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The relatively recent growth of so-called Extreme Sports has created an opportunity for scholars to examine sport, games, and play once again—but as the concepts are played out in emerging sport forms. In this ethnography of BMX bikers, we examine one group of youth within two different venues: the grass-roots, child-driven activity of setting up ramps, courses, and jumps locally, and the corporate, adult-driven activity where skateparks have become “safe zones” for children to practice their skills. Where does the grass-roots, pick-up, play activity of BMX [d]evolve into the for-profit multinational corporation business concern, and what are similarities and/or differences between BMX culture and other youth-oriented forms of sport? We attempt to understand BMX Sport as an emergent form of extreme sport and to unravel the complex connections between grass roots activity and for-profit, commodified activity, and what these activities mean to these participants.

Sports journalists’ use of Twitter to cover live events raises questions related to institutional practices, the increased “branding” of journalists, and the work patterns and work products of journalists on a game day. College football was used as the sample sport for the researchers to analyze 2,600 tweets sent by 51 print-focused journalists covering 11 college football games on 1 Saturday. Provi ding contextual insight, the researchers interviewed 10 of the subject journalists to discern how they use Twitter for game-day coverage. Results indicate a more opinion-based use of Twitter during live reporting, shifts in reporting and writing routines, and widely varied opinions about social media’s effects on sports journalism.

The use of video images in biomechanical analyses has become more realistic since the introduction of the shuttered video camera. Although recording rates are still limited to 60 Hz, exposure times can be reduced to prevent blurring in most situations. This paper presents a system for manually digitizing video images, a system that utilizes a video overlay board to place a set of cross hairs directly on a previously recorded or live video image. A cursor is used to move the cross hairs over required points. A BASIC program was written for a IBM PC-AT computer to accomplish this task. Video images of a known set of points were digitized, and calculated distances between points were compared to real distances. The mean of the observed errors was 0.79%. It was concluded that this digitizing system, within the limitations of video resolution, yielded digitizing errors similar in magnitude to those observed in cinematographic analyses.

This study examined the extent to which 2 × 2 achievement goal constructs (Elliot, 1999) were associated with key relational perceptions (i.e., relationship commitment, relationship satisfaction) for members of athlete-athlete dyads. Both members from 82 regional-level partnerships (mean age = 22.72, SD = 3.83) were recruited from a variety of dyadic sports (e.g., tennis, badminton, rowing). Actor-partner interdependence model analyses revealed that greater dissimilarity between partners on mastery-approach and performance-approach goals was associated with lower commitment and satisfaction. Mastery goals displayed positive actor effects with respect to both relationship perceptions, whereas performance-avoidance goals were negatively related to commitment (i.e., actor and partner effects) and satisfaction (i.e., partner effect). These results indicate that achievement goal constructs may align with important interpersonal perceptions in athlete dyads.

The present paper proposes a technical analysis method for extracting information about movement patterning in studies of motor control, based on a cluster analysis of movement kinematics. In a tutorial fashion, data from three different experiments are presented to exemplify and validate the technical method. When applied to three different basketball-shooting techniques, the method clearly distinguished between the different patterns. When applied to a cyclical wrist supination-pronation task, the cluster analysis provided the same results as an analysis using the conventional discrete relative phase measure. Finally, when analyzing throwing performance constrained by distance to target, the method grouped movement patterns together according to throwing distance. In conclusion, the proposed technical method provides a valuable tool to improve understanding of coordination and control in different movement models, including multiarticular actions.

Tai Chi intervention has been shown to be beneficial for balance improvement. The current study examined the effectiveness of Tai Chi to improve the dynamic postural control among older adults with mobility disability. Six sedentary older adults with mobility disability participated in a 16-week Tai Chi intervention consisting of one hour sessions three times a week. Dynamic postural control was assessed pre- and post intervention as participants initiated gait in four stepping conditions: forward; 45° medially, with the stepping leg crossing over the other leg; 45° and 90° laterally. The center of pressure (CoP) displacement, velocity, and its maximum separation distance from the center of mass in the anteroposterior, mediolateral, and resultant directions were analyzed. Results showed that in the postural phase, Tai Chi increased the CoP mediolateral excursions in the medial (13%) and forward (28%) conditions, and resultant CoP center of mass distance in the medial (9%) and forward (19%) conditions. In the locomotion phase, the CoP mediolateral displacement and velocity significantly increased after the Tai Chi intervention (both by > 100% in the two lateral conditions). These results suggest that through alteration in CoP movement characteristics, Tai Chi intervention might improve the dynamic postural control during gait initiation among older adults.

From a nonlinear dynamics perspective, presence of movement variability before a change in preferred movement patterns is hypothesized to afford the necessary adaptability and flexibility for seeking novel functional behaviors. In this study, four novice participants practiced a discrete multiarticular movement for 12 sessions over 4 weeks. Cluster analysis procedures revealed how changes between preferred movement patterns were affected with and without the presence of variability in movement clusters before a defined change. Performance improved in all participants as a function of practice. Participants typically showed evidence of change between preferred movement clusters and higher variability in the use of movement clusters within a session. However, increasing variability in movement clusters was not always accompanied by transition from one preferred movement cluster to another. In summary, it was observed that intentional and informational constraints play an important role in influencing the specific pathway of change for individual learners as they search for new preferred movement patterns.