Purpose This study is a phenomenological research which tries to describe the subjective experience and to analyze multi-layered meanings, and it finds out the men's training experience and meaning. The purpose of this study is to investigate why the men do Yoga and what the subjective meaning of Yoga experience, and the study examines critically whether Yoga experience especially focused on women is against gender performance and dominant body discourse. Methods For the study, 6 middle & young-old aged men who do Yoga more than 6 months every week are selected as participants. Results The meaning of Yoga for middle & young-old aged men in their lives is as follows. First, it is hard for men to experience Yoga because of social and cultural background. Finding Yoga class which takes men's membership is difficult. Second, middle & young-old aged men's physical feature(interest in their health and disease) and personal background(women friendly daily life) become specific motivation to overcome the barrier to do Yoga. Third, Yoga is 'alterative training', not a training. Yoga is considered as a training which replaces the feature of training called men's sports previously. Fourth, Yoga has a meaning of 'healing' to have our own time. Fifth, Yoga is changed by itself in Yoga culture which is focused on women even though middle & young-old aged men do Yoga for a long time. Sixth, middle & young-old aged men realize that the feature of Yoga is not 'for only women', and they thought it is 'neutral training that men can do too.' Conclusion Consequently, the reason why middle & young-old aged men do Yoga is started from the motivation regarding physical characteristics and personal background, and the main purpose is to cure and to heal our bodies and mind. For them, Yoga means 'alternative training to fit their bodies' and 'their own time'. Moreover, old male adult's training experience and meaning are against gender performance in that it cause a crack in stereotyped gender sports area, but it is notable that there is no intention to resist the dominant gender body discourse.
PURPOSE This study identified a company sports club’s dual characteristics— both for leisure activity and as an extension of work—to provide comprehensive interpretation and understanding of such clubs. METHODS A qualitative case study design was employed, incorporating in-depth interviews, nonparticipant observation, and supplementary data collection from 25 office workers who had participated in an in-house sports club for at least one year. RESULTS Participants reported a wide spectrum of motivations, from voluntary motives such as stress relief and health improvement to more obligatory or organizationally driven motives, including pressure from supervisors or colleagues and expectations related to performance evaluations. The club offered both team sports—which fostered teamwork and a sense of belonging—and individual sports—which offered personal development opportunities. However, some participants experienced blurring of work–leisure boundaries and reemergence of hierarchical organizational culture, leading to conflict and fatigue. CONCLUSIONS Overall, Although company sports clubs have become a welfare program that provides employees with opportunities for leisure and self-development and promote inter-departmental communication and collaboration, they also carry the latent risk of imposing additional burdens and pressures on employees. These findings underscore the need for refined operational strategies and institutional improvements to mitigate negative outcomes and maximize such programs’ original intent.
PURPOSE This study examined levels of safety knowledge and practice among recreational sports participants, focusing particularly on impacts of gender, age, injury experience, and exercise-level profile. In sports environments, understanding these factors is essential for developing targeted strategies to promote safe behaviors. METHODS Survey data from 7725 participants engaged in regular recreational sports activities were analyzed. Latent Profile Analysis was employed to categorize participants based on their injury experience and exercise levels, resulting in two profiles: Group 1 (moderate or severe injury experience with intermediate exercise levels) and Group 2 (mild injury experience with beginner exercise levels). Three-way ANOVA was then used to evaluate relationships between these profiles and safety knowledge and practice levels. RESULTS Results revealed significant differences across sex, age, and profile groups. Compared with women, men demonstrated higher levels of safety knowledge and practice, which were likely influenced by greater exposure to high-intensity sports and risk-taking tendencies. Adolescents exhibited the highest levels of safety knowledge and practice linked to structured safety education, but these levels declined in early adulthood and then increased again in middle age due to growing health awareness and preventive motivations. Furthermore, participants in Group 1 consistently showed higher levels of safety knowledge and practice than those in Group 2, highlighting injury experience’s role in shaping safety behaviors. CONCLUSIONS These findings underscore the importance of developing gender-specific safety education programs, age-appropriate interventions, and training initiatives tailored to beginning participants. Future research should evaluate these strategies’ long-term impact on safety practices and injury prevention in diverse sports settings.
PURPOSE This study aimed to provide evidence for improving the working environment by exploring the phenomenon of presenteeism experienced by coaches. METHODS Ten coaches experiencing presenteeism were selected as participants of the study using the snowball sampling method, and in-depth interviews were conducted. The in-depth interviews were conducted for about 50 to 60 min using semi-structured questions organized through pre-expert meetings, and inductive content analysis was conducted. RESULTS First, the health problems that developed while coaching were categorized into two detailed areas (physical and psychological symptoms). Second, the causes of presenteeism were categorized into four general areas (policy and institutional problems, poor job environment, athlete problems, and human relations). Third, performance loss due to presenteeism was categorized into two general areas (coach-athlete relationship damage and poor training performance). Finally, coping with presenteeism was categorized into three detailed areas (private time spending, joining acquaintances, and changing training methods). CONCLUSIONS The result of this study confirmed that coaches are currently experiencing the phenomenon of presenteeism for various reasons, and the symptoms and coping method for this differ with each individual. However, the phenomenon of presenteeism experienced by coaches requires further future research since it is not easily observed and the coping method is not efficient.
PURPOSE This study aimed to identify the nature of human rights violations experienced by semi-professional athletes in semi-professional sports teams and explored the relevant cases. METHODS For this purpose, 35 semi-professional athletes (20 men and 15 women) from the semi-professional sports teams participated in the study, and data collection was conducted through in-depth interviews and focus group interviews (FGI). The collected data were analyzed using the phenomenological research method proposed by Colaizzi (1978). RESULTS The study summarized the results into five categories, 14 theme clusters and 41 themes. Its inherent structures include ‘first step to becoming a semi-professional athlete: disadvantageous contracts for players,’ ‘unavoidable absolute power: obedience to the coach,’ ‘forced training camp: autonomy and privacy infringement,’ ‘structural problems of the semi-professional sports federation: tyrannized power’ and ‘female players who are in male-oriented society: gender-focused than performance.’ CONCLUSIONS The results of this study provided an understanding of athletes’ human rights violations experienced in semi-professional sports teams. Understanding athletes in semi-professional sports teams through phenomenological research was conducted based on previous studies discussing practical and policy intervention measures.
Recently, there have been diverse types of physical activities supported by government policy in S. Korea. However, these activities may not be effective if they do not reach to moderate to vigorous level. This study designed school physical education system based on SPARK program, which include traditional physical education, sports club based physical activity, after school physical activity, and Saturday physical activity, to evaluate its effectiveness associated with physical fitness and empirical meanings of physical activity. This study employed a mixed method research paradigm for better understanding. Among various mixed method paradigm stances, this study employed "blending strategy" for complementary analysis. First of all, the effectiveness in health condition was evaluated by quantitative data. Specifically, physical fitness and lifestyle were analyzed by Helmas, IPAQ, and Accelerometer respectively. Second, empirical meanings of physical activity were analyzed by both Photovoice and in-depth interview which are qualitative research method. The result of this study first showed that a specially designed school physical activity program based on the SPARK contributed to improve students' physical fitness and lifestyle as well, however, there were important differences between male and female students. Second, physical achievement, alteration of spatiotemporal meaning, and change of societal relationship emerged as important themes. Further, these themes showed that they played an important role to maintain students' motivation in physical activity and consequently physical activity promotion was invigorated in school. Based on these results, we synthesized investment factors and process factors and outcome factors respectively. Finally, we suggested alternative teaching methods and suggestions for following research to overcome gender issues.
Purpose The purpose of this study was to examine athletes’ psychological competition experiences. Methods For this study, 64 student athletes, attending universities located in Seoul and Chungcheongbuk-do, participated in the study by completing an unconstructed questionnaire. The data were analysed through content analysis method. Results As a result, 15 themes, such as morale loss, comparable performance levels, opponent irritation were collected and the themes were classified into three categories including objectives of psychological competition, requirements of psychological competition, and psychological battle. In match situations, athletes attempt to psychologically compete in order to achieve objectives such as opponent’s morale loss, induce carelessness, trigger agitation and anger, dispersion of attention, and distraction. Psychological competition among rivals is valid when the requirements, such as comparable performance levels, sensitivity to match situations, strong tenacity and confidence, understanding of opponent and oneself, mutual checks and balances, are met. Athletes attack and defend to win the psychological competition by utilizing opponents irritation, information distortion, unexpected behaviors, predicting and coping, pulling a poker face, exclusion of opponents, and self-focusing. Conclusion This study created a theoretical foundation for a profound understanding of athletes’ psychological competition, which is often found in sport fields. Furthermore, this study is meaningful in that it has raised a chance of interest concerning psychological interaction between players in match situations.
PURPOSE This study aims to analyze the effects of injury prevention video feedback on kinetic variables of the knee joint during the cutting maneuver. METHODS Twenty-eight healthy men participated and motion and force data were collected using infrared cameras, a force plate, and a Witty timing system. Paired t-tests were employed for data evaluation using the SPSS 26.0 program. RESULTS Results showed increased abduction and lateral rotation angles of the knee joint at the lower height of the center of mass (COM) (p<. 05). The lateral rotation of the knee joint decreased at initial ground contact (p<.05). Flexion angular velocity increased at initial ground contact after video feedback (p<.05) and decreased at the lower height of COM (p<.05). Abduction angular velocity decreased at the lower height of COM (p<.05), and internal rotation angular velocity was increased on the initial ground contact (p<.05). Maximum ground reaction force for anterior-posterior and medial-lateral directions increased after video feedback (p<.05). Flexion and internal rotation moments increased, and adduction moment also increased (p<.05). CONCLUSIONS In conclusion , video feedback effectively reduced knee load during the cutting maneuver, contributing to injury prevention for the knee joint.
Purpose The purpose of this study is to deeply understand what high school student athletes are doing as athletes and how they are transformed into student athletes from studying and exercising simultaneously. Through this, to understand the life of student wrestlers and to provide basic data for rational improvement of school athletic department. Methods Participants of the study selected one student in the second grade and two students in the third grade at Woosu high school in metropolitan. Data was collected through in-depth interviews, participant observation, and document analysis. The collected data was analyzed using Domain Analysis and Taxonomic Analysis by Spradley(1979). To assure the credibility of the data, additional checks and analysis were conducted with the participants, and the research process was examined by experts. Moreover, the common contents of the data were included in the research results with multilateral verification. Results Woosu high school wrestling student athletes were recognized as athletes as a training life to lose their dreams, a school life to stop their work. However, since student athletes have been studying and exercising together, they have been transformed from a trainee to a motivated active, a student who is reborn in the school community, and transformed a reflective student athlete to an immature player on a daily life. Conclusion The policy of the school athletic department to study and exercise together has a positive effect on student athletes and has a good effect. The introduction and practice of this system can expect true student athletes and establish elite physical education right away.
PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to investigate the characteristics of field and on-ice performances of ice-hockey players and the relationship of performance with subjective joint pain and dysfunction. METHODS A total of 25 male college icehockey players were evaluated for 19 items of performance. Pain and dysfunctions in the lower extremities and lower back were confirmed through the Foot and Ankle Outcome Score, Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score, Hip Dysfunction and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score, and Osweatry Disability Index questionnaire. Players with similar performance characteristics were classified through a cluster analysis, and differences in performance and patient-reported outcomes between clusters were analyzed with a one-way analysis of variance. RESULTS The ice-hockey players were classified into “lower muscular strength and performance (cluster 1),” “lower cardiorespiratory endurance (cluster 2),” and “high muscular strength and performance (cluster 3).” Players in cluster 1 had more frequent ankle and knee joint dysfunctions and pain compared to those in cluster 3. Several performance test items affected the subjective joint score, and the related performance items were more in the proximal joint than in the distal joint. CONCLUSIONS Ice hockey players should perform training to supplement their individual lack of on-ice and field performance. Since performance may be limited because of joint dysfunction and pain, a joint-specific intervention strategy should be applied to improve physical and athletic performances.
