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Concussion screening among collegiate lacrosse athletes is a major safety priority. Although attention has been directed at concussion management following injury, less is known about the association between cognition and balance during preseason screening. The purpose of the study was to assess the relationship between balance and neurocognition among collegiate male lacrosse players and to examine predictive determinants of postural stability. Participants included a convenience sample of 49 male collegiate Division 3 lacrosse players who completed a demographic survey and performed the immediate postconcussion test (ImPACT) and instrumented Sensory Organization Test (SOT). There was a significant association between balance SOT performance and both verbal memory (r = .59, p < .01) and visual motor speed scores (r = .43, p < .05). Significant correlations between verbal memory and SOT Conditions 2, 5, and 6 were also noted (all p < .05). Verbal memory predicted 33% of the variance in the SOT composite balance score (p < .001). Our results indicate a significant relationship exists between postural stability and both verbal memory and visual processing speed among collegiate male lacrosse players and supports vestibulocortical associations. Findings warrant ongoing performance and executive function tracking and can serve as a conduit for integrated sensorimotor and dual-task training.

This study aimed to examine the associations between perceived social support, perceived competence, and physical activity in children with physical and intellectual disabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic. During the third wave of the pandemic in Hong Kong (i.e., July through December 2020), 291 participants age 6–17 years from 27 special schools were included. After controlling for demographic variables, the total variance explained by perceived social support and perceived competence was 24%, F(2, 240) = 12.42, p < .001, with perceived competence having a stronger association with physical activity (β = 0.29, p < .001) than perceived social support (β = 0.07, p = .22). This study highlights two key facilitators for shaping physical activity involvement among children with disabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mood deterioration in response to exercise cessation is well documented, but moderators of this effect remain unknown. This study tested the hypothesis that physically active individuals with higher levels of cognitive vulnerability (i.e., tendencies toward negative thought content and processes in response to stress or negative mood states) are at greater risk for increased anxiety and depressive symptoms when undergoing exercise cessation. Community adults meeting recommended physical activity guidelines (N = 36) participated in a 4-week prospective, longitudinal study with 2 weeks each of maintained exercise and exercise cessation. Cognitive vulnerability measures included dysfunctional attitudes, brooding rumination, and cognitive reactivity (i.e., change in dysfunctional attitudes over a dysphoric mood induction). Anxiety and depression symptoms increased during exercise cessation. Brooding emerged as a risk factor for increases in tension scores on the Profile of Mood States–Brief during exercise cessation. Future studies should explore brooding as a mediator (i.e., potential mechanism) of exercise-induced mood deterioration.

Because of the redundancy of our motor system, movements can be performed in many ways. While multiple motor control strategies can all lead to the desired behavior, they result in different joint and muscle forces. This creates opportunities to explore this redundancy, for example, for pain avoidance or reducing the risk of further injury. To assess the effect of different motor control optimization strategies, a direct measurement of muscle and joint forces is desirable, but problematic for medical and ethical reasons. Computational modeling might provide a solution by calculating approximations of these forces. In this study, we used a full-body computational musculoskeletal model to (a) predict forces measured in knee prostheses during walking and squatting and (b) study the effect of different motor control strategies (i.e., minimizing joint force vs. muscle activation) on the joint load and prediction error. We found that musculoskeletal models can accurately predict knee joint forces with a root mean squared error of <0.5 body weight (BW) in the superior direction and about 0.1 BW in the medial and anterior directions. Generally, minimization of joint forces produced the best predictions. Furthermore, minimizing muscle activation resulted in maximum knee forces of about 4 BW for walking and 2.5 BW for squatting. Minimizing joint forces resulted in maximum knee forces of 2.25 BW and 2.12 BW, that is, a reduction of 44% and 15%, respectively. Thus, changing the muscular coordination strategy can strongly affect knee joint forces. Patients with a knee prosthesis may adapt their neuromuscular activation to reduce joint forces during locomotion.

The majority of research on the coach–athlete relationship has been explored from the perspective of able-bodied athletes. The purpose of this study was to explore wheelchair basketball athletes’ perceptions of the coach–athlete relationship. Timelining and semistructured interviews were conducted with six wheelchair basketball athletes, and data were analyzed using a reflexive thematic analysis. Athletes highlighted the important role that parasport coaches played in fostering an enjoyable wheelchair basketball environment and valued coaches who displayed expertise regarding their athletes’ equipment and had personal parasport athletic experiences. Additionally, athletes identified personal preferences, including coaches who addressed sex differences and maintained professional relationships at the national level as contributing factors to the coach–athlete relationship. The current results benefit both parasport coaches and athletes by providing a portrayal of coaching behaviors, characteristics, and expertise that not only influence the parasport coach–athlete dyad but also affect the well-being and athletic development of parasport athletes.

Balance control is essential for postural adjustment in physical activities. This study investigates the behavior of human postural control and the coordination and adaptation strategy of hip, knee, and ankle when standing on an unstable surface. Twenty participants were recruited. Four different conditions were investigated: a quiet bipedal stance with eyes open and eyes closed, and standing on an unstable surface with eyes open and eyes closed. Other than the joint angle, the standard body sway measures, such as sway area and sway velocity, were computed. A nonlinear time series measure, that is, sample entropy, was used to determine the regularity of the time series and body adaptability to change and perturbation. The results show that the body sway increases as the difficulty increases. This study also confirms the coordination of the hip, knee, and ankle to maintain body balance on the unstable surface by decreasing the joint angle and adopting a lower posture. Even though the individual joint has lower sample entropy value and is deemed to be rigid and less adaptive to perturbation, the postural control exhibits higher sample entropy value, particularly in the anterior–posterior direction, and has the ability to stabilize the body by manipulating the joints simultaneously. These outcomes suggest that an unstable surface not only challenges the human postural control, but also reduces the hip, knee, and ankle adaptability to perturbation, thus making it a great tool to train body balance.

This study explored depression, anxiety, and help-seeking at a National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III historically women’s college in the United States, while taking into account gender identities outside of male and female. An online survey including the Patient Health Questionnaire-9, Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7, and help-seeking measures were completed by 109 student-athletes. Participants’ ages ranged from 18 to 22. Within the sample, 59.7% of participants identified as LGBTQIA+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual, among other identities) and 8.3% identified as genderqueer/gender-nonconforming. A total of 33.0% of the participants reported symptoms of depression, while 28.5% reported symptoms of anxiety. Genderqueer/gender-nonconforming athletes reported higher rates of anxiety than athletes who identified as women. Higher rates of depression and anxiety were related to higher levels of formal help-seeking. The results indicate that student-athletes at a historically women’s college may be experiencing higher levels of depression and anxiety than student-athletes in other contexts and have more positive views toward help-seeking. Student-athletes who identify outside of the gender binary may be at higher risk for anxiety.