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Individual responses to purple grape juice consumption on endurance, explosive power, and fatigue in young male elite soccer players
Full text linkBackground: Purple grape juice (PGJ), a natural carbohydrate- and polyphenol-rich supplement, may enhance exercise performance. This study, incorporating individual response analysis, examined the acute effects of PGJ ingestion on endurance, explosive power, and perceived fatigue in elite male soccer players.
Methodology: Twenty-two U-20 male soccer players (Age: 19.7± 0.3; height: 178 ± 4 cm; body mass: 72 ± 5 kg; body mass index [BMI]: 22.6 ± 0.9 kg/m2)) participated in an equally allocated, double-blind, crossover design study. Participants were allocated to one of two conditions: (1) purple grape juice (PGJ, n=11) or (2) placebo (PLA, n=11). The PGJ or placebo was ingested in four equal portions (10 ml/kg of body mass PGJ or PLA diluted with water) starting 4 hours before the test and continuing every hour, with the final ingestion 60 minutes before the 30-15 Intermittent Fitness Test (IFT). The placebo consisted of a calorie-free, grape-flavored liquid designed to match the taste and appearance of the PGJ. A 7-day washout period was maintained between the two conditions. Perceived fatigue and standing long jump (SLJ) performance were assessed at baseline, immediately and 5 minutes after the IFT. Maximum oxygen consumption (VO2max), time to exhaustion (TTE), and final velocity in the IFT (VIFT) were recorded during the test. The smallest worthwhile change (SWC) analysis was used to evaluate individual responses.
Results: PGJ improved VIFT (P0.05), SWC analysis revealed that 77% of participants showed improvements in VIFT and VO2max, and 54% showed improvements in SLJ five minutes post-IFT.
Conclusion: PGJ supplementation enhanced endurance performance parameters in most participants, with significant individual variability in response. These findings highlight the potential benefits of PGJ, particularly for athletes more responsive to its effects, emphasizing the need for personalized supplementation strategies
Key stakeholder perceptions of the implementation of the English Football Association’s girls’ emerging talent centre pathway
Full text linkThe restructure of the English Football Association’s (FA) girls’ soccer talent pathway in 2022 aimed to expand the available talent identification (TI) and development (TD) opportunities (i.e. access to FA-licensed environment), with particular focus on providing access to historically under-represented players (e.g. ethnic minority and lower socio-economic groups). Sociological attributes, including socio-demographic factors, influence TI and TD, but it is uncertain whether stakeholders consider these to foster inclusive environments. This study aimed to explore key stakeholder’s perceptions of the implementation of the new Emerging Talent Centre (ETC) pathway, focussing on whether socio-demographic factors are considered during player recruitment and retention. Semi-structured interviews with ten key stakeholders including FA Women’s Technical Division staff (n = 2), ETC managers (n = 4) and coaches (n = 4) were conducted, drawing on personal experiences and perspectives. Player ethnicity (n = 2111) and socio-economic status (n = 2940) data were utilised to assist understandings of these perceptions. These data were compared with socio-economic data from the previous pathway to assess early influence of the new pathways’ implementation. Thematic analysis identified three key themes: stakeholder beliefs of the ETC pathway (clarity of pathway aims, early success, early concerns); facilitators to increasing inclusivity and accessibility (connectivity across sports organisations, additional and alternative TI opportunities, parental education on accessible opportunities); barriers to increasing inclusivity and accessibility (socio-cultural, practical). Unique insight into stakeholder perceptions will impact further development of the ETC pathway, ensuring youth and senior domestic and national squads are representative of local and national populations
The influence of immersion environment on mood: comparing sea versus laboratory cold exposure
Full text linkBackground: Cold water immersion (CWI) has gained attention as a potential strategy for improving mental health. Although studies demonstrate consistent mood‐enhancing effects following sea swimming and controlled CWI, the role of environmental context remains unclear. No previous studies have directly compared natural and artificial immersion settings using a within‐subjects design. This study aimed to isolate the influence of immersion environment on acute mood outcomes. Methods: Twenty‐seven healthy university students (16 males, 11 females; age 20 ± 4 years, height 1.71 ± 0.08 m, mass 70.4 ± 9.2 kg) completed a within‐subject crossover design comparing two CWIs: one in the sea and one in a laboratory tank, 1 week apart. Mood was assessed using the Profile of Mood States—Short Form (POMS‐SF) before and after a 5‐min chest‐deep immersion. Immersions were completed individually to minimise social facilitation. One‐ and two‐way repeated measures ANOVAs analysed total mood disturbance (TMD) and subscales, with Bonferroni‐corrected post hoc t‐tests. Results: Mood improved significantly following both immersions and across all subscales. Paired‐sample t‐tests showed greater reductions in TMD (t(26) = −2.69, p = 0.012, d = −0.52) and larger increases in esteem‐related affect (t(26) = 2.41, p = 0.023, d = 0.46) after sea immersion compared to laboratory immersion. A trend in favour of sea immersion was also observed for vigour (t(26) = −1.998, p = 0.056, d = −0.38). Although all negative subscales improved over time, no significant between‐condition differences were found. Analysis of TMD change scores showed that 13 participants (48%) responded similarly across both conditions, 10 (37%) improved more in the sea, and 4 (15%) improved more in the laboratory. Conclusion: CWI significantly improved mood across both conditions. Sea immersion produced slightly greater benefits, suggesting that natural environments may modestly enhance the psychological effects of cold exposure
Encouraging impulsive adolescents attending college to eat more fruit and vegetables: a preliminary investigation of negative urgency, message format and frame
Full text linkAdolescents high in negative urgency who are prone to emotion-driven impulsiveness and can be easily distracted, tend to eat unhealthily and may respond differently than those low in negative urgency to formatted and framed messages encouraging fruit and vegetables consumption. An experiment ( = 212) was conducted with a 2 (format: non-narrative vs narrative) × 2 (frame: loss vs gain) factorial design having participants' level of negative urgency as a moderator. Findings revealed a three-way interaction between negative urgency, message format and frame. In the gain-framed condition, adolescents high on negative urgency were persuaded best by non-narrative messages, whereas those low on negative urgency were best persuaded by narrative messages. These findings provide initial evidence that recipients' negative urgency influences how persuasive message framing and format are in encouraging adolescents to consume more fruit and vegetables. These results have implications for the construction of effective health appeals to adolescent populations
Salt & snow
No full text'Whose bodies are blanketed? Whose bodies blanked out?’ asks Naomi Foyle’s searching fourth collection, Salt & Snow. Lamenting personal and collective loss, this triptych of elegies contains tributes to departed family members, friends and writers including John Berger, Judith Kazantzis, Niall McDevitt and Gwendolyn Leick; and pays homage to victims of political violence from George Floyd to civilians caught up or killed in the full scale invasion of Ukraine, the Hamas-led war crimes of Oct 7th and Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Concluding with a mythopoetic sonnet crown circling themes of eco-apocalypse and regeneration, Salt & Snow is a finely interwoven meditation on grief, witness, whiteness and climate crisis
Agreement between numerical integration techniques during countermovement jumps with accentuated eccentric loading in youth athletes
Full text linkThis study evaluated agreement between a) force platform numerical integration techniques for calculating performance variables and b) three-dimensional (3D) motion capture and vertical ground reaction force (vGRF) methods for identifying the dumbbell release during countermovement jumps with accentuated eccentric loading (CMJAEL). Twenty adolescent participants (10 males, 10 females) performed CMJAEL with handheld dumbbells at 20%, 25% and 30% of body mass. Variables were compared across five integration methods using repeated measures Bland-Altman and two-way repeated measures ANOVA analyses (α = 0.05), with combined forward and backward integration serving as the criterion. Backward integration and after adjusting at the dumbbells release agreed with the criterion, while forward integration and adjusting at the bottom position did not. The dumbbell release point identified using 3D motion capture (criterion) was also compared to estimates derived from force platform data (vGRF method). The vGRF method identified the dumbbell release point in delay of 3D motion capture, with limits of agreement (LOA) between −0.17 and 0.03 s across conditions. These methods should not be used interchangeably; rather, we recommend that the vGRF method be used in situations whereby only force platforms are available, and that it is combined with forward and backward integration techniques
Increased leap performance with no change to knee-drop landing kinetics, following a verbal cueing intervention
Full text linkIntroduction: Knee-drop landings following a dance leap are often used in contemporary dance choreography, but there is limited research into the biomechanical demands of these types of landing. This study aimed to investigate the effects of a verbal cueing intervention on the performance and kinetics of a common knee-drop landing in contemporary trained dance students.
Method: Pre-vocational dance students participated in this study (n = 8). A quasi-experimental research design was followed to collect kinematic and kinetic data using 3D motion capture and force plates following the take-off and during a knee-drop landing of a contemporary dance style leap pre and post a verbal cueing intervention. Performance variables analysed were jump height and flight time, while kinetic variables included vertical ground reaction forces (vGRFs) and loading rates. Results: A statistically significant increase in jump height and flight time was found post intervention; There was no significant difference between pre and post intervention for peak vGRFs at foot or knee impact or loading rate of the whole landing phase.
Conclusion: The verbal cueing intervention was successful in increasing flight time and jump height, indicating optimised performance. The lack of significant difference in peak vGRFs and loading rate in the landing phase implies that the intervention did not have a detrimental effect on musculoskeletal loading. These findings demonstrate the positive influence of a verbal cue which focusses on increasing flight time and opposing the landing for enhancing the execution of a dance leap without negatively affecting the forces being experienced in the knee-drop landing that followed. However, it should be noted that the small sample size and lack of a control group in this study may limit the reliability of findings and mean that the generalizability of these findings should interpreted with caution
Chants across seven traditions share acoustic traits that enhance subjective relaxation
Full text linkFor over 5,000 years, chanting has been practiced across many Western and Eastern traditions. However, there is hardly any empirical research on 1) whether chants from across the globe share common acoustic properties, 2) whether these acoustic features make them distinct from other human vocalizations, and 3) the extent to which they may positively impact listeners’ well-being. Here we collected 242 chants belonging to seven distinct traditions and associated with a wide range of language families, and compared them acoustically to a large corpus of song (n=126) and speech (n=616) samples from across 14 linguistic and 12 geographical regions. We show that, irrespective of language and geographical origin, chants share distinctive acoustic traits, namely relatively flat and slow-changing intonation and steady, unbroken voicing in a comfortable, rather low pitch range with a prevalence of mid-central vowels. Thus, chants are produced in a relaxed vocal tract configuration with minimal articulation. Additionally, playback experiments involving original chants (with a participant pool of 61 listeners), resynthesized chants (with 114 listeners), and fully synthetic chants (with 80 listeners) demonstrate that these acoustic characteristics enhance listeners' perceived sensations of relaxation. Specifically, relatively flat and slow-changing intonation, combined with vowel production in a relatively relaxed vocal tract configuration, resulted in higher overall relaxation ratings. Together these results hint at a specific function of chants’ acoustic commonalities: the enhancement of well-being through relaxatio
Physiology of dance training and performance
No full textPhysiology is science that describes the way the body functions. The body cannot dance unless physiological processes (which can be trained and optimized) are operating. As a dancer, understanding the cardiovascular, respiratory, and muscular systems will enable you to test and train your body to meet the physiological demands of dance