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This paper addresses the contributing factors and effects of athlete burnout in women’s rugby. Current and former top amateur female rugby union players (N = 10, age 19–21 yr) were interviewed regarding their experiences of high-performance rugby and of athlete burnout. Thematic analysis was applied to analyze the data. The findings show that seven players exhibited the three dimensions of burnout: emotional and physical exhaustion, reduced sense of accomplishment, and sport devaluation. Significant antecedents included role conflict, high physical demands, and coaching behaviors that resulted in maladaptive outcomes. The findings were in line with self-determination theory and showed consistencies with previous literature regarding athlete burnout. Meaningful and original findings related to the female rugby setting were also presented and discussed. Therefore, the study provides new insights into female rugby players’ experience of athlete burnout and contributes to the understanding of athlete burnout in the context of women’s rugby, which has been underresearched.

The primary purpose of this case study was to develop, implement, and evaluate a new workshop-based intervention using the five-step career planning and reflect on feedback from participants (n = 17) with the aim of improving the intervention’s content and structure to apply it to a wider population of higher education students, including student athletes. The workshop-based intervention aimed to provide participants with opportunities to reflect on career planning and mapping while reviewing their past, present, and future in terms of both sports careers and life, generally. We provide our reflections for both applied researchers and practitioners on our experience of piloting the intervention. Semistructured interview data were collected from the participants. Analysis revealed that the workshop afforded participants with opportunities to reflect on their present and future careers. The participants also provided recommendations on how to improve future workshops. Reflections on these recommendations and on the workshop (development, implementation, and evaluation) are provided.

This investigation aims (1) to describe how people associate sport with human values and (2) to analyse the relationship between media involvement with the Olympic Games and those values. Drawing u...

This article aims to understand the relationship between basic needs satisfaction, self-determined motivation, and burnout in esports players. To achieve this, we investigate three research hypotheses: (1) The three dimensions of basic needs satisfaction have a positive effect on the self-determined motivation of esports players, (2) The self-determined motivation of esports players has a negative effect on their burnout, and (3) All three dimensions of basic needs satisfaction affect esports player’s burnout, indirectly via self-determined motivation. Data were collected through an online questionnaire (n = 608) administered to Korean esports players who play online games as a leisure activity. Results indicate that player competence has a negative relationship with self-determined motivation, suggesting that Korean players do not associate increased levels of competence with their intrinsic motivation. The results show that intrinsic motivation is negatively associated with burnout, particularly exhaustion and reduced sense of accomplishment. It should be noted that Korean players’ high level of competence can result in reduced levels of self-determined motivation, which can lead them to burnout. This should be addressed by the industry, practitioners, and researchers considering the cultural context and the relationship between the factors, which will contribute to the sustainable growth and prosperity of the esports.

Research question This study investigates the roles and responsibilities of eSports stakeholders in ensuring eSports players’ health and wellbeing through the following research questions: (1) What are the roles and responsibilities of different stakeholders in helping ensure eSports players’ mental and physical health?; and (2) What are stakeholders’ perspectives on criticisms which may affect players’ health and wellbeing as well as the quality of their careers? Research methods Semi-structured interviews are conducted with 51 individuals from 18 nationalities including professional, semi-professional, amateur and retired players, a coach, game publishers, national eSports associations, a sponsor, a tournament organiser, and federations. Deductive analysis is applied to the data. Results and Findings The responsibility for ensuring eSports players’ health and wellbeing should be shared by all stakeholders. Stakeholders are aware of criticisms of eSports and understand this; such criticisms may be deflected with a growing appreciation of eSports’ value. The need for young players to balance training and commitment to eSports with broader educational requirements is highlighted. Implications The paper provides evidence on the need for a holistic developmental model for eSports players which provides better understanding of players’ careers and developmental needs. The study highlights a need for collective engagement and effort by various stakeholders in developing player-centred support schemes. Drawing on evidence from key stakeholders, the study proposes a modified categorisation of the eSports ecosystem model.

This paper reports the results of analysing desk-based data on organisational support for high performance athletes to develop their financial literacy and self-management skills when transitioning out of sport. There are two research questions: (1) Do sport organisations provide support schemes or other interventions such that high-performance athletes develop their financial literacy and self-management skills? and (2) Do sport organisations provide financial support schemes for high-performance athletes’ retirements? If so, what do they involve? Desk-based data collection was applied to 23 sporting organisations; these comprised 21 national organisations representing 19 countries, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Oceanic National Olympic Committee (ONOC). Fifteen of the 23 organisations, representing 14 countries, provided some support or interventions on financial planning and self-management within their career assistance programmes. The findings also indicate that most organisations in 17 different countries did not provide any financial support for athletes’ retirements. While a number of sport organisations have developed appropriate interventions to assist high-performance athletes to develop financial literacy and self-management skills, such schemes appear only to be provided to high-performance athletes who have competed at the highest level e.g., Olympics, world championships, etc. Support for athletes at lower levels should also be developed and delivered by national governments, or by national sport organisations.

This study investigates existing support services/systems that support junior dual career athletes in seven different countries. Specifically, the study aimed to identify: 1) What support services/systems are available for junior dual career athletes in the seven countries? and 2) Are there any similarities or differences between the seven countries? Between March 2020 and June 2020, desk-based data collection was conducted to identify any relevant evidence to answer the two research questions. Research teams from seven countries collected data from websites of sports organisations, sports clubs, and schools to identify any structured support services/systems used to help junior athletes manage their dual careers. A deductive approach was applied to analyse the data. The seven countries identified between 10-36 organisational support services/systems which support junior athletes manage their dual career. Many of the sports organisations across the countries provided financial support via a small grant to cover equipment costs, travel expenses, and sport science and medicine support (e.g., physio and sport psychology support). Results indicated holistic support for junior athletes is lacking at the secondary school level. This study has both academic and practical implications. The findings extend the knowledge of organisational support for junior athletes aged between 15 and 19-years-old and addresses a clear gap in both literature and practice. This study contributes to raising awareness of the need for customised support systems for junior dual career athletes and informs relevant authorised bodies of the need to develop evidence-based support schemes.

Balancing between two different commitments, sport and education, has been demonstrated as one of the significant challenges for dual career athletes, namely student athletes. Since EU guidelines on dual careers of athletes was published, a number of studies have been conducted on the topic of dual careers. One of the Erasmus+ Sport projects, Dual Career for Junior Athletes (DCJA), has been designed to identify three main aspects regarding the dual career of junior athletes, aged between 15 and 19-year-old: the barriers and challenges, resources and skills, and the roles and views of the support staff of the student-athletes. Applying a two-fold methodology based on the literature and the EU funded projects reviews, the findings show that there is a clear need of further research on the topic of dual career focused on the junior athletes’ needs, coping strategies development, and general aspects of their life. The findings in this study will inform following studies of DCJA project to fill the research gaps identified. === El equilibrio entre dos compromisos diferentes, el deporte y la educación, ha sido evidenciado como uno de los desafíos importantes para los deportistas de carrera dual, denominados estudiantes-deportistas. Desde que se publicaron las directrices de la UE sobre la carrera dual de los deportistas, se han realizado una serie de investigaciones sobre el topic de la carrera dual. Uno de los proyectos Erasmus + Sport, Dual Career for Junior Athletes (DCJA) ha sido diseñado para identificar tres aspectos relativos a la Carrera Dual del deportista junior, comprendidos entre 15-19 años: las barreras y retos, los recursos y habilidades, y los roles y puntos de vista del personal de apoyo de los estudiantes-deportistas. Mediante una metodología de investigación doble, basada en la revisión de la literatura y de los proyectos financiados a nivel europeo, se obtuvieron hallazgos que muestran que existe una clara necesidad de más investigación en el tema de la carrera dual centrada en las necesidades, desarrollo de capacidades de afrontamiento y aspectos generales de la vida de los deportistas junior. Los hallazgos de este estudio sentarán la base para los siguientes estudios del proyecto DCJA para solventar los vacíos de investigación identificados.

This paper investigates high-performance athletes’ development of their financial literacy and self-management skills and the related organisational support available to them during their athletic careers. The data were collected from 20 retired high-performance athletes (10 male and 10 female) representing six different countries (Japan, Mexico, Portugal, Singapore, South Korea, and the UK). Thematic analysis was applied to the processing of the data and five themes emerged: (1) Funding battles: financial challenges and misjudgements, (2) Coping Strategies, (3) Support from sponsors, parents, and sport organisations, (4) Development of Financial Literacy, and (5) Life After Sport. The data indicates that athletes experienced financial challenges due to a lack of organisational support, reduced or terminated funding, and limited opportunities to access sponsorship. Typically, athletes developed their financial literacy and self-management skills by ‘self-help’ or ‘trial and error’. The findings contribute to both literature and practice by providing empirical evidence on the coping strategies adopted by athletes in order to overcome financial challenges and on the methods used in order to develop their financial literacy and self-management skills. These findings inform sport organisations and governing bodies to develop support schemes for high-performance athletes as well as deepen our knowledge of athletes’ career development and transitions focusing on the financial aspect.

Research question: This paper is an integration of three studies. Study 1 investigates sport career transition organisational intervention programmes for high-performance athletes and training and ...

The purpose of the study was to develop achievement criteria of Creativity and Personality in Expressive Activity. For the study, a Delphi survey was conducted with the selected Delphi experts including doctors of sports pedagogic, physical education teachers and doctors of dance studies who have more than 10-year teaching experience in the expressive activity. In this way, the following study result was obtained. First, 27 elements of creativity in the expressive activity were suggested such as originality, sensitivity, trust, courage, moderation. Second, 54 achievement criteria which were drawn up based on the 27 Creativity and Personality-elements. Achievement criteria of creativity and personality was presented in a modular fashion that could be applied in the creation, representation, appreciation which was composed of main content in expressive activity. By using these modules, physical education teachers could plan a lesson by choosing a various factors of creativity and personality, depending on the intended educational goals.

Aim This article investigates the available support services/interventions offered by sporting organisations worldwide for athletes facing career transitions resulting from suspensions due to violating anti-doping policy. The authors aim to provide an overview of existing support systems and raise an awareness of the need of customised and structured support for sanctioned athletes as part of duty of care in sport, Method Web-based data was initially collected. Following this we contacted each sport organisation by email with a request to answer prepared research questions. Fifty sport organisations were contacted, including the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and National Olympic Committees (NOCs). The data from 22 sport organisations representing five continents are presented. Results The data are presented under five main themes: Termination of support, Psychological support, Financial support, Informative support, and Development in progress. The central finding is that none of the sporting organisations in this study has established a structured support programme or system for supporting doping sanctioned athletes to date. Conclusion In most cases sanctioned athletes are simply cut off from all organisational support and left to cope on their own when they are likely to be vulnerable. We argue there is a need for better awareness and support programmes of the challenges faced by athletes following a competition ban or other forced exit from sport due to an anti-doping violation.

A color local dimming algorithm is proposed to reduce the image distortion and power consumption of liquid crystal displays (LCDs) by using color light emitting diode (LED) backlights. The proposed algorithm is demonstrated using a 55-in. LCD panel with a RGB LED backlight system. In the proposed algorithm, the dimming rate of local blocks is determined by calculating the image distortion of the dimming image, and this is used to achieve steady image quality. The image data of the LCD panel are modified to reduce color distortion by removing the differences in chromaticity. Simulated test results show that the average, standard deviation, and relative variation of PSNRs for the test video are 43.74 dB, 3.57 dB, and 0.082, respectively. The average color differences using the proposed algorithm are 9.6, 5.0, 5.6, and 4.2 for the test patterns with 2×2, 4×2, 4×4, and 8×4 white boxes, respectively. The measured average power saving ratio for the test video is 67.3%.

The purpose of this study were to analyse and to develop PCK achievement level(AL) of physical education teachers(PET). There were discussions with experts, and research consultants were selected for the development of PCK AL. A survey was conducted with total 127 teachers including 62 PET and 65 preservice PET(PPET). As a result of the study: First, PET group had higher PCK AL than PPET in almost all areas. Second, in terms of the PCK AL in the five physical activities of PE, the two groups commonly had high AL in the area of competition activities while they had low AL in the expressive activity(EA) and leisure activity(LA). Third, the PET’ group showed high PCK AL in almost of all areas of detailed PCK elements, but PPET group was better than the PET group in the AL of knowledge for ICT. In addition, both group had relatively low knowledge level of creativity and personality education(CPE). In conclusions, special efforts are required to enhance the knowledge level of PCK and to improve teaching performance in the EA and LA.