Sleep is generally regarded as a valuable resource for psychological and physiological well-being. Although the effects of sleep on athletic performance have been acknowledged in sport science, few studies have investigated the prevalence of sleep problems and their effects on elite athletes before a sport event. In this study, 632 German athletes from various sports were asked about their sleep habits during the night(s) before an important competition or game. The findings indicate that 65.8% of the athletes experienced poor sleep in the night(s) before a sports event at least once in their lives and a similarly high percentage (62.3%) had this experience at least once during the previous 12 months. Athletes of individual sports reported more sleep difficulties than athletes of team sports. The main sleep problem was not being able to fall asleep. Internal factors such as nervousness and thoughts about the competition were rated highest for causing sleep problems. Most athletes stated that disturbed sleep had no influence on their athletic performance; however, athletes also reported effects such as a bad mood the following day, increased daytime sleepiness, and worse performance in the competition or game. The differences between individual and team sports indicate that athletes in some sports need more help than those in other sports in managing sleep problems.

- The objective of this study was to assess the perceptions of secondary school sports' coaches about oro-facial injuries and mouth protector usage in sports by the adolescent athletes. A 10-item, self-completion questionnaire was distributed to 42 coaches from 23 secondary schools randomly selected from different parts of Ibadan city in Nigeria between May and June, 2002. The questionnaire sought information on why a mouth protector (mouthguard) is used, when it is required; the types of mouth protector used, the major reasons for choosing a specific mouth protector, and personal feeling as to whether mouthguards prevent oral injury. Descriptive statistics were used for the data while the chi-square statistic was employed to test the significance of association between variables. All the coaches, 25 (59.5%) males and 17 (40.5%) females with age range of 19-51 years and mean age of 38.07 +/- 8.97 years (mean +/- SD), completed and returned the forms (100% completion rate). 95.2% of the coaches believed that mouthguards prevent oral injuries and 95.2% of them also would like more information on different types of mouthguard, while 4.8% each felt otherwise. The main factor determining the choice of the type of mouthguard for athletes by the coaches was the quality of oral protection (57.1%), and the next was the cost (23.8%). Acceptance of mouthguard was scored as positive by 88.1% of the athletes. 81.0% of the coaches felt that mouthguard should be worn at all times (during practices and competitions) while 19.0% would prefer the use during competitions only. The majority of the coaches (71.4%) believed that boxing needs mouthguards, 2.4% each indicated football (soccer) and Judo while 11.9% of the coaches did not indicate any sport. The majority of these Nigerian coaches agreed on the protective effectiveness of mouthguard against sport-related oro-facial injuries, but they are yet to be adequately informed about mouthguards generally so as to correctly advise and influence these adolescent athletes in this regard.

Although the majority of the athletes claimed awareness of mouthguards, less than one-third used them. Over half of the athletes were not sure that mouthguards could reduce the prevalence and/or severity of oro-facial injuries. There is need to educate the athletes more concerning mouthguards.

Perception of cohesion and imagery use among 45 elite team sport players in Botswana were assessed with the Group Environment Questionnaire (Carron et al., 1985) and the Sport Imagery Questionnaire (Hall et al., 1998) to determine whether a relationship exists between the variables, and whether imagery use will significantly predict team cohesion. Results of the correlation analysis revealed a significant (p<.05) positive relationship between Attraction to Group-Social and Cognitive General Imagery. Significant positive relationships (p<.05) were also revealed between Individual Attraction to Group-Task and Cognitive Specific, Motivational Specific and Motivation General Arousal Imagery. The regression analysis revealed no significant (p>.05) composite effect of imagery use on cohesion, while a shared variance of 6.7% was recorded for both variables. Furthermore it was revealed that Motivational Specific and Cognitive General imagery use were significant (p<.05) predictors of cohesion as perceived by the team players. Findings further suggest that the cognitive and affective elements of perceived imagery and cohesion are reciprocally related on the basis of theories concerning the relationship between cognition and affect. The implications of these findings suggest that the team cohesion and imagery relationship could be used for team building and a team intervention tool with other cognitive variables.

Five types of imagery used by 188 Nigerian athletes in track and field, soccer, and table tennis were examined using the Sport Imagery Questionnaire [M age for men 24.7 yr. (SD=3.6) and for women 23.3 yr. (SD=3.4)] to assess whether these participants differed in their use of imagery. Significant differences were noted for the three sports on subscales of Cognitive General, Motivational Specific, Motivation General-Mastery, and Motivation General-Arousal, while moderate to strong positive correlations were identified among scores on imagery subscales, especially Motivation General-Mastery and Motivation General-Arousal. Cronbach alpha for the questionnaire was suitable for all subscales but one.

Objective: The perception of Nigerian athletes of the use of mouth guards to prevent the stresses of sports injuries was examined using psychological, sociological, and physical stress variables. Methods: The descriptive survey research design was used in this study. Participants (n = 333) were selected using the purposive random sampling technique and data were collected using the 4 point Likert type instrument. The coefficient a was used to determine the reliability of the instrument with r = 0.79 for psychological, r = 0.66 for physical, and r = 0.74 for sociological stress. Results: The result reveals that female athletes perceived the use of mouth guards as being more important to prevent the stresses of sports injuries than male athletes, while athletes who had used mouth guards for longer periods also perceived them as being more important to prevent the stresses of sports injuries compared to those who had used them less. The result also revealed a significant difference (p,0.05) among the various sport groups as independent variables on the psychological and physical stress variables. Scheffé post hoc analysis was used to identify the group where significant difference was found. Conclusions: The study concluded that since the impact of injury is perceived to affect the cognitive function of athletes, athletes should be educated on the use of mouth guards in order to reduce the incidence of oral and dental injuries to the barest minimum.

This study provides information on choking under pressure among university athletes during competition. 300 athletes were sampled and rated on a questionnaire on external and internal perceived sources of choking (alpha = .69 and .72). Analysis indicates a significant difference in mean rating on the two choking indices for men and women athletes. The women's means were higher than the men's but the difference was less than 1.00. Means for four sport groups were similar for the Internal subscale but significantly different on the External subscale.

This study provides information on choking under pressure among university athletes during competition. 300 athletes were sampled and rated on a questionnaire on external and internal perceived sources of choking (alpha = .69 and .72). Analysis indicates a significant difference in mean rating on the two choking indices for men and women athletes. The women's means were higher than the men's but the difference was less than 1.00. Means for four sport groups were similar for the Internal subscale but significantly different on the External subscale.