Mechanical degrees of freedom (DOF) are defined as the minimum number of independent coordinates needed to describe a system’s position. The human musculoskeletal system has many mechanical DOF through which countless movements are accomplished. In the motor control field, one of the aspirations is to understand how the many DOF are organized for movement execution—the so-called DOF problem. Natural movements are characterized by the coordination of the DOF such that few vary independently. The concept of functional degrees of freedom (fDOF) is introduced to describe the very limited DOF of purposeful, coordinated movements. Deterministic (i.e., constraint satisfaction) and statistical (i.e., principal component analysis) approaches are used to determine fDOF. In contrast to DOF as a mechanical descriptor, fDOF emphasizes the mechanisms of human movements and corroborates our search for the solution to the DOF problem.
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Anderson Nascimento Guimarães, Herbert Ugrinowitsch, Juliana Bayeux Dascal, Alessandra Beggiato Porto, and Victor Hugo Alves Okazaki
(bones, joints, muscles, etc.), which have countless combination possibilities, can be controlled by a single effector system (central nervous system). For Bernstein ( 1967 ), the solution to this problem would be mastery over the degrees of freedom (DF), known as the independent components of the
Anderson Nascimento Guimarães, Herbert Ugrinowitsch, Juliana Bayeux Dascal, and Victor Hugo Alves Okazaki
coordinate movements and generate specific motor responses ( Turvey, 1990 ). This situation, which demonstrates the complexity of coordinated motor skills control, has been known as the degrees of freedom (DF) problem ( Bernstein, 1967 ). The DF represent an infinite number of different ways and combinations
Mark L. Latash
redundancy as the central problem of motor control. He wrote that the central problem of motor control is in the elimination of redundant degrees of freedom ( Bernstein, 1967 ). Similar problems emerge for other tasks and at other levels of analysis—for example, how does the CNS define muscle forces and
Tim Ströbel, B. David Ridpath, Herbert Woratschek, Norm O’Reilly, Markus Buser, and Michael Pfahl
an increasingly competitive global sport environment. Specifically, an innovative co-branding strategy through a double degree program between two long-standing sport management programs, one in North America (Ohio University, United States) and one in Europe (University of Bayreuth, Germany), is
Timothy A. Brusseau
careers in medicine, dentistry, nursing, physical therapy, occupational therapy, chiropractic, and so on. In fact, some programs appear to have both a pre-allied health track and a more traditional kinesiology track in their degree programs. Kinesiology as a pre-allied health program and the associated
Karen Lux Gaudreault, K. Andrew R. Richards, Kelly Simonton, and Angela Simonton
of doctoral students and faculty members with comparatively less attention being given to master’s students. Whereas most PETE doctoral students pursue careers in academia following degree completion ( Boyce, Lund, & O’Neil, 2015 ), individuals pursue master’s degrees for a variety of reasons
Steven K. Holland and Justin A. Haegele
). Examining the experiences of first-year APE teachers with master’s degrees may provide meaningful insight due to their position as individuals who specifically and intentionally sought training and began careers in APE. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the meaning first-year APE teachers
Jared A. Russell
programs allow students to acquire the confidence, skills, competencies, and experience of mentorship that allow them to successfully transition to graduate degree programs and to engage in research activities ( Cooper, Ashley, & Brownell, 2017 ; Petrella & Jung, 2008 ). This paper provides a detailed
Nels Popp, Erianne A. Weight, Brendan Dwyer, Alan L. Morse, and Amy Baker
This study examined satisfaction levels with graduate sport management programs in the United States. A 26-item graduate degree program satisfaction instrument was developed and administered electronically to a sample of current students and alumni from seven sport management master’s degree programs yielding a 54.31% response rate (N = 302). Respondents generally indicated high levels of satisfaction with their decision to pursue a graduate sport management degree, but were significantly less satisfied with the specific school they attended. Respondents indicated the most beneficial courses included current topics, sport and society, sport marketing, and sport ethics, whereas the least beneficial courses included statistics, international sport, and research methods. Students who earned their undergraduate degree in business were consistently less satisfied with how well their graduate program taught them various sport management skills compared with students with undergraduate degrees in sport management, sport-related studies, or other majors.
