Although a number of studies have shown that perceived control is associated with an increased use of problem-focused coping strategies, the relationship between perceived control and emotion-focused coping is less conclusive. 231 female and 113 male adolescent sport participants recalled a stressful situation experienced in sport followed by measures of perceived stress, coping, and control beliefs. Hierarchical regression analysis showed that perceived stress explained significant variance in emotion-focused coping beyond control beliefs for both females and males. Overall, the results supported most of the basic tenets of Compas et al.’s (1991) model that problem-focused coping should be related to an individual’s perceived control over the stressful situation, whereas emotion-focused coping should be more strongly related to overall level of stress experienced. Perceived stress is important to consider in a model of control beliefs and coping; however, the strength of its importance seems to depend on the dimension of control beliefs.

Recent research examining organizational stress in competitive sport suggests that as a profession we may need to broaden our competencies in order to address the overall stress experience in performers. In this brief report, the AA. reflect on the extant literature and discuss potential organizational stressors within the following major categories: (a) factors intrinsic to the sport, (b) roles in the sport organization, (c) sport relationships and interpersonal demands, (d) athletic career and performance development issues, and (e) organizational structure and climate of the sport (cf. Fletcher, Hanton, & Mellalieu, in press). In doing so, the AA. seek to raise awareness of the key issues and implications of this work and stimulate future research activity in this area.

The objective of this study was to investigate the detection of movement cues indicating whether soccer goalkeepers would dive to the right or the left during penalty kicks. Two-dimensional kinematic analysis of the videotapes and Sport Radar Stalker recordings were used to identify movements of different parts of the body before the kick, and take-off speed of the kicked ball. The AA. found two variables that differed significantly and that predicted the direction of the goalkeeper’s movement toward the right or left before the ball was kicked. These variables were, in order of reliability, angle of knee extension greater than 150º, which predicted movement of the goalkeeper toward the side opposite to the knee, and angle of knee flexion less than 100º, which predicted movement of the goalkeeper toward the same side as the knee. Except for the greater stability of movement prior to kicking in professional goalkeepers, no other significant differences were found in movement patterns in anticipation of the penalty kick between professional and amateur goalkeepers.

This study examined the coaching behaviors of five Canadian National coaches across three team sports in order to determine the central elements of their practice environment. Each coach was observed over multiple practice sessions that took place in a centralized training camp environment prior to an international competition. A modified version of the Coaching Behavior Recording Form (Tharp & Gallimore, 1976) was used to code both frequency and duration data across all coaching behaviors. In addition, qualitative data were derived from open-ended interviews with both coaches and athletes. The results confirmed that instruction constituted the majority of coaching behaviors. More importantly, tactical instruction was found to be the dominant form of instruction. Notable differences between the measures of frequency and duration were evident for Tactical Instruction and Praise/Encouragement. Results support the notion that expert coaches construct practice in a manner that maximizes the transfer of information to their players.

On September 1, 2001, the table tennis scoring system changed. The goal of the present study was to evaluate the impact of the new system on elite table tennis players’ exploration activity during matches. Matches under the old and the new scoring systems were videotaped, and the players’ verbalizations as they viewed the tapes were collected. The data were processed according to the course-of-action framework (Theureau, 1992, 2004). Comparison of the players’ courses of action showed that, although the series of courses of action were identical under the two scoring systems, the organization of these series changed with the change in system. The new scoring system has disturbed the strategies that expert table tennis players habitually employ to determine effective strokes. The modifications in their courses of action indicate that athletic activity is sensitive to the context in which performance unfolds.