Lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic: implications for semiprofessional soccer clubs after the crisis- a team study

In 2019-2020 and 2020-2021, the COVID-19 pandemic led to unexpected behavioral restrictions, allowing only the individual training of the athletes. The purpose of the present study was to record the effects of a home-based training program on physical performance at a semi-professional level, after the Covid-19 confinement, in terms of external load. Twenty soccer players from one semi-professional team participated in this study. The data was collected by GPS devices, with an accelerometer and gyroscope, and a sampling rate 10Hz. The external load is evaluated by the total distance, the high-intensity runs, the sprint distance as well as the number of accelerations and decelerations. Three matches before and twelve games after the lockdown were analyzed and compared. During the confinement period, the players performed 5-6 training sessions per week. This period lasted over 4 four months. The training sessions were monitored by a free smartphone application. Similarly, the players communicated with the technical staff with a free internet application. The results showed significant increases (p < 0.05) in the total distance covered during the matches after the intervention. No significant increase in high-intensity runs and the number of accelerations were found (p > 0.05). The present data suggest that an intervention monitored by a free application could improve athletic performance at the semi-professional level, even after long-term abstinence from team training such as quarantine or off-season periods. These data might provide affordable solutions to the semi-professional soccer teams, which could be used during the off-season period leading to reduce detraining effects and higher performance in the forthcoming championship.

Yoga, an Appurtenant Method to Improve the Sports Performance of Elite Romanian Athletes

Yoga is a very popular trendy sport all over the world. Since its establishment and promotion, yoga has mostly been practiced in social clubs and studios, often being performed during optional courses in colleges. Basic yoga instruction is generally absent in middle schools. This study investigated and assessed the viability of integrating yoga practice into the sports training program of elite Romanian athletes. The research methods used include documentation and data collection via an online survey in order to design a factor analysis with a structural equation model using SmartPLS software. The research assesses athletes' opinions about the benefits of yoga practice and its impact on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The results highlight the need to integrate yoga classes into educational institutions. The research has demonstrated that Romanian athletes use yoga in the pre- and post-competition phases to increase their focus, balance, muscle, and joint elasticity, create a positive attitude toward victory, manage emotional and post-traumatic stress disorder, visualize their performance in competition, and see themselves as winners. Overall, yoga is a successful strategy to enhance sports training and medical rehabilitation for stress disorders and post-traumatic diseases.

TRAINING PRACTICES OF FILIPINO ATHLETES DURING THE EARLY COVID-19 LOCKDOWN

The imposition of COVID-19 lockdown restricted the daily activities of many people, including athletes. This study investigated the training practices of athletes in the Philippines during the early COVID-19 lockdown. A total of 442 athletes answered an online survey (May-July 2020), with questions pertaining to training practices, such as training frequency and duration. Data were analyzed according to: athlete classification (world-class, international, national, state, or recreational), sport category (individual or team), and sex (male or female). During lockdown, significant reductions in training frequency (except recreational, i.e., lower pre-lockdown training) and duration were observed for all athletic classifications. Similarly, training frequency and duration decreased significantly irrespective of sport category and sex. World class athletes appeared to be less affected by lockdown (types of exercise and specific training) as compared to lower-classification athletes. Athletes grouped in accordance with sex and sport category demonstrated little to no difference in training practices during the COVID-19 lockdown. The findings of the current study highlight the challenges experienced by athletes during lockdown, which may aid policy makers in the development of guidelines related to lockdown or lockdown-like situations to establish appropriate support for affected athletes. © 2022, University of Zagreb - Faculty of Kinesiology. All rights reserved.

Mono Camera-based Human Skeletal Tracking for Squat Exercise Abnormality Detection using Double Exponential Smoothing

Human action analysis is an enthralling area of research in artificial intelligence, as it may be used to improve a range of applications, including sports coaching, rehabilitation, and monitoring. By forecasting the body's vital position of posture, human action analysis may be performed. Human body tracking and action recognition are the two primary components of video-based human action analysis. We present an efficient human tracking model for squat exercises using the open-source MediaPipe technology. The human posture detection model is used to detect and track the vital body joints within the human topology. A series of critical body joint motions are being observed and analysed for aberrant body movement patterns while conducting squat workouts. The model is validated using a squat dataset collected from ten healthy people of varying genders and physiques. The incoming data from the model is filtered using the double exponential smoothing method;the Mean Squared Error between the measured and smoothed angles is determined to classify the movement as normal or abnormal. Level smoothing and trend control have parameters of 0.8928 and 0.77256, respectively. Six out of ten subjects in the trial were precisely predicted by the model. The mean square error of the signals obtained under normal and abnormal squat settings is 56.3197 and 29.7857, respectively. Thus, by utilising a simple threshold method, the low-cost camera-based squat movement condition detection model was able to detect the abnormality of the workout movement.

Competence inference from muscle: how and when trainers' muscle mass impacts service purchase of personal fitness training

Purpose>This study aims to examine how and when trainers' muscle mass impacts service purchase of personal fitness training, drawing upon signaling theory. Specifically, the authors investigated (1) the mediating role of perceived competence in the relationship between trainers' muscle mass (highly vs moderately muscular) and customers' service registration intention and (2) the moderating role of customer expertise in this mediating mechanism.Design/methodology/approach>The authors conceptualized trainers' muscle mass, developed its experimental stimuli and validated them through the two pretests (total n = 387). Using the validated stimuli, the authors conducted the two experiments (total n = 802). In both experiments, the authors recruited participants via MTurk using the convenience sampling method and employed a single-factor between-subject design based on random assignment.Findings>Findings supported the authors’ proporsed model. Consumers perceived highly (vs moderately) muscular trainers as more competent, which in turn engendered greater service registration intention. This effect emerged for expert consumers but not for novice consumers.Originality/value>This study is one of the first attempts to empirically test the influence of trainers' muscle mass on consumer acquisition in the context of personal fitness training. It also expands the sport marketing literature to the consumer psychology and behavior fields addressing the characteristics of sport-service providers. The findings also provide fitness organizations with managerial insights into how to effectively leverage trainers' physical appearance as a marketing tool.

COVID Curveball: An Inside View of the 2020 Los Angeles Dodgers World Championship Season

Kaplan reviews COVID Curveball: An Inside View of the 2020 Los Angeles Dodgers World Championship Season by Tim Neverett.

Physiological Aspects of World Elite Competitive German Winter Sport Athletes

Nine Ski mountaineering (Ski-Mo), ten Nordic-Cross Country (NCC) and twelve world elite biathlon (Bia) athletes were evaluated for cardiopulmonary exercise test (CPET) performance as the primary aim of our descriptive preliminary report. A multicenter retrospective analysis of CPET data was performed in 31 elite winter sports athletes, which were obtained in 2021 during the annual medical examination. The matched data of the elite winter sports athletes (14 women, 17 male athletes, age: 18–32 years) were compared for different CPET parameters, and athlete’s physique data and sport-specific training schedules. All athletes showed, as estimated in elite winter sport athletes, excellent performance data in the CPET analyses. Significant differences were revealed for VE VT2 (respiratory minute volume at the second ventilatory threshold (VT2)), highest maximum respiratory minute volume (VEmaximum), the indexed ventilatory oxygen uptake (VO2) at VT2 (VO2/kg VT2), the oxygen pulse at VT2, and the maximum oxygen pulse level between the three professional winter sports disciplines. This report provides new evidence that in different world elite winter sport professionals, significant differences in CPET parameters can be demonstrated, against the background of athlete’s physique as well as training control and frequency.

Development of Muscle Strength in The Context of The Covid 19 Pandemic for Middle School Students

Studiul desfăşurat abordează problematica dezvoltării forţei musculare în contextul problematic generat de pandemia Covid 19, pentru elevii clasei a 8-a din gimnaziu. Programul experimental a fost implementat în perioada 20 noiembrie 2020 - 15 martie 2021, combinând activităţile online cu varianta lecţiilor desfăşurate la şcoală. Lotul studiat (11 fete şi 10 băieţi) a parcurs variantele de structuri planificate de educare a forţei pentru principalele grupe musculare, care au fost completate cu diferite programe selectate de pe platforma Youtube. Rezultatele confirmă integral ipoteza de lucru formulată pentru lotul de fete (P<0.05 şi efect size/d>0.8), dar în cazul băieţilor sunt semnalate îmbunătăţiri semnificative ale performanţelor doar pentru 3 din cele 6 teste aplicate. Rezultatele obţinute trebuie analizate cu rezervă, izolarea la domiciliu afectând potenţialul motric al elevilor, dar faptul că sunt obţinute totuşi progrese semnificative indică posibilitatea de parcurgere a conţinuturilor programei şcolare la acest context nedorit.Alternate :The study carried out addresses the issue of muscle strength development in the problematic context generated by the Covid 19 pandemic, for 8th grade students in middle school. The experimental program was implemented during the time interval November 20th, 2020 - March 15th, 2021, by combining online activities with the variant of the lessons taught at school. The studied group (11 girls and 10 boys) went through the variants of planned strength training structures for the main muscle groups, which were completed with various programs selected from the Youtube platform. The results fully confirm the working hypothesis formulated. The results obtained must be analysed with caution, the isolation at home affecting the motor potential of the students, but the fact that significant progress is still made indicates the possibility of scrolling the contents of the school curriculum in this undesirable context.

The knowledge outcome of students majoring in physical and health education during the COVID-19 pandemic

The objective of this study was to identify the knowledge outcome of students majoring in physical and health education at Al-Balqa Applied University studying the principles of sports training, nutrition for athletes, and sports anatomy during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study adopted the descriptive analytical approach, where the curricula for the principles of sports training, the nutrition curriculum for athletes, and the sports anatomy curriculum were chosen, which were taught during the second semester of the academic year 2020/2021. In order to determine the degree of the knowledge outcome of the students, the study adopted the purposive sampling method in selecting the study sample. The students of physical and health education specialization at Al-Balqa Applied University were identified, where the sample consisted of 135 male and female students. The study concluded that the ratio of the total knowledge outcome to the knowledge outcome was at a moderate level with a percentage of 61.1, while it was low in the sports Anatomy curriculum 58.8. The results showed that there were statistically significant differences in favor of the students of Princess Alia College, and the results showed that there were no statistically significant differences between males and females in the nutrition and sports anatomy domain, while there were statistically significant differences in favor of males in the principles of sports training domain. This study increased the depth of understanding of knowledge outcome during the COVID-19 pandemic, whereas other studies were performed in normal non-stressful situations. © 2022 The Authors.