Athlete Self-Report Measure Use and Associated Psychological Alterations

A Proposed Conceptual Sport Nutrition Approach for Athlete Development and Assessment: The Athlete Nutrition Development Approach

Appropriate dietary intake can improve athletes' health and sport performance and is a direct result of eating behaviours. Therefore, assessing and shaping athletes' eating behaviours and dietary intake is critical to the provision of sport nutrition services. As such, nutrition practitioners must also consider the determinants of eating behaviours. However, dietary intake, eating behaviours, and its determinants are inconsistently defined in the literature, requiring nutrition practitioners to navigate a complicated landscape of concepts and terminology. This is further complicated by limitations in practically measuring and influencing eating behaviours and dietary intake. The proposed Athlete Nutrition Development Approach was developed to aid practitioners in servicing decisions through the athlete development process, through a three-tiered approach to sport nutrition service delivery. Tier 1 addresses the determinants of eating behaviours, Tier 2 directly addresses eating behaviours and dietary intake, and Tier 3 addresses the consequences of dietary intake in relation to health and sport performance. Each tier includes tools for assessment and development.

Training, Wellbeing and Recovery Load Monitoring in Female Youth Athletes

Participation in youth sports is ever-increasing, along with training and competition demands placed upon youth athletes. Young athletes may experience high training loads due to playing several sports, as well as participating in school physical education. Therefore, monitoring youth athlete load is an emerging area of research that may help limit non-functional overreaching, injury, or illness and assist with long-term athlete development. This narrative review highlights that multiple measures have been explored to monitor both internal and external load. However, the validity, reliability and practicality of these measures are often not fully understood in female youth populations. The most commonly used external monitoring methods are GPS tracking and TRIMP whereas common internal monitoring tools are questionnaires, perceived exertion rating and heart rate measures. The reporting of injuries and menstrual cycles is also crucial for providing completeness when monitoring an athlete. It has been suggested that the combination of training load, recovery and wellbeing monitoring variables is the optimal way to monitor an athlete's fatigue levels. Whichever monitoring method is applied, in a youth population it is important that the protocol can be individualised, is inexpensive and can be easily implemented and reported so that the monitoring is sustainable.

Delineating privacy aspects of COVID tracing applications embedded with proximity measurement technologies & digital technologies

As the COVID-19 pandemic expanded over the globe, governments implemented a series of technological measures to prevent the disease's spread. The development of the COVID Tracing Application (CTA) was one of these measures. In this study, we employed bibliometric and topic-based content analysis to determine the most significant entities and research topics. Additionally, we identified significant privacy concerns posed by CTAs, which gather, store, and analyze data in partnership with large technology corporations using proximity measurement technologies, artificial intelligence, and blockchain. We examined a series of key privacy threats identified in our study. These privacy risks include anti-democratic and discriminatory behaviors, politicization of care, derogation of human rights, techno governance, citizen distrust and refusal to adopt, citizen surveillance, and mandatory legislation of the apps' installation. Finally, sixteen research gaps were identified. Then, based on the identified theoretical gaps, we recommended fourteen prospective study strands. Theoretically, this study contributes to the growing body of knowledge about the privacy of mobile health applications that are embedded with cutting-edge technologies and are employed during global pandemics.

Mobile Athlete Self-Report Measures and the Complexities of Implementation

Recent practice in athlete monitoring has seen the development and implementation of customized, digital Athlete Self-Report Measures or Mobile Athlete Self-Report Measures (M-ASRM) across various sport settings, including amateur sports such as Gaelic Games. Successful implementation of M-ASRM requires significant consideration of the use context and limitations therein, an investment of time and expertise by staff and buy-in from key stakeholders, yet there is limited evidence of these considerations being applied in practice. This study aimed to investigate stakeholder perceptions regarding the implementation processes and understanding of a pre-existing M-ASRM in elite Gaelic Games. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the use of a topic guide to explore the rationale, introduction and use of M-ASRM. Participants were 21 M-ASRM users in elite Gaelic Games (players n = 10, coaches and support staff n = 11), from 15 teams. Thematic analysis was conducted collaboratively by two authors, adopting an inductive approach and coding the transcripts using NVivo 12 software. Four higher-order themes were formed from the data: (1) clarity of purpose; (2) implementation strategies; (3) players perceptions of use and (4) perceived facilitators of M-ASRM use. The results of this study demonstrate a significant underestimation of the practical requirements for successful implementation of an M-ASRM by users in elite Gaelic Games. Recommendations are made for implementation and best practice use, including shared decision-making, evidence-based education strategies, structured feedback channels and improved planning with regards to feasibility and responsibility.

Monitoring Athletes during Training Camps: Observations and Translatable Strategies from Elite Road Cyclists and Swimmers

Monitoring is an essential yet unstandardized component of managing athletic preparation. The purpose of this paper is to provide insight into the typical measurements and responses observed from monitoring elite road cyclist and swimmers during training camps, and translate these observations to practical strategies for other practitioners to employ. Twenty-nine male professional cyclists, 12 male and 19 female international swimmers participated in up to three of the eight 4–19 day training camps, held early in the season or leading into major competitions, at sea-level or moderate altitude. Monitoring included body mass and composition, subjective sleep, urinary specific gravity (USG), resting heart rate (HR) and peripheral oxygen saturation (SpO₂) at altitude. Sum of seven skinfolds most likely decreased in the order of 3.1 ± 3.6 mm week-to-week, accompanied by a most likely trivial decrease in body mass of 0.4 ± 0.4 kg week-to-week. At altitude, sleep quality very likely trivially improved week-to-week (0.3 ± 0.3 AU), SpO₂ possibly increased week-to-week (0.6 ± 1.7%), whilst changes in resting HR were unclear (0 ± 4 bpm). Sleep duration and USG were stable. Comparing individual to group day-to-day change in monitored variables may prove effective to flag athletes potentially at risk of training maladaptation. Practitioners may replicate these methods to establish thresholds specific to their cohort and setting. This study provides further support for a multi-faceted approach to monitoring elite athletes in training camp environments.