Richard Tong

External auditory canal exostoses in white water kayakers

Objective In this study, the presence and severity of external auditory canal exostoses (EACE) in a group of white water kayakers related to the duration and intensity of kayaking and the number of ear infections reported were identified. Design A community-based volunteer cross-sectional study was completed with 92 kayakers (69 men, 23 women; mean (SD) age 29.3 (8.72) years) and 65 control volunteers (37 men, 28 women; mean (SD) age 36.9 (14.9) years). After exclusions, 269 individual ears were examined (154 kayakers and 115 controls). Participants completed a questionnaire and underwent otoscopic examination. Main outcome measures were the presence and severity of EACE, the duration and frequency of kayaking and self-reported ear infections. Exclusion criteria included other cold-water exposure, known ear pathology or poor visualisation of the auditory canal. Results The findings demonstrated that 69.5% of kayaker ears and 1.7% of the control group were found to have EACE. Severity of EACE was significantly associated with the duration (p<0.01) and frequency (p<0.05) of kayaking with 90.6% of kayakers that had participated for more than 10 years having evidence of EACE. A significant relationship also existed between the number of self-reported ear infections and the severity of EACE (p<0.01). Conclusion There is a positive relationship between the duration and frequency of white water kayaking and the presence and severity of EACE and associated ear infections.

Activity profile during action time in national silat competition

The requirement and prescription of training programmes for sport requires an understanding of the physiological re quirements of the match. Various forms of time motion analyses have been used widely to estimate the nature of specific intermittent high intensity and low intensity activities as they relate to the energy requirements of team sports [1,2,3]. Previous research notated the technique used in defensive and offensive movements such as in mixed-martial arts [4], boxing [5] and Muay Thai [6]. However, there is no research that specifically describes the activity involved in silat that specifically describes the activity that contributes to the physiological demands of this combat sport. The nature of work periods within any combat sports depends on the frequency, volume and type of the activity being performed. The distribution of fight time and break time has been determined in international silat competition in the previous research [7], which indicated that 62.6% of the match is spent in fight time. In addition, a single match contains 30.0 mean action periods with on average 15.3 s being performed with break periods averaging 8.4 s. The work to rest ratio of 2:1 in silat might be misinterpreted if people count the action periods performed in silat in the same way as work periods in field games and racket sports are interpreted. The nature of “purposeful movement” in team games [8], rallies in racket sports [9] and action periods in martial arts are very different. Therefore, the objectives of this study are to describe the detail activity that occurs during the fight time of a silat match, especially the profile of technical events.