This week in Sports Education News – On the day the FIFA World Cup kicked off between Brazil and Croatia, the team I help coach, the Haberfield Public Junior Soccer team, played Concord Public. Incidents of alleged sexual assault and other serious off-field issues involving players have elicited a variety of responses from the AFL and its clubs in recent years. This weekend saw two World Cup games decided on penalty kick tiebreakers, a devastatingly unfair way for Chile and Greece to be eliminated. There is an intense global conversation, across most industries, relating to big data at this very moment. Australian teenager Nick Kyrgios has pulled off one of the biggest upsets in Wimbledon history, beating world number one Rafael Nadal in four sets to reach the quarter-finals. The transition to parenthood is consistently associated with declines in physical activity. In particular, working parents are at risk for inactivity, but research exploring physical activity barriers and facilitators in this population has been scarce. The purpose of this study was to qualitatively examine perceptions of physical activity among working parents.
Public primary school sport in Australian culture: Addressing inequality
01/ 07/ 2014: Steve Georgakis – PS News Online
On the day the FIFA World Cup kicked off between Brazil and Croatia, the team I help coach, the Haberfield Public Junior Soccer team, played Concord Public. Like Brazil, we also won. While the FIFA World Cup is about elite intense competition between the world’s leading footballers, sport at the primary school level is about education.
See, there are a number of educational outcomes that can be achieved by playing school sport. This is the reason why school sport took place in the first year of compulsory education in NSW schools in 1881. By 1885 there was a primary school sporting organisation (Public School Sport Athletic Association) established to coordinate interschool competition.
From its humble beginnings this organisation grew and flourished and it was accepted that if you attended public schooling in Australian primary schools, there would be an expectation that you would take part in this valuable experience.
How AFL clubs handle assault cases
01/07/2014: Jon Pierik – The Age Reel Footy
Incidents of alleged sexual assault and other serious off-field issues involving players have elicited a variety of responses from the AFL and its clubs in recent years.
North Melbourne’s decision on Tuesday to allow senior player Majak Daw to be available for selection after being charged with three counts of rape is in stark contrast to how St Kilda handled a similar case last year involving Stephen Milne.
Last June, Milne was charged with four counts of rape relating to an alleged incident in 2004. The Saints immediately announced Milne would take a leave of absence, though he would remain a listed player.
St Kilda was then forced to thwart a potential player rebellion by assuring its senior group it had every intention of permitting Milne to play before the end of the season. A deputation of senior players, led by captain Nick Riewoldt and Jason Blake, had sought clarification on Milne’s status
A Simple Alternative To Soccer’s Atrocious Penalty Kick Shootout
30/ 06/ 2014: Jim Pagels – Forbes
This weekend saw two World Cup games decided on penalty kick tiebreakers, a devastatingly unfair way for Chile and Greece to be eliminated.
As the New York Times described soccer’s final tiebreaker: “The penalty shootout is an abomination. It reduces a team sport to a contrived tiebreaker that obliges physically tired and emotionally drained players to step up one by one, trudge half the length of the field and try to shoot down the opponent’s goalkeeper from 12 yards … Ludicrous. Grotesquely, compellingly ludicrous.”
Adding to that frustration, it’s been proven that if a shooter kicks a ball to a far corner, it’s physically impossible for a goalie standing at the center of the goal to have enough time to react and reach the shot.
Winning with Insight, No Data
01/ 07/ 2014: Nathan Kinch – Sports Business Insider
There is an intense global conversation, across most industries, relating to big data at this very moment.To many, the concept of big data is relatively misunderstood, but without delving into what it is and what it isn’t, let’s look at why big data matters and what it means for sport, particularly in the elite sector.
I have previously written about what data and analysis really means to elite sport, and the conclusion drawn was: Insight. More fully, the exploration of data and analysis with the end goal being a derived understanding of previously unknown factors or ‘insight.’
The basic argument was that it’s not having access to large quantities or diverse sets of data that matters, it’s what we can actually do with the data we have access to. The relational inferences we can draw, the exploration of potentially unknown factors, and the understanding or insight we achieve off the back of the analyses we conduct – this is what truly matters.
Wimbledon: Nick Kyrgios shocks Rafael Nadal in incredible upset to claim quarter-final place
02/ 07/ 2014 – ABC Grandstand Sport
Australian teenager Nick Kyrgios has pulled off one of the biggest upsets in Wimbledon history, beating world number one Rafael Nadal in four sets to reach the quarter-finals.
The 19-year-old, the youngest man in the draw, turned a remarkable Wimbledon main draw debut into a spectacular one, defeating the Spaniard 7-6 (7/5), 5-7, 7-6 (7/5), 6-3 in just under three hours on Centre Court on Tuesday.
The world number 144 will face Canadian eighth seed Milos Raonic on Wednesday for a place in the semi-finals. “I was in a bit of a zone out there, it hasn’t sunk in yet,” Kyrgios said.
“I played some extraordinary tennis. I was struggling a little bit on return but I worked my way into it and I got that break in the fourth set. I served at a really good level all throughout the match so I was really happy.”
Physical activity barriers and facilitators among working mothers and fathers
27/ 06/ 2014 – BMC Public Health
The transition to parenthood is consistently associated with declines in physical activity. In particular, working parents are at risk for inactivity, but research exploring physical activity barriers and facilitators in this population has been scarce. The purpose of this study was to qualitatively examine perceptions of physical activity among working parents.
Major themes for barriers included family responsibilities, guilt, lack of support, scheduling constraints, and work. Major themes for facilitators included being active with children or during children’s activities, being a role model for children, making time/prioritizing, benefits to health and family, and having support available. Several gender differences emerged within each theme, but overall both mothers and fathers reported their priorities had shifted to focus on family after becoming parents, and those who were fitting in physical activity had developed strategies that allowed them to balance their household and occupational
responsibilities.