This book examines the 20th century history of the ten most popular sports in Britain. It also tries to cover developments in Scotland, Wales, Ireland and England. The book provides the origin, the power structure, the relationship between the participatory mass and the eminent, and the role of...

Mental skills training strategies should be beneficial for a variety of different skills, age groups and special populations. The purpose of the present research were twofold; initially to examine performance strategies in various sport situations used by volleyball, sitting volleyball and amputee ...

BACKGROUND: Physical Education and School Sport (PESS) is an integral part of the school curriculum in Ireland. Historically the "Healthy Body, Healthy Mind" philosophy has promoted the inclusion of PESS alongside more cognitive school subjects. Research suggests that PESS can promote cognitive...

The organizational environment and role delivery of support personnel have been identified as increasingly important to elite athletes' preparation for, and performance at, pinnacle competitions. As a result, performance management has been identified as a salient research topic within the field of ...

Volunteer women coaches in non-elite sport are underrepresented in coaching literature. To address this gap, 14 women were interviewed to explore their lived experiences as volunteer coaches within a female-only team sport of ladies Gaelic football at non-elite level in Ireland. The participants...

The commercialization of sport since the 1990s has had a number of consequences. The market forces that have defined commercialization, notably pay-per-view television, whilst initially welcomed as important new sources of revenue, have also had the unanticipated consequences of de-stabilizing many ...

Coaching behaviours often derive from sporting traditions, instinct and previous experiences. Practitioners tend to follow traditional, inherited methods rather than adopt new evidence-based approaches associated with athlete development. This article reviews literature relating to theoretical...

Tactical Periodisation is a training methodology, originally developed for soccer, that focuses primarily on the systems of play that a team intends to use in competition. It has been popularised by successful European coaches and subsequently has been proposed as a model to follow for other sports ...

Purpose: The introduction of professionalism in 1995 posed serious challenges for Rugby Union in Ireland, Scotland and Wales given their limited fan bases and broadcast markets. It led to the creation of a new league, the Pro14, with teams from all three countries. The paper asks whether the Pro14...

Sound general and sports nutrition knowledge in athletes is essential for making appropriate dietary choices. Assessment of nutrition knowledge enables evaluation and tailoring of nutrition education. However, few well-validated tools are available to assess nutrition knowledge in athletes. The...