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While inertial measurement units (IMU) have become an integral part of sports performance analysis, upper body-mounted IMUs have been found to exhibit poor reliability in measuring lower-limb loading. In racket sports, IMUs have been placed in a number of positions on the upper body, lower body and racket in a research setting. A potential limitation to the concurrent use of multiple IMUs is that coaches may be reluctant to allow their athletes to wear the units during training and competition due to concerns that the units would interfere with athlete movement. This study seeks to understand the perceptions of racket sports coaches towards the use of IMUs in training and competition. A total of 58 racket sport coaches responded to a survey on the use of IMUs during training and competition. Based on the responses, 96.6% (56 out of 58) of coaches indicated that they would allow their athletes to wear IMUs in training, while 65.5% (38 out of 58) would allow their athletes to wear IMUs during competition. For use in training, 9 of the 14 suggested IMU placements received significant positive responses. However, none of the suggested IMU placements received significant positive responses for use during competition and 11 of the 14 received significant negative responses. This suggests that coaches understand the benefits of collecting data from IMUs during competition there remains concern regarding inconvenience to the athlete, lack of comfort, and appearance. Despite this, for use in training, a number of upper and lower body- mounted IMUs placements have the potential to be part of regular monitoring in racket sports.

The literature indicates that glucose deprivation, dehydration, decreased sleep quality and quantity, and mood changes, independently and adversely can influence cognitive functions and therefore learning. The Ramadan fast is an annual religious act undertaken by Muslims where individuals refrain from consuming food and fluid during daylight hours, daily over 30 days. Alteration in eating times and sleep–wake cycles lead to a disruption in the body's daily circadian rhythm resulting in sleep perturbations and mood swings. Consequently, Ramadan fasting is linked to daytime lower glucose concentration, dehydration, decreased sleep quality and quantity, mood swings and elevated subjective feelings of fatigue and malaise. This review highlights how Ramadan fasting potentially poses learning difficulties as a result of the independent and/or combined effects of these factors.

Prolonged sitting has a detrimental effect on lipid metabolism and insulin sensitivity leading to increased risks of metabolic conditions. Attendees at conferences typically sit for long periods during oral presentations. The use of visual cues or ‘just-in-time’ (JIT) prompts during oral presentations can inform audiences about the deleterious effects of prolonged sitting and encourage them to avoid sitting for long periods. It remains unclear whether these ‘just-in-time’ prompts used in conference settings are effective in reducing prolonged sitting. The ‘just-in-time’ prompts were used in two separate conferences—one focused on health and the other on language. Ten oral presentation sessions were randomly assigned to the experimental group (EXPT, with the JIT prompt) and ten oral presentation sessions to the control group (CON, without the JIT prompt). In both conferences, the proportion of the attendees who stood up (i.e. did not sit) during the oral presentations in the EXPT conditions was less than 10%. The main finding was that the use of the JIT prompt to discourage prolonged sitting at the health conference where attendees were likely to be knowledgeable about the dangers of prolonged sitting was ineffective (EXPT vs CON conditions, p>0.05; ES=0.69) compared to conference attendees at a language conference (EXPT vs CON conditions, p