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This chapter draws upon the sociological concept of rationalization to explore the role and practice of sports medicine. It highlights attempts by the profession to create a rationalized model of health care for sports participants – particularly those involved in high-performance sports settings and the enabling and constraining elements of its enactment.

The chapter explains how changes in the organization of sports medicine have dovetailed with the increasing rationalization of sport which has been significant in enacting changes in sports medicine that are aligned with a more rationalized model of care.

Key findings from the literature highlight the difficulties of implementing rationalized health care policy into practice. Specifically, the chapter examines macro-organizational changes to the structure of sports medicine and the extent to which sports medicine represents a rationalized model of health care by virtue of micro-organizational constraints.

While the discussion draws upon a breadth of research by sociologists of sport who have examined sports medicine practices, the chapter draws heavily on the UK model of sports medicine care in high-performance sport and thus the conclusions may not be wholly transferable to non-UK and non-sports contexts.

The purpose of this paper is to fill an apparent gap in the literature addressing issues of leadership and change – the development and activities of constructing and leading sports sciences and medicine professions, and similarly, the construction and leadership of multidisciplinary/inter-disciplinary organisations that practice sports sciences and medicine.

This study incorporated explorations through conducting both interviews and survey questionnaires with members of Sports Medicine Australia (SMA). The interviews (qualitative) were semi-structured and asked questions addressing what changed, why change and how change was implemented.

The health sciences and medicine professions moving to specialised sports sciences and medicine disciplines and SMA, evolved through forces driving the need for change (legitimacy, resource dependency, positioning and core competencies).

The knowledge developed from understanding activities of change that traditional professions conducted to become specialised Disciplines and parallel changes in a single Discipline organisation evolving to an umbrella organisation (SMA), comprised a membership of specialised Disciplines, can act as a catalyst for inquiry by other professional and organisational groups.

The findings of this study contributes to the literature investigating change in professional and organisations fields. More specifically, this study promotes inquiry into leadership practices of sports sciences and medicine, as contributors to the field of health services.

To examine the ways in which sports-related brain injury (concussion and subconcussion) is both similar to and different from other injuries and to set out a sociological understanding of the injury, its manifestation and management.

There is a broad contextualization of the ‘issue’ of concussion and the processes that have brought this to the fore, an examination of the ways in which concussion has been figuratively clouded from plain view, and an outline of the main contributions of the social sciences to understanding this injury – the culture of risk and the mediating effect of social relationships. The chapter concludes by questioning whether the emergence of concerns over chronic traumatic encephalopathy has stimulated a fundamental change in attitudes towards sport injuries, and if this has had a significant impact on the social visibility of concussion.

The two available sociological studies of the lived experiences of concussion are situated within a broader analysis of the politicization of sports medicine and the emergence of a particular social discourse around sports-related brain injury.

The difficulties emanating from the dominance of a biomedical approach to concussion are discussed along with the need for further research, incorporating a more holistic view of concussion, as a bio-psycho-social phenomenon.

The intent of this chapter is to examine the historical and present-day intersections of injury, impairment, pain and risk-taking in the Paralympic Movement. While much has been written about injuries that end an athlete’s career, far less consideration has been given to how an injury might launch a sports career. In this chapter, I explore the experiences of athletes for whom injury and sports participation are fundamentally entwined.

To accomplish this, I draw on sociological literature on sport and injury, psychological literature on identities and sport retirement and feminist disability theories. The discussion is further enriched by interviews with Paralympic athletes and informed by own experience as a researcher, guide and volunteer in the Paralympic Movement.

This work illustrates how systems of representation intersect to (re)produce identities. This includes demonstrating how some individuals use sport as a means of claiming an athletic identity while distancing themselves from devalued disabled identities and the subsequent impact this can have on their psycho-social well-being.

This chapter demonstrates how sociologists of sports can engage with critical disability scholarship to deepen understandings of how and why individuals with impairments enter into sport and their experiences therein.

People with learning disabilities can be affected by complex health needs and their life expectancy is significantly reduced. Physical activity has a role in enhancing quality of life and better management of multiple health issues in this population especially if they are individually tailored to the service users’ abilities and care needs. Considering the complexities of communication, there is a need for a specific physical activity assessment tool in people with learning disabilities.

A multidisciplinary team of experts devised the Learning Disability Physical Activity Questionnaire (LDPAQ) as a tool to measure physical activity. The tool was tested within community and inpatient settings.

An easy-read, picture-based, self-reported and concise questionnaire with options relevant to people with learning disabilities was developed. Feedback from the audit confirmed ease of use and high levels of respondent satisfaction. A small-scale audit of the tool also confirmed the need for promoting physical activity within this population.

The LDPAQ is a novel questionnaire that aims to be a universally applicable tool for the assessment of physical activity status in people with learning disabilities. It is designed to be used by people with learning disabilities themselves, professionals and organisations. Further research is needed to explore the full potential of this tool.

Explores the relationships between the perceived quality of physical education lessons, the perceived quality of opportunities for physical activity in a residential area, and the physical fitness and health of pupils attending Grades 5 and 9 in Germany. The data were collected from 300 pupils in a community in Saxony, using a standardized questionnaire and a standard test of sporting ability. Results indicated that girls evaluated the opportunities for physical activity in the residential area more critically than boys. Multivariate analysis showed that the subjective health status of pupils was associated with good physical fitness and a good perception of opportunities for physical activity in the residential area, but not with the perceived quality of physical education lessons. These results provide evidence that a relationship between the urban environment and physical activity exists, and that the promotion of physical activity for pupils can benefit from intersectoral approaches.

Football, or soccer as it is known in the United States, is one area in which managerial positions are hugely volatile with what is often called a ‘merry-go-round’ of managers sacked for poor performance at their club and reemployed by another club. Not only does this practice often not increase performance but it is also very costly. Considering the nature of football, that is, the relatively high impact of chance on the rare events that goals are, and the high correlation between success and the wage bill, the influence of managers on performance is often over-estimated. However, potentially better preparation of future managers might help to increase competitive advantages. In this chapter, we are looking in depth at leadership in the context of football and the lessons we can draw for other contexts.

New models of thinking, organization and governance are needed when health systems are under pressure. Inspired by a recent Danish community project called Your Health, this paper sheds light on the nexus of health promotion, sport and well-being, and how an increased focus on synergies can improve public health capacity in the future.

The three areas of interests are presented, and challenges and opportunities are discussed along with the lessons learned from the Danish community project serving as an example of an integrated approach. The project was hosted by a sports club with the aim to enhance the health and well-being of new members, engage volunteers as health motivators and develop new activities in partnership with community organizations.

The discussion on creating synergies between sport, health promotion and well-being inspired a new model encouraging moving away from silo-thinking towards the sweet-spot where all three perspectives are represented. In this way, public health can be developed to the next level, in particular with regards to actions taking place outside the health sector.

More research is warranted to develop the evidence that can push for a changed policy agenda and showcase the social and economic return on investments.

There is a growing interest to support health and well-being. Capacity building is needed to engage non-health stakeholders actively in the health agenda.

Despite the need for progress, research is still scarce. Thus, it is important to create a new momentum among relevant stakeholders to facilitate the integration of sport, health promotion and well-being to qualify and expand public health capacity, create better health for all and bridge inequity.

This study aims to investigate if engineered compression variations using moisture-responsive knitted fabric design can improve breast support in seamless knitted sports bras.

An experimental approach was used to integrate a novel moisture-responsive fabric panel into a seamless knitted bra, and the resulting compression variability in dry versus wet conditions were compared with those of a control bra. Air permeability and elongation testing of between breasts fabric panels was conducted in dry and wet conditions, followed by three-dimensional body scanning of eight human participants wearing the two bras in similar conditions. Questionnaires were used to evaluate perceived comfort and breast support of both bras in both conditions.

Air permeability test results showed that the novel panel had the highest variance between dry and wet conditions, confirming its moisture-responsive design, and increased its elongation coefficient in both wale and course directions in wet condition. There were significant main effects of bra type and body location on breast compression measurements. Breast circumferences in the novel bra were significantly larger than in the control bra condition. The significant two-way interaction between bra type and moisture condition showed that the control bra lost compressive power in wet condition, whereas the novel bra became more compressive when wet. Changes in compression were confirmed by participants’ perception of tighter straps and drier breast comfort.

These findings add to the limited scientific knowledge of moisture adaptive bra design using engineered knitted fabrics via advanced manufacturing technologies, with possible applications beyond sports bras, such as bras for breast surgery recovering patients.