The sport of basketball exposes athletes to frequent high intensity movements including sprinting, jumping, accelerations, decelerations and changes of direction during training and competition which can lead to acute and accumulated chronic fatigue. Fatigue may affect the ability of the athlete to perform over the course of a lengthy season. The ability of practitioners to quantify the workload and subsequent fatigue in basketball athletes in order to monitor and manage fatigue levels may be beneficial in maintaining high levels of performance and preventing unfavorable physical and physiological training adaptations. There is currently limited research quantifying training or competition workload outside of time motion analysis in basketball. In addition, systematic research investigating methods to monitor and manage athlete fatigue in basketball throughout a season is scarce. To effectively optimize and maintain peak training and playing performance throughout a basketball season, potential workload and fatigue monitoring strategies need to be discussed.

Soccer is an intermittent team-sport, where performance is determined by a myriad of psychological, technical, tactical, and physical factors. Among the physical factors, endurance appears to play a key role into counteracting the fatigue-related reduction in running performance observed during soccer matches. One physiological determinant of endurance is movement economy, which represents the aerobic energy cost to exercise at a given submaximal velocity. While the role of movement economy has been extensively examined in endurance athletes, it has received little attention in soccer players, but may be an important factor, given the prolonged demands of match play. For this reason, the current review discusses the nature, impact, and trainability of movement economy specific to soccer players. A summary of current knowledge and limitations of movement economy in soccer is provided, with an insight into future research directions, to make this important parameter more valuable when assessing and training soccer players’ running performance.

This study determined if small-sided games could discriminate perceptual-cognitive-motor skill in Australian Rules Footballers. Higher skilled Western Australian Football League (WAFL) (n = 17) and lesser skilled Amateur (n = 23) players were recruited. Participants played three small-sided games of three minutes. Each disposal was scored for decision-making and motor skill execution, with these scores combined for a total score. Mann-Whitney U tests indicated significantly superior mean decision-making by higher skilled (Median = 2.90, Range = 0.30) over lesser skilled (Median = 2.80, Range = 0.73) (p = .012) players. Execution score was not significantly different between groups. Linear mixed model analysis found higher skilled players (M = 5.32, SD = 1.19) scored significantly higher than lower skilled players (M = 4.90, SD = 1.52) on total score (p = .009). Large effect sizes were found for decision-making and total score relative to games and position played in WAFL players. High agreement of scoring was observed for an elite (inter-rater) and a novice (intra-rater) coaches. Linear mixed model analysis indicated mean total scores of WAFL players significantly predicted disposal efficiency in match performance (p = .011). Small-sided games can be easily implemented to identify talented players and assess perceptual-cognitive-motor skill.

For preservice teachers, inclusive education practices are daunting, highlighting concerns around confidence, individualisation, and student behaviour. To explore this issue further, this study examined the perceptions of preservice Health and Physical Education (HPE) teachers on inclusion using a sequential, explanatory mixed-methods research design. Preservice HPE teachers (n = 44) completed a compulsory course on inclusion and a 10-week school internship. Sentiments, attitudes, and concerns were examined using the Sentiments, Attitudes and Concerns about Inclusive Education-Revised Scale (SACIE-R) and reported a Total Scale Score (TSS) and respective Sub-Scale Scores (SSS) for Sentiments, Attitudes and Concerns across three time points. Linear mixed models showed a significant improvement in TSS (p = 0.005) over time from course participation to internship. In addition, the SSS for Concerns was significant over time (p < 0.001) resulting in reduced Concerns about inclusion as time progressed. Qualitatively, six students participated in semi-structured interviews that examined views of inclusive education practices. Findings suggest an improvement in attitudes towards inclusive practices through participation in specific courses that provide direct opportunities for preservice teachers to practice inclusion. Implications for preservice teacher education programmes include the importance of direct experience with and without the pressure of school environments.

Sport performance consists of interacting individual, task and environmental constraints, but research has used a monodisciplinary, rather than an interdisciplinary approach to understand performance. This study used Australian football (AF) as the exemplar sport to investigate the value of an interdisciplinary approach to understand sport performance. Through this, it was also possible to quantify individual differences and representative task design. Fifty-nine semi-professional Australian footballers participated. Based upon accessibility, combinations of these players completed physiological (3 × 1 km trial) and perceptual-cognitive-motor (small-sided game, SSG) tests, with coach rating of psychological skill (mental toughness coach, MTC). Univariate monodisciplinary models indicated that all tests predicted disposal efficiency; 3 × 1 km trial (p = 0.047), SSG (p = 0.001), and MTC (p = 0.035), but only the SSG predicted coaches' vote (p = 0.003). A multivariate interdisciplinary model indicated that SSG and MTC tests predicted disposal efficiency with a better model fit than the corresponding univariate model. The interdisciplinary model formulated an equation that could identify individual differences in disposal efficiency. In addition, the interdisciplinary model showed that the higher representative SSG test contributed a greater magnitude to the prediction of competition performance, than the lower representative MTC rating. Overall, this study demonstrates that a more comprehensive understanding of sport performance, individual differences, and representative tasks, can be obtained through an interdisciplinary approach.