Knowledge Nuggets

While sports are known for promoting physical health, their mental health benefits are often overlooked. This study examines ‘Tackling the Blues’, a school program based in the UK that uses sports and activities to address mental health among students. Findings reveal the program positively impacted students’ comprehension of relationships, emotions, and stress, showing its potential...

Swimming skills and water safety are crucial for all water-based activities and sports, particularly for children and youth. Research on extracurricular swimming programs in underserved communities demonstrates significant improvements in participants’ swimming abilities and safety knowledge, leading to increased confidence in their skills.

Creatine, a popular supplement among athletes, enhances the body’s natural ATP production, improving performance during high-intensity exercises. It also promotes post-exercise recovery and may aid in rehabilitation after injury.

Female athletes in artistic, endurance and combat sports are at higher risk of developing disordered eating and eating disorders than the general population, and new research reveals some interesting sport-specific differences. For example, female endurance athletes engage in more disordered eating attitudes and behaviours than athletes in artistic and combat sports, emphasizing the importance of...

Mental fatigue is common among many athletes due to the high cognitive demands of sport. Mental fatigue in athletes has been shown to significantly impair both endurance and technical abilities, such as passing and shooting accuracy.

Biological rhythms are becoming a hot topic in sports science. The time of day has been shown to have a significant impact on athletic performance, with athletes often performing best in the late afternoon. This review looks at how our internal clocks affect performance and suggests that training schedules should match each athlete’s natural rhythms.

Elite athletes often grapple with keeping their mental health in check while striving for peak performance. Digging into the experiences of Swedish elite tennis players and exploring how they manage this up and down balancing act of mental health and performance throughout their careers shows the importance of support from sports psychologists.

Sport events often focus on adult audiences, potentially overlooking opportunities to engage youth. Participant driven events and smaller community competitions have shown greater promise in fostering long-term involvement in physical activities for youth.

Curious about different recovery methods? In a study with CrossFit athletes, researchers found that while electrical muscle stimulation had a slight edge in speeding up recovery, the methods tested, electrical muscle stimulation, light exercise, and total rest, were similar in their effectiveness.

Aquatic safety is important, especially for youth looking to play water-based sport. Children’s swimming education programs have demonstrated significant improvements in aquatic readiness and motor coordination through assessments conducted before and after sessions. Children who focused on basic skills development exhibit enhanced aquatic competence, underscoring the value of personalized swimming instruction.