Students need to be properly prepared by their education to work respectfully and effectively with diverse populations and in diverse environments. Our purpose is twofold: (i) to provide a thorough description of the curriculum redesign process for an undergraduate kinesiology and health promotion (KHP) program, and (ii) to use our experience to provide more general recommendations to other departments and universities undergoing curricular redesign. The catalyst for this redesign was the conversion from a quarter-system to a semester-system and the opportunities for improvement identified through that process. The redesign was guided by a newly created departmental strategic plan, faculty professional development trainings, student feedback, faculty hirings and their areas of expertise, and industry demands. Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) was mindfully embedded into the curriculum to reflect the department-, college-, and university-level core value of inclusivity. The redesign allows prospective KHP students to complete several courses that address DEI themes, in addition to the courses that build their technical competencies. Providing foundational exposure to DEI concepts through the undergraduate curriculum can better prepare students to work in diverse settings. As such, this report provides other programs with a framework to follow to make curriculum more DEI centric for their students.
3 March 2020 in International Journal of Performance Analysis in Sport
The purpose of this paper is to identify the important features of “high-quality” shots in water polo. The lead author collected a sample of over 5000 shots from the men’s 2016–2017 NCAA seasons of play to train a logistic model for predicting goal-scoring probabilities. The results suggest that the odds of scoring decrease by about 29% for each additional metre of distance from centre-cage and by about 2% for each additional degree in angle of displacement from centre-pool, while side is not significant. Left-hand and skip shots are significantly more effective than right-hand and other shot types. Power plays double scoring odds compared with even play while uncontested shots more than double odds compared with fully contested shots. Overall, the five most important variables in the model were distance, skip, power play, contested, and angle. The paper also links to an online application that estimates shot quality for different user-input scenarios. Players and coaches can apply this app to evaluate team and opponent performance in future contests. As an example, the shooting performance of the top four NCAA teams from the sampled seasons is analysed to determine if they won games by taking high-quality shots or through above-average shooting performance.
Within the US, people are experiencing longer life expectancy, yet these extended lifespans have not necessarily translated into years living in good health. Musculoskeletal degenerative diseases are particularly prevalent amongst older adults. Research shows that regular resistance exercise carries preventive health benefits to combat these conditions. This study evaluated the impact of an innovative hand-held device (OYO) on the physical function of older adults compared to a traditional chair fitness program (CF) and no exercise control (CG). Participants (n = 48) were 60 years old and older, retirement community residents with no current history of chronic conditions, who possessed the ability to follow guided exercise. Participants elected to the OYO, CF or CG groups. The exercise program was 45 minutes, twice a week for 9 weeks. The CF group used standard gym equipment while the OYO group utilized a hand-held device capable of multi-planar movements and varying resistance. Various pre-post measures of physical function were recorded. Preliminary data suggests that there was a significant positive difference between the study group for biceps strength test F(2, 39) = 3.49 p = 0.04, h2 = 0.15), 30-second chair stand (F(2, 37) = 3.60, p = 0.04, h2 = 0.16) and a 2-min step test (F(2, 39) = 3.27 p = 0.05, h2 = 0.14). A Tukey-HSD test showed a positive trending, however, not significant effect for 30-second chair stand and latissimus strength test (p = 0.08 and 0.06, respectively) between the OYO and CF groups. The two groups had equivocal post-intervention results on all other measures. In conclusion, our results suggest this hand-held device is as or more efficacious as a traditional resistance program that utilizes several pieces of equipment. Widespread adoption of this device could reduce program costs and improve access to quality fitness opportunities for older adults.