Changing player behaviour in sport during the COVID-19 pandemic: Shake on it?

To prevent the spread of infection during matches and training activities is a major challenge facing all sports returning from the enforced COVID-19 shutdown. During training and matches, rugby league players make contact with others which can result in SARS-CoV-2 virus transmission. While these interactions characterise the appeal of the game, a number of them can be avoided, including shaking hands and conversing after the match. This paper presents a framework underpinned by behavioural science (capability, opportunity, motivation and behaviour model, COM-B) to support stakeholders in helping players adopt new social distance norms and behaviours. This framework helps to ensure the players have the capability, opportunity, and motivation to adopt new COVID-19 risk minimising behaviours, which they will need to commit to 100%.

Using the prototype willingness model to predict doping in sport.

To enable preventive measures to be designed, it is important to identify modifiable distal and proximal factors underlying doping behavior. This study investigated aspects of the prototype willingness model in relation to doping. A cross-sectional study was conducted involving 729 competitive athletes. Following ethical approval, athletes (mean age = 28.8 ± 10.1 years; 63% male) completed an online questionnaire, which assessed doping-related attitudes, norms, prototype perceptions, outcome expectancies, and behavioral willingness. Using hierarchical multiple regression analysis, 54.4% of the total variance in willingness to dope was explained. Specifically, past doping, attitudes, and favorability of performance enhancing substance user prototypes were the strongest unique predictors of willingness to dope. Athletes appeared most willing to dope if they were to suffer an injury, a dip in performance, or think others are doping and getting away with it. National-level athletes displayed significantly greater willingness to dope (Kruskal-Wallis γ2 = 35.9, P < 0.001) and perceived themselves as significantly more similar to a doper (Kruskal-Wallis γ2 = 13.4, P = 0.004) than athletes competing at any other level. The findings highlight the importance of extending anti-doping provision beyond elite-level sport and the need to target athletes' doping-related perceptions.

Reporting doping in sport: national level athletes' perceptions of their role in doping prevention.

This paper qualitatively explores national level athletes' willingness to report doping in sport. Following ethical approval, semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine national level athletes from rugby league (n = 5) and track and field athletics (n = 4). Thematic analysis established the main themes within the data. Contextual differences existed around the role that athletes perceived they would play if they became aware of doping. Specifically, track and field athletes would adopt the role of a whistle-blower and report individuals who were doping in their sport. In comparison, the rugby league players highlighted a moral dilemma. Despite disagreeing with their teammates' actions, the players would adhere to a code of silence and refrain from reporting doping. Taking these findings into account, prevention programs might focus on changing broader group and community norms around doping. In doing so, community members' receptivity to prevention messages may increase. Moreover, developing skills to intervene (e.g., speaking out against social norms that support doping behavior) or increasing awareness of reporting lines could enhance community responsibility for doping prevention. In sum, the findings highlight the need to consider the context of sport and emphasize that a one-size-fits-all approach to anti-doping is problematic.

Gateway to doping? Supplement use in the context of preferred competitive situations, doping attitude, beliefs, and norms.

Nutritional supplement (NS) use is widespread in sport. This study applied an integrated social cognitive approach to examine doping attitudes, beliefs, and self-reported doping use behavior across NS users (n = 96) and nonusers (n = 116). Following ethical approval, 212 competitive athletes (age mean = 21.4, s = 4.5; 137 males) completed self-reported measures of doping-related social cognitions and behaviors, presented in an online format where completion implied consent. Significantly more NS users (22.9%) reported doping compared with nonusers (6.0%; U = 4628.0, P < 0.05). NS users presented significantly more positive attitudes toward doping (U = 3152.0, P < 0.05) and expressed a significantly greater belief that doping is effective (U = 3152.0, P < 0.05). When presented with the scenario that performance-enhancing substances are effective and increase the possibility of winning, NS users were significantly more in favor of competing in situations that allow doping (U = 3504.5, P < 0.05). In sum, doping use is three-and-a-half times more prevalent in NS users compared with nonusers. This finding is accompanied by significant differences in doping attitudes, norms, and beliefs. Thus, this article offers support for the gateway hypothesis; athletes who engage in legal performance enhancement practices appear to embody an "at-risk" group for transition toward doping. Education should be appropriately targeted.

Stressors and affective states among professional rugby union players.

The purpose of the present study was to examine (a) the sources of sport and non-sport stress and their associated symptoms on rest days, training days, and match days and (b) the temporal aspects of sources and symptoms of stress and affective states. Professional male rugby union players (n=16) completed the Daily Analysis of Life Demands in Athletes (DALDA) and the Activation Deactivation Adjective Check List (AD ACL) for 28 days. On match days players reported that few stressors were "worse than normal." Most stressors were "worse than normal" on training days followed by rest days and more stressors were "worse than normal" on the day after a match than on match days. Further, players reported an unpleasant, low activation state across the three analysis days, suggesting they were in an overtrained state. The findings of this study demonstrate that professional rugby players experience negative affect and a multitude of sport and non-sport stressors. Early detection of stressors and negative affective states could help prevent symptoms of overtraining and burnout and facilitate optimal training and sporting performance. Coaches and practitioners are encouraged to integrate the DALDA and AD ACL in their training and performance monitoring regimes.

Carbohydrate ingestion during prolonged high-intensity intermittent exercise: impact on affect and perceived exertion.

This study was designed to determine the effects of ingesting a carbohydrate (CHO) solution on affective states and rating of perceived exertion (RPE) during prolonged intermittent high-intensity exercise. Seventeen male soccer players completed a prolonged intermittent high-intensity exercise protocol for 90 min on two occasions, separated by at least 7 days. Participants consumed either a 6.4% CHO (0.6 g/kg body mass (BM)/h) or an artificially sweetened placebo (PLA) solution immediately before (8 mL/kg BM) and every 15 min (3 mL/kg BM) during exercise in a double-blind, counterbalanced design. Pleasure-displeasure, perceived activation, RPE and plasma glucose concentration was assessed. The results showed that compared with the CHO trial, perceived activation were lower in the placebo trial during the last 30 min of exercise and this was accompanied by lowered plasma glucose concentrations. In the CHO trial, RPE was maintained in the last 30 min of exercise but carried on increasing in the PLA trial. Therefore, CHO ingestion during prolonged high-intensity exercise appears to elicit an enhanced perceived activation profile that may impact upon task persistence and performance. This finding is in addition to the physiological and metabolic benefits of the exogenous energy supply.

Effects of the glycemic index of breakfast on metabolic responses to brisk walking in females.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to examine the metabolic responses during 1 h of brisk walking, 3 h after ingesting high glycemic index (HGI) and moderate glycemic index (MGI) breakfasts. DESIGN AND SUBJECTS: Six females completed three treadmill walking trials (approximately 50% VO2 max), separated by at least 1 month. Three hours before walking, they ingested either water or a HGI or MGI breakfast. The MGI breakfast consisted of a mixture of an HGI breakfast cereal and low GI carbohydrate (CHO) foods. The GI values of the HGI and MGI meals were 77 and 51, respectively. SETTING: The study took place in the School of Sport and Exercise Sciences at Loughborough University, Loughborough, UK. RESULTS: In the HGI and MGI trials, plasma glucose and serum insulin concentrations peaked 15 min into the postprandial period. At the onset of exercise, plasma insulin concentrations were twofold higher in the HGI (31.5+/-7.7 microl U l(-1)) than in the MGI trial (15.2+/-1.9 microl U l(-1)) (P<0.05). However, there were no differences in substrate utilization between the two CHO trials. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that although the addition of LGI CHO foods to an HGI breakfast cereal reduces the overall GI of the meal, the metabolic response to exercise is similar to that following a breakfast comprised entirely of HGI foods.