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Purpose: Agility in young soccer players has long been associated with physical attributes like strength, speed, and power. The aims of this study were to investigate the relationship between cognitive factors and agility performance in this unique population. Methods: 39 young soccer players age 13.56 (SD 0.58) years were assessed for leg-muscle function (jump tests) and maturation status (peak height velocity). The Y-Agility Test, which included decision making in players, was used to measure performance. Cognitive factors such as perceptual skills and decision making were evaluated with the Y-Agility Test. Results: The linear regression showed an absence of significance between the Y-Agility Test and drop-jump contact (P = .283), Y-Agility Test and drop-jump flight (P = .185), Y-Agility Test and squat jump (P = .868), and Y-Agility Test and countermovement jump (P = .310). The linear mixed-model analyses suggested a difference between early-average maturers (P = .009) and early-late maturers (P = .005) but did not show a difference between average-late subjects (P = 1.000). Drop-jump flight did not show a difference in maturation (early-average P = 1.000; early-late P = 1.000; average P = 1.000). Squat-jump performance did not demonstrate any significance (early-average P = .618; early-late P = 1.000; P = 1.000). Countermovement-jump performance did not show any significance (early-average P = 1.000; early-late P = 1.000; average-late P = .492). Finally, agility performance does not show any significance between maturation levels (early-average maturer P = .450; early-late P = 1.000; average-late P = .830). Conclusion: Agility in young soccer players appears to follow a nonlinear trajectory, with cognitive factors possibly playing a more significant role than previously thought.

Competitive youth sport coaches who aim to foster inclusive and safer sport often face challenges from their peers, their organisations, and the sociocultural systems in their contexts. A personal learning coach may support coaches’ critical awareness, reflection, and readiness for working towards changing their youth sport contexts. This study details a 15-month collaboration, as Sara acted as a personal learning coach to support Sophie’s critical praxis as they reflected on social issues and experienced shifts in their coaching towards creating more inclusive and safer sport. Grounded in a narrative inquiry methodology, two virtual interviews and 11 virtual meetings occurred. Sara and Sophie also shared reflections through messages and voice notes and one in-person meeting during one of Sophie’s training sessions. Through time-hopping snapshot vignettes, Sophie’s learning journey is presented as they attempt to figure out what to fight for, grow through discomforts and unknowns, and experience progress. Sophie believed that their “mind shifted” towards becoming a “better coach” throughout the collaboration, developing their critical consciousness to change oppressive social conditions in sport. By sharing insights from the collaboration, the study provides vivid examples of the steps coaches and sport stakeholders can take to become more confident in enacting positive change in sport.

Purpose: To compare power output and pacing between maximal 1500- and 2000-m on-water rowing performances. Methods: Twenty-six (female n = 4, male n = 22) international rowers, across 6 boat classes, completed maximal 1500- and 2000-m on-water races, separated by 24 to 48 hours. Crew combinations and seat orders remained consistent between races. Peach PowerLine instrumentation measured power output and stroke rate. Differences in completion time, mean power output (MPO), percentage prognostic velocity (PPV; percentage of world record velocity in each boat class), stroke rate, and pacing variance were assessed using linear mixed modeling. Results: Compared with 2000-m, completion times were 90.4 (6.1) seconds shorter over 1500 m (−24.7% [0.7%]). Both MPO (P = .255, ${\eta }_{\mathrm{p}}^2=.06$ ) and PPV (P = .340, ${\eta }_{\mathrm{p}}^2=.18$ ) were not different between distances. Broadly, crews adopted a reverse-J-shaped pacing across both distances, demonstrating a reduced variance over 1500 m (P = .035, ${\eta }_{\mathrm{p}}^2=.62$ ). Percentage change in MPO from 2000 to 1500 m demonstrated a strong negative association with pacing variance over 1500 m (R ² = .74, P = .027). Conclusions: International rowing crews did not increase MPO or PPV when racing maximally over 1500 m compared to 2000 m. Comparable strategies were adopted over both distances, with less variance in pacing observed over 1500 m. The crews that demonstrated greater increases in MPO over the shorter race employed a flatter pacing strategy. To improve 1500-m on-water performance, rowers may need to adopt a more even pacing approach.

Sport can at once promote social justice and reinforce systemic inequities. Considering the influence coaches have on athlete development, research related to coaches’ perspectives on social justice issues is warranted. The purpose of the study was to explore Canadian high school sport coaches’ attitudes towards social justice. An online survey saw 392 coaches respond to six open-ended questions on perceived challenges (three questions; n = 989 responses) and recommendations (three questions; n = 724 responses) related to social justice within their teams, schools, and school boards. A content analysis led to coaches’ responses being classified into three groups: (a) high school sport faces social justice issues (57.38%), (b) no social justice challenges and/or recommendations to share (39.34%), and (c) urgency regarding social justice issues is overblown (3.28%). A reflexive thematic analysis, guided by the critical positive youth development framework, was used to develop several overarching themes, highlighting persistent inequities, a lack of involvement from school boards, missed/ignored social justice issues, and a small group of antisocial justice coaches within the Canadian high school sport system. Considerations for coach education programmes and future research are discussed.

Purpose: This study examined the attributes contributing to the use of technology among school staff to facilitate and promote physical activity. Method: A mixed-methods sequential explanatory research design was employed with the diffusion of innovations theory as a guide. The Comprehensive School Physical Activity Program Technology Practice Questionnaire, a diffusion of innovations questionnaire, and semistructured interviews were used to collect data. Multiple regression analysis and open and axial coding techniques were conducted to analyze quantitative and qualitative data, respectively. Results: Complexity and trialability attributes contributed to the use of technology in schools. Despite acknowledging the benefits of technology use in promoting physical activity, school staff also expressed concerns about barriers and risks related to its use. Discussion/Conclusion: The study provides insights into factors affecting the use of technology among school staff and recommends that schools, districts, and professional organizations offer more opportunities for staff to explore and learn about various technologies.

Most research on coaching adopts a Western, predominantly Anglo-Saxon, vantage point. This study sought to fill the gap in the literature by providing an Eastern European perspective on transition to high-performance coaching. Ten Polish Olympic coaches were interviewed to glean insights into their career pathways, cumulatively spanning the last three decades. First, using abductive analysis, three patterns of nonlinear career pathways were identified: teacher-track, club-coach track and athlete fast-track. Next, contextual and reflective thematic analyses were employed to examine the environmental constraints affecting role transitions. Consequently, drawing on Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological model, the Ecological Model for Coach Development was proposed to offer an alternative perspective on career transitions. The findings provide evidence for the situated and relational nature of career transitions as processes occurring in nested environmental contexts. We claim that advancing knowledge on transitions requires not only zooming into coaches’ lived experiences of transitioning in/out of coaching roles, but also zooming out on macrolevel societal transformation processes, historically rooted values and belief systems, as well as mesolevel institutional constraints that steer career pathways and shape experiences. The study’s ecological orientation has the potential to enhance coaching education and practice by accounting for contextual complexity and temporality.

The purpose of this study was to explore interpretations and implications of head coaches’ use of humour in three national Paralympic teams from the perspective of athletes and integrated support staff. We conducted six focus groups with 19 Paralympic athletes and individual interviews with 10 support staff members across the teams. Our reflexive thematic analysis resulted in two overarching themes that helped us understand how humour influenced feelings of psychological safety in the team environment, as well as considerations or challenges with using humour as a coaching strategy, including miscommunication or misunderstanding. Relational awareness, emotional intelligence, and effective communication were identified as important coaching competencies to consider when implementing humour as a leadership behaviour, particularly in an environment where power differentials of status and disability were present. The study was among the first to explore interpretations and implications of humour as a coaching strategy from athletes and staff in the high-performance parasport context. Coaches who implement humour within their environments are encouraged to reflect on the receivers of the interaction and how to maximise the facilitative rather than debilitative functions of humour as a “double-edged sword” to ultimately promote team satisfaction, well-being, and success.

Background: Several studies have revealed the positive healthy impacts of branched-chain fatty acids (BCFAs). However, most of these studies evaluated the serum BCFAs in humans, or treatment with exogenous BCFAs in animal or in-vitro models and the health impacts of dietary BCFAs have not yet been studied. Due to positive effects of BCFAs in sport, in the current study, we aimed to investigate the association between dietary BCFAs and metabolic and inflammatory parameters among elite and subelite soccer players. Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out among 335 elite and subelite soccer players (196 male), aged between 20 and 45 years old. Soccer players were enrolled from 32 teams under the directive of The Chinese Football Association. Demographic, anthropometric, and dietary assessments were performed and laboratory measurement including serum lipids, glycemic markers, and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein was measured. Results: Those with the highest dietary BCFAs consumption had higher appetite (p = .009). Also, high consumption of dietary BCFAs was associated with lower diastolic blood pressure (odds ratio: 0.958; confidence interval: 0.918–0.999; p = .046) and low high-sensitivity C-reactive protein concentrations in the third tertile of dietary BCFAs (odds ratio: 0.431; confidence interval: 0.300–0.618; p < .001). No other association between biochemical variables and dietary BCFAs was found. Conclusion: As shown in the current study, higher dietary BCFAs consumption was associated with lower diastolic blood pressure and inflammation. Due to very limited number of studies, further studies are needed to have a better perspective of these associations and their underlying mechanisms.

Objective: To analyze the influence of congested and noncongested fixture periods during 2 seasons in a professional male football team on soft-tissue injury incidence and external load. Methods: Thirty-three professional football players from a Portuguese Liga I team participated in this study. Weekly external load and soft-tissue injury rate and burden of 2 consecutive seasons (2021–22 and 2022–23) were analyzed. Results: Total soft-tissue injury rate and burden for the 2 seasons were 3.9 and 3.2 injuries per 1000 hours and 71.8 and 60.5 days per 1000 hours for congested and noncongested periods, respectively. No significant differences were observed between congested and noncongested periods. Total high-speed running, sprint distance, distance above 80% and 90% of maximal velocity, and meters accelerating and decelerating above 2 m/s² were significantly higher for noncongested weeks. Match accelerations and decelerations above 3 m/s² were higher during congested periods and training during noncongested periods. No differences between the 2 periods were observed for the total number of accelerations and decelerations above 3 m/s². Overall, physical outputs per week were higher for training during noncongested weeks, whereas matches during congested periods registered higher external load. Conclusions: No effect of a congested schedule was observed on soft-tissue injury rates and injury burden. Higher match exposure during congested periods increased external load performed per week, and during noncongested periods, training load was superior to congested weeks.