Blog Archives

Let’s pick him!

How do scouts, coaches, and trainers alike decide which players deserve to get their further attention and which don’t? This is a very pertinent question when you consider that it is often on the basis of the ‘expert’ eye that

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Posted in Football, Joint Action, My own research, Science General, Sport Science

The sport hormone?

This article about our research into the biopsychology of team performance recently appeared in The Lancet (Diabetes and Endocrinology). Check it out!  A review argues that the hormone oxytocin affects athletic performance, because of its role in modulation of emotional and social

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Posted in Football, My own research, Science General, Sport Science, Uncategorized

How fair is youth sport and is it helping our children? Understanding relative age effects in sport.

How can an apostle, a greek sculpture and his creation shed light on the (un)fairness that our children are surrounded by when they take part in their favourite sport. Here’s a great paper I think any parent, and trainers and

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Posted in Football, My own research, Science General, Sport Science

Never give up …

Never give up! It’s more than just a platitude. In her extensive research, psychologist Angela Lee Duckworth found that more than IQ or talent or any other factor, the #1 predictor of a person’s success is their unflagging commitment to

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Posted in Football, Science General, Sport Science

Children have a right to lose – but praise does matter!

In a recent NY-Times Opinion it it is argued that losing is good for you. I think that educators should stop focussing on some end-result and start finding out how to make children happy – then learning will follow. In a recent Opinion

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Posted in Football, Science General, Sport Science

Getting too much of a good thing?! Young footballers showing signs of burnout.

Elite youth footballers are at risk of burnout before they leave school because of the perfectionist standards some feel coaches, parents and team members demand of them. Dr Hill Dr Andrew Hill, lecturer in sports and exercise science in the University of Leeds’ School

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Posted in Football, Science General, Sport Science

Diving in football: When and why cheating pays.

The findings of a human-based deception study fit perfectly with deception behaviours in the animal world, according to its authors. “They really are just a bunch of animals running around the sporting field – they have the same simple motivations of

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Posted in Ecological Psychology, Football, Science General, Sport Science

‘Win at all costs’ a recipe for failure

Coaching young athletes to enjoy their development rather than focusing on winning at all costs reduces the risk of burnout, according to research. Victoria University Institute of Sport, Exercise & Active Living researcher Thomas Curran said athletes’ passion for their sport took

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Posted in Football, Science General, Sport Science

Team membership boosts performance

It is well documented that competition can affect performance and emotion in sport. However, our understanding of the comparative effects of individual and team competitions on performance and emotion is limited. We also know little about emotion-based mechanisms underlying the

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Posted in Football, Science General, Sport Science

Emotions In Sports Are Expressed By Whole Bodies, Not Only By Facial Expressions

If you think that you can judge by examining someone’s facial expressions if he has just hit the jackpot in the lottery or lost everything in the stock market — think again. Researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and

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Posted in Science General, Sport Science