Exercise and Sport Sciences Notes

Academic Discipline

An academic discipline is a formal body of knowledge that is discovered, developed, and disseminated through scholarly research and inquiry.

Components of an Academic Discipline

An academic discipline includes:

  • A body of knowledge.
  • A conceptual framework.
  • Scholarly procedures and methods of inquiry.
  • Both the process of discovery and results.

Steps of the Research Process

The research process involves these steps:

  • Ask a question or state a problem that is measurable.
  • Conduct background research and gather information to learn from the work of others, understanding what is already known and determining the best way to answer the question.
  • Formulate a hypothesis, which is an educated guess of what you think will happen.
  • Perform an experiment to test the hypothesis.
  • Collect and analyze the data from the experiment to determine if the hypothesis is true or false, possibly using statistical software, charts, and graphs.
  • Draw conclusions based on the results of the experiment, which may lead to a new hypothesis or replication of the study in a different way to confirm the results.
  • Communicate the results to others.

Developing Research and Writing Skills

1. Identifying Topics
  • Identify the topics, themes, concepts, terms, or keywords (broadly, then narrow as appropriate) — may use a search engine like Google to begin but do not use this exclusively.
    • Go to Google. When using web sites, you must differentiate between scholarly, professional organizations, governmental, blogs, commercial, etc.
    • Google Scholar.
    • American College of Sports Medicine.
    • National Institutes of Health.
    • Commission on Accreditation of Athletic Training Education.
    • Physical and Health Education America.
2. Format of Information
  • Books; scholarly (peer-reviewed) journal articles; popular articles.
  • Most college libraries have databases, like SPORTDiscus, with full- text articles online.
  • Do not use Wikipedia because it is unreliable factually!

Scientific Foundations of Exercise and Sport Sciences

Natural Sciences
  • Study of natural things.
Physical Sciences
  • Study of things made by humans.
Social Sciences
  • Study of human society and behavior.

Disciplines Providing Content and Methods

Numerous disciplines provide the content and methods of scientific inquiry used by researchers in the exercise and sport sciences:

  • Anatomy.
  • Biochemistry.
  • Biology.
  • Chemistry.
  • History.
  • Philosophy.
  • Physics.
  • Physiology.
  • Psychology.
  • Sociology.

Exercise Physiology

  • The study of the causes and consequences of bodily functioning and changes occurring due to physical activity.
  • Based on an understanding of the anatomic and physiological bases of human movement.
  • Examines changes in the cardiovascular system and other physiological parameters.
  • Investigates the biochemical reactions* that supply muscles with energy.
    • Production of endorphins; conversion of glucose to usable energy; increased metabolism and breakdown of fatty tissue.

Athletic Training

  • The study and application of the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of sports injuries.
  • Design and help implement conditioning programs.
  • Assess injuries and needs for immediate first aid.
  • Provide preventive taping and treatment modalities.
  • Work with physicians to help athletes regain their abilities to perform.

Motor Development

  • The maturation and changes in motor behavior throughout life and the factors that affect them.
  • Performance of motor skills is influenced by genetic, environmental, and developmental factors.
  • Throughout life, individuals progress from unskilled movements to the learning of complex motor patterns.
  • Perceptual-motor skills are especially important to the learning of sport skills.

Motor Learning

  • The study of the internal processes associated with movement or repetitive actions that result in changes in response or performance.
  • Important to the learning of motor skills are:
    • Relationship of movements to prior knowledge and skills.
    • Transfer of learning.
    • Involvement of cognitive processes.
    • Types of practice sessions.
    • Feedback and knowledge of results.
  • Building on the neuro-muscular pathways learned through motor control, motor learning adds knowledge of results, feedback, and optimal practice methods.

Difference between Motor Development and Motor Learning

Motor development
  • Is about the development of fundamental movement patterns at any age, including factors such as genetic or environmental limitations. Running, jumping, throwing, and kicking are examples of motor development skills.
Motor learning
  • Is about making advances in motor skills through repetition and practice. Motor learning involves enhanced learning and skill enhancement such as through transfer of throwing skills from one sport to another and using feedback to change performance.

Sport Biomechanics

  • The study of the effects of anatomical and physiological effects of natural laws and internal and external forces acting on the human body during movement (application of physics).
  • Factors that influence human movement include:
    • Force of muscular contraction; Flexion, extension, pronation, and supination of muscles; Composition of muscle fibers; Equilibrium, center of gravity, and base of support; Transfer of momentum; Force absorption; Leverage.
  • Biomechanical analyses examine acceleration, energy, mass, power, torque, and velocity.

Sport History

  • The descriptive and analytical examination of significant people, events, organizations, and trends that shaped the past.
    • Descriptive history explains events, individuals’ contributions, and pivotal happenings.
    • Analytical history explains the significance of historical occurrences and interpretations within the societal context.

Sport Management

  • The study of the theoretical and applied aspects of leading, planning, organizing, staffing, funding, and conducting sporting events.
  • Involves business components of marketing, accounting, economics, finance, and law.
  • Includes these management functions: planning, organizing, directing, and evaluating.

Sport Philosophy

  • The study of the beliefs and values of humans as displayed within sport and an analysis of their meaning and significance.
  • Examines the beautiful and ugly and the good and bad in sport.
  • Seeks an understanding of how and why people play and engage in sport.

Sport and Exercise Psychology

  • The study of human behavior in sport, including an understanding of the mental processes that interact with motor skill performance.
  • Involves an understanding of achievement motivation, arousal, attribution, and personality development.
  • Includes a study of the theories of learning, importance of reinforcement, and linkages of perceptual and motor factors.

How Are Motor Learning and Sport and Exercise Psychology Related?

  • Motor learning emphasizes motor skill enhancement using a variety of practice approaches, repetition, and knowledge of results. Motor learning focuses on bodily movements.
  • Sport and exercise psychology emphasizes mental skill development, such as how the mind relates to positive and negative reinforcement and how the mind responds to motivation, arousal, and stress. Sport and exercise psychology focuses on how the mind impacts or influences how or why the body performs skillfully.

Sport Sociology

  • The study of the social relationships of gender, race, ethnicity, class, and culture in the context of sport and the social behavior of individuals, groups, organizations, institutions, and societies in a sporting context.
  • Examines concepts such as social mobility, class and gender stratification, racial and ethnic discrimination, team dynamics, and social consciousness and values.
  • Seeking to understand why people play and how their involvement with sports influences them.

How Are Sport History and Sport Sociology Intertwined?

  • Sport history describes and analyzes the past with an emphasis on who, what, when, where, why, and how. It interrelates with sport sociology whenever interpretations are made about past occurrences within the societal sporting context.
  • Sport sociology seeks to understand social behaviors and interpersonal relationships as impacted by class, culture, ethnicity, gender, and race in the context of sport. It interrelates with sport history through gaining an understanding of the role sport serves in people’s lives.

Humanities

  • Humanities help focus on the aesthetic aspects of movement, such as through art, literature, and music.
    • Art includes various forms of dance and sculptures and frescos of athletes and human movement.
    • Literature can include sports biographies as well as analytical critiques about sport and physical activity.
    • Music can accompany human movement to enrich the experience.

Exercise and Sport Sciences Quiz

Which of the exercise and sport sciences includes the study of:

  • Oxygen utilization during cardiorespiratory exercise and metabolic responses to exercise and training?
  • Descriptions and analyzes of past performances of athletes?
  • How people learn skills, especially through practice and feedback?
  • The social relationships of gender, race, ethnicity, class, and culture in the context of sport?
  • Analyzes of the impact of motion, force, and energy on sport performance?
  • Analyzes the developmental patterns associated with movement and skill performance?
  • Extensive knowledge of the body to help athletes stay injury free and return to competition safely?
  • The study of why people act as they do based on their values?
  • The study of the theoretical and applied aspects of leading, planning, organizing, staffing, funding, and conducting sporting events?
  • Various mental coping strategies to enhance sport performances?

In which two or three of the exercise and sport sciences would professionals be interested in and possibly conduct research studies about:

  • The development of muscular strength and endurance following injury or surgery?
  • How acceleration or force affects the learning and enhancement of motor skills?
  • How race and gender have historically limited competitive opportunities in sports?
  • How developmental readiness for strength and endurance training might help combat depression?

In which two or three of the exercise and sport sciences would professionals be involved when:

  • A director of athletics is confronted with the issue of non-compliance with academic standards by athletes?
  • Dealing with individual athletes’ performances and the interactions among team members with different ethnicities?
  • How skills in a lifetime sport are developed and participation in this sport maintained by formerly sedentary and overweight individuals?
  • Designing a rehabilitation program that would enable an athlete to increase his or her ability to exert greater force and velocity when swinging a bat?
  • Examining gambling scandals in intercollegiate athletics?
  • How various training regiments would enhance the performances of professional athletes in order to increase tickets sales and revenues?