Influence of the International Journal of Exercise Science.

The International Journal of Exercise Science (IJES) publishes research from numerous subdisciplines of exercise science and health. This study documented the scholarly influence of the initial 15-year history (2008-2022) of the IJES. Publication, indexing, from the IJES website and four database services: Dimensions, Google Scholar (GS), PubMed, and SCImago Journal & Rank. The IJES has published 1055 articles in 79 issues in the first 15 years. The top 106 (10%) cited articles received a total of 7,195 citations according to GS. Top-cited IJES articles had median citations and citation rates (CR) of 48 citations and 6.5 citations/per year, respectively over a median of 8 years since their publication. Most top-cited articles were original research (68%) and reviews (9%). Top-cited articles were most often on Fitness Assessment (28%) and Technology, Epidemiology, and Physical Activity (15%) topics. In addition to its mission to support scholarly expertise of students, IJES is consistently indexed in GS with CR to top 5% cited articles similar to many journals in kinesiology/exercise science and higher than professional and highly specialized journals. The most cited articles have been in the areas of Fitness Assessment, Biomechanics and Neural Control, and Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Physiology. The IJES makes influential contributions to subsequent research in kinesiology, exercise science, and health, primarily through highly cited original research and review articles.

Upper Extremity Musculoskeletal Profiles in Tennis Players: A Systematic Review.

CONTEXT: Tennis-specific musculoskeletal (MSK) screening can assess range of motion (ROM) and muscular imbalances. Identifying normative values before implementing a MSK screen is essential in contributing to athlete performance and injury risk profiles. OBJECTIVE: To review upper extremity MSK data in healthy tennis players across age, sex, and level of play. DATA SOURCE: The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines were followed for this review. A search was conducted in MEDLINE, SPORTDiscus, Embase, and CINAHL. STUDY SELECTION: This review included shoulder, elbow, and wrist ROM, isometric strength, or isokinetic strength in a tennis population. Each article was critically appraised to help identify the internal and external validity of each study. STUDY DESIGN: Systematic review. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level 3. DATA EXTRACTION: A total of 41 studies met the search criteria. Each contributor organized the data elements of interest into data tables, with a second contributor assigned for review. Data elements of interest included player and study characteristics: ROM, isometric dynamometry, and isokinetic strength. RESULTS: A total of 3174 players were included in the final studies. Most of the players included were competitive adolescents and young adults; 15 studies included ROM data. Male tennis players consistently had more external rotation (ER) gain (range, 1.8º to 8.8º) and internal rotation (IR) loss (range, -15.3º to -3.0º) when compared with their female counterparts (ER range, -2.5º to 5.8º; IR range, -10.4º to -3º). Shoulder IR and ER strength were measured in the majority of all the strength studies, with the external rotators generating at least two-thirds the strength of the internal rotators. CONCLUSION: Overall MSK data of tennis players indicate that shoulder strength values are often larger than nontennis players, but equal to or slightly lower than comparable athletes in other overhead sports. Adaptive changes of the glenohumeral joint and subsequent rotational motion are similar to those of other overhead athletes.

Barbell Squat Relative Strength as an Identifier for Lower Extremity Injury in Collegiate Athletes.

Case, MJ, Knudson, DV, and Downey, DL. Barbell squat relative strength as an identifier for lower extremity injury in collegiate athletes. J Strength Cond Res 34(5): 1249-1253, 2020-The aim of the study was to determine the efficacy of using the relative strength level of Division I athletes in One repetition maximum (1RM) barbell back squat as an identifier of seasonal lower extremity (LE) injury. One repetition maximum back squat (kg) and reported LE injuries were retrospectively collected for Division I male football (n = 46), female volleyball and softball athletes (n = 25). Maximum preseason relative (body mass normalized) back squat strength values were compared with 2 analyses of variance (p < 0.05) between injured and uninjured male (football) and female athletes (softball & volleyball). Relative back squat strength was significantly lower in injured athletes than uninjured athletes in both men (F = 6.03, p = 0.02) and women (F = 4.68, p = 0.04) with a moderate to large effect size (g = 0.86-0.85). These data indicate the potential of 1RM back squat relative strength serving as one tool in multi-factor preseason screening for LE injury risk in these sports. Male athletes with relative squat strength below 2.2 and female athletes below 1.6 in these sports could be more susceptible to LE injury over a season. Strength professionals should consider using body mass normalized 1RM back squats as a screening tool for seasonal LE injury risk in college athletes.

Misuse of "Power" and Other Mechanical Terms in Sport and Exercise Science Research.

Despite the Système International d'Unitès (SI) that was published in 1960, there continues to be widespread misuse of the terms and nomenclature of mechanics in descriptions of exercise performance. Misuse applies principally to failure to distinguish between mass and weight, velocity and speed, and especially the terms "work" and "power." These terms are incorrectly applied across the spectrum from high-intensity short-duration to long-duration endurance exercise. This review identifies these misapplications and proposes solutions. Solutions include adoption of the term "intensity" in descriptions and categorizations of challenge imposed on an individual as they perform exercise, followed by correct use of SI terms and units appropriate to the specific kind of exercise performed. Such adoption must occur by authors and reviewers of sport and exercise research reports to satisfy the principles and practices of science and for the field to advance.

Advancing kinesiology through improved peer review.

Peer review of scholarship is essential to journal quality, evidence, knowledge advancement, and application of that knowledge in any field. This commentary summarizes recent literature on issues related to peer-review quality and current review practice in kinesiology and provides recommendations to improve peer review in kinesiology journals. We reviewed the literature on the characteristics of peer review in scientific journals and describe the status of peer review in kinesiology journals. Although the majority of scholars and editors strongly support the peer-review process, systematic research in several disciplines has shown somewhat positive but mixed results for the efficacy of peer review in evaluating the quality of and improving research reports. Past recommendations for improvement have focused on agreement between reviewers, standards for evaluating quality, and clarification of the editorial team roles. Research on interventions, however, indicates that improving reviewer performance is difficult. The specific research on peer review in kinesiology is limited. Six recommendations to improve peer review are proposed: publishing clear evaluation standards, establishing collaborative evaluation procedures and editorial team roles, utilizing online submission data to help improve reviewer comments, creating author appeals procedures, protecting reviewer time commitments, and improving reviewer recognition. There is considerable variation in peer-review criteria and procedures in kinesiology, and implementing several reasonable improvements may advance knowledge development and the field of kinesiology.

Teaching practices of the undergraduate introductory biomechanics faculty: a North American survey.

Instruction and assessment strategies of undergraduate introductory biomechanics instructors have yet to be comprehensively examined. The purpose of this study was to identify the current instruction and assessment practices of North American undergraduate introductory biomechanics instructors and equipment needed for effective instruction in lecture and laboratory sessions. One hundred and sixty-five respondents (age: 42.5 +/- 10.3 years) who currently teach or have taught an introductory biomechanics course in North America were recruited by electronic mail. Subjects completed a web-based survey, consisting of 60 open- and closed-ended questions. Pearson's correlation coefficients were used to assess relationships between instructor's familiarity with either the Biomechanics Concept Inventory or the NASPE Guidelines for Undergraduate Biomechanics, and instructor and course characteristics (number of years teaching, age, faculty rank, number of quizzes given, etc.) A number of variables were significantly (p < 0.05) correlated. Answers to open-ended questions were processed using content analysis, with results categorized in content areas including: instructor and course characteristics; lecture instruction; assessment and equipment; laboratory instruction; assessment and equipment; and instructor's perspectives. Many active learning strategies for lecture and laboratory instruction were identified by faculty. Limited student preparation and limited resources were noted as the instructor's most common challenges.

Use of deterministic models in sports and exercise biomechanics research.

A deterministic model is a modeling paradigm that determines the relationships between a movement outcome measure and the biomechanical factors that produce such a measure. This review provides an overview of the use of deterministic models in biomechanics research, a historical summary of this research, and an analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of using deterministic models. The deterministic model approach has been utilized in technique analysis over the last three decades, especially in swimming, athletics field events, and gymnastics. In addition to their applications in sports and exercise biomechanics, deterministic models have been applied successfully in research on selected motor skills. The advantage of the deterministic model approach is that it helps to avoid selecting performance or injury variables arbitrarily and to provide the necessary theoretical basis for examining the relative importance of various factors that influence the outcome of a movement task. Several disadvantages of deterministic models, such as the use of subjective measures for the performance outcome, were discussed. It is recommended that exercise and sports biomechanics scholars should consider using deterministic models to help identify meaningful dependent variables in their studies.

Authorship and sampling practice in selected biomechanics and sports science journals.

In some biomedical sciences, changes in patterns of collaboration and authorship have complicated the assignment of credit and responsibility for research. It is unclear if this problem of "promiscuous coauthorship" or "hyperauthorship" (defined as six or more authors) is also apparent in the applied research disciplines within sport and exercise science. This study documented the authorship and sampling of patterns of original research reports in three applied biomechanics (Clinical Biomechanics, Journal of Applied Biomechanics, and Sports Biomechanics) and five similar subdisciplinary journals within sport and exercise science (International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance, Journal of Sport Rehabilitation, Journal of Teaching Physical Education, Measurement in Physical Education and Exercise Sciences, and Motor Control). Original research reports from the 2009 volumes of these biomechanics and sport and exercise journals were reviewed. Single authorship of papers was rare (2.6%) in these journals, with the mean number of authors ranging from 2.7 to 4.5. Sample sizes and the ratio of sample to authors varied widely, and these variables tended not to be associated with number of authors. Original research reports published in these journals in 2009 tended to be published by small teams of collaborators, so currently there may be few problems with promiscuous coauthorship in these subdisciplines of sport and exercise science.

Correcting the use of the term "power" in the strength and conditioning literature.

Many strength and conditioning papers have incorrectly adopted the colloquial use of the term "power" as a measure of short-term, high-intensity muscular performance despite a long history of research and editorials critical of this practice. This has lead to confusion, incorrect interpretations, and conflicting results in the literature. This paper summarizes the scientific evidence on external mechanical power as a short-term, high-intensity neuromuscular (anaerobic) performance or training variable. Many problems in the measurement and use of power in strength and conditioning research were identified, as well as problems in the use of the vertical jump as a field test of power. A critical review of the biomechanics, measurement, and training research does not support this colloquial use of the term "power." More research is needed that improves our understanding of the domains of muscular strength or neuromuscular performance, as well as partial correlation and multiple regression analyses to document the unique associations between these domains, biomechanical variables, training effects, and sport performance. Strength and conditioning research should limit the use of the term power to the true mechanical definition and provide several specific and measurement details on this measurement.

North American perception of the prestige of biomechanics serials.

Biomechanics is a discipline with many applications and sub-areas so scholars often publish their work in journals in different subject categories used in the ISI Journal Citation Reports (JCR). It is not known whether the quality/prestige of journals in the discipline of biomechanics matches the ISI Impact Factor (IF) ratings reported in JCR. A survey of the membership of the American Society of Biomechanics (ASB) was conducted to rate the quality/prestige of typical papers in serials publishing biomechanics research on a five point scale. Seventy-eight of 610 ASB members responded to the survey. Mean journal prestige ratings were only weakly correlated (r=0.35) with the IF for 2005, with serial ratings differing across the interest areas of the ASB respondents. It was concluded that IF's should be used with caution in evaluating the prestige of journals publishing biomechanics research. Furthermore, investigators should consider interest area specific ratings within biomechanics when selecting journals for publishing their research.

Pre- and post-impact muscle activation in the tennis volley: effects of ball speed, ball size and side of the body.

AIM: To examine the pre- and post-impact activation of five upper extremity muscles in the tennis volley across conditions of ball speed, ball type and side of the body. METHODS: A repeated measures design in a biomechanics laboratory setting was used. A total of 24 recreational tennis players (mean (SD) age 24 (5) years, height 176 (10) cm, mass 76 (13) kg) were recruited from a university. Participants performed tennis volleys under 18 ball conditions: three ball speeds (slow, medium and fast), with three ball types (two oversize and one regular size) each from two sides (forehand and backhand). Average normalised electromyographic levels of the flexor carpi radialis, extensor carpi radialis, triceps brachii, anterior/middle deltoid and posterior/middle deltoid of the hitting arm during pre- and post-impact phases (200 ms before and after ball-racquet impact, respectively) were assessed. RESULTS: For the pre-impact phase, a significant muscle and side interaction (p<0.001) and significant main effects for speed (p = 0.002) and muscle (p<0.001) were observed. For the post-impact phase, significant interactions were observed for ball type and side (p = 0.002), ball speed and side (p = 0.011) and muscle and side (p = 0.001), as well significant main effects for muscle (p<0.001), speed (p = 0.035) and side (p<0.001). CONCLUSION: Oversize tennis balls do not significantly increase upper extremity muscle activation compared to regular size balls during a tennis volley. The highest post-impact activation was observed in the ECR indicating a vigorous wrist stabilisation role that could irritate players with lateral epicondylalgia.

Stretching has no effect on tennis serve performance.

Stretching prior to vigorous physical activity has been shown to decrease high-force muscular performance, but little is known about the effect of stretching on speed and accuracy movements. Serving percentage and radar measurements of ball speed were studied to examine the acute effect of stretching on tennis serve performance. Eighty-three tennis players from beginning level to advanced volunteered to serve following traditional (T) warm-up and traditional plus stretching (S) conditions. Service speeds and service percentage of each condition were measured. Dependent t-tests showed nonsignificant effects of stretching on service speed (p = 0.06) or accuracy (p = 0.35), and this lack of an effect was similar for all skill levels, age, and gender. The large sample and good statistical power in this study indicated that these observations are not likely type II errors. There was no short-term effect of stretching in the warm-up on the tennis serve performance of adult players, so adding stretching to the traditional 5-minute warm-up in tennis does not affect serve performance.