Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Major Injuries Sustained In Towable Watersports, Elijah J. Klein

Honors Thesis

Towable watersports are activities where a participant is being pulled by a motorized watercraft while wearing or holding onto a floating device. Watersports come with many known risks such as drowning, whiplash, and fatigue; however, other injuries are often overlooked or misunderstood. With this thesis, I aimed to explore injury records pertaining to towable watersports and attempted to identify prevalent injury trends in wakeboarding, waterskiing, and water tubing. Using the National Electronic Injury Survey System (NEISS), a public database with yearly injury records, I compiled information related to the relevant sports from 2013 to 2022. Included with the data is …

A Review Of The Progression Of Concussion Protocols Used Over Time In High School And College Athletics, Renee M. Thompson

Honors Thesis

Concussions have a significant impact on teenagers and young adults. Most concussions occur when participating in sports. Therefore, the focus is on high school and college athletes for this review. Over the years many new concussion studies and protocols have been implemented and removed. Concussions are head injuries, where the person has suffered trauma causing the brain to shift and receive damage. This typically impacts brain tissue and a variety of symptoms results. Concussions were traditionally not considered with the same severity as broken bones or bloody wounds. Head injuries can have extreme effects on the body and daily living …

The Impact Of Sleep On Athletic Performance: A Review Of The Literature, Rylan J. Pratt

Honors Thesis

This paper reviewed the literature regarding sleep and athletic performance, specifically identifying the problem of sleep debt in student athletes, the effects of sleep debt, and what factors negatively influence sleep, along with how to improve sleep. The literature revealed that it is common for athletes to not get adequate sleep. Sleep debt can have psychomotor and physiological effects on the body, which decreases optimal athletic performance. The many factors that negatively impact sleep include high intensity training sessions, travel, sleep disturbances, caffeine and/or alcohol consumption, and pre-competition anxiety. Recommendations for athletes that are struggling to achieve adequate sleep include, …

Comparison Of Dynamic And Static Stretching Protocols On Hopping Performance In Female Collegiate Soccer Players, Emma Harkleroad

Honors Thesis

Comparison of Dynamic and Static Stretching Protocols on Hopping Performance in Female Collegiate Soccer Players

Emma Harkleroad

Director: Dr. Patti Berg-Poppe

The purpose of this study was to evaluate static, dynamic, and no stretching on triple hop distance among female collegiate soccer players. Twenty-one volunteers (ages 18-22) from a Division I women's soccer team were randomly grouped into one of 3 intervention rotation groups. All subjects participated in 5 minutes of dynamic, static, or no stretching protocols on each of 3 days, depending upon the rotation timeline. Active ankle dorsiflexion range of motion (AROM) measurements with knee extended and knee …

An Annual Training Plan For Collegiate Dance, Ashley R. German

Honors Thesis

The focus of this thesis is on developing an annual resistance training plan for collegiate dance with no test subjects. This project provides biomechanical, physiological, and injury analysis of collegiate dance. Based on the analysis, a research-based, linear resistance training program for the University of South Dakota Dance Team was created. The resistance training program follows basic strength and conditioning principles including specificity, overload, and periodization. Additionally, exercise selection, order, volume, and intensity were prescribed based on standards set forth by the National Strength and Conditioning Association. Generally, from off-season to in-season, exercises moved from general to specific, along with …

Effect Of Sport-Specific Demands On Swimmer's Shoulder, Jordan A. Thielbar

Honors Thesis

Swimming is a unique sport in that the shoulders generate most of the propulsive force. Therefore, due to the large amounts of repetitive force, the shoulders generate during freestyle, swimmer’s shoulder is the most common injury among competitive swimmers. Freestyle biomechanics, muscular imbalances and posture all play a pertinent role in a swimmer’s risk for developing a shoulder injury during their swimming career. Swimmers typically develop large muscular imbalances between their dominant and nondominant shoulders due to several sport-specific demands including freestyle stroke mechanics, breathing, and body roll. These muscular imbalances alter a swimmer’s posture and freestyle biomechanics which eventually …

The Effect Of Exercise On College Students' Overall Health, Tanner Steineke

Honors Thesis

Introduction: Many individuals are not attaining the World Health Organization and American Heart Association’s recommendations for daily physical activity. Physical activity habits are developed during young adulthood and it is therefore important to study barriers to physical activity in college students.

Objectives: Investigate the relationship between college student’s physical activity and their overall health. Methods: Data was collected by circulating an online survey to students on the University of South Dakota campus. Several survey questions were used from the SF-36 and the National College Health Assessment. Measures included mental health, physical activity, overall health, diet, and sleep habits.

Results: Results …

A Comparison Of Quadriceps -To-Hamstrings Ratios During Isokinetic Testing, Cutting, And Drop Landings In Male Soccer Players, Shane R. O'Donnell, Jenevieve L. Roper

Honors Thesis

Collegiate soccer is not an unusual place to suffer a knee injury. The sport has many dynamic movements, such as cutting, jumping and shooting. Many professionals use quadriceps-to-hamstring (Q/H) ratios as a tool to determine when an injured player can to return to game play or use the ratio to investigate how predisposed a certain player is to sustaining a knee injury. However, many of these ratios are taken in isokinetic testing in a controlled environment and to our knowledge it is unknown if these ratios are similar to those measured during dynamic activity. Therefore, this study investigated if there …

Coaching And Concussions: Prevention, Education, And Perspective, Colby J. Felts

Honors Thesis

The large participation of players and coaches in football has made it one of the most popular sports in America. Concussions have specifically gained national attention in football due to frequent, high impact collisions. A concussion injury poses a unique threat in high school football because of the developing adolescent brain and high participation numbers. Additionally, lack of medical personnel to diagnose concussions at the high school level imposes a legal duty on the coaches. The thesis develops a recommended plan of action for directors of Iowa high school football to assist in preserving the future of the sport. A …