Sport Science

In the four decades straddling the turn of the nineteenth century, the small Ontario town of Niagara-on-the-Lake experienced marked growth in its tourism industry. Catering predominantly to wealthy upper-middle-class Canadian and American visitors, the lake-side settlement offered numerous opportunities for polite recreation. Chief among them was lawn tennis, a sport that sat somewhat outside of the mainstream in terms of its high-class, mixed-sex participation demographic. While its players were imbued with a strong amateur philosophy, local boosters recognized the sport’s potential to generate tourism income through its two tournaments, but this hinged on the outward presentation among its players/guests of refined gentility—a reflection of both class and gender—both on and off the court. This article considers how lawn tennis tournaments fit into the town’s burgeoning tourism industry, and examines gender relations—particularly the role of women—in relation to this development.

This article examines the connections between (lawn) tennis in Britain and the Great War (1914–1918). While previous historical research has suggested a four-year hiatus, in fact the sport continued to be played during the war, recreationally and among servicemen/women and more elite players in exhibition matches. Anecdotes about the cessation of tournaments and restricted play were interspersed with debates about the appropriateness of continuing play recreationally, as the ‘gentleman in tennis flannels’ became a symbol of public censure. Alongside enlistment, tennis players responded to the call byoffering their club facilities to the war effort, digging up courts to plant vegetables, hosting charity matches, and providing entertainment for convalescent soldiers. This analysis highlights the significance of tennis as a vehicle to promote a kind of British identity, as responses to the war as seen through tennis reflected broader sporting ideals, privileging amateurism, fair play and the ‘stuff upper lip’.

In view of scholarly work that has explored the socio-psycho significance of national performativity, the body and the “other,” this article critically analyses newspaper representations of the Canadian-born British tennis player Greg Rusedski. Drawing on Lacanian interpretations of the body, it illustrates how Rusedski’s media framing centered on a particular feature of his body – his “smile.” In doing so, we detail how Rusedski’s “post-imperial” Otherness – conceived as a form of “extimacy” (extimité) – complicated any clear delineation between “us” and “them,” positing instead a dialectical understanding of the splits, voids and contradictions that underscore the national “us.”

Sport continues to be one of the primary means through which notions of Englishness and Britishness are constructed, contested, and resisted. The legacy of the role of sport in the colonial project of the British Empire, combined with more recent connections between sport and far right fascist/nationalist politics, has made the association between Britishness, Englishness, and ethnic identity(ies) particularly intriguing. In this paper, these intersections are explored through British media coverage of the Canadian-born, British tennis player, Greg Rusedski. This coverage is examined through the lens of ‘performativity,’ as articulated by Judith Butler. Through a critical application of Butler's ideas, the ways in which the media seek to recognise and normalise certain identities, while problematising and excluding others, can be more fully appreciated. Thus, it was within newspaper framings of Rusedski that hegemonic notions of White Englishness could be performed, maintained, and embedded.

Implementing an effective mental skills training program can be a daunting task. Often coaches do not have the luxury of hiring a sport psychologist or mental trainer to develop and implement their program. Coaches considering developing their own program are often plagued by questions like: How do I convince athletes that mental training is worthwhile? What elements do I include in the program? How do I encourage and support athletes as they develop their mental skills? This paper attempts to address these questions and to offer coaches some practical strategies and ideas for implementing an effective mental skills training program.

Background Stress echocardiography has been advocated for the detection of abnormal myocardial function and unmasking diminished myocardial reserve in pediatric patients. The aim of this study was to create a simplified index of myocardial reserve, derived from the myocardial inotropic response to peak semisupine exercise in healthy children, and illustrate its applicability in a sample of pediatric oncology patients. Methods In this prospective analysis, children (7–18 years of age) with normal cardiac structure and function performed semisupine stress echocardiography to volitional fatigue. The quotient of wall stress at peak systole and heart rate–corrected velocity of circumferential fiber shortening were calculated at baseline and at peak exercise, the difference of which was termed the index of myocardial reserve (IMR). The IMR was also calculated in a retrospective sample of pediatric oncology patients with normal resting left ventricular function who had received anthracycline treatment and had performed the same exercise protocol to illustrate utility. Results Fifty healthy subjects (mean age, 13.2 ± 2.6 years) and 33 oncology patients (mean age, 12.7 ± 4.0 years) were assessed. In the healthy children at peak exercise, heart rate–corrected velocity of circumferential fiber shortening significantly increased (from 1.17 ± 0.17 to 1.58 ± 0.24 circ · sec−1, P < .001), while the quotient of wall stress at peak systole significantly decreased (from 75.3 ± 17.1 to 55.3 ± 13.8 g · cm−2, P < .001), shifting the plot of the relationship between the two parameters upward and to the left. The mean IMR was −30.8 ± 17.8, and the normal distribution ranged from −4.7 (fifth percentile) to −67.3 (95th percentile). The IMR was abnormal in 10 oncology patients who were treated with anthracyclines. Conclusions The authors have developed a novel IMR. Relative to the normal distribution of this IMR in healthy subjects, it is possible to identify patients with abnormal myocardial reserve. Thus, this study demonstrates the application of the IMR to aid in clinical decision making in individual patients.

Background: Exercise testing in children is widely recommended for a number of clinical and prescriptive reasons. Many institutions continue to use the Bruce protocol for treadmill testing; however, with its incremental changes in speed and grade, it has challenges for practical application in children. We have developed a novel institutional protocol (British Columbia Children's Hospital (BCCH)), which may have better utility in paediatric populations. Aim: To determine if our institutional protocol yields similar peak responses in minute ventilation (VE), oxygen consumption (VO 2 ), carbon dioxide production (VCO 2 ), respiratory exchange ratio (RER), metabolic equivalents (METS) and heart rate (HR) when compared with the traditional Bruce protocol. Methods: On two different occasions, 70 children (boys=33; girls=37) aged 10-18 years completed an exercise test on a treadmill using each of the protocols. During each test, metabolic gas exchange parameters were measured. HR was monitored continuously during exercise using an HR monitor. Results: Physiological variables were similar between the two protocols (median (IQR); r s ): VE (L/min) (BCCH=96.7 (72.0-110.2); Bruce=99.2 (75.6-120.0); r s =0.95), peak VO 2 (mL/min) (BCCH=2897 (2342-3807); Bruce=2901 (2427-3654); r s =0.94) and METS (BCCH=16.2 (14.8-17.7); Bruce=16.4 (14.7-17.9); r s =0.89). RERs were similar (BCCH=1.00 (0.96-1.02); Bruce=1.03 (0.99-1.07); r s =0.48). Total exercise time (in seconds) was longer for the BCCH protocol: BCCH=915 (829-1005); Bruce=810 (750-919); r s =0.67. Conclusion: The BCCH protocol produces similar peak exercise responses to the Bruce protocol and provides an alternative for clinical exercise testing in children.

Although there is a tradition of research focused on the socialization experiences of student-athletes, few studies consider how non-sport-related transitions impact and overlap with the sport-related transitions experienced by these athletes – or how transition experiences are influenced by the broader, structural conditions associated with reflexive modernity. With the goal of addressing these gaps, an interview-based study of the experiences of 12 female student-athletes, who moved from Canada to the United States to pursue intercollegiate soccer, is reported. The study is situated in literatures related to youth transitions, mobility, sport-related socialization, and identity formation. The ‘individualization’ and ‘detraditionalization’ concepts are featured and considered for their pertinence to the experiences of the interviewed student-athletes. Key findings from the study include the following: decision-making by student-athletes was a predominantly individualized endeavor that was influenced by various sport and non-sport-related factors; the sport and non-sport-related transitions that accompanied the move to a new sporting and educational context were eased because of the (temporary and conditional) support of teammates; and that the transition out of sport was especially difficult for many of the athletes, as the support structures associated with ‘the team’ quickly diminished – and because of the hyper- individualized identities that the student-athletes were required to renegotiate.

Tennis featured in every Olympics from 1896 to 1924, after which disagreements between the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Lawn Tennis Federation (ILTF) on matters pertaining to organisational control and the amateur eligibility of players led to tennis being removed from the Olympic Games as a full-medal event until the 1988 Seoul Olympics. This paper traces the steps of the sport’s reinstatement, from when efforts commenced in the 1950s, setting this development in the contexts of: broader political movements, shifting IOC leadership, burgeoning commercialisation of Olympic sport, the concomitant push for professionalisation and the declining influence of amateur ideals within both the Olympic movement and international tennis. Under the leadership of the amateur stalwart Avery Brundage, the IOC stymied attempts to facilitate tennis’s re-entry, challenging both the ILTF on failing to deal with widespread ‘sham-amateur’ practices and the avaricious promoters luring amateur players toward the professional ranks. Brundage and the IOC also strongly condemned the move to ‘open’ tennis and an acceptance of full-blown professionalism. Only a change in leadership, firstly with Lord Killanin and then the progressive reformer Juan Antonio Samaranch, did the IOC recognise the value of tennis within the Olympic movement, which by then had itself become increasingly money-oriented.