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Medals and degrees: factors influencing dual career of elite student athletes at the University of Debrecen
93-98Views:223Career planning and goal setting play a significant role in the life of elite athletes gaining critical relevance during the overlapping years with university studies. As athletic career contain a necessary end and cannot serve as a profession for life, all athletes shall go through modification period in their professional lives. The athletic career shall come to an end and elite athletes need to find another profession for which they need to prepare as well. The specialities of this undertake is that the peak or the progressive cycle of athletic career often times overlap in time with high school and university studies. This definitely challenges those young athletes who made the decision to continue their studies at the university level beside their athletic careers. The objective of this study is to explore the main factors influencing the simultaneous realisation of studies and elite sport careers during university years. Part of a complex research approach on dual career in sport this study is aimed to gain information about methods of athletes for managing their dual tasks, the perceived relationship of student athletes to their peers, teachers and coaches, and their position on the relevant policy regulations provided by the university environment. Following the development of research instruments, data collection was conducted by focus-group interviews at the University of Debrecen among student elite athletes receiving sport scholarships (N=15). Level of success in sport, sport type (individual and team) and gender distribution was taking into account. The results shall contribute to the development of a future research instrument in a form of a questionnaire to assess aspects of dual career of athletes in case of larger samples.
JEL code: Z20
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The connection between academic and athletic performance among elite university student athletes
19-26Views:522Athletes in higher education are not only expected to produce high level performance but to find the balance between the preparation for post-athletic life and the requirements of the university. The objective of this study is to explore the connections between academic performance and level of sport. Also, to elaborate on the role of relevant policy regulations and institutional support that help elite athletes meet academic requirements. Data collection was conducted by means of online questionnaires involving athletes receiving sport scholarships at the University of Debrecen (N=159). The data from questionnaires were processed by using SPSS 18. Version software. For data analyse four groups were extracted based on level of sport performance and involvement: international elite, division I, division II, division III. The results indicate that the academic performance on the two international elite of sport did not differ from the average, and that these athletes did not experience any difficulties earning course credits at the university while being engaged in doing sport. In most cases, elite athletes did not apply for the various kind of support instruments, thus, they are able to balance athletic preparation and academic requirements without supportive modifications of university policies. The results also shed light on the fact that the academic performance does not only depend on the level of sport and the chosen major at the university, but it is also influenced by the time devoted to study and training, and the sport type (individual or team sport). There are differences observed between athletes participating in individual or team sport concerning the general average of grades, the effectiveness of earning credits, the number of weekly training, as well as the time devoted to training in preparatory and competitive periods. According to the results, the various amount of time devoted to study or sport does not necessarily result in academic performance decline. In addition, results support that athletes do keep academic studies rather important and they are aware that university years are considered to be a significant period in preparation for post-athletic life.
JEL code: Z20
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Relationships between coping strategies and psychoactive substance use
102-108Views:273The study examines the relationship between coping strategies and smoking and alcohol consumption among athletes, recreational athletes and non-athlete individuals.
The factors examined were measured by a validated questionnaire version of Folkman-Lazarus (1980) (Ways of coping) (16 items) and asked about the smoking and alcohol consumption patterns of the respondents. The total sample number was 813 people, of whom 341 were athletes, 292 were recreational and 180 were non-athletes. 54.4% of the sample is female and 45.6% is male. In my research, I focused on mapping intrapersonal coping strategies among athletes, recreational athletes, and the non-athlete individuals, and explored gender differences. Furthermore, how smoking and alcohol consumption appear as a negative coping strategy in the measured sample.
As a method besides descriptive statistics the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was used to verify normality, and the hypotheses were tested with non-parameterized test (Kruskal-Wallis, and Mann-Whitney).
For coping strategies I found a significant difference among the non-, recreational and competitive athletes, and there is a significant difference between genders as well.
In the case of cognitive restructurings, there was a significant difference in favor of sports and recreational athletes versus non-athletes, while in problem analysis and passive coping I found a significant difference in favor of women compared to men.
Significant differences were also found in the case of psychoactive substance use. Among the three groups, as the intensity of sport increases, the number of smokers decreases. In the case of smoking, a significant difference was found in the coping strategies referring to reduction of the stress in the whole sample. In the case of alcohol consumption, in coping strategies were found significant differences between stress reduction, problem analysis and passive coping.
JEL CODE: M21, O21
ARTICLE IN PRESS!
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Athlete’s life path in the perspective of gender athletes reporting opportunities in their sports after their sport carrier
59-70Views:349Sport is the highlight of the male-female relationship system. We find that the concept of homogeneity is becoming more and more weakened, sport becomes unisex, which can strongly influence gender judgment in society. The "weaker sex" appearance and spread of the sport indicate that something has changed in the world, so thinking has to change also. Nowadays, there is a dual process in the field of sport: 1.) women appear in the traditionally masculine sports, and this plays an important role in the development of gender relations as mixed races arise; 2.) at the same time, men also appear in previously reserved areas for women, which they have not had opportunities so far (BÉKI, 2018). This phenomenon can be observed, though much slower in sports management. Yet in other sports roles, the gates for both sexes have not yet been opened in masculine and feminine sports. The study deals with how the status of an athlete will be transformed after sport if he/she wants to remain his or her sport in other sports roles - concentrating on coaching and judging roles – to represent his or her own sport. Particularly, we have been focusing on sports whose judgment is not socially acceptable to both sexes. The research sample is team and individual women athletes who are more than 14 years old. Research method is in-depth interview research (n = 145) and questionnaire research (n = 240). The results showed that female athletes are becoming more accepted in masculine sports, although more limited in their careers possibilities than men after an athlete’s life. Their athlete’s identity is strong, they want to stay in the sport on the civilian life as well.
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Women on ice - gender equalization
137-145Views:327In the last decades the women started to do sports which were originally masculine (Pfister, 1990). The parity led to the slow transformation of the old-school thinking about the traditional roles of sexes (Hall, 1996). The main questions of our investigation were whether the athletes’ thought of the figure skating and the ice hockey are different according to their sport or to the existing stereotypes in the Hungarian sport society. We used semi-structured interviews to gather opinions of two different gender type icy sports’ top women athletes (figure skating and ice hockey) to see their viewpoints about the gender equalization. We can verify Metheny (1965) findings, that the social acceptance or refusal of women in sports on the basis of traditional features is changing slightly. Research questions were: Are there differences in the childhood sport socialization processes of the representatives of the two sports? What was the motivation behind their choice of sports? Are there differences in the gender identities of female athletes? What is the athletes’ opinion on one another and the representatives of the other sport? Method was semi-structured in-depth interviews and the samples were the members of the Hungarian women ice hockey and figure skating national team. According to our results family and siblings were decisive in the childhood socialization process. Early age patterns do not seem to have much influence on the selection of sport. Although among water polo/ice hockey girls there were a few tomboys. Among the ice hockey team members there were girlish girls and boyish girls as well, but among the figure skaters there were no one who was boyish. No differences can be observed in their views on gender roles concerning for example employment or housework.
JEL Code: Z29
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How Digital Technologies Are Changing Sport?
89-96Views:977Sports is considered to be an outstanding sector of industry all over the world and can be defined in various fields from business point of view: for example competitive sports, recreation, fitness and entertainment (running commentary). All of these areas have been remarkably transformed by digital technology. Over the past three decades, the discipline sport informatics has become a growing discipline. In today’s connected world, the use of wearable technology, big data analytics, social media and sensor technology have revolutionized the way sports are played, analyzed and improved. Through various modern advances and apps, pro athletes can gain greater insight into their performance, improve training methods and elevate their skills. In addition to these, fans looking for mobile-friendly apps to give them the latest stats on the favorite players; real-time, behind the scenes content coupled with the instant reaction, from athletes and fellow fans alike. They want the highs, the lows, the remix replays, seeking a connection beyond the game and looking to share the experience with like-minded fans in the moment (WESTON, 2018). The aim of this present study, on the one hand, is to determine the interlocks of sports and information technology, on the other hand, to show how to increase fan experience with digital technologies under-propping them with practical examples. According to international literatures, there are 4 macro areas which show the linking between sport and informatics: athletic performance, sport club, event management, fan experience. Mobil fan experience, augmented (AR) and virtual reality (VR), big data, social media are those technologies which even popular are these days in order to enhance fan experience in sport.
JEL Classification: L83
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Coach education approach in 16 Hungarian sport federations results of the first sport organizational audit
87-91Views:177Nowadays the Hungarian government finances the sports in many ways; one of these grant forms is the group of 16 prioritized sports (biking, boxing, fencing, gymnastic, judo, track and field, kayak-canoeing, modern pentathlon, rowing, shooting, skating, swimming, tennis, table tennis, volleyball and wrestling) which are supported notably by the Hungarian Olympic Committee (HOC) till 2020. The purpose of the 1st sport vocational audit was to identify the current status of these sports, and also to create a database in many fields as a benchmark of the development. The sport management department of the Semmelweis University, Faculty of Physical Education and Sport Sciences (TF) contracted with the Hungarian Olympic Committee (HOC) in order to carry the sport vocational audit out. A sport develops if the numbers of the athletes grow or the results of the national teams are better. The coaches are the key persons in this development, if they could gather more children into the sport or they work better with the elite athletes the development has already done. It was examined the existence of the coach education programs; all the federations were running coaching programs for adults (OKJ) in both levels (coach assistant, coach). By 14 associations existed the first level of the higher education coaching program (BSc) and in 13 federations operated the MSc coaching program as well. All these coaching courses were common programs with schools, or universities. It was no evidence found that the federations run own coaching program but coaching license system existed in two sports at the time of the investigation.
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Talent management based on therapeutic work with a professional handball team
63-66Views:169All athletes regardless of their age should get mental skills development that could be integrated into their normal training. Psychological training is essential for better performance because in sports the psychological factors play a very important role. The aim of this presentation is to show the therapeutic work of a professional men’s handball team and demonstrate the nature of the social environment and how it can have an effect on their performance. The author examines how a team forms, develops and works and what factors contribute achieving the optimum performance. The functions, structures, dynamics and goals of an adult team were analyzed and on top of that the focus was on the a threemonth long therapeutic process and its results as well. In order to improve the selfawareness and team building, the players were asked to fill out following questionnaires: psychometric questionnaire of Keczeli1, Keczeli2 questionnaire about roles, tasks and responsibilities within the team and playercoach relationship and attention questionnaire (Pieron). The conclusions of this work can be useful for further talent managment and develpoment.
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Masculine brave in the feminine winter sports
81-85Views:184The sport has significant role in the changes of the genders relation and helped to transform the conception of the sexes during the last fifty years. The women started to do conventionally male sports; the newest event was the ski jumping for female athletes at the Olympic Games of Soci. The gender stereotypes in the women sports can be stronger or weaker depending on the success or on the water haul. This phenomenon helps us to understand the new conceptions of the sexes in the context of the relationships of genders.
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Sports financing in Croatia
31-34Views:180Sport is a complex social activity that encompasses various areas. Some of these activities come within the category of public needs, which implies that sport is an activity of wider social interest and requires public intervention in its financing. These needs are determined by law and are an integral part of state and local budgets. It is also indisputable that the sport is an activity of exceptional significance for the society and it is equally clear that the investment into sport in Croatia is not proportional to that significance and top scores, which are achieved by the Croatian athletes. Sport can be in a partner relationship with the economy and the promoter of social changes and habits, but in order to become and remain that, general public has to be truthfully interested into sports.
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