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Study finds athletes fear being judged as weak when they experience pain or injury

Press release:

Trinity researchers have undertaken the first multi-centred, international, qualitative study exploring the athlete experience (in their own words) of sporting low back pain (LBP).

LBP is common in rowers and can cause extended time out from the sport and even retirement for some athletes. Rowers from diverse settings (club and university to international standard) in two continents were included in the study.

The findings have been published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

In an Irish context, rowing is currently one of our most successful sports and Rowing Ireland has 4000 registered racing members. About 50% of elite rowers in Ireland will have an episode of rowing related low back pain in a year. Australia is one of the biggest rowing nations in the world. Researchers at Curtin University in Perth, who partnered on this study are globally respected for their back-pain research.

With the evolution of professional sport, the mantra of ‘win at all costs’ pervades. This attitude is present even in grassroot sports.  Focus has shifted from enjoyable participation to prioritising performance outcomes, leading to athletes being regarded as an asset, commodity or an investment.

A culture of toughness and resilience is encouraged but this can create confusion when it comes to reporting  pain and injury which is common in sport. Athletes commonly internalise a myth that pain equates to weakness and personal failure. There is a rising interest in the influence of sporting culture on athlete’s welfare; athlete abuse through mistreatment following injury is part of this.

For many sports, athletes’ health is not prioritised, and this is now recognised as a form of abuse. Some athletes are not provided with a culture and environment where they can report pain and injury without negative consequences. To understand the extent of this issue and to safeguard athletes, their voice and experiences need to be heard in research.

Qualitative research allows athletes to tell their stories in their own words and is a good method of exploring their lived experience. By understanding what an athlete’s experience of pain and injury is will lead to a better management of injury and better outcomes. It is likely to contribute to prevention of injury.

The key messages from the study are:

  • Rowers in this study felt compromised by their LBP and in many cases felt that the prevailing culture and environment did not allow them to be open and honest about their LBP for fear of exclusion.
  • Many felt that they had to continue competing and training when in pain. This may have increased risk of a poor outcome from their LBP as well as the poor negative emotional/mental experience that they encountered
  • Rowers experience of LBP can lead to isolation and can have a profound effect on their life beyond sport.
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Athletes don’t benefit from relying on a coach for too long

Press release:

BINGHAMTON, NY — Athletes increasingly relying on a coach over the course of a season may be a sign that they aren’t progressing in their development, according to new research from Binghamton University.

On the other hand, inspirational coaches will find that their athletes will become less reliant on them over time.

“Being increasingly needed by your athletes as time goes on is not a good sign,” says Chou-Yu Tsai, assistant professor of management in Binghamton University’s School of Management. “If your athletes no longer need your leadership and guidance as time goes on, that should be seen as a positive sign that you’ve helped them in their development.”

Tsai, who studies leadership in a number of contexts, including athletics, worked with a research team consisting of San-Fu Kao of National Tsing Hua University and Robert Schinke of Laurentian University. They set out to discover how a coach’s leadership style affected athlete evaluations of their competency over time.

The researchers evaluated how nearly 250 Division I collegiate basketball players felt about their coaches at different points over the course of a season. They focused on a coach’s ability to enact transformational leadership, or the ability to develop athletes to their full potential.

“Transformational coaches empower their players in ways beyond just playing a sport. They help players develop meaning and instill pride, and encourage them to go above and beyond for the good of the team,” said Tsai.

They found that coaches who enacted high transformational leadership had a decrease in perceived coaching competency by their athletes over time. In other words, the more a coach inspired a player to achieve their full potential, the less the athlete relied on their coaching.

In contrast, they found that coaches with low transformational leadership skills had an increase in perceived coaching competency by their athletes over the course of the season. This means that players may rely more on their uninspiring coaches over time.

“If you’re not gaining some sort of independence from your coach, you may feel like you need that coach even more,” said Tsai. “This probably isn’t a good sign.”

Tsai said it’s important for coaches to understand how their leadership style interacts with player perceptions of them.

“Coaches may incorrectly think they did something wrong if their athletes aren’t as reliant on them anymore,” said Tsai. “On the contrary, our research indicates that this kind of independence is a sign that you demonstrated good leadership behaviors.”

As for how to become a transformational leader, Tsai recommends that coaches focus on the personal development of their athletes.

“Transformational coaches don’t want athletes to only become better players. They mentor their athletes and help them become better people as well,” said Tsai.

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The study, “Investigation of the interaction between coach transformational leadership and coaching competency change over time,” has been published in the International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching.

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Is the Running Cadence Important?

Inside running community there is often a massive amount of discussion as well as obsession for the running form or method with no shortage of viewpoints, a lot of comments from guru’s with lots of dogma rather than much research to back up nearly all of it. The perspectives from the so-called gurus and how an athlete should actually run can be quite varied and quite often contrary, which can often leave the typical runner rather baffled. There are several factors with the various running methods for instance how and where the foot contacts the ground along with the placement from the leg and pelvis. One that lately got a great deal of focus was the cadence. The cadence is related to how quick the legs turn over, generally calculated as the quantity of steps taken each minute.

There are a number of methods to ascertain the cadence and you will find apps you can use to ascertain the cadence. It’s just a matter of keeping track of the number of steps the athlete normally takes in a time period and after that standardizing that to 1 minute. There was clearly just lately an increasing movement touting for athletes to cut short their step length while increasing the rate that the legs turn over ie raise the cadence. The dogma was that if you can get the cadence close to 180 steps/minute then that is by some means a significant way to decrease the risk for exercise related injury while increasing performance. This 180 steps/minute was popularized by the well-known running coach Jack Daniels. He based this on his studies of athletes and their step cadences at the 1984 Olympics. Daniels broadly pushed the 180 as an well suited for all runners to shoot for.

Since that time, the research has demonstrated that this cadence in athletes is normally fairly varied with a few as little as 150-160 while others are around 200 steps a minute. It can seem like it is a pretty individual thing with no one best cadence. It can appear that every runner will probably have their very own perfect cadence and will also differ between runners. Shortening the stride length to raise the cadence does appear to have some positive aspects and that’s based on a number of studies, however what is not supported is raising it to that particular mythical 180 that has been widely suggested. It can help with runners that are overstriding and help them learn never to stride so far forward when running. It does seem to assist athletes who have complications with their knees as it can lessen the strains there, but it will however raise the stresses in other places, therefore any alterations needs to be carried out little by little , cautiously and step by step.

What exactly is most significant with regard to runners to know is that this is very individual and it is a matter of working out all on your own or with the assistance of an experienced running technique mentor precisely what is right for you as the individual. One point that has come out around most of the buzz close to cadence would be to not be enticed by the latest trend or expert and try to look for the a lot more reasonable and regarded opinions.

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Athletes using sport supplements are more open to doping — study

Media Release:

Athletes using legal performance enhancing and medical sport supplements are more likely to dope than those using sport foods and superfoods, a new study reveals.

While some sport supplements may be necessary for an athlete’s programme, taking ergogenic and medical sport supplements may inadvertently lead to sports people developing favourable attitudes towards doping

Researchers at the University of Birmingham and Canterbury Christ Church University are calling for bespoke anti-doping education for athletes using such supplements to prevent them turning to banned substances.

In the first study of its kind, the researchers surveyed 573 athletes competing at club, country, national and international level about their use of four types of sport supplements:

  • Ergogenic, such as creatine – used to improve performance;
  • Medical, such as iron – used to treat clinical issues and nutrient deficiencies;
  • Sport foods/drinks, such as protein bars – providing a source of nutrients; and
  • Superfoods, such as goji berries – which claim to optimise health and performance.

Publishing their findings in Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, the researchers note that athletes using ergogenic and medical sport supplements to improve performance, through boosting strength and shortening recovery between training sessions can develop the belief that doping is another means to improve performance.

Co-author Christopher Ring, Professor in Psychology at the University of Birmingham, commented: “Our results have important implications for coaches, nutritionists and sport doctors – they must appreciate that athletes who are administered ergogenic and medical sport supplements may develop more favourable attitudes towards doping.

“An athlete using these supplements may come to believe that using chemically active substances is an acceptable way of enhancing sport performance. This belief could then later develop into a rationalisation that doping is just another means to enhance performance.”

Two in five athletes surveyed (42%) used ergogenic supplements, whereas one in five used medical sport supplements (18%) and sport foods and drinks (21%). Superfoods were rarely used (2%). Over half (53%) used at least one sport supplement.

Researchers note that future research such explore how use of one supplement type may lead to another and eventually the use of banned substances – for example, superfood use leads to ergogenic and medical supplement use, which may in turn, lead to doping.

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Do Foam Rollers Work?

Foam rolling is one thing that’s been becoming more popular among professional athletes as well as gym fans as a additive to their exercise sessions. These types of cylinder shaped foams of different densities and kinds are used and the muscles are rolled over them. Foam rolling is a sort of self myofascial release treatment. The target or claim is because they are intended to break up adhesions inside the muscle tissue, and help assist in stretches, and help as part of the warm up and to also to encourage recovery from physical exercise. Fitness professionals as well as believed authorities are touting their use. On the other hand, regardless of the remarks of all the rewards, you can find not much science to support if foam rolling really tends to make any difference or not. Irregardless, foam rollers are usually a relatively low priced method of manual therapy because the equipment is cheap and you don’t require the more expensive expertise of a healthcare professional.

The foams are cylindrical in form and can be found in various sizes and hardness’s from soft to firm plus some are made for particular areas of the body, for example the PediRoller for the plantar surface of the feet produced by a Podiatrist. The foam roller is positioned on the floor and the muscles to be dealt with is rolled over it. The concept is that you simply roll the muscles on the foam roller backward and forward at an even speed to get results on any kind of tightness and myofascial conditions within that muscle tissue. As the foam roller is moveable, they are often used at the gym, the running track or at home without having guidance.

The chief alleged features for foam rolling tend to be increased flexibility to improve the range of movement; a better sports performance if using the foam roller as part of the warm-up regimen; and increased recovery just after exercise and also a lessing of the signs and symptoms of delayed onset muscle tenderness (DOMS). Due to the absence of research which has been done with this niche there is lots of confusion between professionals with many proclaiming that these gains remain just theoretical and also the complete idea is only a theory since not all of those rewards are usually supported, especially in the long-term by strong data.

There is some fair proof which points too foam rolling gives you numerous shorter-term benefits for mobility, although nothing demonstrates it may help in the long term. It could be helpful as part of a warmup routine to really make the muscle tissues even more geared up for training. The research that’s been published is evident that there are no negative consequences on athletic results. The science data on using the foam roller soon after activity could have a modest affect on helping DOMS. There is no research what-so-ever that foam rolling improves cellulite, fixes the posture, or helps scar tissue, or sciatica and lower back pain.

It is still early days for the research on foam rolling and some if not more of these promoted features may or may not have more or greater science to back up the utilization. For sports athletes there isn’t a reason that foam rolling may not be helpful during warm-up routines mainly because it can seem to improve mobility in the short term and might be of use in after training recuperation.