Frontiers in Sports and Active Living最新文献

Introduction: Scapular motion tracking is essential for understanding shoulder kinematics, but its utility in individuals with high body mass index (BMI) requires further investigation. The purpose of this study was to define repeatability of skin-based scapular motion tracking in individuals with BMI ≥ 30 using two calibration procedures.

Methods: Nine participants (mean BMI (SD): 42.1 (7.9)) completed two sessions involving planar arm elevations and functional arm-focused tasks. Scapular motion was tracked with the acromial marker cluster, and scapular kinematics were calculated from single and double calibration procedures. Repeatability of discrete scapular angles at 15° increments of humeral elevation was evaluated using intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs), and minimal detectable change (MDC). Differences in angle waveforms were also explored with statistical parametric mapping.

Results: Findings suggest that scapular motion tracking is feasible and repeatable for upward rotation and internal rotation in individuals with high BMI (ICCs = 0.50-0.90; MDCs = 5 to 15°). The single calibration method underestimated upward and internal rotation as compared to the double calibration method, particularly at higher humeral elevations.

Discussion: Although BMI was used as a proxy for body composition, this study supports scapular motion tracking with the acromial marker cluster in populations where soft tissue artifact may be more pronounced.

Introduction: Swimming and diving are popular recreational activities and essential skills to prevent death from drowning. While most drownings occur in cold water, cold shock response is discussed as a major cause of drowning. Until now, the data on the physiology of drowning and cold shock response in children are scarce, while drowning remains a significant concern in this population. This study was conducted to investigate the cold shock response in healthy children and compare cold and warm water immersion.

Methods: Participants were first immersed up to the neck in warm water (34 °C, close to thermoneutral) and then in cold water (11 °C), while skin temperature, ECG, heart rate, respiratory rate, oxygen saturation and peripheral perfusion index were continuously monitored.

Results: Heart rate and respiratory rate remained constant in warm water. In cold water, heart rate increased by 31% and respiratory rate by 58%, peaking at 30 s and beginning to normalize after 60 s.

Conclusion: The current study presents new data on the cold shock response in healthy children and the first comparison between cold water immersion and warm water immersion in this population. Data showed that immersion into 11 °C (52 °F) cold water leads to significant increases in heart rate and respiratory rate, in contrast to immersion in warm water. Remarkably, there is a lower intensity of the cold shock response in children compared to adults.

Background: Disconnection between efficacy and implementation remained in sport and exercise science, making it vital to understand the relationship between research quality and public attention. Citation score (CS) and Journal impact factor (JIF) are the main metrics of research quality. Alternatively, Altmetric score (AS) tracks article dissemination on social media to reflect public attention. This study aimed to explore the CS-AS correlations on levels of article types and journals, and predictors of citation performance.

Methods: Web of Science Core Collection was systematically searched for research and review studies published in 2022 in the top-ranked 30 journals under the sport science category of Journal Citation Reports™. Publications from 2022 were selected to accumulate citations while preserving contemporary representativeness. CS and AS scores were retrieved from the website Dimensions (https://app.dimensions.ai/discover/publication).

Results: A total of 5,106 articles were retrieved with a median CS and AS of 10 and 6, respectively. A significant CS-AS correlation was observed (ρ = 0.3481, p < 0.0001). The correlation strength of the review study (ρ = 0.4047, p < 0.0001) was significantly higher (p = 0.001) than that of research articles (ρ = 0.2975, p < 0.0001). Significant CS-AS correlations were found in 25 out of 30 journals (ρ ranged from 0.7084 to 0.1238, p ranged from 0.05 to <0.0001). AS and JIF were significant predictors of CS, with the strength of AS (β = 0.2060, p < 0.001) higher than JIF (β = 0.0720, p < 0.001).

Conclusion: In the 30 top-ranked sport science journals, media attention was correlated with citation performance, with the strength higher in reviews than in research articles. The significant correlations showed up in 25 out of 30 included journals with different strengths. Social media attention can be a more powerful predictor than journal prestige in sport science, with a moderate predictive influence.

Introduction: Excessive pronation is still considered as a factor partially involved in the running-related injury risk despite inconsistent evidence. The between-runner variability and the way excessive pronation is quantified are potentially involved issues. The purpose of this study is to highlight the different functional pronation movements in runners to be able to propose suitable and up-to-date excessive pronation thresholds. Methods: 234 (overground) and 190 (treadmill) recreational runners ran at a self-selected speed while the lower limb dynamic pronation was measured with skin-mounted markers to calculate seven common pronation-related kinematic variables of the rearfoot and the tibia. Results: These variables were shown to provide different, complementary, information regarding pronation, which influenced the unsupervised hierarchical clustering. Three distinctive functional pronation movements were identified: fast with large excursions (cluster 1), prolonged with high peaks (cluster 2), and overall low (cluster 3). Excessive pronation thresholds were proposed from the typical variables of clusters 1 and 2: -16.9° of maximal rearfoot eversion, 25.8° of rearfoot excursion, -10.0° of maximal tibia internal rotation, 20.2° of tibia internal rotation excursion, -849 °/s of maximal rearfoot eversion velocity, 0.273 s of rearfoot eversion duration, and 1.18 of ratio of excursion of the rearfoot eversion to the tibia internal rotation. Discussion: To get greater evidence of pronation involvement in injury risk, future studies should refer to these results to separate runners with and without excessive pronation for studying the effect of a given intervention on these groups and/or for assessing them in longitudinal follow-up studies.

PlayerLoad™ is the most widely used accelerometer-derived metric for quantifying external demands in sport. Its normalized variant, PlayerLoad·min^-1, is also commonly used as a marker of exercise intensity. However, recent literature has raised concerns regarding its scientific foundation, including inconsistent definitions, arbitrary units, opaque filtering methods, questionable theoretical underpinnings, and imprecise mechanical terminology. The construct validity of PlayerLoad™ remains unverified, and emerging evidence suggests weak dose-response relationships with performance outcomes. Although widely adopted in practice, these concerns warrant critical scientific scrutiny. This review critically evaluates the validity and reliability of the PlayerLoad™ metric, highlighting the need for greater transparency and theoretical rigor in wearable athlete monitoring. Furthermore, we present alternative accelerometer-derived metrics, developed from clearer biomechanical and physiological principles, which may offer more robust and interpretable measures for researchers and practitioners.

Introduction: Amid growing concerns about youth mental health, several states in the U.S. have enacted policies requiring mental health training for school-based sport coaches.

Methods: This mixed methods study explored the delivery of mental health training for coaches in Ohio in response to new policy mandates, comparing the effectiveness of in-person and asynchronous online formats. A total of 1,690 coaches completed evaluations after participating in an online (n = 978) or in-person (n = 712) state-approved mental health training.

Results: Repeated measures ANOVA analyses revealed statistically significant increases in coaches' confidence in supporting student-athletes with mental health concerns and in linking them to appropriate supports, regardless of the delivery modality (p < .001). Small but significant interaction effects indicated slightly greater confidence gains among online participants (η ² = .011 for supporting concerns; η ² = .005 for linking to supports). Qualitative analysis of open-ended responses about perceived learning from online participants identified five major themes: (1) Approaching struggling student-athletes, where coaches highlighted new skills in de-escalation, emotional regulation, and engaging in difficult conversations; (2) Wellness check-ins, where coaches learned relational strategies to monitor well-being; (3) Q.P.P.R. (Question, Pause/Persuade, Refer), which improved coaches' recognition of warning signs and confidence in crisis conversations; (4) Creating dialogue with open-ended questions, which provided sentence starters to elicit meaningful conversations; and (5) Referring student-athletes to resources, which underscored the importance of knowing referral pathways.

Discussion: Findings suggest coach educators can leverage technology to design interactive online coach training sessions that yield comparable learning outcomes to those of in-person training. Our results inform scalable, policy-aligned solutions that can enhance coach preparedness by leveraging technology to equip coaches with best practices in supporting student-athlete mental health.

Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a leading cause of chronic morbidity and mortality worldwide. Despite its significant public health burden, few studies have reported on the association of physical activity with incident COPD. This study aimed to determine the association between physical activity and the risk of incident COPD.

Methods: This prospective cohort study analyzed data from 49,482 participants aged 30-79 years enrolled in the China Kadoorie Biobank study in Tongxiang. Baseline assessments were carried out between August 2004 and January 2008. Physical activity was measured using an interviewer-administered questionnaire and quantified as metabolic equivalent of task hours per day (MET-h/day). Participants were categorized into quartile-based activity groups for analyses. All participants were followed up from the date of baseline survey until the date of COPD diagnosis, death, loss to follow-up, or 31 December 2017, whichever occurred first. Incident COPD events were obtained periodically through linkage with national insurance electronic systems and death registries. Cox proportional hazards regression was employed to estimate adjusted hazard ratios of COPD in relation to physical activity.

Results: The average of the physical activity level of participants was 31.1 ± 15.1 MET-hours/day. During 551,266 person-years (median 11.5 years) of follow-up, 1,470 incident COPD cases (744 men and 726 women) were documented. After adjusting for socio-demographic status, lifestyle factors (cigarette and alcohol consumption, secondhand smoke exposure, meat and fresh fruit consumption, sleep duration), BMI, and household cooking fuel type, participants with physical activity levels in the highest vs. lowest quartile exhibited a 30% reduced risk of incident COPD (HR = 0.70, 95%CI, 0.54-0.91) in smoking men. However, no significant association was observed in women (HR = 0.99, 95%CI, 0.77-1.27) or non-smoking men (HR = 1.05, 95%CI, 0.41-2.46).

Conclusion: Physical activity is inversely associated with incident COPD risk in smoking men but not in women or non-smoking men.

Background: Rowing is a sport that places significant stress on the lower back, often leading to low back pain (LBP) injuries among athletes. Laboratory studies have shown that rowing with an oar blade under an angle is more efficient compared to a traditional blade. The effect of blade angle on the lower back is unknown. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate the effect of different oar blade angles on the muscle activation of the lower back muscles during on-water rowing.

Methods: Seven collegiate (five males, two females) athletes row 500 m on water twice, once with a traditional (0-degrees blade) and once with an oar blade under a 5-degrees angle. Surface electromyography of the longissimus muscle of the erector spinae was measured bilaterally at the thoracic and lumbar level with a sample frequency of 2,000 Hz. In total 1,443 strokes were analyzed. Statistical Parametric Mapping was used to investigate the differences in muscle activity between the 0-degrees and 5-degrees oar blade.

Results: No significant differences in muscle activity were found between the 0- and 5-degrees oar blade.

Conclusion: Rowing with an oar blade under 5-degrees did not alter the muscle activity during on-water rowing. This indicates that rowing with an oar blade under 5-degrees may not increase the muscle activation. These results are important as it seems that a change in oar blade angle does not increase the injury risk, longitudinal studies should investigate the effect of oar blade angles on LBP injuries.

The concept of sport functions as an implicit premise in almost all sport-related research and practice, yet its definition itself is seldom subjected to critical scrutiny. Traditionally, sport has been characterized by elements such as playfulness, competitiveness, physicality, and organization. However, the concept is not universal; rather, it undergoes continual transformation in response to historical and social conditions, and many studies and practices have tended to overlook this aspect. This study, therefore, seeks to critically reassess the traditional concept of sport through the lens of posthumanism, a framework emblematic of contemporary digital technological society, and to propose a new perspective for redefining sport in the present era. Examining the contemporary phenomenon of esports from a posthuman standpoint reveals that various forms of physical violence and direct discrimination are preemptively mitigated by the digital mediation that characterizes these activities. In this sense, esports may be understood as a moral and distinctly more human form of sport. Such an understanding simultaneously exposes the extent to which conventional sport inherently contains inhuman dimensions, namely an element of "animality", as an indispensable component. This insight aligns with arguments in sport ethics suggesting that existing sports have historically demanded forms of in/trans-human performance from athletes. According to Derrida, this dimension of animality has long been marginalized within anthropocentric modernity. From this vantage point, the present study's introduction of animality into the conceptualization of sport can be seen as a deconstructive gesture that challenges the modern, implicitly presupposed image of the human, typically Western, white, and male, and opens possibilities for reimagining sport as a genuinely inclusive and ecological cultural practice. At the same time, this perspective offers a novel vantage point for reconsidering various pressing issues in contemporary sport, such as genetic doping and binary gender eligibility regulations. In other words, situating animality at the core of sport's conceptual redefinition provides a critical foundation for rethinking the nature of sport in an increasingly digitalized society.