from one end of the city to the other, over the bustling streets of bazaars. He maintained the beauty of the traditional British railway stations, except this one features Islamic architecture, which is not what one would see in Victoria station in London. The same is true with many of the buildings including City Hall, the Parliament and the Selangor Sports Club in the heart of the city.

From Knute Rockne, the basketball movie "Hoosiers," and many other highly publicized "win one for the Gipper" speeches, we have observed the magical powers of the pregame pep talk. In fact, today it is widely believed that coaches must give their team an emotional message before sending them into competition. Unfortunately, what has been forgotten over the years is that the pep talk is just one type of arousal adjustment technique, a tool to be used only under certain circumstances. Furthermore, as the following example illustrates, raising the emotional level of every player on the team may have disastrous consequences.

Game-Day USA

During today's precompetition activities, Steve is extremely excited and nervous. Today marks the first time that his parents are able to attend one of his games and he is beginning to feel the pressure of having to live up to their unrealistic expectations. Next to him, sits Jerome. Jerome has just completed his typical pregame routine. He is both mentally and emotionally ready to play. Rafael, on the other hand, appears listless and bored. He shows no energy or emotion, acting as if he is only going through the motions.

INTRODUCTION

Today, the average of life expectancy has gone up in the United States (U.S.) and is expected to increase even more in the future. The U.S. Bureau of Census (1994) predicted there will be more than 40 million people over 65 years old in the year 2010. The growth in the senior population of the U.S. is a similar trend throughout the world. Consequently, the health, fitness and well-being of the senior population are of increasing concern in today's society.

Aging is a normal biological process in human beings involving the gradual alteration of body structure, function, and tolerance to environmental stress. From approximately age 30, effectiveness of various physiological functions begins a subtle decline that becomes more obvious around age 55-60. However, physiological aging does not occur at the same rate throughout the population. At the present, it is difficult to distinguish reasons of decline in physiological functions. The reasons could be from advancing age, deconditioning from physical inactivity, disease, or any combination of them (ACSM, 1995).

Changes in the penalties for Alabama High School soccer players receiving misconducts have had very little effect on the numbers and types of cards issued during the 1997 and 1998 Alabama high school soccer seasons.(note: high soccer is a spring sport in Alabama). Although ineligibility penalties for yellow cards were eliminated, there was a slight increase in the number of yellow cards issued per game in 1997, but the number of yellow cards issued per game in 1998 was almost equivalent to 1996. At the same time, revised red card (includes red/yellow cards) penalties seemed to have very little effect on the number of. red cards (ejections) issued per game.

Redmond, Wash.-January 1999-In big cities, sports arenas are among the top five places where sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) occurs-but what about towns that don't have major league stadiums? If little league or the varsity squad is the only game in town, that's where the people will go, and that's where SCA will happen.

SCA is one of the most common causes of death in the US, claiming about 325,000 lives each year. Until relatively recently, treatment for SCA-an electrical shock known as defibrillation-was usually administered either in a hospital or by emergency medical service (EMS) personnel. Innovative communities are looking for ways to improve access to defibrillation. They are equipping firefighters, police-and now high school coaches and athletic trainers-with automated external defibrillators (AEDs), allowing them to provide critical treatment before EMS arrives. The leading seller in the field is the LIFEPAK® 500 AED, manufactured by Medtronic Physio-Control of Redmond, Wash.

Unlike the models of defibrillators intended for use by paramedics, nurses and doctors, AEDs do not require extensive medical knowledge to understand or operate.

36.4% of high school students smoked cigarettes during the past month, while 16.7% smoked cigarettes on 20 or more days during the past month, and 9.3% used smokeless tobacco.

Only 29.3% of high school students ate five or more servings of fruits and vegetables during the past day. 4.5% took laxatives or vomited to lose weight during the past month. 4.9% had taken diet pills to lose weight during the past month.

63.8% of high school students did vigorous physical activity three or more days during the past week. 20.4% did moderate physical activity five or more days during the past week. 48.8% were enrolled in physical education class. 27.4% attended physical education class daily. --Center for Disease Control, based on a survey by the 1997 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Systems survey.