Helping athletes perform at their best is an ongoing challenge for coaches. It is essential that coaches prepare their athletes to cope with uncontrollable factors that affect performance that occur during game or event competition.

This article focuses on the theoretical underpinnings and associated practical applications of the individual zones of optimal functioning (IZOF) model. This model can help coaches simplify the way they teach athletes to use enhancing emotions, elude impairing emotions, sustain an optimal range of emotional functioning, and achieve elevated…

Artistic research has in recent years concerned itself with the nature of practice and how this may be framed as research. These debates may have blinded us to a more fundamental concern: territorial claims to the research space made by other forces. Competition for access to material and human resources, funds, space, and infrastructural support,…

This article utilises theories, methods and tools from the fields of Social Psychology and Education to suggest new metrics for the analysis of competitive sport. The hope is that these metrics will encourage cooperation to exist alongside of the dominant feelings of competition. The main theory from Social Psychology involved here is Social…

This article explores the effects of neoliberalism and performative educational cultures on secondary school drama classrooms. We consider the ways Deleuze and Guattari's schizoanalysis and Butler's concept of gender performance enable us to chart the embodied, relational, spatial and affective energies that inhabit the often neoliberal and…

In this article, we present a framework for exploring participation in and social stratification of movement culture based on Pierre Bourdieu's concept logic of practice. The background to our approach is Lars-Magnus Engström's struggle to understand the impact of social stratification on participation in movement culture in a now nearly…

This paper attempts to make an overview of various techniques, sport psychologist adopt in psychological preparation of athletes for peak performance. To attain peak performance in sports competitions, coaches and athletes should not base their prospect on physical training on sport skills alone rather should integrate both the mental and physical…

The youth slam poetry movement is growing in Houston. Writers in the Schools (WITS) is helping youth explore their truths through performance poetry and the renowned Meta-Four Houston program. Spoken word, slam competitions, and performance poetry bring people together to share stories and listen to our tomorrows. Performance poetry encourages…

The Olympic Training Center at Squaw Valley is available to individuals and groups interested in advanced skill development. It offers training in sports and sports medicine techniques. Its use by the Olympic synchronized swimming team is highlighted. (JMF)

National History Day is an opportunity for friendly competition and esprit d'corps, the topic of which in 1984 is family and community. Results of the 1983 national competition are discussed, with particular emphasis on how New England schools fared. (IS)

Academic competitions have the goal of spurring students to excellence through public recognition of their achievements. Some of the better known international, national, and local academic competitions are described. (Author/MLF)

Point systems in intramural competition do not accurately reflect the participation value of each sport. A system is presented in which point values are automatically adjusted to differences in group participation from sport to sport. This system is based on the set number of participants per sport and on the number of contests played per season.…

Examines the gap between instructional development (ID) theory and practice and proposes a conceptual framework to describe how expert ID practitioners work in the corporate world. The framework consists of cultural context, situation analysis and synthesis, client and other stakeholders, performance capacities, and competitive advantages. (PEN)

Discusses the role of competition in music education, proposing the use of objective criteria in analyzing competition. Examines myths concerning competition, and compares competitive learning to cooperative learning. Concludes that competition curtails student achievement and suggests alternative activities. (RW)

Points out that competition is inevitable and that it is a means, not an end, in itself. Urges that passions involved in competitive situations not be denied but understood. Suggests that it is only through the understanding of such passions that we can maintain a balance between aggression and compliance. (KO)