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The Sport and Exercise Scientist

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Winter 2013

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Contents
On the cover 5 BASES Conference 2014 Prof Ian G. Campbell and Dr Claire Hitchings Regulars 4 News Also inside 8 The BASES Expert Statement on the Psychological Preparation for Football Penalty Shootouts Dr Mark Wilson, Dr Greg Wood and Prof Geir Jordet 16 Genetic testing in sport and exercise A summary of genetic ndings in relation to sporting performance and practical implications Prof Yannis Pitsiladis and others in the eld of sport and exercise genetics

10 The BASES Expert Statement on the Use of Mental Imagery in Sport, 22 Unemployed graduates guilty of 6 Letters job snobbery are missing out on Exercise and Rehabilitation Contexts opportunities Dr Tadhg MacIntyre, Prof Aidan Moran, 7 Diary dates Comment by Phil Smith Prof Christian Collet, Prof Aymeric Guillot, 18 Reviews Dr Mark Campbell, Dr James Matthews, Sport apps and book reviews Prof Craig Mahoney FBASES and Jim Lowther 24 Biomechanical perspectives on minimally shod and barefoot 20 CHuTzPAH: What is the value running 12 The BASES Expert Statement on of physical activity? An update including some pragmatic the Effectiveness of Vision Training The Sport and Exercise Scientists rules to follow Programmes physical activity health columnist, Jos Vanrenterghem Dr Nicholas Smeeton, Dr Jenny Page, Dr Charlie Foster Dr Joe Causer, Dr Mark Wilson, Dr Rob Gray 26 BASES accreditation and Prof Mark Williams. 31 Final word - the pedagogic route Dr Costas Karageorghis Reasons for applying and the 14 Breathing mechanics and ventilatory FBASES, AFBPsS application process constraint during upper-body Dr Ian Sadler exercise An overview of his research in this area and 28 The hurt business - The harsh its potential implications realities of high-performance sport Nick Tiller An examination of the party-line that sport is good for you Dr James Morton and Claire-Marie Roberts Taking place over two days (25-26 November) at the prestigious

St. Georges Park in Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, the event will be packed with content and insight. Opportunities for socialising and networking will be a key component.
Prof Ian G. Campbell and Dr Claire Hitchings, p5

The Sport and Exercise Scientist The Sport and Exercise Scientist is published quarterly for the British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences. The publication is free to BASES members. BASES is a nonprot professional membership organisation promoting excellence in sport and exercise sciences. It is a Company Limited by Guarantee Registered in Cardiff No. 5385834. Editor Dr Claire Hitchings n chitchings@bases.org.uk Editorial Advisory Board Dr Kevin Currell n Kelly Goodwin n Adam Hawkey Dr James Morton n Len Parker Simpson Samantha Parnell n Claire-Marie Roberts n Dr Garry Tew Dr Ken van Someren FBASES Editorial Assistants Jane Bairstow n Marsha Stankler Want to place an advertisement? Visit www.bases.org.uk/SES-Advertisers or contact Jane Bairstow 0113 8126162 n jbairstow@bases.org.uk What do you think of The Sport and Exercise Scientist? Were keen to know what you want more of, whats missing and what we should drop. Were also keen to hear from potential contributors. Contact the editor, Dr Claire Hitchings n chitchings@bases.org.uk Want to submit a letter to the editor? Letters, which may be edited or shortened for reasons of space or clarity, should be no longer than 300 words, must refer to an article that has appeared in the last issue, and must include the writers name. Publisher Mercer Print, Newark Street, Accrington BB5 0PB Tel: 01254395512 n info@mercer-print.co.uk www.mercer-print.co.uk

Copyright BASES, 2013 All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in substantial part without permission of BASES is strictly prohibited. Please apply to the editor in writing. Authors may use their own material elsewhere without permission. We ask that the following note be included: First published in The Sport and Exercise Scientist, date and issue number. Published by the British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences www.bases.org.uk BASES Board Prof Ian Campbell (Chair) n Peter Cooke n Dr Claire Hitchings Dr Stephen Ingham n Dr Keith Tolfrey FBASES n Dr Bob Price OBE Prof Richard Tong FBASES n Prof Clyde Williams OBE, FBASES Want to contact BASES? BASES, Leeds Metropolitan University, Fairfax Hall, Headingley Campus, Beckett Park, Leeds, LS63QT n Tel/Fax: 01138126162/63 enquiries@bases.org.uk n www.bases.org.uk www.twitter.com/basesuk www.facebook.com/BASESUK The Sport and Exercise Scientist is printed on paper from sustainably managed forests and controlled sources. Please recycle

ISSN 1754-3444

Design and artwork Andy Smyth Disclaimer The statements and opinions contained in the articles are solely those of the individual contributors and are not necessarily those of BASES. The appearance of advertisements in the publication is not a warranty, endorsement or approval of products or services. BASES has undertaken all reasonable measures to ensure that the information contained in The Sport and Exercise Scientist is accurate and specically disclaims any liability, loss or risk, personal or otherwise, which is incurred as a consequence, directly or indirectly of the use and application of any of the contents.

Issue 38, Winter 2013

The Sport and Exercise Scientist

Issue 38

Winter 2013

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Check out previous issues

All copies of The Sport and Exercise Scientist are available in PDF format in the Member Area at www.bases.org.uk. You will need your username (your e-mail address) and password (sent to you via e-mail when you joined BASES).

The Sport and Exercise Scientist

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News

Three new Non-Executive Directors join the BASES Board

Peter Cooke qualied as a Management Accountant in Canada and has held progressively senior roles in Finance and Accounting on both sides of the Atlantic. He served on a number of boards as Finance Director before being promoted to Managing Director of EWC, a National Recycling Company; and latterly Chief Executive of B&M Waste Services. Peter brings a signicant amount of business acumen to BASES with particular emphasis in strategy and forecasting, along with corporate governance and controls. He has always been a keen sportsman and regularly takes part in cycling and running events; in addition he plays and umpires cricket. Dr Bob Price, OBE has recently retired from a career in education, disability and sport. He has taught in school and university. He has been a Whitehall-based civil servant (Department of Health, Cabinet Ofce and a six-month secondment to the French Ministry of Youth and Sport); and he has been Chief Executive of two major charities. His Paralympic involvement includes GB team leadership at ve Summer Paralympic Games, chairmanship of the British Paralympic Association and presidency of the European Paralympic Committee and Inas (the International Sports Association for Athletes with Intellectual Disability). He was a member of Vistage (an international CEO network) for 10 years and has just completed two three-year terms as a Non-Executive Director on the board of NHS Lincolnshire. He was awarded an OBE in 1993 and membership of the Paralympic Order in 2006. He has been a BASES member since its inception. Prof Clyde Williams, OBE, FBASES is Emeritus Professor of sports science at Loughborough University and adjunct Professor at Victoria University, Melbourne. He was the founding Chair of BASES and served a second term in 2002. In 1986, he was appointed to rst Chair in sports science in the UK. He is a chemistry graduate of Aberystwyth University and obtained his doctorate in physiology from Aberdeen University. His research interest is the inuence of carbohydrate nutrition and metabolism on exercise capacity and performance. He is currently Chair of the Registration Board for professionals working in sport and exercise nutrition (SENr) and a member of the English Institute of Sports Technical Advisory Group.

BASES Licensed Body status with the Science Council

BASES received 127 applications for Chartered Scientist status from accredited members through the rst round of the grandparenting scheme in July. A list of BASES Chartered Scientists will appear on the Chartered Scientist website: www.charteredscientist.org/the-register/ search-the-register. The next submission date for Re-Accreditation, Accreditation and Chartered Scientist applications is 6 January 2014. BASES Fellowship, Re-Accreditation and Accreditation Fellowship Prof A Mark Williams, Brunel University. Re-Accreditation Craig Boyd, Manchester Metropolitan University, Clive Brewer, Widnes Vikings Rugby League Club, Dr Neil Clarke, Coventry University, Dr Graeme Close, Liverpool John Moores University, Dr Glen Davison, University of Kent, Dr Mike Duncan, Coventry University, Phil Hayes, Northumbria University, Dr John Iga, The Football Association, Christina Jacklin, London Metropolitan University, Dr Simon Jobson, University of Winchester, Dr Martin Littlewood, Liverpool John Moores University, Mike OBrien, Gower College Swansea, Dr John OHara, Leeds Metropolitan University, Susan Pinner, Manchester Metropolitan University, Dr Craig Twist, University of Chester. Accreditation Richard Buscombe, University of East London, Dr Bryna Chrismas, University of Bedfordshire, Dr Faye Didymus, Leeds Metropolitan University, Dr Gerwyn Hughes, University of Hertfordshire, Emma Kavanagh, University of Bournemouth Dr Camilla Knight, Swansea University, Leonie Lightfoot, England Athletics, Dr Christopher Retallick, University of South Wales, Dr Joanna Richards, University of Bedfordshire, Alan Ruddock, Shefeld Hallam University, Dr Jonathan Sinclair, University of Central Lancashire, Dr Martin Turner, Staffordshire University, Morgan Williams, University of South Wales, Prof Edward Winter, FBASES, Shefeld Hallam University, Dr Charlotte Woodcock, Staffordshire University. Laboratory Accreditation Southampton Solent University. BASES Certied Exercise Practitioner Kim Davies, Lifestyle Fitness and Physiotherapy Ltd., Lisa Davies, Northumberland Tyne and Wear NHS, Dr Gay Donovan, NHS.

BASES Conference 2013 Award Winners

Human Kinetics Student Oral Presentation Award Matthew Hill, University of Coventry Human Kinetics Student Poster Presentation Award Philip Bell, Northumbria University Routledge Recently Qualied Researcher Oral Presentation Award - Philip Clarke, University of Derby Thanks to the sponsors: Human Kinetics, Sportesse, Routledge and the University of Central Lancashire. Sportesse Exercise Science Oral Presentation Award Roger Eston, University of South Australia Sportesse Sport Science Oral Presentation Award Sharon Dixon, University of Exeter University of Central Lancashire Poster Presentation Award Simon Marwood, Liverpool Hope University.

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The must attend event of the year

Prof Ian Campbell, BASES Chair, and Dr Claire Hitchings, BASES Executive Ofcer, provide an update on the new-look Conference.
The BASES Conference 2014 will see an exciting new format. After a comprehensive review of the event we are changing the way it is delivered to offer a better learning environment, provide essential insight into world leading research and give delegates a chance to rub shoulders with the most inuential individuals in our eld. Taking place over two days (25-26 November) at the prestigious St. Georges Park in Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, the event will be packed with content and insight. Opportunities for socialising and networking will be a key component. To ensure we build the very best conference programme BASES have appointed an exceptional Scientic Programme Committee providing world leading insight, knowledge and experience. Chaired by Prof Clyde Williams, OBE, FBASES the committee will be responsible for selecting a variety of the most important and insightful content available (see Box 1). BASES Fellows have also

guided us on key topical themes for our conference programme giving us the foundation to deliver the most valuable BASES Conference since its inception nearly 20 years ago. For the rst time, places at the conference will be limited so we encourage members to register interest with us at www.bases.org. uk/BASESConference2014. Tickets will go on sale early in 2014.

Box 1. Scientic Programme Committee

Prof Clyde Williams, OBE, FBASES (Chair) Clydeis Emeritus Professor of Sports Science at Loughborough University and adjunct Professor at Victoria University, Melbourne. The founding chair of BASES and served a second term in 2002. In 1986, he was appointed to rst chair in sports science in the UK. His research interest is the inuence of carbohydrate nutrition and metabolism on exercise capacity and performance. He is a Non-Executive Director on the BASES Board. Dr Kevin Currell Kevin is Head of Performance Nutrition at the English Institute of Sport.Alongside this he is Lead Performance Nutritionist for British Athletics and GB Short Track having supported British Triathlon and GB Canoeing through to the London Olympic Games.Kevin is a BASES accredited sport and exercise scientist. He will bring a strong applied, elite performance angle to the committee and be able to provide insight into the physiology, nutrition and metabolism area. Dr Jason Gill FBASES Jason is a Reader in Exercise Science in the Institute of Cardiovascular and Medical Sciences at the University of Glasgow. He leads a research group investigating the effects of exercise and diet on the prevention and management of vascular and metabolic diseases and has published and presented widely in this eld. He is also Director of the University of Glasgows MSc programme in Sport and Exercise Science & Medicine.
Jason is a Reader in Exercise Science in the Institute of Cardiovascular and Medical Sciences at the

Prof John Saxton FBASES John is a BASES Accredited Sport and Exercise Scientist, member of the Physiological Society and has served on the Council for the Society for Research in Rehabilitation. He has an international research prole in clinical exercise physiology and excellent awareness of key players in the eld. He has edited two books on exercise in the management of longterm conditions. Dr Paul Worsfold As Biomechanics Technical Lead at the English Institute of Sport and Head of Sports Biomechanics and Performance Analysis at the University of Chester, Paul works with a wide range of professional teams, elite athletes, governing bodies, Olympic squads and sports equipment manufactures. From his experiences within industry, as an applied practitioner, and as a researcher and lecturer, he will provide a contemporary view of key themes. Dr Rich Neil Rich is Programme Director for the BSc Sport and Exercise Science Degree at Cardiff Met. He was the Conference Organiser for the recent BASES Student Conference 2013. Rich is a Health and Care Professions Council registered psychologist, British Psychological Societychartered psychologist, and BASES accredited sport and exercise scientist.

Dr Peter Brown Peter is Head of Performance Knowledge at the English Institute of Sport. In this role he is responsible for maximising connectivity and productivity of world class sports science and medicine performance knowledge across the organisation. He is a BASES accredited sport and exercise scientist. Peter will provide an important contribution to the conference scientic committee in the application of both pure and applied sport and exercise science research.

Stafford Murry Over the past 11 years Stafford has been head of Performance Analysis (as well as Biomechanics and Skill Acquisition at various times) within the English Institute of Sport. He has organised many international workshop and conferences (as well as presenting keynotes). He has delivered applied sports science to a variety of Olympic, Commonwealth and professional sports affording a wealth of experience and contacts.

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Letters
Letter of the issue
What makes the perfect sports scientist?
Re: Working in high performance sport. Interview with Dr Barry Fudge and Sarah Gilchrist This was discussed as part of the recent article by Dr Barry Fudge and Sarah Gilchrist and was also one of the questions posed by Dr Dave Martin at the recent ISSSMC conference in Newcastle in August of this year. Dave is a lead physiologist at the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) and his talk largely outlined both his and the AISs philosophy as to how they do sports science. Dave argued that to really improve performance, then we must always have a sound scientic understanding of the specic area we work in as well as a craft understanding of the sport. Im sure we would all agree with these sentiments. What is more challenging, however, is achieving the balance in the time we spend in developing each of these aspects of our practice. For the pure practitioner, then developing our soft skills is a must. After all, good bedside manner can often make the difference in whether our messages are heard or not. Quite rightly, many of the UKs leading sports and universities now devote considerable time to training their staff and students to develop these skills. However, as I spend more time in professional and elite sport, I often wonder if we are becoming guilty of putting practice before science. Indeed, many of the CPD events that are tailored to practitioners often seem to be focused on developing soft skills as opposed to becoming better scientists. I acknowledge that it is difcult for full-time practitioners to stay current with scientic developments but we must all make an effort to at least ask the right questions and/or collaborate with relevant people to help us improve our scientic understanding. After all, if we dont answer these questions, then are we really communicating the most innovative and contemporary messages to our athletes? Moreover, if we arent doing science, then can we really call ourselves sport scientists? - DR JAMES MORTON a fundamental similarity; they are able to discuss and defend their area of specialism with the world leaders in that area, yet they are also able to communicate the same knowledge to a child and enable them to grasp the pertinent (applied) messages. While this nal analogy may provoke a melee of responses, the principle rings true. How would you feel if when you went in for an operation and while the Surgeon had an excellent bedside manner, they didnt really know what they were doing or understand what was wrong with you? I doubt many of you would conclude Oh well, theyre very nice. Why would a sports science practitioner in this vein be any more appropriate? Its the wrong message to be providing to the next generation of practitioners. - ANON

Support for apps

Re: Keeping sport and exercise scientists appy It was interesting to see the article by Caroline Heaney discussing her apps and online work. I agree with the comments made and can see how this form of technology can be very useful including those new to sport, those returning perhaps from injury and those who have a disciplined approach to exercise. Additionally with careful selection it is also possible for coaches, sport scientists, rehabilitation staff, dieticians, psychologists to tap into these adjuncts and use them to their advantage. My experience is mainly focused around the mobile app area, which as Caroline suggests there are plenty of options available either free or for minimal expense. However they are limited and the trick is nding the right one for the client. Too complicated and it wont be used, too simple and its shelf life is limited. A quick search and it is easy to see why JEFIT PRO, NIKE running, runkeeper and MapMyRide are all popular, they all have elements of interaction, not quite on the personal basis that Caroline suggests via SKYPE but nonetheless have easy to negotiate menus, exercise suggestion and feedback in a variety of ways. Of course these are a small selection of singular commercial apps, which are all very good in their own right, however whats needed is a more tailored adaptable app with human behaviour and compliance issues build into the programming, this I feel would be a welcome addition to the sports scientist. - JONATHAN FLYNN

Sound scientic underpinning of a practitioner

Re: Standing out from the crowd The degree is in the bag and you know your technical stuff, so how do you get that key job or promotion? For many years a similar message and seemingly a recruitment drive for people people has been high on the agenda for organisations who employ sports scientists. However, I strongly challenge this broad 80% people skills - 20% technical knowledge paradigm on many levels; suggesting instead that the ratio would/ should be far closer to 2 - 98% in favour of scientic expert. Seemingly, for some, the impression of the practitioner isnt changing as quickly as the reality. Todays practitioners are increasingly expected to hold a PhD; a specialism in a very specic area, which may or may not directly relate to athletic performance. The sound scientic underpinning of a practitioner is paramount. The level of scientic discussions in the labs and ofces of applied practitioners is now very high, commonly requiring practitioners from across disciplines to integrate scientic knowledge to unpick the determinants of a performance and develop a cutting edge intervention, not to mention monitor and evidence the effectiveness of such an innovation. Without deep, scientic knowledge and the ability to extrapolate the biomolecular or mathematical underpinnings to the athletic performance, a practitioner just isnt going to cut it; and rightly so. An excellent practitioner and an excellent scientist should possess

Benets of Twitter
Re: Why should sport and exercise scientists use Twitter and what should they use it for? Not often does social media get portrayed in such a favourable light. Not only did @johnp_mills give a good overview of Twitter, he also gave really clear instructions on how to become the newest tweeter. Had I not already used the site before, I may have been tempted to join after reading the article. As a PhD student and aspiring Sport and Exercise Psychologist, I really enjoy using Twitter; it helps me stay in touch with the community and keep up-to-date with the latest news/events. I like to follow both professional athletes and psychologists alike. The informal nature of the format allows them to reveal insights into their lives that you dont always get from academia and news articles. This is invaluable to someone like me that has aspirations of working in that specic eld. Also some generic accounts like @SpExPsy and @sportinmind also help me stay in touch with sport psychology in the media. They often tweet links to articles in the news they I may have come across organically. I have no doubt other disciplines with sport and exercise can benet in the same way on Twitter. Healthy discussions are not
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too hard to nd and its unique format means everyone can get have their say equally. As the article mentions, the speed and ease of Twitter mean that discussions can be spontaneous and involve multiple people. It was refreshing to see the social media format receive such praise in an article and Im sure the author and @ BASES welcomed the additional followers. Id like to think that in the future more and more people will join Twitter and add to the topical debates. - ELLIOT FLOWERS Write the Letter of the issue and win a years free BASES membership. Letters, which may be edited or shortened for reasons of space or clarity, should be no longer than 300 words, must refer to an article that has appeared in the last issue, and must include the writers name. Please e-mail chitchings@bases.org.uk

Diary Dates
11-13 Dec. Epithelia and Smooth Muscle Interactions in Health and Disease (The Physiological Society Joint Themed Meeting in Epithelia & Membrane Transport and Vascular & Smooth Muscle Physiology), Dublin, Ireland 16-17 Dec. BPS DSEP Conference, The Midland, Manchester, UK 17-19 Dec. International Sport and Exercise Nutrition Conference, Northumbria University 30 Dec. BASES Masters Dissertation of the Year Award submission deadline 6 Jan. BASES Accreditation, High Performance Sports Accreditation and Undergraduate Endorsement Scheme submission deadlines 31 Jan. BASES Professor Tom Reilly Dissertation of the Year Award submission deadline 1 Mar. BASES International Conference Grant submission deadline 13 Mar. BASES Heads of Department Forum, Leeds 3-4 Apr. 11th International Scientic Conference and 10th annual Congress of the Montenegrin Sports Academy 8-9 Apr. BASES Student Conference 2014, University of Portsmouth 25-26 Nov. BASES Conference 2014, St. Georges Park, Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire

Further information: www.bases.org.uk Events n Awards n Grants Social Media You can now follow BASES on Twitter @basesuk Like us on Facebook /basesuk Keep up-to-date with all the latest information, job vacancies, access to articles and reminders of those all important deadlines!
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The BASES Expert Statement on the Psychological Preparation for Football Penalty Shootouts
Produced on behalf of the British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences by Dr Mark Wilson, Dr Greg Wood and Prof Geir Jordet.
Introduction Anxiety is the most signicant contributing factor to performance failure in football penalty shootouts (Jordet et al., 2007, 2012). Indeed, the penalty is one of very few occasions in this predominantly fast-moving, team sport when players are under individual scrutiny and have sufcient time to think about the consequences of failure (Jordet & Elferink-Gemser, 2012). Furthermore, unlike most other skills that are susceptible to choking effects (e.g., golf putting), the opposing teams goalkeeper increases uncertainty and has a direct inuence on performance success. Among practitioners there is considerable confusion and controversy regarding the type, utility and effectiveness of practice and preparation for a penalty shootout. Indeed, penalty shootouts are often referred to as a lottery, with the outcome dependent on luck rather than skill. We argue that such an interpretation is potentially damaging to players control beliefs and ultimately to their performance, and that interventions designed to increase perceptions of control might be useful. Background and evidence Penalty taking and pressure Evidence for the effect of pressure on penalty taking performance comes from both observational and experimental studies. For example, Jordet and colleagues have examined almost 400 kicks from penalty shootouts held during major tournaments. They found that players score on fewer than 60% of their attempts when a miss will instantly result in a loss for the team compared to 92% of their attempts when a goal will win the game (Jordet et al., 2007). Jordet and colleagues have suggested that penalty takers perceptions of control may explain why some choke under the pressure of the shootout and some players succeed. Players perceptions of control are inuenced by both beliefs about the role of skill or luck (contingency), and their beliefs about their penalty taking ability (competence). Players with low perceived competence and contingency (who believe the outcome is dependent on luck or the goalkeepers actions rather than skill) experienced more cognitive anxiety symptoms than those who perceived their competence and contingency level as high (Jordet et al., 2006). A body of experimental research suggests that the mechanisms behind choking in this task may be related to disruptions in visual attentional control. Three types of visual strategy are used in penalty taking (Wood & Wilson, 2010): 1. Keeper-independent (ignore the keeper and pick a spot) 2. Keeper-dependent (watch the keeper and make a decision based on his/her movements) 3. Opposite-independent (look one way and shoot to other side). While performers are more accurate when adopting a keeper independent approach, the relationship between aiming intention, visual strategy and accuracy is disrupted when anxiety is increased. Specically, anxiety increases the amount of attention paid to the goalkeeper and increases the likelihood that takers will produce shots that are hit signicantly closer to the goalkeeper and therefore more saveable (Wilson et al., 2009). What can be done? Research evidence By examining video footage of successful and unsuccessful penalty performance it is possible to determine behaviours that appear to be more productive than others. For example, players who take less than one second to place the ball on the penalty spot score on about 58% of their penalties whereas those who take longer score on about 80% of their penalties (Jordet et al., 2009). Similarly, taking about a second or more to respond to the referees whistle to initiate the shot is associated with a higher probability of scoring than immediately rushing towards the ball (Jordet et al., 2009). Therefore, players need to take their time as
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Left: Players who take less than one second to place the ball on the penalty spot score on about 58% of their penalties whereas those who take longer score on about 80% of their penalties

they prepare for the shot, rather than rushing to get the penalty over and done with. Developing and practising a suitable pre-shot routine is a potentially useful way to guide these timings and help protect performance under pressure. Indeed, recent research by Wood and Wilson (2012) has suggested that learning a routine involving a gaze control element (look at the point where you want to shoot prior to the run-up) helped penalty takers in a shootout task to be more accurate, maintain effective visuomotor control and increase perceptions of psychological control and contingency. While it is virtually impossible to recreate the pressure experienced in a shootout, it is possible to ne-tune the skill of penalty taking in training. In the shootout itself, when anxiety will be exerting a powerful inuence on attentional control and perceptions of contingency, such beliefs about competence should help strengthen perceptions of control and help to maintain performance. Football is a team sport and it is worth noting that what a player does after scoring a penalty in a shootout can inuence the performance of those taking arguably the more pressurised penalties afterwards. Jordet and colleagues (Moll et al., 2010) found that on penalties taken when the score is tied, 82% of the players who substantially celebrate their goal end up on the winning team. The positive emotions from such a celebration seem to be contagious. Team meetings should also be held to discuss what players fear the most (i.e., missing a shot) and, more importantly, discussing strategies for dealing with these outcomes. Teams can develop What if plans for each individual to deal with his/her missed kick and for the group to support those players who do miss (Jordet & Elferink-Gemser, 2012). Conclusions and recommendations In training: Have team meetings to discuss some of the known success factors in penalty shootouts (see above); the fears of the players; and plans to support individual and team failure.

Develop and practise pre-shot routines (including the walk in from the centre circle) that have a gaze control element that promotes optimal aiming behaviour. Promote target-focused practice so that players can hit each of the four corners consistently (to increase competence/ contingency). Coaches need to be innovative when designing ways to increase anxiety and distraction, and methods to challenge perceived control during training. For example, players could practise shooting while telling the goalkeeper which side they intend to shoot to. An accurate penalty is very hard to stop even if the goalkeeper knows which way it is going - so by practising in these conditions players can reinforce perceptions of control over the outcome. In match: Dont rush: Place the ball properly on the spot and take a breath while focusing on where you intend to shoot, before starting the run-up. Taking a deep breath is likely to ease feelings of anxiety and provides a temporal cue to ensure that sufcient processing of target-related information is enabled. Trust your technique and routine pick a spot and hit it. Celebrate! It will help your team-mates who have to take the subsequent penalty kicks. It is hoped that this synthesis of research into penalty taking might help alleviate some of the learned helplessness that appears to be rife in football concerning the mental and physical preparation for football penalty shootouts. Penalty takers need to regain control of this situation, rather than allowing themselves to be victims of the environment, their lack of preparation, or the antics of the goalkeeper. Penalty shootouts dont have to be a lottery!

References: Dr Mark Wilson Mark is an Associate Professor in sport psychology and skill acquisition at the University of Exeter, where his research examines the cognitive processes underlying the learning and skilled performance of targeting skills. He is also a BASES accredited sport and exercise scientist and a BPS Chartered Psychologist. Dr Greg Wood Greg is a Lecturer in sport psychology and skill acquisition at Liverpool Hope University. Gregs PhD focused on the visuomotor control of football penalty takers; how this might be disrupted by anxiety and distractions; and how quiet eye training regimes might improve both visuomotor and psychological control. Prof Geir Jordet Geir is Director of Psychology at the Norwegian Centre of Football Excellence and a researcher on psychology and football at the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences. As a practitioner, he works with several Norwegian professional football teams and regularly gives advice to other European clubs and organisations. Jordet, G. & Elferink-Gemser, M.T. (2012). Stress, coping, and emotions on the world stage: The experience of participating in a major soccer tournament penalty shootout. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 24, 73-91. Jordet, G. et al. (2006). The Russian roulette of soccer?: Perceived control and anxiety in a major tournament penalty shootout. International Journal Sport Psychology, 37, 281-298. Jordet, G., Hartman, E. & Sigmundstad, E. (2009). Temporal links to performing under pressure in international soccer penalty shootouts. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 10, 621-627. Jordet, G., Hartman, E., Visscher, C. & Lemimink, K.A.P .M. (2007). Kicks from the penalty mark in soccer: The roles of stress, skill, and fatigue for kick outcomes. Journal of Sports Sciences, 25, 121-129. Moll, T., Jordet, G. & Pepping, G.J. (2010). Emotional contagion in soccer penalty shootouts: Celebration of individual success is associated with ultimate team success. Journal of Sports Sciences, 28, 983-992. Wilson, M.R., Wood, G. & Vine, S.J. (2009). Anxiety, attentional control and performance impairment in penalty kicks. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 31, 761-775. Wood, G. & Wilson, M.R. (2010). Gaze behaviour and shooting strategies in football penalty kicks: Implications of a keeper-dependent approach. International Journal of Sport Psychology, 41, 293-312. Wood, G. & Wilson, M.R. (2012). Quiet-eye training, perceived control and performing under pressure. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 13, 721-728. Copyright BASES, 2013 Permission is given for reproduction in substantial part. We ask that the following note be included: First published in The Sport and Exercise Scientist, Issue 38, Winter 2013. Published by the British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences www.bases.org.uk Download a PDF of this article: www.bases.org.uk/BASES-Expert-Statements

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The BASES Expert Statement on the Use of Mental Imagery in Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation Contexts
Produced on behalf on the British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences by Dr Tadhg MacIntyre, Prof Aidan Moran, Prof Christian Collet, Prof Aymeric Guillot, Dr Mark Campbell, Dr James Matthews, Prof Craig Mahoney FBASES and Jim Lowther.
Introduction 6 7 Individual MetaImagery 5 8 Differences Mental imagery is a popular cognitive simulation Imagery Ability Imagery Expertise Outcomes Level technique dened as a symbolic sensory 4 9 experience that may occur in any sensory Activation Developmental mode (Hardy et al., 1996, p.28). One of its key Stage applications is in mental practice (also known 3 10 as motor imagery) or the systematic use of Imagery Periodisation Direction mental imagery to rehearse skills covertly, without executing the movements involved. 11 2 Imagery Temporal Having evaluated the efcacy of mental practice Scripts Equivalence in laboratory settings, imagery researchers have gradually turned to sport (MacIntyre et al., 2013), 1 12 Applied Imagery exercise (Thgersen-Ntoumani et al., 2012) and Modality Recommendations Training Sessions rehabilitation (Grangeon et al., 2012) contexts. Implementation Nature and Arising from these studies, a signicant evidenceCharacteristics base has accumulated on imagery mechanisms and applications (Guillot & Collet, 2010). The present Figure 1. Applied recommendations for mental imagery. paper provides an expert statement on optimal imagery use in Finally, theoretical models of imagery use have been developed for sport, exercise and rehabilitation encompassing the evidence exercise and sporting domains (Guillot & Collet, 2008). from different contexts. Background and evidence The following principles have emerged from recent research on imagery processes. First, imagery is now widely acknowledged as a multi-dimensional, multi-modal construct. Second, there are close parallels between the imagining, perceiving and motor control (planning and executing) of actions. Discovery of these parallels led to the functional equivalence hypothesis (e.g., Jeannerod, 1994) or the proposition that mental imagery shares, to some degree, certain representations, neural structures, and mechanisms with like-modality perception and with motor preparation and execution processes. This functional equivalence approach led to the development of the PETTLEP model of motor imagery, which provided a guiding framework for the application of imagery, but one that was limited in several respects (see Wakeeld et al., 2013). Third, motor imagery processes can be measured objectively using the mental chronometry paradigm. The logic here is that if imagined and executed actions rely on similar motor representations and activate certain common brain areas, then the temporal organisation of imagined and actual actions should also be similar. Consequently, there should be a close correspondence between the time required to mentally perform a given action and that required for its actual execution. Fourth, the discovery that athletes often move slightly while engaged in mental practice has spawned interest in dynamic imagery (See Guillot & Collet, 2010), which challenges the traditional assumption that imagery requires the athlete to be static and/or relaxed. Fifth, recent research on athletes metaimagery processes and the consequence of debilitative imagery in sport (MacIntyre et al., 2013) has augmented earlier ndings that indicated that athletes had sophisticated understanding of how to employ mental imagery effectively (White & Hardy, 1998). Conclusions and recommendations Based on the evidence adduced above (see Figure 1), we can cautiously assert that practitioners should consider the following 12 recommendations to optimise the use of mental imagery by their clients in a variety of sport, exercise and rehabilitation contexts. Furthermore, in order to minimise risks to client groups and to reduce any unwanted effects, we have highlighted possible contraindications where relevant, but these are merely generalised examples and may not always apply. Modality: Practitioners should encourage clients to use multimodal imagery, focusing especially on the sensory modalities that are most relevant to the skill in question. Also, the advantages and disadvantages of using different imagery perspectives (i.e., rst-person/or third-person) should be considered. These factors are inuenced by individual preferences and task characteristics. For example, the use of an external visual imagery viewpoint in a morphokinetic task (e.g., gymnastics routine) may be advantageous as it may enable the movement form to be analysed. Contraindication: Engaging in imagery using senses (e.g., taste, smell) that are irrelevant to the task may diminish the working memory resources required for image generation. Temporal equivalence: To improve the efcacy of mental practice interventions, practitioners should encourage clients, where possible, to try to achieve congruence between the duration of their imagined and actual actions. Contraindication: Slow-motion imagery may produce involuntary modications of movement time. Imagery direction: Where possible practitioners should recommend facilitative rather than debilitative imagery, unless the goal is specically to enhance an adaptive emotional response to an event (e.g., increase resilience). If the client unintentionally engages in imagery of performance failure then s/he should be encouraged
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either to restructure it or to generate a positive alternative image. Contraindication: Ideal performance images may be unrealistic and lead to heightened expectations. Activation: The optimal use of imagery requires congruence between the clients arousal state and the physiological activation level required for the task. If the imagery is intended to enhance motor skills, it is important that the clients arousal state matches that required by the performance. Dynamic imagery may be useful as it may assist in matching the level of activation. Contraindication: Unnecessary use of gross limb movements during dynamic imagery may cause fatigue and deterioration of performance during motor execution. Imagery outcomes: Practitioners should clarify the precise outcome that is desired from any given imagery intervention and, where possible, seek to devise and implement an individualised imagery script for the client. Typical (but not exclusive) outcomes include skill enhancement, improvement of psychological processes (e.g., motivation) and rehabilitation of muscular movements. Contraindication: Uncertainty of desired outcome from imagery may reduce adherence to the imagery training programme. Meta-imagery Before developing an imagery script, practitioners should try to elicit the clients knowledge, control and understanding of his/her own imagery processes, because this may inuence his/her imagery ability and application. Knowledge of imagery processes does not equate with imagery ability, which should also be evaluated. Imagery ability: Practitioners should assess clients imagery abilities to ensure that they are able to imagine the motor skill appropriately. Contraindication: Assessment may be skewed if only one measure is applied, particularly if this is a self-report measure. Expertise level: Imagery is benecial to all levels of performers, from novice to elite, but may be more effective for experts. It should be noted that one should not assume that elite performers have competencies in imagery abilities, because sport-specic demands may lead to wide variations in these abilities even among elite sporting samples. Developmental stage: The cognitive developmental stage of the client should be considered before designing and implementing an imagery intervention. Imagery can be used with children but practitioners must be aware that the content of the imagery should account for their cognitive development trajectory. Limiting the complexity of the tasks may not provide sufcient variety for the athlete so the imagery context should be reviewed regularly. Periodisation: Before implementing an imagery intervention, it is important to consider the time of season, the environmental context, and the stage of injury, if relevant. This is dependent on the desired outcomes. Contraindication: Performance and motivational decrements are possible from incorrect timing of interventions. Imagery scripts: It is recommended to create an individualised imagery script, with a variety of imagery content and clearly dened outcomes. The content should be updated as the client increases his/her level of performance expertise or as he/she, for example, increase frequency and/or types of activity. Each script should have a discernible beginning and end point, in order to control the temporal congruence of the imagery, if relevant. Contraindication: Imagery scripts should be adapted and modied regularly to prevent client boredom with the rehearsal of the simulated action. Imagery training sessions: Short imagery intervention sessions are recommended dependent upon the planned outcome and the mental load constraints. In order to ensure the optimal frequency of imagery training, the practitioner needs to be aware of the clients abilities, the specic skill being rehearsed together with the time the client has available to practise imagery of the motor skill. Combining imagery and physical practice should be promoted when possible, but imagery is a good alternative when physical practice is not available. Contraindication: Possible fatigue effects of imagery training may result.
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Dr Tadhg MacIntyre Tadhg is a Lecturer at the Department of Physical Education and Sport Sciences, University of Limerick. Prof Christian Collet Christian is the Head of the Centre de Recherche et dInnovation sur le Sport, Universit Claude Bernard Lyon 1. Dr Mark Campbell Mark is a Lecturer at the Department of Physical Education and Sport Sciences, University of Limerick. Prof Craig Mahoney FBASES Craig is the Vice Chancellor of the University of the West of Scotland.

Prof Aidan Moran Aidan is at the School of Psychology, University College Dublin.

Prof Aymeric Guillot Aymeric is a Researcher at the Centre de Recherche et dInnovation sur le Sport, Universit Claude Bernard Lyon 1. Dr James Matthews James is a Lecturer in the School of Public Health, Physiotherapy and Population Science, University College Dublin. Jim Lowther Jim is a Lecturer at the Ulster Sports Academy, University of Ulster.

Acknowledgements: Members of the Research in Imagery and Observation Group (RIO), subscribers to the SPORTPSY listserve, and in particular to Dr Brian Hemmings FBASES and Prof Lew Hardy FBASES for their feedback on the draft statement. References: Grangeon, M. et al. (2012). Could motor imagery be effective in upper limb rehabilitation of individuals with spinal cord injury? A case study. Spinal Cord, 50 (10), 766-771. Guillot, A. & Collet, C. (2008). Construction of the motor imagery integrative model in sport: A review and theoretical investigation of motor imagery use. International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 1 (1), 31-44. Guillot, A. & Collet, C. (2010). The neurophysiological foundations of mental and motor imagery (Eds.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Hardy, L., Jones, G. & Gould, D. (1996). Understanding psychological preparation for sport: Theory and practice of elite performers. Wiley: Chichester. Holmes, P . S. & Collins, D. J. (2001). The PETTLEP approach to motor imagery: A functional equivalence model for sport psychologists. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 13(1) 60-83. Jeannerod, M. (1994). The representing brain: neural correlates of motor intention and imagery. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 17, 187-202. MacIntyre, T. et al. (2013). An emerging paradigm: A strength-based approach to exploring mental imagery. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 04/2013; volume 7 (article 104). Morris, T., Spittle, M. & Watt, A.P . (2005). Imagery in sport. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics. Thgersen-Ntoumani, C., Cumming, J. &. Ntoumanis, N. (2012). Exercise imagery and its correlates in older adults. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 13, 19-25. Wakeeld, C. J. et al. (2013). Functional equivalence or behavioural matching? A critical reection on 15 years of research using the PETTLEP model of motor imagery. International Review Sport and Exercise Psychology, 6 (1), 105-121. Download a PDF of this article: www.bases.org.uk/BASES-Expert-Statements Copyright BASES, 2013 Permission is given for reproduction in substantial part. We ask that the following note be included: First published in The Sport and Exercise Scientist, Issue 38, Winter 2013. Published by the British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences www.bases.org.uk

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The BASES Expert Statement on the Effectiveness of Vision Training Programmes

Produced on behalf of the British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences by Dr Nicholas Smeeton, Dr Jenny Page, Dr Joe Causer, Dr Mark Wilson, Dr Rob Gray and Prof Mark Williams.
Introduction Two types of vision training programmes exist, namely, generalised vision training (GVT) and sport-specic vision training (SVT). GVT programmes are designed to improve basic visual function (e.g., depth perception, motion perception and peripheral vision). A range of exercises is typically used by vision specialists such as optometrists and ophthalmologists. Although these specialists usually work to assist individuals with visual deciencies, more recently the same methods have been used with athletes in an effort to improve sports performance. Whilst there is anecdotal support for the use of GVT programmes, there remains a paucity of empirical evidence to suggest that such training improves sports performance. Conversely, research on SVT has been shown to lead to task-specic improvements in sports performance (Smeeton et al., 2005; Williams et al., 2002). Here, we summarise scientic research that examines the utility of both types of training programmes for performance enhancement in sport. Vision training The rationale for using GVT is that improving basic aspects of visual function will lead to improvements in the performance of perceptual-motor skills that use the functions being trained. For example, exercises that improve an individuals general ability to detect objects in peripheral vision will improve skills such as playing basketball. In GVT it is not necessary to include/represent the specic sport context as part of the training intervention (i.e., sportspecic images are typically not employed). In contrast, SVT aims to improve the ability to detect, discriminate, and/or identify the specic sources of visual information involved in a particular athletes sport. For example, rather than using abstract stimuli to train an individuals ability to detect the direction of a moving object, sport-specic stimuli are employed to improve a goalkeepers ability to detect the direction of motion of a shooters hip during a football penalty kick. The rst stage in the development of SVT programmes typically involves using experts from within the sport to identify the specic sources of information used during successful performance on the task (i.e., the expert-model approach). Next, interventions are developed that use sport- and task-specic video simulations to ensure that these specic information sources are captured. In situ instructions are given to highlight the most useful places to extract information from the visual display and link this information to actions and outcomes. The effectiveness of these training interventions relies on the development of a comparable knowledge base and visual strategy to that employed by the expert model(s). Support for generalised vision training The evidence used to support GVT is limited due to the fact that very few researchers have demonstrated a causal link between improvements in visual function and subsequent changes in sports performance. Indeed, the majority of researchers have employed correlational designs. In the USA, Clark et al. (2012) examined whether GVT exercises improved the batting performance of baseball players over two consecutive seasons in the National College Athletic Association. The GVT programme included exercises designed to improve depth perception, saccadic eye movements, accommodation and vergence. Signicant increases were reported for several performance metrics following training. While such ndings suggest a possible link between GVT and improvements in sports performance, the absence of adequate control and placebo groups precludes denitive conclusions from being drawn. The majority of intervention studies using GVT programmes in the sports domain do not support the utility of GVT (see Abernethy, 1996; Williams & Grant, 1999 for reviews). Schwab and Memmert (2012) reported that a group of young eld hockey players who participated in a 6-week intervention that included practice using a Dynavision D2 Trainer, Eyeport, Vision Performance Enhancement Program, Hart Charts and P-Rotator improved performance on the same visual test on which they trained. However, there was no improvement on a functional eld of view task or an additional measure of transfer (multiple object tracking). Using a randomised, placebo-controlled design, Abernethy and Wood (2001) reported that while participants who underwent one of two GVT programmes did improve performance in a stationary sport-specic transfer test (by 7.25 %) participants in a control group who received no vision training also improved (by 3.3 %). To provide stronger support for the efcacy of GVT programmes, researchers need to ensure that appropriate control and experimental groups are employed so that a cause and effect relationship between GVT and performance can be ascertained. While there is a lack of evidence for the efcacy of GVT programmes in improving sports performance, such interventions may be useful to redress imbalances (e.g., eye dominance) or decits in normal visual functioning. The tests used in many GVT programmes could be valuable for screening/testing vision in sport. There may be instances when the visual system of an athlete is not functioning properly and, as a result, sports performance (and general health) might suffer (e.g., Goodrich et al., 2013). GVT for screening and health purposes must not be ignored. Support for sport-specic vision training When sport-specic visual stimuli are used there is some evidence that training does improve sports performance (see Causer et al., 2012 for a review). Williams et al. (2002) trained anticipation of tennis groundstrokes using lm-based sport-specic vision (perceptual) training. They demonstrated that anticipation could be trained through video feedback of key visual stimuli from the opponents action. Not only did anticipation performance improve above that seen in a matched-ability intervention group, but these improvements transferred to an on-court test of anticipation
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(the training groups mean responses were 0.187 s quicker than reported for the control and placebo groups). Hopwood et al. (2011) demonstrated that highly skilled cricket players who received visual-perceptual training in conjunction with on-eld training, demonstrated greater improvements in in situ elding tests (catching success improved by 21.7 % from preto post-test) compared to those who received on-eld training alone (catching success improved by 16.2 % from pre- to post-test). Additionally, studies examining eye-gaze behaviour in sports requiring accurate aiming have shown that skilled performance is linked to having a longer and earlier quiet eye (nal xation prior to the critical movement) on the relevant target location. Training interventions designed to increase this quiet eye dwell time not only successfully enhance task performance (above technically-focused interventions) in laboratory settings, but also transfer to competitive sports settings (see Causer et al., 2012; Vine et al., 2012 for reviews). An important advantage of quiet eye training is that the eye movements are trained in situ. However, as with other SVT programmes, the performance improvements routinely do not generalise to other tasks (Smeeton et al., 2005; Williams et al., 2002). In conjunction with the lack of support for GVT, these ndings suggest that benets arise due to specic (software) rather than generalised (hardware) improvements (Abernethy & Wood, 2001). Without task-specic knowledge about the salient visual information, the benets of having more effective general visual functioning in individuals with already healthy visual function are unlikely to be realised. Conclusions and recommendations Generalised vision testing is useful in screening for decits in visual functioning. Such tests should be conducted by qualied practitioners (e.g., optometrists, ophthalmologists). While GVT may improve an athletes performance on a general test of visual function, there is no peer-reviewed evidence to support the transfer of this improvement to sports performance. SVT has been shown to have performance advantages when compared to control and placebo groups across a range of sports. These advantages appear to be task-specic. When considering evidence for any vision training intervention, it is important to gauge whether good practice has been followed. Have placebo and control groups been used and has transfer of performance to the competitive situation been measured? Correlational and anecdotal accounts should be interpreted with caution.
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Dr Nicholas Smeeton Nicholas is a Principal Lecturer in Sport and Exercise Psychology at the University of Brighton.

Dr Jenny Page Jenny is a Senior Lecturer in Sport and Exercise Psychology at the University of Chichester.

Dr Joe Causer Joe is a Senior Lecturer in Applied Sport Psychology at Liverpool John Moores University.

Dr Mark Wilson Mark is an Associate Professor of Experimental Psychology & Human Movement Science at the University of Exeter. Prof Mark Williams Mark is Professor and subject leader of sport sciences at Brunel University.

Dr Rob Gray Rob is a Reader in Perception and Action at Birmingham University.

Acknowledgements: The authors would like to acknowledge the Expertise and Skill Acquisition Network (ESAN) for helping to bring this team of researchers together. References: Abernethy, B. (1996). Training the visual-perceptual skills of athletes - Insights from the study of motor expertise. American Journal of Sports Medicine, 24, S89-S92. Abernethy, B. & Wood, J.M. (2001). Do generalized visual training programmes for sport really work? An experimental investigation. Journal of Sports Sciences, 19(3), 203-222. doi: 10.1080/026404101750095376 Causer, J. et al. (2012). Perceptual training: What can be trained? In N.J. Hodges & A.M. Williams (Eds.), Skill Acquisition in Sport: Research, Theory and Practice (pp. 306324). London: Routledge. Clark, J.F. et al. (2012). High-performance vision training improves batting statistics for University of Cincinnati baseball players. Plos One, 7(1). doi:10.1371/journal. pone.0029109 Goodrich, G.L. et al. (2013). Development of a mild traumatic brain injury-specic vision screening protocol: A Delphi study. Journal of Rehabilitation Research and Development, 50(6), 757-768. doi: 10.1682/jrrd.2012.10.0184 Hopwood, M.J. et al. (2011). Does visual-perceptual training augment the elding performance of skill cricketers?International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching, 4(6), 523-535. Schwab, S. & Memmert, D. (2012). The impact of a sports vision training program in youth eld hockey players. Journal of Sports Science and Medicine, 11(4), 624-631. Smeeton, N.J. et al. (2005). The relative effectiveness of various instructional approaches in developing anticipation skill. Journal of Experimental Psychology-Applied, 11(2), 98-110. doi: 10.1037/1076-898x.11.2.98. Vine, S.J., Moore, L.J. & Wilson, M.R. Quiet eye training: The acquisition, renement and resilient performance of targeting skills. European Journal of Sport Science ahead-of-print (2012): 1-8. doi:10.1080/17461391.2012.683815 Williams, A.M. & Grant, A. (1999). Training perceptual skill in sport. International Journal of Sport Psychology, 30(2), 194-220. Williams, A.M. et al. (2002). Anticipation skill in a real-world task: Measurement, training, and transfer in tennis. Journal of Experimental Psychology-Applied, 8(4), 259270. doi:10.1037/1076-898x.8.4.259 Download a PDF of this article: www.bases.org.uk/BASES-Expert-Statements Copyright BASES, 2013 Permission is given for reproduction in substantial part. We ask that the following note be included: First published in The Sport and Exercise Scientist, Issue 38, Winter 2013. Published by the British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences www.bases.org.uk

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Breathing mechanics and ventilatory constraint during upper-body exercise

Nick Tiller provides an overview of his research in this area and its potential implications.
Background The principal aim of my PhD is to investigate differences in the way healthy people breathe during predominately upper-body exercise compared to lower-body exercise. This research advances work from our laboratory that assessed diaphragm function in Paralympic athletes with cervical spinal cord injury (Taylor et al., 2010). These individuals exhibit partial or complete denervation of the primary and secondary expiratory muscles and were shown to dynamically hyperinate during exercise. That is, they shifted their exercise tidal volume upwards from rest, thereby utilising a higher proportion of their available lung capacity. Dynamic hyperination is more often exhibited in patients with obstructive lung disease, whose airways collapse under the high intra-thoracic pressures generated during forced expiration; this causes a major limitation to airow. In the group of athletes with cervical spinal cord injury, however, no such airow limitation or ventilatory constraint was observed. Thus, it is unclear if dynamic hyperination is specic to the populations thus far studied, or whether this is simply the normal response to upper-body exercise. Further research in the domain may provide a mechanistic basis to further understand the physiology of sports that are dependent on the upper-body (e.g., rowing, kayaking, swimming). Further, patients with lung disease report greater breathlessness during upper-body tasks compared to the lower-body, and since breathlessness is strongly associated with exercise intolerance, particularly in lung disease, this research has important pathophysiological implications. Our research We aimed to assess breathing mechanics and ventilatory constraint during upper- versus lower-body exercise in eight healthy, ablebodied, recreationally-active men [24 5 (SD) y]. Participants were required to perform four maximal graded exercise tests, two on a stationary cycle-ergometer and two on an arm-crank ergometer, performed in a randomised/counterbalanced order on separate days. The initial exercise trials, completed to volitional exhaustion, were designed to elicit the mode-specic ventilatory prole that enabled us to match ventilation across a range of workloads in subsequent tests. Matching ventilation between exercise mode was an essential pre-requisite for the study since ventilatory demand is the principal mechanism that underpins changes in respiratory patterns and mechanics. We found that upper-body exercise signicantly constrained tidal volume and elevated respiratory frequency. The reduction in tidal volume at peak arm exercise came by way of an increase in endexpiratory lung volume (the volume achieved at the end of a normal tidal expiration). Importantly, the change in operating lung volume occurred despite limited evidence of expiratory ow limitation. The breathing mechanics observed during upper-body exercise were due, therefore, to a mechanism that was altogether independent of ventilation or ventilatory constraint. Several contemporary studies have also assessed respiratory patterns during upper-body exercise, with similar observations to our own, but they failed to effectively quantify respiratory

Above: Positioning the balloon-catheter for the assessment of oesophageal pressure during exercise Courtesy Leighton B Jones

muscle work. This is an important piece of the puzzle since respiratory muscle work provides essential information on the central neural drive to the respiratory muscles. We measured central drive via two validated methods. First, we used a conventional latex balloon-tipped catheter (pictured), which was introduced pernasally and swallowed by the participant. Once positioned in the lower third of the oesophagus, the balloon acts as a pressure sensor while the distal end attaches to an independent differential pressure transducer, capable of detecting even subtle changes in airway pressure that result, in part, from contractions of the respiratory muscles. These measures act as a surrogate for pleural pressure and give a strong indication of respiratory muscle work. Furthermore, we used surface electromyography of the rectus abdominis to assess expiratory muscle activation during exercise. We found that upper-body exercise signicantly elevated the within-breath oesophageal pressure swing and resulted in greater abdominal muscle activation compared to the lower-body at similar ventilations. Upper-body exercise, therefore, results in greater central neural drive to the respiratory muscles compared to lower-body exercise when matched for ventilation. The mechanism There may be several mechanisms that underpin the mechanical ventilatory responses to upper-body exercise, but the principal hypothesis alludes to the specic motor mechanics of upperbody exercise during which respiratory muscles are progressively used to stiffen the spine and maintain torso stabilisation (Hodges et al., 2005). The diaphragm, the primary muscle of inspiration, has important functions in trunk stabilisation prior to rapid arm movements (Hodges et al., 1997). Furthermore, other inspiratory muscles like the parasternal intercostals have inspiratory and postural drives which share a common neural pathway, i.e., they depolarise the same motoneurons (Hudson et al., 2010). It is likely that this competition for respiratory muscles for both breathing and
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posture, which is exacerbated during upper-body exercise, may ultimately limit the ability of humans to perform tasks requiring sustained heavy use of the arms. The so what? factor These are novel ndings that may have important implications for those competing in sports that involve the upper-body, in addition to those with lung disease who rely heavily upon the upper-body during activities of daily living (e.g., shopping, cleaning, gardening). The mechanical ventilatory responses to upper-body exercise observed presently are disadvantageous, since the inspiratory muscles must overcome additional elastic loads presented by the lung and chest wall (Alison et al., 1998). Compromising respiratory muscle function in this way could result in disrupted gas exchange at the level of the alveoli (Martin et al., 1991) and possibly affect sensations of breathlessness (ODonnell et al., 2000). Furthermore, the respiratory dynamics of upper-body exercise may elicit exercise-induced respiratory muscle fatigue, as has been shown to occur in response to high-intensity lower-body exercise (Romer & Polkey, 2008). This may, in turn, affect skeletal muscle blood ow and exercise capacity. There is a paucity of literature at present directly assessing the physiological repercussions, performance and clinical implications of upper-body respiratory mechanics. Our immediate studies are thus concerned with central respiratory drive and its association with the sensations of breathlessness during upper- versus lowerbody exercise, in addition to assessing the incidence and extent of respiratory muscle fatigue.

Nick Tiller Nick is a BASES accredited sport and exercise scientist and a PhD student in the Centre for Sports Medicine and Human Performance at Brunel University. He was invited to submit this article as a winner of a BASES International Conference Grant. References: Alison, J.A. et al. (1998). End-expiratory lung volume during arm and leg exercise in normal subjects and patients with cystic brosis. American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, 158, 1450-8. Hodges, P .W. et al. (1997). Contraction of the human diaphragm during rapid postural adjustments. Journal of Physiology 505: 539-548. Hodges, P .W. et al. (2005). Intra-abdominal pressure increases stiffness of the lumbar spine. Journal of Biomechanics, 38, 1873-80. Hudson, A.L. et al. (2010). Interplay Between the Inspiratory and Postural Functions of the Human Parasternal Intercostal Muscles. Journal of Neurophysiology. 106, 1622-1628. Martin, T.W., Zeballos, R.J. & Weisman, I.M. (1991). Gas exchange during maximal upper extremity exercise. Chest, 99, 420-5. ODonnell, D.E., Hong, H.H. & Webb, K.A. (2000). Respiratory sensation during chest wall restriction and dead space loading in exercising men. Journal of Applied Physiology. 88, 1859-1869. Romer, L.M. & Polkey, M.I. (2008). Exercise induced respiratory muscle fatigue: implications for performance. Journal of Applied Physiology. 104, 879-888. Taylor, B.J. & Romer, L.M. (2010). Effect of expiratory muscle loading on inspiratory and expiratory muscle fatigue. Respiratory Physiology and Neurobiology, 166, 164-174.

RESOURCES AND INFORMATION

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Genetic testing in sport and exercise

Prof Yannis Pitsiladis and other scientists in the eld of sport and exercise genetics provide an up-to-date summary of genetic ndings in relation to sporting performance and discuss practical implications.
An overview of genetic ndings in relation to sporting performance Current knowledge in sports genetics Sporting performance is a complex phenotype, and it is acknowledged that to become an elite athlete, a synergy of physiological, behavioural and other environmental factors is required. To date, over 200 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with some performance- and tness-related traits have been reported in the literature and were summarised on a yearly basis until 2009 in The Human Gene Map for Performance and Health-related Fitness Phenotypes (Bray et al., 2009). The large increase in genetic studies and limited resources from few dedicated teams being able to manage these continuously expanded data entries have resulted in the publication of only the most important ndings each year since 2010 in Advances in Exercise, Fitness, and Performance Genomics (Prusse et al., 2013). In a
STUDY
GENATHLETE RUSSIAN COHORT EAST AFRICAN COHORT

review of 133 studies involving athletic cohorts published during the period 1997-2012, 59 genetic markers were reported to be associated with endurance performance, 20 with power/strengthrelated performance, while 25% of these markers were positively associated with performance in at least two studies (Ahmetov & Fedotovskaya, 2012). Popular genetic discovery approaches and their applications Performance-related genetic data has been predominantly generated using classical genetic methods such as estimates of heritability and candidate gene association analysis and primarily applied to cohorts with small sample sizes. The data generated from previous association studies need to be examined in the light of the view held by many hard-core geneticists that a study of any complex phenotype in humans is futile unless a cohort size of between 20,000 and 100,000 is used and therefore possessing sufcient statistical power for meaningful analysis and interpretation.

DESIGN
Candidate gene case-control multicentre study Candidate gene case-control study involving 24 different athletic disciplines Candidate gene case-control study

PARTICIPANTS
~300 ~300 1423 1242 291 85 76 315 116 311 114 191 429 436 717 814 . Endurance athletes with high VO2 max . Untrained controls with low to average VO2 max

Russian endurance athletes of regional or national competitive standards Russian controls Kenyan endurance athletes of national/international standard Kenyan controls Ethiopian endurance athletes from the junior/senior-level national athletic teams Ethiopian controls Jamaican sprint athletes of national/international competitive standard Jamaican controls African-American sprint athletes of national/international competitive standard African-American controls Elite white athletes White controls Japanese athletes of national/international competitive standard (including 381 track and field athletes, 166 swimmers and 170 Olympians from various sports Japanese controls Caucasion swimmers of world-class status; Japanese of national/international competitive standards Japanese controls Taiwanese swimmers of national/international competitive standard Taiwanese controls Spanish male endurance athletes of world-class status Spanish male rowers of world-class status All-time best Spanish Judo male athletes Swimmers of national level Power athletes of national/international competitive standards Spanish controls Israeli endurance athletes of national/international competitive standard Power athletes of national/international competitive standard Israeli controls Chinese (HAN) endurance athletes Chinese (HAN) controls Polish athletes of national/international competitive standard Polish controls

JAMAICAN AND USA COHORT

Candidate gene case-control study and GWAS

AUSTRALIAN COHORT JAPANESE COHORT EUROPEAN AND ASIAN SWIMMING COHORT

Candidate gene case-control multicentre study involving 14 different sports Candidate gene case-control study and GWAS Candidate gene case-control study

200 158 649 168 603 100 54 108 88 53 343 74 81 240 241 504 660 684

SPANISH COHORT

Candidate gene case-control study

ISRAELI COHORT

Candidate gene case-control study

CHINESE COHORT POLISH COHORT

Candidate gene case-control study Candidate gene case-control study involving 20 different athletic disciplines

Table 1. Major study cohorts in genetics of elite performance (see Pitsiladis et al., 2013)

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If one accepts this view, then all genetic association studies of performance published to date should be ignored. An intermediate view is that, perhaps beside the ACTN3 R577X and possibly ACE I/D, the vast majority of the candidate genes for sporting performance discovered to date are not the resulting variants responsible for the phenotypes of interest. It is widely acknowledged that there will be many genes involved in physical performance phenotypes and hence it is timely that genetic research has moved to the genomics era; for example, doing genetic studies at a genome-wide level by simultaneously testing a large number of genetic variants across the entire human genome without specic prior hypotheses. Priority should therefore be given to applying whole genome technology to sufciently large study cohorts of world-class athletes with adequately measured phenotypes where possible to increase statistical power. Some of the elite athlete cohorts summarised in Table 1 (and described in Pitsiladis et al., 2013) might sufce, and collectively, these cohorts could be used for replication purposes. Genomewide association studies are ongoing in some of these cohorts (i.e., Genathlete, Russian, Spanish, Japanese, USA and Jamaican cohorts). Preliminary ndings include the identication of one SNP (among more than a million SNPs analysed) that associates with sprint performance in Japanese, USA (i.e., AfricanAmerican) and Jamaican cohorts with a combined effect size of ~ 2.6 (P = 4.66 x 10-7) and good concordance with endurance performance between select cohorts. Further validation of these signals in independent cohorts will be required, and any replicated SNPs taken forward for ne-mapping/targeted resequencing and functional studies to uncover the underlying biological mechanisms. Only after this lengthy and costly process can the true potential of genetic testing in sport and exercise be determined. Practical implications In our opinion the available evidence to support direct-toconsumer (DTC) genetic tests does not yet appear to be sufciently strong to be used in talent identication or the individualised prescription of training to maximise performance (Pitsiladis et al., 2013). Despite this, genetic tests related to sport and exercise are widely available on a commercial basis; there are at least 22 companies providing DTC genetic tests marketed in relation to human sport or exercise performance or injury. Taking a charitable view, the information provided by the tests currently available might be of personal interest to some people and might help individuals (e.g., sports coaches) attempt to better understand observed physical limitations to performance or training adaptations even though the data provide no answer at present as to how to overcome those limitations. There is little doubt that the future of sport and exercise science will become increasingly focused on omics (i.e., genomics, transcriptomics, metabolomics, proteomics and the likes) as these technologies become faster, cheaper and more widely available and the data these technologies produce are translated into practical tools for sport and exercise scientists. Two promising recent examples with diagnostic potential include the 21 SNPs that appear to capture the heritable component (approximately 50% of total interindividual variability) of the responsiveness to endurance training (Bouchard et al., 2011) and the use of molecular signatures to detect recombinant human erythropoietin doping (Durussel et al., 2013). Consequently, sport and exercise scientists and medical practitioners involved in sport and exercise need to ensure they are sufciently familiar with omics technologies to capitalise on such ndings in an ethically acceptable manner.
The Sport and Exercise Scientist Issue 38 Winter 2013

Prof Yannis P Pitsiladis MMEDSci., FACSM Following 15 years at the University of Glasgow where he created the largest known DNA biobank from world-class athletes, Yannis was appointed Professor of Sport and Exercise Science at The Brighton Centre for Regenerative Medicine (BCRM), University of Brighton. He was invited to submit this article as a winner of a BASES International Conference Grant. Dr Guan Wang Guan is a Researcher at the Institute of Cardiovascular and Medical Sciences, University of Glasgow. Ass. Prof Bernd Wolfarth Bernd is Deputy Chief at the Department for Preventive and Rehabilitative Sports Medicine at the Technical University of Munich. Dr Alejandro Lucia Alejandro is a Professor and Senior Researcher at the European University of Mardrid. Dr Sandosh Padmanabhan Sandosh is a Reader in Cardiovascular Medicine at the Institute of Cardiovascular and Medical Sciences, University of Glasgow. Dr Noriyuki Fuku Noriyuki is a Researcher at Department of Genomics for Longevity and Health, Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology. Dr Ildus I Ahmetov Ildus is the Head of the Research Center, Volga Region State Academy of Physical Culture, Sport and Tourism. Prof Malcolm Collins Malcolm is working at the Research Unit for Exercise Science and Sports Medicine at the University of Cape Town. Dr Alun Williams Alun is the Director of the MMU Cheshire Sports Genomics Laboratory at Manchester Metropolitan University.

Prof Pawel Cieszczyk Pawel is a specialist in the application of genetics in the eld of sport and physiology at University of Szczecin. Dr Nir Eynon Nir is a Lecturer and Researcher at the Institute of Sport, Exercise and Active Living (ISEAL), Victoria University.

Recommended reading: The Sports Gene. Inside the science of the extraordinary athletic performance. By David Epstein, Senior Writer, Sports Illustrated. Penguin Group USA), 2013. References: Ahmetov, I.I. & Fedotovskaya, O.N. (2012). Sports genomics: current state of knowledge and future directions. Cellular and Molecular Exercise Physiology, 1(1): e1. Bouchard, C. et al. (2011). Genomic predictors of maximal oxygen uptake response to standardized exercise training programs. Journal of Applied Physiology, 110(5): 1160-1170. Bray, M.S. et al. (2009). The human gene map for performance and health related phenotypes: the 2006-2007 update. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 41(1): 35-73. Durussel, J. et al. (2013). Blood gene expression proles of Kenyan and Caucasian endurance trained males after rHuEpo administration. American College of Sports Medicine, Annual Meeting, Indianapolis, USA, June, 2013. Prusse, L. et al. (2013). Advances in exercise, tness, and performance genomics in 2012. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 45(5): 824-831. Pitsiladis, Y. et al. (2013). Genomics of Elite Sporting Performance: What little we know and necessary advances. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 47(9): 550-555.

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Reviews - Apps and Books

App Name: Ubersense App Developer: Ubersense App Cost: Free Download at: iTunes (Android 2014) Devices: iPhone, iTouch, iPad This fantastic free app allows you capture, playback and analyse sporting technique in slow motion or on a frame by frame basis. You can also import existing videos from your camera roll, e-mails or the internet. The screen can be split to compare two recordings at the same time. There is also a microphone tool so that you can add a commentary, although I havent found much use for this. It also has a drawing tool to add basic annotations so biomechanical angles (for example) can be measured. Once you have a few videos saved you can catalogue them into les so that they are easy to locate in the future. Being able to simply record video onto your smartphone or tablet and immediately play it back in slow motion is extremely helpful in a sporting context for both the athlete and the coach. Progress can be monitored over a period of months and compared on the split screen so that improvements can be seen instantaneously. From a coaching perspective it enables the provision of detailed verbal feedback alongside a visual representation of the skill or performance of the athlete. From a personal perspective, it is enlightening to see what you really look like when you feel youre playing like Nadal! - LINDSY KASS, UNIVERSITY OF HERTFORDSHIRE Rating 10/10 Recovery for Performance in Sport Hausswirth, C. & Mujika, I. (2013) Human Kinetics Hardback available for 39.99 and Kindle version available for 22.95 from www.amazon.co.uk This is a fantastic book and one that I have been looking for some time. It is great to now have a general resource on recovery methods all in one place enabling you to get all the information you require to help with your planning. In four parts it covers: The fundamentals of fatigue and recovery (a great introduction and background to the subject), then it moves on to periodisation and managing recovery, strategies for optimising recovery and nally unique considerations for recovery. The book is a useful resource to dip in and out of and doesnt need to be studied from start to nish. I found it useful when I was searching for information on a key part of the recovery planning process. I cant rate this book highly enough. It is suitable for students from sport-related disciplines and coaches alike. However, although it would give athletes more of an understanding of the recovery planning process, it is not aimed at this readership. A second read or use as a regular reference source will be required to help absorb the detailed information given. - GORDON ROBERTSON, UNIVERSITY OF STIRLING Rating 8/10 Becoming a Sport Psychologist McCarthy, P . & Jones, M. (2013) Taylor and Francis Hardback available for 85.00, Paperback available for 21.24 and Kindle version available for 17.42 from www.amazon.co.uk Becoming a Sport Psychologist is not a psychology text. The title describes the content precisely. This book is a collection of career paths, descriptions of methodologies, and approaches interspersed with rich examples and insightful experiences sometimes surprising, but consistently practical and real. Intended to be the rst book to present the reality of developing and maintaining a career in sport psychology, this anthology of experiences from leading sport psychologists drawn from the UK, Ireland, USA, Australia, and New Zealand, does just that. The book describes events from a range of sports, derived from all levels of sport from youth amateur sport, to the world of highly-paid professional soccer. Authors relate their journeys from childhood to their present world as leading sport psychologists (and its worthy of note how many cite attaining BASES accreditation as a seminal point in their careers) highlighting their lessons learned and how straying from the norm often has far reaching consequences. This is an excellent compilation, logically structured, insightful and engaging, and with direct relevance to its target audience. It actually makes me want to learn more about sport psychology. - SCOTT EWAN, UNIVERSITY OF GREENWICH Rating 9/10 Back from the Brink: The Autobiography McGrath, P . (2007) Arrow Paperback available for 5.75 and Kindle version available for 5.22 from www.amazon.co.uk Paul McGrath offers an extremely gripping and painfully honest account of his personal experiences from childhood to athletic retirement. From his story, three core themes emerge: growing up as an orphan, racism and alcoholism. Paul McGrath made it as a professional footballer in spite of the odds being stacked against him. He maintained performances at the highest standard, despite a serious underlying injury and a day-to-day battle with alcoholism. He recounts how, in many games he would play drunk and still manage to be named man of the match. It was amusing, but also sad, the lengths Paul McGrath would go to have a drink, and the barriers his managers would put in place to try to stop him. It was a constant game of cat and mouse, which the managers frequently lost. The book cleverly uses comments from his former team-mates and managers, such as Sir Alex Ferguson, to put into context the impact his behaviour had on others. This is a completely novel read and I would highly recommend this fascinating story, especially to those who have an interest in the darker side of professional sport. - DR PAUL DANCY, ST MARYS UNIVERSITY COLLEGE Rating 10/10

Send books for potential review to Claire-Marie Roberts, 3 Royal York Mews, Royal York Crescent, Clifton Village, Bristol, BS8 4LF Want to be a book reviewer? Email c.roberts@worc.ac.uk Reviewers get to keep the book in return for a 200 word review Additional online book reviews are available at www.bases.org.uk/SES-Book-Reviews

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Announcing all new Human Kinetics sport and exercise science titles with 32% OFF for BASES members.
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CHuTzPAH: Charlies Thoughtz on Physical Activity for Health

Dr Charlie Foster is The Sport and Exercise Scientists physical activity health columnist.
What is the value of physical activity? Value is reected by each choice we make as part of everyday living. We constantly make decisions based on the value of everyday activities or goods. This might be cost - Shall I buy this - its on sale? Or priorities - Which particular task at work should I do rst? Or on time - What is the fastest way to get from home to school? Many of these activities have been given a particular value, usually economic; working on the principle that time is money. For example, the economic case for the proposed HS2 high speed rail link is based on an assessment of productivity gains by reduced journey times, but also includes other value-based judgements about the benets of agglomeration (clustering of businesses to be near each other), plus more people wanting to travel further and faster. The need to give a specic value to something is an important principle for any type of government, business or organisation. Giving something a value can act as judgement, which (depending on your result and perspective) might be used to gather support or press for change. Recent examples of calculating value to broader social or environmental issues have been produced by value include the UK National Ecosystem Assessment (UK NEA) analysis of the UK natural environment in terms of the benets it provides to society and the nations continuing prosperity e.g., 3,000 million recreational visits to outdoor recreation places p.a. were estimated to generate a social value in excess of 10,000 million p.a. (see http://uknea.unep-wcmc.org/Resources/tabid/82/Default.aspx). So how has value been expressed in the world of physical activity and health? Benets of physical activity are traditionally expressed in relation to health or social costs of the consequences of inactivity (health problems) or injury. Health economists can derive estimates of the value of added health benets, of getting an inactive adult to become active, by creating a metric of cost and benet, or cost and estimated health outcomes. NICE has produced costing reports for implementation of different types of physical activity interventions for children and adults, via environmental, workplace, primary care counselling and transport interventions: (see NICE - http://www. nice.org.uk/guidance/index.jsp?action=bypublichealth&PUBLIC HEALTH=Physical+activity#/search/?reload). The most recent estimates of the direct costs of diseases related to physical inactivity for English local authorities have been reported by Sport England. The gure was estimated to be 944 million, based on the proportion of the cost of treating ve major diseases that can be attributed to people being inactive. Sport England produced local tables of the breakdown of the cost of physical inactivity for each of the main disease categories by local authority area see www.sportengland.org/our-work/local-work/ health/. Similar estimates for Scotland can be found at www.paha. org.uk/Resource/costing-the-burden-of-ill-health-related-tophysical-inactivity-in-scotland. Estimates of value may have better impact if they are local and user-friendly as data reects how physical activity promotion is delivered via Health and Wellbeing Boards and Local Authorities. But do not only focus on the cost of physical inactivity but also the value of solutions. The value of solutions can be reected in estimates and impacts of potential changes in population levels of physical activity or on estimates of the impacts of specic interventions. Two tools offer this approach by assessing the impact of possible solutions. First, the Health Impact of Physical Inactivity (HIPI) was released this summer by Public Health England. This tool allows the user to model how many cases of certain diseases could be prevented in each local authority in England; if the population aged 40-79 were to engage in recommended amounts of physical activity. Outputs relate to the preventable cases of diabetes (only shown for Counties and Unitary Authorities), preventable emergency admissions to hospital with a coronary heart disease, preventable new cases of breast and colon cancer,
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Left: Typical road space used in an urban street by one inactive and two active modes of transport Courtesy Stephen Hodge

total number of preventable deaths (all causes) see www.apho. org.uk/resource/view.aspx?RID=123459. The second tool is the WHO/Europe Health Economic Assessment Tool (HEAT). This tool is designed to help usersconduct an economic assessment of the health benets of a walking or cycling environmental intervention. The tool estimates the value of reduced mortality that results from specied amounts of potentially new walking or cycling. The tool can be used in a number of different situations, e.g., to compare the costs of implementing different interventions to produce a benet-cost ratio (and help to make the case for investment) or to illustrate economic consequences from a potential future change in levels of cycling or walking. See www.heatwalkingcycling.org. This tool is offered with free online training to users and links examples of HEAT applications as well. Of course there are many other types of derived benets and potential costs of physical activity changes, e.g., social costs of reduced crime from midnight basketball leagues, or reducing road trafc accidents by moving cycling onto off road cycle paths. Perhaps the most powerful expression of impact of costs and values can be achieved by making simple comparisons (particularly helpful when dealing with policy makers remember everyone has a very large number about the cost of their problem)! The most famous example of this was produced by the German city of Munster. Locals staged a photo comparing the road space taken by people in a bus, on bikes, and in cars and this was most recently recreated by Australian Cycling Promotion Fund. The image presents the typical road space used in an urban street by one inactive and two active modes of transport - cars, bicycles and a bus - perhaps a good example of a picture saying a thousand words?

It is not enough to merely present the problem without the potential impact of local interventions. So use the principles of costs and values and seek to present them in a way that makes it easy and visible to demonstrate through comparison of the benets of physical activity.
Dr Charlie Foster Charlie is a Senior Lecturer/Researcher at the University of Oxford. He runs a research programme, funded by the BHF, to improve the evidence base for physical activity promotion. CHuTzPAH is the quality of audacity, for good or for bad.

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Unemployed graduates guilty of job snobbery are missing out on opportunities

Comment by Phil Smith, Director of Sport, Sport England.
Introducing the job snob by Kelly Goodwin Good news! The graduate job market is showing pockets of regional and sector growth with an increase identied in starting salaries (ONS, 2012). This bodes well but at the same time there is a new type of graduate evolving increasingly labelled by the media as the Job Snob (The Independent, 2013). This is a student who thinks that because they have a degree or a qualication that some jobs are beneath them or that they should not apply for work outside of what they consider to be their line of expertise. Young people who believe that they should work only if they are able to secure their dream job (Duncan Smith, 2013). The NUS (2013) argue that it is reasonable for a graduate who has invested heavily both nancially and personally to hold out for a job that is in line with their qualications. Reasonable indeed, however, with the current economic climate as it is, the pockets of growth identied in the sector are unlikely to be sufcient to provide sportrelated employment for all. At a time when there are more students studying than there are graduate jobs, one in ve is out of work with an average of 85 applications per role (AGR, 2013), graduates need to be even more strategic with their forward planning. It is a time to value all work and to understand how it may contribute to experience and skill development. Phil Smith, the Director of Sport for Sport England kindly agreed to be interviewed and provides comment on the challenges graduates face. Discussion surrounds the attitudes and behaviours that have helped bring about success and how graduates may still excel when jobs are scarce and the dream job ever scarcer. Name: Phil Smith Current role: Director of Sport - Sport England Main responsibilities: Managing Sport Englands investment into National Governing Bodies of sport Previous employment: General Secretary - Manchester County FA, Business Systems Analyst - The FA, Project Manager - The FA, Head of Policy and Public Affairs - The FA Education: BSocSc Political Science and MSc Sport and Recreation Management. My experiences before my professional career began have always stood me in good stead. Having completed a Masters I began consultancy work which in effect, was doing whatever anyone had available. I worked for academics on various projects, which helped me to gain genuine work experience as opposed to just qualications. What helped secure the job at the Manchester FA was a number of things including my work ethic and willingness to take work where available. I had a year before my Masters during which I worked in a sport shop and a clothes shop, both were hugely helpful and taught me about working with people. What you learn in a customer environment, working in shops, bars, restaurants stands you in good stead for any job. At interviews I would tell them that I understand the customer, working with people from all backgrounds and helping with their demands. There are few jobs that wont require dealing with people, different personalities, wants, needs, moods. It was enormously helpful to have what you might call a proper job then when I moved into more of the jobs I was after based on my education, the things I had picked up, I found really useful. What I believe has helped me to succeed is that if I say I am going to do something I do it and to a good standard. Being trustworthy, dependable and reliable helps build a reputation that you need to grow and cultivate to be successful. To be trusted to be given the briefest of instructions and left to crack on. Emotional intelligence is also important, to be able to read people, to understand what they really want even if they are not able to articulate this themselves. A lot of my jobs have involved doing this and it has been pure practice along the way. People who work in sport are more emotional, sport matters for people in a way that it is not just a job and when you work in the industry you have to be ready for high and low emotions. Topics up for discussion are often very personal and you need to be able to read how the people you are dealing with really feel about something, whats big, whats small, whats important, whats not and what is going to get them excited but this only comes with practice, there is no course for that. One of the things anybody should think about is that you do your best learning when you get it wrong. You realise how something has happened, you analyse it and dont do it again, that has been enormously helpful. I think it denitely helps that the people who work for you know that you have done their kind of jobs. When you have worked your way up, they cannot say that you do not understand what they are doing or how difcult it is or, what they are up against because you do. That is not to say you have to have fought your way up from the bottom to the top in order to be successful. Sport graduates need to be aware that there are a growing number of highly successful individuals in sport that have come from other industries. The number is increasing, people coming in from other industries and being successful in the sports industry because they are applying their professional skills gained in another sector to sport. You dont have to be a blue blood sports person from birth to be successful in the industry. Passion is not enough, everyone in sport has passion, its ten a penny so what has to mark you out from the crowd is your ability to get a professional job done. What do I look for when recruiting? When employing others I do consider a varied background and a variety of experience to be important. The qualities I look for in the
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BASES Student Conference 2014

people I recruit include the professional skills and/or qualications to do the tasks necessary but equally personality and a background that shows willingness to work and not necessarily in perfect jobs. I look for gaps in CVs and I do ask about them. When we are talking about young people fresh out of Higher Education I place great value on the people who have gone out and made it happen and not waited for a job to arrive at their door. If this means working behind a bar or as I did working in a shop then so be it. Many people coming out of Higher Education might think its not the sort of career they want permanently; I think it shows they are willing to get stuck in. I look for in the people I recruit, a personality that ts with a team approach, people that you can get on with, people that you can trust. Its like building a sport team, a football team, you pick team players. You then get a lot of team player expertise and where applicants learn this expertise is from working in ordinary jobs in teams, this is where you learn how to deal with different people. Final thought It is a very challenging market place at the moment for graduates, they may have an idea of what is their dream job but the jobs are just not there or in the quantities required. Those leaving Higher Education need to try to put the odds, the statistics out of the mind, ultimately if there is only one of you, you only need one job, think about the type of work and life you want to have and have that as a long-term goal. There are many, many different ways to get there. Having a long-term goal and plotting the one step ahead is a smart thing to do and that rst step for those coming out of Higher Education may well be out of the sport industry. You might not get the dream job the rst time but you might get it eventually and you get it by taking the job that is not the dream job and doing it very well.

University of Portsmouth 89 April 2014 Sport and Exercise Science: Putting the Pieces Together
This conference offers you an exciting multi-disciplinary programme, with workshops on exercise physiology, biomechanics, psychology and environmental physiology in the University of Portsmouths rst-class sport and exercise science facilities. For current undergraduate and postgraduate students of sport, exercise or related disciplines. Great networking opportunities with other academic institutions and employers. Chance to present work and learn more about postgraduate study and career development in sport and exercise science. Keynote presentations from discipline experts. Excellent seaside location within walking distance of transport links, hotels, bars and restaurants.

Phil Smith Phil is the Director of Sport at Sport England.

compiled by: Kelly Goodwin Kelly is a Senior Lecturer at Bournemouth University.

W: www.port.ac.uk/sportscience/bases2014 E: bases2014@port.ac.uk

References: AGR. (2013). Summer Survey: Graduate job market remains tough, but shows pockets of regional and sector growth. The Association of Graduate Recruiters press release, accessed [21 October 2013] http://www.agr.org.uk/Press-Releases/agrsummer-survey-graduate-job-market-remains-tough-but-shows-pockets-of-regionaland-sector-growthDuncan Smith, I. (2013). Its better to be a shelf stacker than a job snob. The Telegraph, accessed [21 October 2013] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ politics/9095050/Iain-Duncan-Smith-its-better-to-be-a-shelf-stacker-than-a-job-snob. html NUS. (2013). Graduates miss out on employment because they are job snobs. The Independent, accessed [21 October 2013] http://www.independent.co.uk/student/ news/graduates-miss-out-on-employment-because-they-are-job-snobs-8762345.html ONS. (2012). Graduates in the labour market, 2012. Ofce of National Statistics publication.

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Biomechanical perspectives on minimally shod and barefoot running

Jos Vanrenterghem provides an update including some pragmatic rules to follow.
Background Scientic paradigm shifts often provide inspiration for new fashion trends. Take for example footwear design. In the eighties, increased cushioning under the heel was seen as non-trivial to avoid high impact forces that dramatically altered running footwear design, and instigated an entirely new fashion trend with it. Recently, a similar science-for-fashion trend developed, likely inspired by a contemporary return-to-nature trend. The paradigm shift in scientic thinking around footwear design this time involved questioning whether the complex foot structure is perhaps hampered rather than helped by xating it into rigid shoe structures. After all, human evolution has taken place primarily while being barefoot or having minimal foot protection. For many shoe developers, and biomechanists aside, this idea appears as logical as the cushioning idea from the eighties, and has instigated a shift in footwear development. Shoe manufacturers introduced minimal shoes that still have cushioning but no rigid structure. Soon after, they took minimal shoes even one step further by introducing shoes that have neither a rigid structure nor heel cushioning, maximally reecting barefoot running. This new trend was put in the spotlight with a Nature publication (Lieberman et al., 2010). Here the authors explained that millions of years of running barefoot will have mostly involved landing on the oor surface with the forefoot rst rather than with the heel. This forefoot landing results in disappearance of the initial impact forces as otherwise seen in heel striking, and would make the heel cushioning of the eighties altogether a solution to what in essence was not supposed to be a problem anyway. On the contrary even, the shoes heel cushioning may have led to many modern day runners striking the oor with the heel rst, introducing impact-related injuries that they otherwise may never have been exposed to. So, if modern day heel strikers start running minimally shod or barefoot, will they then reduce the risk of overload injuries? Minimally shod (with shoes) running So what happens if we rst take away the rigid structure of a shoe, and the foot bones are allowed to move relative to each other as if they were barefoot, still supported by a cushioned sole? In the most common case the foot is planted on the oor with heel rst, and the foot-ankle complex will do several things to absorb some of the excessive impact forces. The ankle dorsiexors act as shock absorbing springs whilst slowing the foot down during the process of planting the forefoot on the oor. The foot then shows a general pronation motion, initiating an unlocking of the arch of the foot to allow it to partly collapse. So rst, the impact forces are high as we land with our knee extended and our leg closely aligned with our lumbar vertebral column, meaning that the whole body is in a rather rigid conguration and the initial bounce of the system on the oor is dissipated in internal pressures of ankle, knee, hip, and even lumbar intervertebral joints. The cushioning of the shoe is the rst mechanism to alleviate these pressures. This is seen in Figure 1a-b where the initial high impact force of barefoot heel striking is somewhat reduced when wearing cushioned shoes. Second, the foot is stopped from slapping on the oor by ankle dorsiexor muscles that are being stretched as if they were springs controlling a gentler planting of the foot. On harder surfaces this mechanism can be overloaded, for example at the tissue connecting ankle dorsiexor muscles to the shin bone, resulting in something called shin splints. Third, as the foot is planted on the oor it partly turns inwards, which is called pronation. This is a mechanism that allows the arch of the foot to partly collapse and helps absorb some of the impact forces, albeit not the very initial ones. This is a typical action if our feet have sufcient but also not too much exibility between bones, if the foot muscles act appropriately to control the unlocking, and if the foot was not already pronated at landing. This mechanism is addressed by prescription of wedging the foot at the medial side of the shoe against hyper pronation, despite a lack of strong scientic support of such interventions (Richards et al., 2009). There is a danger that this mechanism is cancelled out by excessive compensation or footwear that is perhaps too rigid, which eliminates its shock absorption role. It is believed to lead to weakening of the foot muscles and slackening of foot ligaments. So if we change from years of running in rigid shoes into minimal shoes our feet may well not be up for the new job to take over full control of this unlocking mechanism. In summary, many problems from running with heel landing have been reported, mostly believed to be impact related. Examples are micro-fractures at the level of the heel, shin splints, or pressure induced overloading of knee, hip and even lumbar joints (Hreljac, 2004). Such injuries are believed to be a direct consequence of running with heel strike, and most of them can become very persistent once they have become a weak link. Barefoot running Let us now take it one step further, and we also remove cushioning at the heel. Marketing has called this barefoot shoes, despite it being a contradiction in terms (Nigg, 2009). This takes away initial shock absorption by the shoe and absorption of impact forces is now entirely down to the musculoskeletal structures. The initial heel impact force of a heel strike is now very high (see initial spike in Figure 1a), with the initial impact being transferred from heel bones through the ankle towards the knee and even hip and lower back. Without cushioning of the shoe during heel landing, our
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internal bone scaffolding being aligned according to the location, direction, and magnitude of repetitive forces applied to them. This organising of the bone structure takes place particularly during childhood, whereas in adults this ability to restructure the bone gradually reduces and is much slower if at all possible. Long distance runners have a large volume of loading on the bones, and if they have always had a heel-striking pattern, then the sudden change to forefoot landing may incur adverse stresses on the bones, possibly leading to the development of stress fractures. In summary, many of these mechanisms are still not well known, and research groups around the world are trying to gain a further understanding (see Nigg, 2009). Biomechanist advice Whilst generic advice in the case of distance running is often shortcoming from not knowing the weakest links in the individual runner, and should ideally be replaced by individualised advice and early detection of injury development, perhaps the following pragmatic rules could be considered: If a long-distance heel striking runner above 30 years of age does not have any chronic injuries, it is probably better not to change to minimal footwear. If a long-distance heel striking runner has recurring impact-related problems, one possible intervention is to re-train the runner towards mid-foot landing, even with cushioned shoes. In this way the largest part of the shock absorption is taken away from heel, ankle, knee and hips. Nevertheless, if the calf muscles are challenged too much there is still the option of temporarily reusing the cushioning capacity of the shoe halfway through the run. If changing to minimal shoes, one should keep in mind that the individuals laxity and general morphology of the feet and also foot placement strategy (e.g., landing in pronation or supination) will in a complex way dictate whether the feet are capable of acting as internal shock absorber without getting damaged. When choosing for barefoot footwear to resolve heel-strikingrelated injuries, one should keep in mind that this could as well replace them with forefoot-landing related injuries. There is still a dearth of evidence to support the effectiveness of such intervention (e.g., Thacker et al., 2002).

Figure 1. Vertical ground reaction forces for one individual whilst running with barefoot heel landing (a), heel landing with cushioned shoe (b), and barefoot forefoot landing (c). Reprinted by permission from Macmillan Publishers Ltd: Nature (Lieberman et al., 2010), copyright 2010.

sensorimotor system will soon realise the damaging effects of these high impact forces, typically through pain in the individuals weakest link, and we will adapt towards a midfoot or even forefoot landing instead of heel landing. This adaptation happens automatically as it results in disappearance of the impact force associated with heel landing (see Figure 1c). The knee becomes bent at landing and the absorption of impact energy is now done primarily by the elastic properties of muscletendon structures, with the knee, ankle, and foot acting as a spring. Whilst the quadriceps muscles already acted as stretched springs in heel landing, such loaded stretching of the calf muscle tissue is new and can cause extensive micro damage, leading to muscle soreness the days after. Also the Achilles tendon may not be able to withstand these new stresses, or the plantar fascia that helps maintain integrity of the foot arch, resulting in micro damage (e.g., plantar fasciitis) or possibly even rupture of these structures. Soreness of the calf muscle is likely to have largely recovered after three days, but if runners want to do more than two sessions per week they may return to running before muscles and tendons have recovered leading to accumulative damage issues. Changing to midfoot or forefoot landing will also lead to a change in how the external forces act on bones and joints. Bones are known to slowly adapt to external loads in how they are built, with
The Sport and Exercise Scientist
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Jos Vanrenterghem Jos is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Sport and Exercise Science at Liverpool John Moores University. His research focuses on the application of biomechanical principles on general lower limb loading mechanisms and the consequences these may have on injury risk and rehabilitation practice. He is neither an expert in running biomechanics, nor is he a long distance runner himself, but he prefers to make research informed choices on his next footwear purchase. References: Hreljac, A. (2004). Impact and overuse injuries in runners. Medicine and Science in Sport and Exercise, 36, 845-849. Lieberman, D.E. et al. (2010). Foot strike patterns and collision forces in habitually barefoot versus shod runners. Nature, 463, 531-536. Nigg, B. (2009). Biomechanical considerations on barefoot movement and barefoot shoe concepts. Footwear Science, 1, 73-79. Richards, C.E., Magin, P .J. & Callister, R. (2009). Is your prescription of distance running shoes evidence-based? British Journal of Sports Medicine, 43, 159-162. Thacker, S.B., Gilchrist, J., Stroup, D.F. & Kimsey, C.D. (2002). The prevention of shin splints in sports: a systematic review of literature. Medicine and Science in Sport and Exercise, 34, 32-40.

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Gaining BASES accreditation and subsequently Chartered Scientist status through the pedagogic route
Pedagogy is recognised as a specic domain of expertise for members to gain accredited status and subsequently Chartered Scientist status. Dr Ian Sadler shares his reasons for applying for accreditation through this route and what was involved in the application process.
Can you give some background on your current role? I am Head of the Department of Applied Human Sciences at York St John University. I began my career in higher education as a Senior Lecturer in Exercise Physiology before being promoted to the Head of Programme for the Sport and Exercise Science related awards. Alongside this management role I have developed a research prole in learning and teaching within higher education and will be submitted to the REF in the unit of assessment for Education. As Head of Department I oversee the laboratory and clinic spaces within the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences and have led the development of a suite of sport science-related Masters programmes. Therefore, the design, delivery, leadership and support of effective pedagogy are central to my role. You have a signicant amount of experience in sport and exercise science, what made you decide to apply for BASES accreditation via the pedagogy route? Early in my career as a lecturer in exercise physiology I was involved in a significant amount of laboratory-based testing and some field-based conditioning and monitoring. However, this was not really sustained experience and it felt like just an aside to my day job. I saw the applied work as something to keep me up-to-date and give me ideas and data to use in my modules but not something I wanted to pursue professionally. Being a lecturer meant that gaining focused, prolonged support experience was difficult and being a good teacher and researcher was of more value to the University at that time. As I developed as a lecturer I started to become interested in how students learnt exercise physiology. For example: How effective was a lecture on aerobic metabolism for the learning of 120 first year students? What strategies could be used to develop the students ability to write a clear rationale in the introduction of a laboratory report? How do students connect learning across the modules or sub-disciplines of a subject? What are the current feedback practices for students in sport? How did new sport science academics develop as teachers over time? Some of my papers that may be of interest in relation to some of these questions include: Sadler, I. (2012). The inuence of interactions with students for the development of new academics as teachers in higher education. Higher Education, 64 (2), 147-160. Sadler, I. (2011). Critical Review of Contemporary Practice in HLST: Feedback. Higher Education Academy. http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/hlst/resources/ detail/resources/critical-reviews/feedback

Accreditation with BASES via the pedagogy route is another means through which to demonstrate competency to teach in higher education.

Sadler, I. (2009). Connection Learning: A Framework for the Development of Teaching. Journal on Excellence in College Teaching. 20 (1), 53-70. My role in the department meant that I was heavily involved in validations and gained BASES undergraduate endorsement for our programmes. This then led to a leadership role in relation to the quality of learning and teaching in the Faculty via our University teaching fellowship scheme. I felt that through my natural development in an academic role I had gained the sustained and prolonged experience in relation to learning and teaching in sports science that I had not gained in sport science support. Therefore, application via the pedagogic route was personally more tting and more valuable in terms of my professional development. What do you feel the benets are for holding BASES accreditation within your current role? Accountability for demonstrating competency as a teacher in higher education has grown signicantly. PGCert programmes for new teachers are now common place in higher education, peer observation of learning and teaching is growing and academics gaining fellowship of the Higher Education Academy seems to be a key performance indicator. For me these are positive developments towards enhancing quality of teaching in higher education, in a similar way that physical education teachers in state school are qualied, registered and regularly observed. Accreditation with BASES via the pedagogy route is another means through which to demonstrate competency to teach in

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F
Feedback to students will be high quality and provided in a timely and professional manner.

Students are responsible for submitting work they are proud of, acting upon feedback they receive and working collaboratively with other students and tutors around assessment.

B
Formative activities will be central to module design and encourage students to spend time and effort on challenging learning tasks.

What types of evidence did you use in your application to show how you met competencies? Much of the evidence within the application was based upon the case study outlined above and my 12 years of experience in higher education in a range of roles and settings. More specic and tangible evidence included things such as HEA funded research projects, research outputs, lead on BUES application, validation panel membership, external examining, pedagogic conference attendance, hosting a BASES workshop, involvement in the BASES Division of Education and Professional Development and delivery of internal staff development in learning and teaching. What advice would you give to other individuals thinking of applying for accreditation through the pedagogic route? As one of the rst individuals through the pedagogy route to accreditation, my sense is that an application needs to be based upon a particular leadership project and how this inuences or supports learning and teaching of others. Small funding grants from the Higher Education Academy can be extremely helpful to trigger this kind of activity. In terms of a focus, Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) is obviously a big growth area and sports science has the potential to capitalise on this as it is technology rich with many sports scientists being technology savvy. Therefore, the teaching of sports science needs to consider how these technology-based skills can be best developed in our students, but also how we can use technology to enhance their learning of the subject. Finally, in developing a learning and teaching prole in sports science it is also worthwhile being aware of the potential for accreditation as a Senior Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy. There are a number of parallels between the HEA Fellowship and the BASES pedagogic route and therefore can be used to support one another.

E
The majority of feedback for students will be on formative activities completed within the module.

Principles of Exceptional Assessment and Feedback

C
Assessment design will aim to encourage students to develop a global understanding of the subject area and connect concepts between modules.

D
Discussion with students about assessment and feedback will be actively promoted at module and programme level.

Faculty of Health & Life Sciences

Figure 1. Faculty of Health and Life Sciences Principles of Exceptional Assessment and Feedback. Full information available: www.yorksj.ac.uk/pdf/HLS%20 Principles%20of%20Assessment%20&%20Feedback.pdf

higher education. Importantly though, the accreditation and now Chartered Scientist title provides the credibility to teach or manage within the specic subject area. This is particularly important in my Faculty, which also houses Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy, Psychology, Counselling and Biomedical Science that all have their own professional status and recognition. Can you give an overview of the case study that you provided within your application? An internal leadership role in relation to learning and teaching or a small HEA funded project is ideal to demonstrate competencies for accreditation via the pedagogic route. My application was predominantly based upon the Senior Teaching Fellowship role that I undertook in the Faculty. This was a two-year internally funded project that aimed to enhance assessment and feedback practice within sport science and other subject areas within the Faculty. The foundation of the project was the development of a set of principles for effective assessment and feedback (see Figure 1). These principles then drove four streams of activity. 1. Development of a peer tutor scheme, which used third year students to support rst and second year students on particular modules. This worked particularly well for practically orientated activities and assessments such as functional anatomy, sport massage and coaching/ conditioning. 2. Creation of a lunchtime seminar series on various aspects of assessment and feedback such as audio feedback, assessment design and formative feedback. 3. Leading a video feedback project where for some modules students received a video, via the virtual learning environment, of themselves undertaking a practical skill. For example, this was used for students coaching conditioning sessions and allowed them to reect upon and develop their practice. 4. Designing and facilitation of a Dialogue Day that got staff and students together to discuss assessment and feedback from a variety of perspectives.
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Dr Ian Sadler Ian is Head of Department: Applied Human Sciences at the Faculty of Health and Life Science at York St John University.

Interview by: Kate Mills (nee Yule) Kate is the BASES Education Ofcer

The pedagogic route for accreditation was introduced in 2009 when the accreditation scheme was revised. BASES identied that there were a number of members that had either changed roles or predominantly work within academia who were unable to gain or maintain accreditation as they progressed in their careers and moved away from applied support work or research. The next deadline for applications is 6 January 2014. More information on applying for accreditation available: www.bases.org.uk/ Accreditation/Accreditation

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The hurt business - The harsh realities of high-performance sport

Dr James Morton and Claire-Marie Roberts examine the party-line that sport is good for you.
Most sport and exercise scientists at some point in their career will nd themselves engaged in the promotion of physical activity and sport as a universal remedy for many health problems. As there is a great deal of sport and exercise scientists who enter the eld because of their love of sport, that message is likely to be one of genuine conviction. However, how often do we take time to consider the true relationship between sport and health? Whilst the evidence linking sport to a wide range of physical and psychological benets is undeniable, do we ever take a step back and critically examine the party-line that sport is good for you? At the high-performance end of the sporting continuum, the reality of being an elite athlete is not always a desirable one. Theres the risk of excessive incidences of musculoskeletal injuries, the psychological impact of the relentless pursuit of success, a fear of failure, balancing sport with other life commitments, relationships with sporting organisations, sponsors, coaches and often a reduced social life due to intensive training. These are all important social-contextual factors that have the potential to take their toll on an athletes well-being; carrying with it potentially negative outcomes such as psychological concerns that may include anxiety and depression. So to what degree does your training as a sport and exercise scientist prepare you for the harsh realities of high-performance sport? Two practitioners share their experiences below. Applied physiology in high-performance sport As sports physiologists, our goal is to practically apply ndings from hypothesis-driven research to devise real world interventions that will lead to improved performance. In principle, this approach should of course be a relatively straightforward process. In practice, however, I have quickly learned that there are many cultural, organisational, nancial and political factors that occur in the dayto-day context of elite sport that greatly affect what we do. Indeed, unlike the controlled laboratory environment, the real world is complex, dynamic, unpredictable and full of emotion, none of which can be interpreted by any two-way ANOVA. From the outside, sport is often viewed as glamorous and many athletes are perceived as superstars that drive fast cars, live in big houses and earn phenomenal amounts of money. To the outsider therefore, it can be hard to understand how a top-class athlete could ever suffer from psychological concerns. However, as talking openly about conditions such as depression becomes more socially acceptable, more and more athletes are following suit and disclosing their experiences in contending with similar problems, often when they appear to be at the top of their game. In recent years, athletes such as Paul Gascoigne (football), Ricky Hatton (boxing), Victoria Pendleton (cycling) and Ronnie OSullivan (snooker) etc., have publicly disclosed their respective battles with conditions ranging from alcoholism, drug abuse, self-harm, gambling, marital problems and so on. Then, of course, there are the athletes (e.g., Dean Windass (football), Terry Newton (rugby league), Tasha Danvers (athletics)) who have openly shared their experiences of suicidal ideations. Ultimately, we are left with the question as to whether these individuals were pre-disposed to experiencing mental health problems or whether their sport was the primary driver for their development. Perhaps, the fame, the fortune, the pressure to consistently perform, the boredom of many hours of hotel rooms and the inability to cope with defeat, injury and retirement etc., have all been the catalyst in reaching that tipping point? In my role as a physiologist and nutritionist, I have witnessed rst-hand several incidents of the darker side of sport. I have sat at the hospital bedside with professional boxers who have suffered endof-career defeats, had consultations with professional footballers that have been in tears at the prospect of injury threatening their new contract and also experienced the psychological strain of achieving lean body composition in both endurance and weight making sports (Morton, 2013). In these situations, I have often struggled to know how to support the athlete immediately (what do you do at that specic moment?) as well what to say and do in the days and weeks that follow these critical incidents. As an undergraduate student, no one told me that sport would be this way; therefore nobody prepared me for it. Presently, I am not trained in any form of counselling skills that may at least help to create the appropriate climate and responses at these critical times. In those moments of athlete despair, I have simply had to rely on my gut instinct and my own personal approach to practice to guide the way I deal with each unique event. As physiologists, I am (of course) not stating that we should be able to counsel an athlete through any experiences of psychological concern. We should leave this for the experts. At the very least, however, we must be aware that sport can sometimes lead to the onset of these issues and the associated moments of crisis. In such situations, we should be prepared by having a suitable strategy to deal with the immediate incident and ultimately, refer where appropriate. Indeed, although it is the sport psychologist who would be the most suitably trained practitioner to deal with these circumstances, it can often be the physiologist (or coach etc.) that the athlete feels initially comfortable to open up to. So how do we ensure that we are doing whats right for the athlete? Applied sport psychology in high-performance sport James reections on his applied experiences reinforce the fact that the high-pressure, competitive environment of high-performance sport has the potential to generate the precursors or triggers of psychological concerns in some athletes. Although research would suggest a different picture, taking the view that those engaging regularly in physical activity report a smaller range and frequency of psychological concerns than the general population (Brewer & Petrie, 2002). However, to support James account, my applied experiences also suggest the reverse. I often nd that consultations primarily described as performance-related often evolve into discussions of a clinical nature over the course of the session. James posed the valid question regarding the aetiology of psychological concerns in athletes, the answer to which could be explained in two ways: Athletes may have chosen sport as a means of coping with existing psychological concerns, or they may be cases in which an individuals condition is brought on, advanced or exacerbated by their involvement in sport. To illustrate the second point further, I have consulted with athletes from both lean and weight-class sports showing signs of both clinical and sub-clinical levels of disordered eating; a likely contributor of which was the pressure to make weight, the increase in scrutiny of body composition measurements or indeed the manner in which these measurements were taken (in public). Furthermore, I have worked with male athletes who present symptoms of muscle dysmorphia originating from (they explained) a combination of perceived performance pressures and the belief that they had to look muscular in order be identied with their sport.
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Then there are the athletes that use alcohol, stimulants and/or gambling as a way of coping with periods of adversity such as injury or perhaps retirement from their sport. These are common problems, unsurprisingly underreported in a highly competitive community that promotes mental toughness and discourages any signs of perceived weakness. In each of aforementioned instances, I have found that approaching interaction or communication in a non-judgmental fashion and with the utmost condentiality and discretion is a helpful start. I have then suggested to the athlete that Id like to refer them to a suitably qualied professional whilst committing to ensure that they are consulted with at every stage of the subsequent process. Having said that, this suggestion that has not always been met with acceptance. Whether or not the affected individuals seek assistance is dependent on a number of factors including: denial, fear of others perceptions (due to the stigma associated), concerns over condentiality, and not knowing who or where to go to get help. James mentions in his account that in many instances athletes who have good relationships with support staff may feel comfortable conding in them, yet when these are physiologists, nutritionists, strength and conditioning coaches, etc. there is no guarantee that these individuals would have the correct skills or training, or even have the condence to know immediately how to handle such issues. Even sport psychologists would need to be aware of issues presented by the athlete fall that outside their professional competency, when to refer the individual and to whom. So if our training doesnt adequately prepare us to be able to deal with these situations, how do we demonstrate that the welfare of our clients is paramount? It is clear that as sport and exercise scientists we should not discount the possibility that we may encounter athletes experiencing psychological concerns during the course of our practice. It is of paramount importance, that when and if we nd ourselves in these situations, we are as best equipped as we can be to deal with them. If we know that athletes seek vital assistance from those professionals with whom they have the best relationship, would it not be sensible to consider making appropriate training (e.g., counselling skills) available to all sport and exercise scientists regardless of discipline? We suggest that raising awareness of psychological concerns associated with or driven by the unique characteristics of a high-performance sporting environment, the identication of specic behaviours that may point to an underlying problem and structured referral systems to assist the athlete in obtaining competent advice from an appropriate professional is something that requires further consideration in the context of the training or accreditation of all sport and exercise scientists.

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Dr James Morton Dr James Morton is a Senior Lecturer in Exercise Metabolism, Liverpool John Moores University and a BASES accredited sport and exercise scientist.

Claire-Marie Roberts Claire-Marie Roberts is a Lecturer in Sport and Exercise Psychology at the University of Worcester and a BASES probationary sport and exercise scientist.

References: Brewer, B.W. & Petrie, T.A. (2002). Psychopathology in sport and exercise. In J. L. Van Raalte & B. W. Brewer (Eds.), Exploring sport and exercise psychology, (3rd ed.). Washington, DC: APA. Morton, J.P . (2013). Critical reections from sports physiology and nutrition: tales from pitch-side to ringside. In Reective Practice in the Sport and Exercise Sciences: Contemporary Issues (Eds. Z. Knowles, D. Gilbourne, B. Cropley, L. Dugdill). Routledge: London.
UNIVERSITY OF THE WEST OF SCOTLAND IS A REGISTERED SCOTTISH CHARITY. CHARITY NUMBER SC002520.

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Division of Sport & Exercise Psychology Conference 2013

1617 December Midland Hotel, Manchester Registration Open Subsidised BASES rate Confirmed Keynote Speakers
Professor Marc Jones, Staffordshire University Adventures in psychological stress: From playing field to country park. Professor Vincent Walsh, University College London Sport and the brain: Why it matters.
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Right: Costas performing with the BASES Band at the Gala Reception of ICSEMIS 2012 in Glasgow Courtesy of Sally Trussler

Final Word with Dr Costas Karageorghis FBASES, AFBPsS

One person who inspired me I had the good fortune of having Professor Craig Sharp FBASES as the second supervisor for my PhD. Craig started his professional career as a veterinary scientist but changed tracks to become one of the founding fathers of sport and exercise science in the UK. A true renaissance man, Craig not only shared but also fuelled my passion for music. He told many a tale of his jazz guitar-playing antics and life as a part-time radio DJ in Nairobi. Accordingly we would often spend as long talking about the eccentricities of Thelonious Monk as we would about my lab experiments. Craig always maintained that the arts and science have a symbiotic relationship and this is something that has stayed with me. One memorable publication and why Publication of the Brunel Music Rating Inventory and associated conceptual framework (1999) with Professors Peter Terry FBASES and Andy Lane FBASES in the Journal of Sports Sciences was a huge boon to my career, because somewhat to my surprise, the inventory became widely adopted around the world. Years later, during an overseas conference dinner, it was knowledge that this publication had been so seminal to my career that led Professor Stuart Biddle FBASES (JSS Psychology Section editor in the late 90s) to say to me with a wry smile, I knew I shouldnt have let that one through. One challenging aspect of my job Almost 5 years ago I took on the role of deputy head of school (research) with my main remit being to prepare Brunels Sport Sciences and Education subject areas for REF2014. This role has proven challenging because I have needed to immerse myself in the milieu, research and scholarship of a subject area that is very different to my own. Nonetheless, I would thoroughly recommend to colleagues in sport and exercise sciences that they consider taking on such roles because they offer the potential to learn a great deal about yourself and others. One great thing that sport and exercise science has achieved During the course of my working life, sport psychologists and other related support staff have gone from being perceived as almost a ridiculous sideshow or sign of weakness, to being germane to success at the highest level. This shift in attitudes has represented a quantum leap and served to provide ample opportunity for up-andcoming sport scientists to forge a meaningful career. One challenge that I think sport and exercise science faces When it comes to inuencing policymakers our discipline still has a fair way to go. Some BASES members such as Professors Nanette Mutrie FBASES and Andy Smith MBE, FBASES have made tremendous strides in this regard; nonetheless the scourge of inactivity and obesity is so overwhelming that many more of us need to traverse the corridors of power in order for our collective voice to register. Despite the admirable advances in medical science, physicians will not be able to tackle the scale of the problem at hand without considerable input from us.
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One hero/heroine from past or present that has inuenced me I shared the same physio and rehabilitation clinic as double-Olympic decathlon champion Daley Thompson following knee surgery during my undergraduate days. Daley had long since been my hero and as a teenager I would often watch him in training with his coach Frank Dick at Crystal Palace. Through getting to know him on a personal level, I received tremendous insight into the mindset and behaviour patterns of a world-beater. I am not sure that Daley was quite so excited to be convalescing alongside me! One thing that I like to do on days off Like Daley, I never take days off: theres so much music out there, and so little time... One bit of advice that really inuenced me Just ignore jetlag (Professor Peter Terry FBASES, circa 1998). One quote that I really like I went to hear an elderly trombone player in a pub close to where I live in west London and he introduced himself with the line: Ive spent many years suffering for my art ...and tonight its your turn. One piece of advice for up and coming sport and exercise scientists Find a niche, learn your craft well, and get sore arms breaking down barriers. Since reading F. Scott Fitzgeralds classic work The Great Gatsby during my mid-teens, I have often recounted the words of the novels narrator Nick Carraway: Life is much more successfully looked at from a single window. This aphorism suggests that you should nd a single competitive sphere in which to excel. One person I would like to have dinner with Stevie Wonder - his music touches me more deeply than that of any other popular artist and hes been a signicant part of the soundtrack of my life. As well as that, if I am particularly hungry at the dinner, I could nick a chip off his plate and he wouldnt even know.

Dr Costas Karageorghis FBASES, AFBPsS Costas is Deputy Head (Research) and a Reader in Sport Psychology in the School of Sport and Education at Brunel University, London. He is Chair of the ACSMs MusicMoves Global Health Initiative. Compiled by: Len Parker Simpson Sports Physiology Research Scholar, University of Exeter About to change your home address? Update your details in the Member Area at www.bases.org.uk, e-mail enquiries@bases.org.uk or call 0113 812 6162

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