Prof. Yasmeen Iqbal, Ph.D Prof. Darlene A. Kluka, Ph.D Coordinator

ISSN 1991-8410 

Volume 05, 2010 

Editors: 

Prof. Yasmeen Iqbal, Ph.D 

Prof. Darlene A. Kluka, Ph.D 

Coordinator: 

Prof. Iqbal Ahmed Qureshi 

A Publication of the 

Centre for Physical Education & Sports Science 

University of Sindh, Jamshoro 

Sindh-Pakistan

About Journal (The Shield) ISSN 1991-8410 

The HEC recognized Research Journal on Physical Education & Sport Sciences 

entitled The Shield is published annually by the Centre for Physical Education & Sport 

Sciences, functioning in the Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Sindh, Jamshoro, 

Pakistan. 

The major objective of bringing out this journal is to provide a forum for the 

scholars engaged in the study of Physical Education & Sport Sciences, and the scholars of 

other faculties that relate their subject matter with this important discipline. 

Correspondence: 

All correspondence and manuscripts should be addressed to the 

Editors/Director of the Centre for Physical Education & Sport Sciences, University of 

Sindh, Jamshoro, Pakistan. 

Guideline for Contributors: 

The research paper must be typed, double spaced on A-4 size paper, and limited to 

10 – 15 computerized pages to be sent in duplicate, along-with the text in a CD-disc and 

through E-mail to hpe_su_jamshoro@yahoo.com or iqbalqureshi2005@yahoo.com. All 

contributors must follow the recognized style of typing references and bibliography as 

incorporated in K. I. Turabian’s manual for term papers and research articles. It would be 

appreciated if footnotes/ references are given serial numbers/ or alphabetically and be placed 

at the end of article. 

Note: 

*All statements of fact and opinions expressed in this journal are the sole 

responsibility of the authors, and do not imply any endorsement on part or whole in any 

form or shape whatsoever by the editors or publisher. 

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Research Journal- “The Shield” is listed and indexed in Ulrich’s Periodical Directory, 

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electronically (www.sirc.ca). 

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distributor of secondary source reference databases. 

• Articles of all published volumes of The Shield can be viewed electronically on 

University of Sindh website: www.usindh.edu.pk, see Research Journal / The Shield 

SUBSCRIPTION: 

Individuals: …………………………….. Single Copy = Rs. 150/-; outside Pakistan US $ 10 

Libraries: ……….....................................… Single Copy = Rs. 300/-; outside Pakistan US $ 15 

i

PATRON 

Prof. Nazir A. Mughal, Ph.D. 

Vice-Chancellor, University of Sindh, Jamshoro 

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF 

Prof. Muhammad Tahir Rajput, Ph.D. 

Dean, Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Sindh, Jamshoro 

EDITORS 

Prof. Yasmeen Iqbal, Ph.D. 

Director, Centre for Physical Education & Sports Sciences, 


Darlene A. Kluka, Ph.D 

Professor and Coordinator, 

Sports Management Programs, Barry University, 

School of Human Performance and Leisure Science, 

Department of Sport and Exercise Sciences, Miami Shores, Florida, USA 

COORDINATOR 

Prof. Iqbal Ahmed Qureshi 

Former Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences 

Ex-Director, Centre for Health & Physical Education, 


Prof. Gudrun Doll-Tapper, Ph.D. 

President, 

International Council of Sports Science & 

Physical, Berlin, Germany. 

Prof. Colin Higgs, Ph.D. 

School of Human Kinetics and Recreation 

Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada 

Prof. Afzal Kazmi, Ph.D. 

Former Chairman, 

Department of Physical Education, 

University of Karachi, Karachi 

ADVISORY BOARD 

ii 

Prof. Frank Fu, J.P. Ph.D. 

Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences 

Hong Kong Baptist University Kowloon Tong, 

Hong Kong. 

Prof. Dorothee Alferman, Ph.D. 

Faculty of Sports Science & Management 

Leipzig University, Germany 

Prof. Ikram Hussain, Ph.D. 

Deptt. of Physical Health & Sports Education, 

Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India

PANEL OF INTERNATIONAL PEER REVIEWERS 

Prof. Colin Higgs, Ph.D. 

School of Human Kinetics and Recreation 

Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada 

Prof. Darlene Kluka, Ph.D. 

Professor and Coordinator, 

Sports Management Programs, Barry University, 

School of Human Performance and Leisure Science, 

Department of Sport and Exercise Sciences, 

Miami Shores, Florida, USA 

Farhan M. Khan, MD 

Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine, 

Chairman PGIP Committee 

Michigan State University, USA 

Prof. Gudrun Doll-Tepper, Ph.D. 

President, 

International Council of Sports Science & 

Physical Education, Berlin, Germany. 

Prof. Phyllis Love, Ph.D. 

Department of Exercise Physiology / Diabetes, 

Grambling State University 

Louisiana, USA 

Dr. Eric Peter Sabonghy, MD 

The University of Texas Medical School at 

Houston, USA 

Dr. Nabeela Iqbal 

Clinical Research Coordinator & Data Manager 

University of Michigan Ann-Arbor, USA 

Prof. Maria Dinold, Ph.D. 

Centre of Sports Sciences and 

University Sports in Vienna, Austria 

iii 

Prof. Frank Fu, J.P. Ph.D. 

Dean, 

Faculty of Social Sciences, Hong Kong 

Baptist University, Kowloon Tong, 

Hong Kong. 

Prof. Abel Lamina, Toriola, Ph.D. 

Department of Sports, Physical 

Rehabilitation and Dental Sciences, Faculty 

of Health Sciences, 

Tshwane University of Technology, 

Pretoria, South Africa 

Prof. Salmar Burger, Ph.D. 

Department of Sports Management, 

University of Pretoria, South Africa 

Prof. Chung Pak-Kwong, Ph.D. 

Head, Department of Physical Education 

Hong Kong Baptist University. 

Prof. Ikram Hussain, Ph.D. 

Ex-Chairman 

Department of Physical Education 

Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India 

Dr. Doris, R. Corbett 

Professor & Chairman, 

Department of Health, Human Performance 

& Leisure Studies, 

Howard University, USA 

Kalpna Sharma, Ph.D. 

Director, Amity School of Physical Education 

and Sports Sciences, 

Amity University, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India

Volume 05, 2010 ISSN 1991-8410 

CONTENTS 

Aerobic Training Reduces the Risk Factors of Coronary Heart 

Diseases and Enhances the Antioxidant Status among Middle 

Aged Obese Men 01 

T. Narayanasamy, P. Kanaga Sabai, Annida Balakrishnan and 

Suthakar Krishnaswamy 

The Relationship between Sport Activities, Academic Achievements 

and Personality Dynamics of High School Students in Sindh 19 

Pervez A. Pathan, M. Akram Ansari, and Yasmeen Iqbal 

Understanding and Managing Drugs in Sport 29 

Paul Dimeo 

Effect of Progressive Muscle Relaxation Training on Competitive 

Anxiety of male Inter-collegiate volleyball players 44 

B. Navaneethan, R. Soundara Rajan 

A Protocol and comparative norms for the identification and selection 

of talent among elite Age-Group rugby players in South Africa 58 

Pieter E. Kruger, Conrad Booysen, Emanuel J. Spamer 

Leadership Behavior among Elite male and female gymnasts of India 79 

Raj Kumar Sharma 

Children’s perception of physical education and school 

Sport in Swaziland 96 

O.M. Toriola 

Role of Sports in Leadership: A socio-political analysis 108 

Saima Shaikh, Hamadullah Kakepoto and Aslam Pervez Memon 

Relative timing and rhythm: A key to motor skill learning 120 

Lin Wang 

iv

AEROBIC TRAINING REDUCES THE RISK 

FACTORS OF CORONARY HEART DISEASES AND 

ENHANCES THE ANTIOXIDANT STATUS AMONG 

MIDDLE AGED OBESE MEN 

T. Narayanasamy 1 , Dr. P. Kanaga Sabai 2 , Dr. Annida Balakrishnan 3 , 

and Suthakar Krishnaswamy 4 

ABSTRACT 

Regular exercise training is recognized as a powerful tool to improve 

work capacity, endothelial function and the cardiovascular risk profile in 

obesity. To achieve this purpose the present research was undertaken to 

investigate that the effect of aerobic training programme performed at 

different intensities reduces the lipid profiles and enhances the antioxidant 

status in middle aged obese men. In our study thirty men with coronary heart 

disease and their age ranges between 35 and 40 years were selected as 

subjects. They were divided into three groups with 10 members of each. 

Group I and Group II treated as experimental groups performing aerobic 

training at low intensity and medium intensity whereas group III remains as 

control with no practice of aerobic training other than regular activities. 

Aerobic training programme was conducted for a period of 3 months 

(3days/week) to the experimental groups. Data were collected and biochemical 

analysis was done. We observed significant alterations on lipid profiles and 

enhancement in the antioxidant status in aerobic training groups. Studies 

also proved that better effect was seen in medium intensity of aerobic training 

groups than others. Results were statistically analyzed using Anova and 

DMRT and are significant at p

AEROBIC TRAINING REDUCES THE RISK FACTORS 

INTRODUCTION 

Obesity has become a major health, social and economical 

burden of today’s world (James et al., 2004). It has now been well 

established that obesity directly increases cardio metabolic risk by 

altering the secretion of adipokines and, indirectly, by promoting 

insulin resistance and its associated metabolic disorders, such as 

Type-2 diabetes. Moreover, obesity causes additional health 

problems as it is closely associated with the development and 

progression of coronary heart disease, certain forms of cancer, 

respiratory complications (e.g. obstructive sleep apnoea) and 

osteoarthritis (Kopelman, 2000). 

Cardiovascular risk profiling attempts to establish the 

absence or presence of a number of risk factors that, together with 

overweight and obesity, contribute to the progression of 

cardiovascular disease, such as endothelial dysfunction, 

hypertension, inactivity and poor exercise capacity (Inga E. 

Schjerve et al.,2008). Both overweight and obesity appear to be 

associated with low aerobic capacity and impaired endothelial 

function (Watts et. al, 2004). 

Endurance training improves both aerobic capacity (Rognmo et 

al, 2004; Wisloff et. al., 2007) and endothelial function (Wisloff et. al, 

2007; Meyer et. al., 2006), and is now increasingly recommended in the 

prevention and treatment of overweight and obesity (Haskell et, al., 

2007). It has been known that endurance exercise training, decreases 

cardiovascular risk, but an optimal training programme has not yet 

been identified. Similarly, criteria for the minimum protective exercise 

programme against overweight and obesity have not been established. 

Although the recommended exercise intensity spans the range 40–90% 

of VO2max (maximal oxygen uptake), most studies indicate that highintensity 

exercise, i.e. toward the upper end of the range, results in 

larger aerobic and cardiovascular adaptations (Dubach et. al.,1997; 

Hambrecht, et. al., 2000; Lee et. al., 2003), and many rehabilitation 

programmes advocate the use of low-to-moderate-intensity exercise. 

2


Exercise remains a key aspect of a healthy lifestyle. 

However, strenuous physical exercise results in an enhanced 

uptake of oxygen leading to increased metabolism, which can 

increase the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) (Kelle et 

al., 1998). Cells continuously produce free radicals and ROS as part 

of metabolic processes. These free radicals are neutralized by an 

elaborate antioxidant defense system consisting of enzymes such as 

catalase, superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase, and 

numerous non-enzymatic antioxidants, including vitamins A, E 

and C, glutathione, ubiquinone, and flavonoids. Exercise can cause 

an imbalance between ROS and antioxidants, which is referred to 

as oxidative stress (Urso and Clarkson, 2003). 

Oxidative stress may occur due to an increase in free radical 

production and/or a decrease in antioxidant defenses (Mustafa Gul 

et al., 2003). Without the intervention of the cell’s antioxidant 

defense mechanisms, free radical-mediated lipid peroxidation can 

lead to the loss of the integrity of cell membrane and tissue damage 

(Maxwell, 1995; Clarkson and Thompson, 2000). The efficiency of 

the antioxidant defense system depends on the balanced diet. 

Multiple enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidant defense 

systems are present in cells to protect the membranes and other cell 

organelles from the damaging effects of free radical reactions 

(Evans, 2001). While regular exercise training is associated with 

numerous health benefits, it can be viewed as an intense physical 

stressor leading to increased oxidative cellular damage, likely due 

to enhanced production of ROS (Bloomer et al., 2005). Though 

many studies have reported that acute aerobic exercise contributes 

to oxidative stress, especially when performed at high intensity 

levels (Muaz Belviranli and Hakki Gokbel, 2006). Our present study 

was carried out to find whether aerobic exercise performing at 

different intensity reduces lipid profiles and increases antioxidant 

levels. It also determines a relative effect in depletion of free 

3


radicals generation leading to lipid peroxidation and thereby 

protects the cells by enhancing the antioxidant status. 

METHODOLOGY 

Selection of Subjects: Thirty men were randomly selected as subjects 

with coronary heart disease from R.M.M.C&H, Annamalai University 

and their age ranged between 35 and 40 years. Selected subjects were 

divided into three groups with ten members in each. 

Experimental Design: The primary purpose of the study was to 

investigate the effect of different intensities of aerobic training on 

coronary heart disease middle aged obese men. The selected 

subjects were divided into three groups performing aerobic 

exercise at different levels. 

Group I initiates their work load with 20% of aerobic training ends 

with 45% (low intensity) for twelve weeks (3days/week) 

Group II starts their workload with 35% of aerobic training and 

ends with 50% (medium intensity) for twelve weeks (3days/week) 

Group III served as control who did not participate any special 

training apart from the regular activities. 

Aerobic exercise training: Aerobic exercise training program was 

conducted in the Department of Physical Education and Sports 

Science Annamalai University for a period of 3 months (3 

days/week). Each exercise session consisted of three components: 

(i) a 10 min warm-up period consisting of stretching and low-level 

calisthenics, (ii) a 20 –30 min period of aerobic exercise, and (iii) a 

10 min cool-down period also involving low-level calisthenics and 

walking. Aerobic exercise (for example, fast walking, jogging, and 

swimming) should be the mainstay of exercise training in patients 

with CHD. Supervised exercise training programs are also 

beneficial, especially during the initiation period. They ensure that 

patients are exercising safely, and permit one to assess progress. 

Biochemical analysis was done and measured using the 

appropriate test. All the groups were tested before and after the 

training period of twelve weeks. 

4


THREE MONTH AEROBIC TRAINING PROGRAM 

MONTHLY GOALS WEEKLY SCHEDULE 

THREE MONTHS PRIOR TO 

a. Aerobic train 3 days a week 

DAY 

WORK OUT 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 

Aerobic ☼ ☼ ☼ 

Strength ☼ ☼ ☼ 

Recreation ☼ 

Rest ☼ 

WORKOUT DETAILS & NOTES 

Purpose: Get into a routine of exercising regularly. Start off easy and concentrate on one day at a time. 

Exercises: 

1. Aerobic training can include running, biking, swimming, cross-country skiing, etc. for a minimum of 30 

minutes per session. 

2. Strength training should include exercises working mostly on upper body strength. Include exercises 

for arms, shoulders, back, and abdominals. Each exercise should include 3 sets of 10-15 reps so that muscle 

failure occurs on last set. 

3. Recreational exercise is any form of fun exercise that you enjoy. Can include climbing, hiking, 

biking,etc. 

TWO MONTHS PRIOR TO 

a. Aerobic train 3 days a week 

b. Hill or stair climbing 1 day a week 

c. Strength train 3 days a week 

d. Recreate 1 day a week 

e. Rest 1 day a week 

WORKOUT 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 

Aerobic ☼ ☼ ☼ 

Hill or Stairs ☼ ☼ ☼ 



Rest ☼ 

Purpose: Building a strong foundation of fitness for the mountains. 

Exercises: 

1. Continue aerobic workouts as last month's but increase duration to at least 40-min. Include hill and/or 

stair climbing workouts as an aerobic exercise at least once a week for at least 30 min. Carry 20 lbs. in a 

backpack while you climb. 

2. Strength training should continue and increase resistance to maintain muscle. 

3. Continue recreating at least once a week. 

ONE MONTH PRIOR TO WORKOUT 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 

a. Aerobic train 3 days a week Aerobic ☼ ☼ ☼ 

b. Hill or stair climbing 1-2 days a 

c. Strength k train 4 days a week 

d. Recreate 1 day a week. 

e. Rest 1 day a week Rest 

Hill or Stairs ☼ ☼ ☼ 



Purpose: Build your endurance and strength. 

Exercises: 

1. Increase aerobic session to 45 min. Increase weight for carrying uphill by 10 lbs. and increase duration. 

2. Strength train as before but increase resistance as needed. 

3. Continue your fun recreational workout at least once a week 

5 

☼


Selection of variables: 

The following coronary heart disease (CHD) variables were 

selected as testing variables and they were Lipid peroxidative 

indices such as TBARS (thiobarbituric acid reactive substances) and 

hydroperoxides Plasma Lipid profiles such as Cholesterol, 

Triglycerides, phospholipids and free fatty acids. 

Plasma lipoproteins are High density lipoproteins (HDL), 

Low density lipoproteins (LDL), Very low density lipoproteins 

(VLDL), and Enzymic antioxidants include Superoxide dismutase 

(SOD), Catalase (CAT) and Glutathione peroxidase (GPX) and 

Non-enzymic antioxidants such as Vitamin C, Vitamin E and 

Reduced Glutathione (GSH). 

Biochemical estimations: 

Lipid peroxidative indices such as TBARS were estimated by 

the method of Ohkawa et al., (1979) and Hydro peroxides by Jiang 

et al., (1992). Estimation of Cholesterol using Allain et al., 1974, 

triglycerides (Foster and Dunn, 1973), Free fatty acids by 

(Falholt,1973) and phospholipids (Zilversmit and Davis,1950). 

Plasma lipoprotein estimated by Boheringer manhim kit. 

Antioxidants includes enzymic antioxidants such as SOD estimated 

by the method of Kakkar et al.,(1942), catalase (Sinha, 1972) and 

GPX (Rotruck etal., 1973). Non enzymic antioxidants include GSH 

(Ellman, 1959), Vitamin C (Roe and Kuther, 1942), Vitamin E (Baker 

et al., 1980) were analysed. Biochemical analyses were done 

accurately in the Department of Biochemistry for the selected 

variables and the results were reported by the concerned 

Biochemist to our scholar. 

Statistical analysis: 

The data were collected before and after the different 

intensities of aerobic training programme on both the experimental 

and control group. Biochemical variables were assessed before and 

6


after 3 months of aerobic training. The data were analyzed using 

ANOVA and the group means were compared by Duncan’s 

Multiple Range Test (DMRT). There differences was considered to 

be significant when p


Table: 3 

Changes in the levels of Plasma Lipoprotein in control and 

exercise groups 

Groups HDL mg/dl LDL mg/dl VLDL mg/dl 

CHD (Low intensity) 42.3 ± 5.2 a 169.2 ± 11.3 a 37.65 ± 2.9 a 

CHD (Medium intensity) 48.2 ± 3.8 b 155.5 ± 12.6 b 30.8 ± 4.6 b 

Control 37.6 ± 4.6 c 196.3 ± 21.6 c 43.9 ± 5.3 c 

Data represents mean± SD from 10 subjects in each group. 

Values not sharing a common superscript letter (a,b,c) differ significantly at p≤0.05 (Duncan’s multiple range test) 

Group comparison: Group 3 with all, Group 2 with 3 and 1. 

Table.4 

Changes in the levels of enzymic antioxidant status in control 

and exercise group 

Groups 

CHD 

(Low intensity) 

CHD 

(Medium intensity) 

SOD 

(U A /mg Hb) 

8 

CATALASE 

(U A /mg Hb) 

GPX 

(U A /mg Hb) 

0.93±0.002 a 8.7±0.07 a 55.11±0.4 a 

1.36±0.03 b 9.8±0.2 b 60.33±0.1 b 

Control 1.7±0.02 c 11.8±1.3 c 62.11±0.4 c 

Data represents mean± SD from 10 subjects in each group. 


Group comparison: Group three with all, Group2 with3 and 1. 

A- Enzymes required for 50% inhibition of NBT reduction/min/mg Hb 

Table: 5 

Changes in the levels of non-enzymic antioxidant status in 

control and exercise groups 

Groups 

Vitamin E 

(mg/dl) 

Vitamin C 

(mg/dl) 

Glutathione 

(mg/dl) 

CHD Low Intensity 1.18 ± 0.14a 1.32 ±0.15a 42.3±2.8a CHD medium Intensity 1.25 ± 0.16b 1.66 ±0.11b 48.2±1.6b Control 0.86 ±0.07c 0.83 ± 0.06c 39.7±3.5c Data represents mean± SD from 10 subjects in each group. 


Group comparison: Group 3 with all, Group 2 with 3 and 1.


The levels of TBARS and hydroperoxides were found to be 

increased in control groups of coronary heart patients. Aerobic 

training at different intensity lowers the levels of TBARS and 

hydroperoxides in CHD patients. Medium intensity training 

exercises shows better effect in reducing the lipid peroxides levels 

than other groups. (Table.1) 

Table 2 shows the levels of cholesterol, triglycerides, free 

fatty acids and phospholipids in control and exercise groups. The 

levels of lipid profiles in experimental groups were decreased by 

performing the aerobic exercise at different intensities. Medium 

intensity exercise shows significant changes than control and low 

intensity groups. 

Table 3 shows the levels of HDL, LDL and VLDL in control 

and aerobic training groups. The increased levels of lipoprotein in 

control group were seen than aerobic training groups. Exercise 

training for three months shows predominant changes in aerobic 

training groups when compared to control. We also found 

significant increase in HDL and decrease in LDL and VLDL levels 

in work performing at medium level of CHD patients. 

SOD, CAT and GPX were significantly decreased in control 

group of CHD patients. The activities of enzymic antioxidants 

were significantly elevated in low and medium intensity CHD 

group. Regular practice of exercise enhances the antioxidant status 

and it was also found that significant effect was seen only in 

medium intensity exercise group than other. (Table.4) 

Non-enzymic antioxidants such as GSH, vitamin-C and 

vitamin-E levels were decreased in control group of CHD patients. 

Hence three months training retained the levels of GSH, vitamin-C 

and vitamin-E in experimental training groups than control. Much 

better improvement in the non-enzymic antioxidant status was 

noticed in performing the aerobic exercise of medium intensity 

work load. (Table.5) 

9


DISCUSSIONS 

Physical activity is widely accepted to be a protective factor 

against the development of atherosclerotic disease (Berlin and 

Colditz, 1990). Thiobarbituric reactive substances (TBARS) and 

hydroperoxides, (HP) a marker of in vivo lipid peroxidation were 

increased in control group. Therefore, the improved antioxidant 

status found in the aerobic training groups could efficiently counter 

balance the oxidative stress produced by exercise. 

Exercise has been shown to favorably alter lipids and 

lipoprotein concentrations, especially to raise plasma HDL-C and 

lower triglyceride concentration, blood pressure and inflammation 

and improve insulin sensitivity (Thompson et al., 2001). However 

our present study shows that different intensity of aerobic training 

groups reduces the concentration of triglyceride, cholesterol, 

phospholipids and free fatty acids and thereby promotes the HDL 

cholesterol. This may be due to the medium intensity of aerobic 

training though low level training slightly moderates the lipid 

levels, compared to control, medium intensity of aerobic exercise 

works better and proved to be efficient in reducing lipid levels 

thereby enhances the antioxidant status. 

Most studies reported that exercise generally lowers plasma 

triglycerides (TG) concentrations when TG are moderately to 

markedly elevated, and high intensity exercise is more effective 

than low intensity exercise (Gyntelberg etal.,1977;Kraus etal.,2002). 

In our study we found that medium intensity of aerobic training 

groups are very effective when compared to low level intensity. 

This study was supported by the recent statements from the 

Surgeon general (US Department of Health and Human 

Services,1996), the National Institute of Health Consensus 

Development Panel on Physical Activity and Cardiovascular 

Health (NIH, 1996) and the centers for disease control and 

prevention and the American College of Sports Medicine (Pate 

etal.,1995) recommend that every adult should accumulate at least 

10


30 minutes of moderate intensity of physical activity on most 

preferably all days of the week to prevent CHD and other chronic 

disease. Recent intervals also suggested that moderate intensity 

physical activity may have benefits on coronary risk factors than 

vigorous activities of high intensity (Howard et. al., 2009). 

Among the modifications in the lipoprotein profile assigned 

to regular exercise, the most generally diffused one could be a 

moderate increase in HDL-C levels (Nakamura et. al., 1983), a wellknown 

anti atherogenic factor. In this study, different levels of 

aerobic training exhibited increase in HDL-C concentration in 

comparison with the control subjects. But better effect was seen in 

subjects performing aerobic exercises at medium intensity work 

load. 

With regards to LDL-C and VLDL levels, we were able to 

find variation in aerobic groups when compared to control subjects. 

We found significant decrease in LDL and VLDL in medium 

intensity aerobic groups than other. Studies also reported that 

related to physical activity. It seems that athletes generally show 

similar or slightly decreased LDL-C concentrations in comparison 

with sedentary people, whereas a greater reduction is only 

observed after repeated intense training (Cullinane et. al., 1982). 

In the present study resulted that generation of free radicals 

have been suppressed due to the enhanced level of antioxidants. 

The study shows increased lipid peroxidation in control group 

when compared to experimental treated groups. Aerobic training 

performed at different levels reduces the formation of peroxidation 

products by increasing the antioxidant levels. 

The production of oxygen free radicals is increased during 

exercise as a result of increases in mitochondrial oxygen 

consumption and electron transport flux, inducing lipid 

peroxidation and a series of adaptive responses (Kanter, 1994). 

Plasma levels of nonenzymatic antioxidants can be modified 

by exercise. Consistent with a previous work (Sen ,1993), a high 

11


training status has a favourable influence on plasma TRAP levels; 

TRAP mainly accounts for the aqueous antioxidant compounds, 

which include glutathione, ascorbic acid, uric acid and bilirubin 

(Evelson et. al.,2001) 

In the present study, we found a significant increase in the 

total radical antioxidant potential (TRAP) values of aerobic training 

groups as compared to samples obtained from non trained 

individuals of control. But the medium intensity of training shows 

better effect than other groups. This difference could be assigned to 

the increment in ascorbic acid levels found in aerobic training 

groups, Accordingly, different studies (Brites et. al., 1999; Sen, 1993; 

Dekkers et. al., 1996; Maxwell et. al., 1993) have reported higher 

levels of ascorbic acid in circulation because of exercise. 

Several reports (Jenkins, 1993; Sjodin et. al.,1990) have 

suggested that the activity of the antioxidant enzymes are increased 

in skeletal muscles of trained individuals. This response seems to 

depend on the duration and intensity of exercise. In the present 

study, we evaluated the activity of superoxide dismutase, catalase 

and glutathioneperoxidase in plasma samples obtained from 

aerobic training groups of coronary disease patients and control 

CHD patients. Trained individuals showed a significantly 

increased activity of superoxide dismutase, catalase and GPX as 

compared to sedentary individuals. 

Alpha-tocopherol is considered the most important lipid 

soluble antioxidant, with several other functions as the maintainer 

of membrane fluidity and stability. This compound directly 

scavenges peroxyl radicals, which are generated in the lipid moiety 

of membranes and lipoproteins (Diplock ,1983). Plasma levels of atocopherol 

were significantly increased in the aerobic training CHD 

as compared to the control values. This increase in plasma atocopherol 

levels could attenuate exercise-induced lipid 

peroxidation by scavenging free radicals and thus protecting the 

muscle from being damaged during exercise. Moreover, a- 

12


tocopherol has been shown to exert several atheroprotective actions 

by reducing platelet adhesion and aggregation, decreasing the 

expression of adhesion molecules that can cause neutrophils to 

stick to the endothelium, inhibiting K-dependent clotting factors, 

stimulating nitric oxide production, impairing cell proliferation, 

and stabilizing the atherosclerotic plaque (Pryor, 2000). 

Thus in our study medium intensity of aerobic training plays 

a vital role in decreasing the blood lipids and lipoprotein levels and 

retains the antioxidant activity. 

CONCLUSION 

The study concluded that performing different intensity of 

aerobic training ameliorates the coronary risk factors in middle 

aged coronary heart disease obese men by reducing the lipid levels 

and enhancing the antioxidant status. It was also found that 

medium intensity of aerobic exercise was very effective in reducing 

the lipid levels and promotes the antioxidant activity. Thus our 

present study also assures medium intensity training better safer 

than vigorous exercises in CHD patients. 

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18

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SPORT ACTIVITIES, 

ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENTS AND PERSONALITY 

DYNAMICS OF HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS IN SINDH 

ABSTRACT 

Dr. Pervez A. Pathan 1 , M. Akram Ansari 2 , and 

Dr. Yasmeen Iqbal 3 

This paper examines the relationship between education 

performance of person and his grooming in the society with sports 

activities especially at early education levels of schooling. Some valid 

inferences have been drawn to indicate that sports activities in early 

schooling age has significant impact on big five personality traits in the 

later part i.e. professional life of a person. 

Key Words: Extravert, Agreeableness; Neuroticism Conscientiousness; 

Openness to experience. Sports Participants and Non Participants 

METHODOLOGY 

607 male high school students were randomly selected from 

various high schools in the 8 districts of Sindh namely Badin, 

Hyderabad, Jamshoro, Khairpur, Larnkana, Qamber, Sanghar and 

Sukkur. 

52% of total sample (i.e. 317) respondents were sports 

participants at least in one of the school sports activities such as 

athletics, cricket, hockey, table tennis, badminton, volleyball, 

football and kabaddi. The remaining 48 percent (i.e. 290) samples 

were non-sports participants in high schools. 

1 Professor, Sindh Development Study Centre, University of Sindh, Jamshoro 

2 Assistant Professor, Centre for Physical Education & Sports Science, University of Sindh, Jamshoro 

3 Professor, & Director, Centre for Physical Education & Sports Science, University of Sindh, Jamshoro

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SPORTS ACTIVITIES 

INTRODUCTION 

Literature shows that appropriate sport participation for most 

high school students is detrimental to their educational progress and it 

has significant impact on personality trait (Melnick, Sabo and Vanfosen, 

1992; Casey, 1989; Parker & Johnson, 1981). The research is geared 

towards validating the literature and to assess the extent to which sport 

participation among high school students has positive psycho-social 

and/or psycho-educational performance. The research reveals that 

sports participants perform badly in academic grades in comparison non 

sports participants, although their achievements in terms of winning 

sports awards were significantly high to that of non sports participants. 

The paper is divided into three parts: Part one provides theoretical 

framework derived from literature review. Part two highlights study 

results, interpretation of data and research findings. Finally, part three 

presents conclusions and relevant references. 

Parker & Johnson, 1981 reported that the sport activities 

reflected time away from the classroom. Whereas, some studies on 

the relationship of sport participation of high school students to 

academic achievement contradict results and show that sport 

participation either contributes positively in a small way to student 

achievements especially grades or does not impact student 

achievements in the classroom (Marsh, 1988). 

Table 1: Consolidated work helped to carryout research: 

Author (s) Year Major Findings 

1.Perry RP et al 1979 Sports participation could also create intrinsic values for students. 

2. Johnson 1994 Improve students Grades keeps them in schools, rises their 

educational aspiration. 

3. Maners PA 

and Smart 

1995 Participation in too many activities produced diminishing 

returns. Participation in sports and other extra-curricular 

activities was consistently, but participation in some 

activities had mixed or predominately negative effects 

which needs further research. 

20


4. Mitcheli DL 1994 Students sports related activities are significantly related 

with their success rates in the professional life 

5. Linder KJ 

1999 Supporters of high school sports programs argue that sport 

participation improves students’ achievements motivation. 

6. Rasmussen 1999 Athletic team participation was related to identity 

foreclosure, particularly for males. With respect to whether 

student’s participation on sports activities was beneficial to 

their academic goals. 

7.Trembly et al 2000 Highly active individuals were significantly more optimistic & 

experienced self – efficacy than those non active or low active people 

8. Tross SA et al 1999- 

2000 

Found that sports could facilitate positive racial / ethnic 

relations as well as positive inter group attitudes and 

behavior among northern and southern school children’s. 

Contrary to this, supporters (Slavin, R.E., & Madden, N.A 

1997) of high school sport programs argue that sport participation 

improves students’ achievement as motivation improves students’ 

grades, keeps them in school, raises their educational aspirations 

helps them appreciate health, exercise and fitness, helps them learn 

about themselves and learn to handle adversity, and helps them 

experience team work and sportsmanship. To sum up, the quantity 

of research literature in this field is fast growing but schoolsponsored 

sport activities for high school students are still not fully 

understood. It is imperative to determine the factors which 

positively impact the student’s ability to succeed academically in 

school in conjunction with excellence in sports activities during 

high school studies. A consolidated review is provided in a tabular 

format at Table 1. 

Study Results and Findings 

This study results and findings were based upon randomly 

selecting 607 male high school students from various high schools 

in eight (8) districts1 of Sindh. The sampling frame was split in two 

1 Badin; Hyderabd; Jamshoro; Khairpur; Larkana; Qamber; Sanghar; and Sukkur 

21


i.e., sports participants and non-sports participants. 52% of total 

sample (i.e. 317) respondents were sports participants who 

participated at least in one of the school sports activities such as 

athletics, cricket, hockey, table tennis, badminton volley ball, foot 

ball, and Kabaddi. The remaining 48 percent (i.e. 290) sample was 

non-sports participants in high schools of sample districts. 

Table 2 provides details about sample respondents’ age and 

ethnic groups. Table shows symmetrical distribution in terms of 

age of sample participants, especially age group of 15 years. Data 

further shows that 66 percent of total respondents represented 

Sindhi as their mother tongue. Besides, a fair representation of 

participants from various ethnic groups could also be observed. A 

large sample from Sindhi speaking respondents is mainly based 

upon purposive selection of respondents of Sindhi speaking 

localities. The purpose was to ensure quality data as language 

could be a barrier in expression and communication. 

Table 2: Sample Respondents by Age and Ethnic group (n=607) 

Demographic characteristics Percent 

Ethnic group 

Sindhi 66 

Urdu 9 

Balouch 4 

Punjabi 7 

Pashto 5 

Other 9 

Age group 

14 Years 21 

15 Years 39 

16 Years 20 

17 Years 20 

Survey Data, 2009-10 

22


It is essential to note that non participants in sports do not 

mean zero involvement. The difference between participants and 

non participants is that the sports participants significantly spend 

more time in sports activities than the non-participants. Nonparticipants 

tend to play indoor games, whereas sports participants 

play games such as cricket, foot ball and other outside houses. 

One may consider non-participants as non serious with sports 

activities yet it is impossible to find a student of 14-17 years 

spending no time in sports (Table 3). 

Table 3: Percentage of Hours Spend on Sports per Week (n=607) 

Sports Non-Sports 

Participants Participants 

Time spend N=317 n=290 

> 15 hours 20* 5 

10-14 hours 33* 11 

6-9 hours 28* 13 

1-5 hours 19* 26 

No time spend - 45 


Table 4: Percent of Academic Grades of Sports and Non-Sports 

Participants (n=607) % 

Grades 8 th Class 7 th Class 6th Class 

Non- 

Sports 

Participant 

Non- 

Sports 

Participant 

23 

Non- 

Sports 

Participant 

Sports 

Sports 

Participant 

Participants 

n=290 n=317 n=290 n=317 n=290 n=317 

A-I 16 13 10 3 10 13 

Sports 

Participants 

A grade 29 26 23 24 26 30 

B grade 26 28 45 33 39 27 

C grade 23 30 20 37 22 23 

D grade 6 3 2 3 3 7 

Survey Data, 2009-10


Table 4 shows comparison of academic achievements between 

sports participants and non participants. Table clearly indicates that 

non-sports participants have good grades as compared to sports 

participants. This may be that the non-participants spend more time 

on their studies to that of sports participants. The data provides good 

base to suggest that even at this early age of education about 86 

percent sports participants reported that spending time in education 

was tough as it required mental concentration, teachers’ skills in 

making things to understand and their parents effective supervisory 

role towards keeping checks on them. Survey data confirms that nonsports 

participants tend to be regular in the class as they fall above 75 

percent strata of the total classroom attendance. Non-sports 

participants also did fairly well in terms of attendance in the class but 

the mean differences are significantly different at 95% Co-efficient 

Interval (CI). Similarly, according to teachers’ perception non-sports 

participants tend to do well in classroom assignments, homework, 

mid -term tests and in the final examinations and earn good academic 

grads to that of sports participants. These findings could be linked 

with sports participants’ time apportioned in sports activities. 

According to teachers it was very difficult for sports participants to 

make sensible compromise between time allotted for sports and 

studies. 

Table 5: Reasons for Participating in Sports n= 607 

Major 

Sports 

Reasons 

Cricket Athletics Football Volleyball Kabaddi Other Total All 

Figures in Numbers 

% 

Favorite 196 20 1 29 5 7 258 81 

Keep Fit 3 2 1 1 7 2 

Competitive 18 9 2 29 9 

For Fun 4 4 1 

Family 

Background 


14 4 1 19 6 

24


81 percent of total reported that they liked the sports 

therefore they were participating. These respondents were involved 

in all types of sports including cricket and Kabaddi. Those who 

wanted to keep fit chose cricket, athletics and volleyball (Table 5). 

Table 6: Respondents’ Relationship with the Member of Family 

who play sports % (n=607) 

Relationship 

Non-Sports 

Participant % 

Sports Participants 

% 

Parents/Brothers 2 56 

Uncles 8 26 

Cousins 13 18 

None 77 - 

All 


100 100 

It is interesting to know that involvement of sports 

participants in sports has substantial relationship with the fact that 

some of their family members did play or else were involved in 

sports. For example, out of total approximately 56 percent reported 

that their elder family members were involved in competitive 

sports. This seems acceptable given that the junior family members 

in the family tend to imitate / follow their elder ones. 

Table 7: Illnesses during Childhood % (n=607) 

Did you have any illnesses Non-Sports Sports 

during your childhood Participant % Participant % 

Yes 36 11 

No 64 89 

All 100 100 


25


Table 7 illustrates relationship between childhood illnesses 

with involvement in sports activities. Non-sports participants 

reported that they did have history of illness during their 

childhood. The illness included acute cases of diarrhea, malaria 

and hepatitis etc. They also mentioned that such illness did play a 

negative role in distracting them from sports. 

Table 8: Health Profile of sports participants and non-participants: 

Sports Non-Sports 

Health Profile Participants Participants 

n=317 n=290 

Mean Mean t 

Mental Health 24.9 23.2 0.14 

Emotional Health 19.96 20.56 0.394 

Social Health 24.13 23.7 0.262 


Table-8 shows the comparative health profile of the sports 

and non-sports participants. There is significant difference on the 

‘Physical’ component of the health among sports and non-sports 

participants. No differences were found on other dimensions of the 

health. However, non-sport participants were more emotional and 

less social as compared to the sports participants. 

Table 9: Mean, SD and t-test for Big Five Personality Traits of 

Sports and Non-sports Participants 

Traits 

Sport Participants 

N=317 

26 

Non Participants 

N=290 

Mean SD Mean SD t p 

Extraversion * 3.5 1.585 6.58 2.2 2.59 0.01 

Agreeableness 4.16 1.661 5.77 1.83 0.395 0.532 

Conscientiousness 3.64 1.554 4.41 1.68 0.059 0.028 

Neuroticism 3.54 1.591 4.22 1.74 1.501 0.05 

Openness * 3.39 1.565 1.45 2.14 2.268 0 

*= Significant at 95 Percent Co-efficient Interval (CI).


Survey data reveals that significantly higher proportion of 

sport participant’s fall in the category of extraverts this is 

understandable given that nature of sports demands assertiveness 

and sports create an environment of excitement. Further, more than 

50% respondent fall the category of agreeableness. It is mentioned 

that for sports person agreeable dimension of personality has 

positive relationship in terms of success influenced by team work. 

For example Cricket is a team game personality with agreeableness 

is must for the success of team. One of the properties that fall under 

conscientiousness is self discipline and character. This is linked with 

experience and age specially levels of maturity of a person. The 

sample respondents hardly fall in the age of maturity which is 

evident from the response indicating distribution sparse distribution. 

It does not show in proportions the level of conscientiousness among 

sports participants of age group in class ix and x. 

CONCLUSIONS 

The sports especially at early age of education have 

significant influence on academic performance. Study shows that 

non participants in sports significantly acquired higher grades as 

compared to participants in sports. Further 87 percent sample 

teachers informed that full time participation required time which 

has to be compromised on time required for home work studies. 

The serious sports participants invest time in sports rather than for 

studies. Sports activities are essential for healthy grooming of child 

to become better citizen in future. 

It is revealed that the condition of sports facilities in schools in 

very poor. All-out efforts at public levels be made to improve these 

facilities. There is no serious effort at policy levels to encourage 

participation of pupil in sports. Given that pupil who does not perform 

well in studies may opt for sports and become future sportsmen on 

professional grounds. The encouragement at school levels in sports by 

the government is must. This could be achieved through introducing 

sports as subject in early study stages of school education. 

27


REFERENCES 

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competency and academic performance in first grade children. 

Doctoral Dissertation. Orlando, FL: University of Central 

Florida Department of Exceptional and physical Education. 

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formation in high school. 

3. Slavin, R.E., & Madden, N.A (1997). School practices that 

improve race relation. American Educational research journal, 

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4. Linder. K.J. (1999). Sport participation and Perceived Academic 

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5. Rasmussen, K. (1999-2000) the changing sports scene 

Educational leadership, 57(4), 26-29 

6. Tremblay, M.S., Inman, J.W., & Willms, J.D., (2000). The 

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Academic control and action control in the achievement of 

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Educational Psychology, 93, 776-790. 

9. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraversion_and_introversion 

28

ABSTRACT 

UNDERSTANDING AND MANAGING 

DRUGS IN SPORT 

Dr. Paul Dimeo 1 

This article addresses some social and management issues relating 

to the subject of drugs in sport (doping). It begins with an overview of 

recent and prominent cases before developing a comparative approach that 

sets doping against other forms of drug use in society. The outcomes and 

implications of this comparison establish the basis for a discussion of how 

doping might be dealt with by the relevant authorities. The concluding 

points show that interventions towards education and prevention face the 

challenges of understanding and responding to the highly specific nature 

of the elite athlete. 

INTRODUCTION 

High profile cases of sports stars using drugs, whether for 

performance or for ‘recreational use’ continues to plague the world 

of elite, international sport. A recent case in question is that of the 

American tennis star, Andre Agassi who recently admitted using 

crystal methamphetamine during his playing career (Agassi 2009). 

While such confessions are rare, we do know enough about specific 

instances of doping behaviour to surmise that it has been 

prominent in many sports. The most infamous of these have been 

the THG/Balco scandal (Fainaru-Wada and Williams 2006); the 

1998 Festina scandal during the Tour de France that exposed the 

systematic doping of professional cyclists (Voet 2002); the 

organized doping of Canadian athletes that led to Ben Johnson’s 

positive test after winning the 100m final during the 1988 Olympics 

(Francis and Coplon 1991); and the Government sponsored doping 

of athletes in the former GDR and USSR (Spitzer 2006). Less well 

1 Director of the program, University of Stirling, Scotland, United Kingdom

UNDERSTANDING AND MANAGING DRUGS IN SPORT 

known, though are individual cases like Werner Reiterer who used 

steroids throughout the 1990s without ever being detected (Reiterer 

2000). 

Other cases have been more complex and show how 

challenging anti-doping policy and procedures can be. For 

example, when the Danish cyclist Michael Rasmussen was taken 

out of the 2007 Tour de France after a journalist exposed the fact he 

had missed out-of-competition tests, the scandal reverberated 

around the world. He was castigated as a cheat and once again the 

future of professional cycling was questioned. However, recent 

research has shown that he did not actually break any of the World 

Anti-Doping Agencies (WADA) rules and therefore has been 

harshly treated (Møller 2010). Another example might be that of 

Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammed Asif who tested positive for 

nandrolone in tests conducted by the Pakistan Cricket Board in 

2006. Their initial ban was over-turned on appeal leading to 

complaints from WADA and the involvement of the Court of 

Arbitration for Sport (CAS) which had no authority to impose 

WADA’s code at the time which would have upheld the bans 

(Cricinfo, July 2, 2007). The case also prompted the International 

Cricket Council to complain about ‘inconsistencies in the Pakistan 

Cricket Board’s anti-doping processes and regulations’ (London 

Evening Standard, 7 December 2006). 

Such cases reflect some of the other cases that have been 

adjudicated through the CAS, where there are very delicate 

judgements to be made over the punishments to be given for 

doping when athletes can provide circumstantial reasons for testing 

positive or for missing out-of-competition tests or when there are 

disputes over jurisdiction and variation in regulations (see 

McLaren 2001; Connolly 2006). 

Nonetheless, most doping scandals reveal the underlying 

assumptions of sports and ethics. Media coverage and general 

condemnations demonstrate the on-going concern many people 

30


have with the use of drugs in sport. The feeling remains 

widespread that sports men and women are role models for clean 

living and healthy lifestyles. Such a position is exemplified by 

Thomas Murray (2004), who claimed in the World Anti-Doping 

Agency’s in-house magazine that doping undercuts the foundation 

of what gives sport its meaning and value, the integrity of the 

athlete and the ethics of competition. While this is not necessarily a 

perspective shared by academic researchers (i.e. Kayser, Mauron 

and Miah 2007; Møller 2010) it is one that governs policy making 

agendas and shapes the scope for athletes’ decision-making. 

In this article, I wish to explore two distinct but related 

questions. The first is how drug use in sport can be seen as similar 

to and different from other forms of drug use. Following that, I 

want to outline some challenges facing education, prevention and 

policy decisions within sports organisations. Taken together these 

two questions open up some important and interesting themes 

about sociological and managerial aspects of doping and antidoping. 

COMPARATIVE CONTEXTS 

There are some obvious similarities between drug use within 

a sporting context and other social contexts. Sports stars are just as 

fallible as other people and can become addicted to drugs, leading 

to other forms of unhealthy behaviour. Such examples include the 

tragic Italian cyclist Marco Pantani who used both performanceenhancing 

and recreational drugs and who committed suicide in a 

hotel room after apparently severe depression (Rendell 2007). The 

connection between emotional and psychological problems and a 

reliance on drugs can affect people in all walks of life. Indeed, some 

of the earliest rationales for anti-doping policy in the 1960s referred 

directly to the ‘moral degradation’ associated with all forms of 

drugs (Dimeo 2007) and were connected, if loosely, to broader 

societal trends that sought regulation of tobacco, alcohol, 

31


amphetamines, cannabis and other drugs. While the past two to 

three decades have seen a distinction drawn between performanceenhancing 

and recreational drug use, research shows that some 

groups in society use steroids for body-image in order to pursue 

hedonistic lifestyles where recreational drugs are common (see 

Møller, McNamee and Dimeo 2009). In other words, while 

performance oriented athletes can become addicted to the relevant 

drugs, there are many examples where performance-enhancing 

drugs are also used in combination with other drugs. 

A second similarity is that drugs pose significant health risks. 

Many of the female athletes who were given male hormone drugs in 

the former East Germany suffered from a host of ill-effects including 

excess hair growth, excess sexual impulses, deepening voices, acne, 

masculinisation of skeletal features, psychological trauma, 

gynaecological problems and many had children born with 

deformities (Berendonk and Franke 1997; Ungerleider 2001). Some 

well known athletes have suffered from early deaths that have been 

linked, even if indirectly, to drug use. For example, the case of Birgit 

Driessel is described in horrific detail by John Hoberman (1992). 

More recent instances include that of Florence Griffith-Joyner and 

the number of professional cyclists who died soon after EPO became 

available as a performance enhancing drug (Noakes 2006). Although 

the full scale of fatalities, reduced mortality and the onset of serious 

illnesses related to doping are not known, there are enough forms of 

evidence and individual cases to suggest that athletes are taking 

serious risks with their health if they choose to use banned drugs 

(Mottram 2010). These risks are accentuated by the fact that athletes 

might overdose because they seek more of the performance 

enhancing effects, and that black market suppliers cannot be trusted 

to ensure products are not contaminated (Donati 2007). 

There are also many differences between the use of drugs by 

sports people and those used in everyday life. What is illegal in 

sport can be legal in society, while there are vital distinctions in 

32


sport between drugs that can be considered medical/therapeutic, 

those which are performance enhancing, and those which are used 

for recreational purposes. The first category might include pain 

relief drugs, anti-inflammatories, remedies for sickness or colds, 

and so on, which might be used by athletes to keep themselves fit 

and healthy. Some of these, like ephedrine are banned because they 

contain stimulants, while others might be abused, i.e. if an athlete is 

injured he/she should rest not take pain killers and keep playing. 

Moreover, the list of banned substances includes drugs which are 

not directly intended to boost performance but can be used to hide 

or ‘mask’ such drugs. So, for example, the Australian cricket Shane 

Warne was banned for one year in 2003 for taking diuretics 

hydrochlorothiazide and amiloride that are on the list because they 

can be used as masking agents (Independent, 22 February 2003). The 

second category includes steroids, EPO, growth hormone, 

amphetamines, blood doping and others; drugs that help athletes 

to improve their long or short term performances. Not all of these 

are banned: blood spinning is a complicated technique that aids 

recovery by replacement plasma cells but is not yet banned. The 

third category includes cocaine, heroin, cannabis and other social 

drugs that athletes are not supposed to take but will not enhance 

their performance. 

Perhaps the key difference between sports and the rest of 

society is the strict and highly definitive set of rules that have been 

laid down for athletes. There is an extensive list of banned 

substances controlled by WADA that grew out of the lists created 

and implemented in the 1960s and 1970s by such international sports 

organizations at the International Olympic Committee (Dimeo 2007). 

Indeed, the very existence of a single unifying organization that aims 

to ensure compliance and consistency of regulations and 

punishments makes sport almost unique in its approach to drug use. 

The punishments are severe: up to two year bans for infringements. 

Supporting this list is a testing mechanism that analyses competitors’ 

33


urine and blood samples that they are compelled to prove when 

requested. Even more draconian is the surveillance system for outof-competition 

testing that – akin to bail conditions or being on the 

sex offenders register – requires the athlete to provide details of 

where they will be every day so that unannounced testing can take 

place. This has led to some concerns about civil liberties violations: 

‘This practice seriously impinges on personal privacy and is 

unacceptable in any other setting except, perhaps, imprisonment’ 

(Kayser et al 2007: 2). Moreover, athletes are given the opportunity to 

miss three tests over 18 months before they face punishment. Some 

stringent anti-doping campaigners believe this to be too lenient, 

while liberalists do not consider the system to be morally correct. In 

between these positions are the athletes who feel under pressure to 

comply, but when they miss tests there is great uncertainty over 

whether they are being deliberately deceitful or it was due to a 

genuine accidental reason (Hanstad and Loland 2009). 

In other words, there is a complex, sophisticated, globalised 

system of policies, rules, and penalties that have come to present 

difficult legal situations where athletes’ careers and reputations are 

at stake. Associated with all of this is the highly complex scientific 

underpinning of testing athletes’ urine and blood samples, which 

has to be completed with absolute accuracy. There have been cases, 

such as that of the English track and field athlete Diane Modahl, 

where errors in the laboratory led to an accusation of doping which 

took years to refute and probably ended her career (McArdle 1999). 

As such, policy makers need to work in tandem with scientists in 

accredited anti-doping testing laboratories to ensure that the entire 

process is watertight. Moreover, as new types of performance 

enhancing drugs come on the market, scientific research can feed 

back into the policy process by informing decision makers about 

doping innovations. And yet, there are flaws in this system. Not all 

performance enhancing drugs can be identified in samples. There 

have been some concerns about issues such as the accidental 

34


contamination of legitimate drugs with illegitimate substances, the 

chances of false positives, and the lack of research into the effects of 

some drugs like EPO. One of the future threats in this regard is the 

use of genetic therapies which athletes have their genome structure 

altered to improve specific aspects of their bodies. McNamee 

discusses this in the context of wider societal trends towards 

‘transhumanism’ but argues there should be boundaries: the ‘denial 

of the necessity of limits in nature by some, the desire to … control 

human-limiting factors by the unfettered use of biotechnology is 

something that should concern us all in sport’ (2008:205). 

A finally difference is that most people in sport take a very 

uncompromising view on what is considered to be cheating when 

drugs are taken to improve performances. ‘Doping’ has often being 

referred to as an ‘evil’, a ‘death’, and a threat to the very fabric of 

sport (Dimeo 2007; Waddington 2000). Much of this type of 

discourse began when the Danish cyclist Knud Enemark Jensen 

crashed and died during a race in the 1960 Rome Olympics. For 

almost forty years it was assumed that his death was caused by 

overdosing on amphetamines. Even though this theory has been 

refuted (Møller 2005), it was highly influential in shaping policy 

and ideology on anti-doping that made drug use seem like a matter 

of life and death, and gave policy makers the role of protectors or 

saviours. For example, members of the International Olympic 

Committee have been very self-congratulatory about their role in 

leading anti-doping and often refer to the key people as having 

saved sport from destruction caused by unethical behaviour, 

cheating and risk to athletes’ health (Dimeo and Hunt 2009). There 

is a strict moral code that creates a dichotomy of self-righteous 

individuals on the side of ‘anti-doping good’ up against and trying 

to thwart those on the side of ‘doping, cheating, evil’. This contrasts 

with, for example, policies and moralities around alcohol where 

moderate use is widely regarded as acceptable and in many social 

35


circles excessive use is encouraged. The dividing lines in sport are 

much more distant and the punishments more severe. 

DEALING WITH THE PROBLEM 

There are some interesting consequences of these similarities 

and differences. The historical development of drug use in modern 

sport can be traced to the 1880s (Dimeo 2007). While this suggests 

there is some inherent about competitiveness that leads people to 

search out new techniques for winning, the circumstances and 

meanings attached to performance-enhancing drugs have changed 

over time. During the first half of the 20 th century, scientists and 

policy makers could not agree over what constituted ‘doping’ and 

how it should be controlled. Anti-doping statements were 

published by the IAAF in 1928 and the IOC in 1938, but these were 

not supported by a system of testing or punishment. 

It was during the 1960s that the international sports 

organisations took a more collective and systematic approach. This 

was in response to rising numbers of incidents involving drug use 

in certain sports such as cycling and the apparent (if unproven) 

widespread use of steroids in Olympic and other sports. Since then 

the suppliers and the testers have been locked in battle. When a 

new drug becomes available some athletes will experiment, so the 

testing procedures have to be constantly refined and updated. Most 

athletes who take drugs are seen as deliberately trying to cheat. The 

policy structures are akin to criminalisation, reminiscent of a ‘war 

on drugs’ approach rather than an empathetic one. Athletes are 

considered to be responsible for everything in their diet, and thus 

the legal concept of strict liability is applied by the World Anti- 

Doping Agency. There is very little legal scope for an athlete to 

offer an explanation as to how the banned substance came to be in 

their system (David 2008). 

All of which leads on to questions around the preventative 

measures of education and policy – how best might a system be 

36


develop to pre-empt cases of doping whether they are deliberate, 

accidental or the consequence of trusting the wrong people? It is vital 

that athletes are fully aware of all possible ways in which they might 

test positive, otherwise cases of ‘inadvertent’ doping will rise while 

the legal framework assumes guilt if an athlete tests positive. 

Despite the situation outlined above, little research has yet 

been conducted that explains how athletes learn about doping and 

anti-doping, and how sports agencies can ensure adequate levels of 

information and education. A recent systematic review of literature 

(Backhouse et al 2007) showed that only a handful of studies have 

been conducted about education and other forms of intervention 

and training. The authors argue that, ‘Existing research suggests 

that a considerable proportion of athletes lack doping knowledge, 

in terms of effects, legal issues or sources of information. This may 

increase their risk for damaging their health or inadvertently 

committing a doping offence’ (Backhouse et al 2007, p.27). 

This is highly significant in light of the application of strict 

liability. If athletes do not always know what is banned, what their 

legal rights are, or which sources of information can be trusted, 

then how they can always be held responsible for a positive test? 

An interesting example of such a situation arose in 2004 when the 

British tennis player Greg Rusedski tested positive for the banned 

substance nandrolone. It transpired that the Association of Tennis 

Professionals, the governing body for the sport, had recommended 

that their coaches distribute electrolyte tablets to some players that 

had been contaminated with small traces of the banned drug. 

During the legal case, the prosecutors tried to argue that ‘Rusedski 

could be held to be positive as he must be taken to have known that 

he should not take substances given to him by the ATP’ (BBC, 10 

March 2004). However, Rusedski’s innocence was upheld as he was 

assumed correct to have trusted the ATP who did not act in 

accordance with anti-doping guidelines. But given the strict 

37


liability ruling favoured by the World Anti-Doping Agency, 

Rusedski was fortunate to have avoided a two year ban. 

Education strategies that are currently in place are primarily 

about avoiding testing positive, clarifying some ‘grey areas’ and 

explaining the mechanisms of testing. Most of this material is 

available on-line and athletes are encouraged to access it for 

themselves. This is also problematic as a pedagogical technique; as 

it does not take account of the athlete’s willingness to read 

information carefully, their ability to understand, or their 

appreciation of its wider context. Indeed, it could be argued that 

the current provision is simplistic and one-dimensional. A rather 

more complex picture is painted by Backhouse et al: 

Elite athletes’ motives for doping are primarily concerned 

with maintaining of improving physical functioning, coping with 

social or psychological pressures or striving for social or 

psychological goals. Investigations of drug use amongst elite 

athletes should acknowledge that they are subject to unique social 

and psychological conditions, which distinguish them from other 

groups of athletes (intense pressure from sponsors, media, 

spectators; opportunities for huge financial reward); the 

combinations may increase the likelihood of doping. Accordingly, 

it is advisable that doping education and prevention initiatives 

should be tailored to the unique experience of being an elite athlete 

to ensure that athletes are properly equipped to deal with the 

pressures of high profile sport (2007, p27) 

The consequences are that information dissemination 

approaches to athlete education are not sufficient because they 

cannot address the situation or mind-set that would lead to doping 

as a conscious decision. Many athletes devote their entire lives to 

their career and are desperate for any form of success. They draw 

upon all manner of other coaching strategies, nutritional advice and, 

for certain sports, new technological innovations, in order to beat 

their opponents. The very concept that a potential advantage should 

38


be forgone for the sake of the idealised ‘level playing field’ is not 

within the logic of sports success. Since anti-doping is based on 

morally pure notions like fairness, equity and sportsmanship, there 

is a constant struggle between the concepts of purity and success in 

elite sport (Møller 2010). Even the language used reflects these 

tensions. To be ‘sporting’ means to show respect to your opponent, 

while the essence of sport is really about competition, trying to win, 

trying to display superiority over the opponent; winners are 

encouraged to feel proud and to celebrate, losers feel 

disappointment and shame. Elite sport, as noted by Backhouse et al 

(2007), contains so many external rewards that the balance often 

shifts towards a win-at-all-costs mentality. 

Any serious anti-doping education would need to address 

and explore athletes’ responses to these tensions. How do they 

understand sport? What are they trying to achieve? What moral 

limits would they place on performance enhancement? How do 

they imagine their competitors deal with moral issues? 

Donovan has suggested that athletes’ sense of morality 

(within sport) should be the touching point for anti-doping 

education, and the younger such an intervention can occur the 

better: 

The methods and examples would vary by age, but the level 

of sophistication should always be challenging rather than too 

easily grasped. Moral reasoning in sport should be taught through 

experiential methods of narrative and drama, as well as through 

logical reasoning and discussions. Providing “reasons why” is 

particularly important to support acceptance of desired moral 

stances at all ages … The primary focus should be on adherence to 

the rules, with clear moral reasoning as to how deliberate breaching 

of the rules to gain an unfair advantage over one’s competitors 

undermines the very basis of sport … in educational initiatives, 

athletes must be given more than a list of banned substances and 

39


technologies – they must be given good arguments for the bans and 

the opportunity to debate these arguments (2009, p.133) 

This does however have several weaknesses. Firstly, it 

assumes that athletes make all the decisions, whereas it may be the 

coach or team doctor who suggests ‘bending the rules’. Secondly, 

this would only be valid for potential instances of deliberate 

doping, but many positive tests are the results of human error. 

Thirdly, it is debatable if elite level athletes would priorities the 

moral aspects of sport over their desire for victory. 

An alternative model has been presented by Somerville and 

Lewis, after they conducted a research survey on British Olympians: 

This survey suggests that despite regular educational 

updates, some sportspeople are not fully prepared to avoid 

accidental doping violations. It is suggested that the educational 

process itself is altered to encourage a more proactive approach to 

doping prevention, with the development of individual 

contingency plans should minor illness arise. Improving access to 

information via the internet, and involving a pharmacist may help 

to reduce doping accidents. There is also a need to consider the 

educational requirements of team doctors (2005, p. 516) 

This is a much more pragmatic approach which makes no 

assumptions about the athletes’ moral position but does work on 

the basis that anti-doping education should be in place to protect 

the athletes from making mistakes. Clearly more research needs to 

be done to understand athletes of different ages, in different sports 

and at different performance levels. And more interactive training 

needs to be in place to teach athletes how to recognize and avoid 

risky situations. 

To conclude, the question of doping continues to be 

controversial and intriguing. There is much social science research 

still to be done. However, this article provided some comparative 

contexts, drew from a range of examples, and outlined the issues 

facing sports organizations as they aim to manage the problem. 

40


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43

EFFECT OF PROGRESSIVE MUSCLE RELAXATION 

TRAINING ON COMPETITIVE ANXIETY OF MALE 

INTER-COLLEGIATE VOLLEYBALL PLAYERS 

Dr. B. Navaneethan 1 and R. Soundara Rajan 2 

ABSTRACT: 

The present study is mainly concerned with volleyball players who 

participated in the high level competition. Now days, the Game volleyball 

is becoming as a professional sport rather than the competitive sport. So 

the competitiveness among the volleyball players is growing up day by day 

with different color. Reason for such competitiveness arises naturally 

among the players, because of pressures such as equal competition, 

concern about fulfilling the expectation of their teachers, coaches, parents 

and peer group and personal needs. The present study investigated the 

effect of psychological skill training techniques such as progressive muscle 

relaxation on competitive anxiety. The three sub-scales of competitive 

anxiety were also examined; cognitive anxiety, somatic anxiety and selfconfidence. 

The study consisted of 24 male volleyball players from PSG 

College of Arts and Science, Coimbatore. Their age ranged from 18 to 25 

years. The Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 (CSAI-2), also 

developed by Martens, Vealey, & Burton (1990) were used. Subjects were 

randomly assigned to either a relaxation training experimental group, or a 

no relaxation training control group. Both the experimental groups were 

given training for 3 days a week and for 6 weeks in total. Paired t-tests 

were used to test the effect of treatment groups individually between pre 

and post –tests of all the groups on variables used in the present study. 

The result of the study reveals that there was significant difference in 0.05 

levels of competitive anxiety among the male inter-collegiate volleyball 

players. 

Key words: Relaxation training, competitive anxiety 

1 Director of Physical Education, PSG College of Arts & Science, Coimbatore, India 

2 Assistant Physical Director, PSG College of Arts & Science, Coimbatore, India

EFFECT OF PROGRESSIVE MUSCLE RELAXATION TRAINING 

INTRODUCTION 

The present study is mainly concerned with volleyball 

players was participated in the high level competition. Now days, 

the game volleyball is becoming as a professional sport rather than 

the competitive sport. So the competitiveness among the volleyball 

players is growing up day by day with different color. Reason for 

such competitiveness is arise naturally among the players, because 

of pressures such as equal competition, concern about fulfilling the 

expectation of their teachers, coaches, parents and peer group and 

personal needs. It leads to mental and physical stress. In high level 

stress, the player’s vision may have to be narrow and could not 

understand the things around them. Hence having the high level 

stress, players are unable to show their real effort in matches 

though they are having the needed physical and mental resources. 

Hence the physical education teachers and coaches are in need to 

study the means and methods needed to face such competitive 

pressures whereby they can equip their players to perform well. As 

far as means and methods for high performance in sports are 

concerned, they are varied with the nature and type of competition 

such as low level competition and high level competition. In high 

level competition, sport is demanding high level mental toughness. 

Mental toughness of a player can be strengthened only through the 

implication of cognitive based training. Cognitive based training 

helps them to realize the nature of internal and external pressures 

whereby they can easily face the competitive pressures and to show 

their talents in time. Having this thirst, the investigator has 

impelled to study. 

The impact of anxiety on sport performance has become an 

interest in the field of Sport Psychology within the last decade. 

Performance related anxiety, also referred to as competitive a-state 

anxiety composed of three states. The cognitive a-state is 

responsible for cognitive concerns such as worry and negative 

expectations about oneself or one's performance. The somatic a- 

45


state accounts for autonomic arousal such as muscle tension and 

increased heart rate. High levels of either cognitive a-state or 

somatic a-state negatively effect state self-confidence. Overall, 

competitive a-state anxiety is defined as an emotional response to 

an unpleasant stimulus. 

Typical responses to an anxiety provoking stimulus include: 

muscle tension, increased breathing, and decreased concentration. 

It has been suggested that athletes are prone to experience this 

negative emotion for two reasons. First, they frequently find 

themselves in situations in which others can assess their success or 

failure. Second, the degree of success achieved by an athlete is 

measurable by goals such as distance, scores, or time. Furthermore, 

an examination of sport competition literature exemplifies the 

causes of competitive a-state anxiety. Some of the commonly cited 

causes include fear of failure, ego threat/fear of evaluation, and 

poor preparation or lack of perceived physical readiness. 

Generally, both psychological and physiological ramifications 

reveal the athlete's response to anxiety. 

In addition, studies have indicated that a reduction in 

competitive a-state anxiety may enhance athletic performance. 

Recently, the emphasis placed on the psychological aspect of 

athletics has exhibited psychological skill training to be equally 

important as physical training. Psychological skill training such as 

relaxation training can be used to lower both somatic anxiety and 

cognitive anxiety. Hence, such a training method can be 

implemented to reduce competitive anxiety and in turn, enhance 

athletic performance (Onestak, 1991). Moreover, relaxation 

techniques include: progressive muscle relaxation that is induced 

by instructions to tense and relax major muscle groups of the body; 

deep breathing which ensures calm respiration; and visualization 

techniques (Jacobson, 1938). The purpose of relaxation strategies is 

to allow the athlete to decrease anxiety prior to performance and in 

turn, reach his or her full athletic potential (Onestak, 1991). 

46


Previous research explored the effect of various relaxation 

training techniques on competitive a-state anxiety and 

performance. Anshel and Porter (1996), Bethany and Forrest (1998), 

and Savey and Beital (1997) have demonstrated further collective 

evidence that the application of psychological skill training 

programs can reduce competitive a-state anxiety as well as improve 

athletic performance. For example, Bethany and Forrest (1998) 

found that visuo-motor behavioral rehearsal, when employed by 

athletes can decrease stress and state anxiety. In support of this 

finding, Anshel and Porter (1996) also found that athletes who 

employed stress management techniques expressed better athletic 

performance. Future research may extend the examination and see 

exactly which sub-scale, somatic anxiety, cognitive anxiety and selfconfidence 

is most effected by the psychological skill training. 

In consideration of the previous evidence that psychological 

skill training can reduce competitive anxiety, the present study will 

further investigate the impact of progressive muscle relaxation, a 

type of psychological skill training, on a-state competitive anxiety 

with an emphasis on the three sub-levels of competitive anxiety. 

Cognitive anxiety, somatic anxiety and state self-confidence will be 

examined. It will be beneficial to test if in fact, psychological skill 

training such as relaxation training lowers competitive anxiety and 

if so, which of the three sub-scales are most effected. 

Moreover, the present study will examine competitive anxiety 

and the impact of relaxation training. The variable being manipulated 

is the relaxation training, which is defined as progressive muscle 

relaxation. Progressive muscle relaxation generates relaxation by 

systematically progressing through skeletal muscles. The variables 

being measured are the subject's trait anxiety level, competitive 

anxiety level and the three sub-levels of state anxiety: somatic anxiety, 

cognitive anxiety, and state self-confidence. 

47


METHODS 

The purpose of the study was to find out the effect of 

progressive muscle relaxation training on competitive anxiety of 

male inter-collegiate volleyball players. To achieve the purpose of 

the study twenty four male volleyball players were selected from 

PSG College of Arts and Science, Coimbatore. Their age was 

ranged from 18 to 25 years. The purpose of the present study was 

explained to them clearly where by their consent to serve as 

samples were obtained. The present study is an experimental one 

and to test the effects of varied forms of intervening strategies, the 

care was taken in distributing the samples to each experimental 

group. For this, the selected samples (N=24) were divided into 

two equal groups. Group I was considered as Progressive 

Relaxation Training Group (PRTG) in which they underwent 

progressive muscle relaxation practices. Group II was considered 

as control group they are doing the regular physical & skill 

practice. The experimental group were given training for 3 days a 

week and for 6 weeks in total. 

RESEARCH INSTRUMENT 

TOOL USED IN THE STUDY 

Competitive Sport Anxiety Inventory - 2 

Competitive state anxiety was assessed by using the 

Competitive State Anxiety Inventory - 2 (CSAI-2, Martens et al. 

1990) which is a self report, psychometric state anxiety inventory, 

consisting of 27 items. The CSAI-2 normally takes less then five 

minutes to complete and was administered ten minutes before 

competition and practice session. Before allowing subjects to begin 

completing the CSAI-2, instructions were explained, and 

researchers ensured that all instructions were completely 

understood. State anxiety was measured by the Competitive State 

Anxiety Inventory - 2 (CSAI - 2) (Martens et al 1990). The CSAI – 2 

48


assess two components of state anxiety, cognitive worry and 

somatic anxiety, and a related constricts self-confidence. 

The CSAI - 2 contains 9 items that represent each sub - scale. 

Thus, each sub - scale has a range from 9 to 36. Higher scores on 

cognitive and somatic anxiety indicate higher levels of anxiety 

whereas higher scores on self – confidence sub – scale correspond 

to higher levels of self-confidence (Martens et al. 1990 and Mckay et 

al. 1997). 

Description of CSAI-2 

The CSAI was revised to develop a sport –specific inventory 

that measured the cognitive and somatic components of A-state. 

The CSAI –2 was originally constructed to include subscales to 

measure not only cognitive state anxiety and somatic anxiety but 

also fear of physical harm and generalized anxiety. The 

development of the CSAI-2 as a sport-specific measure of 

multidimensional A-state followed a systematic Psychometric 

process. The CSAI-2 is an A-state inventory designed to measure 

existing state of cognitive state anxiety, somatic state anxiety, 

and state of self confidence in competitive situations,. The CSAI-2 

was constructed primarily as research tool. It was administered 

three hour before competition. When administering the CSAI-2, it 

was recommended that the title on the form given to the subjects to 

be Illinois self-evaluation questionnaire. This technique helps to 

reduce the bias to the inventory. In addition antisocial instructions 

given by author of CSAI-2 was committed to memory and orally 

communicated with conviction to the respondents. Before allowing 

subjects to begin completing the CSAI-2 it was made sure that 

whether the instructions are completely understood and 

particularly that responses should be based on how the respondent 

feels at the moment. 

49


Scoring the CSAI-2 

The CSAI – 2 is scored by computing a separate total for 

each of the three subscales with scores ranging from a low of 9 

to a high of 36. The higher the score, the greater the cognitive or 

somatic. A-state or the greater the state self-confidence. Total score 

for the inventory is not computed. 

The cognitive state anxiety is scored by totaling the 

responses for the following 9 items 1, 4, 7, 10, 13, 16, 19, 22 and 25. 

The somatic state anxiety subscale is scored by adding the 

responses to the following 9 items: 2, 5, 8, 11, 14, 17, 20, 23 and 26. 

Scoring for item 14 must be reversed in calculating the score for the 

somatic state anxiety subscale as indicated below: 

1 = 4 

2 = 3 

3 = 2 

4 = 1 

The state self-confidence subscale is scored by adding the 

following items 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, and 27. Inventories that are 

missing no more than one response per subscale can still be scored, 

but any inventory in which two or more items from any one 

subscale are emitted should be invalidated. To obtain subscale 

scores when an item has been omitted, compute the mean item 

score for the eight answered items, multiply this value by 9, and 

then round the product to the nearest whole number. 

Reliability of Data 

The reliability of data was ensured by establishing the 

instrument reliability, tester reliability, tester competency, and 

reliability of tests. 

Instrument Reliability 

The instruments used in this study were stop watches and 

measuring tape which were used to gather data for this study were 

obtained from standard firms. Data were collected thrice by using 

the said instruments. On all occasions, the measurements showed 

50


the same reading, and therefore the instruments were considered 

reliable. 

Tester Competency and Reliability of Tests 

To ensure that the investigator was well versed with the 

techniques of conducting the tests, the investigator had a number of 

practice sessions in testing procedure. The reliability of the data 

was established through test and retest method. 

Tester reliability was established by a test process whereby a 

consistency of results was obtained by product moment correlation. 

The data collected from a randomly selected sample of ten subjects 

in test was correlated with the data taken by the expert and 

coefficient of correlation thus obtained is presented in Table 1. 

Since very high correlations from .806 to .897 were obtained for the 

variables, the competency of the tester to administer the test was 

accepted. The intraclass correlation coefficient obtained from 

selected criterion variables were presented in Table-1 

Table-1 

INTRACLASS CORRELATION CO-EFFICIENT VALUES ON 

SELECTED CRITERION VARIABLES 

COEFFICIENT 

SI.NO CRITERION VARIABLES 

OF 

CORRELATIONS 

COMPETITIVE SPORT ANXIETY INVENTORY-2 

a) cognitive anxiety .897 

b) somatic anxiety .860 

c) self confidence .806 

Progressive relaxation Training 

The volleyball players were comfortable with the breathing 

technique. It is systematic technique developed by Jacobson. A 

volleyball player is asked to inhale and tense a specific muscle 

51


group for approximately 7 – 10 seconds followed by releasing them 

for 15 – 20 seconds. The volleyball player then exhales and releases 

the tension from the specified muscle group, concentrating on the 

feelings of relaxation. This procedure is repeated for a number of 

muscle groups with each group begin tensed and relaxed three 

times. The muscle groups used with the volleyball team are listed 

below: 

The Muscle groups used in the Progressive Relaxation Exercise 

Muscle Group Instructions 

Hand Clench your left hand and feet the 

tension relax and let hand hang loosely. 

Same for right hand. 

Wrists Bend hand back, hyper extending your 

wrists relax. 

Upper arms Bend elbow towards your shoulders 

and tense biceps muscle relax. 

Shoulders Bring shoulders up toward yours ears. 

Relax, let your shoulders drop down. 

Forehead Wrinkle your forehead, raise your 

eyebrows relax. 

Eyes Close your eyes tightly relax. 

Jaws Clench your jaws tightly relax. 

Tongue Press your tongue against the roof of 

your mouth relax. 

Mouth Press your lips together tightly relax. 

52


Neck Turn your head so that your chin is over 

your right shoulder. Straighten and 

relax. 

Neck and Jaws Bend your head forward, pressing your 

chin against your chest. Straighten and 

relax. 

Chest Take a deep breath and hold it for 5 

seconds, slowly exhale and relax. 

Abdomen Tighten your stomach muscles relax. 

Back Arch your back relax. 

Thighs Stretch your legs in front of you. Tighten 

your thigh muscles relax. 

Hamstrings Push your heels down into floor, tighten 

your hamstring muscles relax. 

Calves Point your toes toward your head relax. 

Feet Curl your toes toward the bottom of 

your feet relax. 

RESULTS 

The study was designed to find out the effects of progressive 

muscle relaxation training on competitive anxiety of male intercollegiate 

volleyball players. The objective framed in the present 

study to test the data collected on variables: cognitive anxiety, 

somatic anxiety and self confidence. As one of the objectives of the 

present study was to test the effects of progressive muscle 

relaxation training on competitive anxiety, the initial test means 

and final test means were tested treatment wise by using the paired 

sample t-test. SPSS 13.0 statistical package. 

53


TABLE-1 

Significance of Mean Gains / Losses between Pre and Post Test 

of Progressive Relaxation Training (PRTG) on Competitive 

Anxiety of Volleyball Players 

Variables 

Pre-test 

Mean 

Post-test 

Mean 

Mean 

Diff. 

Standard 

Error Mean 

‘t’-ratio 

Cognitive Anxiety 21.50 20.08 1.42 .148 9.53* 

Somatic Anxiety 22.08 20.50 1.58 .148 10.65* 

Self Confidence 21.25 22.75 -1.50 .151 9.95* 

* Significance at 0.05 level 

Table – 1 indicates that the obtained ‘t’ ratios were: 9.53 for 

cognitive anxiety, 10.65 for somatic anxiety, 9.95 for self confidence. 

The obtained ‘t’ ratios on competitive anxiety. When compared with 

the critical value of 2.201 for degrees of freedom of 111 it was found 

that the mean gains and mean losses statistically significant. Resulting 

of these confirm that six week practice of progressive relaxation 

training produced a significant improvement in cognitive anxiety 

(1.42; p


TABLE-2 

Significance of Mean Gains / Losses between Pre and Post Test 

of Control Group on Competitive Anxiety of Volleyball Players 

Variables 

Pre-test 

Mean 

Post-test 

Mean 

Mean 

Diff. 

Standard 

Error Mean 

‘t’-ratio 

Cognitive Anxiety 21.15 20.85 0.30 .923 1.45 

Somatic Anxiety 21.25 20.85 0.40 .233 1.71 

Self Confidence 21.50 21.75 -0.25 .910 1.22 

Table – 2 indicates that the obtained ‘t’ ratios were: 1.45 for 

cognitive anxiety, 1.71 for somatic anxiety, 1.22 for self confidence. 

The obtained ‘t’ ratios on competitive anxiety. When compared 

with the critical value of 2.201 for degrees of freedom of 111 it was 

found that the mean gains and mean losses statistically not 

significant. Resulting of these confirm that so it was found that the 

control group did not show significant improvement in cognitive 

anxiety (0.30; p>0.05), somatic anxiety (0.40; p>0.05), self confidence 

(-0.25; p>0.05), statistically not significant. 

Bar diagram showing that the pre teat and post test means of 

control group on competitive anxiety 

55


DISCUSSION ON FINDINGS 

The purpose of the present study was to examine if 

progressive muscle relaxation decreased competitive anxiety, and if 

so, which of the three sub-scales: cognitive anxiety, somatic anxiety, 

and self-confidence were most effected by the training. The only 

statistically significant effects found between the experimental 

group and the control group occurred on the cognitive anxiety, 

somatic anxiety and self confidence sub-scale of competitive 

anxiety. The competitive anxiety of the subjects was tested first 

producing no statistical significant effects between the 

experimental and control group. Although, previous research 

suggests that various relaxation training techniques, including 

progressive muscle relaxation, decrease full-scale competitive astate 

anxiety (Bethany & Forrest, 1998), the results of the present 

study did not confirm these observations. The Competitive State 

Anxiety Inventory (CSAI-2) (Martens, Vealey, & Burton, 1990) 

produced no statistical significance for the overall a-state anxiety 

levels between the relaxation training experimental group (group 1) 

and the no training control group (group 2). However, the mean 

scores of trait and state for group I exhibited a greater decrease 

from competitive anxiety. There are several reasons for the lack of 

statistical significance between the groups. Originally, the subject 

pool contained 24 subjects. Other limitations of the present study 

pertained to a restricted form of psychological skill training. 

The findings of this case are supported with the theoretical 

construct of Jacobson (1938). According to him Progressive muscle 

relaxing of various muscle groups although the exercise is a 

relaxation technique, we start with anxiety because most 

individuals find it easier to go from a tensed state to a relaxed state 

then they muscles. Progressing from a tensed state to relaxation 

also helps to develop the ability to recognize and differentiate the 

feelings of tension and relaxation in the muscles. Relaxation 

56


improves alertness and awareness in such a way that the 

performance will be maximized. In short, learning to hang loose in 

all situations is talking one giant step towards playing at 

consistently high levels at or near potential performance. 

CONCLUSION 

From the results of comparative effect among the 

progressive relaxation training, and control group on criterion 

variables, it was concluded that players belong to progressive 

relaxation training is performed better in cognitive anxiety, somatic 

anxiety and self confidence as compared to control group. 

REFERENCES 

1. Anshel, M., & Porter, A. (1996). Self-regulatory 

characteristics of competitive swimmers as a function of skill 

level and gender. Journal of Sport Behavior, 1 2), 91. 

2. Bethany, L., & Forrest, S. (1998). Effects of self-administered 

visuo-motor behavioral rehearsal on sport performance of 

collegiate athletes. Journal of Sport Behavior, 21(2), 206. 

3. Broucek, M., & Bartholomew, J. (1993). The effects of 

relaxation with a warning cue on pain and tolerance. - 

Journal of Sport Behavior, 16(4), 239. 

4. Fisher, C., & Zwart, E. (1982). Psychological analysis of 

athletes' anxiety responses. Journal of Sport Psychology, 4. 

139-158. 

5. Jacobson, E., (1938). Progressive relaxation. Chicago, IL: 

University of Chicago. 

6. Martens, Vealey, & Burton (1990). Competitive State Anxiety 

Inventory-2 (CSAI-2). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics 

Publishers. 

7. Onestak, D. (1991). The effects of progressive relaxation, 

mental practice and hypnosis on athletic performance: A 

review. Journal of SM Behavior, 1 4), 247. 

57

A PROTOCOL AND COMPARATIVE NORMS FOR THE 

IDENTIFICATION AND SELECTION OF TALENT AMONG 

ELITE AGE-GROUP RUGBY PLAYERS IN SOUTH AFRICA 

Dr. Pieter E. Krüger 1 , Conrad Booysen 2 , and Dr. Emanuel J. Spamer 3 

ABSTRACT 

In South Africa and around the world, sporting bodies concern 

themselves with the identification and development of potentially successful 

sports players. Rugby union is one of the most prominent sport types in which 

South Africa has achieved great success, both historically and currently. There 

have been a number of studies on talent identification in rugby and this study 

has attempted to further contribute to that body of knowledge. Therefore, the 

aim of this study was to develop reviewed and alternative sport and positionspecific 

testing protocols as well as comparative results for identification and 

selection in elite age-group rugby union. The sample group consisted of the 

2008 Blue Bulls Vodacom Cup and U/21 rugby squad (n=24), the 2008 South 

African U/21 rugby squad (n=26) and the 2008 TUKS Rugby Academy 

squad (n=22). These squads were divided into the positional groupings of tight 

forwards, loose forwards and backs. New and modified talent and ability tests 

were successfully established, e.g. 3 x 5 x 22 m anaerobic capacity test, the Stest 

(passing accuracy) and the kick for distance and accuracy test. These tests 

were modified from pre-existing tests that have long been the mainstay of talent 

identification in rugby union in South Africa and made up part of the broader 

modified protocol consisting of anthropometric, physical-motor and rugbyspecific 

skills. Furthermore, a sport-vision aspect to testing was also 

successfully incorporated. It can, therefore, be concluded that this study makes 

a meaningful contribution towards the identification and selection of those 

currently involved or capable of future success in elite age-group rugby union 

through the provision of a robust test protocol and comparative results that can 

serve as an alternative identification and selection tool. 

Key words: Rugby, sustainability, successful, identification, development, 

selection, anthropometric, physical-motor, rugby-specific, sport-vision 

1 Department of Biokinetics, Sport and Leisure Sciences, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa 

2 Department of Biokinetics, Sport and Leisure Sciences, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa 

3 School for Continuing Teachers' Education, North-West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa

A PROTOCOL AND COMPARATIVE NORMS FOR THE IDENTIFICATION 

INTRODUCTION 

While the true origins of rugby union remain unclear (Smith, 

2006), the first official international rugby match can be traced back 

to the game between Scotland and England in 1871 (Smith, 2006; 

Quarrie & Hopkins, 2007). Since this landmark match, rugby union 

has undergone change. From the player number reductions of 1875 

(Evert, 2006; Smith, 2006) to the law modifications of more recent 

years (Evert, 2006; Quarrie & Hopkins, 2007), rugby union is 

undoubtedly attempting to make the game more attractive to a 

larger target market (Evert, 2006). South Africa’s own entry to the 

international rugby arena occurred in 1891 in the series against the 

British tourists (Evert, 2006; Smit, 2007). From that time onwards, 

South Africa has been regarded as one of the strongest rugby 

playing nations in the world (Evert, 2006; Unknown Author, 2007) 

and is currently the reigning IRB rugby world champion. 

South Africa is understandably concerned with maintaining 

and sustaining this success, and has been for some time now, not 

just in rugby but most sports. As far back as the early 1990s and 

coinciding with South Africa’s readmission to world sport, the 

study of Du Randt (1992) provided ground-breaking findings and 

recommendations pertaining to talent identification and 

development in sport worldwide and made further 

recommendations for the unique South African context. 

Subsequent to this publication, the pioneering research of Pienaar 

and Spamer (1995) in Pienaar and Spamer (1998), Pienaar and 

Spamer (1996a, 1996b, 1998), Pienaar et al. (1998, 2000) and Hare 

(1999) in the same field of talent identification and development, 

but focused primarily on rugby union, has made valuable 

contributions to furthering the knowledge base and know-how 

needed to successfully pursue this goal of sustainability of success. 

These studies utilised a multivariate approach to talent 

identification. This approach was adopted, since successful 

participation in rugby requires sufficient ability in various 

59


components. Van Gent and Spamer (2005) list these components as 

being those of rugby-specific, anthropometric and physical-motor 

requirements. In the more recent studies of Spamer and Winsley 

(2003a; 2003b), Van Gent (2003), Van Gent and Spamer (2005), Plotz 

and Spamer (2006) and Spamer and De la Port (2006) on rugby union, 

the continued successful implementation of this approach is noted. 

With this background as guidance, the purpose of this study was to 

develop a measuring or analysis tool (with associated norms for 

future comparison) that can be implemented to both identify and 

select those age-group players who possess current ability or the 

potential to be promoted to higher honours. Another purpose was to 

make this tool as sport- and position-specific as possible. 

METHODOLOGY 

Following an exhaustive literature review in conjunction 

with an interviewing process incorporating successful national and 

international level coaches and conditioning experts, a protocol was 

developed for the purposes of testing. The sample group consisted 

of the 2008 Blue Bulls Vodacom Cup and U/21 rugby squad (n=24), 

the 2008 South African U/21 rugby squad (n=26), and the 2008 

TUKS Rugby Academy squad (n=22). The ages of the players 

ranged between 18 and 25 years old. 

These player squads were divided into the positional groupings of 

tight forwards, loose forwards and backs. The precedent for this division of 

playing positions was created by Van Gent (2003) and Van Gent and 

Spamer (2005) who initially assigned the players to the positions of tight 

forwards (props, hookers, locks), loose forwards (flankers and eighth men), 

halves (scrum-halves and fly-halves) and backline players (centres, wings 

and fullbacks). For this present study the decision was made to preserve the 

tight and loose forward groupings as in the previous studies, but to 

incorporate the halves and backline players into one global grouping as 

noted earlier. The primary reason for this was the elite nature, and therefore 

the associated scarcity, of the sample group. This necessitated maintaining 

larger groupings for more meaningful norms and scores. 

60


The final testing protocol consisted of the following: 

(i) Anthropometric measurements that included: 1) body 

mass and body height/stature (Norton et al., 1996; Van 

Gent, 2003) and 2) body fat percentage utilising the foursite 

system of skinfold measurement (Durnin & 

Womersley, 1974; Hazeldine & McNab, 1991). 

(ii) Physical-motor measurements that incorporated 1) vertical 

jump (Harman et al., 2000); 2) 10/40 m dash (Hazeldine & 

McNab, 1991); 3) T-test (Harman et al., 2000) and 4) the 3 x 

5 x 22 m anaerobic capacity test (self-devised and modified 

from the 10 x 22 m shuttle run test of Krüger et al., 2001). 

(iii) Rugby-specific, self-devised tests consisting of 1) the S-test 

(self-devised and modified from the (a) pass for accuracy 

over 4 m and (b) the catching while moving forward tests of 

Pienaar and Spamer (1995) in Pienaar and Spamer, 1998) 

and 2) the combination kick for distance and accuracy test 

(self-devised and modified from the kick for distance test of 

Pienaar and Spamer (1995) in Pienaar and Spamer, 1998). 

(iv) Finally, sport-vision tests consisting of 1) the 

Accuvision1000 30 accurate lights in total time test (Venter 

& Maré, 2005; Du Toit et al., 2006). 

Descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation, minimum 

and maximum scores for each measurement per group) were 

determined for the group. Inferential statistical analysis (Kruskal- 

Wallis one-way analysis of variance) was also performed on the 

data, where possible. 

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 

The results of each component are firstly presented in table 

form, followed by a brief discussion of these tabulated findings. 

A. Anthropometric component 

From the results of table 1 the following can be said: 

61


There were statistically significant differences (p


B. Physical-motor component 

From tables 2 and 3, the results can be interpreted as follows: 

Although the tight forwards presented with higher scores on 

the vertical jump measure (cm) than the other two positions, the 

differences found between these positions were not statistically 

significant. As a possible interpretation of this finding, it could 

perhaps be surmised that the tight forwards need greater amounts 

of power and strength in the tight phases (scrums) or even line-outs 

than do the other positions. 

For the 10 m dash (sec) scores (lowest score) a statistically 

significant difference (p


Table-2 

Descriptive statistics per group on physical-motor variables (best effort) 

Grouped Positions n Mean 

Std 

Dev 

Tight forwards Vertical jump difference between 

reach distance and best attempt (cm) 21 53.71 7.02 

Valid n (listwise) 21 

Loose forwards Vertical jump difference between 



Backs Vertical jump difference between 



Tight forwards 10 m dash sec 

lowest score (sec) 

40 m dash sec 

21 2.161 0.177 


21 5.944 0.358 

T-test lowest score (sec) 21 11.437 0.890 


Loose forwards 10 m dash sec 


40 m dash sec 

27 2.012 0.196 


27 5.586 0.353 



Backs 10 m dash sec 


40 m dash sec 

30 2.006 0.173 


30 5.542 0.320 



In the 3 x 5 x 22 m anaerobic capacity test, no statistically 

significant differences were found between the scores of the three 

positional groupings for the first anaerobic capacity attempt. For 

the second and last attempts, significant differences (p


and third attempts were significantly higher than those of the other 

two positions. While the anaerobic capacity of the loose forwards 

and backs remained fairly stable over all three measurements, in 

this measure it is the loose forwards who outperformed the backs. 

A possible explanation for the superiority of the loose forwards in 

anaerobic capacity could be the relative workload that they 

produce to get through the game and to fulfil their game-based 

tasks successfully. 

Table-3 

Descriptive statistics per group on 3 x 5 x 22 m anaerobic capacity test 

Grouped 

Positions 

n Mean Std Dev 

Tight forwards 5 x 22 m set 1 (sec) 21 22.119 0.914 

5 x 22 m set 2 (sec) 21 23.869 1.499 

5 x 22 m set 3 (sec) 21 24.459 1.953 


Loose forwards 5 x 22 m set 1 (sec) 27 21.533 1.015 

5 x 22 m set 2 (sec) 27 22.448 1.226 

5 x 22 m set 3 (sec) 27 22.543 1.305 


Backs 5 x 22 m set 1 (sec) 30 21.744 1.259 

5 x 22 m set 2 (sec) 30 22.837 1.699 

5 x 22 m set 3 (sec) 30 22.826 1.450 


C. Sport-vision component 

Table 4 presents the results of the Accuvision1000 30 

accurate lights in total time test (sec). Here, no statistically 

significant differences between positions were found. The loose 

forwards scored the best times (shorter time) in this measure, 

followed by the backs, with the tight forwards coming last. 

65


Table-4 

Descriptive statistics per group on Accuvision1000 30 accurate 

lights in total time test 

Grouped Positions n Mean 

66 

Std Dev 

Tight forwards 30 lights test (sec) 21 24.333 3.331 


Loose forwards 30 lights test (sec) 27 21.778 3.474 


Backs 30 lights test (sec) 30 22.778 4.387 


D. Rugby-specific skill component 

1. S-test 

This test was self-devised and modified by Pienaar and 

Spamer (1998) from the pass for accuracy over 4 m and the catching 

while moving forward tests from Pienaar and Spamer (1995). The 

final version of this test includes two main aspects for successful 

completion, namely accuracy and time taken to complete the test. 

Therefore, a combined score was determined to get a total score for 

the S-test. This was necessitated by two main drivers: 

a. Some test participants could score 0 points (each accurate 

pass = 5 points – there are two passes, one left and one right) 

but take less time to complete the test course. By only 

considering the time taken to complete the test, the overall 

impression of a test participant’s relative or actual 

performance could possibly be inaccurate. A possible 

scenario is that 0 points can be scored in a shorter period of 

time as opposed to 10 points over a longer time frame.


b. In this measure, a higher passing score is associated with 

better performance, but since there is also a time factor 

involved in this test, as mentioned before, possible 

discrepancies could arise as to the true reflection of the 

scores obtained in this test. 

To address this potential problem the following solution was 

devised: 

The mean score in terms of time taken to complete the test 

was used to categorise performance into two groups. The first 

category or group 1 consisted of those participants who completed 

the test course in equal or less time than the average time (sec) 

taken by that specific grouped position. 2 “multiplier” points were 

assigned to these participants. The second category or group 2 

consisted of those subjects who took longer than the average time 

(sec) to complete the test course for that specific grouped position. 

These participants were assigned only 1 “multiplier” point. A total 

and final score for this S-test was then calculated by multiplying 

the points scored for passing accuracy (best attempt) (this could be 

0, 5 or 10 points) by the “multiplier” points (1 or 2) that the 

participant received for task performance relative to the mean time, 

per positional grouping. Therefore, this final score for the S-test 

was a computed score that took into account both the time taken to 

perform this task as well as the accuracy of the subject in 

completing it. 

Following the presentation of the tabulated scores in tables 5 

to 8, a discussion of the results, along with a full explanation of the 

scoring system and associated implications for this test per 

position, is provided. 

67


Table-5 

Mean scores on recoded time taken to complete the S-test per 

positional grouping 

Grouped Positions S-test 1 (Sec) S-test 2 (Sec) 

Tight forwards n Valid 21 

Mean 7.630 7.604 

Median 7.585 7.630 

Mode 6.91(a) 7.66 

Loose forwards n Valid 27 

Mean 7.299 7.002 

Median 7.230 6.980 

Mode 6.27(a) 5.65(a) 

Backs n Valid 30 

Mean 7.709 7.339 

Median 7.680 7.395 

Mode 6.68(a) 7.50 

(a) Multiple modes exist. The smallest value is shown. 

Table-6 

Frequencies for tight forwards’ best attempt on 

S-test computed total 

Score 

Obtained 

Frequency Per Cent Valid Per 

Cent 

68 

Cumulative 

Per Cent 

Valid .00 3 13.3 14.3 14.3 

5.00 6 26.7 28.6 42.9 

10.00 9 46.7 50.0 92.9 

20.00 3 6.7 7.1 100.0 

Total 21 93.3 100.0 

Total 15 100.0


Table-7 

Frequencies for loose forwards’ best attempt on 

S-test computed total 

Score 

Obtained 

Frequency Per Cent 

Valid Per 

Cent 

Cumulative 

Per Cent 

Valid 0.00 2 5.6 5.9 5.9 

5.00 4 11.1 11.8 17.6 

10.00 15 55.6 58.8 76.5 

20.00 6 22.2 23.5 100.0 

Total 27 94.4 100.0 

Total 18 100.0 

Table-8 

Frequencies for backs’ best attempt on S-test computed total 

Score 

Obtained 

Frequency Per Cent 

Valid Per 

Cent 

Cumulative 

Per Cent 

Valid 0.00 2 5.3 5.6 5.6 

5.00 2 5.3 5.6 11.1 

10.00 18 57.9 61.1 72.2 

20.00 8 26.3 27.8 100.0 

Total 30 94.7 100.0 

Total 19 100.0 

For the purposes of a more linear results discussion for this 

specific test, the implications of the scoring system are evaluated in 

conjunction with the interpretation of the results contained in tables 

6 to 8. 

0 score 

The subject is inaccurate with all their passes, no matter the 

time taken to complete the course and this is a poor reflection of the 

subject’s ball-passing ability. 14.3% of the tight forwards, 5.9% of 

the loose forwards and 5.6% of the backs achieved this score. 

69


5 score 

Obtaining 5 computed points implies that the subject 

completes one accurate pass only, in a time greater than the course 

mean time, once again reflecting badly on the subject’s passing 

ability at speed or under pressure. 28.6% of the tight forwards, 11.8% 

of the loose forwards and 5.6% of the backs obtained this score. 

10 score 

The computed score of 10 points can be interpreted in two ways: 

The first possible interpretation is that while the passing 

accuracy of a participant in this category may be high (10 points = 2 

accurate passes, 1 left and 1 right), the overall time taken to 

complete the test is more than the mean time for the specific 

positional grouping. This would therefore earn them 1 multiplier 

point and therefore a computed score of 10. The second 

interpretation is that the participant is less accurate in their passing 

(5 points = 1 accurate pass), but that the time taken to complete the 

test is less than the mean time for the specific positional grouping. 

This would, however, earn the participant 2 multiplier points, thus 

also arriving at a computed score of 10. By far the largest majority 

of all the positional groupings fell into this category, with 50% of 

the tight forwards, 58.8% of the loose forwards and 61.1% of the 

backs achieving this score. 

20 score 

A participant who achieves a computed score of 20 is highly 

skilled and able to accurately pass to both sides at speed and under 

pressure (10 points = 2 accurate passes, 1 left and 1 right). This 

implies that they manage to complete the course in less time than 

the mean, earning them 2 multiplier points and thus taking the 

computed total to 20 points. This is by far the ideal score to achieve 

for this test. 7.1% of the tight forwards, 23.5% of the loose forwards 

and 27.8% of the backs achieved this score. 

70


While a computed total S-test score of 20 would be the ideal, 

from the results presented in tables 9 to 12, a more realistic 

computed total S-test score of 10 can be used as the differentiating 

score between good and poor performances. It can be observed that 

higher numbers of backs achieved scores of 10 (61.1%) and 20 

(27.8%) as opposed to both loose forwards (55.6% and 22.2%) and 

tight forwards (46.7% and 6.75), showing that the backs and loose 

forwards display better handling skills than the tight forwards. 

2. Kick for distance and accuracy 

This test is self-devised and modified from the kick for 

distance test of Pienaar and Spamer (1995) in Pienaar and Spamer 

(1998). The results obtained in this test are presented in table 9. As 

it currently stands, this test can be used to some extent to get an 

idea of performance, but on the whole the benefit derived from the 

inclusion of this test in a testing protocol is that it simultaneously 

stresses the requirements for both distance achievement and 

accuracy. The standard deviations are rather high with this test, 

showing that the best attempts varied quite greatly. Further 

consistent testing and establishment of scores for comparison will 

rectify the cautionary issues pertaining to sample or base size 

sufficiently. Only the backs and loose forwards performed this test. 

Table 9: Descriptive statistics for kick for distance and accuracy 

Test n Minimum Maximum Mean 

Kick for distance and accuracy 

(best attempt left) (m) 

Kick for distance and accuracy 

(best attempt right) (m) 

57 

57 

71 

20.00 

25.10 

50.00 

47.50 

32.65 

39.76 

Std 

Dev 

8.00 

6.24


CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 

From the preceding results and discussion, it can be 

concluded that this study adds to the burgeoning body of 

knowledge as it pertains to talent identification in rugby union in 

South Africa. Furthermore, from the unique sample group used, 

the conclusion can be made that not only does this study lend itself 

to the sport and position-specific identification of those individuals 

who currently hold promise or participate at lower playing levels 

who have not yet been “discovered”, but can also be used to select 

those players who are currently “knocking on the door” to higher 

honours. The future sustainability of the success attained thus far 

should remain a top priority for all sporting bodies concerned with 

this sport. 

In keeping with these sentiments, broader and more specific 

recommendations are that talent identification in rugby union in 

South Africa should continue unabated and as is. But, while the 

specific components (anthropometric, physical-motor, sport skill) 

used in this study and other rugby-based studies (Pienaar & 

Spamer, 1995 in Pienaar & Spamer, 1998; Pienaar & Spamer, 1996a, 

1996b, 1998; Pienaar et al., 1998, 2000; Hare, 1999; Spamer & 

Winsley, 2003a, 2003b; Van Gent, 2003; Van Gent & Spamer, 2005; 

Plotz & Spamer, 2006; Spamer & De la Port, 2006) are certainly 

valid, and robustly so, further investigation into other aspects of 

performance is essential. In trying to achieve just that ideal, this 

specific study included sport-vision testing and this is certainly 

unique to rugby union-based talent identification studies. Related 

to this, the testing protocol of this study can be used quite 

effectively on its own or even in conjunction with other testing 

protocols, and this serves as a recommendation in this regard. 

By adopting a broader view, it is apparent in literature that 

there is now a greater tendency or bias toward talent development 

72


as opposed to the traditional talent identification approaches that 

are receiving ever-increasing criticism (Vaeyens et al., 2008). In fact 

Vaeyens et al. (2008), who in making their case make note of those 

that voice this sentiment (Morris, 2000; Abbott & Collins, 2002, 

2004; Martindale et al., 2005), then go on to say that these studies 

also make the call for larger groups of young individuals to be 

afforded the chance to undergo proper development. As a result, 

there are some who recommend that talent identification or testing 

be assigned a monitoring role (Abbott & Collins, 2004) or that 

testing be utilised to find existing shortcomings for subsequent 

correction through individualised training initiatives (Vaeyens et 

al., 2008). If sustained success is to be achieved in rugby in South 

Africa, the role players in the sport would do well to follow suit 

with regard to the broad-based developmental considerations of 

the sport. This is happening to some extent. It is the perspective of 

this study, though, that while the sentiment regarding talent 

development is certainly most valid, the specific function of talent 

identification is important and contributes to the overall 

development process, and that as Vaeyens et al. (2008) conclude, 

these two processes can and must be combined. 

Last, but certainly not least, one of the most pertinent 

recommendations for future research is the adoption of a more 

multidimensional approach to talent identification. Vaeyens et al. 

(2008) do say that studies can be found where this is in fact 

happening. Adopting a multidimensional approach can be 

achieved by incorporating measures that address the psychological 

aspects of performance. This is true for all sports types. Some 

South African studies, such as Hare (1999) on rugby union and 

Nieuwenhuis et al. (2002) on hockey, have in fact quite successfully 

incorporated psychological measures in their testing protocols, and 

with good reason. Furthermore, such is the importance of aspects 

such as perceptual-cognitive ability on sporting performance that 

73


there are studies (Williams & Reilly, 2000; Williams & Ward, 2007; 

Vaeyens et al., 2008) that propose that these perceptual-cognitive 

aspects, along with technical aspects, can better distinguish 

between skilled sport participants and their less skilled 

counterparts as they advance in their sport than some of the 

components (such as physiology and anthropometry) used in this 

study and others mentioned prior. This certainly provides food for 

thought for the future. This notwithstanding, the inclusion of tests 

aimed at the psychological (and if possible perceptual-cognitive) 

aspects of performance in future testing protocols is imperative, 

both in rugby union and other sports. 

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78

LEADERSHIP BEHAVIOR AMONG ELITE MALE 

AND FEMALE GYMNASTS OF INDIA 

ABSTRACT 

Dr. Raj kumar Sharma 1 

The study was conducted on thirty five international gymnasts 

(nineteen males and sixteen females) who had represented the country in 

various International Gymnastics Championships during 2004-2008. The 

average age of males and females was 20.79 and 19.69. To collect data 

from the subjects, the Leadership Scale for Sport was used to measure the 

preferred and perceived leader behavior of male and female gymnasts on 

five dimensions of leader behaviour. The analysis of data revealed that: 

1.Male and female gymnasts of International level expressed similar 

preferences on the set of five leader behaviour dimensions. 2. The actual 

leader behavior of international male gymnasts toward to coaches was found 

greater in democratic behavior (DB), social support (SS) positive feedback 

(PF) and autocratic behaviour (AB) than females. It indicated that most 

male gymnasts need more skill training and instructions. They all thinks 

that coaches should give more Training & Instruction Behavior (TI). 

Because the way of improve gymnastics skills is very complicated and 

need to be strengthened. 3. There was no discrepancy between 

preferred and perceived leader behaviour of international male 

gymnasts on five leader behaviour dimensions. Differences were 

found among international level female gymnasts between specific 

coaching behaviour and actual leader behaviour in social support (SS) 

and autocratic behaviour (AB). 

Key words: Preferred, Perceived, Actual leader behaviour, 

Discrepancy, Specific coaching behaviour. 

1 Senior Gymnastic Coach, Sports Authority of India, State Gymnastics Training Centre, Bilaspur (C.G.), India

LEADERSHIP BEHAVIOR AMONG ELITE MALE AND FEMALE 

INTRODUCTION 

Leadership is the attempt to influence the behavior of an 

individual or group. Why is leadership so important? (Heresy & 

Blanchard, 1982) a) According to Fiedler and Chemers (1974), 

"effective leaders’ impact their organizations, and organizations 

without effective leadership are in trouble" ((Heresy & Blanchard, 

1982) b) Almost every facet of society has demanded excellence, 

constantly striving to achieve more. Effective leadership is needed 

to generate profit, improve skills, and increase productivity in 

business, education, industry, and sport. Effective leaders have 

been crucial as they met the needs of their followers and propelled 

them to greater success. 

A leader is an important director in an organization. The 

task for him (her) focuses on how to make employees contributing 

their knowledge and wisdom in the job. It is the same for a leader 

in a sport team. In the highly competitive athletic field, a leader 

needs to complete successful training schedules, and providing 

athletes competing skills in order to target the training objects. 

Furthermore, in order to handle a team, a leader also needs to train 

the EQ (Emotional Intelligence) management since a leader can be a 

friend, a consultant, a manager, a psychologist, and a funds 

collector of athletes. Sometimes, it also can influence athletes' 

behavior and be a model for imitating. Chen (1995) indicated the 

behavior, attitude and value standard of a leader can influence 

athletes' imitating behavior (Chi-Fu Cheng, 1997; Coste, Salmela & 

Russell, 1995). The reason that a coach can influence athletes is the 

job of coach is much more diversify, he (she) needs to react quickly 

when they face different problems come across to him /her (Hoai- 

Chi Yuen, 1997). Generally speaking, coaches’ training and teaching 

method both can influence the emotion management of athletes 

(Chi-Chung Chen, 1998). 

80


According to the past report, it indicated that a coach should 

be demanding, well organized, behaves well and highly achieved 

in the sport field (Ogilvie & Tutko, 1966, Sage, 1973). Further, 

historian named a coach as a new professional manager because 

they think the skills improvement from athlete came from the 

contribution of a coach. The research of coach leadership we called 

multidimensional model in India, now is adapted widely for 

finding out the interaction in a coach, an athlete and situation. As to 

the leadership of coaches, it related to the achievement and 

personality of an athlete. Moreover, leadership for athletes in 

different levels and sex has interaction. Comparing with male 

athletes, female athletes pay more attention to social support. 

Meanwhile, athletes who attend touchable sport training prefer 

democratic behavior than athletes who attend non-touchable sport 

training. Thus, coaches need to devote into how to create harmony 

feedback, and strengthen the psycho- physical force. 

In order to measure leader behavior, several researchers 

(Chelladurai & Saleh, 1978, 1980; Fleishman, 1957; Halpin & Viner, 

1957; Hemphill & Coons, 1957; Zhang, 1993) have attempted to 

develop instruments to measure this behavior. These instruments 

have been used to examine leader behaviors in the military, 

industry, education, organizations, and athletics. One of the first of 

such instruments was developed at the Ohio State University by 

Chelladurai and Saleh (1978 and 1980) to measure leader behaviors 

specifically in athletics... Five factors of the 40 items were identified 

to measure coach leadership behaviors. The five factors were: 

Training and Instruction Behavior (TI), Autocratic Behavior (AB), 

Democratic Behavior (DB), Social Support Behavior (SS), and 

Positive Feedback Behavior (PF). 

Lee and Lee (1993) found that Korean athletes involved in 

individual sports, combative sports, and team sports differed 

among themselves in all dimensions except in preferred training 

81


and instruction. Individual sports athletes preferred and 

perceived more democratic behaviour from their coaches than did 

the other two groups. 

Chelladurai and Saleh (1978) found that the congruence 

between preferred and actual behaviours in the autocratic 

behaviour and positive feedback dimensions effected satisfaction 

with the coach in a curvilinear manner (i.e. member were less 

satisfied when the actual behaviour deviated from preferred 

behaviour in either direction). Also, members were more satisfied 

with the coaches when his or her training and instruction 

behaviour exceeded their preferences. 

Schliesman (1987) found that perceived democratic behaviour 

and social support were positively related to general satisfaction 

with leadership. Also the discrepancy scores in training and 

instruction. Social support and positive feedback were significantly 

related to satisfaction with the three leader behaviours respectively. 

Sharma (1989) found that there were no differences between 

the preferences for specific leadership behaviour of swimmers and 

actual behaviour of coaches on the following aspects of leadership 

i.e. appreciation, independent plan, uniform training, spot 

appreciation, free communications, goal setting, personal favours, 

self correction of mistakes, self evaluation and due credit. The 

significant differences between the preferences for specific 

leadership behavior of swimmers and actual behavior of the coaches 

on the leadership variables like knowledge about skills, teaching of 

skills, finding out and corrections of mistakes, length and 

frequencies of training, knowledge of strategies and tactics and the 

procedures of implementation of these strategies at specific 

movements of competition. 

Sherman and Fuller (2000) investigated the preferred coaching 

behaviors of athletes from three distinct Australian sporting contexts. 

The coaching preferences of 317 athletes Results revealed an 

82


overwhelmingly high level of similarity in the coaching preferences 

between all athletes regardless of gender. Athletes from all three 

sports indicated that positive feedback, training and instruction and 

democratic behavior were preferred coaching behaviors. Social 

support, and autocratic behavior were not preferred. 

Lam (2007) indicated that female basketball players 

preferred a higher degree of (a) democratic behavior, (b) social 

support, (c) positive feedback, (d) situational consideration, and (e) 

teaching and instruction but a lower degree of autocratic behavior 

than what they perceived from their coaches. Male basketball 

players preferred a higher degree of (a) social support, (b) 

situational consideration, and (c) teaching and instruction than 

what they perceived from their coaches. 

Generally speaking, the leadership of coaches related to the 

performance of the games & athletes, training programmers, 

performance of the whole group…etc. Recently, the research 

focuses on the highly goals achieved coaches and athletes. 

However, the research related to the quantity seems not enough. 

How to clarify the relationship between coaches and athletes, 

shorten the expectation of athletes and the difference between the 

ideal and real leadership of coaches motivated me involving in 

doing the research. 

There has been much research done on comparing male and 

female athlete preferences and perceptions on coaching leadership 

behaviors. Few researchers have attempted to examine preferences 

and perceptions of Gymnasts for specific leadership behaviors of 

coach and actual leadership behaviors of Gymnasts. Hence keeping 

the above facts in mind, this study attempted to examine the 

differences of male and female gymnasts preferences and perceptions 

of coach leadership behaviors as measured by the LSS and whether 

their achievement level, level of performance or training has some 

influence on preferred and perceived leadership behaviour 

83


METHODS 

PARTICIPANTS 

The subjects of the study were 35 male and females 

gymnasts, who had represented the country in various 

International Gymnastics Championships. The athletes consisted of 

19 male gymnasts and 16 female gymnasts. Coaches of the selected 

gymnasts in senior national championship were contacted to obtain 

permission to meet the athletes, inform them of the nature of the 

study and invite them to participate this study. Players filled LSS 

to determine their preference and perception of leadership 

behaviors of their coaches. The mean age of males and females was 

20.79±2.31 and 19.69 ±2.79 respectively 

INSTRUMENTS 

To collect data from subjects, Leadership Behavior preferred 

and perceived versions of Chelladurai, (1994). Leadership Scale for 

Sport (LSS) was used to assess the leader behaviors of Indian male 

and female gymnasts of international level. These 40-item scales 

measure 5 dimensions of leadership behavior: training and 

instruction behavior (13 items), democratic behavior (9 items), 

autocratic behavior (5 items), social support behavior (8 items), and 

positive feedback behavior (5 items) through both a preference (“I 

prefer my coach to...”) and a perceived version (“my coach to...”) 

version. The items are assigned a score between 1 and 5 (1= never, 

5 = always). 

Chelladurai and Saleh (1980) reported the internal 

consistency ranged from .45 (autocratic behavior) to .83 (training 

and instruction) in preferred version and from .79 (autocratic 

behavior) to .93 (training and instruction) in perceived version 

Internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha, 1951) of the LSS for the 

current study ranged from .65(autocratic behavior) to .91 (training 

and instruction) for the preference version, and .74(autocratic 

behavior) to .88 (social support). 

84


PROCEDURE 

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the 

differences between the international male and female gymnasts in 

preferred and perceived leadership. The discrepancy between 

the male and female international gymnasts in preferred and 

perceived leadership was also investigated. . All subjects filled out 

an informed consent form before answering any of the items on the 

questionnaire. The instructions for the LSS were thoroughly 

explained and each subject was informed that the information 

gathered from the study would be anonymous. The coaches and 

subjects were contacted personally at the site of championships. 

Respondents were called to a common place, when they were not 

busy and had enough time to spare for testing. Necessary 

instructions were given to the subjects before the 

administration of each test. No time limit was set for 

completion of the questionnaires, once the instructions clearly 

understood by them; preference version and perceived version 

questionnaire were given one after another with a short interval 

to the gymnasts. The completed questionnaires were collected 

from the gymnasts and it was verified that no questionnaire was 

left without being answered. 

RESULTS 

To find out the significance of differences among 

International level male and female gymnasts along with five 

dimensions of leader behaviour of preferred and perceived 

leadership, means, standard deviations, and t-ratios were 

computed. Level of significance was set at.05 level. The results 

of the study are presented in Table 1 and 4. 

Finding of the descriptive data of male and female 

gymnasts of international level on the set of five dimensions of 

preferred and perceived leadership indicated that male gymnasts 

preferred more on training and instruction (M =4.432±0.374) 

85


followed by positive feedback (M=4.105±0..571), social supports 

(M=3.946±0.799), democratic behaviour (M=3.805±0.598), and 

autocratic behavior (M=3.389±0.796) from their coaches. The actual 

leader behavior of male gymnasts of international level, they also 

perceived more on training and instruction (M=4.433±0.414) 

followed by positive feedback (M=4.205±0.552), social supports 

(M=4.007±0.544), democratic behaviour (M=3.811±0.574), and 

autocratic behavior (M=3.316±0.743) from their coaches. In case of 

female gymnasts of international level on the set of five 

dimensions of preferred and perceived leadership indicated that 

female gymnasts preferred more on training and instruction 

(M=4.216±0.557) followed by social supports (M=3.970±0.564), 

positive feedback (M=3.962±0.633), democratic behaviour 

(M=3.499±0.576), and autocratic behaviour (M=3.075±0.903) from 

their coaches . The actual leader behavior of female gymnasts of 

international level, they also perceived more on training and 

instruction (M=4.062±0.714) followed by positive feedback 

(M=3.625±0.521), social supports (M=3.367±0.374), democratic 

behaviour (M=3.264±0.668), and autocratic behaviour 

(M=2.600±0.566) from their coaches; see Table-1 (P-93). 

To find out the significance of difference between means of 

preferences on leader behaviour dimensions of male and female 

gymnasts; see Figure1), t-ratio was computed. International level 

male and female gymnasts did not differ significantly on any of the 

dimensions of leader behaviour, as the t-ratio for training and 

instruction (1.32), democratic behaviour (1.54), autocratic behaviour 

(1.08), social supports (0.019), and positive feedback (0.698) were 

less than the required t –value to be significant; see Table-2, (P-95). 

To find out the significance of difference between means of 

perceptions on leader behaviour dimensions of male and female 

gymnasts; see Figure-2, pp.95, t-ratio was computed. International 

level male and female gymnasts had significantly different 

86


perceptions on democratic behaviour (2.57), autocratic 

behaviour (3.23), social supports (3.56), and positive feedback 

(3.19) with male gymnasts perceiving higher amount of 

behaviour from their coaches in these dimensions. The 

difference in perceived training and instruction (1.33) was not 

statistically significant; see Table-3. 

The analysis of data revealed there were significant 

differences in preferred and perceived autocratic behaviour 

(2.10), and social supports (3.14) dimensions of international 

level female gymnasts. In case of international level male 

gymnasts, obtained t-ratios for the training and instruction 

(0.773), democratic behaviour (0.032) and autocratic behaviour 

(0.292)), social supports (0.276), and positive feedback (0.549) 

dimensions of leader behaviour were not significant. In case of 

international level female gymnasts, obtained t-ratios for the 

training and instruction (0.672), democratic behaviour (1.08) and 

positive feedback (1.652) dimensions of leader behaviour were 

not also significant; see Table 4 (P-93). 

DISCUSSION 

To see whether male and female gymnasts at each 

level taken independently, have different preferences on leader 

behavior dimensions; it was found that International male and 

female gymnasts on set-of five dimensions of leader behavior 

produced insignificant university analysis of variance. This 

similarity of preferences at top level of competition may be 

attributed to the possible similarity of attitude, style and 

competitive orientation of male and female gymnasts at 

international level. 

When the International male and female gymnasts were 

compared together on dimensions of leader behavior, they had 

significant differences in all the dimensions, except training and 

87


instruction. Which may be due to variations in practice methods, 

coaching style, interpersonal relationship and reinforcement? It 

showed that International male gymnasts perceived their coaches 

more in democratic behavior, autocratic behavior, social support and 

positive feedback in comparison of International female gymnasts, 

equally perceived their coaches in training and instruction. 

When male and female gymnasts of three different levels 

were compared on preferred and perceived leadership, it 

revealed that there was no discrepancy between preferred 

behavior and perceived (actual) behavior of international male 

gymnasts on five dimensions of leader behavior. Significant 

differences between preferences and perceptions were 

observed on social support and autocratic 

Behavior dimensions of leader behavior among 

International female gymnasts, means, they preferred more 

concerned for their welfare group atmosphere, warm interpersonal 

relationship along with independent decision making and control 

on training from their coaches. This was partially supported by 

Sherpa and Horne and Carron. 

CONCLUSIONS 

1. Male and female gymnasts of International level expressed 

similar preferences on the set of five leader behavior dimensions. 

2 International male gymnasts perceived more democratic behavior, 

social support, feedback and autocratic behavior than their 

female counter parts. 

3 There was no discrepancy between preferred and perceived leader 

behavior of International male gymnasts on five leader behavior 

dimensions, whereas International level female gymnasts 

expressed differences between their preference sand perceptions 

on social support and autocratic behavior. 

88


RECOMMENDATIONS 

Based on the results of this study, It is recommended that 

future studies: 

1. Examine athlete experience of different coaches and athlete 

preferences to determine if there is a correlation between athlete 

experience and coaching behavior preferences. 

2. Examine athlete preferences in comparison to athlete 

satisfaction and performance. 

3. Apply the LSS to different sports and competition levels to 

expand the research on coaching leadership behaviors. 

4. The research is mainly focuses on the domestic athletes, so, the 

further research can consider about comparing with 

international athletes. 

5. The research only adapted factor-analysis method. It can adapt 

more analysis like result-analysis according to coaches’ 

personality and understand the difference of athletes’ feeling 

and body energy. It can be looked as important direction for the 

further research. 

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91


Table 1 

Descriptive Statistics of Preferences and Perception on Five Dimensions 

of Gymnasts of Male and Female Indian Gymnasts of International Level 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 

Leader Behaviour Preferences Perceptions 

Male Female Male Female 

N=19) (N=16) (N=19) (N=16) 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 

Training & Instruction M 4.432 4.216 4.433 4.062 

SD 0.374 0.557 0.414 0.714 

Democratic Behaviour M 3.805 3.499 3.811 3.264 

SD 0.598 0.576 0.574 0.668 

Autocratic Behaviour M 3.389 3.075 3.316 2.600 

SD 0.796 0.903 0.743 0.566 

Social Supports M 3.946 3.970 3.316 3.367 

SD 0.799 0.564 0.544 0.512 

Positive Feedback M 4.105 3.962 4.205 3.625 

SD 0.571 0.633 0.552 0.521 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 

Table 2 

Significance of Difference between Mean Scores of Male and Female 

Gymnasts on Leader Behaviour Dimensions of Preferred Leadership 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 

Leader Behaviour Sex Mean MD 

92 

G DM t-ratio 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 

Training & Instruction Male 4.432 0.086 

0.215 1.32 

Female 4.216 0.139 

Democratic Behaviour Male 3.805 0.137 

0.306 1.54 

Female 3.499 0.144 

Autocratic Behaviour Male 3.389 0.183 

0.314 1.08 

Female 3.075 0.226


Social Supports Male 3.946 0.183 

0.006 0.02 

Female 3.970 0.141 

Positive Feedback Male 4.105 0.131 

0.143 0.78 

Female 3.962 0.158 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 

Insignificant at .05 level, t.05 (33) = 2.03 

Table 3 


Gymnasts on Leader Behaviour Dimensions of Perceived Leadership 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 


93 

G DM t-ratio 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 

Training & Instruction Male 4.333 0.095 

0.271 1.33 

Female 4.062 0.179 

Democratic Behaviour Male 3.811 0.132 

0.547 2.57* 

Female 3.264 0.167 

Autocratic Behaviour Male 3.316 0.171 

0.716 3.23* 

Female 2.600 0.141 

Social Supports Male 4.007 0.125 

0.640 3.56* 

Female 3.367 0.130 

Positive Feedback Male 4.205 0.127 

0.584 3.19* 

Female 3.625 0.130 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 

Significant at .05 level, t.05 (33) = 2.03


Table 4 


Gymnasts on Leader Behaviour Dimensions of Preferred and Perceived 

Leadership 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 


94 

G DM t-ratio 

Preference Perception 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 

Training & Instruction Male 4.432 4.333 0.099 0.128 0.773 

Female 4.216 4.062 0.154 0.229 0.672 

Democratic Behaviour Male 3.805 3.811 0.006 0.190 0.032 

Female 3.499 3.264 0.237 0.220 1.080 

Autocratic Behaviour Male 3.389 3.316 0.250 0.250 0.292 

Female 3.075 2.600 0.266 0.266 2.100* 

Social Supports Male 3.946 4.007 0.221 0.221 0.276 

Female 3.970 3.367 0.192 0.192 3.140* 

Positive Feedback Male 4.105 4.205 0.182 0.182 0.546 

Female 3.962 3.625 0.204 0.204 1.652 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 

Significant at .05 level, t.05 (30) = 2.04


Mean Scores 

Mean Scores 

5 

4 

3 

2 

1 

0 

5 

4 

3 

2 

1 

0 

Figure 1. Mean scores of international male 

and female gymnasts on five dimensions of 

leader behaviourof preferred leadership 

Male Female 

TI DB AB SS PF 

Figure 2. Mean scores of international male 

and female gymnasts on five dimensions of 

leader behaviourof perceived leadership 

Male Female 

TI DB AB SS PF 

95

CHILDREN’S PERCEPTION OF PHYSICAL 

EDUCATION AND SCHOOL SPORT IN SWAZILAND 

ABSTRACT 

O.M. Toriola 1 

Children’s perception of physical education and school sport 

(PESS) influences their intention to participate in physical activities and 

understanding of its learning outcomes. Evaluation of students’ attitudes 

towards PESS can also be helpful to educators to gain deeper insight into 

the challenges facing the subject in schools, especially given the fact that 

the status of PESS has declined considerably in many countries (Hardman 

& Marshall, 2001). In this study, the Sport in Education (SpinEd) 

questionnaire developed by Bailey and Dismore (2005) was administered 

to 405 primary and junior secondary school students (225 boys and 180 

girls) aged 6-15 years in Mbabane, Manzini and Piggs Peak, Swaziland. 

Results were analysed descriptively. Children’s responses concerning 

PESS were categorized under five domains, i.e. physical, cognitive, social, 

affective and lifestyle. In general, Swazi children had positive attitudes 

towards PESS, with older girls indicating less favourable attitudes than 

the younger ones. The girls also had poorer perceived competence in PESS 

activities compared to the boys. Regardless of age and sex, the children 

overwhelmingly rated Mathematics, Science and English as more 

important than PESS. The physical domain accounted for the children’s 

positive perception of PESS as they gave similar reasons for participating 

in PESS activities regardless of gender, i.e. to be healthy and fit, prepare 

for school sport competition and identify with own school. The 

implications of the findings for designing and implementing quality PESS 

programmes in Swazi schools were discussed. 

Key words: Physical education, school sport, attitudes, age and 

gender comparisons. 

1 She is working in the Department of Primary Education, (Physical Education Unit), University of Swaziland, Kwaluseni, Swaziland

CHILDREN’S PERCEPTION OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION 

INTRODUCTION 

Participation in physical education (PE) is a fundamental 

right of children (UNESCO, 1978). This implies that schools should 

provide opportunities for children to participate in well structured 

PE activities as well as ensure that they inculcate desirable attitudes 

and values which will promote future participation and 

development of healthy lifestyles (President’s Council on Physical 

Fitness and Sports, 2009). Despite the importance of PE in 

children’s growth and development, Hardman & Marshall (2001) 

reported that its status has declined in many countries, both in 

terms of statutory time allocation and resource allocation. 

According to Siedentop (1987) high school PE is an endangered 

species because it is gradually becoming extinct in secondary 

curricula. Siedentop’s (1987) view was based on the growing lack of 

expectations for significant outcomes in high school PE and the 

more worrying indication that students cared less about the subject 

matter. Therefore, physical educators have a role to play in creating 

a positive environment and opportunities that would motivate 

students to develop high expectations of learning outcomes in PESS 

which could beneficially influence their attitudes and underlying 

belief systems about the subject. 

A major setback to the image of PESS in public schools is 

that the evidence for many of the purported benefits and outcomes 

of physical activities are often debatable. Such claims which have 

been reported in the literature include its positive effects on selfconcept, 

self-esteem, anxiety, depression, tension, stress, selfconfidence, 

mood, efficiency and well-being (Svoboda, 1994). 

Talbot (2001) also reports that PE helps children to develop respect 

for the body - their own and others’, contributes towards the 

development of mind and body, positively enhances self-esteem, 

social and cognitive development and academic achievement. In a 

critical review of the perceived benefits and outcomes of PESS, 

97


Bailey (2006) suggests that its outcomes and benefits can be 

understood in terms of children’s development in the following 

domains: physical, lifestyle, affective, social and cognitive. He 

concludes that while strong evidence exists to suggest that PESS 

can facilitate development of these attributes in children, they do 

not occur automatically but require specific actions and interactions 

among PE teachers and sport coaches such that lessons taught 

emphasize quality provision, while applying didactic elements 

based on children’s need to have fun, enjoy participation, 

accommodate diversity and promote the principles of inclusion and 

integration. 

Several studies have been carried out on children’s attitudes 

towards participation in PESS in various countries. In their study 

on American children, Subramaniam & Silverman (2007) concluded 

that the children had moderately positive attitudes towards PE and 

reported a decline in attitude scores as a function of the students’ 

grade level. Stelzer, Ernest, Fenster & Langford (2004) undertook a 

cross-cultural comparison of attitudes towards PE among high 

schools students in Austria, Czech Republic, England and USA. 

They concluded that whilst children across the countries had 

positive attitudes towards PE, most favorable attitudes were 

reported for students from Czech Republic, followed by Austrian 

and English students. In a study carried out among Turkish 

children, Koca, Asci & Demirhan (2005) examined differences 

between coeducational and single-sex schools in terms of students’ 

attitudes towards PESS. They concluded that children attending 

coeducational classes had more favorable attitudes towards PESS 

than those attending single-sex schools. Amusa & Toriola (2008) 

also reported age and gender differences concerning perceptions of 

PESS among South African children of different racial groups. 

These findings support the importance of gender analysis in 

98


evaluating attitudinal dispositions towards PESS among children 

and adolescents. 

In spite of the importance of PE in promoting physically 

active lifestyle in children, very few studies, if any, have been 

carried out on attitudes towards the subject in Swazi schools. 

Therefore, this study was primarily carried out to examine the 

attitudes of a group of school children in Swaziland towards PESS. 

A secondary purpose of the study was to analyse gender 

differences in the children’s perception of PESS. 

PE has had a long history in Swaziland since becoming 

British protectorate in the early 19 th century. PE was originally 

based on the 1933 British syllabus and has long been taught and 

examined at the three teachers colleges in the country. However, 

teacher preparation in the subject was problematic as no 

programme was in place at the university level for many years to 

train PE teachers. In recent years, positive attempts were made to 

formally re-introduce the subject as a curriculum offering in 

primary schools; an impetus that was driven by the launch of a 

certificate course in PE at the University of Swaziland in 2007. 

The Kingdom of Swaziland is almost entirely surrounded by 

South Africa. It gained independence from England in 1968 and has 

an estimated population of 1.2 million (2005 estimate). Its 

membership of Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) 

has considerably accelerated socio-economic development in the 

country. The mainstay of Swaziland’s economy includes sugarcane 

exports, tourism and small deposits of gold and diamond. 

99


Figure 1: Map of Swaziland showing Mbabane, Piggs Peak and Manzini 

METHODS 

RESEARCH DESIGN AND PARTICIPANTS 

A modified Sport in Education (SpinEd) questionnaire 

originally developed by Bailey and Dismore (2005) was 

administered to evaluate children’s attitudes towards PESS. 

Participants were 405 students (225 boys and 180 girls) categorized 

into three age groups, i.e. 6-10 years (n=132); 11-14 years (n=155) 

and 15+ years (n=118). They were drawn from five primary and 

junior secondary schools in Mbabane, Manzini and Piggs Peak, 

Swaziland. The children participated in the study after parental 

informed consent was obtained. 

100


QUESTIONNAIRE 

The SpinEd questionnaire has seven close and open-ended 

items, which are described as follows: two questions focused on 

participants’ age and gender. Three close-ended questions are 

designed to elicit responses to the various dimensions of perception 

of PESS using Likert scale format. Another question requests 

respondents to compare the relative importance of PESS with other 

school subjects. The last two questions required respondents to 

describe their feelings about PESS and indicate preferences for its 

various aspects. 

As suggested by Bailey & Dismore (2005), the SpinEd 

questionnaire was analyzed based on five main themes (or 

domains) which cover specific aspects of children’s development: 

physical; lifestyle, affective, social and cognitive. These domains 

could be described as follows: physical (reasons why children like 

or dislike PESS, i.e. regarding their physical condition, fitness, 

health and movement skills; cognitive (statements related to 

intellectual functioning and academic performance); social (reasons 

which are related to personal interactions, pro-social behaviors and 

social development, such as the children’s self-perception of 

intention to compete, cooperate, like a teacher, socialize with other 

pupils, meet with friends, like playing in teams, etc.), and affective 

(responses concerning attitudes, self-esteem, anxiety, stress and 

other mental states (depression, happiness, fun, etc.). In the 

affective domain were included statements reflecting relaxation, 

expression of one’s emotions, boredom, feel better, it’s interesting, 

feel happy, feel good, etc. Finally, lifestyle domain reflects the 

children’s perceptions regarding opportunities to engage in future 

physical activities and emphasizes general lifestyle dispositions. 

Typical examples of participants’ responses in this domain 

included will be fit, will be useful in the future, won’t be fat, it’s all 

my life, etc. 

101


Before the SpinEd questionnaire was used for actual data 

collection it was validated in a pilot test involving 58 children (27 

boys; 31 girls) attending two primary schools also in Manzini 

which were not part of the data used for the actual study. In the 

pilot test, the SpinEd questionnaire was validated by using cluster 

analysis and calculating Cronbach alpha coefficients. Reliability 

coefficients ranged between 0.73 and 0.87 (Cronbach α), thus 

indicating the stability of the questionnaire and its suitability for 

data collection. 

DATA ANALYSIS 

Descriptive statistics was used to analyze the data. 

Percentages were calculated based on the students’ responses to 

questionnaire items and used to present the results. The children’s 

responses to open-ended items were analyzed qualitatively. 

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 

Table 1: Distribution of participants by age and sex* 

Sex 

Age (Years) Total 

6-10 11-14 15+ 

Boys 67(29.8) 85(37.8) 73(32.4) 225 (55.6) 

Girls 65(36.1) 70(38.9) 45(25.0) 180 (44.4) 

Total 132 (32.6) 155 (38.3) 118(29.1) 405 (100) 

*Data presented as number (%). 

Results concerning the distribution of Swazi children based 

on age and sex are provided in Table 1. Among the boys and girls, 

the 11-14 year-old children were the highest number of 

participants, thereby accounting for 37.8% and 38.9% of the boys 

and girls, respectively or 38.3% of the total number of school 

children sampled. 

102


The children overwhelmingly indicated positive perception 

of PESS regardless of age and gender (Table 2). This was accounted 

for by responses received from 87% of the total number of 

participants. However, when the data were analysed according to 

gender and age categories, the following trends were observed: 

More boys (92%) than girls (81%) had positive perception of PESS. 

In contrast, 19% of girls and 8% of boys showed negative 

perception towards PESS. The girls’ data showed a decline in 

interest in PESS with age (Table 2). Specifically, younger girls (6-10 

years: 5-10; 11-14 years) had more positive perception of PESS than 

older girls (15+ years). 

Specifically, the percentage of girls in the various age groups 

who indicated positive perception of PESS were 49% (6-10 years), 

35% (11-14 years) and 12% (15+ years), respectively. However, 

among the boys, a consistent trend was found in which they 

indicated positive perception of PESS irrespective of age group. 

Table 2. Participants’ perception about PESS (n=405)* 

Gender 

Age 

(Years) 

I love it I like it 

I don’t 

like it 

I hate 

it 

Total 

Boys 6-10 25(37.3) 35(52.2) 5(7.5) 2(3.0) 67(16.5) 

11-14 37(43.5) 41(48.2) 5(5.9) 2(2.4) 85(21.0) 

15+ 33(45.2) 36(49.3) 3(4.1) 1(1.4) 73(18.0) 

Girls 6-10 28(43.1) 32(49.2) 3(4.6) 2(3.1) 65(16.1) 

11-14 37(52.9) 26(37.1) 4(5.7) 3(4.3) 70(17.3) 

15+ 10(22.2) 12(26.7) 17(37.8) 6(13.3) 45(11.1) 

Total 170(41.9) 183(45.2) 36(8.9) 16(4) 405(100) 

*Data presented as number (%). 

It was also of interest to this study to find out the students’ 

perception about the relative importance of PESS compared with 

103


other traditional school subjects. Results showed that Mathematics, 

English and Science were consistently rated as more important than 

PE. This trend was consistent across gender and age categories and 

confirms the low status of PE in schools as well as the lack of 

seriousness attached to the subject. 

In terms of the perceived competence in PESS, the Swazi 

girls (44.2%) indicated poorer self- perception of competence than 

the boys (26%). The older (15+ years) girls (58%) indicated that they 

were poorest at PESS in contrast to the younger ones, specifically 

the 6-10 year olds (9%). In response to open-ended items in which 

the participants were requested to give reasons for their perception 

of PESS, most of the answers obtained could be categorized in the 

affective and lifestyle domains. Similar answers were provided by 

the boys and girls. Responses in the affective domain included 

statements such as, “it’s good for relaxation, it helps my emotions, 

it makes me free from boredom, it makes me feel better, it’s 

interesting, it makes me happy, it makes me feel good,” etc. Typical 

responses concerning lifestyle domain emphasize general lifestyle 

dispositions such as, “I will be fit, it will be useful to me in the 

future, I won’t be fat, it’s all my life,” etc. 

The findings of this study have significant implications for 

designing and implementing PESS programmes in Swazi schools. 

Consistent with previous studies (e.g. Amusa & Toriola, 2008; Koca 

et al., 2005; Stelzer et al., 2004) the results showed that the children 

generally had positive attitudes towards PESS. However, the girls’ 

perceptions of PESS as well as their self-perceived competence in 

the subject were more negative than those of the boys. The girls’ 

poorer perception may be a reflection of the influence of Swazi 

culture which is male dominated. Consequently, young girls 

hardly have role models in society and this could negatively 

influence their value orientation and belief systems, especially 

104


concerning competence in PESS activities. Therefore, in designing 

PESS programmes emphasis should be placed on providing a 

variety of activities so that children can enjoy participation 

regardless of their skill level. This strategy would encourage 

participation in PESS by girls and promote achievement of 

intended learning outcomes. 

It was also of interest to this study to find out determinants 

of the children’s perceptions of PESS. The results showed that 

physical, affective and lifestyle domains accounted for the 

children’s perceptions of PESS. In contrast, Figley (1985) examined 

the determinants of attitudes toward PE among college students 

and reported that teacher and the curriculum ranked as the top two 

factors determining both positive and negative attitudes, which 

accounted for approximately 70% of all responses. Figley (1985) 

also reported that variety and choice in programme content were 

curriculum factors that were most likely to be associated with 

positive attitudes among students. Similar findings were reported 

by Luke and Sinclair (1991) in their study of grade 11 students. 

However, in a study of 386 students Luke and Cope (1994) 

investigated students’ attitudes toward components of teacher 

behavior and PE programme content. They found that attitudes of 

male and female students toward teacher behavior and programme 

content were similar at every grade level. 

The findings of the present study which indicated that the 

learners regarded other school subjects as more importance that 

PESS is understandable in the light of the fact that PE is not yet a 

compulsory curriculum offering in Swazi schools. Therefore, the 

children would be naturally inclined to attach more importance to 

subjects in which they would be examined in view of its 

importance to their future career aspirations. 

105


The present results have practical implications for providing 

quality PESS in Swazi schools. Responses from learners which 

indicate their interests, preferences and value orientation are 

important considerations for designing and implementing PESS 

programmes. It is also important that PESS programme content 

reflects a variety of choices and activities which will provide ample 

opportunities for children to participate regardless of their skill 

levels. 

REFERENCES 

Amusa, L.O. & Toriola, A.L. (2008). Children's perception of 

physical education and school sports at selected South 

African schools. African Journal for Physical, Health Education, 

Recreation and Dance, 14(4), 355-372. 

Bailey, R. (2006). Physical Education and sport in schools: A review 

of benefits and outcomes. Journal of School health, 76(8), 397-401. 

Bailey, R. & Dismore, H. (2005). The Role of Physical Education and 

Sport in Education: Final Report. Canterbury: Canterbury 

Christ Church University College, UK and ICSSPE. 

Figley, G. E. (1985). Determinants of attitudes toward physical 

education. Journal of Teaching in Physical Education, 4, 229-240. 

Hardman, K. & Marshall, J.J. (2001). World-wide survey on the 

state and status of Physical Education in schools. In G. Doll- 

Tepper & D. Scoretz (Eds.), World Summit on Physical 

Education (pp. 15-36). Berlin, Germany: ICSSPE. 

Koca, C., Asci, F.H. & Demirhan, G. (2005). Attitudes towards 

physical education and class preferences of Turkish 

adolescents in terms of school gender composition. 

Adolescence, 40 (158), 365-375. 

106


Luke, M. & Sinclair, G. (1991). Gender difference in adolescents’ 

attitudes toward school physical education. Journal of 

Teaching in Physical Education, 11, 31-46. 

Luke, M. D. & Cope, L. D. (1994). Student attitudes toward teacher 

behavior and program content in school physical education. 

Physical Educator, 51, 57-66. 

President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports (2009). School 

physical education as a viable change agent to increase 

youth physical activity. Research Digest, 10(2), 1-8. 

Svoboda, B. (1994). Sport and Physical Activity as a Socialiation 

Environment. Scientific Review Part 1. Strasbourg, France: 

Council of Europe. 

Siedentop, D. (1987). High school physical education: Still an 

endangered species. Journal of Physical Education, Recreation 

and Dance, 58(2), 24-25. 

Stelzer, J., Ernest, J.M., Fenster, M.J. & Langford, G. (2004). 

Attitudes towards physical education: A study of high 

school students from four countries – Austria, Czech 

Republic, England and USA. College Student Journal, 38(2), 171. 

Subramaniam, P.R. & Silverman, S. (2007). Middle school students’ 

attitudes toward physical education. Teaching and Teacher 

Education, 23, 602-611. 

107

ABSTRACT 

ROLE OF SPORTS IN LEADERSHIP: 

A SOCIO POLITICAL ANALYSIS 

Dr. Saima Shaikh 1 , Dr. Hamadullah Kakepoto 2 and 

Dr. Aslam Pervez Memon 3 

The basic objective of developing this article was to know how sports 

and games have developed the leadership qualities maintaining the harmony 

of body and mind among individuals in the society. The nature of the work 

is largely theoretical in fundamental nature as most of the data used has 

been taken from secondary sources. Sports have multiple functions as it 

stimulates the enthusiastic aspects of the people and the state. 

The position of sportsman and woman has been remarkable as they 

face the crowd courageously to express leadership qualities in one's 

personality expressing maturity to deal with enormous number of 

complexes nature of issues that surround them in daily life concerning 

their socio-political behaviors. 

METHODOLOGY 

This research paper was developed applying descriptive 

method to assess the major outcome of this work. This work was 

also undertaken to explore the dynamic impression of eleven 

internationally known former sports persons randomly selected 

from different countries that used their charisma to engage 

themselves in politics after retirement from sports, justifying 

effective popularity among people. Their very brief record has been 

discussed as role models proved themselves to be effective leaders 

in politics. Sports persons could be the wonderful leaders if they 

adopt the values of sportsmanship in their lives and political arena 

as well. 

1 Dr. Saima Shaikh isAssistant Professor, Department of Sociology, University of Sindh, Jamshoro 

2 Dr. Hamadullah Kakepoto Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, University of Sindh, Jamshoro 

3 Dr. Aslam Pervez Memon Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Sindh, Jamshoro

ROLE OF SPORTS IN LEADERSHIP 

INTRODUCTION 

Socio-political study is normally referred to social values 

and group life. It emphasizes on the feelings that is regarded the 

most important segment for the success of any game. Discipline in 

the sports learning situation brings guidance in behavior, most 

conducive to learning process and effective for successful 

performance. It is important that investigation evaluate the drive to 

excel in leadership, to do better to surpass ones own previous 

performance, the records set by the others during competition of 

the moment, all of which are a part of the human striving for 

maximum output and efficiency. This paper is an attempt to assess 

that the outstanding sportsmen that lead healthy, active, peaceful 

and disciplined life. 

Social engineers could be the wonderful leaders if they 

experience outstanding sports background in their lives. Sports are 

also used for the purpose of achieving educational objectives. The 

social engineers of the society mainly emphasize on winning and 

targeting goals in their career. Sports develop the leadership 

qualities in one's personality. This term normally used to 

characterize the individual that grows, matures, and reacts to the 

thousands of environmental stimuli that surround him. The 

learning of social values, particularly sportsmanship, must be a 

part of the purpose of the individual as its results must be 

recognized and be made satisfying if learning is to take place 

(Gatrell, 2004). 

Leadership is the process of providing direction and 

obtaining their voluntary commitment to the leader's vision. A 

leader creates a vision and goals influencing others to share that 

vision and work toward the goals. Therefore, they are concerned 

with bridging about change and motivating others to support that 

vision for better modification. Many scholars affirm that 

management involves coping with complexity, while leadership is 

about coping with change. 

109


Leaders can be found at all levels of a sports organization, but 

not all immediately stand out before the crowd in different situations 

at different moments of organization that require different skills in 

leadership. A young person may be marvelous at exercising 

leadership in volleyball team and some time, may be unlikable in 

another environment. This happens frequently, and some brilliant 

young sports leaders’ mode of undertaking exercise in their training 

projects and may not choose to work with just because they do not 

know how to do it. Such practice has different set of norms, 

authority structures and different sets of adaptive challenges that the 

individual may be unfamiliar with. 

But apart from the different forms of authority traits leaders 

describe, how effective young leaders can influence others. These 

characteristics have been put into four categories of models: traits, 

behavioral, contingency and transformational. There is no simple 

answer to which type of the leadership works best. Almost half 

century ago, trait models of leadership were popular. Gradually, as 

evidence accumulated, traits models were replaced-first by 

behavioral models and then by contingency models. Currently, the 

transformational model has many supporters, reflecting efforts of 

many leaders to transform outdated forms of organizations into 

more competitive ones. Traits models are based on the assumption 

that certain physical, social, and personal characteristics are 

inherent in leaders. According to this view, the presence or absence 

of these characteristics distinguish leaders from non-leaders. Some 

of the key traits are physical, social background and personality 

traits (John, 1972). There is some common sense supporting the 

notion that effective leaders, young or older, have certain traits. 

However, research has not proved that traits consistently separate 

potential leaders from non-leaders. For example, the physical 

characteristics of a young baseball athlete do not necessarily 

correlate with his ability to exercise successful leadership later in 

his life. They relate only to perceive leadership ability. 

110


Modern education system in developed and under 

developed states have shown concern about leadership education 

that includes more distinct learning both as a separate curriculum 

and as a part of every course work taught in administrative 

sciences. This will take time, patience and financial investment, but 

it can be done. Many academic institutions at university level in 

Euro-America and Asia including Pakistan have made significant 

attempts to offer dedicated classes on leadership, and it requires 

many political students, undertake lengthy field exercises of speech 

training and legal aspects that concern our society, acquire 

practical experience prior to receive graduation. 

There is no silver bullet for bridging the leadership gap 

among the nation’s political institutions. But, the gap is real and 

need is clear when compared developing world with Euro- 

American nations, and change only happens when we make it a 

priority. Many perceive a crisis of leadership in Pakistan as perhaps 

our political institutions and higher education commission policies 

rarely take a stronger role in solving the problems of the society. 

Today's world is on the fast track. Therefore, the leadership 

styles applied during the past decades differs substantially from 

the one needed to be applied in the present times. To illustrate this, 

consider the young members of a school baseball team who if 

unwilling and unable to perform well, the school coach will then 

definitely have to follow the autocratic leadership style. As the 

coach applies appropriate motivation and training techniques, the 

young trainees gradually become willing and able to perform well. 

Hence the situation is changing. This denotes that the leadership 

should also evolve from autocratic towards the democratic style. In 

a few words the leadership style should comply with the evolution 

of the outstanding situation. It illustrates, sports organizations, 

especially those that involve children, must confront with the years 

to come and learn from past practices by continuously adopting to 

the new instruction programs that evolve towards leadership in 

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sports. The literature is at hand about denoting the close 

relationship between leadership and sportsmanship. The sociology 

deal and consider the two traits as linked with each other. Social 

psychology also elaborates that sports promote leadership and 

discipline (Kenneth et. al, 2002). 

PROMOTION OF LEADERSHIP QUALITIES 

A healthy body makes a healthy mind and sports are vital 

for making leaders. There are similarities between a sportsman and 

a leader, some attributes and qualities which also make a 

sportsman a great leader. In sports one develops the qualities 

which make a sportsman successful in other spheres of life as well. 

While remaining in sports group one learns co-operation, coordination, 

enthusiasm to lead others and develop leadership skills 

and how to make individual physically and mentally strong living 

in groups. Leaders have charismatic personality, but have some 

peculiar and special qualities as well. Therefore, sports help 

developing athletes’ unique personalities (Sherrill, 1988). 

SPORTS AND PROFESSIONALISM (ENGINEERING) 

Table1: Key elements that can be identified and taught. 

Achievement motivation Hypnosis 

Athletic personality Mental practice 

Athletic task analysis Mottos learning 

Coaching Styles Peak performance 

Competition Positive Visualization 

Control of attention Self-regulation 

Coping strategies Still acquisition 

Emotions and performance Social facilitation 

Exercise and Mental Health Stress reduction 

Goal setting Team cooperation 

Group (team) dynamics Training procedures 

Source: Introduction to Psychology, 8 th Edition, Dennis Coon, Brook/Cole 

Publishing Company, USA, 2004. 

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The above table reflects the impact of various factors of self 

confidence, self-motivation and others which are usually 

considered as achieved. Motivation is the factor which is directly or 

indirectly related with hypnoses. Stress is relative with self 

acquisition, self regulation, social facilitation and team cooperation. 

The above table indicates the relationship between 

variables. 

Leadership qualities developed through sports participation: 

The followings characteristics are essential for developing ideal 

leaders in a democratic society of the nations: 

Quality to lead; consultation; patience; commitment; to face the reality 

and to accept it; discipline; team work; taking up the challenge; 

planning /strategy and character building 

SPORT LEADERS AND MOTIVATORS 

It is hard to ignore the fact that leaders have self-motivation and a 

great deal of energy to lead others. It is the energy that brings honor, selfrespect, 

and grace as fruits of leadership. The psychological relationship 

between sports and leadership can be understood in the following contexts: 

Sport as an out let for aggression in leaders: 

One accumulates aggression through the occasional (or frequent) 

frustration of daily life and piles up his aggressiveness at times. Sport as 

lessening inferiority feelings and make leaders. The normal person 

possesses inferiority feelings and wants success, popularity, and 

admiration from his fellows. Sports permit friendly rivalries and joyous 

interplay within one’s own family and peer groups. 

Leadership discipline: 

The discipline in sports facilitates adequate learning and 

motivates for peak performance, either of the individual or the group. 

The complete combination in the sport group takes one’s mind away 

from self and focuses it outwardly and describes a direction of 

attention. The drive to excel, to do better, to surpass one's own 

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previous performance and the records set by others are all part of the 

human striving for maximum performance and efficiency. 

Leadership is always something of a two-way lane in which 

leaders influence followers and in turn, hold some degree of 

influences over leaders. The major tasks performed by leaders is to 

make decisions, considering the situation in which high quality 

decisions are necessary as the leaders have enough information to 

decide alone, but the acceptance by follower is crucial as it may not 

work effectively without their active support. 


It is a fact that peak performance requires more than 

physical training. The mental and emotional conditioning is also 

very important to be a leader. Sports teach a leader how to relax, 

how to ignore distractions and cope up with emotions. The leader 

also learns that if someone is good in sports, he needs personal 

counseling for excelling performance by decreasing stresses and 

conflicts. (Dohrenwend et. al., 1974) 

A good leader may also benefit from sports. For many the 

payoffs are stress reduction, better self-image and improved general 

health. Researchers have reported, for instance, that running is 

associated with lower levels of tension, anxiety, fatigue, and depression 

than is found in the non-running population (Ken et. al., 2005). 

INTERNATIONAL SPORTS CELEBERTIES IN LEADERSHIP ROLE 

Our society has several examples of the personalities who were 

great athletes as well as significant leaders. They developed the 

qualities of leadership through sport participation in their whole life. 

One could easily find many sport persistent personalities 

who later on became famous leaders with impressive leadership 

qualities. Such as: 

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1. Imran Khan A dynamic and enthusiastic personality in 

Pakistan, whose name is commonly associated with trust, 

leadership, captainship, business and charity success 

believed to be a man of inspiration to young generation. 

When he played cricket, he left all problems behind him to 

concentrate on winning the game, and got success by 

creating history by winning the World Cup in 1992 and later 

on he left the field of Cricket after wining the World Cup. 

He built Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and 

Research Centre at Lahore in 1994. Later on he involved in 

Politics and founded “Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf” in 1996. He 

not only established a party but he won the election and got 

membership in National Assembly of Pakistan. He wrote 

several books including Imran Khan’s cricket skills, The 

autobiography of Imran Khan, Indus Journey: A personal 

View of Pakistan, All Round View, and Warrior Race: A 

Journey through the Land of the Tribal Pathans. 

2. Pele the legendry player of Brazil known as the King of 

Soccer (Football) game, has remained outstanding player of 

the world, played a pivotal role in winning the World Cup 

and after retirement he was elevated as the minister for sport 

and culture in Brazilian government 

3. Qasim Zia has remained outstanding Hockey player, 

represented Pakistan at Olympics of 1984 in Los Angles, 

USA and also at 1986 Hockey World Cup. His multidimensional 

personality made him provincial Legislator in 

the Punjab Assembly in Pakistan under the platform of 

Pakistan Peoples Party. He was appointed as the 23rd president of the Pakistan Hockey Federation by Prime 

Minister of Pakistan on October 15, 2008. 

4. Navjot Singh Sidhu an enthusiastic and very intelligent 

person, also known as Sidhu Paaji. He was a successful 

Indian cricketer. After his retirement from cricket he became 

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a sports journalist and took delight in presenting 

5. 

commentaries; he is also the popular anchor of Indian 

comedy TV channel. 

Sidhu was elected to the Lok Sabha from Amritsar in 2004 

on Bharatiya Janata Party ticket. He later resigned, following 

allegation of culpable homicide. After the Supreme Court 

acquitted him, he successfully contested the Amritsar Lok 

Sabha seat, defeating his Congress rival, state finance 

minister Surinder Singla. 

Vince Lombardi will be remembered forever linked with the 

unprecedented success of green bay packer’s professional 

American football. He had an unquenchable desire to 

succeed, to excel, and to win. His famous slogan was 

“winning is not every thing, it is the only thing”. His statue 

is erected in his memory to recognize the services of legend. 

6. Idi Amin former army general and President of Uganda 

who remained light heavy weight Boxing champion, used to 

call himself Lord of all Beast of the earth and fishes of the 

seas and conqueror of British Empire in Africa and Uganda 

in particular. 

7. Colin Moynihan was the Cox of the winning oxford in boat 

racing and silver Medalist in Moscow Olympics. He was Tory 

M P and minister for sports under Prime Minister, Margaret 

Thatcher and worked as chairman, Olympic Association. 

8. Dawn Fraser was Australia’s greatest female athlete, a 

swimmer who won four Olympic Gold Medals. She has 

remained independent Member of Parliament in New South 

Wales, Australia. 

9. Miriam Blasco of Spain has remained outstanding sports 

girl, won Gold medal in Judo at Barcelona Olympics and 

became Member of Parliament for Partido Popular, Spain’s 

right wing opposition party. 

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10. Ben Nighthorse Campbell was a Native American who 

represented the US in judo at the Tokyo Olympics in 1964 

and later on he became US senator who changed sides from 

Democrat to Republican. 

11. Bernard Laporate was a promising coach of the French 

rugby union side and later on he became Minister for Sport 

in Nicolas Sarkozy’s government. 

CONCLUSION 

From above mentioned outstanding sport persons from 

different nations after retirement played their role in politics. It is 

assumed that popular sports persons can also perform well in 

holding political office. A high emotional involvement as a 

sportsman is more likely to increase the endurance or the charisma 

used in expressing ones skills of leadership trait and increases the 

reliability of movement and accuracy of performance in any 

leadership task. Normally people feel the need of the leadership 

skill and sports in their society and the role of media for social 

participation, social development and human understanding. Sport 

in personality is strongly motivated by the excess energy displayed 

and the urge to perform with excellence in individuals. The 

popularity and persistence of sports down through history and in 

most of the civilizations of the world today, could not be explained 

in words if sports did not bring pleasure, relief, and joy in 

performance. The emotional overtones of sports add color to life. 

Thus, sports and games develop the leadership qualities as well, 

the personality and help to maintain the harmony between body 

and mind. The outstanding sports persons can lead a peaceful and 

disciplined life. 

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RECOMMENDATIONS 

A subject pertaining to sports science and physical education 

should be included at Schools, undergraduate and postgraduation 

levels at the universities of Pakistan as 

introduced in many countries of Euro- America. 

5% Job opportunities may be provided to the sportsmen in 

all public and private sector departments to facilitate 

outstanding players. 

Internship program during summer and winter vacations be 

introduced to train the youth in the field of sports and 

monthly adequate stipend be given to meritorious students. 

Government should encourage and promote NGOs who are 

committed to sports development in the country through 

national departments and educational institutions. 

In order to divert the attention of the people towards healthy 

sporting activities, new Sports channels on TV are increased 

telecasting regular coaching and training programs, and 

various International competitions. In this regard, electronic 

and print media may also play its role in decent and 

effective manner. 

In public and private sectors mega projects in the form of 

sports Complexes, gymnasiums and Swimming Pools are 

constructed in educational institutions. It would promote 

and make the students mentally and physically fit to deliver 

the goods to the society effectively. 

118


REFERENCES 

Dohrenwend, Barbara Snell, and Bruce P. (1974) Stressful Life Events: 

Their Nature and Effects. Willey Interscience; New York. 

Dennis Coon (2004), Introduction to Psychology. 8 th Edition, 

Brook/Cole Publishing Company, USA. 

John, D. Lawther (1972). Sport Psychology. Prentice Hall, Inc 

Enplewood Cliffs, New Jersey, Published in USA. 

Ken, Brown, (2005) Introducing Sociology for As Level, 2 nd Edition, 

Polity Press Melden, USA. 

Kenneth S. Bordens & Irwin A. Horowits (2002) Social Psychology, 

2 nd Edition, London Lawrence Erlbaum Associates & 

Publishers, Mahwah, New Jersey, p.50. 

Robert A. Baron, & Donn Byrne (1995), Social Psychology, Prentice, 

Hall of India. Private Limited, New delhi, p.516. 

Sherrill, C. (1988) Leadership training in adapted physical 

education. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics. 

119

RELATIVE TIMING AND RHYTHM: A KEY TO MOTOR 

SKILL LEARNING 

ABSTRACT 

Dr. Lin Wang 1 

Rhythm is needed for all coordinated movements to be performed 

accurately and, without exception, sports skills are considered rhythmic in 

nature. Mature motor skill patterns have a definite stable rhythmic 

structure. Rhythm, the critical piece of information needed in order to 

reproduce the correct motor skill, can be easily missed by learners. 

Unfortunately, apart from what we can draw from our own sport 

participation, finding information on how to teach rhythm is surprisingly 

difficult. To bridge the gap between relative timing enhancement and 

rhythm acquisition, recommendations from research studies on how to 

develop relative timing are interpreted for practitioners who are teaching 

rhythm. 

THE PRACTICAL PROBLEM – VIGNETTE OF JOHNNY 

It was the beginning of the school year: Johnny and Susan 

signed up for intermediate volleyball class. Having the experience 

of quickly learning to pass and set volleyball in the beginning class, 

they expected to learn the spiking skill easily. After the instructor 

demonstrated to the class what a proper spike looked like, Johnny 

and Susan practiced the spike themselves without the volleyball. 

Susan performed the step-step-close approach perfectly to get 

herself high in the air ready for spiking; however, Johnny was 

having a very difficult time getting the rhythm necessary to 

perform the technique. Instead of the “step-step-close” approach, 

Johnny performed two strides of even length. As he continued to 

have trouble with the rhythm of the spike approach, he became 

1 Assistant Professor, Department of Health and Kinesiology, The University of Texas - Pan American, USA

RELATIVE TIMING AND RHYTHM 

frustrated, making it difficult for him to enjoy the class. How could 

the instructor help Johnny master the critical segment of the 

volleyball spike approach? As a teacher or a coach, you may have 

encountered similar scenarios with different sport skills and with 

different levels of learners. John could be a college student, a 12year 

old junior high-school pupil, or a 35-year old person with 

disabilities. Rhythm, the critical piece of information needed in 

order to reproduce the correct motor skill, was missed by John. 

Unfortunately, apart from what we can draw from our own sport 

participation, finding information on how to teach the volleyball 

spike approach rhythm (or for that matter any motor skill that 

requires rhythm) is surprisingly difficult. 

WHAT IS RHYTHM? 

Rhythm is needed for all coordinated movements to be 

performed accurately and, without exception, sports skills are 

considered rhythmic in nature (Bennett & Riemer, 1995; Gallahue & 

Donnelly, 2002; Kirchner, 1981). Mature motor skill patterns have a 

definite stable rhythmic structure (Fulop, Kirby, & Coates, 1992), 

this includes swimming (Colwin, 2003; Wang & Hart, 2005), 

hurdling (Hay & Schoebel, 1990), juggling (Beek, 1992), volleyball 

spiking (Coleman, Benham, & Northcott, 1993), and piano playing 

(Drake & Palmer, 2000). For example, in swimming, the arms and 

legs move rhythmically in all strokes to propel the swimmer 

forward; moving arhythmically is inefficient and slows down the 

swimmer. Additionally, professional athletes turn high-level 

performance into art by demonstrating the beauty of being 

rhythmic. In some cases (e.g. dance, gymnastics), students’ abilities 

to move rhythmically are set as goals to achieve (National Dance 

Association, 1997). However, no information on how to teach the 

rhythmic component is mentioned directly in the literature. 

Information on enhancing relative timing can only be inferred from 

studies examining the effectiveness of a generalized motor program 

121


(GMP). Furthermore, such evidence on methods to enhance relative 

timing acquisition has not been tested extensively in practical 

settings (Shea, Lai, Wright, Immink, & Black, 2001). 

WHY IS RHYTHM A CRITICAL PIECE OF INFORMATION 

FOR MOTOR SKILL ACQUISITION? 

The unique rhythm associated with one particular motor 

skill or shared by a group of motor skills is considered one of the 

key proponents of motor schema (Schmidt & Lee, 2005). Even 

researchers holding contrasting thoughts on how motor skills are 

acquired agree on the vital meaning of the rhythm of the skill as an 

attractive state for movement pattern organization (Kelso, 1995). As 

stated by Schmidt and Wrisberg (2008), the temporal pattern of a 

motor skill (rhythmic component of the skill), serves as a marker 

and separates one motor skill from another. For example, although 

both are even rhythms, a rhythm needed for walking can be 

considered very different from a rhythm needed for jogging when 

the speed is concerned. Rhythm needed for these two skills is even 

more different from an uneven, a rhythm needed for galloping. 

Some sport skills have similar temporal patterns, such as the swing 

pattern of a volleyball spike and the serve in tennis. Thus, when 

one is mastered, mastery of the second follows with ease. Not until 

one can perform a motor skill with its unique rhythm can he or she 

be confident about mastering the skill. 


Relative timing is the theoretical concept that corresponds 

with rhythm. Relative timing inclusively refers to the relative ratio 

of timing components of a skill (Schmidt & Lee, 2005). To illustrate, 

let’s look at the rhythm of walking. The alternative pendulum 

motion of the two steps is equal, making the relative timing of 

walking a 1:1 ratio. Relative timing has been analyzed in theoretical 

experiments by having participants perform similar movements 

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such as finger tapping with the target goals of 1500ms (from the 

first point to the second point) and 750ms (from the second point to 

the third point), making the relative timing a 2:1 ratio. Relative 

timing is proposed in Schmidt’s Schema Theory as one of the 

invariant features that distinguish one category of movement from 

another (Coker, 2009). In an effort to explain how motor skills were 

controlled and executed, Schmidt’s schema theory has received the 

most attention and has been explored in a number of empirical 

studies from different disciplines (Shea & Wulf, 2005). 

Temporal structure, relative timing, or phasing, is the 

marker of motor patterns supported by studies conducted to help 

researchers find ways to facilitate effective learning of motor skills 

in the laboratory and in practical settings (Schmidt & Lee, 2005). 

Franks and Stanley (1991) used computer-generated waveform 

tracking was chosen as the task to examine what is learned during 

motor skill acquisition. Results of the study supported the notion of 

“invariant relative timing” among the content acquired. Similarly, 

Hay and Schoebel (1990) used the track event hurdles to examine 

the temporal invariants concept in a real world activity. With 

empirical support of relative timing as one of the invariant features 

learned though practice, it was proposed that mastering the 

rhythmic component (or relative timing) of a skill is a critical step 

toward skill acquisition (Singer, 2000). 

SUGGESTIONS FROM RESEARCHERS TO ENHANCE RELATIVE 

TIMING LEARNING 

Researchers have devoted time and effort to test the 

generalized motor program (GMP, a class of abstract representation 

of similar movement plans stored in memory) theory (Coker, 2009). 

Relative timing, as a primary invariant feature, has been tested in 

several studies. Empirical data support the notion that relative 

timing can be strengthened by use - constant practice, use - blocked 

practice, reduced feedback frequency, and provision of visual and 

123


auditory models (Han & Shea, 2008; Lai, Shea, Bruechert, & Little, 

2002). The use of auditory models has been generalized to several 

practical settings, rapid pistol shooting (Rose & Tyry, 1994), 

rhythmical dance routine learning (Wuyts & Buekers, 1995), 

swimming (Wang & Hart, 2005), and football kicking(Butcher, 

2003) and has been to shown to be an effective teaching strategy. 

Clearly, teaching rhythm, especially for beginners, helps students 

acquire sport skills which have a rhythmical component. The 

following general guidelines explain how each of these suggestions 

can enhance relative timing/rhythm acquisition. 

1. Demonstrate the skill and provide auditory cues to invite 

students’ attention to the rhythm (e.g. in performing the 

flutter kick swimming skill, ask students to close their eyes 

and listen to the splashing water sound). 

2. Practice the skill for certain period of time with short resting 

intervals (e.g. golf driving skill practice is arranged to be about 

10-15 drives for one set with 2-3-min rest in between sets). 

3. Practice independently the skill to be learned (e.g. introduce 

only the target skill to be learned to beginners, add others 

skills later, teach skill one at a time). 

4. Decrease total feedback and also minimize the amount of 

feedback being provided to enhance the rhythmical 

component learning (e.g. limit comment on students’ 

performance except motivational feedback such as “good job” 

or “excellent try”). If feedback is needed to correct a 

movement, use precise and simple cue word to re-introduce 

the skill. 

GUIDELINES TO TEACH VOLLEYBALL SPIKING APPROACH SKILL 

How can the volleyball spiking approach skill be taught 

more effectively? When the spiking skill is introduced, especially 

with beginners, the approach skill should to be taught as a special 

session. 

124


1. Introduce the movement by demonstrating the step-step-close 

movement. At the same time, direct students’ attention to the 

rhythm of the movement by having them close their eyes and 

listen to the rhythmic sound of the footsteps. 

2. Have students practice the movement (step-step-close) by 

itself for certain trials (e.g. 10 practice trials in a row for 5 

times with 1 min rest in between). 

3. Do not interfere the movement acquisition by introducing 

other skills. By organizing practice using the aforementioned 

guidelines, we are constructing the learning environment with 

constant practice in a blocked fashion. 

4. Withhold feedback on how students’ performance as much as 

possible at the beginning stage of learning. That is limit 

feedback providing frequency to a very low level (use general 

positive feedback for encourage purposes) and re-visit the 

correct rhythm. If possible, have students listen to their own 

footsteps and compare with the modeled rhythm. In total, 

these efforts facilitate organizing the blueprint of the 

movement. 

Let’s help John with his volleyball spiking approach skill. As 

the instructor, ask John to concentrate only on the spiking approach 

skill rather than also working on serving, passing, or spiking skills. 

1. To start off, ask John focus his attention to instructor’s feet 

(please wear bright colored shoes if possible) while listening 

to the instructor’s foot-steps. 

2. Have John clap his hands to the step-step-close pattern. Then 

have him stomping his feet (while standing in place) in 

performing the correct step-step-close pattern. 

3. Then have John practice the step-step-close approach for 10-15 

repetitions per set for the first 5 trials, have him repeat 

step=step-close as he does the movement. Practice the spiking 

125


approach skill repetitions for 5 sets with a 1-2 minute rest in 

between sets. 

4. If John is still having difficulty grasping the rhythm of the 

skill, ask him to again observe the instructor or another 

model’s spiking approach performance. Direct his attention to 

the rhythm of the skill (sound of the foot-steps). 

5. If equipment (e.g. a cell phone with recording function) is 

available, record John’s foot-steps and compare with the 

model. 

6. Motivate John’s efforts by telling him “Good try, John!” Limit 

the feedback on his performance; however, repeat the 

approach skill rhythm by verbally counting 1-2-3 while 

clapping hands with and stomping feet with the same rhythm. 

Relative timing, an invariant feature, is one of the critical 

factors establishing a GMP (Coker, 2009). Perception with regard to 

the importance of rhythm is shared in the area of exercise and 

sport. To enhance relative timing/rhythm acquisition: (a) design 

the practice including both auditory and visual models; (b) 

introduce rhythm of the skill to be learned by itself; and (c) practice 

the skill for set periods of time with short intervals. These 

recommendations are supported by data collected among college 

age participants. The applicability for younger age groups requires 

further empirical exploration. 

126


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129

Prof. Yasmeen Iqbal, Ph.D Prof. Darlene A. Kluka, Ph.D Coordinator

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