American Press: Applied Research in Coaching and Athletics Annual # 21 (2006)

ARCAA Contents & Abstracts Volume 21, 2006

ISBN 978-0-89641-434-1

Coleman Griffith: Reflections of a Baseball Visionary — Ryan Wardinsky, Arnold LeUnes — Coleman Griffith’s 1938 study of the Chicago Cubs is a valuable contribution to anyone who is involved in the game of baseball. Widely acknowledged as the “Father of Sport Psychology,” Griffith combined his psychological background with his interest in athletics to make several important revelations in the baseball world. His research delved into subject matter that had not yet been approached by player development professionals. Specifically, Griffith found that the Cubs, as well as other Major League Baseball (MLB) clubs, were not reaching their optimum potential. The managers held unproductive practices, seldom challenged players, or demanded intensity and focus. Griffith also realized that mangers needed to learn how to motivate players on an individual basis. The practices that Griffith suggested in his 1938 study were far ahead of his time. Griffith’s insights remain to this day an excellent example for coaches at all levels of competitive baseball. (1-8)

Psychological Skills Training Sport — Boris Blumenstein, Nataly Zuravsky — Theory and methodology of sport training have determined that training programs should be comprised of three phases: preparatory, competitive, and transition. In each training phase, physical, technical, tactical, and psychological preparations are developed. Psychological skills training (PST) is part of a general training program, consisting of specific techniques, planning, and periodization, linked with the physical, technical, and tactical preparations. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate ways in which different cognitive strategies can be used while taking into account other means of preparation. One mental training session is described for swimming, rhythmic gymnastics, and basketball during the preparatory and competitive phases of a general training program. This article is a continuation of the description of our approach, which began in 2004 with canoe/kayaks (Blumenstein and Lidor, 2004). (9-23)

Evaluation of the Power Pull Apparatus as a Means of Improving Selected Variables of Athletic Performance: A Pilot Study — C. Dwayne Massey, Mark W. Maneval, Picasso Nelson, Timothy P. Scheett, Malcolm T. Whitehead, Christina M. Merck — The purpose of this investigation was to determine if the Power Pull apparatus is a legitimate means of enhancing selected variables of athletic performance (body fat, strength, speed, muscle endurance, and power). Subjects were divided and placed in either the Power Pull group (n=8) or the Sprint group (n=7). Both groups had identical strength training regimens except that the Power Pull group trained with the Power Pull apparatus while the Sprint group participated in traditional sprint training. Subjects trained two times per week for 12 weeks. Statistical analysis (ANOVA) revealed significant differences on the measures of muscle endurance for both groups, however, no difference between groups was found. As related to power, the vertical jump was significantly higher after training in the Power Pull group as compared to the Sprint group. Therefore, according to these data, training with the Power Pull can enhance certain performance variables within the guidelines used for this study. (24-39)

Do Weight Loss Practices Affect Grades of North Louisiana High School Wrestlers? — Eric C. Burcham, Bonnie L. Gerald, Alice E. Hunt, Janet P. Pope — In order to determine the relationship between weight loss practices and academic performance, as measured by grades, throughout the wrestling pre-season, season, and post season among north Louisiana high school wrestlers, 45 high school wrestlers completed a survey on weight loss eating habits and use of rapid weight loss techniques. Official grades for math, science, and english courses were obtained and categorized by pre-season, season, and post-season. There was no relationship between the number of rapid weight loss techniques used and pre season and season grades. However, there was a significant moderate relationship between the number of rapid weight loss techniques used and post season grades (r =.333, p<.05). These results imply that rapid weight loss techniques do not result in lower grades during the wrestling season. Wrestlers who used low calorie diet and exercise as weight loss techniques showed a moderate relationship to season and post season grades (r=.352, p<.05 and r=.430, p<.01, respectively). Education on healthy weight loss techniques would be beneficial to wrestlers. (40-54)

Organizational Justice and Team Performance in Interscholastic Athletics — Warren Whisenant, Jeremy S. Jordan — Considerable research in various settings outside of sport has established a linkage between organizational justice (perceptions of fairness in organizations) and performance outcomes. This study drew upon that literature to determine if team performance was impacted by student athlete perceptions of their coach’s level of fairness when dealing with the athletes. Student athletes (n=323) assessed the fairness of their coaches across three dimensions—distributive justice (decision outcomes), procedural justice (process used to arrive at the decision), and interpersonal justice (how the individual is treated during the decision making process). The study found that fairness perceptions did differ when comparisons were made between students who played on teams with winning records and students who played on teams with losing records. Students who played on winning teams perceived the level of fairness their coaches displayed to be higher than the coaches of students on losing teams. (55-82)

Applying Psychology to Football in the 1930s and 1940s — Alan S. Kornspan — The purpose of this article is to describe the application of psychology to football team selection during the 1930s and 1940s. Specifically, articles and research related to the study of intelligence and athletes during the 1920s through the 1940s is discussed. Next, a description of a testing program used by Coach Paul Brown at Massillon High School to aid in the selection of athletes for the football team is presented. Also, Paul Brown’s use of intelligence testing in professional football is presented. Finally, a description of how intelligence and psychological testing is currently used in professional football is explained. (83-99)

Anaerobic Overtraining: Physiological and Psychological Symptoms and Training Considerations —Patrick Sherald, Douglas Boatwright — Overtraining has become a topic of great interest to exercise physiologists over the past decade (Budgett, 1990; Fry & Kreamer, 1997). Overtraining has been defined in many different forms, such as, overreaching, staleness, overwork, overstraining, overstress and burnout. Often this leads to confusion in describing the condition (McKenzie, 1999). McKenzie (1999) and Morton (1997) stated that there are no clear symptoms for diagnosing overtraining, and there is little research on how to properly treat this disorder. This article will examine the signs, symptoms, recovery and prevention of anaerobic overtraining. (100-107)

Status and Gender Differences of Coaches Perceiving Membership Incentives of Their Respective Associations — Li Chen, Xian Ping, Xiaofen Deng Keating, Tracy W. Olrich, Judy P. Chandler — Research on motivating collegiate coaches often ignores their reasons for being members in respective professional associations. This national survey explored perceptual differences of membership incentives from 247 (188 men; 59 women) randomly selected coaches among 14 national coaches’ associations. The 14-item Membership Incentive Scale assessed Utilitarian, Solidary, Purposive, and Informative incentives. MANOVAs and discriminant function tests revealed that coaches’ perceptions of membership incentives differed significantly by membership status and gender. Specifically, for the Utilitarian Incentives, senior members scored lower than their junior colleagues and female coaches scored higher than their male peers. The findings suggest that a mixed incentive system designed to meet diverse needs of the members with different characteristics might be of help to the management of coaches’ associations. (108-129)

Assessment of Organizational Culture and Job Satisfaction on NCAA Academic Administrators — Jason Sosa, Michael Sagas — The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of organizational culture on job satisfaction of academic athletic directors in collegiate athletics. Academic athletic directors (N = 152) from NCAA Division I athletic programs were sampled. To identify distinct organizational cultures, a cluster analysis was used to group the reported culture by the respondent into naturally occurring culture profiles. In doing so, cluster analysis identified the overall effects of seven facets of organizational culture on job satisfaction. Subsequent, univariate analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was conducted with the cluster groups (n = 2), strong and moderate organizational culture serving as the independent variables to identify the effects of culture on job satisfaction. The ANCOVA revealed that organizational culture does have a significant effect on job satisfaction. Those departments with a strong organizational culture revealed high job satisfaction in these employees. (130-154)

Persuaders of Athletic Shoe Purchases: Analyzing the Influence of Information Sources on Korean Teenagers — Taeho Yoh, Paul M. Pedersen — The purpose of this study was to investigate how major information sources (i.e., family, peers, salespeople, television, magazines, newspapers, the Internet) influence the athletic shoe purchasing decisions by Korean teenagers. Furthermore, the study sought to determine if the influences differ according to the demographic characteristics of the respondents. Participants were 456 teens from six schools in a southeastern city in Korea. The findings of this study revealed that the information sources that exerted the greatest and smallest influence on teenagers were peers and newspapers, respectively. Results by ANOVA suggested that the influence of information sources differed according to certain demographic characteristics (i.e., age, gender, socioeconomic status) of the teenagers. Family and consumer educators should consider the findings of this study as a guide to give better education to teens as consumers. The results of this study can be used by marketers in the development of effective strategies to reach teen consumers. (155-183)

Succession in Division I Intercollegiate Football: The Affects of Changing Head Coaches — Kurt A. Stahura, Michael E. Dobbs, Michael Greenwood, R.R. Appache — Does changing a head coach guarantee success? In an effort to explore this further, we asked if there might be a difference in number of wins for new head coaches for some teams. We were also interested in whether or not teams that struggled a great deal in the prior season improved more so than teams that were more successful. In other words, were losing programs more likely to experience increased success when changing head coaches than winning programs? We tested this hypothesis using multiple regression analysis with the dependent variable being the difference in wins from the previous year to the first year of the new head coach. We used several measures to assure that we were comparing apples to apples so to speak, including the school’s membership in a BCS conference (a proxy for the relative power and prestige of the school’s football program), the school’s undergraduate enrollment (a measure of size of school), and whether the school is public or private (the largest schools tend to be state institutions). To further test our hypothesis, we simply included the number of wins in the previous year as an independent variable. (184-210)

Factors Affecting Response Rates in Survey Research: The Case of Intercollegiate Coaches — Brian A. Turner, Jeremy S. Jordan, Michael Sagas — A common challenge when conducting survey research is obtaining an adequate number of completed questionnaires from a chosen sample. The present study examined four factors (timing, salience, oversampling, and population characteristics) deemed to be most likely to influence response rates when utilizing the population of intercollegiate coaches. A stratified, random sample of NCAA coaches from six sports at each division level was selected (n = 2964). A total of 1096 (37.0%) questionnaires were returned. Results indicated a significant difference in response rates based on time of the season sent and sport, with football reporting the highest response rates. On average, coaches receive four requests for participation in research studies per year. Finally, coaches felt that research on their profession was only somewhat important. (211-237)

The Influence of Message Content on Reactions to Title IX — George B. Cunningham, Andrew O. Fitzgerald — The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of message content on subsequent attitudes toward Title IX, perceived fairness of the law, and beliefs that the law should be changed. Data were collected from 246 students who participated in an experiment in which the information related to Title IX varied by content (mostly positive, balanced, or mostly negative). Results of a 3 (condition: positive, balance, negative) 2 (sex: male, female) MANCOVA, controlling for previous knowledge of the law, showed significant main effects for condition and sex, but not for a condition sex interaction. Implications for persons and organizations within the sport industry are provided. (238-258)

COACHES’ CORNER

Athletic Department Outreach — Corinne M. Daprano, Peter Titlebaum, Julie Gillespie, Chris Delisio — This article demonstrates how an Athletic Department can implement a speaker’s series using the knowledge and administrative experience of members of the athletic department. A speaker’s series can serve as a way for the athletic department to network with many different academic departments, generate positive public relations for the department, and provide students with a “real world” perspective of the various fields related to management and marketing. Several examples of networking opportunities between the athletic department and campus community are provided. (259-272)

BOOK, VIDEO, DVD REVIEWS

Effective Leadership in Adventure Programming (2nd Edition), reviewed by Warren K. Simpson

PACE Programs for Athletic Coaches Education (3rd Edition), reviewed by Warren K. Simpson

Paul Reddick and Coaches Choice Productions (Baseball DVD’s), reviewed by Warren K. Simpson

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