Frontiers in Sports and Active Living最新文献

Introduction: Captains and athlete leaders in Japanese high school rugby teams are often expected to lead without formal leadership training, resulting in role ambiguity and uneven psychological burden. This study designed and evaluated the feasibility and acceptability of a fully online, theory-driven leadership development program using co-creation approaches for an athlete leadership group.

Methods: Thirty-three leaders (8 captains, 25 athlete leaders) from eight competitive high school rugby teams completed the program. Two delivery patterns were identified: a brief intervention group (n = 13), which completed a five-step program, and an intervention group (n = 20), which engaged in repeated cycles including action implementation, monitoring, collective reflection, and replanning. A mixed-methods evaluation combined stepwise process ratings with semi-structured interviews of leaders and coaches.

Results: Participants perceived improved role clarity, ownership of leadership behaviors, enhanced communication, and more effective distribution of responsibilities. Moreover, participants in the intervention group which conducted repeated cycles reported to exhibit more stable behavioral enactment, greater peer involvement, and more relational leadership practices. Captains reported reduced psychological burden as leadership became more shared, and coaches observed enhanced autonomy and player-driven coordination.

Discussion: These findings suggest that this program was feasible and acceptable. Brief delivery initiated meaningful insights and short-term behavioral change, while the sustained cycle produced broader impact within teams. Earlier-season, longer-duration implementation may further support youth rugby talent development and the cultivation of sustainable shared leadership structures.

Background: The increasing compression of the pre-season period due to congested calendars may induce significant neuromuscular fatigue, potentially compromising player readiness for competition.

Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the variation in neuromuscular performance in elite professional Brazilian male soccer players throughout the pre-season and at the end of the first competition of the year.

Methods: Thirteen outfield soccer players (3 defenders, 5 midfielders and 5 forwards) from a single Brazilian first-division team were included in the study. Neuromuscular performance was evaluated using a comprehensive set of countermovement jump (CMJ) variables and isometric hip adduction/abduction strength at three time points: the start of the pre-season (T1), the end of the pre-season (T2), and following the end of first competition of the season (T3).

Results: In T2, CMJ values significantly decreased compared to T1 for jump height, RSI modified, take-off peak force, peak power, and concentric peak velocity (p < 0.05). In T3, peak power and concentric peak velocity remained reduced, while eccentric duration increased compared to T1 (p < 0.05). Regarding hip strength, no significant changes were observed for adduction or abduction peak forces across the assessed time points (p > 0.05), indicating a maintenance of isometric strength levels.

Conclusion: The findings indicate that an intensive and short pre-season induced a state of neuromuscular fatigue in elite soccer players, and the subsequent competitive period resulted in an incomplete recovery for most of the CMJ neuromuscular variables.

While physical inactivity represents a global health concern, the relationship between structured sports participation and overall physical activity patterns remains unclear. This study examined whether football practice enhances adherence to physical activity guidelines and influences lifestyle activity patterns beyond structured practice sessions. Twenty-seven participants [football players (EG) n = 16, age 23.4 ± 2.7 years; non-athletes (CG) n = 11, age 24.1 ± 3.2 years] wore accelerometers for seven consecutive days. Physical activity parameters including overall physical activity (OPA), physical inactivity (PI), light physical activity (LPA), moderate physical activity (MPA), vigorous physical activity (VPA), and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) were assessed using validated cut-points. Data were analyzed using multivariate GLM procedures, with separate analyses conducted including and excluding structured practice sessions. Both groups exceeded recommendations for MPA (EG: 449.3 ± 98.8 min/week, p < 0.001; CG: 414.6 ± 86.4 min/week, p = 0.002). However, neither group met VPA recommendations of ≥75 min/week (EG: 60.6 ± 20.5 min/week, 19.3% deficit; CG: 2.8 ± 3.6 min/week, 96.3% deficit). Football players demonstrated 2,064% higher VPA than non-athletes (p < 0.001, η ² = 0.761). Critically, even when practice sessions were excluded, EG maintained significantly higher VPA (13.6 vs. 2.8 min/week, p = 0.076) and overall activity levels compared to CG, while exhibiting 46.76% lower LPA (p = 0.001, η ² = 0.376). Structured football participation creates positive transfer effects extending beyond practice contexts, with athletes maintaining higher activity intensities during periods without practice. However, insufficient VPA across both populations highlights the need for targeted interventions to optimize physical activity profiles. These findings support sports participation as a public health strategy while emphasizing the importance of specific high-intensity activity promotion to meet international guidelines.

Introduction: Short video platforms have become a key medium for the dissemination of Chinese Wushu culture. However, audience perceptions of Wushu short videos remain underexplored. This study aims to explore how audiences perceive value in Wushu short videos.

Methods: Drawing on perceived value theory and Lasswell's 5W model, this study examines how communicator competence, narrative elements, multimodal features, and audience cultural background collectively shape the perceived value of Wushu short videos. We collected 412 Wushu short videos and 236,627 user comments from TikTok, and analyzed the data using machine learning methods.

Results: First, through topic clustering and sentiment analysis, we identified three perceived value dimensions: knowledge expansion value, physical and health value, and emotional experience value. These dimensions were unevenly recognized: emotional experience value received the most positive feedback, while knowledge expansion and health values were less acknowledged. Second, LightGBM regression and SHAP interpretability analysis showed that audience cultural background had the strongest impact on value perception, with cultural diversity as the most critical predictor. Communicator competence was the second most influential factor, in which social capital exhibited a negative correlation. Among narrative elements, traditional Chinese Wushu artist imagery enhanced perceived value, and female or mixed-gender presentations performed better than male-only presentations. Multimodal features showed limited influence.

Discussion: These findings enrich the theoretical research on Wushu cultural communication. They also provide practical guidance for content creators to optimize Wushu short video dissemination strategies, including cultural image presentation, gender diversification, publishing strategies, and community building.

Introduction: The purpose of this study was to determine if adolescents (aged 12-18 years) with patellofemoral pain demonstrate greater peak and cumulative patellofemoral joint forces when compared to asymptomatic adolescents during running.

Methods: Twenty-six adolescents with patellofemoral pain (14 male, 12 female, mean ± standard deviation age: 14.4 ± 1.7 years) and 24 asymptomatic adolescents (13 male, 11 female, mean ± standard deviation age: 14.1 ± 1.6 years) participated in this cross-sectional study. Participants ran on an instrumented treadmill in a traditional athletic shoe while kinematic and kinetic data were collected. Peak knee flexion angle, peak internal knee extension moment, and cumulative and peak patellofemoral joint force were compared between groups using a one-way analysis of covariance (α = 0.05). The mean difference (MD) with 95% confidence intervals [95% CI] and standardised mean differences (SMD) were calculated to express the magnitude of difference between groups.

Results: Peak patellofemoral joint force [MD = -0.22 (-0.33, 0.77) N/kg] and cumulative patellofemoral joint force [MD = -6.26 (-37.47, 50.00) Bw.s/km] were not different between adolescents with patellofemoral pain and asymptomatic adolescents. Peak knee flexion [MD = 0.19 (-2.72, 2.33) deg] and knee extension moment [MD = -0.11 (-0.07, 0.29) Nm/kg] were also not different between groups.

Discussion: Greater patellofemoral joint forces during running are not evident in adolescents with patellofemoral pain when compared to asymptomatic adolescents.

Background: Amateur ultra-endurance (UE) athletes often exhibit suboptimal fueling, particularly inadequate carbohydrate (CHO) intake, during competition. Integrated real-world datasets that combine weighed-back, stage-specific fueling with blinded continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) and next-day oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) including indirect calorimetry in a condensed multi-discipline UE setting are scarce.

Case presentation: A 37-year-old amateur athlete completed a tightly timed "Swedish Classic" on official race courses within 18:30 h:min (18.5 h)-316 km road cycling, 3 km open-water swimming, 84 km roller-skiing, and 30 km trail running-with helicopter transfers between stages [433 km total; 15:01 h:min (15.0 h) active exercise]. Fasting laboratory tests were performed at 07:30 on the mornings before and after the attempt, including venous blood sampling, dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA), and a 75-g oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT; 120 min) with indirect calorimetry. Weighed-back nutrition and hydration, CGM, heart rate (HR), body mass (BM), and stage logistics were recorded throughout.

Results: Total energy intake was 5,825 kcal with 1,051 g CHO (13.8 g·kg^-1), averaging 57 g·h^-1 including transfers and 50 g·h^-1 during exercise. BM decreased by 2.5 kg (-3.8%). CGM showed stable glucose during cycling, swimming, and roller-skiing, with transient hypoglycaemia confined to the final run. Mean relative HR across all events was 72 ± 6%, and gastrointestinal symptoms were minimal. Next-day OGTT total glucose AUC was unchanged but showed a higher early peak and earlier nadir. Indirect calorimetry indicated reduced CHO oxidation (-28%) and increased fat oxidation (+47%). Inflammatory and muscle-damage markers increased, while cardiac troponin I remained within reference limits.

Conclusion: In this condensed UE tetrathlon case, discipline-specific feeding opportunities, rather than generic hourly targets, largely determined achievable CHO delivery, and glycaemic excursions occurred only during the terminal running stage. This integrated case provides a reference observation to inform logistics-aware fueling plans and to motivate prospective studies evaluating whether real-time CGM with predefined decision rules improves late-stage fueling and glycaemic stability in UE events.