In my experience (as a section editor) most colleagues are aware of the
limitations of exclusive use of P values. These simply indicate pass or fail of
a significance test and do not necessarily indicate practical/clinical
significance or meaningfulness. Confidence intervals of differences provide
improved measures of uncertainty and effect sizes indicate the magnitude of
differences and changes. My personal preference is to have, where possible, all
three. By doing so, the reader is provided with as much information as possible
to judge whether or not authors' claims about differences and changes can be
substantiated.

Appeals can and do work and Ian offers useful advice. For those of you who are
unaware of Day and Gastel's (2006) How to Write and Publish a Scientific Paper
(6th edn) published by Cambridge University Press ISBN 0-521-671767-1 or
O'Connor's (1991) Writing Successfully in Science published by Chapman and Hall
ISBN 0-412-44630-8, I urge you to seek them out. For those of you who are, the
occasional refresher is recommended.

They are excellent texts and should adorn the bookshelves of all researchers and
scientific writers. In particular, Day and Gastel have a chapter entitled The
Review Process (How to Deal with Editors) that is germane to the topic of this
thread.

Editors and their reviewers spend considerable time fulfilling their task and
(usually) provide extensive feedback to authors. Some authors feel aggrieved
that their manuscripts have been rejected while many reviewers castigate editors
for wasting their time with irredeemably bad submissions. As with most things,
the majority of cases lie somewhere between these extremes but editors
constantly have to adjudicate.


Edward M Winter
Professor of the Physiology of Exercise
The Centre for Sport and Exercise Science
Sheffield Hallam University
Collegiate Hall
Collegiate Crescent Campus
SHEFFIELD S10 2BP

Tel:   0114 225 4333 (International +44 114 225 4333)
Fax:  0114 225 4341 (International +44 114 225 4341)
www.thecentreforsport.com
http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/02640414.html

The VIS provides an environment in which talented athletes have the
opportunity to excel in sport and life.  An important aspect of the
environment is the Sport Science department which is known world-
wide for the impact it has on athlete development and performance.

The VIS is seeking applications from dynamic, innovative,
performance-focused individuals for the position of VIS Sport
Science Coordinator to lead and oversee the Sport Science program,
together with utilising your applied skills and experience to work
with coaches and athletes in their daily training environment.

The successful applicant will be responsible for:
- providing "cutting edge" delivery to coaches & athletes in
your discipline/area of expertise
- leading, designing and coordinating the delivery of applied
sport science within a multi-disciplinary framework
- managing the sport science team and student placement program

The successful applicant should have
- appropriately qualified in a relevant sport science area
- at least 5 years experience working as a sport scientist
with high performance athletes
- proven experience working within an integrated/multi-
disciplinary program environment

The successful applicant will demonstrate:
- a thorough knowledge and understanding of the high
performance requirements for athletes to aspire to and succeed at
the highest international level
- an ability to communicate with coaches and athletes in a way
that converts complex sport science principles and techniques into
sports language
- personal and professional skills related to dealing with
athletes from widely diverse age groups and sports
- highly developed skills in leadership, management and
mentoring staff in a Sports Institute/Academy Sport Science
Department or equivalent
- a proven ability to design and implement procedures to
resolve applied sport science problems

An information pack is available by contacting Nerissa Byrne on +61
3 9425 0000 or at nerissa.byrne@...

Short listed candidates will be required to attend interviews in
person and these will be conducted in Melbourne early in May.

Applications should be forwarded, marked "Confidential" to: Paul
Kiteley, Athlete Services Manager, Victorian Institute of Sport
Postal Address:  PO Box 12608, A'Beckett Street, Melbourne,
Victoria, 8006, Australia
Email:  paul.kiteley@...

Closing date for applications:  Monday, 16 April 2007

Dear All,

I recently took a look at an analysis a colleague conducted. It is the
correlation between peak power in a 10 sec Wingate Test and peak power
in a Squat Jump test. He wants to validate whether jump testing can be
used to monitor changes in sprint cycling performance.

The absolute values were almost certainly a large correlation, r =
0.89 (90% CL 0.72 to 0.96). However, the correlation between the
measures relative to body weight was trivial although somewhat unclear
at best, r = 0.01 (90% CL -0.47 to 0.49). He had very similar results
for the Counter-movement Jump and when jumping peak values were
replaced with the mean of the peak power from three tests. I appended
the values for the peak power SJ and Wingate below.

I did a brief search/revision and wondered if the result was due to
division removing bias. For example, body weight could be a lurking
variable causing a spurious correlation, that is, heavier cyclists
have more muscle mass with which to generate greater absolute power in
both the Wingate and SJ. So by removing the body weight factor with
division, is the spurious correlation also removed and the true
uncorrelated nature of the tests is revealed?

Regards

Nick Flyger
Senior Biomechanist
Malaysian Institute of Sport

BW PP bike PP jump
56.1 1351 2646
56.8 1431 3045
65.4 1428 3276
59.5 1399 3196
63.2 1444 3138
67.3 1468 3468
67.1 1470 3896
61.3 1465 4154
62.9 1426 3536
65.2 1490 4119
55.9 1334 2423
56.0 1427 3187
56.1 1368 2925

Arabic
http://www.jssm.org/arabic.php

Chinese
http://www.jssm.org/chinese.php

French
http://www.jssm.org/french.php

German
http://www.jssm.org/german.php

Italian
http://www.jssm.org/italian.php

Japanese
http://www.jssm.org/japanese.php

Korean
http://www.jssm.org/korean.php

Portuguese
http://www.jssm.org/potuguese.php

Russian
http://www.jssm.org/russian.php

Spanish
http://www.jssm.org/spanish.php

Nick

I have several thoughts. Perhaps most important, I don't think you should
think of the relation between jump and cycle as a "spurious correlation".
Here is my train of thought.

First, the question you pose is whether jump testing can be used to MONITOR
CHANGES in sprint cycling performance. This means that you would follow the
same individual over time. The methods of the study you used were
cross-sectional - each subject measured once (for each test). Any
correlation obtained will not necessarily be related to a correlation
obtained over time in the same individual. Here's why.

The term "spurious correlations" or "confounding bias" are used when we are
trying to infer causation of one variable on another. I don't think anyone
believes jump height causes cycling performance. Rather, the hypothesis
would be that they are both caused by the same upstream mechanistic
variable. Although it has been awhile since I taught exercise physiology, I
would suggest there are two immediate upstream variables, ATPase activity
(related to velocity of contraction) and muscle cross-sectional area (CSA)
(related to force of contraction). If you "adjusted" for either of these
variables, you would lose the correlation between jumping and cycling but
you would not consider the jump-cycling relation a "spurious correlation" in
this context.

Now, we have to decide what affects these variables. For both ATPase
activity and muscle cross-sectional area, I would suggest genetics and
training.

Because body mass is partly caused by muscle CSA, one can think of body mass
as a marker for muscle mass. For argument's sake, let's say it is perfectly
correlated. In this case, there would be no difference between including
muscle CSA or body mass in the equation. Since you wouldn't consider
adjusting for muscle CSA removing a "spurious correlation", you shouldn't
think of including body mass that way either.

In summary, including body mass should reduce the correlation in the
cross-sectional experiment you described but this does not mean there was a
spurious correlation.

Now let's move to the MONITORING aspect. In this case, the same individual
is training over time. The training may have the following effects: increase
ATPase and increase muscle mass (which itself causes an increase in body
mass). If this occurs, and the same muscles are used in both activities, one
would expect a correlation within the same individual when measured over
time before and after training (the correlation would not be perfect because
central programming/descending patterns/muscle coordination would not
optimal for the activity not trained for). Further, in this case, the change
in body mass is an effect of the exposure (through the increase in muscle
mass, which means change in body mass is a marker for change in muscle
mass). If you include change in body mass, you would effectively be looking
at mechanisms that are independent of changes in muscle mass - which is fine
if that is your question. But I think your question was just about using one
test to determine the effects of the other. Also, although often forgotten,
it is an important statistical principle that one does not adjust for
variables that are affected by exposure because it would INTRODUCE bias.

Finally, lets say the tests are highly correlated. Now you want to translate
that into performance on the other test. I would suggest that you have to
use Watts/kg for the jump test (no matter which test is used to determine
power) because the person has to lift their body weight. I would also
suggest that you have to use Watts (unadjusted for weight) when looking at
cycling because weight is of minor importance and simply including the
entire weight would inappropriately penalise heavier individuals. This is
out of my field so maybe there is some formula where you can include a
fraction of the weight as the adjustment factor, but I am not aware of this.

Hope this helps.

Ian Shrier MD, PhD, Dip Sport Med, FACSM
Associate Professor, Dep't of Fam Med, McGill University
Past-president, Canadian Academy of Sport Medicine
check out: www.casm-acms.org
SKYPE Name: ian.shrier

Centre for Clinical Epidemiology and Community Studies
SMBD-Jewish General Hospital
3755 Cote Ste-Catherine Rd
Montreal, Qc  H3T 1E2
Tel: 514-340-8222 ext 7563
Fax: 514-340-7564

Hi Nick,

My vote would be that division by a 'lurking variable' would actually increase the bias in a correlation:

Atkinson, G., Davison, R., Passfield, L., & Nevill, A. (2003). Could the correlation between maximal oxygen uptake and "economy" be spurious? Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 35, 1242-1243.

Katch, V. L. (1973). Use of the oxygen/body weight ratio in correlational analyses: Spurious correlations and statistical considerations. Medicine and Science in Sports, 5, 253-257.

Kim, J.-H. (1999). Spurious correlation between ratios with a common divisor. Statistics & Probability Letters, 44 , 383-386.

Probably a better bet to 'remove the influence' of a variable is to have it as a controlling variable in a partial correlation. (drops correlation to 0.773).

Two important issues in this message.

First, I've had an enquiry from a colleague, who writes...

>Lately, I've been playing with Systat. I don't know if you looked at it.
> From my very limited (and challenged) understanding it is basically SPSS
>with Statview user interface which makes it pretty easy to use.

And in response to my suggestion about sending a message to this list...

>Hope someone has some experience with it. Preferably the latest
>version since I understood it's a big step forward.

Can anyone comment?

Secondly, and on a similar topic, a couple of months ago I spent a
few sessions with a PhD student (Rob Rein) at Otago Uni, who put the
R package through its paces for me.  It performs advanced analyses
(including advanced mixed modeling) and produces excellent
graphics.  Alas, it currently uses a challenging non-intuitive
language effectively via a DOS interface, but it has all the
advantages of a free open-source package.  I suggested he might like
to send a daily 2-min lesson to the list to get us started.  He was
willing.  How many people out there are interested?  I guess you'll
have to email me.  If I get 100 messages I'll know it's worth doing.

Will

Will G Hopkins, PhD FACSM
Health Science/Sport and Recreation
AUT University
Private Bag 92006, Auckland 0627, New Zealand
Work +64 9 921 9793, Fax +64 9 921 9960
Home +64 9 376 0198, Cell +64 27 427 2518
Skype WillTheKiwi
will@..., whopkins@...
Statistics http://newstats.org
Sportscience http://sportsci.org
--------------------------------
Be creative: break rules

ACADEMIC STAFF VACANCY
FACULTY OF COMPUTING HEALTH AND SCIENCE
School of Exercise, Biomedical and Health Sciences
Joondalup Campus
POST DOCTORAL RESEARCH FELLOW IN EXERCISE AND CHRONIC DISEASE (LEVEL
B)(3-year, full-time, fixed-term position)

The School of Exercise, Biomedical and Health Sciences has a strong
research focus on applications of exercise for the prevention and
treatment of chronic disease. In particular, optimal prescription of
anabolic and aerobic exercise are being investigated in both healthy
and patient populations including cancer, type II diabetes,
overweight and obese, cardiovascular, osteoporosis, and sarcopenia.
The postdoctoral research fellow will work within a large team
conducting research into the effects of exercise on both acutely and
chronically ill people, predominantly those aged over 65 years.
Principal outcome measures will be: body composition, bone density,
muscle strength, power and functional performance as well as
endocrine and immune responses and adaptations.

Essential selection criteria include:
1) A Ph.D. in exercise science
2) Current Radiation Safety, Bone Densitometry, Phlebotomy, Senior
First Aid, automatic defibrillation, and resuscitation certificates,
or willingness and ability to acquire them before 1 June 2007
3) Research experience in conducting long term intervention studies
incorporating resistance and cardiovascular exercise in a range of
groups including the aged and various patient populations

This position attracts remuneration of $78,039 to $92,674 including
University superannuation contribution, with a salary component of
$66,700 to $79,209 pa.

For job specific inquiries please contact Professor Robert Newton on
+61 8 6304 5711 or by e-mail at r.newton@....

Obtain Selection Criteria and other details from www.ecu.edu.au/jobs
or by e-mail: k.brayshaw@...

Applications Close: Friday 20th April 2007. Please forward your
application addressing the selection criteria and quoting Reference
Number 4676 to: e-mail k.brayshaw@... or by post to: Staff
Recruitment, Edith Cowan University, Building 1,100 Joondalup Drive,
WA 6027, AUSTRALIA.

Hi guys,

I don't mind the small number of people (so far 22) interested. Hopefully as it
goes along maybe a few more will get involved.

I'm happy to start the tutorials as soon as I'm getting rid of this
PhD, which will be in about two weeks time.

For the format, I suppose a little mailing list would be nice? Any
suggestions welcome.

Cheers
Rob

THE SIXTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON SPORT, LEISURE AND ERGONOMICS

A 3-DAY CONFERENCE IN AFFILIATION WITH THE ERGONOMICS SOCIETY

NOVEMBER 14-16 2007

BURTON – WIRRAL – CHESHIRE

[The content of this message is marginal for this list.  Please let the
moderators know if you think we should limit such announcements to sport
research-based positions and scholarships.  --Will  will@...]

Cricket Australia Centre of Excellence - Strength and Conditioning Coach


Cricket Australia (CA) is one of Australia's premier sporting bodies
with the vision for cricket to be Australia's favourite sport. The CA
Centre of Excellence incorporates the Australian Institute of Sport
(AIS) Cricket programs and provides leading edge training and
development initiatives to ensure Australia maintains its position as a
leading cricket nation.


We are seeking applications from exceptional candidates both in and
outside the sport of cricket for the role of Strength and Conditioning
Coach, based at the Centre of Excellence. In this role you will be
responsible for providing expertise in strength and conditioning (S+C)
services to CA high performance programs, supporting and at times
deputising for the Australian Men's Team S+C Coach.


You will tour with the Australian Women's Team, assist with the
rehabilitation and conditioning of CA's contracted players, coordinate
the case management program for injured players and a national
standardised fitness testing program. Working with the AIS cricket
scholars (male and female), the Australian youth squads and pace bowling
squad, the successful candidate is likely to possess:


* A proven track record in the design and implementation of strength and
conditioning programs with both Coaches and Athletes;

* Experience in injury rehabilitation with elite athletes;

* Relevant tertiary qualifications e.g. Human Movement or Exercise
Science plus S+C accreditation;

* A capacity to reliably collect and analyse data and produce reports
with a high level of attention to detail; and

* An ability to develop and manage relationships with key stakeholders.


This Brisbane based role requires an energetic and enthusiastic team
player who is prepared to travel and provide quality service to all
stakeholders including the rapid dissemination of information. An
understanding of cricket and its physical demands will be highly
regarded.


For more information on this exciting new role, please contact:

Michael Catlow or Claudia Fatone, quoting Ref. No 2379, Tel: +61 3 9620
2766, or email your application to:
www.jobs@...
<http://www.jobs@sportemploymentaustralia.com.au/> . Applications close
Friday 11 May 2007 Melbourne time.


Marc Portus PhD | Manager, Sport Science Sport Medicine Unit

Cricket Australia Centre of Excellence

PO Box 122 | Albion QLD 4010 | 1 Bogan Street | Breakfast Creek QLD 4010

mportus@... | http://www.cricket.com.au/sportscience
<http://www.cricket.com.au/default.aspx?s=sportscience>  |
http://www.ais.org.au/cricket <http://www.ais.org.au/cricket/>

I writing to inform members of a newly translated text from Dr Yuri
Verkhoshansky called, "Special Strength Training: A Coaches Manual".
This book is being discounted to $45 for one week. For more info on
this text and others, you can visit
http://www.ultimateathleteconcepts.com/store/books.html

Yosef Johnson
Michigan

[Rob intended this message to go to this list last week.  He is running
the tutorial from a new list, as shown below.  Anyone interested can
join.  He has now uploaded the second lesson, too.  --Will]

Hi guys,

I created a yahoo group for our R tutorial:
http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/sportsci_rtutorial/
and uploaded the first session.

Hope to hear soon from you.
Cheers
Rob

I have been charged with developing an athlete development program and
a degree module in LTAD at the college I lecture at. After some
searching all I seem to find is that sports on mass have adopted
Balyi's plan and all that Balyi has written has referenced himself.

Does anyone have any material on LTAD, I would be particularly
interested to hear if there were contrasting models to Balyi's ideas.

Thanks
Mark Helme.
West Yorkshire, UK

Please see below for information relating to Sports Physiologist
position available at the Western Australian Institute of
Sport.

Please note: Applications close 5.00pm, Wednesday 30th May.

SPORTS PHYSIOLOGIST

The Western Australian Institute of Sport (WAIS) has a fantastic career
opportunity for a highly skilled and motivated Sports Physiologist.

Working within the supportive Athlete and Coach Services team, and being
part of a vibrant culture, this role provides high quality specialist
services to the athletes and coaches of the WAIS.

This role works closely with coaches to plan and implement targeted
solutions for athletes, including the scientific profiling of athletes,
and construction and supervision of training programs.  As such your
strong communication skills and teamwork are highly valued.

Participation in and/or leading applied research projects is also
expected and supported.

To be considered for this role, you must have post graduate
qualifications, preferably a PhD.  Previous experience, particularly in the
elite sports area will be highly regarded.

WAIS offers a competitive salary and benefits, as well as opportunities
for professional development.

To obtain a copy of the position description and selection criteria,
please visit the WAIS Website at www.wais.org.au
<http://www.wais.org.au/> .

To apply for this position, please forward your application, including
your statements addressing the selection criteria, to:

Athlete and Coach Services Manager
WA Institute of Sport
PO Box 139
Claremont WA 6910

Or by email: wais@....

Please note:  Previous Applicants do not need to re-apply.
Applications for this position close 5.00pm 30th May 2007.


The Western Australian Institute of Sport is proudly supported by the
Government of Western Australia.

If you are going to the upcoming ACSM Annual Meeting in New Orleans,
and you have a keen interest in the wonderful world of Biostatistics,
please make time to attend the Biostatistics Interest Group Meeting on
Wednesday May 30 from 5:45-7:15 p.m. in Room 346 of the Convention
Center. The main item of business will be to discuss session proposals
for ACSM 2008, so please bring your ideas to the table for discussion.

At this year's meeting, the Biostatistics Interest Group has organized
two stimulating sessions.  On Wednesday, May 30 (4:25-5:15 pm, room
352) Dwight Thι presents a Tutorial Lecture on 'Validating Prediction
Equations with Statistical Simulation: Bootstrapping and Generalized
Bootstrapping'. Then, on Friday June 1 (9:10-10:00 AM, room 352) the
Interest Group hosts a Conversational Forum on 'Meta-Analyses:
Appropriate Growth or Malignant Tumor?' (Presenters are Will Hopkins
and Ian Shrier, moderated by Alan Batterham).

Best regards, and look forward to seeing some of you in New Orleans.

Alan.


Alan M Batterham PhD FACSM FRSS
Centre for Food, Physical Activity, and Obesity Research
School of Health and Social Care
University of Teesside
Middlesbrough TS1 3BA
UK

I am trying to get a copy of the following article in a Chinese journal:

Ren, Y. H., Rong, J. H., Shi, H. F., Wang, W. Y., & Xi, H. X. (2000).
An epidemiological survey and comparative study of the injuries in
weightlifting. Sports Science, 20(4), 44-46;92.

It appears to be available at the British Library, but at a hefty price.  Does
anyone have an e-copy they could send me?

Thanks

Justin

Justin Keogh PhD
Senior Lecturer
Division of Sport and Recreation
Institute of Sport and Recreation Research New Zealand
AUT University
Private Bag 92006
Auckland 1142

New Zealand
Room AH221I

Phone: 64-9-921-9999 ext 7617
Mobile: 027 344 1642
Fax: 64-9-921-9960
email: justin.keogh@...
Skype username: keoghjustin
http://www.aut.ac.nz/schools/sport_and_recreation/our_staff/
http://www.isrrnz.ac.nz/

Those of you attending the ACSM annual meeting in New Orleans next week may
be interested in attending the Winter Sports Interest Group (IG) meeting:

When?   Wed evening, 5:45-7:15 PM
Where?  Room 260, Ernest Morial Convention Center

Both Jos de Koning and myself, the current co-chairs of this group, are in
favor of expanding the current Winter Sports IG into a "High Performance
Athlete IG".  Winter sports would certainly remain a component of the new
group, but we have a desire to be more inclusive of other athletic groups
(and seasons) that interest many other ACSM conference attendees.  A
discussion of this topic will be the focus of our discussion at the
Wednesday evening meeting so show up and voice your opinion!

This would also be a great time to think about becoming co-chair of this
group.  Jos is moving out of the position he currently holds so there is
need for another co-chair to work with me on how this IG is going to evolve.

Please let me know if you have any questions with a email: dheil@...

Hope to see you in New Orleans,
Dan Heil



****************************************************************
Daniel P. Heil, Ph.D., FACSM
Associate Professor in Exercise Physiology
Dept. of Health and Human Development
Hoseaus 101, Montana State University
Bozeman, MT  59717-3540
Office Phone: 406-994-6324
Lab Phone: 406-994-6325
Office FAX: 406-994-6314
E-mail: dheil@...
****************************************************************

James Hopker
Lecturer
University of Kent
The Medway Building
Chatham
Kent
ME4 4AG
(01634) 888814

Some Cool Exercise and Nutrition related Podcasts

Brand New! - Gatorade - Protein Webisodes (Not on iTunes yet)
http://www.gssiweb.org/Podcast.aspx

Strength and Power Hour (on iTunes soon) can get all back episodes
Dr Jose Antonio and Dr Bill Kraemer - legends
http://www.sphour.com/

Performance Nutrition Show (is on iTunes) - can get all back episodes
http://www.performancenutritionshow.com/index.php

David Driscoll
Exercise Physiologist and Sports Dietitian
B.Sc. Exercise Science and Nutrition
M.Sc. Exercise Rehabilitation and Nutrition/Dietetics
AEP ASp AMS APD CSCS
MAAESS MSDA
BEFITting Image Training Nutrition Rehabilitation
Supertraining Australia