23 news posts in Sports

Psychology

17 Apr 2018

Award for article on understanding and promoting mental health in athletes

Research on the application of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy to sport, published by Dr Martin Turner in Frontiers in Psychology, has won the 2018 Albert Ellis Award for Research

Psychology

01 Mar 2018

Color of judo uniform has no effect on winning

Study finds significant win bias for first called judo athlete, regardless of the color of their outfit: Frontiers in Psychology

Psychology

07 Feb 2018

Motivational music increases risk-taking but does not improve sports performance

The effect was more noticeable among men and participants who selected their own playlist: Frontiers in Psychology

The human race has peaked

A review in Frontiers in Physiology suggests humans have biological limitations, and that our impacts on the environment – including climate change – could have a deleterious effect on these limits.

Review finds poor compliance with helmet use in baseball and softball

Serious brain injuries occur once in about every 2,000 baseball and softball games reports a study in Frontiers in Neurology.

Psychology

13 Jun 2017

How a girl is raised can influence her adult sporting success

Study shows girls who grow up exposed to traditionally more masculine interests and role models are more likely to have the aggressive desire to succeed at sport. — By Tania Fitzgeorge-Balfour The ability to produce peak performance plays a decisive role in the success of athletes in competitive sport. A desire to be the best is one of the most important traits in a top athlete, but where does this desire come from – are we born with it or is it a learned characteristic? Traditionally, research on female sporting success has focused on biological and genetic differences. A new study, published in the open-access journal, Frontiers in Psychology, instead looks at the motivation level of successful female footballers and whether their upbringing influences this desire to succeed. “We find that at higher competition levels, the more likely it is for female athletes to savour the more aggressive elements of a sporting contest,” says Danie Meyer-Parlapanis, who conducted this research as part of her PhD thesis with Prof. Roland Weierstall, at the University of Konstanz, Germany. “This is particularly the case when they have been raised in less traditional families and have greater engagement with more masculine interests and role models.” […]

Life sciences

22 Sep 2016

Sex before sport doesn’t negatively impact performance

Contrary to popular belief, sex before sport doesn’t have a negative effect on the athlete and could even benefit performance. — By Tania Fitzgeorge-Balfour, science writer Over the course of the Rio Olympics, 450,000 condoms were distributed around the athlete’s village. This may be surprising considering the common view that abstinence from sexual activity can boost athletic performance. These long-standing views have now been challenged by a recent analysis of current scientific evidence, published in the open-access journal Frontiers in Physiology. “Abstaining from sexual activity before athletic competition is a controversial topic in the world of sport;” said Laura Stefani, an Assistant Professor of Sports Medicine at the University of Florence, Italy, and lead author of this review;”We show no robust scientific evidence to indicate that sexual activity has a negative effect upon athletic results.” The authors sifted through hundreds of studies with the potential to provide evidence, however big or small, on the impact of sexual activity upon sport performance. After setting a number of criteria to filter out the most reliable of these studies, only nine were included in the review. One of these found that the strength of female former athletes did not differ if they had sex the night before. Another actually […]

Health

12 Sep 2016

Eating your greens could enhance sport performance

By Fabienne Eckert, Frontiers Science Writer Nitrate supplementation in conjunction with Sprint Interval Training in low oxygen conditions could enhance sport performance a study has found. Researchers from the University of Leuven in Belgium carried out a study with twenty-seven moderately trained participants. These were given nitrate supplements ahead of Sprint Interval Training (SIT), which took the form of short but intense cycling sessions three times a week. Nitrate is commonly found in diets rich in leafy green foods, like spinach and is important for the functioning of the human body, especially during exercising. To assess differences in performance in different conditions, the study included workouts in normal oxygen conditions and in hypoxia conditions, which are low oxygen levels such as those found in high altitudes. The observations published in Frontiers in Physiology were unexpected: after only five weeks, the muscle fiber composition changed with the enhanced nitrate intake when training in low oxygen conditions. “This is probably the first study to demonstrate that a simple nutritional supplementation strategy, i.e. oral nitrate intake, can impact on training-induced changes in muscle fiber composition;” stated Professor Peter Hespel from the Athletic Performance Center at the University of Leuven. For athletes participating in […]