Kee Ying Hwa

The study examines the relationships between mindfulness and flow dispositions, through the investigation of differences in flow dispositions between groups of university athletes of distinctive mindfulness characteristics. Hollander's model of personality depicting psychological core, typical response and role-related behaviour is adopted as the theoretical framework (Hollander, 1967). 164 university athletes (69 women and 95 men, mean age = 22.4 years old, SD = 1.84) were clustered into three distinctive mindfulness groups based on their responses on the Mindfulness/Mindlessness Scale (MMS; Bodner & Langer, 2001). Three distinctive clusters formed using Ward's method (Ward, 1963) were as follows : High Mindfulness Group (n = 40), Moderate Mindfulness Group (n = 63), and Low Mindfulness Group (n = 61). High Mindfulness Group is characterised by higher novelty seeking, novelty producing, flexibility, and moderate engagement. Members of the Moderate Mindfulness Group displays moderate novelty seeking, novelty producing, flexibility, and high engagement. Low Mindfulness Group exudes lower in all the four mindfulness characteristics. Significant differences between the High Mindfulness Group and Low Mindfulness Group were found for six out of nine flow dispositions (p < .05) assessed using Flow Disposition Scale -2 (DFS-2, Jackson & Eklund, 2004). Those in the High Mindfulness Group scored significantly higher in balance of skill/challenge, merging of action and awareness, goals, concentration, loss of self-consciousness, and autotelic experience scores compared to the Low Mindfulness Group. The findings suggest that mindfulness characteristics is related to flow dispositions.

The purpose of the current study is to examine the relationships between need satisfaction, motivation, and outcomes as well as the differential effects of the three psychological needs. The sample consisted of 1549 students from 10 secondary schools in Singapore. Structural equation modelling (SEM) analysis showed that students’ psychological needs are positively related to autonomous motivation, and this in turn, lead to higher enjoyment, value and lower pressure. On the other hand, the three psychological needs were negatively related to controlled motivation. Controlled motivation was positively related to pressure but negatively related to enjoyment and value. In terms of the differential effects of the three psychological needs, relatedness contributed strongly to autonomous motivation, compared to autonomy and competence. In contrast, while autonomy and relatedness contributed to controlled motivation negatively, competence positively predicted controlled motivation. Finally, competence was found to link to pressure in a negative way. In summary, the findings of the current study provide support to the propositions of SDT and add some insight to the differential effects of the three psychological needs.

We examined whether the momentary induction of state mindfulness benefited subsequent balance performance, taking into consideration the effects of dispositional mindfulness. We also tested whether our mindfulness induction, grounded in sustaining moment-to-moment attention, influenced the attentional focus strategies that were adopted by the participants during the balancing task. Balance performance was ascertained based on approximate entropy(ApEn) of the center of pressure (COP) data. The study involved 32 males (age: M = 22.8, SD= 1.94) who were randomly assigned to the mindfulness or control group. Using difference in pretest to posttest performance based on the medio-lateral movements as the dependent variable, the test for interaction showed that the mindfulness induction was more effective for participants with higher dispositional mindfulness. Participants who underwent mindfulness induction also reported greater use of external focus strategies than those in the control group. Results suggest that momentary mindful attention could benefit balance performance and affect the use of attentional focus strategies during movement control.

The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between playing style variability and within-season team match performance outcomes. We examined 21,708 matches played in the top five leagues in Europe from the 2014/15 to 2019/20 season. Playing styles used by each team in each match were derived through a Gaussian-Mixture Model clustering of 31 match actions. The relationship between playing style choice and match outcome was also analysed using Multinomial Logistic Regression. However, team and opposition playing style predicted match outcome with low precision (39.78%). Measures of playing style variability, namely flexibility, stability, and adaptability, were derived using the coefficient of unalikeability, and relationship with performance outcomes were computed using Pearson’s correlation. Playing style flexibility was positively correlated with both offensive and defensive performance outcomes and win frequency (p < .01). Conversely, teams displaying higher playing style stability conceded less shots in the penalty box but demonstrated poorer offensive performance outcomes (p < .01). Playing style adaptability, indicative of high flexibility and stability, was positively associated with defensive performance outcomes and win frequency (p < .01). Our results indicate that playing style variability may be a significant indicator of team performance.

This systematic review organizes the literature regarding the influence of contextual constraints on football match action profiles, in order to inform better practice when utilized a data-informed approach towards identifying and predicting high performing football players. Furthermore, the validity of examining “on-ball” match actions in competitive matches as an indicator of performance was also investigated. Based on the studies reviewed, task and environmental constraints were highlighted to be significantly influential on match actions performed, which suggests that recruitment strategies may be more successful if there were a greater emphasis on identifying players that best fit the constraints unique to the team, rather than recruiting the “best” player in the position. Additionally, the ability to adapt and successfully produce goal-directed behaviour in a variety of contexts may therefore be indicative of future high performance. Results from existing studies suggest that match actions performed in competitive matches can significantly distinguish between higher and lower performing teams or individuals. However, given the largely retrospective study designs of existing studies, a shift towards prospective study designs utilizing machine learning or statistical modelling is proposed to increase the practical applicability of theoretical findings.