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DE INVLOED VAN INTELLIGENTIE OP DE PRESTATIE IN TAFELTENNIS BIJ ATLETEN MET EEN VERSTANDELIJKE BEPERKING
No full textThe role of intelligence in sport specific performance of athletes with intellectual disabilities The future direction in classification of athletes with a disability is to institute more sport focused systems with an emphasis on scientific evidence of activity limitations resulting from impairment within specific sports. For athletes with intellectual disabilities (ID) little knowledge is available at present about the link between the cognitive impairment and elite sport proficiency. It has been demonstrated in literature that cognitive abilities might contribute to be able to excel in sports but the exact size and nature of this relationship remains unclear. What we know for sure is that there is no direct linear relationship between intelligence and sports performance. If such a relationship would exist, every university professor would be a top-athlete and vice versa. In order to illustrate the relationship between intelligence and sport performance it is first of all necessary to narrow down both concepts. Intelligence is a broad based term covering many factors which are not all equally important in a sport context. For example, visuo-spatial abilities (e.g., spatial orientation) are likely to play a greater role than literacy and numeracy in order to deliver an optimal performance in a specific sport. Conversely, sports performance roughly seems to include technical, tactical, physical and psychological components; whereby intelligence probably has a very large impact on the tactical component and to a much lesser extent on the physical component. Within this research intelligence will therefore be limited to generic sports intelligence (defined as the set of intelligence factors that play a role in sports) and within sports performance the focus will be on the technical and tactical components. The aim of the present study is to demonstrate the impact of sport intelligence on the tactical performance of elite tennis players with ID. This research will contribute to the development of evidence-based, sport-specific systems of eligibility and classification for athletes with ID which is a principal condition to participate in Paralympic competitions again. A better understanding of technical and tactical potential of ID-athletes in relationship to their cognitive functioning will contribute to discuss criteria by which athletes with ID should or should not be re-included in the Paralympic Movement. The first study investigated the reliability of a test to measure generic sport intelligence of athletes with ID. The test consists of eight subtests: simple reaction time, complex reaction time, simple visual search, complex visual search, Corsi memory test, Tower of London, Wasi block design, and Wasi matrix reasoning. A control test for visuo - motor skill is the finger tapping test. Based on this reliability study we concluded that the psychometric values of sport intelligence were acceptable to be used for the purpose of eligibility and classification of athleteswith ID in the future. A small learning effect was observed between successive test moments. The second study was an exploratory study on the sporting potential of tennis players with ID compared to table tennis players without ID. The focus in that study was on the quality of performance of the service-return. The results showed that players with ID are less good at returning the service to a specific target (A4-sized sheet of paper). This effectiveness of this skill is primarily based on tactical components, but also technical, physical, and motivational aspects contribute. The two following studies examine the technical potential of athletes with ID. In the third study, their technical proficiency was assessed using a test battery that included five sets of basic and five sets of advanced skills. A technically complete mature skill was assigned a maximum score of 100%. Players without ID reached average scores of 94 % for basic strokes and 80 % for more advanced strokes, while players with ID scored only 63 % (basic) and 53 % (advanced). In the fourth study, the technical capacity of top table tennis players with ID was studied in two different contexts: during an off-court test and during competition. The comparison between contexts is relevant for the purpose of our research project because the observation of performance during competition is used in classification as a mechanism to confirm the athletes competition class. The comparison of the results showed that the technical ability of the players did not differ depending on the context in which it was measured. There was a strong positive correlation between the two settings for some variables such as topspin and flick, but no correlation was found for other variables such as contra, block and push. The fifth study focused on the tactical proficiency of table tennis players. The comparison between two groups that were matched for training volume and training experience revealed that players with ID performed on significantly lower levels of tactical proficiency than players without ID. Participants were asked to perform five consecutive rallies each starting with an identical type of service. The maximum obtainable score per rally was eight points. All participants were able to improve their score during five consecutive rallies but unlike players without ID, who scored more than half of the points from the beginning (4.3 points), athletes with ID did not achieve half of the points (3.3 points), even after five rallies. This study has clearly demonstrated that having an ID is related to reduced tactical proficiency. In the sixth and final study the impact of sports intelligence on tactical proficiency was examined in table tennis. The data analyses of 112 table tennis players with ID revealed that two out of eight subtests of generic sports intelligence (Simple Reaction Test and Wasi Block design) were explanatory variables for the extent to whichathletes with ID perform in terms oftactical proficiency. This research signified an important contribution for the development of ID eligibility and classification systems, in an international context of elite sport. However, further research is needed to constantly optimize the systems that are currently being used and to better understand the relationship between intelligence and sport. The conclusions of this study may certainly be applicable to table tennis, but should be confirmed for different sport disciplines in which athletes with ID participate.status: Publishe
Gear selection between techniques in freestyle cross-country skiing in athletes with intellectual impairment: a pilot study
No full text© The Author(s) 2018. Cross-country skiing is a fast-paced, a cognitively demanding, and a popular sport within international organizations including athletes with intellectual impairment (II); however, research on how the level of II affects skiing performance is limited. The aim of this exploratory study was to compare differences in the overall performance (segment time and race time) and gear selection between a sample of cross-country skiers with II (n = 22) and a control group of skiers without II (n = 12), during a competitive 10 km freestyle race. The groups were matched on training background and skiing level based on interviews with coaches and trainers. The independent samples t-test revealed a higher velocity in the first segment for the control group (6.10 ± 0.62 m/s) compared to the skiers with II (5.50 ± 0.56 m/s; p < 0.05), but no significant differences in total race time between the groups. With respect to their ability to effectively select gears during the races, there was a significant difference between the groups, where the pattern was that skiers with II used a lower gear compared to the skiers without II and that pattern became even more apparent towards the second half of the race. These findings support the assumption that impaired cognitive function may constrain the ability to optimally select the appropriate gear in function of the characteristics of the skiing track, which is a key determinant of skiing performance.status: Published onlin
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Comparison of Shot Put Release Parameters and Consistency in Performance between Elite Throwers with and without Intellectual Impairment
No full text© 2017, © The Author(s) 2017. Background: Shot-put is one of the events in which athletes with intellectual impairment compete at the Paralympic Games, since their re-inclusion in 2012. The purpose of this study was to compare the competition performance and investigate differences in release parameters and consistency of performance between high level shot-put throwers with and without intellectual impairment. Methods: Data collection took place at the 2014 European Championships athletics for athletes with intellectual impairment (n = 20; 11 men, 9 women, MIQ = 60.2 ± 7.3, Mage = 28.1 ± 6.7 years), and the 2015 national championships for athletes without intellectual impairment (n = 26, 12 men, 14 women, Mage = 24.9 ± 5.6 years). A video camera operating at 100 Hz was utilized to capture the throws and 2D images were analyzed with motion analysis software to calculate release parameters and check consistency of the throw. Results: Independent t tests revealed that the average (11.87 m) and best (14.81 m) performance of male world-class intellectual impairment-throwers was significantly lower compared to the average (14.62 m) and best (17.78 m) performance of male national level throwers without intellectual impairment (F = 5.3, p <.05), primarily due to the significantly lower release velocity (r =.79, p <.01). The inter-individual variance in throw-to-throw distance was significantly larger in intellectual impairment-throwers; however, opposite to what was expected, the angle of release consistency was not significantly different between both samples. Intellectual impairment-throwers performed with superior release velocity consistency than non-intellectual impairment-throwers. Conclusions: These findings support the assumption that impaired cognitive function may constrain the ability to optimally release the shot-put.status: Publishe
Onderwijsontwikkelingsplan Faculteit Bewegings- en Revalidatiewetenschappen (Voortgangsrapport 3, OOP Convenant)
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"The show must go on": How Paralympic athletes safeguarded their mental well-being and motivation to train for the postponed Tokyo 2020 games
No full textINTRODUCTION: After the decision to postpone the Tokyo 2020 Games due to the COVID-19 pandemic, athletes had to adjust to a novel situation with feelings of uncertainty and insecurity. Grounded in Self-Determination Theory, this study was the first to examine whether different motivational profiles among Paralympic athletes can be identified, and to link these profiles with the athletes' emotional, cognitive, and performance-related outcomes in times of a pandemic. METHODS: Five months before the start of the Paralympic Games, the participants (N = 32; mean age = 33.2 ± 6.8 years) completed an online questionnaire measuring their demographics, basic psychological needs, perceived stress, depressive symptoms, general well-being, and motivational self-regulation strategies. Two months after the Games, they completed a second online questionnaire measuring their actual and perceived performance at the past Games. RESULTS: Through K-means cluster analysis, three distinct clusters were identified based on the athletes' dominant type of motivation, these are, dominantly amotivated (n = 11), autonomously motivated (n = 12), and controlled motivated (n = 9). Comparisons of athletes' emotional, cognitive, and performance-related outcomes depending on their motivational profile revealed that the athletes with a dominantly amotivated profile had the least adaptive outcomes (i.e., low need satisfaction, high need frustration, and more depressive symptoms). Athletes with a dominantly autonomously motivated profile made less use of controlling self-motivating strategies compared to the other two profiles. Moreover, their actual performance at the Paralympic Games was better. DISCUSSION: Although none of the athletes were at severe risk for depression or showed extremely high levels of stress, these results confirm that improving the quality of athletes' motivation can safeguard their well-being and enhance performance in Paralympic Sports.status: Publishe
Onderwijsontwikkelingsplan Faculteit Bewegings- en Revalidatiewetenschappen (Voortgangsrapport 2, OOP Convenant)
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