‘I always considered I needed injury prevention to become an elite athlete’: the road to the Olympics from the athlete and staff perspective

In this study, we explored the perspectives about sports injury prevention of Belgium Olympic level athletes, coaches, managers and healthcare providers from various Olympic sports. We conducted a qualitative study, including 17 semistructured interviews. All interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed by two independent coders through constant comparative data analysis based on Grounded Theory principles. Our findings overview the athlete’s journey to becoming an elite athlete, and how an elite sports context influences and modulates injury prevention practice at this level. Participants described an elite athletic career as a continuous and adaptive evolving process. According to athletes and all stakeholders, sports injury prevention is a learning process shaped by individual experiences. This embodiment provides athletes with insight into the importance of ownership of their bodies and self-awareness. Thus, experience, communication, empowerment, knowledge, education, the elite athlete context and sports culture, all play a fundamental role in sports injury prevention. Our findings support the importance of contextual factors in sports injury prevention in an elite sports context. These results also bring practical implications on how we should approach injury prevention differently along an athlete’s journey to becoming an elite athlete. Considering specific contextual factors and influencing the process through awareness, communication and a shared responsibility is essential to develop a healthy and successful athlete.

Problem Gambling and Problem Gaming in Elite Athletes: a Literature Review

Researchers have raised concerns about mental health in elite athletes, including problem gambling, where research hitherto is scarce. While gambling has been assessed in the younger student-athlete population, neither gambling nor the recently recognized behavioral addiction of gaming disorder has been sufficiently addressed in the elite athlete population. The present systematic literature review aimed to summarize research knowledge on the prevalence and correlates of problem gambling and problem gaming in elite athletes. Research papers were searched systematically using the Scopus, PsycINFO, and PubMed/MEDLINE databases and evaluated following a PRISMA paradigm. For the elite athlete population, eight reports on problem gambling and one report on problem gaming were found. While at least five papers indicated an increased risk of problem gambling in elite athletes compared to the general population, one study from Australia indicated the opposite. Problem gambling was generally more common in male athletes. Knowledge of problem gaming prevalence is thus far limited. It is concluded that increased research in problem gambling and problem gaming in elite athletes is warranted.

FMUP - Nov 2021 (summary and comments of paper)

Summary of: The Effects of Menstrual Cycle Phase on Elite Athlete Performance: A Critical and Systematic Review

A framework exploring the therapeutic alliance between elite athletes and physiotherapists: a qualitative study

Background The therapeutic alliance (TA) is the bond between a patient and a physiotherapist during collaboration on recovery or training. Previous studies focused on the TA between physiotherapists and patients of the general population. Little information exists on whether this is similar in the demanding environment of elite athletes. The aim of this study was to investigate the components of TA between elite athletes and physiotherapists. Methods Ten elite athletes and ten physiotherapists were interviewed using one-on-one semi-structured interviews between June 2020 and October 2020. Athletes were included if they competed at national or international championships. Physiotherapists had to treat elite athletes on a regular basis. Interview questions were based on TA components of the general physiotherapy population. The interviews were transcribed and coded using inductive thematic analysis. Results The analysis resulted in an elite athlete TA framework which consists of nine themes and ten subthemes that could influence the TA. The nine themes are trust, communication, professional bond, social bond, elite athlete, physiotherapist, time, pressure and adversity, and external factors. This showed that the TA consists of bonds on different social levels, depends on the traits of both elite athletes and physiotherapists, and can be positively and negatively influenced by the external environment. The influences from the external environment seem to be more present in the elite athlete TA compared to the TA in the general physiotherapy setting. Multiple relations between themes were discovered. Trust is regarded as the main connecting theme. Conclusion This study provides a framework to better understand the complex reality of the TA between elite athletes and physiotherapists. Compared to the general physiotherapy setting, new themes emerged. The created framework can help elite athletes and physiotherapists to reflect and improve their TA and subsequently improve treatment outcomes.

Comparative Analysis of Psycho-physiological Parameters of the Deaflympic Karate Champion and Healthy Karate Women

The article compares psycho-physiological indicators of an elite athlete in karate - the champion of the Deaflympics and healthy, highly qualified athletes. The researched indicators were: work efficiency, degree of employment, mental stability, time of simple reaction to a moving object, reaction to a moving object, frequency of movements, the reaction time of choice, Romberg test, concentration and switching of attention according to the Bourdon test. For the analysis, 24 measurements of psycho-physiological indicators of the researched sportswoman were compared with corresponding indicators of highly skilled healthy karate girls, 29 people in total. The measurements of the studied athlete’s indicators were performed during the annual macrocycle at the beginning of a series of shock microcycles, which meant that she was in her optimal physical and psychological shape. It was found that the studied karate person has an invalid type of nervous system, which is not typical for this sport. Work efficiency, speed of work and mental stability also differ in favour of healthy karate women.

Relationship Between Speed of Striking and Time to Exhaustion of an Elite Deaf Karateka

Problem statement. Karate is part of the Deaflympic Games program, however, the problems of the training process in Deaflympic sports have not been sufficiently studied. Approach. The study involved an elite female karate player, a three-time deaflympic champion. During the annual macrocycle, in shock microcycles, the athlete performed a specific aerobic test for karatekas (KSAT), which includes a series of strokes: kizami zuki, mawashi geri, gyaku zuki, kizami mawashi geri. The following indicators were studied: speed of striking, time to exhaustion, level, blood lactate level, heart rate during the test. Purpose: to find out the speed abilities, time to exhaustion, and their correlation of an elite karateka with hearing problems during KSAT. Physiological indicators of fatigue while test performing have been also studied and compared with the data of healthy athletes. Results: The athlete completed 27 KSAT series during the year. The heart rate was 191.6±5.2 , the lactate level was 13.3±0.9 mmol, and was 48.4±2.05. The period before exhaustion was 642.3±33.8 s, the speed of striking was: kizami zuki - 5.9±0.27; mawashi geri - 9.27±0.24; gyaku zuki - 7.41±0.35 , kizami mawashi geri - 6.3±0.3 . The correlation relationship indicators between the speed of striking and the time to exhaustion were equal: kizami zuki - r=0.89; mawashi geri - r=0.87; gyaku zuki - r=0.91; kizami mawashi geri - r=0.82 (p <0.001 for all indicators). Conclusions: There is a strong correlation between the speed of striking during the performance of KSAT and the time to exhaustion. High levels of lactate in the blood and heart rate indicate work in the anaerobic zone during striking. The results shown by a deaf elite athlete supplement the previous research data, in which karatekas of different qualifications and sex took part.