Coach perceptions of psychological characteristics and behaviors of male and female athletes and their impact on coach behaviors

An interpretive investigation was conducted to gain an in-depth understanding of (1) coach perceptions of psychological characteristics and behaviors of male and female athletes and (2) how these perceptions impact coach behavior. The participants were fourteen collegiate head cross country coaches (1 female, 13 male) who were identified by their peers as having knowledge and experience in coaching males and females. They have been coaching an average of 23.2 years (range = 8-29) and have coached both females and males an average of 15.7 years (range = 3-28). A semi-structured interview format was used to achieve the investigative purposes. More specifically, the interview consisted of three parts. In the first part, coaches were asked to identify and describe characteristics and behaviors or their male and female athletes. Content analyses were conducted on the identified raw data themes to aid in describing and interpreting coaches' perceptions of their female and male athletes. The following themes emerged as characteristic of female athletes: emotional / sensitive; need from coach; coachable; feel expectations / want to please; competitive with teammates; weight conscious / eating disorders; academically conscious and; additional attributes conducive to athletic success. Themes emerging as characteristic of male athletes included the following: know it all attitude / challenge coach; tend to get off track; ego-involved / struggle with not winning; team emphasis; less emotional than female / hide feelings and; additional attributes conducive to athletic success

Psychological determinants of whole-body endurance performance

Background: No literature reviews have systematically identified and evaluated research on the psychological determinants of endurance performance, and sport psychology performance-enhancement guidelines for endurance sports are not founded on a systematic appraisal of endurance-specific research. Objective: A systematic literature review was conducted to identify practical psychological interventions that improve endurance performance and to identify additional psychological factors that affect endurance performance. Additional objectives were to evaluate the research practices of included studies, to suggest theoretical and applied implications, and to guide future research. Methods: Electronic databases, forward-citation searches, and manual searches of reference lists were used to locate relevant studies. Peer-reviewed studies were included when they chose an experimental or quasi-experimental research design, a psychological manipulation, endurance performance as the dependent variable, and athletes or physically-active, healthy adults as participants. Results: Consistent support was found for using imagery, self-talk, and goal setting to improve endurance performance, but it is unclear whether learning multiple psychological skills is more beneficial than learning one psychological skill. The results also demonstrated that mental fatigue undermines endurance performance, and verbal encouragement and head-to-head competition can have a beneficial effect. Interventions that influenced perception of effort consistently affected endurance performance. Conclusions: Psychological skills training could benefit an endurance athlete. Researchers are encouraged to compare different practical psychological interventions, to examine the effects of these interventions for athletes in competition, and to include a placebo control condition or an alternative control treatment. Researchers are also encouraged to explore additional psychological factors that could have a negative effect on endurance performance. Future research should include psychological mediating variables and moderating variables. Implications for theoretical explanations of endurance performance and evidence-based practice are described

Nitrogen and nitrification in the Houston Ship Channel

169 pgs.The objective of this study was to investigate in detail the transport and interconversion of nitrogen forms in the Houston Ship Channel. Particular attention was given the process of nitrification, the bacterial oxidation of ammonia to nitrate thence to nitrate, whether nitrification occurs in the Channel and, if it does, the reaction rates at which it proceeds. Two sources of data were employed, the historical data of the Texas Water Quality Board, consisting of routine sampling runs of the Galveston Bay Project and the later TWQB monitoring program, and data collected as a part this study, consisting of three sampling runs executed in the Channel in 1976. Supplementary information was also compiled, including antecedent streamflows corrected by drainage area to the confluence with the Channel, and nitrogen loads to the Channel due to municipal and industrial point sources. The data runs of this study included analyses for the population densities of ammonia - oxidizing and nitrite - oxidizing bacteria, determined by an MPN technique. Thus a direct appraisal of the magnitude of the nitrifying populaces could be made and judgements made as to the probability of significant nitrification occurring.http://gbic.tamug.edu/request.ht

Burnout in Competitive Junior Tennis Players: III. Individual Differences in the Burnout Experience

This is the third in a series of manuscripts reporting results from a research project designed to examine burnout in competitive junior tennis players. Individual differences in burnout are examined by discussing idiographic profiles from three athletes who were identified as having burned out in the earlier phases of the project. These cases were chosen as they represented different substrains of social psychologically driven and physically driven burnout. In particular, the three cases included: (a) a player characterized by high levels of perfectionism and overtraining; (b) a player who experienced pressure from others and a need for a social life; and (c) a player who was physically overtrained and had inappropriate goals. It was concluded that although important patterns result from content analyses across participants, the unique experience of each individual must be recognized.</jats:p

People Helping People? Examining the Social Ties of Athletes Coping with Burnout and Injury Stress

It is often assumed that important others can play significant roles in reducing stress among athletes. However, little attention has been given to (a) what specifically these important others say or do to reduce stress (empathize vs. motivate), and (b) how prevalent various types (positive vs. negative) of interactions are. This investigation attempted to fill this void. In-depth retrospective interviews were conducted with athletes who experienced burnout (n = 10) or season-ending injuries (n = 21). Inductive analysis revealed that athletes’ evaluations of the specific behaviors of important others tended to vary according to the stress (burnout vs. injury) experienced. Additionally, frequency analysis revealed that athletes described their interactions with important others as negative more often than as positive. The findings are discussed in relation to current conceptualizations of social interactions.</jats:p

Houston Ship Channel Study: summary report.

336 pgs.This report consists of three parts: 1) Summary Report - Houston Ship Channel Studies 2) A Field Study of Circulation and Transport in the Houston Ship Channel (Acc #4989.2) 3) Nitrogen and Nitrification in the Houston Ship Channel (Acc #4989.3).http://gbic.tamug.edu/request.ht