Semester

Fall

Date of Graduation

2006

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Type

MS

College

College of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences

Department

Physical Education Teacher Education

Committee Chair

Edward Etzel.

Abstract

To enhance and optimize sport performance, athletes are training at increasingly higher levels of intensity, volume and frequency. When increases in any of these areas of training are not accompanied by adequate recovery, over time, decrements in performance and physical/psychological maladies can result. Consequently, the purpose of this study was to monitor five competitive swimmers during a swimming season in two of the potential areas in which an adverse response to training may appear: the immunological parameter of mucosal immune function and the psychological parameter of mood state. Each parameter was assessed once per week over the seven weeks of the study. Immune function was assessed by salivary Immunoglobin-A concentrations analyzed by an indirect competitive immunoassay. Mood state was assessed with the Brief Assessment of Mood State (BAM; Dean et al., 1990) which is a shortened version of the Profile of Mood States. A single-case study design was used to ensure that individual differences were not masked by group means. Results of the study for the five participants show mixed results, with much variability. Data for one of the five participants supported hypothesized results where an increase in total mood disturbance and consistently low sIgA levels were demonstrated over the study. Thus, illustrated is the importance of using single-case studies to monitor the training of athletes and need to explore other test parameters for use in training studies.

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