scholarly journals Accelerated decline in javelin throwing performance in master athletes 70 years and older – does change in technique play a role?

Author(s):  
Bergita Ganse ◽  
Hans Degens

Background: Wile many older adults are immobile, frail and inactive, others still participate in competitive sports. As in sprinting and endurance running, the world records of javelin throwing decrease with increasing age. It is, however, not clear 1)whether this ageing-related decline is linear or, as in sprint performance, accelerates beyond the age of 69, and 2) to what extent frailty-related changes in throwing technique contribute to the decreasing performance in old javelin throwers. Methods: We plotted the current world records against age and assessed the performance of 27 male javelin throwers 70 years and older during three master athletics championships. Three to six throws were filmed, and the best throw of each athlete selected. A step-wise linear regression was applied to assess the contribution of age, angle of release, angle of attitude , angle of attack, elbow angle just before the pull and the number of steps in the approach run, to performance. Results: The ageing-related decline in javelin-throw performance accelerated after the age of 69 years. Age was the main predictor of performance (adjusted R 2 =0.68), with a small contribution of elbow angle (adjusted R 2 increased to 0.76) and angle of attack (R 2 =0.82; all P<0.001) in the older athletes. None of the technique-related parameters correlated with age. Discussion: The ageing-related decline in javelin throwing performance was accelerated after the age of 69 years. Although the technique had some influence on javelin throwing performance, the accelerated decline in 70 + -year-old athletes was not associated with an ageing-related change in throwing technique.

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bergita Ganse ◽  
Hans Degens

Background: Wile many older adults are immobile, frail and inactive, others still participate in competitive sports. As in sprinting and endurance running, the world records of javelin throwing decrease with increasing age. It is, however, not clear 1)whether this ageing-related decline is linear or, as in sprint performance, accelerates beyond the age of 69, and 2) to what extent frailty-related changes in throwing technique contribute to the decreasing performance in old javelin throwers. Methods: We plotted the current world records against age and assessed the performance of 27 male javelin throwers 70 years and older during three master athletics championships. Three to six throws were filmed, and the best throw of each athlete selected. A step-wise linear regression was applied to assess the contribution of age, angle of release, angle of attitude , angle of attack, elbow angle just before the pull and the number of steps in the approach run, to performance. Results: The ageing-related decline in javelin-throw performance accelerated after the age of 69 years. Age was the main predictor of performance (adjusted R 2 =0.68), with a small contribution of elbow angle (adjusted R 2 increased to 0.76) and angle of attack (R 2 =0.82; all P<0.001) in the older athletes. None of the technique-related parameters correlated with age. Discussion: The ageing-related decline in javelin throwing performance was accelerated after the age of 69 years. Although the technique had some influence on javelin throwing performance, the accelerated decline in 70 + -year-old athletes was not associated with an ageing-related change in throwing technique.


2018 ◽  
Vol 02 (03) ◽  
pp. E79-E83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bergita Ganse ◽  
Hans Degens

AbstractWhile many older adults are immobile and frail, others still participate in competitive sports. World records of javelin throw decrease with increasing age. It is, however, unknown 1) whether the decline is linear or, as in sprint performance, accelerates beyond the age of 69; and 2) to what extent frailty-related changes in throwing technique contribute to decreasing performance. We plotted current world records against age and assessed the performance of 27 male javelin throwers 69 years and older during three master athletics championships. Three to six throws were filmed, and the best throw of each athlete selected. A step-wise linear regression was applied to assess contributions of age, angle of release, angle of attitude, angle of attack and elbow angle just before the pull to performance. The ageing-related decline in javelin-throw performance accelerated after age 69. Age was the main predictor of performance (adjusted R2=0.68), with a small contribution of elbow angle (adjusted R2 increased to 0.76) and angle of attack (R2=0.82; all P<0.001) in the older athletes. None of the technique-related parameters correlated with age. Although the technique had some influence on javelin-throwing performance, the accelerated decline was not associated with a characteristic ageing-related change in technique.


Author(s):  
Janet O'Shea

This section contends with a central irony: Americans are among the most competitive people in the world, and yet we are among the least likely to play competitive sports in adulthood. This exercise gap is usually treated as a public health problem; the goal of this section is to treat it as a social and cultural concern. The conclusion therefore investigates the social and political implications of an American tendency to outsource physical play to experts: higher levels of fear, increased preoccupation with success at all costs, decreased creativity, and increasing rigidity of perspective and position. Specifically, the conclusion maintains that a neglect of fair play has dire consequences for democracy, a suggestion born out by the recent swing toward right-wing populism in politics.


Author(s):  
Anselmo José Perez ◽  
Adilson Marques ◽  
Kamilla Bolonha Gomes

Running a marathon has become the motivation to achieve success and economic independence for athletes, mainly from African countries. This feeling is more evident among the black community, considering that they have been presenting better results than white athletes. The objective of the study was to analyse the ranking of marathon runners around the world, in the last 15 years considering: 1) nationality; 2) best average time of the 100 best classified runners from the Top 100, Top 50, Top 25, Top 10 and Top 3. An analysis was made to the ranking available on the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) website, for the 100 best world results for both sexes, focusing on records from 2000 to 2014. The analysis was subdivided into ranking groups (Top 3, 10, 25, 50 and 100), resulting in 3000 records. African runners, Kenyan and Ethiopian, dominate the male ranking representing 70% of the total of runners in Top 100, keeping this proportion up to Top 3. African runners, Kenyan and Ethiopian, dominate the male ranking representing 70% of the total of runners in Top 100, keeping this proportion up to Top 3. The same is observed for females, however with a significantly lower percentage (34%), with Japanese, Ethiopian and Kenyan (17%) and an English athlete as the world record. The average time of a marathon has been decreasing in males more than in female competitions, both in Top 3 and Top 10, however still presenting a large gap from world records. 


1987 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 493-508 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerard Loughlin

How is Christian theology, as the self-understanding of the Christian life, to understand the world religions? How is it to understand them in relation to itself? In recent years Professor John Hick has proposed a pluralist paradigm of the world religions which would, if acceptable, answer these sort of questions. In this article we are going to consider the acceptability of Hick's paradigm to Christian theology. The question we want to put to it is simple: Will it do as a model for how Christian theology may begin to think its relation to the world religions?Our discussion is in three parts. In the first part we present Hick's paradigm in, what we take to be, it's strongest form, defending it against certain criticisms. In the second part we consider its phenomenological foundations and the possibility of its judicious evaluation. Finally, in the third part, we offer a critique and come to a conclusion about it's acceptability to Christian theology. However, our answer is only a small contribution to a much larger task: ‘the theological understanding of non-Christian religions’.


2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 629-636 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pantelis T. Nikolaidis ◽  
Stefania Di Gangi ◽  
Beat Knechtle

The relationship between age and elite marathon race times is well investigated, but little is known for half-marathon running. This study investigated the relationship between half-marathon race times and age in 1-year intervals by using the world single age records in half-marathon running and the sex difference in performance from 5 to 91 years in men and 5 to 93 years in women. We found a fourth-order polynomial relationship between age and race time for both women and men. Women achieve their best half-marathon race time earlier in life than men, 23.89 years compared with 28.13 years, but when using a nonlinear regression analysis, the age of the fastest race time does not differ between men and women, with 26.62 years in women and 26.80 years in men. Moreover, the sex difference in half-marathon running performance increased with advancing age.


2018 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 98-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Romuald Lepers ◽  
Thomas Cattagni

This study examined the age-related decline in endurance running performance of one of the greatest master runners ever, Ed Whitlock, who died recently. His running performances from 1500 m to marathon were analyzed for 5 periods of 5 years from 65–69 years to 85–89 years. Despite exceptional running performances for his advanced age, the rate of decline in his performances increased after 80 years and was drastically amplified after 85 years.


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