The National University System Repository exists to increase public access to research and other materials created by students and faculty of the affiliate institutions of National University System. Most items in the repository are open access, freely available to everyone.

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    VISUAL RECORDS OF GOALS AND WORKOUTS: EFFECTIVE TOOLS TO PERFORMANCE ENHANCEMENT
    (1995) Stiers, Amy N.
    The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of performance enhancement tools in the form of a visual record. Visual records in this study were training journals and calendars. Goal setting has demonstrated in a range of situations to increase performance and was therefore a key element in the layout of the visual records. It was hypothesized that by keeping tangible documentation of workouts and goals, rather than just keeping goals in your head, the athletes involved in this research would experience motivation and possibly improvement in their performance. The study took place over a two month period with six USCF licensed cyclists participating. All six used both the journal and the calendar for one month each. After each month of use the athletes were interviewed in 30 minute sessions. The results showed that the journal was preferred five to one over the calendar and all six said they would continue to use some form of visual record keeping for the duration of the season. The journal was preferred because of the more complete picture it gave of the cyclists training. The results from this study must be interpreted with caution because of the sample size.
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    USE OF SPORT PSYCHOLOGY TECHNIQUES AMONG COACHES OF NCAA DIVISION I WOMEN'S TENNIS PROGRAMS
    (1992) Brogan, Janet E.
    This project surveyed the use of sport psychology techniques among NCAA Division I Women's tennis coaches. A survey was sent to 282 programs sponsoring women's tennis; 62 men and 40 women responded. While many tennis players and coaches believe the most consistently successful performers are those who are mentally tough, the amount of time spent training the mental game does not appear to reflect its priority. This investigation into the use of sport psychology techniques, specifically stress management, attentional skills, goal setting, motivation, imagery skills, and self-esteem, sheds further light on the implementation of mental training techniques for developing female collegiate tennis players at the NCAA Division I level. My findings indicated survey respondents felt the use of sport psychology techniques were important in the areas of stress management/competitive anxiety control, motivation training, team discussions, performance analysis forms, mental rehearsal, concentration, team building, and goal setting. Results indicated the area of self-esteem had the lowest reported use of all sport psychology techniques, with an average of approximately 40% requesting additional information in this section. Recommendations include development of an applied sport psychology training manual specific to collegiate tennis, as well as further research of applied sport psychology techniques in collegiate athletics.
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    Travel Distance and Team Performance: A Correlational Analysis of Men's Basketball in the Pacific Ten Conference
    (1996) Trunnell, Robert
    Home field advantage has been an issue of study for the past thirty years. Previous studies have focused on issues concerning spectator factors, learning factors, and travel factors. Spectator factors involve the influence spectators have on both the home and visiting team's performance, learning factors focus on the visiting team and how they must become accustomed to playing at a facility different from their own, and travel factors look at fatigue, and the duration of trips in relation to performance. The current research is addressing the issue of travel distance and its relationship to statistical performance of a men's collegiate basketball conference. It was hypothesized that the farther a team travels from its home court, the progressively worse their team statistics become. The basketball statistics used for this study are: field goal percentage, free throw percentage, personal fouls, assists, turnovers, blocked shots, and steals. A Pearson Product-Moment Correlation was used to identify if there was any relationship between travel distance and team performance, finding free throw percentage as the only variable having any significant relationship to travel distance. Possible recommendations for future studies are a longitudinal study instead of observing one season, identifying the different types of transportation used for different road games, and breaking the season down into halves or quarters to observe any significant changes in injuries, or when road trips take place throughout the season.
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    The relationship of Ethnic Identity on Confidence and Motivation in Sport
    (2011) Lopez, Fernando
    The focus of this study was to identify a correlation between ethnic identity, confidence, and motivation in athletes from a variety of different sports and ethnic identities. Previous research has found significant correlations between high levels of ethnic identity and academic success, self-esteem, and being comfortable in social interactions. The researcher hypothesized that a significant correlation would exist between the athletes' degree of ethnic identity and their sport motivation and sport confidence. It was also hypothesized that across ethnic groups the levels of motivation and confidence in comparison to ethnic identity will be reflected differently. There were a total of 75 participants (49M, 26F) with a mean age of 26.6 years old across four different sport groups (swimming, track and field, soccer, and other) and 3 different ethnic identity groups (Caucasian, African American, and other). The methodology utilized ethnic identity measures (Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure, Phinney, 1992) confidence (The State Sport Confidence Inventory, Vealey, 1986), and motivation (Intrinsic Motivation Inventory, McAuley, Duncan, & Tammen, 1989). A priming intervention in the form of a fictitious athlete interview was used to prime the athletes to think about their own ethnic identity and it relationship to their sport performance. The results, utilizing correlations, frequencies, and descriptive statistics indicated that athletes who were primed to consider their ethnic identity in terms of influencing their sport performance, showed no significant correlation between level of ethnic identity and sport motivation (p> 0.356) or sport confidence (p>0.394). The correlation analysis also indicated that no significant correlation existed between ethnic identities and sport motivation and confidence when compared with each other. The implications of this research may suggest that future research is needed in finding a positive correlation to ethnic identity can sport confidence and sport motivation, as well as an effective way to measure ethnic identity in terms of sport confidence and sport motivation.
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    To what Extent is Intrinsic Motivation Increased via the Implementation of Problem-Based Learning Methodology with Novice Soccer Players
    (2015) Taylor, Robert J
    The purpose of the current study was to assess the impact of a problem-based learning (PBL) coaching curriculum on the intrinsic motivational levels of youth soccer athletes. Successful soccer athletes need to understand tactics, make effective decisions, as well as problem solve in any given moment (Mitchell, Oslin & Griffin, 2013). Whilst the PBL approach has been implemented in youth sports to enhance player and team development (Hubball & Robertson, 2004), the motivational reasoning for engaging in PBL curricula has yet to be empirically investigated. It was hypothesized that intrinsic motivational levels would increase with the implementation of a PBL curriculum. Intrinsic motivation measured using the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory (Ryan, 1982) was not significantly affected by the PBL approach. However, the qualitative interviews with whom revealed that athletes found a heightened awareness and understanding of the soccer game, and improved their impromptu decision-making. It is recommended that educating coaches with the necessary knowledge to deal with the dynamic nature of soccer is necessary to enhance players' development (Cassi, Potrac & McKenzie, 2006).

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