kinesiologists studying inactivity. . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 ......page 2 inesiology today fa 2018...

in the country and around the world. The theme of the 88th annual meeting orga-nized by Past President Debbie Rose, was “Physical Activity and Sedentary Behavior: Independent or Interrelated Public Health Issues”. When we are in Kinesiology and people ask what that is, we may often say it is the study of physical activity from multi-disciplinary perspectives. An examination of definitions by the National Academy of Kinesiology (“Kinesiology refers to the study of movement”) and the American Kinesiol-ogy Association (www.americankineisology.org) (“Kinesiology is an academic discipline which involves the study of physical activity”) reinforces the emphasis on physical activity.

Based on the research and range of topics at this year’s NAK meeting, it may be time to re-evaluate our current definitions. Many of the talks at the meeting focused on sedentary behavior as well as physical activity and the interrelationship between these constructs. The first conference ses-

“In 1904/1905 Luther Halsey Gulick orga-nized an Academy of Physical Education to bring together those who were doing original scientific work in physical training and to help promote such work. Early lead-ers met annually at Gulick’s camp at Lake Sebago, Maine to discuss an agreed-upon topic important to the developing field of physical education. With no constitution and no election to membership, this “academy” discontinued its meeting during World War I.” (www.nationalacademyofkinesiology.com). Now called the National Academy of Kinesiology members of “The Academy” are nominated and elected based primar-ily on their contributions to the scientific and professional field of kinesiology. Top researchers across the sub-disciplines in kinesiology are represented and the idea of a thematic conference each year continues.

I attend the annual meetings and always enjoy the focus on one topic from different approaches, presented by top researchers

Kinesiology TodayKinesiology TodayFall Issue 2018 Volume 11, No. 4 www.americankinesiology.org

Kinesiologists Studying InactivityTable of Contents

Kinesiologists Studying Inactivity. . . . . . . . . . . . . 1Combining Your Passion With Your Research . . . . . . 3

President’s ColumnRamping up for the AKA Leadership Workshop in Pheonix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5Don’t Stress: ‘Mindfulness’ Could Be the Key to Keep You Moving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8Celebrating 50 Years of the Michigan State University Motor Performance Study (MPS) . . . . . . 10Kinetic Revolutions: Developing Innovative Solutions for Mobility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14The Academic College at Wingate – How Kinesiology Looks in Israel . . . . . . . . . . . . 16Widely Available Devices Could Inform Fall Prevention Efforts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18NPAP Quarterly Update – Walking and Walkability Report Card . . . . . . . . . 20

Executive Director ColumnKinesiology: Think Globally-Act Locally . . . . . . . . . 21

Short ShotsWomen Breaking Ground Slowly in the NFL . . . . . . . 13Sport Psychology Around the World . . . . . . . . . . . 19Journal of Physical Education and Sport . . . . . . . . 22

By Penny McCullagh, Ph.D., KT Editor

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http://www.americankineisology.org

http://www.americankineisology.org

http://www.nationalacademyofkinesiology.com

http://www.nationalacademyofkinesiology.com

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Kinesiology Today FALL 2018 Volume 11, No. 4

www.americankinesiology.org

presentation are filmed and then uploaded to the NAK website. I urge you to take a look at these and share with your students.

If you are interested in any of the fol-lowing topics, you will certainly find the academy publications and videos on the website intriguing:

• We need better standardization of wearable devices for measurement

• From a school perspective – the problem is that children are sitting most of the time

• Instead of the terms objective and subjective measures- think about using the terms monitor-based and report-based

• Sitting is not synonymous with sed-entary behavior – especially in some populations

• Sitting is not the new smoking • If you run, can you sit longer? • We may need to focus on 24 hour guidelines that address activity, sed-entary behavior and sleep

• Will reducing sedentary behavior lead to increased physical activity?

Another interesting aspect of this year’s meeting was the introduction of “Ted” talks by the newly inducted fellows. These covered a wide arrange of topics including bone health, sleep, expertise, faculty develop-ment and a few other topics and will also be available on video.

sion focused on measuring physical activity with a focus on wearable devices and this conversation permeated many of the ses-sions in the conference. I learned that the International Society for the Measurement of Physical Behaviour has started a new publication called The Journal of Measure-ment of Physical Behaviour that focuses on research that uses wearable monitors to assess behaviors such as physical activity, sedentary behavior, movement disorders, and sleep.

I learned that Canada has modified their physical activity guidelines. Originally they had independent guidelines for physical activity and sedentary behavior and pro-moted guidelines from the National Sleep Foundation for sleep recommendations. Recently, the Canadian Society for Exer-cise Physiology recognized that there is accumulating evidence that there is an interaction, between physical activity, sed-entary activity and sleep and developed their own guidelines.

According to the website: “This novel, holistic approach incorporates all move-ment behaviours from sleep and seden-tary behaviours (i.e., no/low movement) to vigorous-intensity physical activity (i.e., high movement) into a single guideline that spans the 24-hour period, in agreement with the best available evidence.”

http://www.csep.ca/CMFiles/Guidelines/24hrGlines/GuidelineDevRe-

port_June2016_final.pdfOther sessions at the conference focused

on psychological issues related to physical activity in children and the importance of peers and gaining joy from participation and what is or perhaps is NOT happening in the school systems. One talk (perhaps with tongue in cheek) suggested we should put higher tax on items, like gasoline so people would stop using their cars. Coming from a public health perspective he argued that in the USA taxing items like cigarettes has had a major impact on decreasing smok-ing behavior.

A final session focused on physical activ-ity and sedentary behaviors in persons with multiple sclerosis, older adults and, individuals with spinal cord injury. This ses-sion was particularly challenging in helping us understand that sedentary behavior cannot be defined the same way across these populations. We were reminded in this session of the importance of using theory to guide your research and interventions were introduced to the Behaviour Change Wheel that is a synthesis of 19 behavior change frameworks that can guide indi-viduals who are not operating a theoretical framework, choose an appropriate one for their question or intervention. (http://www.behaviourchangewheel.com/)

Each year the National Academy of Kinesi-ology publishes their papers in the February issue of Kinesiology Review and all of the




http://www.csep.ca/CMFiles/Guidelines/24hrGlines/GuidelineDevReport_June2016_final.pdf



http://www.behaviourchangewheel.com/

http://www.behaviourchangewheel.com/



Combining Your Passion With Your Research

Dr. Bob Brustad, Professor at the Uni-versity of Northern Colorado has a

passion – baseball!. I have known Bob for nearly 30 years and have seen him in action – he is a baseball aficionado and it is unlikely that you could test him on any statistic that he would not know. He has attended Spring training on at least 16 occasions and has visited 17 of the 30 current major league baseball stadiums as well as 15 former stadiums. When he decided that he wanted to learn to speak Spanish he got started by listening to every Los Angeles Dodgers game broadcast on the radio by the legendary Jaime Jarrin, who is considered the greatest Spanish language baseball broadcaster. He still had a lot to learn about the Spanish language but this was an excellent initial exposure.

Bob’s primary area of research over the years has examined lifespan influences on sport and physical activity with an emphasis on youth. He has more recently moved into examining talent development and analyt-ics in sport.

Bob’s father was a mathematician so he learned early about the power of numbers and prediction. As a professor of sport and

exercise psychology, Bob is now turning his focus to predictions for major league baseball. He is attempting to determine whether growth and devel-opment-related knowledge can improve the accuracy of talent predictions and career success of high school players drafted in the annual major league draft.

I wanted to find out a little more about his recent work. So I asked him a few questions.

I asked Bob to explain to me what he is researching and what he has found.

“Age – relative age – is notably unappre-ciated when players are selected in Major League Baseball (MLB) or the National Basketball Association (NBA) drafts. Rela-tively older players clearly underperform and relatively younger players clearly over perform expectations when they hit the professional ranks. While there has been a lot of research on relative age effects in

youth sport, the idea has not been exam-ined much in the professional ranks. I have discussed this topic with various major league teams’ scouting personnel at the Major League Baseball Analytics conference in Phoenix. Major league baseball teams rely heavily on analytics with many clubs employing 10 or more full-time analytics (“number crunchers”). The Oakland Athletics and the Tampa Bay Rays have been two teams that have been very advanced in

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Dr. Bob Brustad, University of Northern Colorado speaks at Society for American Baseball Research Analytics Conference.






their analytical approaches and have had high levels of success when considering their limited finances.

I think that physical growth and devel-opmental patterns and timing are a big blind spot in talent development. When MLB and the NBA draft players at young ages, they sometimes don’t recognize that some players still have considerable growth remaining (particularly in basketball where virtually all of the players are late maturers). The magnitude of the remaining growth is quite variable. For a baseball pitcher, add-ing one inch of height post-high school will translate to a meaningful increase in fastball velocity which adds to the likelihood that the player will exceed expectations.”

Bob presented some data on NBA players at a recent meeting of the North American Society for the Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity. He collected available data on nearly 700 players who were drafted by the NBA over a recent 10 year period. He found that relatively older players were overvalued on draft day and tended to

underperform expectations. Conversely, relatively younger players over performed draft day expectations based upon their draft selection slot. In addition, later maturing players (as inferred from anthropometric data such as wingspan to height ratios) exceeded draft day expectations.

Bottom line is - there is still a lot of growth and maturation from 17 to 20 years old, particularly in those sports in which rela-tively later maturation is beneficial, such as basketball or volleyball or for certain positions, such as pitchers in baseball.

Bob continues with his passion for base-ball. He was recently selected to contrib-ute to a book on the first 25 years of the Colorado Rockies. He was privileged to interview Ellis Burks one of the greatest players in Rockies history and one of his favorite players.

Bob- Please tell me some interesting information about what you learned.

“The thing that I found most interesting in my interview with Ellis Burks was how much one coach influenced him at age 15.

Burks was not yet a very good high school player by any means at that age but his coach conveyed that he had uncommon aptitude and understanding of the game and that he could go far. As a child, Burks had little opportunity to play organized sports and so he was, obviously, a little “behind the curve” but this positive feedback from one coach really raised Burks’ expecta-tions about what he could achieve and he eventually went on to hit 352 home runs in the major leagues and was a near-Hall of Fame player. “

For those of you out there looking for a research topic – look in your heart – it just may be right there.

Parker, P.T, Nowlin, B., Levin, L., Riechers, C., Harding, T., Kinney, R.L., Wolf, G.H., Wolf, M.H., & Cohen, Al. (2018). Major League Baseball A Mile High: The First Quarter Century of the Colorado Rockies (The SABR Digital Library) (Volume 58). This book is a production of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR).






Ramping up for the AKA Leadership Workshop in Pheonix

It’s fall—which means it’s not only college

football season—but that it is time to ramp up our com-munication about the annual AKA Leadership Work-shop. This year’s workshop, entitled “Hiring, Evaluating,

and Retaining Kinesiology Faculty”, will be held in Phoenix, AZ on Jan 25-26. Maybe because it is Phoenix in January, but we have had no problem engaging individuals in the planning process! Of particular note, we are pleased to offer two very exciting pre-workshops on Jan 24-25; one entitled “Alumni Engagement and Fundraising” that is being co-chaired by Ron Zernicke and Jane Clark, and one entitled “Advising in Kinesiology: Challenges and Opportuni-ties” that is being co-chaird by Tannah Broman and Derek Smith. Registration for these pre-workshops, as well as the main workshop, is available by visiting the AKA website (www.americankinesiology.org). The pre-workshops do have maximum

registration limits, so I encourage you to register as soon as possible.

Following past tradition, a big part of the main AKA Leadership Workshop is soliciting proposals from our member insti-tutions. That process is now live on the AKA website as well, with instructions for submitting for 1) poster presentations and roundtable discussions, and 2) specific theme-focused sessions. For those new to the AKA Leadership Workshop, there are additional details explaining the differences between these sessions. However, one thing that threads all of the sessions is the highly interactive nature of the programming. We are well aware that the strength of the annual workshop is the wealth of knowledge that the registrants provide (many of whom are department chairs, deans, or other academic leaders). This year’s workshop is particularly attentive to that, and we’ve made it very clear that any proposal for the specific theme-focused sessions require a combination of short presentations and something highly interactive like a case-study or group discussion/report outs.

Some of the specific topics for this year’s AKA Leadership Workshop include:

• Interacting with the Dean and Pro-vost Offices on Recruiting and Retaining Faculty

• Managing Promotion and Tenure Processes

• Incentivizing Faculty Behavior in Teaching, Research, and/or Service

• Managing Salary and Merit Processes • Successful Recruitment and Retention • Supporting and Evaluating Non-Ten-ure Track Faculty

This year’s workshop is a must for any leader (or aspiring leader) who aims to advance their unit in this ever changing landscape of higher education. See you in Phoenix!

President’s Column

By Jason R. Carter, Ph.D., Michigan Tech University

Jason Carter







Update on AKA Leadership Institute Fellowship and WebinarsIn the last issue of KT we listed information about participants in the AKA Leadership Institute. There are some corrections to that list. We are pleased to announce that the webinar series has been finalized.

Webinar Topics and Speakers:

• November 2018: Webinar #1: History and Challenges Faced by Kinesiology (90 min) - Presenter: Karl Newell, University of Georgia

• February 2019: Webinar #2: Developing, Implementing, and Assessing a Department Strategic Plan (90 min) - Presenter: T. Gilmour Reeve, AKA Executive Director

• April 2019: Webinar #3: Determining Priorities and Providing Support for Fac-ulty, Staff, and Students (90 min) - Presenter: Phil Martin, Iowa State University

• June 2019: Webinar #4: Building and Supporting Diversity & Inclusion (90 min) - Presenter: Mary Rudisill, Auburn University

• August 2019: Webinar #5: Aligning Degree Programs with the AKA Under-graduate Core Curriculum Recommendations (90 min) - Presenter: Wojtek Chadzko-Zajko, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

• October 2019: Webinar #6: Embracing Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Kinesiology (90 min) - Presenter: Rick Kreider, Texas A & M University

• December 2019: Webinar #7: Balancing Your Administrative and Faculty Responsibilities (90 min) - Presenter: Nancy Williams, Penn State University

One-on-One Mentors for Bi-Monthly Meetings with Leadership Participants:

• Janet Buckworth, University of Georgia • Paul Carpenter, CSU-East Bay • Rick Kreider, Texas A&M University

• Mary Rudisill, Auburn University • Duane Knudson, Texas State

University

AKA Leadership Workshop registration will be available on the AKA website starting Thursday, November 1.

Please register by the Friday, December 14 deadline and book your hotel reservations as soon as possible.







The American Kinesiology Association (AKA) is pleased to announce their inaugural class of fellows for the AKA Leadership Institute, who represent the broad range of member institutions within the AKA.

Gonzalo A. Bravo, Ph.D., West Virginia University

R. Matthew Brothers, Ph.D., University of Texas at Arlington

Brian C. Focht, Ph.D., The Ohio State University

Karen S. Meaney, Ed.D, Texas State University

Sara Michaliszyn, Ph.D., Youngstown State University

Marc F. Norcross, Ph.D., ATC, Oregon State University

Jared A. Russell, Ph.D., Auburn University

Dan Tarara, Ed.D., High Point University

Mark Urtel, Ed.D., Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis

Gonzalo A. Bravo R. Matthew Brothers Brian C. Focht Sara MichaliszynKaren S. Meaney Dan Tarara Mark UrtelMarc F. Norcross Jared A. Russell

The AKA Leadership Institute is a full-year experi-ence that employs a mentored, development model in which each Fellow is paired with an administra-tor who has experience at the Department Head or Dean level. Fellows and their mentors will participate in small group discussions at our Annual Workshop, along with bi-monthly webinars and calls hosted by leaders in Kinesiology. Training will cover best practices for academic leadership as applied to the context of a modern department of Kinesiology. Following this experience, Fellows will have signifi-cantly broadened their network within the field and their understanding of strategic decision making as it applied to the administration of Kinesiology as an academic field.




http://americankinesiology.org/SubPages/Pages/Leadership%20Institute



A stress reduction program could be just as effective as an aerobic exercise

program to keep people moving heading into the fall and winter months, according to a recent study.

A group of researchers out of Iowa State University, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Mississippi found that participants of a “mindfulness-based stress reduction” program exhibited a smaller decrease in physical activity as the weather changed as compared to a group of people who participated in aerobic training. Both groups did much better than a control group whose members did not participate in either program. The study was published in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise.

“I have always been interested in trying to figure out different strategies that can help people to stay or become more active,” said Iowa State University assistant professor Jacob Meyer, the lead author of the study. That interest has its background during Meyer’s time at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he said, where he studied under a researcher who investigated the effects of stress reduction and exercise on the common cold. Similarly, Meyer wanted to

Don’t Stress: ‘Mindfulness’ Could Be the Key to Keep You Moving

compare the two interven-tions – stress reduction or exercise – and examine their effects on physical activity.

To do so, the research-ers split 66 people into three groups who either spent 2 ½ hours per week in a stress reduction program, 2 ½ hours in an aerobic training program or who did nothing. The pro-grams lasted for eight weeks. The stress reduction program chosen for the study was designed by Jon Kabat-Zinn at the University of Massachu-setts and, according to Meyer, “is focused on teaching par-ticipants ‘mindfulness’ in the Buddhist tradition which rep-resents being aware of the present moment and paying attention to one’s experience as it is occurring.” This program and others like it have been employed widely in the United States and other parts of the world, Meyer said. They have shown impressive results in reducing stress and other psychological symptoms, and they may have some effect on physical illnesses as well.

After the eight-week period in the stress-reduction program, aerobic training or noth-ing, participants wore a pedometer to mea-sure their physical activity. Researchers then compared that data to data collected before the intervention. Both the stress-reduction group and the exercise group stayed more active than the control group. But partici-

By Patrick Wade, Staff Writer

Continue on Page 9

A team led by Jacob Meyer, assistant professor of kinesiology at Iowa State University, has found that stress-reduction may be just as effective as aerobic training to keep people moving into the fall and winter months. Credit: Christopher Gannon, Iowa State University






pants in the stress-reduction group even beat out the exercise group when it came to logging more minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity.

All three groups were actually less active in the weeks after the eight-week intervention period as compared to before, but Meyer and his team explain this by looking at the months and the location where the study occurred – from August to November in Madison, Wisconsin.

“This represents baseline data at the end from the summer with follow-up data being acquired at the end of fall/beginning of winter,” Meyer said. “Strong seasonality changes were evident, but that’s why having the wait-list control group was so important. We were able to see that the decreases in activity that we saw in the control group were mitigated in both intervention groups with the MBSR (mindfulness-based stress reduc-tion) group having the smallest decrease in daily MVPA (moderate-to-vigorous physical activity) over time.”

The difference was significant – while the control group’s daily physical activity decreased by about 18 minutes per day in the Wisconsin November, the participants from the stress-reduction program only dropped off by about 5 to 6 minutes per day. Those who went through the aerobic training saw a decrease of about 7 to 8 minutes per day. This means mindfulness-

based stress reduction could have some applications to keep people moving when they might not feel like it.

“There are many times when physical activity might normally decrease – as win-ter approaches, during an illness, during periods of high stress, etc.,” Meyer said. “Training in MBSR could have some use-fulness in preventing decreases in activity during times when activity might normally be expected to decrease.”

Aerobic training still seemed to have a slight edge as far as encouraging exercise bouts of 10 minutes or more. In this category, the control group saw a 77 minute-per-week decrease, whereas exercise group partici-pants increased their longer exercise bouts by 5 to 6 minutes. The stress-reduction group still beat the control group by only decreas-ing in that category by about 15 minutes per week. This evidence adds strength to the possibility that stress reduction could help keep people moving, Meyer said.

“Taken together with the daily physical activity data, this suggests that MBSR and exercise training were able to mitigate the seasonal declines in both exercise and in physical activity that we saw in the control group,” Meyer said.

The results of the small-scale study still need to be confirmed in larger trials, Mey-er said. And if the results are confirmed, researchers will need to investigate the

mechanisms that lead stress-reduction to have this effect on physical activity. Those mechanisms are still not well known.

“It’s possible that the MBSR program taught participants to be aware of the actions and the choices that they were making in the moment, leading to less of a drop-off in activity due to making many small indi-vidual choices across the day,” Meyer said. “It’s also possible that being more mindful helps people not let the weather or other environmental concerns get in the way of participating in exercise.”

Still, the implications are important for kinesiologists. It could mean that psycho-logical treatments could supplement or augment more traditional programs to promote health and physical activity. “It’s possible that our traditional approach of having people participate in gym-based exercise programs is not the best way for us to keep people active or get people more active,” Meyer said.

Meyer, J. D., Torres, E. R., Grabow, M. L., Zgierska, A. E., Teng, H. Y., Coe, C. L., & Barrett, B. P. (2018). Benefits of 8-wk Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction or Aerobic Training on Seasonal Declines in Physical Activity. Medi-cine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 50(9), 1850-1858. Motivation to move may start with being mindful. (2018, May 14). Retrieved September 6, 2018, from https://www.news.iastate.edu/news/2018/05/14/mindfulness




https://www.news.iastate.edu/news/2018/05/14/mindfulness

https://www.news.iastate.edu/news/2018/05/14/mindfulness



Celebrating 50 Years of the Michigan State University Motor Performance Study (MPS)

I recently attended the 51st annual meet-ing of the North American Society for the

Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity (NASPSPA, www.naspspa.com). On the program I noticed the title – mentioned above. I was interested to attend the session to learn more about the study and share the program with KT readers. The symposium also included data papers related to research findings from the study but I was most interested in concepts of carrying on such a project.

After briefly chatting with Crystal Branta at the NASPSPA conference, I asked if she would be willing to follow up with a few que-ries I might have. She generously shared her presentation with me and informed me that a group of KIN retirees, including Vern Seefeldt and John Haubenstricker, meet for lunch regularly and offered the opportunity to chat with them on the phone.

In the introduction to the symposium, Branta gave some details of the program. The study was started by Seefeldt in 1967. He met with a writer from the Lansing State Journal newspaper telling the story of the MPS and by the next day the switchboard at the university was ringing off the hook and Continue on Page 11

By Penny McCullagh, KT Editor

there was high demand for the pro-gram. He had more volunteers than he could initially accommodate. Haubenstricker came on board in 1973 and Branta arrived in 1974 as a research assistant and continued with the study after earning her Ph.D. in 1979. 10 years after the study started. Numerous faculty and graduate students contributed to the program over the years. The study was planned for 10 years, but data collection continued for 32 years. Data analyses continues today. The original goals of the study were:

• To determine patterns of growth by maturity level

• To examine the relationships among performance, biological maturity, and academic achievement

• To set up standards of motor perfor-mance, on the basis of a child’s biologi-cal age rather than chronological age.

Furthermore, it was hoped the study would interest physical education majors into elementary careers and prepare guidelines for educators to understand the implica-

tions of biological age. In addition, children in the community had the opportunity to attend a weekly physical activity program to learn movement skills, with a focus on body management, swimming, and general motor skills. Testing occurred semi-annually for anthropometric measures starting at 2 years of age and fitness tasks beginning at 5 years of age. Assessments continued until growth was completed or participants

Drs. Crystal Branta, Vern Seefeldt and John Haubenstricker were instrumental in creating the Michigan State University Motor Per-formance Study, which celebrates 50 years of research this year.




http://www.naspspa.com

Kinesiology Today Spring 2017 Volume 10, No. 2


chose to leave. In 1967 the study started with 55 boys and 55 girls. By 1969 there were 364 children enrolled and by 1999 about 1100 participants.

Measures TakenPhysical Growth: Weight, Standing Height, Sitting Height, Biacromial Breath (shoul-der width), Bicristal Breadth (hip width), Acrom-radial Length, Radio-stylion Length, Arm Circumference, Thigh Circumference, Calf Circumference, Triceps Skinfold, Sub-scapular Skinfold, Abdominal Skinfold

Motor Skills/Fitness Tasks: Flexed Arm Hang, Jump and Reach, 30-Yard Dash, Sit-and-Reach Flexibility, Agility Shuttle Run, Standing Long Jump, Endurance Shuttle Run

Maturation Variable: Hand-Wrist X-Ray (dropped after first five years due to expense)

As I started to investigate more about the study for this article, I came across some interesting documents. I discovered that the department at Michigan State started in 1899 and they celebrated their 100th anniversary in 1999. I came across a book detailing many aspects of the department entitled “100 Years of Kinesiology: History, Research and Reflections”. Some of the

articles regarding the department are available at www.education.msu.edu/kin/about/history.asp. including a chapter on the Motor Performance Study.

I had a telephone conversation with Drs. Seefeldt, Haubenstricker, and Branta and they provided some additional information about the program.

This study represents as far as I am aware, the longest longitudinal study in our field of Kinesiology. Do you know of any others, and what was your biggest motivation to do a longitudinal study back in 1967?

Seefeldt indicated he was hired by Gale Mikles and part of his hiring agreement was that he would develop a longitudinal study. He had completed his Ph.D. at Wisconsin under the guidance of lead-ers in the field of motor development and was excited to develop the program. The program linked research, teaching, and service and was thus an integral part of the university.

Your study focused on biological age as opposed to chronological age. Tell us how you decided to do this when the study started.

We hypothesized that biological age would be a better indicator of readiness Continue on Page 12

for school and participation in sports than would chronological age. Children at the same age develop at different rates and we wanted to investigate the variation in developmental age.

You had three original primary goals for the study (listed above). How well were you able to achieve these goals as well as secondary goals?

We had originally hoped to collect data on academic performance but we had to eliminate these measures. There was a change in leadership within the school district and in the late 60s there was con-cern about IQ testing, so we did not get any academic performance data. Also we originally were taking hand X-ray mea-sures to assess biological maturity but this measure had to be eliminated because the radiology department moved and the costs increased dramatically.

With new and improved statistical techniques, are you able to address different questions or provide better answers.

The data base has recently been moved into a platform where it can easily be accessed. When the program started, the data were




http://www.education.msu.edu/kin/about/history.asp

http://www.education.msu.edu/kin/about/history.asp



on punch cards. We now have a statistical wizard who is helping manage the data and make it more accessible. With enhanced statistical techniques we are systemati-cally addressing a myriad of research questions from a longitudinal perspsective and allowing students to access the data for research papers.

Doing longitudinal research is not an easy task. Probably one of the most famous is the Framingham study that started in 1948 and focused on 5000 people in a small town in Massachusetts. This study has now finished its third cohort and has led to much of what we know about hypertension, cigarette smoking, cardiovascular disease and other illnesses. Some have suggested that the generalization of data is not great because they did not have a very diverse population and the participants were relatively healthy. Can you tell us what you think the major contributions of your study has been?

We have learned that it is important to start teaching developmental sequences early! Children should be involved in a wide range of activities and should learn many fundamental skills before they are ever involved in sport. Developing a repertoire of skills allows youth to be successful in whatever physical activity or sport in which

they choose to engage. Also we raised the awareness of the

importance of biological age. Students who came through our programs used the data in their teaching and coaching to work with children and youth developmentally. In addition, graduate students in several program areas have used the concept of longitudinal development in their respec-tive areas.

What is most rewarding about being a part of this study and what has been the most challenging?

All three professors offered ideas about rewards and challenges. Here are some of their thoughts:

• We have seen individuals in other areas in kinesiology (e.g. adapted physical education, and sport and exercise psychology) take on a developmental approach to their research.

• We became familiar with the partici-pants and their families and it was delightful to see them return every 6 months for testing.

• We got to see second generation participants (children were origi-nally in study and then their children became part of the study). It was

exciting to see all these children come to campus and become a part of the university community. We also got strong support from administra-tion for space on campus and we were not displaced by non-academic programs.

• In one instance a previous partici-pant called us. His son was develop-ing at a slow rate and his physician wanted to treat him with growth hor-mones. He remembered that he him-self had been a late developer and that we had his data. He requested that the data sheets and growth charts be shared with his physician showing that he had caught up with-out drug intervention.

• We were able to touch so many of our majors.The MPS weekly physical activity was the required lab for The Motor Development Class. In the lab the students (under the guidance of a master teacher) taught develop-mental sequences and sport skills to our participants. Some of those par-ticipants as a result became elemen-tary physical education teachers and coaches in the State of Michigan and beyond.






Any recommendations for future researchers?

Longitudinal research is critical to under-standing many issues within Kinesiology. It is the best way for truly determining change over time and within cohorts. However, the challenge of conducting research over years is real for young scholars. We have opened our database to all graduate stu-dents and faculty in our department so that they might benefit from our work. Scholars who conduct longitudinal research should also be prepared to answer short-term questions and publish interim findings along the way.

Thanks to Crystal Branta, John Hauben-stricker and Vern Seefeldt for taking the time to share some of their thoughts. I would highly suggest you go to the Michigan State website listed above and read the in-depth chapter by these individuals. It is a great summary of their excellent work in our field.

Haubensticker, J.L. (Editor), Feltz, D.L. (Editor), Heusner, W.W. (Contributor), Montoye, H.J. (Contributor), Van Huss, W.D. (Contributor), Pivarnik, J.M. (Contributor), Wessel, J.A. (Contributor), Dummer, G., (Contributor), Branta, C.M. (Contributor), Seefedlt, V.C. (Contributor), Nelson, R.C. (Contributor), Edgerton, R.E. (Contributor), Weiss, M.R. (Contributor), Ulrich, B.D. (Contributor). (1999). 100 Years of Kinesiology: History, Research, & Reflections. Michigan State University Press.

Women Breaking Ground Slowly in the NFLThe Raiders announced on their website that they had hired Kelsey Martinez, their first ever female strength and condition-ing coach this year. Before coming to the Raiders, she worked for three years at the Tom Shaw Performance Center. Kelsey is a native of Colorado and com-pleted her B.S. in the Department of Health & Exercise Science at Colorado State University. She is the first female assistant coach in the Raiders history and the only female strength coach. Other teams are also beginning to hire female coaches. -PMc

https://www.raiders.com/team/coaches-roster/kelsey-martinez E108&RenderLoc=0&FlexDataID=11620&PageID=1

Kelsey Martinez, Strength and Conditioning Coach for Oakland Raiders.








Kinetic Revolutions, was founded by two Pennsylvania State University alumni, who have a passion for solving problems and serving others. Mac Heebner (BS in Kinesiology, ’96 and Masters of Busi-ness Administration, ’00 at PSU) and Jeff Brandt (BS in Psychology, ’95 at PSU and Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine Prosthetic and Orthotic Pro-gram, ’01) would often talk over the years about improving patient-related treatment for clients Brandt worked with in his pros-thetic and orthotic practice. The childhood friends from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania and former Penn State roommates would ponder ways to make improvements not only for the patients but for the practitio-ners as well. In 2010, the two founded Kinetic Revolutions to tackle the problem of adjustable pylons for prosthetic legs.

Brandt, is the CEO, CPO and founder of another successful business, Ability Prosthetics and Orthotics, which currently consists of ten offices across three Eastern states. At Ability, Brandt and his colleagues prefer to focus more on patient-centered care instead of device-centered services.

Kinetic Revolutions: Developing Innovative Solutions for Mobility

They found when fitting patients for pros-thetic legs, clinicians were spending a lot of time fashioning the pylon component of the legs. The pylon is the structural support between the residual limb and the prosthetic foot. It is typically formed from metal rods and must be cut specific to a patient’s height. This took a lot of time away from patient care and was also inconvenient for making adjustments every time a person’s leg length would change, especially for growing children. The pair took their idea of an adjustable pylon to an engineer with tubular design experience and eventually got the device patented. Brand describes the adjustable pylon as a “win for practitioners, win for patients, and a win for profitability”. The device has sold well and has been well received in the industry for all of these reasons. The pylon can be adjusted with one wrench in about eight seconds, where as the traditional pylons take closer to 15 minutes to adjust. It also cuts down on all of the discarded metal that is used for pylons that are cut to the wrong height or are no longer needed.

While the benefits of the adjustable pylon

seem obvious, Heebner says from the busi-ness standpoint it has been a challenge to sell the extra value of the device. “The health industry is cost sensitive and it is hard to add functionality without adding cost,” said Heebner. He says the added cost is not always reimbursed, so it falls to the the patients to appreciate the added value the adjustable feature adds. While it may cost a little more, patients are purchas-ing fewer pylons and spending less time on adjustment appointments.

The adjustable pylon has also been accredited as “battlefield-friendly” by the

Continue on Page 15

By Amy Rose, KT Staff Writer

Mac Heebner Co-Founder of Kinetic

Revolutions

Jeffrey Brandt, Co-Founder of Kinetic Revolutions and CEO, CPO and Founder of

Ability Prosthetics and Orthotics






Department of Defense, according to Brandt. It can be easily adjusted with a single wrench and nothing comes apart so soldiers aren’t dealing with lost parts in adverse conditions. Many veterans have been fitted with an adjustable pylon through VA Hospitals. The device has also been worn by a contestant on the physically demanding, “American Ninja Warriors” obstacle course television program.

A more recent device developed by the company has been the Matrix gait-trainer. This is a modified version of the traditional walker used to help patients learning to walk again in rehabilitation settings. “The hardware is more modern looking and there are bungee cords on the frame that attach to the patient’s shoe,” Brandt explained. This new walker is designed to be used more for in-patient rehabilitation therapy settings. Therapists walk the patients using the walker and the cords serve as a way to keep the patients feet up as they walk. This eliminates the need for another therapist or more expensive equipment to help with that function. The cords can be adjusted in tension and alignment and according to Heebner it makes it easier for patients to ween off assistance from the equipment until the cords can be totally removed.

Both founders see Kinetic Revolution as a low-tech way to solve common problems

within the mobility industry. They are always looking for collabo-rating opportunities to develop ideas that will improve patient experiences and reduce expense and time for the practitioners. “There are a lot of things that we are surprised don’t exist,” said Heebner. “There is so much opportunity at the ‘blue-collar level’, we’ll let the big dogs play with the more expensive items.” As for future development, the men say there are several col-laborations in the works, including possible improvements to knee bracing concepts, plus advances regarding prosthetic sockets and gel liners.

Brandt’s Ability clinics also support a research component which has been helpful in advancing the care of prosthetic and orthotic devices and treatments. He points out that the field has been lacking in scientific-advancement and he is hop-ing while Ability researchers advance the level of patient care, Kinetic Revolutions will be the leader in developing the hardware products to move into the future.

MATRIX Adult Gait Trainer is an ambulatory device that uses an innovative bungee system to better replicate normal movement.

Designed and tested for definitive use up to K4 activity level, these aluminum pylons eliminate cutting, grinding and wasted pylon scraps maximizing practitioner efficiency and patient convenience.






This Spring I was on a personal trip with my family in Tel-Aviv and had the

pleasure to visit The Academic College at Wingate, Netanya (about 20 km north of Tel-Aviv) (http://en.wincol.ac.il/). I had not been to Israel before, but had certainly heard about the College from early in my career. It was wonderful to be able to visit and share ideas about Kinesiology in North America. You might ask why I gave a talk about Kinesiology in North America? While most of the information focused on Kine-siology in the United States, I did include some information on Canada. In the Fall issue of KT I wrote an article on Ontario, Canada and how kinesiology has become regulated. In Ontario you must become licensed to call yourself a kinesiologist and practice kinesiology so I wanted to share that information.

The college has a long history. It was established in 1944, four years prior to the establishment of the State of Israel. The entire college focuses on physical edu-cation and sport sciences. There are no other subjects at the campus. The college is located on the campus of the Wingate Institute. The college has about 50 full time faculty, 75 part- time faculty, and about

The Academic College at Wingate – How Kinesiology Looks in Israel

1,200 undergraduate students and 150 graduate students.

I did not formally visit the Wingate Insti-tute, ( https://www.wingate.org.il/), Israel’s National Centre for Excellence in Sport, inaugurated in 1957. It is named in honor of Major General Orde Charles Wingate “The Friend”. The State of Israel concentrates at the Institute the educational, professional and scientific resources for the develop-ment of physical education, “sport for all”, elite sport and sport as a means of social and physical rehabilitation.

Some 5000 academics, coaches, athletes, students and the general public from all nations pass daily through Wingate’s gates. The Institute serves as a training center for national teams, gifted athletes, Olympic athletes, and, hosts international sport events and scientific conferences. In recognition of extraordinary achievements in the field of education, sport medicine and research, the institute was awarded the prestigious Israel President’s Prize in 1989.

The Academic College at Wingate offers students, academic and professional training for employment in the fields of movement, training, rehabilitation and sports, and for

teaching physical education in elementary and high schools in Israel. The college offers Bachelor degrees (B.Ed.; Bachelor in Education) and in 2005 became the first college in Israel to offer an accred-ited Master’s degree with a thesis track in Physical Education (M.PE.; Master in Physical Education). In 2017, the Council for Higher Education in Israel accredited the college to offer a second Master’s pro-gram – Education for Active and Healthy Life (M.Ed.; Master in Education).

While at the college, I was given a tour of the facilities by Dr. Ronnie Lidor, the col-lege’s president. The facilities were excellent. One building was quite old, but it had all the necessary features and they had just added a wonderful deck with picnic tables, so students could gather. My sense was that there was a lot of concern for student welfare. I also learned that the entry require-ments are very high and only the best stu-dents are accepted. There were nice well-equipped classrooms and the laboratories were state of the art. There were labs in all the specific areas (biomechanics, applied anatomy, exercise physiology, molecular biology, motor behavior, sport pedagogy,

Continue on Page 17





http://en.wincol.ac.il/

https://www.wingate.org.il/



and a computer lab). In addition, they have support labs in educational technology and a teaching research center. While I was there I was given a tour of a brand new building that will house new motor behavior and exercise physiology labs, as well as classroom space and workout areas for students. There were also numerous activity spaces both indoors and outside.

The college is also integrated within the community through a host of active centers. The centers serve children and adults and offer rehabilitation through movement, based on professional and pedagogical principles.

While touring the college and facilities was interesting, the real treat was spend-ing a couple of hours with about a dozen faculty over a lovely lunch. I tried to make my talk interactive so they could find out about kinesiology in North America, but also so I could learn about physical educa-tion in Israel. The room was full of well-read scholars from many of our sub-disciplines, similar to programs in the US. One topic that became highly evident was their interest in the lack of physical education within the school system. Considering that sport is so prominent in the US it is surprising to people in other countries why physical education is not prominent and required in all schools. It is also surprising that many individuals coach youth in the community and within the school systems with no formal training. In Israel, physical education is a mandatory subject in the elementary, junior-high, and

high-school curriculum. Israeli children are involved in organized physical education activities starting in the 1st grade (about age 6-7). At that time they are introduced to twice weekly physical education classes. Physical education is also offered twice a week in junior high (up to 9th grade) and high school (up to 12th grade). All physical education teachers must be certified. Physi-cal education was also recently introduced to children in kindergartens.

In the U.S., the Society of Health and Physical Educators (SHAPE), www.sha-peamerica.org is the major body to represent physical education. In a report published in 2016, data indicated that many states “are dropping the ball on keeping kids active and fit”. The report indicated that only 19 states set minimum standards for elemen-tary school physical education and only 15 states do so for middle schools. The report indicated that only two states (Oregon and District of Columbia) require the amount of time recommended by experts.

In Israel, to become physical activity/sport instructors and coaches, individuals are required to study in certified programs that meet the requirements of the Sport Authority in the Ministry of Culture and Sport. That is to say, certification of coaches and instruc-tors is mandatory. Israel is one of the few countries with an official coach education program that is offered by a number of certi-fied institutions around the country, including the Wingate Institute and the Academic Col-

lege at Wingate (each body offers its own programs). A one-year coaching program is offered to students who want to receive coaching certification. There is a specific coach preparation program for each sport discipline. To become a coach, a candidate must obtain instructor certification in the selected sport (e.g., to become a volleyball coach, one should be a certified instructor in volleyball) and have at least two years of experience in that sport.

To read an interview conducted with Dr. Ronnie Lidor, visit this link that was provided with permission of the Publisher & Editor-in-Chief, (Hagai Gringarten, Ph.D.) Journal of Multidisciplinary Research.

Ronnie Lidor, Ph.D. and President of The Academic College at Wingate welcomes Penny McCullagh on her visit to the college.




http://www.shapeamerica.org

http://www.shapeamerica.org

https://www.shapeamerica.org/pressroom/2016/2016-shape-of-the-nation-release.aspx

https://www.shapeamerica.org/pressroom/2016/2016-shape-of-the-nation-release.aspx

http://www.jmrpublication.org/portals/jmr/Issues/JMR7-1.pdf



Wearing an accelerometer – just like the ones embedded in most smartphones – could help assess an older woman’s risk of falling. That is according to a pilot study published in July in the journal NPJ Digital Medicine, and a researcher on the team says that such a tool could help identify which people are the ones who should be undergoing physical therapy to, maybe, prevent a fall.

Falls are the leading cause of injuries and of death from injuries in older Americans, according to the Centers for Disease Con-trol and Prevention. In one year, Americans experienced 29 million falls causing seven million injuries and costing an estimated $31 billion in annual Medicare costs. Because it occurs with such frequency, falling is recognized as a widespread issue. But the problem is that, typically, recognizing someone’s fall risk and prescribing treat-ment like physical therapy happens after a fall has already occurred.

In fact, there are already a number of personal rescue devices designed to detect a fall once it has happened. “The most common fall device is the thing that says sort of, ‘Help me, I’ve just fallen,’” said Bruce

Widely Available Devices Could Inform Fall Prevention Efforts

Schatz, who heads the Department of Medi-cal Information Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and is an author on the research article.

“It’s a little round button that has an accelerometer in it,” Schatz said. “When you fall, it detects that and it makes a phone call to someone who comes and checks on you.” But this team had it in their minds to figure out a way to assess someone’s risk of falling – not just detect falls after they have already happened.

“That’s easy to detect. That’s why there are cheap devices that do it now,” Schatz said. “Detecting that they might fall is much, much harder.” The researchers analyzed data on 67 women originally recruited for the Women’s Health Initiative in the 1990s. The women were all above age 60, and the average age was 77.5 years. Participants completed a short physical performance battery which measured balance, gait and muscular strength and answered questions about past falls. With this information, they were classified into “high” and “low” fall risk groups.

Then, the participants completed a 400-meter timed walk while wearing an

By Patrick Wade, Staff Writer

accelerometer on their hips which mea-sured movement along three different axes. When the researchers applied this triaxial gait data generated by the hip sensor to a number of different models, they found that they could reliably distinguish between people who were stable, and others who walked with unsteadiness. In particular, the researchers said side-to-side move-ment at the hips may be a useful predictor of fall risk.

“The sideways movement is consistent with age-related neuromuscular weakness due to slower motor unit recruitment with age,” the researchers wrote. “That is, when motor control is diminished, gait variability increases, as older adults lack the ability of younger adults to respond to perturba-tions in gait by increasing neuromuscular control.”

Schatz’s body of research involves find-ing low-cost ways to help large numbers of people – the hard part, he said, is usually finding something that’s both clinically useful and technologically feasible. The overlap between the two is not typically great. In this case, the results are promising.

“You can walk into Walmart right now Continue on Page 19






and pay $30 and get a device that you’re going to carry around all the time and do this,” Schatz said. That is the price for the cheapest smartphone at the store, he said.

Schatz drew on his background as an athletic trainer and a runner as he analyzed the data – he knew that core stability is an important factor in falls as it is a key differ-ence in the way young people fall versus the way older people fall. Young people generally fall because they trip. “They can move fine and they’re very steady, but something unexpected happens to them. Old people fall because they’re unsteady.”

For older people, it may be a matter of a hip buckling on flat terrain or an inability to step over a bump in the carpet that they may have been able to navigate without issue at a younger age. So fall risk increases as steadiness decreases – that much is known. But identifying the individuals who are at a more acute risk of falling and getting them into treatment is the tough part.

“We know that everybody starts falling when they get older, but they’re all differ-ent,” Schatz said. “Who are the ones we should start pushing hard to do the physical therapy or the exercise.” And that is where his team’s predictive model comes in. “The best way of handling an aging population is to do things that everybody uses all the time to detect some kind of problem before it

Sport Psychology Around the WorldWant to see what is happening around the world in sport psychology? Check out the Sport Psychology Council website.

The Sport Psychology Council (SPC) was started in the 1990s by Dr. Michael Sachs who was interested in supporting collaboration among sport psychology organizations and leaders. In its current form, the SPC is a group of individuals who repre-sent sport psychology organizations around the world. The SPC gathers at conferences and congresses to share sport psychology organizations’ successes, trends, and difficulties and to discuss and implement strate-gies to promote all organizations and the field of sport psychology. There is no membership fee for organiza-tions to join the SPC and no bylaws or typical organizational structure. Rather, the SPC maintains its informal status and meets at conferences and congresses when hosted by the generosity of sport psychology organizations worldwide.

-PMc

http://sportpsychologycouncil.org/

happens,” Schatz said. And it is a generally applicable technique, he added. There are other major illnesses and chronic conditions that are correlated with the way someone moves, which means the concept could have applications beyond predicting falls.

“Modest motion detection says something important about it,” Schatz said. “Almost all lung and heart disease is like that. Anything that’s causing people to slow down.”

Hua, A., Quicksall, Z., Di, C., Motl, R., Lacroix, A. Z., Schatz, B., & Buchner, D. M. (2018). Accelerometer-based predictive models of fall risk in older women: A pilot study. Npj Digital Medicine, 1(1). https://www.nature.com/articles/s41746-018-0033-5 Falls are leading cause of injury and death in older Americans. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2016, Septem-ber 22). Retrieved October 1, 2018, from https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2016/p0922-older-adult-falls.html Wearable device can predict older adults’ risk of falling. Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology (2018, July 12). Retrieved September 6, 2018, from https://www.igb.illinois.edu/article/wearable-device-can-predict-older-adults-risk-falling For further information on falls prevention visit: Fall prevention Center of Excellence- www.stopfalls.org (Thanks to Debbie Rose for providing this resource).




http://sportpsychologycouncil.org/

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41746-018-0033-5

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41746-018-0033-5

https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2016/p0922-older-adult-falls.html

https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2016/p0922-older-adult-falls.html

https://www.igb.illinois.edu/article/wearable-device-can-predict-older-adults-risk-falling

https://www.igb.illinois.edu/article/wearable-device-can-predict-older-adults-risk-falling

http://www.stopfalls.org/

http://www.stopfalls.org/



In recent issues of KT, we have been taking a closer look into each of the nine societal

sectors highlighted within the National Physi-cal Activity Plan (NPAP). Thus far, we’ve explored four of the nine societal sectors within the National Physical Activity Plan (NPAP), including 1) Business and Industry, 2) Community, Recreation, Fitness, and Parks, 3) Education, and 4) Faith Based Settings. I had planned to focus on the fifth societal sector (i.e., Healthcare), but as happens periodically, something more pressing has come up. In this case, the NPAP recently released the 2018 United States Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Youth. This is the third Report Card focused on the assessment of physical activity in U.S. children, with the others being released in 2014 and 2016.

The primary goal of the Report Card was to assess the levels of physical activity and sedentary behavior in U.S. children and youth. An expert panel chose nine factors to grade – 1) overall physical activity, 2) sedentary behavior, 3) active transportation, 4) organized sport participation, 5) active play, 6) health-related fitness, 7) family and peers, 8) schools, and 9) community and the build environment.

Data was obtained through a number

NPAP Quarterly Update – Walking and Walkability Report Card

of key resources, including (but not limited to) several national surveys such as the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), the National Study of Neighborhood Parks, State of Play Report, and the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS). The panel adopted an “A” to “F” grading system based on either the percentage of children and youth in the U.S. who succeeding with the particular factor being examined. A grade of “A” required 80-100%, “B” required 60-79%, “C” required 40-59%, “D” required 20-39%, and <20% resulted in an “F”. If there was not sufficient information to assign a grade, and incomplete (INC) was provided.

FACTOR GRADE

Overall Physical Activity D-

Sedentary Behaviors D

Active Transportation D-

Organized Sport Participation C

Active Play INC

Physical Fitness C-

Family and Peers INC

School D-

Community and Built Environment C

While this report card might not shout out Excellence, what I think is worth highlighting

are the trends being observed across the six years. There is both good and bad news to report. First the good – three areas saw slight improvement in the consensus grade, including 1) Sedentary Behaviors, 2) Active Transport, and 3) Organized Sport Participa-tion. Unfortunately, the following factors saw slight declines in the consensus grades, including 1) Physical Fitness, 2) School, and 3) Community and Build Environment.

I am particularly troubled by the drop in “School” grades, which is the only one that has seen two consecutive grade reductions, changing from C- in 2014, to a D+ in 2016, to a D- in 2018. Key findings from the 2018 Report Card show that only ~33% of school districts support or promote walking or bik-ing to and from school, only ~30% of high school-aged students attend PE classes five days a week, only ~52% attend PE classes one day per week. We can do better—we must do better! Please consider how you can be an agent of change on the local, regional, or national level!

Full access to the 2017 U.S. Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Youth can be found here.

Full access to the NPAP can be found here.

by Jason R. Carter, AKA Board Member of the NPAP Alliance




http://physicalactivityplan.org/projects/reportcard.html

http://physicalactivityplan.org



The phrase “Think Global ly-Act

Locally” became popular with the awareness of the impact of human actions on the qual-ity of our environ-ment and the overall health of the earth.

The original source for the phrase is ques-tionable with various individuals receiving credit for creating it. The phase reminds us to appreciate and understand the big picture (think globally) but to take spe-cific steps to address our unique situa-tions (act locally). This approach to work within our own situation with actions that are consistent with the broader view has been applied to other contexts such as government, business, and planning. It also applies to our academic discipline of Kinesiology. That is, each of us in Kinesi-ology should appreciate and understand the broad discipline of Kinesiology while we each work to create the highest qual-ity Kinesiology department for teaching, research, and service within our specific institution.

Kinesiology: Think Globally-Act LocallyexeCutive direCtor Column

By T. Gilmour Reeve, Ph.D., Executive Director

T. Gilmour Reeve

Kinesiology: The Global Perspective

AKA defines Kinesiology as “an academic discipline which involves the study of physical activity and its impact on health, society, and quality of life” (AKA webpage). Sensitive to the multiple perspectives represented in the study of physical activity, AKA states that Kinesiology “includes, but is not limited to, such areas of study as exercise science, sports management, athletic training and sports medicine, socio-cultural analyses of sports, sport and exercise psychology, fitness leadership, physical education-teacher education, and pre-professional training for physical therapy, occupational therapy, medicine and other health related fields” (AKA webpage, emphasis added).

Thinking globally about Kinesiology, one must appreciate the variety of theories, methods, populations, measurements, and levels of analyses that are used in studying physical activity and the wide range of applications that result for the approaches taken. Over the past 30 years, Kinesiology has broadened its scope with what at times seems to be an accelerating rate. But a broader scope, impacting more diverse applications, doesn’t mean our historical roots are less important or should

be abandoned. From the global perspec-tive, Kinesiology remains a discipline that includes preparing highly qualified teachers and coaches, while also addressing sig-nificant health issues across the lifespan, An emerging application for the study of physical activity doesn’t diminish the need for and importance of another application.

Kinesiology: The Local Perspective

The local perspective represents how each academic department represents Kinesiol-ogy as the study of physical activity. Given the broad areas of study, such as exercise science, athletic training, physical educa-tion, fitness leadership, and related health fields, there are few Kinesiology departments that truly encompass the entire discipline of Kinesiology. Based on the limits imposed on the department by available financial and human resources, institution and col-lege missions, student needs and interests, and a host of other factors, Kinesiology departments are focused more narrowly on specific areas of study than what is included in the comprehensive discipline.

Kinesiology as a discipline is not unique in higher education among other academic departments that vary widely in their mission and programs offered. In fact, most academic disciplines are broader than what specific departments do in terms of their teaching, research, and service. For example, the American Psychological Association rec-ognizes more than 54 divisions that include

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Kinesiology Today Summer 2018 Volume 11, No. 3

psychological sub-disciplines and topic areas, but how many, if any, Psychology departments have faculty who are active in all of the divi-sions or areas. Obviously, in most Psychology departments there are some sub-disciplines and topic areas that are not represented by the faculty or in teaching, research or service. But almost universally, there is a Psychology department, or similarly named department, in every university. This point holds true for other disciplines as well, such as biology, physics, English, history, math, and the list goes on. For Kinesiology departments, the “glue” that binds the departments with the broader discipline is the central focus on physical activity and its applications.

Kinesiology is unique in higher education in its focus on the study of physical activity, not on the diversity of the discipline. When asked “what is kinesiology,” answer globally – describe the broad scope and impact of the discipline. When asked “what do you do,” answer locally – describe specifically the work that you and your colleagues do to promote the discipline to improve health, society, and quality.

Your department’s membership in the American Kinesiology Association, as well as your participation in the AKA Lead-ership Workshop, strengthens the bond between your “local” Kinesiology and the broader “global” Kinesiology. AKA pro-motes Kinesiology as a unified field of study and embraces the various applications of the study of physical activity across our member departments.

Journal of Physical Education and SportI was doing some research for a presentation and one of the articles I needed

was in the Journal of Physical Education and Sport (JPES). I was not previously familiar with that journal and when I researched it on line discovered it was an open access, peer-reviewed journal with four issues per year and all articles are available free in PDF format. The journal publishes across a wide range of topics including kinesiology, sport, physical education, and health and nutrition. The Editorial Board is made up of individuals from a wide span of countries and on the website they provide data on who accesses the site and with what frequency. If you want to see what is happening in other countries, this might be a good place to look. -PMc

Kinesiology Today KT Editor: Penny McCullagh, Ph.D.

Managing Editor & Writer: Amy Rose

Staff Writer: Pat Wade

Designer: Sean Roosevelt



kinesiologists studying inactivity. . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 ......page 2 inesiology today fa 2018...

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