National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I Certified Athletic Trainers' Perceptions of the Benefits of Sport Psychology Services.

CONTEXT: Certified athletic trainers (ATs) are responsible for integrating relevant professionals into the rehabilitation team to assist with the holistic care of injured athletes. OBJECTIVE: To explore National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I (DI) ATs' experience with sport psychology consultants (SPCs), willingness to encourage athletes to use SPCs for injury rehabilitation, and perceptions of the benefits of sport psychology services. DESIGN: Quantitative study. SETTING: A Web-based survey was administered to a national sample of DI ATs. PATIENTS OR OTHER PARTICIPANTS: A total of 659 (341 men, 318 women) ATs completed the survey. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Athletic trainers' experience with SPCs, willingness to encourage athletes to seek sport psychology services, and perceptions of the benefits of those services in injury-rehabilitation settings were self-reported using a rating scale that ranged from 1 (never or not at all) to 5 (definitely or extremely). RESULTS: Logistic regression revealed that the availability of SPCs, previous encouragement to athletes to seek sport psychology services, and previous positive interactions with SPCs predicted the ATs' willingness to encourage athletes to use these services (P < .0001). The services ATs rated the highest for injury rehabilitation were managing anxiety and emotion, improving coping techniques, and building confidence (ie, confidence in returning to sport and building confidence). Chi-square analyses indicated that female ATs' ratings of perceived benefits were higher (P ≤ .001) than those of male ATs, and the ratings of ATs who were likely to encourage the use of SPCs were higher (P ≤ .001) than those who were unlikely to encourage SPC service use. CONCLUSIONS: Athletic trainers in our study who had previous positive SPC experiences were most likely to use SPCs and their services during the injury-rehabilitation process. Possible implications are offered for how ATs interested in sport psychology services might call on SPCs to complement their work with injured athletes.

Self-control behaviors during the learning of a cascade juggling task.

This study examined the self-control behaviors of participants learning a 3-ball cascade juggle. Participants chose when they would receive one of four types of instructional assistance: (a) instructions; (b) video demonstration; (c) knowledge of performance (KP); and (d) knowledge of results (KR). Juggling proficiency was divided into three categories based on catches per attempt during retention and transfer testing. In general, participants decreased their requests for instructions and video demonstration throughout acquisition. For the most proficient performers, requests for KR increased over practice. Post-experimental interviews revealed that participants requested KR after primarily good attempts and KP after both good and bad attempts. Participant-reported reasons for requesting feedback included the confirmation of success (KR) and identification of technique flaws (KP). Overall, the findings suggest that self-control behaviors are more complex than previously demonstrated and that participants use self-control differently depending upon the type of assistance available, individual preferences, and learning needs.

Collegiate athletes' experience of the meaning of sport injury: a phenomenological investigation.

AIMS: In this study, a phenomenological approach was used to gain an in-depth understanding of the meaning collegiate athletes derive from their injury experience. The integrated model of sport injury developed by Wiese-Bjornstal and colleagues served as the conceptual framework for the study. METHODS: Elite athletes (n = 5) at one National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I university in the USA participated in phenomenological interviews at three different points postinjury and prior to return to participation in their respective sports. The first interview was conducted within seven days post-injury, while the second and third interviews were conducted 15-20 days post-injury and at least 30 days post-injury, respectively. RESULTS: Inductive analysis of the interview data revealed that while participants' experiences varied somewhat and fluctuated over time, the meaning they derived from the experience was characterized by four major themes: perspective, emotion, coping and relationships. Subsequent deductive analysis indicated a modest fit of each athlete's experience within the integrated model of sport injury and rehabilitation developed by Wiese-Bjornstal et al. CONCLUSION: Participants' psychological responses to sport injury were generally consistent with the Wiese-Bjornstal et al. model but the meaning of the experience was highly individualized and seemed to evolve over the course of the injury and rehabilitation process.

Immediate and delayed bilateral transfer of throwing accuracy in male and female children.

In the present study, an attempt was made to examine the nature and persistence of bilateral transfer of a throwing skill for a large sample of male and female children. One hundred sixty children ages 6, 8, 10, and 12 years were randomly assigned to either an experimental or control group with an equal number of boys and girls in each group. The experiment lasted 2 days and consisted of a pretest, a practice phase, an immediate transfer test, and a delayed transfer test. On the pretest, each participant performed 10 trials of a novel one-hand throwing task. Following the pretest, participants in the experimental group practiced the skill with the hand opposite the one used during the pretest until they had successfully reached a designated criterion for their age. Participants in the control group performed a balancing activity. Following the practice phase, all participants performed immediate (10 min later) and delayed (24 hr later) transfer tests under the same conditions as the pretest. The results revealed no group differences on the pretest but significantly higher throwing accuracy for the experimental group than the control group on both transfer tests. In addition, boys' throwing accuracy was significantly superior to the girls. It was concluded that bilateral transfer of throwing accuracy can be both a temporary and relatively persistent phenomenon for children and the superior throwing accuracy for boys is consistent with similar gender differences in throwing distance and throwing velocity (Thomas & French, 1985).

Athletes' and coaches' perceptions of sport psychology services offered by graduate students at one NCAA Division I university.

In recent years, there have been increasing calls for graduate programs in sport psychology to include supervised practicum experiences. While supervision and applied experience is vital to the professional growth of graduate students, periodic evaluations are also needed to determine students' effectiveness in providing sport psychology services. This study represented an initial attempt to assess athletes' and coaches' perceptions of services provided by graduate students at one NCAA Division I university. Analyses showed 118 participants' ratings of consultants' effectiveness were comparable to those provided by U.S. Olympic athletes for professional consultants in earlier research by Gould, Murphy, Tammen, and May.

Note on learners' control of the frequency of model presentation during skill acquisition.

Learners (30 men, 15 women in three groups), given an opportunity to control the frequency with which they viewed a model during initial practice of the badminton long serve, acquired and retained a level of movement form that was equivalent to learners who viewed the model 100% of the time and significantly superior to learners who never viewed the model.