No.4 / 2025

Cultural events, such as festivals, foster intercultural dialogue, promote social cohesion, and increase knowledge about the culture of the region where they take place This study aimed to examine how educational level, place of residence, and income influence the perceived social impact of the Samos dance festival on the local community. The sample consisted of 211 Samos dance festival participants, and the research was carried out in the framework of the Triple Bottom Line (T.B.L) approach, first introduced by Elkington (1997) which analyses sustainability through three pillars, one of which is social. Data collection was carried out using the Dallas questionnaire (2018), focusing on questions related to social impact and demographic characteristics of festival attendees. The results showed that the social impact of the festival is highly valued across the entire sample. Permanent residents rated all aspects of social impact more positively than visitors. This assessment can be explained by the deeper connection of permanent residents with the local community. Regarding the level of education, contradictory results were observed, with both postgraduate or doctoral degree holders and secondary school graduates rating the social impact higher than other participants. Additionally, income level appeared to partially alter their perception of the festival’s social effects, especially among participants from lower economic backgrounds. In conclusion, the Samos dance festival has a significant positive social impact on the local community.

Women’s artistic gymnastics is a sports discipline that places special emphasis on precision, strength and flexibility. One of the essential skills developed in this branch is balance, which is influenced by inputs from visual, vestibular and proprioceptive systems. Proprioception is the ability to perceive and control one’s own body position in space, independently of sight. This sense is crucial in artistic gymnastics, as female athletes perform complex movements such as jumps, pirouettes and acrobatics, where coordination and body awareness are indispensable to maintain correct posture and prevent injury. Proprioceptive training helps develop joint and muscle sensitivity, allowing athletes to quickly adjust their movements and remain stable during the exercise. Balance is another vital component in women’s artistic gymnastics. It involves the ability to maintain a stable and controlled position in various postures, for example, on the beam or during jumps. Balance development is important to meet the technical requirements of competitions because a small loss of stability can lead to significant penalties. The present study was conducted with a group of senior female gymnasts, and its purpose was to show that proprioceptive training on unstable surfaces could improve the dynamic balance of athletes. To demonstrate this, we used data collected by means of force plates that recorded the displacements of the center of pressure (COP) when the tested athletes performed different movements.

Depending on the football players’ position on the field, athletes must meet specific requirements. Football players occupying different positions exhibit variations in the speed of their decision-making processes. The current study examines the psychomotor and cognitive abilities of U14 football players, focusing on the differences between playing positions (defenders, midfielders, forwards). The participants were 34 players, 17 for each team - Sport Team Academy (Series I) and Pro Team Academy (Series III), with positions distributed as goalkeepers, defenders, midfielders, and forwards. The PsiSelteva test battery was used to assess key psychomotor and cognitive abilities, including reaction times, perceptual-motor efficiency, and working memory. Moreover, two mental operations were addressed, namely the mental identification operation and the mental selection operation, providing additional insight into the players’ cognitive efficiency. Testing conditions were standardized, and players were assessed individually. The results revealed significant differences between playing positions, with midfielders demonstrating superior performance in most psychomotor and cognitive indicators. Defenders showed strengths in tasks involving discrimination reaction time, while forwards registered a faster selection time – the time needed to select the appropriate motor response/ action, from multiple possibilities. The findings highlight the importance of adapting training to position-specific demands, contributing to the development of personalized approaches that optimize players’ strengths and effectively address their weaknesses.

Social media platforms like TikTok have emerged as prevalent sources for consuming and disseminating healthcare information. Due to the lack of scientific oversight, the reliability and consistency of health-related videos have become a focal point in recent literature. This study aims to assess the educational quality and reliability of TikTok videos on sports nutrition. A descriptive research design was employed as it is deemed the most appropriate methodology to collect information on the study variables and explore the scientific perspectives related to this subject. The study comprises videos produced by sports content creators and all educational TikTok videos addressing sports nutrition. A random sample of 100 videos was selected using relevant hashtags via TikTok’s search engine. The evaluation of these videos was performed using several quality assessment tools, including the DISCERN instrument, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) benchmarks, and the Global Quality Score (GQS). Statistical analyses were conducted using the SPSS software. The findings indicate that the content of TikTok videos related to sports nutrition is generally of low quality, suboptimal, and insufficiently educational. The results underscore the need for greater involvement of qualified professionals in the creation of educational content and the implementation of stricter guidelines by social media platforms to ensure the dissemination of accurate and reliable health information.

Although constrained by World Aquatics regulations, advancements in analytical techniques are enhancing the execution of breaststroke swimming by evaluating the effectiveness of the swimmer's movements. This study proposes a new method to evaluate arms coordination and the improvement of strength in the breaststroke. Five national level swimmers were tested and recorded. They tested a new technology that measures forces of pressure on the water, applied by both hands on both palm surfaces. We observed that in the second test the average values are not statistically significant, but swimmers improved their results from initial to final testing, claim based on arithmetic average (Left impulse, Right impulse, Initial pressure on water, Final stroke - water pressure, when accelerating backwards, Water pressure traction, Right power), then the values obtained in the initial test. This analysis provides insights into refining swimming techniques so that specialists can enhance current speed capabilities. Additionally, the results offer guidance on the future development of swimmers within the studied group. Evaluating individual swimmers in this way establishes an important basis for designing interventions focused on strength and technique to enhance alignment and performance. Therefore, it represents a practical tool to be used by coaches and researchers to qualitatively evaluate the swimming technique and the way they apply forces on the water.