Loading...
Dr
Millard, Lourens
Department: Human Movement Science
Research Interest(s): Perceptual motor development, Vision in Sport
Active Research Project(s): Comparison of visio-spatial intelligence skills between non-athletes and amateur boxers.
Effects of body weight on aerobic fitness levels and hemodynamic factors in school-aged children within the King Cetshwayo District, KwaZulu-Natal.
Active Community Engagement: To be added
Biography: Dr Lourens Millard pursued his studies in sports science and currently serves as a Senior Lecturer in the Human Movement Science Department at the University of Zululand. Dr Millard is well-educated, holding five degrees, including a PhD in Human Movement Science. Over the years, he has been actively involved in multiple research projects, which include supervising postgraduate students, completing his PhD study, and collaborating with colleagues at other universities to publish scholarly articles.
More Detail
13 results
Search Results
Now showing 1 - 10 of 13
- 2023| The Society of Aging...Background. Stroke is one of the world's most serious social and health problems. The incorporation of tailored physical activity and exercise into the rehabilitation process and post-rehabilitation phase could portray a successful action primarily directed at the cognitive and functional recovery of brain-injured individuals following a stroke. Exercise has been shown to provide both physical and psychological benefits for post-stroke patients. Objectives. To identify and discuss the physical activities that are beneficial to stroke-recovering patients. Methods. A keyword search was used with the following headings; “benefits of physical activity”, “stroke”, “physical activity”, “recovering patients”, “physical activity guidelines”, “exercises”, “health benefits”, “stroke survivors”, “epidemiology stroke”, “prevention”, “incidence of stroke”, “statistical data on stroke”, “type of strokes”, “elderly”, “case fatality”, “mortality”, “morbidity”, and “risk factors” “physical fitness” which were combined and exploded. Results. Only 46 full-text English-language articles were found among 1,897 citations through electronic searches. The information was judged appropriate for use in this study. Conclusion. The use of different types of exercise training (e.g., aerobic, strength, flexibility, neuromuscular and traditional Chinese exercise) for stroke survivors is firmly supported by evidence. Exercise training enhances functional capacity, daily living ability, and quality of life while also lowering the risk of cardiovascular events. To maximize long-term adherence, stroke survivors' physical activity goals and exercise prescriptions should be tailored to them individually.
- 1
- 0
- 0
- Sport has become increasingly competitive, prompting the need to determine, as far as possible, any likely performance advantage. While the focus of athletic research, testing, and training is on the physiological and physical characteristics of the sport, visual abilities not only affect sport performance directly, but also affect the acquisition of motor skills. Vision, and visual-spatial intelligence (VSI), are a relatively new and underexplored area of athletic performance. As with physiological and physical parameters, a range of factors affect vision and VSI in sporting activities. This review of the literature is a first attempt to summarize and compile an overview of the factors affecting vision and VSI in athletes, covering those previously connected with sport, as well as those hitherto not associated with athletic activities, but that could also play a part in sports performance. The evidence from this review suggests that while current research still tends to focus on single factors affecting vision and VSI, a large number of such factors have been identified that could affect vision and VSI. This offers new opportunities for researchers to investigate the effects of a combination of factors, and for conditioning and/or sports vision specialists to explore further possibilities for competitive advantage.
- 1
- 1
- 0
- Background. Novices in sport possesses similar visual skills to that of experts, however there may be major differences in magnitude of performance in these skills, with expert athletes only demonstrating superiority in specific vision skills and not all aspects of vision. Objectives. In this vain, the aim of this study was to discern whether Premier League rugby players has enhanced visio-spatial skills in comparison to First Division rugby players. Methods. Thus, the present study compared the performance of Premier League rugby players (n= 40) and First Division rugby players (n= 40) on six specific components of vision, namely; accommodation facility, saccadic eye movement, speed of recognition, peripheral awareness, visual memory, and hand-eye coordination. Results. Premier League rugby players performed significantly (p= 0.001) better than the First Division rugby players in five of the six tests. but were found to be similar in visual memory performance (p= 0.810). Conclusion. While this study substantiates the proposal that expert athletes, and specifically rugby players, have superior visual expertise to novice athletes, this study also found that this is not the case with all vision skills. The present study’s findings suggest that sport-specific vision testing batteries may be required to distinguish high performers from low performers in the same vein as physical tests are utilised in the selection and recruitment of athletes.
- 1
- 0
- 0
- Background and Study Aim: Karate performance is based on many factors, such as strength, speed and endurance. Another important factor which can affect performance is kinanthropometric attributes. The cognitive aim of this study was to increase the knowledge about kinanthropometric attributes of South African male athletes participating in karate kata and kumite between the ages of 18-65 years. Material and Methods: Kinanthropometric data was collected from 101 male karate athletes from the South African Japanese Karate Association (JKA) population. Purposeful random sampling was used to select participants. Participants’ stature, body mass, body fat percentage (BF%), fat mass, lean body mass (LBM), body mass index (BMI), skinfolds, elbow and knee breadths, bicep and calf circumferences, waist circumference, hip circumference, somatotype, cormic index, waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), waist-to-stature ratio (WSR), sagittal abdominal diameter (SAD), body surface area (BSA), conicity index, adiposity body shape index (ABSI) and body adiposity index (BAI) were assessed. Quantitative statistical methods were used as well as an analysis of variance (ANOVA). Results: No significant (p> 0.05) differences were found for the kata group in relation to any of the measured kinathropometric variables and across all age groups. Conversely, significant differences in the kumite group existed for all measured kinathropometric variables across all age groups (p≤ 0.000). The results indicated that there was a significant difference for calf circumference when comparing the 26-45 year-old’s in the combined group to the 46-65-year-old group (p= 0.032). Lastly, a significant difference was found in WHR when comparing the 26-45-year-old’s in the combined group to the 46-65-year-old group (p= 0.042). Conclusions: The kinanthropometric attributes of South African male national and international karate athletes between the ages of 18-65 participating in kata and kumite, are influenced by the high levels of training which they are exposed to, kinanthropometry does influence their karate performance, do have a healthy level of anthropometry and are positively affected by karate training as no kinanthropometric health risks are evident.
- 1
- 0
- 0
- Background. Many sports place demands on vision and certain visual skills, and this has long been acknowledged. Among all activities, athletic performance places some of the highest demands on the visual system. Sports vision's fundamental component is the growth and improvement of an athlete's visual ability. Objectives. To identify a variety of visual skills essential to netball players. Methods. Studies were obtained from the following databases: EBM Reviews, Current Contents, Science Direct, Google Scholar, CISTI Source (1993–June 2021), SportDiscuss (1975–June 2021), Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, PubMed (1966–June 2021), and international e-catalogues. A keyword search yielded MeSH headings;“visual skills,“hand-eye coordination”,“peripheral vision”,“eye movements”,“netball vision”,“netball rules”,“reaction time”,“speed of recognition”,“accommodation facility,”“visual memory”,“discriminating efficiency”,“visual endurance”,“motor learning” and “cognitive function” which were combined and exploded. Results. This study used 65 full-text English-language papers from 90 citations found through electronic searches. 40 Articles remained after removing duplicates and reviewing the full-text versions. Conclusion. The evidence in this study reveals that, although current research still frequently concentrates on visual skills, there is a need to narrow this attention to the requirements of a certain sport. Additionally, identifying the visual abilities necessary for netball, enables talent identification, effective training, and testing of these abilities.
- 1
- 3
- 0
- 2023| International Virtua...Background: Keen vision is one of the most important qualities required of athletes. It enables players to perform sports-related drills and apply decision-making skills. To accurately measure the visual ability of athletes, it is important to first identify the variety of visual skills involved in the particular sport. The objectives of this novel review are to identify the most important visual skills required for rugby, and to create a reference point for further studies to include visual skills essential to rugby players. Methods: We conducted an electronic search with various combinations of relevant keywords using the following databases: Sport Discuss, Ovid’s Evidence-Based Medicine Reviews, PubMed/MEDLINE, Current Contents, Science Direct, the National Research Council’s Canada Institute for Scientific and Technical Information, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Google Scholar, and international electronic catalogues to assess the scientific literature related to the visual skills required for rugby. Only the records published in English were included. We extracted data on the relationship between vision and match performance, the defined problem or purpose of the study, and the inclusion of theoretical definitions of tactical behaviors. Results: Our search yielded 80 records, 51 of which fulfilled the inclusion criteria. The most important visual skills in rugby are classified based on whether they meet the requirements for visual hardware or visual software skills. Visual hardware skills include visual acuity, depth perception, fusion flexibility, and contrast sensitivity; visual software skills include eye tracking, hand-eye coordination, eye focusing, peripheral vision, speed and span of recognition, visual response time, and visual memory. Conclusions: Rugby players must use both visual hardware and software skills to reliably observe their teammates’ positions, understand their opponents’ actions and tactics, handle the ball, analyze the immediate circumstances, and anticipate what will occur. Further studies are needed to verify the significance of each visual skill in actual competition to determine a relationship between vision and the results of a championship.
- 1
- 0
- 0
- There is conflicting evidence regarding whether athletes have better visio-spatial skills than non-athletes. This gap may result from athletes' superiority in only some visio-spatial abilities (VSS), rather than all areas of vision. The aim of this study was to determine whether there is a significant difference in the visio-spatial intelligence between female netball players (n = 40) and non-athletes (n = 40) when comparing six visual skills (accommodation facility, saccadic eye movement, speed of recognition, peripheral awareness, hand-eye coordination, and visual memory). Following an optometric evaluation, the participants were assessed in six distinct established tests, including the hart near far rock, saccadic eye movement, evasion, accumulator, ball wall toss tests, and flash memory, to evaluate the VSS components of non-athletes and premier league netball players. For five of the six tests, there was a statistically significant (p ≤ 0.05) difference between netball players and non-athletes. Conversely, there is no concrete evidence that netball players have better visual memory than non-athletes (p = 0.277). When compared to non-athletes, netball players have significantly improved accommodation facility (p < .001), saccadic eye movements (p < .001), speed of recognition (p < .001), peripheral awareness (p < .001), and hand-eye coordination (p < .001), but not visual memory (p = 0.277). The findings that netball players perform better on a certain VSS have broad ramifications for theories of sport vision, the optimal way to choose tests, and the creation of VSS testing batteries for specific sports.
- 1
- 0
- 0
- Context: Field hockey is a very technical and tactical sport, requiring immense levels of visual concentration on moving and stationary targets, which can improve visual and team performance. However, in literature, this area of specialty remains underutilized, with most studies seeking to improve physical and physiological performance. Essential visual skills cannot only be attributed to field hockey but to other ball-playing sports and activities of daily living, which allow humans to coexist. The essential visual skills reduce the propensity of making poor decisions, ill preparations, and the exclusion of potent and capable players. Objectives: This review novelly aims to not only compile a comprehensive list of essential visual skills for field hockey players but also to create a starting point for future studies to add to this list, to aid in player talent identification, and eventually create sportspecific visual exercise programs and testing batteries. Discussion: The skills identified in this review preface a platform for human performance professionals to include in their training regimens, with an intent to maximize performance and talent identification and to aid in the formulation of visuospatial test batteries. Even though this list is comprehensive, this is only a starting point for future research to find more visual skills that are essential to field hockey, as well as provide the opportunity to develop the performance of the visual skills of these athletes in ways that have not been done before.
- 1
- 12
- 0
- 2020| Archives of BudoBackground and study aim: Karate training has a long history of improving general health and wellbeing, however, little or no research has been undertaken to determine the effect of karate training on muscular fitness, lower-body strength, power and flexibility. The aim of this study was to enhance the knowledge about lower-body strength, power and flexibility of karate athletes of different levels of training and not trainees. Material and Methods: The study assessed lower-body isokinetic quadriceps and hamstring strength and power, and hip and knee flexibility in a group of elite karate athletes (group 1; n= 18), active karate athletes (group 2; n= 18) and active controls not participating in karate (group 3; n= 18). Results: Physically active individuals not participating in karate have significantly (p≤ 0.05) increased hip flexion, hip extensor and hip rotation, but not hip abduction flexibility when compared to elite karateka. The elite karateka were found to have superior strength in their quadriceps at 60 and 180. sec-1 and hamstrings at 60. sec-1. The elite karateka were also found to have significantly higher quadriceps peak torque values at 60. sec-1 than the active non-karateka. For power, elite karate athletes were found to have a lower time to peak torque at 60. sec-1 for their quadriceps when compared to active karate athletes. Conclusions: The karateka display greater lower-body strength and power that their active counterparts and that the strength benefit is increasingly dependent on the level of karate experience. However, the non-karate athletes displayed improved lower-body flexibility when compared to the karateka, irrespective of level of training. This implies a possible need to supplement karate training with a flexibility-specific training program to more comprehensively improve muscular fitness.
- 1
- 2
- 0
- 2020| BrieflandsBackground: Millions of South African youths participate in team sports, with netball and rugby being two of the largest worldwide. This increased participation and professionalism has resulted in an increase in the number of musculoskeletal injuries. Objectives: This study examined the extent to which sport coaching knowledge translates to the injuries and prevention of injuries in adolescents participating in netball and rugby. Methods: Thirty-four South African sport coaches participated in the study. Eighteen netball coaches and 16 rugby coaches with varying levels of coaching experience were selected to participate. An adapted version of Nash and Sproule’s questionnaire was used to investigate the coaches’ knowledge with regards to sport specific common injuries, injury prevention, fitness/conditioning, individual technique development, training programs, mental training, and preparation of players. The analysis of data was carried out using a number of different techniques, outlined by Nash and Sproule (2012). These techniques were determined by the type of data. Descriptive data was used to provide statistical analysis. Quantitative data was used to determine the educational framework and knowledge of sport coaches on injury prevention. Numerical data was obtained through questions on sport injuries, as well as coaches’ sport knowledge level. Participants’ knowledge was measured using a standardized scoring system. Results: For the 0-4 years of netball coaching experience, 76.4% of the coaches had knowledge and experience and 33.3% appropriate first aid knowledge, while for the 9-12 years and 13-16 years, 100% of the coaches had knowledge and experience and first aid knowledge. For the 0-4 years in rugby coaching experience, 59.1% had knowledge and experience and 71% the appropriate first aid knowledge, for the 17-20 years 100% had knowledge and experience and first aid, while for higher or equal to 25 years, 45.5% had knowledge and experience. In netball, 90% of injuries consisted of ankle injuries, followed by 70% for knee, 50% for shoulder, 20% for lower leg, and 15% for finger injuries. In rugby, 81% of the injuries occurred at the knee, followed by 50% for shoulder, 40% for ankle, 31% for head and neck, and 25% for hamstring injuries. Six hours of training resulted in a 13% chance of injuries in netball and a 32% chance in rugby. For 10 hours of training, the injury prevalence was 10% in netball and 17% in rugby, while 15 hours resulted in an injury incidence of 58% in netball players and a 25% chance in rugby players. Conclusions: This study highlights the need for coaches to improve their knowledge in relation to injuries and injury prevention, along with factors that act as a preventative measure and promote players’ well-being.
- 1
- 0
- 0