Case Studies Of Skill Acquisition Flashcards
Single case studies
Individual athlete or one team (anything that can be confined/contained)
Essential to study an athlete or team in context
Not always practical to have a control group in intervention studies (coaches or other athletes might not want to be a control group)
Functions and methods of case studies
Exploratory, test theory and test interventions (very detailed lots of data and more varied info)
Retrospective: historical info about the team/individual to identify causes (easier)
Prospective: watched over period of time to observe progression (more difficult to predict)
Limitations of case studies?
Participant anonymity (bigger for athletes)
Low generalisability (external validity)
Lack of selectivity in data presentation (analyse don’t just describe)
Conclusions without evidence (without having statistical data)
Difficult to replicate/time consuming (cannot easily get like for like)
Inferring causation
More common
Removal of treatment (A B A design) : apply A, take it away B, bring it back A. Does performance follow a similar pattern?
Multiple baseline designs : start of treatment staggered across individuals to allow inferences about its affect
Alternating treatment
Changing criterion design
Barker et al (2013)
Review of single case research designs in sport
Removal of treatment (6/66) 9%
Multiple baseline designs (47/66) 71%
Alternating treatment (1/66) 2% Changing criterion design (1/66) 2%
McDougall (2013)
Range bound changing criterion design
Good for goal setting
Motivation
Prevent loss of confidence, injury etc
Sets an upper limit
Mujika (2012)
Aging and detraining (Miguel Indurain 14 years after environment)
Changes due to body composition changes or skill loss?
He slowly reduced his cycling frequency down to 8000 km over 6 months and was only taking part in recreational events
Results compared to tests carried out in his prime career in 1994 (24000 km)
Results: O2 uptake decreases, greater when in relation to body mass
Power output decreased
Larger changes in relation to body mass (opposed to relative values) indicate that retirement causes the body composition to change more than aerobic capacity
Mitroff et al (2013)
Stroboscopic training
7 forwards and 4 defense from NHL team
Effects of stroboscopic training on hockey performance (training and control)
Wore glasses for 10 mins per day for 16 days (no set way to do it)
Different plays for attacking and defensive players - tests not great not realistic (no goalkeeper no opponents)
Stroboscopic 18% improvement
Control -2% improvement
Link to hockey not quite clear- measures tested don’t represent
Why are these elite people so much better at something they should be good at anyway?
Gavin and Ward (1986)
Anti social behaviour
Assessed the effectiveness of a public posting on reducing the inappropriate on court behaviour of 5 trouble players throughout the season
(Racquet related, verbal, ball related, physical eg throwing shouting etc)
Multiple baseline design
Person essentially acts as own
Mesagno and Marchant (2013)
Choking and Netball
46 netball players screens to identify choking-resistant and choking susceptible
ABA design
A1- pre pressure baseline
B- pressure (video, audience, financial incentive)
A2- post pressure baseline
Performed 60 netball shots in each phase
CS and CR performed as expected
CR improved (esp during pressure)
CS low during pressure, no improvement
CR participants had task focused attention and avoidance cognitive coping strategies (reducing cognitive resources toward the stressor e.g blocking out distractions)
CS participants had emotion focused attention and approach cognitive strategies
This case study allows for more detail to be obtained?
Mann et al (2013)
Gaze behaviour in super elite cricket batsmen
Coaches often teach to “watch the ball onto the bat” but research indicates this is not the case (or possible)
Look at whether if applied to super elite would these findings be replicated?
Consistent head ball angle= rotation of head matches movement of the ball
Consistent head gaze angle= fixation of the eyes matches movement of the ball
Club cricketers cannot watch the ball into bat
Super elite can, more consistent
They can track the ball onto bat with consistent head ball angle?
