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Despite being formally all-gender, children’s baseball in Canada and the United States remains highly male dominated. We draw on the autoethnographic fieldwork of Travers as a queer/trans volunteer coach to demonstrate the social processes that reproduce male domination among coaches in children’s baseball. We employ the theoretical lens of doing/redoing/undoing gender to demonstrate the enactment of a hybrid form of masculinity we term “Good Dad Masculinity.” Good Dad Masculinity reproduces male domination in children’s baseball as a de facto highly gendered organization wherein girls, women, and nonnormatively gendered people of all ages are peripherally included, at best. As Good Dad Masculinity reproduces male domination while appearing to embody and endorse gender egalitarianism, resistance to it is akin to wrestling with jello.

Folding paper is a seemingly simple act that requires planning, bimanual coordination, and manual strength and control to produce specific forces. Although paper folding has been used as an assessment tool and as a way to promote spatial skills, this study represents the first attempt to document when paper folding emerges across early childhood. Seventy-seven children (ages 18 months to 7 years) and an adult reference group (24 college-aged adults) completed three pre-specified folds on a single piece of paper. Dependent variables included whether children attempted each fold and, if so, the accuracy of each fold. Grip strength, pinch strength, and developmental level were examined as potential correlates of paper folding. The results demonstrated that paper folding emerges as early as 27 months of age but becomes more accurate with age. At least 50% of children between 4 and 5.5 years of age completed folds. Additionally, children with more age-appropriate problem-solving skills attempted more folds, independent of age. These findings provide a descriptive framework for the ages at which paper folding emerges and suggest that paper-folding interventions could be implemented at even earlier ages than what previously has been examined.

Purpose: To investigate whether including heat and altitude exposures during an elite team-sport training camp induces similar or greater performance benefits. Methods: The study assessed 56 elite male rugby players for maximal oxygen uptake, repeated-sprint cycling, and Yo-Yo intermittent recovery level 2 (Yo-Yo) before and after a 2-week training camp, which included 5 endurance and 5 repeated-sprint cycling sessions in addition to daily rugby training. Players were separated into 4 groups: (1) control (all sessions in temperate conditions at sea level), (2) heat training (endurance sessions in the heat), (3) altitude (repeated-sprint sessions and sleeping in hypoxia), and (4) combined heat and altitude (endurance in the heat, repeated sprints, and sleeping in hypoxia). Results: Training increased maximal oxygen uptake (4% [10%], P = .017), maximal aerobic power (9% [8%], P < .001), and repeated-sprint peak (5% [10%], P = .004) and average power (12% [14%], P < .001) independent of training conditions. Yo-Yo distance increased (16% [17%], P < .001) but not in the altitude group (P = .562). Training in heat lowered core temperature and increased sweat rate during a heat-response test (P < .05). Conclusion: A 2-week intensified training camp improved maximal oxygen uptake, repeated-sprint ability, and aerobic performance in elite rugby players. Adding heat and/or altitude did not further enhance physical performance, and altitude appears to have been detrimental to improving Yo-Yo.

Purpose: To investigate the effects of a training camp with heat and/or hypoxia sessions on hematological and thermoregulatory adaptations. Methods: Fifty-six elite male rugby players completed a 2-week training camp with 5 endurance and 5 repeated-sprint sessions, rugby practice, and resistance training. Players were separated into 4 groups: CAMP trained in temperate conditions at sea level, HEAT performed the endurance sessions in the heat, ALTI slept and performed the repeated sprints at altitude, and H + A was a combination of the heat and altitude groups. Results: Blood volume across all groups increased by 140 mL (95%CI, 42–237; P = .006) and plasma volume by 97 mL (95%CI 28–167; P = .007) following the training camp. Plasma volume was 6.3% (0.3% to 12.4%) higher in HEAT than ALTI (P = .034) and slightly higher in HEAT than H + A (5.6% [−0.3% to 11.7%]; P = .076). Changes in hemoglobin mass were not significant (P = .176), despite a ∼1.2% increase in ALTI and H + A and a ∼0.7% decrease in CAMP and HEAT. Peak rectal temperature was lower during a postcamp heat-response test in HEAT (0.3 °C [0.1–0.5]; P = .010) and H + A (0.3 °C [0.1–0.6]; P = .005). Oxygen saturation upon waking was lower in ALTI (3% [2% to 5%]; P < .001) and H + A (4% [3% to 6%]; P < .001) than CAMP and HEAT. Conclusion: Although blood and plasma volume increased following the camp, sleeping at altitude impeded the increase when training in the heat and only marginally increased hemoglobin mass. Heat training induced adaptations commensurate with partial heat acclimation; however, combining heat training and altitude training and confinement during a training camp did not confer concomitant hematological adaptations.