Psychobiological predictors of emotionality were evaluated in relations to complex reaction and movement performances have been considered as the significant aspect of research interest. Considerable research base confirms that the expert players employ more pertinent search strategies, eliminate irrelevant cues which enable them to effectively anticipate action requirements and they have superior ability to use cue-related information to reliably anticipate occurrence of relevant events. Present study was aimed at identification of intricate relationship between the ability of the high performing swimmers (National – level swimmers of Malaysia) in anticipatory cue-utilization and corresponding autonomic phasic skin conductance responses isolated from the tonic measures. Altogether two-hundred and twenty-five individuals having high athletic calibre, and holding top-positions in recently held (within the period March 2011 up to the June 2011) National and International (Mostly ASEAN level) meets volunteered as the participants in this study. Simultaneous evaluation of autonomic arousal modulation (habituation paradigm tonic and phasic measures of skin conductance) was done when the swimmers were engaged in cue-related anticipatory task, associated with complex reaction performance. For this purpose, participants were evaluated intermittently (twice within the calendar year August 2010 – June 2011) with the identical research paradigm. Perceived sense of competence as well as the subjective feelings of apprehension of loosing was explored, and attempts were made to identify the obscure subjective expression of cognitive-emotional make-up, in explaining differential performance outcomes evident in the participants. Findings of multiple linear and polynomial regression analyses however suggested direct, inverse and supportive relationships between decomposition of skin conductance tonic and phasic autonomic components related to cognitive-affective and affective-motivational aspects of sports behaviour explaining pathways to both excellent and debilitative performance outcomes during practice sessions as well as in actual competitive situations.

The purpose of the study was to examine the developmental pathways of elite youth swimmers. Swim-related developmental activities of elite and sub-elite youth swimmers were examined. Fifteen elite (8 males; 7 females) and 15 subelite (5 males; 10 females) youth swimmers were recruited for the study. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to record retrospectively the hours engaged in swim-related activities (i.e., structured and unstructured activities) from beginning of career. No significant differences were found for swim-related developmental milestones for both elite and sub-elite swimmers. Overall, the elite swimmers accumulated more hours in swim-related activities than the sub-elites between 6-15 years of age. Although the former accumulated more hours in both structured and unstructured swimming activities between 6-12 years of age, no significant differences were found between the groups. However, the elite swimmers accumulated significantly more hours in structured swimming activities between 13-15 years of age. Both groups had analogous developmental pathways during childhood but the onset of adolescence led to different outcomes. The increased hours in structured practice during adolescence is suggested to have influenced the level of attainment in swimmers. Incremental amount of training at certain age period is critical in developing optimum performance in sports.

Squash is an indoor game that is the second fastest racket sports if compared to badminton and tennis. Squash game puts a high demand on physical fitness of elite players which requires a quick development of high force, rapid changes of direction and fast reaction. The objective of this study was to develop the physical fitness profile of Malaysian junior state squash players. Sixty five 10 to 18 years old male Kelantan state squash players were tested with seven skill-related fitness tests. SPSS version 20.0 was used to analyze the data collected from the tests. A one-way ANOVA was used to detect statistical differences between groups. A post-hoc test (LSD) was performed to determine differences in in the variables between groups. The data was collected for flexibility, speed, muscular endurance, power of upper and lower extremities, agility and cardiovascular endurance. There were significant differences in the mean speed, muscular endurance, agility, power of lower extremities, power of upper extremities, flexibility and predicted VO₂max between 13-15 and 16-18 years of age groups when compared to 10-12 years old players (p<0.05). Similarly, there were significant differences in speed, muscular endurance, agility, power of lower extremities, power of upper extremities, flexibility and VO₂max between 16-18 and 13-15 year old players (p<0.05).

This study focuses on the mechanical effect of different composition of polymer blend. Polymer blend of high density polyethylene (HDPE) and ethylene propylene rubber (EPR) were selected and varied by three different compositions which are 70:30, 50:50 and 30:70. HDPE-EPR blend is believed to be the best material for sole shoe. In which, HDPE has good flexibility while, EPR can maintain optimum performance at high and low temperature as well as provide better gripping characteristic that suits for insole and outsole sport shoe. On the other hand, the time efficiency of electron beam radiation on these polymer blends helps in improving the croslinking of HDPE-EPR blend. The aim of this paper was to find the optimum composition of electron beam irradiated polymer blends for sole shoes especially in sports application. These irradiated polymer blends were produced by melt blending, underwent compression moulding and then were irradiated by electron beam at 100 kGy/s. Mechanical test of tensile and hardness test were investigated and the morphology of the failure fracture was analysed by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM). The polymer blend with 70% of HDPE and 30% of EPR showed the optimum result of tensile strength, tensile modulus and hardness as well as ductile failure image.

Sepak Takraw is a popular sport among the Southeast Asian countries and various brands of takraw balls are available in the local market to suit the needs of players. In this study, four different takraw balls commonly used by the Malaysian takraw players were selected for testing of mechanical properties by using compression and fatigue analysis. It was found that the GE takraw balls were more suitable to be used by Malaysian takraw players due to higher fatigue life and tensile strength. This finding is particularly useful for the local sport academy in deciding which ball is to be used in the future takraw competitions.