Centre for Research in Education and Sports Science

Introduction
CRESS
Physical activity
Sociocultural and Teaching Research
Applied Exercise Science

Introduction

The School of Health Sciences' physical education, exercise and sports studies discipline, has two major research directions:

physical activity, particularly in children, and
social and cultural issues, particularly relating to human movement and gender

In addition, the School conducts research in a number of other areas, ranging from occupational physiology to ergogenic aids.
The research is conducted under the umbrella of CRESS - the Centre for Research in Education and Sports Science.
Click on any of the links below for more information on specific research areas:

Physical Activity	Children's physical activity Sport Analysis
Social and cultural issues	Gender construction Gendered bodies Body image Teaching and coaching
Applied Exercise Science	Bovine colostrum Pre-exercise screening Nutritional science Sheep shearing Gait analysis Applied physiology Biomechanics Motor control Anthropometry

CRESS

The Centre for Research in Education and Sport Sciences (CRESS) is one of the research centres within the School of Health Sciences. The Director of CRESS is Dr. Jon Buckley. Phone: 8302 6705 or 0417 880030 e-mail: jon.buckley@unisa.edu.au
Homepage:http://www.unisanet.unisa.edu.au/staff/ Homepage.asp?Name=Jon.Buckley	Body composition of a research subject being determined by underwater weighing
CRESS uses the latest research methodologies to investigate various scientific, sociological and philosophical aspects of Sport, Health, Education and Physical Activity.
	Blood gas response to exercise being determined by a research assistant

	Fitness testing during research into enhancing performance of Olympic rowers

Physical Activity

Children's physical activity and fitness

The School is committed to research in to trends and patterns of distribution of children's physical activity and health-related fitness. Current projects range from a meta-analysis of global trends to an examination of demographic influences in the local South Australian context. The following list of research projects identify the breadth of commitment the school has to this area:
1. Interpreting Australian trends in children's fitness in a global context
2. A century of growth in Australian children; trends in children's body size and composition
3. South Australian trends in children's fitness and fatness
4. The influence of socioeconomic status on children's health-related fitness
5. Long-term effects of the South Australian daily physical education program
6. The influence of play space on physical activity of children
7. Introducing a structured physical activity program into Out-of-School-Hours Care Centres
8. The energy cost of children's everyday activities; development of a computer-based instrument for measuring children's physical activity
9. The effect of time and place factors (green spaces, recreational facilities, play spaces) on physical activity in children
10. Children's use of time

The biomechanics of children's motor development

This study assessed the development of coordination during the first 8 months of independent walking, and identified potential hypotheses that may be tested by further research. The walking gait of a normal child was analysed by 3 dimensional video techniques at the onset of independent walking, and thereafter at monthly intervals over a period of 8 months.

Sociocultural and Teaching Research

Teaching and coaching

-What mediums of physical activity promote physical and mental health?
-What are some of the socio-cultural factors impinging upon involvement in sport and physical activity?
-How is the delivery of physical education and physical activity enhanced?
-How does learning occur in and through physical activity?
-What issues come out of curriculum reform in Health and Physical Education?
Increasingly we are becoming aware of social and cultural issues that influence physical activity involvement. These can be barriers to physical activity and sport involvement. Curriculum reform in the area of Health and Physical Education has had major ramifications for teachers of traditional Physical Education as well as the preparation of teachers in the learning area

Gender construction and gendered bodies

-How does the social construction of gender influence physical activity involvement and participation?
-What social experiences enhance and detract from the physical experience?
-How are bodies gendered?
How does the gendering of bodies impact on physical activity participation?

Over the past decade we have come to acknowledge that girls and women have had to confront issues that impinge up sport and physical activity involvement. We can now argue that gender is a significant barrier to physical activity involvement. The social conditioning of males and females over time physiologically 'genders' bodies, making them biologically different and enhancing stereotypical perceptions of physicality for both sexes. Qualitative research has emerged as a crucial factor in understanding issues surrounding gender and physical activity. It is fundamental to providing meaning to human behaviour

Body image

-How does body image impact on an individual's physical activity involvement?
-Do emerging men's body image concerns parallel those women identify in contemporary research?
-What are the major issues underpinning gendered forms of disordered eating and exercise behaviour?
Whilst we have identified girls and women have had to confront many body image issues within contemporary Western culture there is increasing evidence to suggest that boys and young men are having to deal with similar related issues. There is an emerging trend indicating young males are succumbing to exercise dependence and eating disordered behaviours. Young women are still targets for consumer advertising and these issues are still impacting on women's disordered eating and eating patterns.

Symmetry

Previous research has suggested that bilateral symmetry in humans is associated with evolutionary fitness, and with performance fitness. The rationale is that symmetrical organisms have been able to resist perturbations to the growth process. Symmetry is therefore an "honest advertisement" of robustness. The aim of our research was to test the hypothesis that bilateral facial and whole-body symmetry was associated with performance and physiological fitness.

Applied Exercise Science

Kinanthropometry Our anthropometric research has included sport-specific studies in cycling, Rugby Union, orienteering and taekwondo; a study of symmetry and its performance correlates; anthropometry and body image; and the evolution of the size and shape of children and sports people. Our textbook, Anthropometrica, and software package, LifeSize, are key components of the ISAK International Accreditation Scheme.
Low back pain in professional golfers Previous research agrees that the majority of injuries, which affect male golfers, are located in the lower back, and that they are related to improper swing mechanics and/or the repetitive nature of the swing. This study describes the 3 dimensional trunk motion and paraspinal muscle activity during the swing of a golfer with related low back pain (LBP), and assesses the effect of a three month period of muscle conditioning and coaching on these variables.
Motor control of human gait According to the dynamical systems perspective, preferred gait is characterised by stable phase relationships while gait transition is associated with a loss of stability. Studying the mechanisms associated with this natural transition from a walk to a run provides an opportunity to explore the underlying control processes of human locomotion. There are a number of potential triggers for this transition viz., mechanical or anthropometric limitations of the individual (Alexander, 1984), energetic costs (Hreljac, 1993) or skeletal load (Farley & Taylor, 1991) which are all investigated under a common experimental design, including the continuous assessment of kinetic data.
Physiology A team of researchers in the school have been investigating the physiological effects of taking bovine colostrum supplements. To date the team have demonstrated that bovine colostrum supplementation increases the adaptations resulting from exercise training and improves buffer capacity. Specifically it has been shown that bovine colostrum supplementation increases muscular power and recovery from exercise. Further work is being carried out to determine the mechanism by which this supplement exerts these effects.
Pre-exercise screening Before undertaking exercise, it is important to know whether it is safe for individuals to undertake testing or exercise. Since 1975, the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) has produced a series of guidelines for screening subjects prior to exercise. Our research had two primary aims: o to formalise and operationalise the ACSM pre-exercise screening system in computer-programmable form; o to estimate the percentage of people in the general population "excluded" (ie required to have a medical check-up) by the system. We ran all subjects in large, representative database through the ACSM 1995 system.
Cycling Is it possible to produce a first-principles mathematical model of cycling performance, which takes into account physiologically-produced power, and resistances to forward motion? Such a model would allow us to quantify, in the common currency of minutes and seconds, the effects of changes to the cyclist's physiology, equipment and environmental conditions. A mathematical model was constructed using basic physiological and biophysical principles, and parameterised using data collected on 63 cyclists ranging from novice to Olympic level. The model was used to predict performance over distances ranging from 1 to 26 km. The cyclists then underwent time-trials and measured times were compared to those predicted by the model.
Rugby union Sportspeople in many sports appear to be increasing in stature and mass at a very fast rate. However, we also know that the size of people in the general population is also increasing. Is the increase in sportspeople greater than the background increase due to the secular trend? If so, what can explain the greater rate of increase. We reviewed published and unpublished data on state and national-level Rugby Union players since the beginning of the twentieth century. Using a "pseudodata" generation technique, we calculated rates of change in stature, mass, BMI and somatotype, and compared them to data on changes in these characteristics in the general population, where available.
Taekwondo Taekwondo became a full Olympic sport for the first time at the Sydney 2000 Games. There have been very few studies of the anthropometry of elite taekwondo players. In association with Korean colleagues, a total of 146 Korean taekwondo players aged 18 and over were measured. These were then divided into competitors at International , State and Club level . Each subject was measured using a subset of the Full profile as prescribed by the International Society for the Advancement of Kinanthropometry (ISAK; Norton & Olds, 1996). The measurements included nine skinfolds, ten girths, five lengths and five breadths.
Nutritional science The school is currently researching in the following areas of nutritional science: The role of dietary and adipose triglycerides as exercise fuels. The effect of exercise intensity and duration on the use of adipose and intramuscular triglycerides as exercise fuels. The effect of habitual dietary fat intake and exercise intensity on post-exercise fatty acid metabolism. The acute effects of exercise intensity on dietary macronutrient distribution. The effects of exercise intensity and duration on body composition changes.
Sheepshearing research This research was initiated to address this need for accurate research information about some aspects of the wool harvesting industry - specifically the aims of the research were: to reduce the risk of back injury for shearers to decrease the energy cost of shearing - both of these should assist in increasing both sheepshearing productivity and work quality to establish a safe working environment via the development of justifiable and practical modifications to shearing shed layout and shearer work patterns to determine the impact of the suggested alterations in shed layout and work patterns on the stress placed on the low back and the energy cost of shearing In brief, the experimental research gave support to the view that relatively simple and inexpensive modifications to shearing shed layout can potentially have a substantial impact on the risk of injuries. With this reduction in risk is likely to come improvements in productivity and the quality of the work perform