Ioana Maria Curitianu

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of 8-week β-alanine supplementation on C-Reactive Protein (CRP), interleukin-6 (IL-6), body composition, and bio-motor abilities in elite male basketball players. Twenty male basketball players (age: 23 + 0.6 years; body mass: 78.3 + 4.8 kg; height:185.3 + 5.4 cm, %BF, 15.2 ± 4.8) volunteered to participate in this study. They were divided into a β-alanine group (BG, N = 10) and a placebo group (PG, N = 10). All players were preparing for university competitions and had played for over five years. Players used 6.4 g/d of β-alanine in BG and maltodextrin in PG. The participants were involved in regular basketball training three months before the study. CRP, IL-6, body composition parameters, and bio-motor abilities were measured before starting the exercises and after completing the eight-week training period. The research findings showed a significant decrease in CRP and IL-6 and an increase in anaerobic peak power between the pre-test and post-test, as well as between BG and PG groups (p < 0.05). Although the other measured factors were a relative improvement compared to the pre-test and also compared to PG, these changes were not statistically significant (p < 0.05). Eight weeks of β-alanine supplementation ameliorated increases in IL-6 and CRP associated with in-season physical stressors in collegiate basketball players. These changes in pro-inflammatory cytokines suggest that β-alanine supplementation may be a useful nutritional strategy for immune regulation and can also improve anaerobic performance compared to PG.

On the basis of the integrative concept of self-esteem discussed in sport-related literature, various studies refer to its importance in the context of sports activities. Self-esteem is often understood as a personality trait because it tends to be durable and stable. No accurate description is available regarding the types of sports in which subjects participated. The main purpose of the research was to identify and compare the levels of self-esteem and self-confidence of athletes practicing individual and team sports. The self-esteem and self-confidence levels were measured by the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (Rosenberg 1979) and the Self-Confidence Test (Romek, 2000). All participants were males. Subjects were divided into two categories: 40 for individual sports and 40 for team sports. There were two evaluation periods: P1, the beginning of the preparation period, and P2, the beginning of the competition period. There were statistically significant differences for P1 (p < 0.002) and P2 (p < 0.003). The differences between the average values of the two periods were 5.8 points and 3.8 points, both favorable to the group of athletes who practiced individual sports. There were significant differences between the individual and team athletes in self-esteem level. Individual athletes presented a higher level of self-esteem.

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Sport training involves repeated bouts of exercise and high volume of physically demanding practice sessions and competitive games, which may lead to decline on performance, oxidative stress, and inflammation (Margonis K. et. al., 2007, Finaud J. et. al., 2006) Handball is considered a demanding exercise mode that places important stress on a players aerobic metabolism. In addition, handball game involves a large number of anaerobic actions such as bodycontact, repeated accelerations, sprints, jumps, throwing, blocking, pushing, and rapid changes in moving directions (Ronglan L.T. et. al., 2006, Gorostiaga E.M. et. al., 2006). Studies in elite handball players have focused only on performance parameters like maximal muscle strength, sprint time, and jump height in response to a tournament (Ronglan L.T. et. al., 2006). During a competitive handball season, the demand for playing two games per week elevates the stress imposed to the athletes, thereby increasing the injury risk and performance decline due to fatigue and muscle damage. Most prevalent injuries in handball is today, without any doubt, an extremely traumatic sport and it will be getting even more so with reference to the increase of strength, speed, and rhythm of the game. Numerous injuries which occur during the training process and games do not differ greatly with reference to age and sex (Wedderkopp N. et. al., 1997, Junge A. et. al., 2004).

The sporting environment is a rich, unique, and salient context in which to study the basic and applied nature of a variety of social dynamics. Issues such as leadership, collective efficacy, team cohesion, and group goal setting undoubtedly have great theoretical and practical value within sport teams. Sport is completely permeated by the question of the diversity which it vividly enacts. The same way sports blends sporting spirit, competition drive and fair play it should also blend culturally different envisaged notions of non-uniformity, diversity, enrichment through other culture, other skin color, other language and other style of living. All disciplines are concerned to a more or less intense degree, depending on their popular support or lack of it and on the culture which they convey. Multiple origins and complex careers are now a hallmark: handball, rugby, basketball as well as individual sports like athletics, judo and tennis have their champions stemming from diversity, who form the tip of an equally variegated iceberg of school and amateur sport (Diamond P., Hausman J., 1994).