The purpose of the present study was to examine job satisfaction of accomplished male basketball coaches working within the Canadian university context. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were carried out with six successful coaches. An inductive qualitative data analysis was conducted and three principal categories emerged: personal histories and characteristics as athletes and coaches, coaching intentions, and dimension related to job satisfaction. All coaches were very passionate about their jobs and set outcome goals, yet they always remained deeply concerned about the personal development of their athletes. Some factors caused them job dissatisfaction, such as financial resources and administrative duties, but these were more than compensated by their positive attitudes and love of coaching. These results are discussed within the contextual nature of Canadian university sport.

This article examines the explanatory "preference" of 278 football players evolving at various levels (professional vs amateurs). By "preference", we mean that the players do not offer certain explanations for their veracity, but for their value and social utility. This theoretical positioning follows the line of work on the norm of internality, Beauvois (1984, 1994), Dubois (1994, 2003) and Beauvois & Dubois, (1988), and is distinguished from other conceptual fields that are interested in causal explanations (in particular causal attributions and Locus of Control). Finally, using Gosling’s work (1999), we examine the nature of social norms mobilized by the players. The amateurs would activate a norm oscillating between that of effort and complacency whereas, for the professionals, a norm of responsibility seems to be at work.

The theory of deliberate practice (Ericsson, Krampe, & Tesch-Römer, 1993) and the principle of specificity maintain that specific forms of training (i.e., deliberate practice) are the most beneficial to performance improvements. However, activities that share common elements may also be useful in perpetuating performance adaptations. This study examined the roles of specific (i.e., all swim, cycle, and run training/competition) and non-specific (all other training/competition) forms of training in predicting performance in ultra-endurance triathletes. Twenty-eight UE triathletes provided information regarding training performed throughout their career and completed detailed training profiles for the year leading up to their key ultra-endurance race of the season. Forward stepwise regression analyses were used to determine the predictability of time spent in the various forms of training on overall race performance and performance in each of the triathlon events. Results generally supported the specificity of training hypothesis; however, there was some evidence of transfer among the activities. Further, the amount of variance accounted for by sport specific forms of training was typically less than 50%, indicating a large degree of inter-individual variation remains unaccounted for by ‘deliberate practice’. While these findings provide additional support for the role of non-specific transfer in developing expertise, a number of unique limitations should be considered in future research.

There is a paucity of information pertaining to moderators of mood during exercise. This investigation examined potential moderating effects of six variables on the mood changes of 80 regular runners during a 60-minute treadmill run: (i) beliefs concerning mood improvements during running; (ii) preexercise mood; (iii) feelings of exertion during running; (iv) reason for running; (v) gender; and (vi) gender role. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed that beliefs concerning mood improvements (accounting for between 5%-10% of mood improvements), preexercise mood (accounting for between 13%-38% of mood improvements) and feelings of exertion during running (accounting for between 7%-9% of improvements in energy and elation) were identified as potential moderators of mood improvements during running. Further, in contrast to gender, which did not make a significant contribution to any mood improvements, positive femininity accounted for a small, yet significant, proportion (between 4-6 %) of the variance of improvements in clearheadedness and elation..