Physical Education A-Level

Physical Education A-Level glossary

1365 key terms for Physical Education A-Level, A to Z, each linked to the topic pages that use it.

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A

Abduction: Movement of a limb away from the midline of the body, such as lifting the arm out sideways to a T shape at the shoulder.AQA
Absolute and relative values: Expressed as an absolute value in litres per minute (L/min) or as a relative value in millilitres of oxygen per kilogram of body mass per minute…AQA
Access, participation and performance: Adaptation works by changing mass, stiffness, grip, stability or bounce so the demand matches the performer, widening access and improving performance.AQA
Access, patronage and participation: The upper class held land and inherited wealth and often acted as patrons and organisers rather than participants, while long hours, low pay and poor housing…AQA
Accuracy, economy and aesthetics: A skilled performance is highly accurate and consistent, uses minimum energy and time, and looks good to the observer.AQA
Accuracy, timing and consistency of response: Observable response outcomes that include the accuracy of the movement, its timing and its consistency across repetitions.AQA
Achievable: The performer has the capacity to reach it with the training available.AQA
Achievement goal theory: Explains why performers choose, persist at and judge success in physical activity differently, holding that the goal a performer adopts in a situation shapes…AQA
Achievement motivation theory: Distinguishes the motive to approach success from the motive to avoid failure.AQA
Achilles tendonitis: Inflammation and degeneration of the Achilles tendon from repetitive running, jumping and calf loading, causing pain and stiffness above the heel.AQA
Actual productivity: What the group really produces in performance.AQA
Acute injury: An injury that arises from a sudden, single traumatic episode rather than repeated cumulative loading, so signs appear immediately.AQA
Acute versus chronic injury onset: Acute injuries happen suddenly, while chronic injuries develop gradually through repeated overload.AQA
Adaptability across performer development and context: Effective leaders adapt along the spectrum as performers mature, pressure changes or the environment becomes more hazardous.AQA
Adaptability and situational leadership: Changing leadership style or approach to suit the situation, as leadership effectiveness also depends on the situation and the group.AQA
Adaptation for age: Changing equipment so the demand matches the performer, as with a lighter junior tennis racket or lower-compression ball that helps a child time a stroke.AQA
Adaptation for disability: Changing equipment so it supports a disabled athlete, as with a carbon-fibre running blade, a seated throwing frame or a wheelchair with a cambered rear axle.AQA
Adaptive attributions: Explanations for failure that often involve controllable causes such as effort or strategy.AQA
Adduction: Movement of a limb towards or across the midline of the body, such as bringing the arm back down to the side at the shoulder.AQA
Aerobic and anaerobic adaptation: Continuous training at low to moderate intensity develops the aerobic system through improved oxygen delivery and increased mitochondrial density, while…AQA
Aerobic and anaerobic ATP resynthesis: More mitochondria, myoglobin and capillaries support aerobic ATP resynthesis in type I, while type IIx relies more on ATP-PCr and glycolytic ATP resynthesis.AQA
Aerobic ATP resynthesis: The main way type I fibres produce ATP, supported by many mitochondria, a high concentration of myoglobin and a dense capillary network.AQA
Aerobic energy system and endurance performance: Improved oxygen delivery supports aerobic respiration, so altitude training is relevant to the aerobic energy system and benefits endurance performance.AQA
Aerobic energy transfer: The aerobic system dominates energy transfer during long duration, lower intensity exercise because oxygen supply meets demand.AQA
Aerobic oxidation: The aerobic means by which type IIa resynthesises ATP, supported by having more mitochondria and capillaries than type IIx.AQA
Aerobic power and fitness assessment: VO₂ max is an indicator of aerobic power and can be used to assess and monitor aerobic fitness.AQA
Aerobic power development: Because intensity fluctuates, heart rate rises and falls around the aerobic zone, so both aerobic power and some anaerobic capacity are trained.AQA
Aerobic versus anaerobic ATP generation: Slow twitch (type I) fibres generate ATP mainly by aerobic respiration, using oxygen, while fast twitch (type II) fibres generate ATP mainly by anaerobic…AQA
Aerofoil and lift: A discus in flight is an aerofoil-like shape that can generate an upward lift force when thrown with the correct angle of attack.AQA
Aerofoil shape and lift: A shape that forces air to travel faster over one curved surface, creating lower pressure and generating upward or downward lift.AQA
Aesthetic Quality: The visual appeal, grace, and fluency of a movement.Pearson Edexcel
Affective component: Covers feelings and emotions towards the attitude object, such as enjoying the buzz of a race.AQA
Affinity for oxygen: A very high affinity means it loads oxygen readily even when the partial pressure of oxygen is low, as inside vigorously contracting muscle.AQA
Agents of social control and their sanctions: Formal agents such as schools, governing bodies and the law, and informal agents such as family, peers and media, which reward conformity and sanction…AQA
Aggression: Behaviour intended to harm another person physically or psychologically.AQA
Aggression and arousal: Violence ranges from player-on-player aggression to crowd disorder, with over-arousal from high stakes among its causes.AQA
Aggressive cue theory: Frustration creates a readiness for aggression, which is only triggered if aggressive cues are present.AQA
Agility: The ability to change direction quickly and under control while maintaining balance.AQA
Agonist: The muscle that contracts to produce or control the movement.AQA, Pearson Edexcel
Air resistance: A drag force from collisions with air particles, acting opposite to motion and increasing with speed and frontal area.AQA
Airway inflammation and resistance: Irritants trigger inflammation and narrowing of the airways, raising airway resistance and the work of breathing.AQA
Airway narrowing: The tar and irritants in cigarette smoke cause inflammation and narrowing of the airways, increasing airway resistance and the work of breathing.AQA
Alignment of required, actual and preferred leader behaviour: Required behaviour comes from the situation, actual behaviour from the leader’s characteristics, and preferred behaviour from member characteristics.AQA
All-or-none law: When a motor neurone is stimulated, all the muscle fibres within that specific motor unit contract maximally; if the stimulus is below the threshold, none of…AQA
Alveolar and muscle exchange: At the alveoli, oxygen loading and carbon dioxide unloading occur; at muscles, oxygen unloading and carbon dioxide loading occur.AQA
Alveolar damage and gaseous exchange: Tar and chemicals destroy alveolar walls, reducing alveolar surface area for gaseous exchange.AQA
Alveolar structure: Large surface areas, thin walls and short diffusion distances make exchange efficient at the alveoli.AQA
Amateurism: Participation motivated by love of the sport rather than financial reward, historically linked to eligibility rules in events such as the Olympic Games.AQA
Amateurism and payment: Amateurs were usually middle- or upper-class and played for enjoyment without payment, so they were seen as respectable.AQA
Amateurism versus professionalism: Amateurism originally meant participating without payment, while professionalism meant receiving money for performance.AQA
Anabolic steroids: Increase muscle protein synthesis, leading to muscle hypertrophy and increased strength.AQA
Anaerobic and aerobic transfer: Anaerobic glycolysis breaks glucose or glycogen into pyruvate without oxygen, while the aerobic system uses oxygen in the mitochondria to oxidise fuels.AQA
Anaerobic ATP regeneration: During short duration, high intensity exercise, ATP is regenerated mainly anaerobically, without requiring oxygen, so ATP is supplied quickly but fatigue…AQA
Anaerobic energy systems at high intensity: The ATP-PC system and anaerobic glycolysis supply much of the energy during work intervals performed at maximal or near-maximal intensity.AQA
Anaerobic energy transfer: The anaerobic glycolytic system breaks down glucose or muscle glycogen without oxygen, yielding ATP quickly for high-intensity work lasting roughly ten…AQA
Anaerobic glycolysis: One of the anaerobic pathways through which type IIa resynthesises ATP, alongside the phosphocreatine system.AQA
Anaerobic glycolysis and lactate: Breaks down glucose to pyruvate and lactate, producing ATP for up to about two minutes.AQA
Anaerobic glycolytic energy system contribution: Shown by rising lactate above resting values, indicating increasing reliance on anaerobic glycolysis.AQA
Angle of attack: An appropriate angle that can generate lift, as in throwing events like the discus.AQA
Angle of release: The angle that determines how the initial velocity splits into horizontal and vertical components.AQA
Angular acceleration: A larger torque or a smaller moment of inertia produces greater angular acceleration, and torque equals moment of inertia multiplied by angular acceleration…AQA
Angular displacement: The angle turned about an axis, measured in radians.AQA
Angular velocity: The rate of change of angular displacement, ω = Δθ/Δt, measured in rad s⁻¹.AQA
Ankle movements: The two movements are opposites and occur in the same plane at the ankle.AQA
Antagonist: The muscle that relaxes to allow the action.AQA
Antagonistic action of the two divisions: The two divisions act as an antagonistic pair: at any moment the balance of their activity sets the heart rate, and the balance shifts towards sympathetic…AQA
Anti-doping regulations and WADA rules: The World Anti-Doping Agency prohibits beta blockers in competition only in certain named precision sports, not universally across all sports.AQA
Anti-doping strategies: A combination of testing, education, punishment and international cooperation used to eliminate performance-enhancing drugs in sport.AQA
Anticipation: The prediction of an upcoming event or action based on cues and probabilities in the display, allowing a response to be prepared or initiated before the event…AQA
Anticipation and cue detection: Ways skilled performers reduce the number of effective choices by predicting and detecting early cues, which shortens reaction time.AQA
Anticipatory responses before exercise: Before exercise, heart rate, stroke volume, ventilation and muscle blood flow are raised through sympathetic stimulation and adrenaline release.AQA
Anticipatory responses to exercise: Before exercise, the anticipatory rise increases heart rate and ventilation via sympathetic stimulation and hormonal release.AQA
Anticipatory rise: The increase in heart rate, and therefore cardiac output, that occurs before physical activity begins, triggered by the anticipation of exercise.AQA
Anxiety and confidence: Mental practice can reduce anxiety and build confidence, and it helps consolidate a learned skill.AQA
Application to flight in gymnastics and diving: A gymnast who tucks brings mass closer to the transverse axis, reducing moment of inertia and increasing angular velocity, while opening out increases moment…AQA
Application to named sporting activities: A 100 m sprint relies mainly on ATP-PC, a marathon relies mainly on the aerobic system, and events such as a 400 m or 1500 m race sit at different points…AQA
Application to sporting movements: Using Newton’s three laws of linear motion to explain or calculate motion in sporting movements.AQA
Application to sporting scenarios: A performer may experience state and somatic anxiety in a particular competitive moment, such as a penalty taker before a shoot-out.AQA
Application to success and failure in sport: In sport, a performer may attribute failure to low ability, poor luck or insufficient practice, and the chosen cause affects emotion, expectancy and motivation.AQA
Applied analysis of sporting techniques: To analyse a skill, identify the joint, name the action, then state that it occurs in the sagittal plane about a transverse axis.AQA
Appraisal: The perception of a demand that differs between performers, so a performer may face the same stressor as a team-mate yet experience different stress.AQA
Approach and avoidance behaviour: Seeking out challenges and taking risks is approach behaviour, while avoiding challenges and fearing failure is avoidance behaviour.AQA
Approach behaviour: Seeking challenging tasks, persisting after setbacks and taking personal responsibility for outcomes.AQA
Approach motivation: Seeking success, which rises when the situation offers a realistic challenge and valued reward.AQA
Arousal: A general physiological and psychological activation state that varies in intensity along a continuum.AQA
Arousal and frustration: Causes acting on the performer include frustration at decisions and over-arousal.AQA
Arousal and performance: A relationship shown by the inverted-U graph, where performance rises to an optimum arousal point, then falls as arousal continues to increase.AQA
Arousal and performance relationships: An inverted-U curve rises to an optimum then falls, showing moderate arousal benefiting performance, whereas a linear graph shows a direct increase or decrease.AQA
Arousal and the dominant response: Perceived judgement raises arousal, which can then strengthen the dominant response, so the effect on performance depends on whether the skill is well learned…AQA
Arousal regulation: Techniques such as breathing routines and progressive muscular relaxation that lower the emotional intensity which can trigger aggression.AQA
Arousal, attention and performance: Optimal arousal and focused attention improve response time, while very high or very low arousal and distraction slow it.AQA
Arteriovenous oxygen difference: A measure that widens during exercise because more oxygen is extracted by the working tissues.AQA
Assertion: Forceful behaviour that is within the rules and without intent to harm.AQA
Associative stage: Practice refines the skill: errors shrink, timing and consistency improve, and the performer links parts of the action together.AQA
Asymmetric flight paths: Drag makes the shuttle path asymmetric with a steep descent, whereas the shot put path is close to a parabola.AQA
Athleticism: The values of character, discipline and leadership promoted through team games in public schools, which spread through society via teachers, clergy and…AQA
ATP (Adenosine Triphosphate): A high-energy compound composed of adenosine and three phosphate groups, which is the only usable source of energy for muscular contraction.AQA
ATP as energy currency: ATP is the universal energy currency, and breaking its terminal phosphate bond releases energy for muscle contraction.AQA
ATP resynthesis: The aerobic energy system resynthesises ATP using oxygen and yields far more ATP per molecule of fuel than anaerobic routes, but at a slower rate.AQA
ATP resynthesis without oxygen: Anaerobic systems resynthesise ATP without oxygen and are used at the onset of exercise and during high-intensity efforts.AQA
ATP-PC energy system: The system that mainly fuels short, intense SAQ efforts, with anaerobic glycolysis contributing during repeated efforts.AQA
ATP-PC energy system and explosive power: Short and intense plyometric work is fuelled mainly by this system, which develops explosive power for jumping and sprinting.AQA
ATP-PC system and phosphocreatine: Uses phosphocreatine stored in muscle to rebuild ATP very fast for a few seconds of maximal work.AQA
Atrioventricular delay: The atrioventricular node delays the impulse briefly so the atria can finish emptying before the ventricles contract.AQA
Attention: The learner must observe and focus on the relevant cues in the demonstration.AQA
Attention and cognitive control: The central executive controls attention and coordinates the slave systems rather than acting as a store.AQA
Attention, retention, reproduction and motivation: The processes involved in observational learning, in which the learner attends to the demonstration, retains an image of it, reproduces the action and is then…AQA
Attentional control: A performer's ability to direct and maintain focus on the most relevant information while ignoring distractions.AQA
Attentional control and cue utilisation: Directing focus towards task-relevant information and away from distractions.AQA
Attitudes as learned evaluations: Learned evaluations that predispose a performer to respond consistently towards sport, training or competition.AQA
Attitudes towards sport and exercise participation: All three components together form the attitude, and each described element can be matched to the correct component.AQA
Attribution: Attributing success to controllable effort and strategy rather than luck strengthens approach behaviour.AQA
Attribution retraining: Encourages performers to attribute failure to unstable or controllable causes, such as insufficient effort or a poor tactical choice, so they believe…AQA
Attribution theory: Explains how performers attribute success and failure to causes such as ability, effort, task difficulty and luck.AQA
Attribution, emotion and expectancy: Attributing failure to stable, uncontrollable causes such as lack of ability can lower expectancy of success and reduce persistence.AQA
Audience: The people who watch, follow or consume sport through live attendance or media.AQA
Audience interpretation: The performer's interpretation of the audience matters, not just the audience's physical presence, which helps explain why performance can change when a crowd…AQA
Autocratic leadership: Concentrates decision-making with the leader, who gives clear instructions and expects compliance, and can suit novices, hazardous activities or urgent…AQA
Autocratic style: The leader makes decisions with little performer input; suits novice groups, dangerous activities or limited time.AQA
Autonomic control of heart rate: Sympathetic outflow to the sinoatrial node increases while parasympathetic (vagal) tone falls, following impulses from the cerebral cortex and limbic system…AQA
Autonomic control of the heart: Sympathetic stimulation raises heart rate and stroke volume, while parasympathetic (vagal) activity slows it at rest.AQA
Autonomic control of ventilation: Regulation of involuntary breathing by two opposing divisions, the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems.AQA
Autonomic modulation of heart rate: Sympathetic and parasympathetic nerves modify the rate set by the sinoatrial node.AQA
Autonomous stage: The skill is largely automatic, so attention frees up for tactics, opponents or environment.AQA
Average speed: Found over a whole movement by dividing total distance by total time.AQA
Avoidance motivation: Motivation that can be produced when high incentive is combined with very low probability of success, leading to reduced effort.AQA
Axes of rotation: The longitudinal axis runs vertically from head to feet and is perpendicular to the transverse plane.AQA

B

Balance of fatigue reduction and fitness retention: Aiming to reduce fatigue while retaining the fitness already gained, since a taper cannot create fitness that was never built.AQA
Balancing preparation, welfare and commercial demands: Coaches must balance training, tactical preparation, player welfare and commercial obligations such as sponsor events.AQA
Ballistic stretching: Uses bouncing or swinging movements that take the muscle beyond its normal range through momentum.AQA
Banned substances in sport: EPO is banned in sport, and athletes may use it alongside blood doping.AQA
Baroreceptor: Found in blood vessel walls, detecting changes in blood pressure and contributing to respiratory and cardiovascular adjustment.AQA
Baroreceptors: Receptors in blood vessel walls that detect changes in blood pressure and contribute to cardiovascular and respiratory adjustment.AQA
Barriers to participation: Obstacles including poor access to suitable facilities, limited adapted equipment, transport and cost problems, low expectations from coaches and peers, and a…AQA
Base of support and contact area: The region enclosed by the contact points with the ground; a larger area increases the range of positions in which the line of gravity remains inside the base.AQA
Base of support and toppling: A larger base of support widens the range of positions in which the line of gravity still falls inside the base, so a wrestler spreads the feet.AQA
Behaviour as a function of personality and environment: The summary that behaviour results from personality and environment interacting together.AQA
Behavioural component: Covers intended or actual actions towards the attitude object, such as training four times a week.AQA
Benefits and limitations of video technology: Benefits include objective evidence, a permanent record and feedback away from competition pressure; limitations include cost, time to film and code, camera…AQA
Beta blockers: Drugs that block beta-adrenergic receptors, reducing the effect of adrenaline and noradrenaline.AQA
Bilateral transfer: Practising with one limb improves the opposite limb, such as a right-footed pass improving left-footed control.AQA
Biofeedback: Uses equipment to display a physiological measure such as heart rate or muscle activity, so the performer learns through feedback to bring that reading under…AQA
Biomechanical definitions and units: Knowledge and use of biomechanical definitions together with their units of measurement, for example speed defined as distance divided by time with the unit…AQA
Blood pH and acidity: Carbon dioxide dissolving in the blood plasma lowers blood pH, increasing acidity.AQA
Blood pressure reading: Recorded as systolic over diastolic, for example 120/80 mmHg.AQA
Body composition: Matters because a higher proportion of lean muscle mass supports a greater VO₂ max.AQA
Body mass and inertia: Body mass determines inertia; a greater mass means a given disturbing impulse produces a smaller change in motion, so the performer is harder to displace.AQA
Bohr shift during exercise: The curve moves to the right when carbon dioxide concentration rises, temperature increases or pH falls during exercise, meaning haemoglobin releases more…AQA
Breach of duty: Conduct falls below the standard of a reasonably competent official in that sport.AQA
Breathing control: Means using slow, deep, rhythmic breaths, often with a longer out-breath, to lower arousal and steady attention.AQA

C

Caffeine: A stimulant that can reduce perceived exertion and increase alertness, benefiting endurance and some team sports.AQA
Calcium ion retention: Calcium ions remain in the sarcoplasm, keeping troponin and tropomyosin displaced so actin and myosin can keep forming cross-bridges.AQA
Calcium ions: These remain in the sarcoplasm when the muscle fibre cannot relax between impulses, sustaining troponin binding and cross-bridge cycling.AQA
Calibration: A requirement on which accuracy depends, together with steady-state conditions and a correct mask seal.AQA
Carbohydrate intake: Manipulated by athletes before, during and after exercise to maintain blood glucose and replenish stores.AQA
Carbon dioxide as a chemical stimulus: A primary byproduct of aerobic respiration that acts as the main chemical stimulus for the control of ventilation.AQA
Carbon monoxide, oxygen transport and aerobic capacity: Carbon monoxide binds haemoglobin more readily than oxygen, forming carboxyhaemoglobin and reducing oxygen transport to working muscles, which lowers aerobic…AQA
Cardiac control centre: Located in the medulla oblongata, it regulates heart rate through the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems.AQA
Cardiac output: The product of heart rate and stroke volume, so changes in either variable alter the volume of blood pumped per minute.AQA, Pearson Edexcel
Cardiac output and blood flow redistribution: The combined effect is increased cardiac output and redirected blood flow to active muscles.AQA
Cardiac output and oxygen uptake: Cardiac output is the product of heart rate and stroke volume, and at rest it may be similar in trained and untrained individuals because a lower heart rate…AQA
Cardiac output equation: Cardiac output equals heart rate multiplied by stroke volume, so a rise in stroke volume raises cardiac output.AQA
Cardio-respiratory adjustments: During exercise, ventilation increases through greater tidal volume and frequency, while cardiac output rises and the musculo-skeletal, cardio-respiratory and…AQA
Cardiovascular adaptation: Aerobic training enlarges the left ventricle and raises stroke volume, so cardiac output at a given submaximal intensity is achieved at a lower heart rate.AQA
Cardiovascular adaptations: Changes including cardiac hypertrophy, increased stroke volume, increased capillary density and improved venous return.AQA
Cardiovascular adaptations to exercise: Regular training induces physiological changes such as cardiac hypertrophy, which increases stroke volume and maximal cardiac output while lowering resting…AQA
Cardiovascular adaptations to training: Changes to the cardiovascular system caused by training, such as cardiac hypertrophy, increased stroke volume and improved venous return.AQA
Cardiovascular and respiratory adaptation: The method overloads the cardiovascular and respiratory systems, raising stroke volume, cardiac output, capillary density and mitochondrial enzyme activity.AQA
Cardiovascular and respiratory health risks: Side effects include bradycardia, hypotension, fatigue, dizziness and, in asthmatics, dangerous bronchospasms.AQA
Cardiovascular redistribution and venous return: A warm-up increases blood flow and redistributes it to working muscles through vasodilation, while a cool down maintains venous return and prevents blood…AQA
Cardiovascular variables: Heart rate, stroke volume, cardiac output, blood pressure and A-VO₂ diff, which may rise by different amounts and at different speeds from person to person.AQA
Catastrophe theory: Claims performance rises with arousal to an optimum, then collapses sharply rather than declining gradually.AQA
Causes of plateau: Loss of motivation, fatigue, boredom from repetitive practice, poor coaching or feedback, and reaching the limit of current technique.AQA
Causes of spectator violence: Alcohol consumption, intense rivalries, poor officiating and the anonymity of a large crowd.AQA
Cellular respiration: Glycolysis in the sarcoplasm converts glucose to pyruvate, producing a small ATP yield, before pyruvate enters the mitochondrion.AQA
Cellular respiration stages: Glycolysis in the sarcoplasm, then the Krebs (citric acid) cycle in the mitochondrial matrix, and the electron transport chain on the inner mitochondrial…AQA
Centering: Involves focusing attention on a point near the centre of the body, often the lower abdomen, while regulating breathing to steady balance and reduce tension…AQA
Central executive: A limited-capacity attentional controller that allocates resources, switches between tasks and coordinates the phonological loop and visuo-spatial sketchpad.AQA
Central nervous system: Comprising the brain and spinal cord, it acts as the main processing and integration centre.AQA
Central processing and memory: The stage in which the brain retrieves relevant past experiences and chooses the motor programme most likely to succeed, after selective attention has…AQA
Centre of mass: The point at which the whole mass of a body or object is considered to be concentrated, and the point about which the body balances in all directions.AQA
Centre of mass and line of gravity: A lower centre of mass reduces the turning effect of any disturbing force, and if the line of gravity passes outside the base, a restoring moment cannot be…AQA
Centre of mass in uniform and non-uniform bodies: In a uniform object such as a symmetrical ball it lies at its geometric centre, whereas in a human performer it lies around the lower abdomen when standing…AQA
Chaining: The gradual addition and linking of parts, where the learner masters part one, then practises part one linked to part two, then adds part three, and so on.AQA
Challenge balanced with attainability: Goals should be demanding enough to motivate yet attainable with realistic training, because targets that are too easy reduce motivation and unrealistic ones…AQA
Character and leadership: Qualities that public schools used team games to develop in their pupils.AQA
Characteristics of athletics: Track events such as sprints and distance races and field events such as jumps and throws, with performance often measured by time or distance.AQA
Characteristics of football: A team invasion game with two squads, a pitch and goals, which since 1950 has grown into a global professional sport with major leagues and international…AQA
Characteristics of key concepts: Features that distinguish each concept, including the level of organisation, rules, structure and whether the activity is done for its own sake or an external…AQA
Characteristics of tennis: An individual or doubles racket sport played on surfaces such as grass, clay and hard court, with a professional tour and grand slam tournaments.AQA
Chelladurai’s multi-dimensional model: Performance and satisfaction improve when the required behaviour, the leader’s actual behaviour and the members’ preferred behaviour align.AQA
Chemical control of heart rate: Increased carbon dioxide and the associated fall in pH raise sympathetic stimulation and reduce parasympathetic stimulation of the sinoatrial node, so heart…AQA
Chemoreceptor: Detects rising carbon dioxide concentration, falling pH and falling oxygen concentration in blood or cerebrospinal fluid, signalling the respiratory centres…AQA
Chemoreceptor and baroreceptor feedback: Chemoreceptors detect raised carbon dioxide, lowered pH and reduced oxygen, while baroreceptors sense blood pressure, sending impulses to the medullary…AQA
Chemoreceptors: Receptors that monitor blood and cerebrospinal fluid chemistry, sensing rising carbon dioxide concentration, falling pH and falling oxygen concentration.AQA
Chemoreceptors and blood chemistry: Receptors that detect changes in blood chemistry, such as rising carbon dioxide and the associated fall in pH.AQA
Chemoreceptors and sensory detection: Receptors located in the carotid arteries, aortic arch, and medulla oblongata that detect changes in carbon dioxide and pH.AQA
Choice reaction time: The time taken to initiate a response when there is more than one possible stimulus, more than one possible response, or both, so the performer must first…AQA
Cholesterol: A lipid carried in the blood; low-density lipoprotein cholesterol contributes to plaque formation, while high-density lipoprotein cholesterol helps remove it.AQA
Chronic injuries: Injuries that develop gradually through repeated loading without adequate recovery, so symptoms build over weeks and worsen with continued activity.AQA
Chronic Injury: An overuse injury that develops gradually over time due to repeated mechanical stress without adequate recovery.AQA
Chunking: Grouping separate items into one meaningful unit, reducing the number of items that must be processed.AQA
Church-led sport: Clubs and Sunday school teams run by churches, offering rational recreation to the urban working classes.AQA
Cilia and mucus clearance: Tar paralyses and destroys cilia, so mucus, dust and pathogens are not swept upwards and accumulate, causing coughing and increasing infection risk.AQA
Cilia damage: Smoking paralyses and destroys the cilia, which are responsible for sweeping away mucus and trapped pathogens, leading to a build-up of mucus and increased…AQA
Circuit training: A sequence of exercises, called stations, performed one after another for a set time or repetition count, with a short recovery between stations and a longer…AQA
Class and racial inequality in sport access: Restricted access to sport, as working-class Britons had limited leisure while colonial subjects faced racial and cultural exclusion.AQA
Class inequality in leisure: Provision reflected class inequality, because owners decided what was offered to workers.AQA
Class separation in sport: The two tiers rarely mixed in sport, with activities such as real tennis or fox hunting largely restricted to the upper tier and mob football and rural…AQA
Classes of lever: The relative positions of the fulcrum, effort and load define the class, and most levers in the body are third class.AQA
Classification of feedback by effect on the learner: Feedback is information a performer receives about a movement or its outcome, and it is classified by its effect on the learner.AQA
Classification of skills: Placing a skill nearer the gross or fine end by asking which muscle groups dominate and how much precision is required, then justifying the position with…AQA
Clear goals and immediate feedback: A characteristic of peak flow in which the performer has clear goals and immediate feedback.AQA
Closed skill: A skill performed in a predictable, stable environment where the performer controls the timing and execution.AQA
Closed, stable skills: Skills that suit fixed, repetitive drills rather than variable practice.AQA
Co-active Sports: Sports in which athletes perform individually, but their results are combined to achieve a team score.AQA
Coach and teacher influence on attributions: Coaches can use feedback and reflection to guide attributions towards causes that are accurate, controllable and changeable, while avoiding false reassurance.AQA
Coaching and sports science support: High-quality coaching develops technique and tactics, while sports science support covers physiology, psychology, biomechanics and nutrition.AQA
Coaching strategies: Ensuring the foundational skill is fully grooved and explicitly pointing out similarities to promote positive transfer.AQA
Codification and rational recreation: Developments in sport linked to empire, alongside the spread of codified games and the amateur ideal.AQA
Codification and standardisation: National governing bodies were formed to create and enforce a single set of rules for a sport across the country.AQA
Codification of sport: The orderly, codified and respectable sport that the middle class drove through rational recreation.AQA
Codified rules and organisation: Sport has codified rules, defined roles, equipment, scoring systems and often officials.AQA
Cognitive and somatic anxiety: Cognitive anxiety is the mental component, involving worrying thoughts and loss of concentration, while somatic anxiety is the physical component,…AQA
Cognitive anxiety: The mental response, including worry, negative thoughts, fear of failure and narrowed attention.AQA
Cognitive appraisal of stress: Cognitive techniques work on how a performer interprets a stressful situation, lowering perceived threat and worry.AQA
Cognitive component: Covers beliefs and knowledge about the attitude object, for example believing that regular running improves health.AQA
Cognitive control of behaviour: Approaches including self-talk, imagery and rational thinking to reduce hostile appraisals.AQA
Cognitive dissonance: The discomfort felt when a person's beliefs, feelings and behaviour are inconsistent, motivating the individual to reduce the inconsistency.AQA
Cognitive stage: The beginner thinks hard about what to do, makes many errors and needs demonstrations and feedback.AQA
Cognitive stress management: A technique that works through the performer's thoughts to manage stress and improve performance.AQA
Cognitive theories of learning: Explanations of skill acquisition in which the change is internal and cognitive rather than dependent on reinforcement.AQA
Cognitive, affective and behavioural components: The parts of an attitude made up of what the performer believes or knows, the emotion attached to the object, and the action or intention.AQA
Cognitive, associative and autonomous stages of learning: Learning a motor skill progresses through three stages, in which the novice builds a mental picture, then refines technique through practice, before the skill…AQA
Cohesion: The strength of the bonds that hold a group together and keep its members working towards shared goals.AQA
Cold application and inflammation control: Cold therapy lowers tissue temperature to reduce pain, local blood flow and inflammation after intense exercise.AQA
Cold injury: A possible risk of cryotherapy, so use must be matched to the injury stage and kept within safe limits.AQA
Collection-stage threats: Faulty sensors, calibration errors or manual entry mistakes that threaten integrity when data is gathered.AQA
Collective Efficacy: A group's shared belief in its conjoint capabilities to organise and execute the courses of action required to produce given levels of attainments.AQA
Combined leadership structures in teams: The two routes can operate together, with appointed leaders working alongside leaders who emerge from the team.AQA
Combining goal types: Coaches often use all three, with process goals in training, performance goals for progress checks and outcome goals for competition.AQA
Combining guidance methods: Often done with visual guidance, such as a demonstration followed by a key cue, and with feedback after the attempt.AQA
Commercial and financial consequences: Negative perception can lead to a reduction in commercial sponsorship and a loss of broadcasting revenue, as brands avoid association with violent behaviour.AQA
Commercial spectatorship: Dense audiences, enclosed grounds and regular fixtures creating commercial opportunities for sport.AQA
Commercial value of audiences: Audience size and profile determine the commercial value of broadcasting rights and sponsorship deals.AQA
Commercialisation and coach income: Raises coach salaries and sponsorship opportunities, while also increasing media duties, public accountability and job insecurity.AQA
Commercialisation and media influence: Commercial pressures, media coverage and international competition gradually eroded the strict amateur ideal after World War II.AQA
Commercialisation of sport: Rising wages and improved transport contributed to commercialisation and mass spectatorship.AQA
Communication and decision-making in leadership: Explaining tactics clearly, listening to group members, and making timely and appropriate choices under pressure.AQA
Community cohesion: Increased participation fosters this, promoting social inclusion among diverse groups.AQA
Community links: School sport may involve links with community clubs and acts as a bridge to community and elite pathways.AQA
Comparison: Matching incoming sensory information with stored memories of previous experiences held in long-term memory.AQA
Comparison of haemoglobin and myoglobin affinity: Myoglobin's curve lies to the left, showing its higher affinity.AQA
Comparison with stored memory: Comparing incoming cues with stored memories and past experiences in order to decide what response to make.AQA
Compensation and loss of earnings: Compensation can be claimed when injury reduces a performer's current or future income.AQA
Competition: The phase when the performer competes regularly and training load is managed so that the performer is fresh for fixtures while retaining fitness.AQA
Competition and fixtures: School sport may involve teams, clubs, house competitions or fixtures, and it develops performance, competition and commitment.AQA
Competition and performance outcome: Participants strive to win or achieve a performance standard, with outcomes decided by performance.AQA
Competitive orientation: The degree to which a performer values competition and uses competitive outcomes to judge success.AQA
Competitive Situation: The full, formal version of the sport played according to its official rules and regulations.Pearson Edexcel
Competitive state anxiety: The temporary emotional reaction to a particular moment, such as the minutes before a specific final.AQA
Competitive trait anxiety: A stable personality tendency to perceive competitive situations as threatening, so a performer high in it tends to feel anxious across many competitions.AQA
Components of projectile motion: Velocity splits into a horizontal component, which is unchanged if drag is ignored, and a vertical component changed by acceleration due to gravity.AQA
Concentric: Phase where the muscle shortens under tension to produce movement, as when the biceps brachii shortens to lift a dumbbell during elbow flexion.AQA
Concurrent and terminal feedback: Concurrent feedback is given during the performance, whereas terminal feedback is given after it.AQA
Concurrent feedback: Intrinsic feedback gathered during the action itself, as opposed to terminal feedback after it.AQA
Conditioned Practice: A modified version of a game or drill designed to focus on a specific skill, tactic, or scenario.Pearson Edexcel
Confidence in data: How much a performer or coach can place in data when adjusting a programme, determined by validity and reliability together.AQA
Confidence, arousal control and attention: Performers use imagery to rehearse technique or tactics, build confidence, control arousal and direct attention.AQA
Conflict and roles: Storming involves conflict and disagreement about roles, power, ideas and leadership.AQA
Conflict theory: A sociological theory applied to explain why some groups are disadvantaged in sport.AQA
Consequences for performer and sport: The performer may be sent off, banned or injured, while the sport loses sponsors and reputation.AQA
Consequences of doping for the performer: A ban from competition, loss of medals or records, shame and public criticism, loss of income and sponsorship, and damaged relationships with teammates and…AQA
Consequences of doping for the sport: Damaged reputation, loss of public trust, reduced sponsorship and media coverage, and negative role-model status.AQA
Conservation of angular momentum: During flight, once a performer is airborne, no external torque acts about the axis of rotation, so angular momentum is conserved.AQA
Consistency across situations: Trait theory predicts this, so a performer high in a given trait tends to behave similarly in different sporting contexts.AQA
Consistency and inconsistency between components: The components can pull in different directions, which explains why someone may value fitness yet still avoid exercise.AQA
Constant horizontal velocity under zero horizontal force: The horizontal component stays constant because no horizontal force acts once the object is in flight.AQA
Constant vertical acceleration due to gravity: The vertical component changes at a steady rate because gravity acts downwards throughout the parabolic path.AQA
Continuous skill: A skill that has no obvious beginning or end and repeats cyclically, such as running, swimming or cycling.AQA
Continuous training: Sustains steady aerobic work, building cardiovascular endurance.AQA
Continuum placement and justification: Treating the continuum as a scale rather than two separate boxes, placing a skill at a point on it and justifying that position by identifying the dominant…AQA
Contractual rights and obligations: A legally binding agreement covering pay, duration, duties and termination, which may be with a club, agent or sponsor.AQA
Control of timing: Who determines when the skill starts and how fast it must be performed, which is used to classify the skill.AQA
Controllability: A dimension that distinguishes causes the performer can influence, such as preparation, from causes beyond their control, such as weather.AQA
Cooperation: Members work together towards shared goals, accept their roles and support each other rather than pursuing individual aims.AQA
Cooperative binding and the sigmoid curve: The curve is S-shaped because binding the first oxygen molecule changes the shape of haemoglobin and makes binding the next molecules easier.AQA
Coordination: Organising movements, timing and roles so individual actions combine smoothly.AQA
Creatine: Increases phosphocreatine stores, supporting ATP resynthesis during short, explosive efforts such as sprinting or jumping.AQA
Creatine Kinase: The rate-limiting enzyme of the ATP-PC system, which catalyses the breakdown of phosphocreatine (PC).AQA
Creatine supplements: Increase phosphocreatine stores for explosive power, yet may lead to weight gain and muscle cramps.AQA
Crowd behaviour and deindividuation: In a crowd, individuals feel anonymous, which is one cause of violence in sport.AQA
Crowd management and spectator safety: Venues control crowds through segregation of rival fans, ticketing limits, stewarding, CCTV and searches, while police handle criminal behaviour.AQA
Crowd management and venue design: Safety measures such as risk assessment, capacity limits, segregation, stewarding, policing and controlled entry and exit.AQA
Crowd support: Supportive home spectators can raise state confidence and motivation, although they can also increase pressure if expectations are high.AQA
Cryotherapy: Applies cold to tissue, lowering local temperature, metabolic demand and pain, and reducing blood flow to limit secondary hypoxic damage and swelling in the…AQA
Cue detection: Detecting relevant cues, which anticipation relies on alongside stored memory of previous similar situations and directing attention appropriately.AQA
Cue recognition drills: A method through which selective attention can be trained, alongside practice in realistic, distracting conditions.AQA
Cue utilisation: Explains how attention narrows or widens according to arousal, from broad at low arousal to too narrow at high arousal.AQA
Cultural and religious influences on participation: Cultural or religious expectations about clothing and mixed-gender activity that can act as barriers to taking part.AQA
Curriculum learning: Planned, progressive learning experience taking place in school curriculum time, with intended outcomes set and assessed by a teacher.AQA

D

Damage and causation: The participant suffers harm, and the official's breach must be the factual and legal cause of that harm.AQA
Data integrity: Keeping performance data accurate, complete and unaltered from the moment it is captured to the moment it is used.AQA
Data interpretation from plotted points: Reading the labels, units and any plotted points, then relating the pattern to the theory it represents.AQA
Data produced by different technologies: Each technology measures or records its own specific data, such as distance and speed, heart rate, ground reaction force or movement patterns.AQA
Data-driven coaching and performance analysis: Coaches use the recorded data to plan training, monitor fatigue and reduce injury risk, while performers use feedback to adjust positioning and pacing.AQA
Data-driven performance evaluation: Using data to describe, explain and predict performance, and to evaluate interventions.AQA
Decision making: The central processing stage of the general information processing model in which the performer interprets the attended information, compares it with stored…AQA
Decision-making drills: Small-sided games or scenarios that require rapid choices.AQA
Defences in negligence: Contributory negligence by the performer or volenti where the performer knowingly accepted an obvious risk may reduce or defeat a claim.AQA
Definition of an attitude: A settled way of thinking and feeling about an attitude object, which may be a sport, an activity, a person or a group.AQA
Definition of skill: A learned ability to bring about a predetermined result with maximum certainty and minimum outlay of energy and time.AQA
Democratic leadership: Consults the group and shares planning while the leader retains overall responsibility, and can raise ownership, motivation and tactical understanding in…AQA
Detection: Registering sensory stimuli or relevant cues from the environment, such as seeing a ball in flight.AQA
Detection and correction of error: Negative feedback identifies that a response fell short of the required standard and directs attention to what must change.AQA
Development support: Structured support that follows identification, provided through coaching by regional bodies.AQA
Diastolic pressure: The lower value, recorded when the ventricles relax and fill.AQA
Diffusion: The passive net movement of gas molecules from a region of higher partial pressure to a region of lower partial pressure, down a partial-pressure gradient.AQA
Diffusion gradients: Partial pressure differences drive the passive diffusion of gases, with oxygen and carbon dioxide moving down these gradients at the alveoli and muscles.AQA
Diffusion of responsibility: A feeling that responsibility is shared, which can cause a team member to reduce effort.AQA
Direct and indirect discrimination: Direct discrimination openly treats a group less favourably, while indirect discrimination applies a rule or arrangement that disadvantages a group in…AQA
Direct experience and social learning: Formation through direct experience of success and failure, and through observing and imitating significant others such as coaches, peers and family.AQA
Direction as an essential part of vector answers: A vector answer must always state direction alongside the numerical value and unit, for example 5 m s⁻¹ north.AQA
Disability: A reduced opportunity to take part in physical activity caused by the interaction between a person's impairment and barriers in sport and society.AQA
Disadvantaged: Describes groups or individuals who face barriers that reduce their access to, participation in or progression through physical activity and sport.AQA
Disciplinary consequences: Implications for the performer include dismissal, suspension and fines.AQA
Discrete skill: A skill that has a clear start and finish, such as a tennis serve or a penalty kick.AQA
Discrete–serial–continuous continuum: Classifies skills by how clearly the movement has a beginning and end, helping performers and coaches decide how to break down, practise and assess movement.AQA
Discrimination: The unequal treatment of a person or group because of a characteristic such as sex, race, disability, age, religion or social class.AQA
Discrimination and stereotyping in sport: Racism and stereotyping that can act as barriers, directly reducing opportunity and confidence.AQA
Discrimination in selection, funding and provision: Discrimination in sport can occur in selection, coaching, funding, media coverage, facility access and kit provision.AQA
Disease prevention through participation: Raising participation in physical activity decreases the risk of conditions such as heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, osteoporosis…AQA
Dislocation: Displacement of a bone from its normal position at a joint, damaging joint structures.AQA
Displacement: The straight-line distance in a stated direction from start to finish, measured in metres (m).AQA
Display: The physical environment and all the information available to the performer at a given moment.AQA
Dissociation: The process at respiring tissues where the lower partial pressure of oxygen causes oxyhaemoglobin to release oxygen.AQA
Distance: A scalar quantity that is the total length of the path a performer travels, measured in metres (m), and it has magnitude only.AQA
Distinction between anxiety, arousal, and stress: Anxiety is a negative emotional state of apprehension and worry, distinct from arousal, a general state of readiness, and stress, the perceived imbalance…AQA
Distinction between legislation and NGB rules: Legislation is distinct from National Governing Body rules; while NGBs handle anti-doping and internal discipline, legislation provides the overarching legal…AQA
Distinguishing health, fitness, and social benefits: Health benefits such as a reduced risk of disease must be distinguished from fitness benefits like improved stamina and social benefits like reduced crime.AQA
Distributed practice: A practice structure in which rest intervals are longer and more frequent, so that work periods are separated by recovery.AQA
Distribution of decision-making control: How much decision-making control the leader keeps and how much is shared with performers.AQA
Dominant response: The action most likely to be produced in that situation, which increased arousal strengthens.AQA
Dominant system selection: Identifying an activity's intensity, duration and whether it is continuous or intermittent to explain which system dominates.AQA
Dorsiflexion: Pulls the toes upwards towards the shin, decreasing the angle between the foot and the front of the lower leg.AQA
Downforce: Downward lift that improves tyre grip in motorsport such as Formula 1.AQA
Downward lift: A net perpendicular force pointing downward, produced when a body or surface is shaped or angled so that air is deflected upward.AQA
Drag: A fluid force that opposes motion and acts in the opposite direction to velocity.AQA
Drag and projectile shape: Shape and surface area determine the size of the drag force, which has little effect on a heavy, compact shot put but strongly affects a light shuttle with a…AQA
Drag increase: Drag is increased by greater velocity, cross-sectional area, fluid density and drag coefficient, and can be advantageous in some sports.AQA
Drag reduction: Athletes streamline their shape to reduce cross-sectional area, wear smooth clothing to reduce the drag coefficient, and reduce velocity if possible.AQA
Drive theory: Claims performance improves as arousal rises, because increased arousal strengthens the dominant response.AQA
Drive theory and the dominant response: Explains the effect through increased arousal strengthening the dominant response, so performance improves if the dominant response is correct and declines if…AQA
Drivers and patterns of social change in participation: Shifts in attitudes, provision and opportunity over time, driven by campaigns, role models, legislation and media coverage.AQA
Duty of care: Coaches must take reasonable steps to avoid foreseeable harm to performers.AQA
Duty of care and safeguarding for coaches: Coaches have a legal duty of care to ensure safe practice environments and safeguard children.AQA
Dynamic fluid force: The force produced when a body moves through a fluid, or when a fluid flows past a body.AQA

E

Eccentric: Phase where the muscle lengthens under tension while controlling movement, as when the biceps brachii lengthens to lower the dumbbell during elbow extension.AQA
Eccentric Contraction: An isotonic contraction where the muscle lengthens while under tension.Pearson Edexcel
Economic impact: A healthier population reduces the financial burden on the NHS and decreases workplace absenteeism, boosting overall productivity.AQA
Education and prevention: Programmes that teach athletes about the health risks and ethical issues of doping.AQA
Education, role models and self-regulation: Education campaigns and positive role models promote respect, and coaches teach emotional control and channel aggression into lawful, assertive play.AQA
Effect of release angle: An angle near 45° maximises range when release and landing heights are equal.AQA
Effect of release height and drag: Greater release height lengthens flight time and range, while drag shortens the path and makes it asymmetric.AQA
Effect of release velocity: A larger release velocity carries the projectile further, increasing range and flight time.AQA
Effector mechanism: The component that receives the selected motor programme from the translatory mechanism and transmits motor commands via efferent nerve pathways to the…AQA
Effects of audience demand on sport: Audience demand can influence scheduling, rule changes, ticket pricing and which sports or events receive coverage.AQA
Efficiency of decision-making: Efficient recognition allows the performer to quickly select the appropriate motor programme, reducing reaction time and improving the overall efficiency of…AQA
Effort arm and load arm: The effort arm runs from the fulcrum to the effort, and the load arm runs from the fulcrum to the load.AQA
Effortless and automatic execution: A characteristic of peak flow in which the performer has a sense of effortlessness.AQA
Elastic energy storage and reuse: Energy is stored in the muscle and tendon during the eccentric phase and released during the concentric phase.AQA
Elbow flexion: Carries the forearm towards the upper arm, as in the upward phase of a biceps curl.AQA
Elite sport funding: UK Sport invests National Lottery and Exchequer funding in elite sport, focusing on elite Olympic and Paralympic performance sport rather than grassroots…AQA
Elite support: Providing support for elite performers, such as running national squads and funding elite training.AQA
Emergent leader: A leader who emerges from within the group because members recognise qualities such as ability, confidence or communication.AQA
Emotional arousal: The performer's interpretation of their physiological and psychological state influences efficacy beliefs.AQA
Empathy, integrity and fairness: Understanding group members, including recognising individual needs and feelings, and treating group members consistently and honestly.AQA
Emphysema: Smoking damages the alveolar walls, significantly reducing the surface area available for gaseous exchange.AQA
Employment protection and restraint of trade: Employment law protects performers from unfair dismissal and unreasonable restraint of trade.AQA
Endurance activity performance: Type I fibres are suited to prolonged aerobic activities such as distance running, cycling or cross-country skiing, being recruited for low-force,…AQA
Energy and nutrient replenishment: Carbohydrate replenishes muscle and liver glycogen, protein provides amino acids for muscle protein synthesis, and micronutrients such as calcium and vitamin…AQA
Energy continuum: All three systems contribute, but the dominant contributor changes as intensity and duration change.AQA, Pearson Edexcel
Energy equivalent of oxygen: The roughly 20 kJ released per litre of oxygen consumed when fat is the fuel and roughly 21 kJ when carbohydrate is the fuel, used to estimate expenditure by…AQA
Energy expenditure: The total energy a performer uses, expressed in kilojoules (kJ) or kilocalories (kcal), where 1 kcal ≈ 4.2 kJ.AQA
Energy fuels for exercise: Carbohydrates, stored as glycogen in liver and muscle, are the main fuel for high-intensity work, while fats provide fuel for lower-intensity, longer-duration…AQA
Engineered sports surfaces: Playing layers designed for the demands of a sport, such as synthetic turf with rubber infill, mondo track, sprung wooden floors and sprung courts.AQA
English Institute of Sport (EIS): The English example that delivers these services to athletes and governing bodies.AQA, OCR
Enjoyment, health and social purposes: The main aim is enjoyment, relaxation, health or social contact rather than competition or reward.AQA
Environmental cues: The relevant pieces of information a performer detects from the physical surroundings and the dynamic sporting situation, such as the positions of opponents,…AQA
Episodic buffer: Integrates information from the loop, sketchpad and long-term memory into a single multi-modal episode.AQA
EPO: Stimulates red blood cell production, raising haemoglobin and oxygen-carrying capacity, which improves aerobic endurance.AQA
EPOC: The volume of oxygen consumed above resting baseline during recovery after exercise ends, staying elevated rather than falling instantly to resting level.AQA, Pearson Edexcel
EPOC (Excess Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption): The volume of oxygen consumed during recovery above that which would have been consumed at rest during the same time.AQA
EPOC and recovery: Excess post-exercise oxygen consumption, which repays the deficit by restoring phosphagen stores, clearing lactate and replenishing oxygen stores.AQA
Equal opportunities: The focus of sociological theory that asks you to identify the barrier, explain how it operates, and evaluate strategies such as subsidised membership,…AQA
Equal opportunities in sport: Examined by sociological theory, which looks at how prejudice creates barriers, how it can be measured through attitudes and behaviour, and how education,…AQA
Equality of opportunity: Removing barriers and providing inclusive, culturally sensitive provision so that participation reflects interest rather than ethnicity.AQA
Equations and formulae: Using equations and formulae accurately, for example v = d ÷ t, and rearranging them correctly to find an unknown.AQA
Equations of linear motion: Relationships including velocity = displacement ÷ time, acceleration = change in velocity ÷ time, weight = mass × gravitational field strength and momentum =…AQA
Equipment suitability: Effective use depends on choosing equipment suited to the activity and matched to its specific risks, with correct fit and undamaged condition.AQA
Error detection: Comparing actual sensory consequences with expected sensory consequences, so that if a mismatch is detected, error correction occurs.AQA
Erythropoietin and red blood cell production: The kidneys release more erythropoietin (EPO) in response to hypoxia, which stimulates red blood cell production in bone marrow.AQA
Ethics and fair play in sport: Clean athletes may doubt fair play when a positive test damages the sport's reputation and reduces spectator trust.AQA
Ethics of athlete data collection: Ethical issues include data ownership, consent and surveillance of athletes.AQA
Ethnic group: A group of people who share a cultural background, heritage, language, religion or nationality, and who may face unequal opportunities in physical activity.AQA
Evaluation apprehension: The concern a performer feels about being judged by others, based on the perception that those people are assessing ability, appearance or outcome.AQA
Event tagging and coding: Tagging and coding functions let a coach mark key events and generate counts or clips of them.AQA
Evidence-based coaching and talent identification: Providing evidence that informs tactical decisions, supports talent identification and is interpreted by coaches alongside context, experience and ethical…AQA
Exercise and oxygen unloading: During exercise, increased carbon dioxide and acidity in active muscle further reduce haemoglobin's affinity for oxygen, so more oxygen is unloaded to the…AQA
Exercise intensity and energy contribution: As exercise intensity rises and carbohydrate becomes the main fuel, the ratio climbs towards 1.0.AQA
Exercise response: Heart rate, stroke volume, cardiac output, blood pressure and A-VO₂ diff may rise by different amounts and at different speeds from person to person.AQA
Exercise-induced changes in cardiac function: During exercise, the skeletal muscle pump and respiratory pump increase venous return, so stroke volume increases.AQA
Exercise-induced changes in ventilation: During exercise, proprioceptors in muscles and joints and the motor cortex stimulate the respiratory centres, increasing ventilation before and during movement.AQA
Expiratory reserve volume: The extra volume of air a person can force out of the lungs after a normal, quiet expiration has finished.AQA
Explanation: Stating what the technique is, how the performer carries it out, and why the physical change reduces felt stress and improves execution.AQA
Export of public school games and muscular Christianity: The process by which public schools and muscular Christians exported team games and athletic ideals across the empire.AQA
Extension: Movement that returns the arm from flexion towards the anatomical position, as in the downward phase of a front raise, or drives the thigh backwards at the…AQA
External perspective: Imagery in which the athlete watches themselves as if on video.AQA
Externally paced skill: A skill timed by factors outside the performer, such as an opponent, a teammate or an official signal.AQA
Extrinsic feedback: Information about performance that comes from an outside source rather than from the performer's own senses.AQA
Extrinsic motivation: A drive coming from external rewards or pressures, such as a coach's praise or a trophy.AQA

F

Factors affecting magnitude: Its size depends on the density of the fluid, the cross-sectional area facing the flow, the square of the relative velocity, and the shape and surface…AQA
Fair play and sanctions: Negative deviance damages fair play and can lead to sanctions such as bans or fines.AQA
Familiar routine as a coping strategy: Because the warm up is predictable and within the performer's control, it can reduce the stress response triggered by an upcoming competition.AQA
Familiarity: Reduces uncertainty and supports routine, as performers know the pitch, court, track or changing facilities.AQA
Fartlek: Swedish for speed play, it develops aerobic power by mixing continuous running with varied pace and terrain.AQA
Fartlek training: Varies speed and terrain to develop aerobic and anaerobic systems.AQA
Fast (alactacid) component: The component that restores phosphocreatine stores and reloads myoglobin with oxygen, lasting roughly 2–3 minutes.AQA
Fast ATP resynthesis: Creatine kinase breaks down phosphocreatine into creatine and phosphate, and the energy released rebuilds ADP back to ATP, making this the fastest way to make…AQA
Fast glycolytic (type IIx): Motor units built for brief, explosive effort, containing a high proportion of fast-twitch fibres with very rapid contraction speed and high force output but…AQA
Fast oxidative glycolytic (type IIa): Motor units that combine fast contraction speed with moderate force and greater fatigue resistance than type IIx.AQA
Fat: Provides a concentrated energy source for low-intensity and endurance work and carries fat-soluble vitamins.AQA
Fat oxidation and glycogen sparing: Fat oxidation increases as duration extends, sparing glycogen stores and supporting sustained work.AQA
Fatigue and exercise duration: These anaerobic systems supply ATP quickly but fatigue develops, limiting performance duration.AQA
Fatigue management: Rotating the activation of different motor units to delay fatigue during sustained sub-maximal efforts.AQA
Fatigue resistance: The ability to sustain repeated high-intensity efforts better than type IIx, described as moderate to high for type IIa.AQA
Fatigue resistance and contraction speed: Type I fibres contract slowly and resist fatigue, type IIa fibres contract quickly with moderate fatigue resistance, and type IIx fibres contract fastest but…AQA
Fatigue resistance and sporting application: Slow twitch fibres are more resistant to fatigue and fast twitch fibres fatigue quickly, so a sprinter's quadriceps uses fast fibres for a 100 m race and a…AQA
Faulty group processes: Losses that arise when members do not combine effort well, including social loafing, coordination problems and motivational faults.AQA
Feedback: Information a performer receives about their movement, and it closes the loop in an information processing model.AQA
Feedback and error correction: Delayed, vague or absent feedback can cause a plateau to persist, so giving fresh specific feedback is a solution.AQA
Feedback and movement analysis: Video analysis, motion-tracking software and apps allow a performer to compare their movement with a model of correct technique, identify a specific fault,…AQA
Feedback and review of progress: Goals should be reviewed so they stay relevant as fitness changes, with targets adjusted as fitness, skill or circumstances change.AQA
Feedback and skill execution: Feedback is gathered based on the output to inform future actions, and accurate perception and decision-making will likely result in a successful skill…AQA
Feedback as new input for error correction and learning: Feedback can re-enter the system as new input, allowing error correction and learning.AQA
Feedback data: Information about the outcome or execution of a movement that the performer receives and uses to adjust future attempts.AQA
Feedback from subjective outcomes: The performer's own perception of how well they performed feeds back to influence future confidence.AQA
Feedback types: positive, negative, extrinsic and intrinsic: Feedback differs between the stages, shifting from external and positive to internal and negative as skill level increases.AQA
Fibre: A type of carbohydrate that cannot be digested by human enzymes, adds bulk to the diet, promotes satiety and helps regulate bowel function.AQA
Fibre type classification and characteristics: Type IIa fibres are more oxidative than type IIb/IIx fibres, which are the most glycolytic, and myoglobin content is higher in slow twitch fibres.AQA
Fick's law: The rate of diffusion is proportional to the surface area and the partial-pressure gradient, and inversely proportional to the thickness of the respiratory…AQA
Fiedler’s contingency theory: Leadership effectiveness depends on the match between the leader’s fixed style and the favourableness of the situation.AQA
Financial and sponsorship incentives: Financial incentives such as sponsorship, prize money and funding can motivate doping when winning brings reward.AQA
Fine motor control and precision sports: Reduced muscle tremor and anxiety improve steadiness and fine motor control in precision sports such as archery, shooting, snooker and golf.AQA
Fitness benefits: The improvements in the components of physical fitness that result from training.AQA
Fitness monitoring and data collection: Monitoring is only useful when the data is interpreted against the performer's own baseline and the sport's demands, then fed back into planning.AQA
FITT: The principles of frequency, intensity, time and type, describing how often, how hard, how long and what kind of work.AQA
Flexibility training methods: PNF is a flexibility method that uses the proprioceptors in muscle and tendon to override the stretch reflex and gain a longer range of movement.AQA
Flexibility types: Active is performed by the individual moving the joint themselves, passive uses an external force such as a partner or device, static involves holding a…AQA
Flexible, equipment-free training: It needs no equipment and can be done on roads, trails or hills, making it flexible and easy to organise.AQA
Flexion: Movement that raises the arm forwards at the shoulder, as in the upward phase of a front raise, or lifts the thigh forwards at the hip, as in the knee lift…AQA
Flight time: The time the projectile spends in the air, determined by the vertical component of velocity and gravity.AQA
Fluid density: Increasing fluid density, such as water compared with air, increases drag.AQA
Force as a push or pull measured in newtons: A push or pull, measured in newtons (N), that causes or resists a change in motion.AQA
Force of contraction and stroke volume: Greater stretch increases the force of ventricular contraction, so stroke volume rises.AQA
Force production in sport: Tetanic contraction produces greater force than a single twitch and underpins most forceful sporting movements.AQA
Force/time graph interpretation: The area between the force curve and the time axis gives the impulse, while the gradient gives the rate of change of force.AQA
Foreseeable harm: Harm that reasonable steps should be taken to avoid, covering safe planning, equipment checks, ability matching, correct instruction and supervision.AQA
Formal and informal social control in sport: Mechanisms that encourage conformity and discourage deviance in sport, working through formal agents such as schools, governing bodies and the law, and…AQA
Forming: The stage in which members get to know each other, assess the group and rely heavily on the coach for direction.AQA
Fracture: A break or crack in a bone, caused by direct impact or indirect force.AQA
Frame-by-frame and angle analysis: Analysis programmes allow frame-by-frame viewing, drawing of angle lines and comparison with a model performance.AQA
Free-body diagram: A dot for the performer with arrows for each external force, labelled with direction and relative size.AQA
Friction force: The maximum available force for grip, which is raised by a larger normal contact force.AQA
Frictional force: Arises at the contact between shoe and surface and opposes sliding, being static to grip the foot for push-off or kinetic when opposing sliding.AQA
Frontal plane: Divides the body into front and back portions, and movement within it occurs side to side.AQA
Frontal plane and sagittal axis: The context in which abduction and adduction take place, as these actions are frontal-plane movements about the sagittal axis.AQA
Frustration-aggression hypothesis: A blocked goal creates frustration, and frustration directly produces aggression.AQA
Fuel mixture and substrate use: A value near 0.7 indicates predominantly fat oxidation, while a value near 1.0 indicates predominantly carbohydrate oxidation.AQA
Fuel oxidation and energy yield: Beta oxidation breaks down fatty acids into acetyl coenzyme A units, so fats feed the same Krebs cycle.AQA
Fuel oxidation and exercise intensity: Fat oxidation produces more ATP per gram than carbohydrate but at a slower rate, and the system dominates during prolonged submaximal exercise.AQA
Fuels and by-products: Glucose, glycogen or fat are used as fuels, and by-products include lactate, carbon dioxide and water.AQA
Fulcrum, effort and load: The fulcrum is the pivot, the effort is the force applied by a muscle, and the load is the resistance to be moved.AQA
Functions of key concepts: Reasons explaining why people take part, including health, education, social interaction, enjoyment and preparation for performance.AQA
Funding, facilities and competition: Adequate funding pays for equipment, travel and training time, facilities must be suitable and accessible, and strong competition and appropriate fixtures…AQA

G

Gamesmanship: Exploiting or bending rules to gain an unfair advantage without technically breaking them, for example feigning injury or deliberately wasting time.AQA
Gas transport: Oxygen and carbon dioxide are the two gases exchanged in the respiratory system and carried in the blood in different forms.AQA
Gender: Socially constructed expectations and roles associated with masculinity and femininity, distinct from biological sex.AQA
Gender socialisation: Influence from family, peers, school and media on which activities are seen as appropriate for boys and girls.AQA
General learned helplessness: The belief that failure will occur across all sports or situations, such as thinking 'I am hopeless at all physical activity'.AQA
Generalised motor programme (GMP): A programme containing invariant features that performers store and adapt by schemas, rather than storing a separate motor programme for every possible…AQA
Genetic makeup: Sets a ceiling for VO₂ max, while training can improve it.AQA
Gestalt psychology and whole-pattern perception: The approach with which insight learning is associated, in which the learner perceives the total situation and reorganises the elements mentally.AQA
Glycogen: The storage form of carbohydrate in the liver and muscles, broken down to glucose for ATP resynthesis.AQA
Glycogen depletion: A limiting factor for performance in endurance events lasting more than about 60–90 minutes.AQA
Glycogen loading: Raises muscle glycogen before endurance events by tapering training while increasing carbohydrate intake, extending time to exhaustion.AQA
Glycolysis: The breakdown of glucose yielding a net gain of 2 ATP and 2 pyruvate aerobically, or 2 ATP anaerobically.AQA
Goal setting: Setting specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound goals that the performer owns develops approach tendencies.AQA
Goal setting and role clarity: Setting clear, challenging group goals and individual targets builds commitment, and role clarity can improve task cohesion.AQA
Goal-directed behaviour: Forceful action that is directed towards a goal and remains within the rules, with no intention to cause harm.AQA
Gold Event Series: Supports the hosting of major international sporting events in the UK, aiming to raise standards, inspire participation and leave a legacy.AQA
Golgi tendon organ: Detects increased tension and causes the muscle to relax, preventing injury.AQA
Governance and regulation: They organised national competitions and cup competitions and regulated clubs, players and fixtures, and settled disputes.AQA
Governance and sanctions: Governing bodies set and enforce codes of conduct, using sanctions such as fines, bans and points deductions to deter players and coaches.AQA
Governing bodies and structured competition: National or international governing bodies organise leagues, tournaments and disciplinary processes, with structured training and fixtures.AQA
Governing body responses and rule changes: The sport's governing body might be forced to alter rules, increase disciplinary measures, or launch costly campaigns to improve its public image and restore…AQA
GPS: A game-analysis system that can record distance covered and top speed in metres per second (m s⁻¹).AQA
Gradation of whole-muscle force: Comes from recruiting more motor units and from increasing impulse frequency, not from a single fibre contracting partially.AQA
Graded force production: A stronger whole-muscle contraction produced by activating more motor units simultaneously, depending on the demands of the activity.AQA
Gradual and limited expansion of women's participation: Activities such as tennis, croquet, golf and later cycling became more acceptable for some women by the late nineteenth century, yet participation remained…AQA
Graph and diagram interpretation: Interpreting the gradient of a distance–time graph as speed, the area under a force–time graph as impulse, and force arrows in free-body diagrams with correct…AQA
Graph interpretation: Reading the axes, identifying the trend and relating it to the theory.AQA
Graph plotting and labelling: Plotting graphs with the independent variable on the x-axis and the dependent variable on the y-axis using appropriate scales, and labelling axes with both…AQA
Graphical literacy in sport psychology: Understanding and interpreting graphical representations associated with sport psychology theories, by identifying the axes and tracing the shape.AQA
Gravity: The attractive force between masses, giving a gravitational field strength of about 9.81 N kg⁻¹ on Earth.AQA
Group Dynamics: The study of the nature of groups, their development, and their interrelationships with individuals, other groups, and larger institutions.AQA
Group formation: A dynamic process in which separate individuals become a functioning team, typically described by Tuckman's four stages.AQA
Guidance and feedback: Distinct concepts, as guidance supports learning before or during the attempt, while feedback evaluates the attempt.AQA

H

Haemoglobin and oxyhaemoglobin: Each haemoglobin molecule can bind up to four oxygen molecules, so fully saturated blood carries far more oxygen than plasma alone could.AQA
Haemoglobin binding: Oxygen is carried mainly bound to haemoglobin in red blood cells, forming oxyhaemoglobin, and carbon dioxide is bound to haemoglobin as carbaminohaemoglobin.AQA
Handmade equipment and simple facilities: Limited technology meant equipment was handmade from wood, leather or stone and there were few purpose-built facilities, restricting the types of activity and…AQA
Health and well-being: Benefits include reduced rates of chronic illnesses like obesity and heart disease, alongside improved mental well-being and lower stress levels.AQA
Health risks of increased blood viscosity: Raising blood viscosity increases the risk of blood clots, stroke and heart attack, so the health risk is serious.AQA
Health versus fitness: Health is the overall state of well-being and absence of disease, while fitness is the ability to meet environmental demands.AQA
Health-related components: Cardiovascular endurance, muscular strength, muscular endurance, flexibility and body composition.AQA
Healthy active lifestyle: The cardiovascular benefits of regular physical activity highlight the importance of an active lifestyle.AQA
Heart disease: Includes conditions such as coronary heart disease, where fatty plaques narrow the coronary arteries and reduce oxygen delivery to cardiac muscle.AQA
Heart rate: A component of cardiac output which, when multiplied by stroke volume, gives the volume of blood pumped per minute.AQA
Heart rate changes during exercise and recovery: Heart rate, stroke volume and cardiac output increase during exercise, then recovery brings parasympathetic dominance and heart rate falls.AQA
Hick's law: Choice reaction time increases as the number of stimulus-response alternatives increases, with the increase being logarithmic.AQA
High and low organisation: This continuum relates to the separability of sub-routines, and it must not be confused with simple-complex, which is about decision-making.AQA
High blood pressure: Also called hypertension, this means the force of blood against artery walls is persistently raised, increasing strain on the heart and arteries.AQA
High fatigue resistance: The ability of type I fibres to resist fatigue, allowing them to sustain aerobic work for long periods.AQA
High-performance strategy: UK Sport sets the strategic direction for high-performance sport in the UK.AQA
Hinge joint: A joint that allows movement in one plane, as at the ankle, which allows plantar flexion and dorsiflexion.AQA
Home field advantage: The tendency for teams and individuals to perform better when competing at their own venue.AQA
Hooliganism and public order: Disorderly, violent or threatening behaviour by spectators, including fighting, missile throwing and pitch invasion.AQA
Horizontal abduction: Moves the limb away from the midline of the body when the limb is already raised to approximately 90 degrees.AQA
Horizontal adduction: Moves the limb towards or across the midline of the body when the limb is already raised to approximately 90 degrees.AQA
Horizontal displacement: The horizontal distance a projectile travels from release or projection to landing.AQA
Horizontal velocity: The velocity at release that affects how far the projectile travels horizontally in a given time.AQA
Hormonal control of red blood cell production: A hormone that stimulates red blood cell production in bone marrow, and it can suppress natural EPO production.AQA
Hormonal influence on cardiac function: Adrenaline and noradrenaline released from the adrenal medulla increase heart rate, stroke volume and the strength of ventricular contraction.AQA
Hormonal reinforcement of cardiac response: Adrenaline and noradrenaline from the adrenal medulla reinforce the effect of the anticipatory rise.AQA
Hunting Response: An alternating cycle of vasoconstriction and vasodilation that occurs during prolonged exposure to cold.AQA
Hydration and digestion: Water and fibre support transport and digestion.AQA
Hydration and electrolyte balance: Fluid with electrolytes restores hydration and blood volume after sweating.AQA
Hydrotherapy: Uses water buoyancy to reduce load on healing joints, while hydrostatic pressure reduces swelling and warm water increases blood flow.AQA
Hyperbaric chamber: Exposes the body to raised atmospheric pressure with a high oxygen concentration, so more oxygen dissolves in plasma and delivery to hypoxic tissue improves.AQA
Hyperbaric chambers: Deliver 100% oxygen under high pressure, increasing dissolved oxygen in blood plasma to accelerate cellular repair and reduce oedema.AQA
Hyperextension: Movement that continues beyond the anatomical position, such as the arm pulled backwards in a rowing action or the thigh carried further back in the trailing…AQA
Hypoxic stress at altitude: Living or training at high altitude, where the partial pressure of oxygen in the air is lower than at sea level, so less oxygen diffuses into the blood.AQA

I

Identical elements: Shared movement patterns, perceptual cues, or decision-making demands that positive transfer relies on.AQA
Identifiability: The degree to which an individual's performance within a group is visible and can be measured.AQA
Identifiability of contribution: The extent to which an individual's contribution can be identified, with effort reducing when it becomes harder to identify.AQA
Identifiability of individual contribution: Making individual contributions identifiable, for example by assigning specific roles, publishing individual statistics or using rotation, reduces social…AQA
Identification of injury risk factors: Screening typically examines movement quality, muscle strength and balance, joint range of movement, and previous injury history.AQA
Imagery: A psychological skill in which a performer creates or recreates a sporting experience in the mind using the senses, so the brain rehearses the movement or…AQA
Imagery and visualisation: The method used in mental practice, in which the performer pictures the movement from their own viewpoint or an external viewpoint.AQA
Immediate rewards and delayed costs: The gains are immediate and visible, while the costs are delayed, which helps explain why an athlete may keep doping even when health risks are known.AQA
Impact absorption: The way equipment works to reduce injury risk by absorbing or dispersing impact forces during physical activity.AQA
Impact of exercise on lung volumes: During exercise, residual volume remains relatively unchanged, while effective gas exchange relies on increasing tidal volume and breathing frequency.AQA
Impact on grassroots participation: Grassroots participation levels may decrease because parents become reluctant to let their children play.AQA
Impairment: A medical condition or functional limitation, which is distinct from the social disadvantage that follows it.AQA
Imperial expansion and global trade: A global network of territories, trade routes and political control centred on Britain that expanded across India, Africa, the Caribbean, Canada, Australia…AQA
Implications for prevention and rehabilitation: Understanding the type helps the performer and coach choose appropriate prevention and rehabilitation, because acute trauma and overuse damage need different…AQA
Implications of crowd disorder: Club fines, bans from competitions and a negative image for the sport.AQA
Impulse: The product of force and the time over which it acts, and it equals the change in momentum.AQA
Incentive value: The perceived attractiveness or importance of the reward associated with success.AQA
Incentive value of success: A situational factor, the incentive value of success, with which the two motives interact.AQA
Independence of horizontal and vertical motion: Treating the two components separately, so vertical motion determines time of flight while horizontal motion determines range.AQA
Indirect calorimetry: A method that estimates energy expenditure without measuring heat directly, by measuring oxygen uptake and carbon dioxide production while a performer…AQA
Individual and team performance evaluation: Using data to evaluate individual or team performance, such as identifying a player's strengths and weaknesses.AQA
Individual differences in technique effectiveness: Effects differ between performers, and the technique must suit the individual and the task.AQA
Individual variation: Individuals differ in how their cardiovascular systems respond to the same exercise session.AQA
Individual variation in drug response: Effects vary with dose, individual physiology, training status and the specific sport demands.AQA
Individualised preparation for performance: Monitoring supports individualised training and can track progress over time.AQA
Individualised targets: Goals should be set for the individual rather than copied from someone else, matching the performer's current ability, event or role and training capacity.AQA
Industrial paternalism: Employers controlled provision, so workers had to accept employer rules and owners decided what was offered.AQA
Industrial town growth: The rapid expansion of industrial towns as factory work, enclosure and better wages drew families into them.AQA
Industrialisation and changing leisure time: The movement of much work from home and countryside into factories and towns, reducing the space and leisure time available for women's recreation.AQA
Industrialisation and urbanisation: Factory production and the growth of towns reshaped society, and enclosure of open land reduced space for traditional rural games, pushing sport towards…AQA
Inequality: The unfair, uneven distribution of resources or opportunities.AQA
Inertia: A body's resistance to a change in motion, directly related to its mass.AQA
Inertia and body mass: Greater body mass increases inertia, so a heavier performer resists a given disturbing impulse more than a lighter one.AQA
Influence of prior learning: Transfer of learning describes how learning one skill affects the learning or performance of another.AQA
Information overload: A state that effective selective attention prevents by ensuring the limited processing capacity is not overloaded.AQA
Information processing: Processing that begins with input, where selective attention filters out irrelevant environmental stimuli to focus on relevant cues.AQA
Information processing and decision-making: Becoming more efficient when accurate response specifications are rapidly generated, based on processing information about initial conditions.AQA
Information processing demands: The amount of information a skill requires the performer to process, with high demands making a skill complex.AQA
Information processing in sport: Efficient processing depends on the sensory organs detecting accurate information quickly, supporting efficient information processing and appropriate…AQA
Information processing model: A chain running from input from the senses, through decision making in the central nervous system, to output as a response.AQA
Informed programme adjustment: Using both objective and subjective data together to inform decisions about intensity, recovery and programme adjustment, with the choice depending on what is…AQA
Informing targeted prevention strategies: The results guide prevention: the athlete may be given targeted strengthening, mobility work or technique coaching.AQA
Initial conditions: Information about the environment and the performer's body position before the movement begins, including proprioceptive feedback about posture and visual…AQA
Injury prevention: Includes warm up, flexibility training, taping and bracing, used alongside safe technique and appropriate equipment.AQA
Injury risk and safe practice: Ballistic stretching carries a higher injury risk if performed without adequate warm-up or control, so it should follow a thorough warm-up.AQA
Input: The first stage of the general information processing model, referring to the information a performer receives from the environment through the senses.AQA
Input stage: The stage of the general information processing model at which the senses detect stimuli and selective attention decides which stimuli are passed on for…AQA
Input–decision–output sequence: The order in which information is processed, beginning with input from the senses and ending with output as a response.AQA
Insight learning and Gestalt theory: Cognitive theories of learning, such as Gestalt theory, emphasise that athletes learn best by understanding the whole problem rather than practising isolated…AQA
Insoluble fibre: A type of fibre that adds bulk and speeds transit through the gut.AQA
Inspiratory reserve volume: The extra volume of air a person can forcibly breathe in after a normal, quiet inspiration has finished.AQA
Instinct theory: Aggression is innate and biologically driven, an inborn trait or drive that competition can release.AQA
Intangible rewards: Extrinsic rewards that are non-physical, such as praise, recognition or a sense of belonging.AQA
Integrated cardio-respiratory function: The cardiovascular and respiratory systems are linked, with the heart pumping oxygenated blood to muscles while the lungs oxygenate blood and remove carbon…AQA
Integration by the respiratory centres: Receptor input is integrated by the respiratory centres, which adjust the rate and depth of pulmonary ventilation during physical activity.AQA
Integration of information for decision making: The episodic buffer integrates information from the other components and links it to long-term memory.AQA
Intensity and duration: Intensity selects the system: short maximal work relies on ATP-PC and anaerobic glycolysis, while longer submaximal work shifts towards the aerobic system.AQA
Intensity and duration analysis: Considering intensity and duration together when judging which energy system dominates an activity.AQA
Intensity and duration as determinants: The dominant system shifts with both intensity and duration, not duration alone.AQA
Intensity and duration of anaerobic efforts: The system works at the start of exercise and during sprints, jumps and heavy lifts.AQA
Intensity and duration of exercise: Both systems have a low ATP yield compared with the aerobic system but a much faster rate, which suits sprinting, jumping and repeated high-intensity efforts.AQA
Intensity-dependent changes during exercise: During exercise, intensity determines the scale of change, with stroke volume dominating cardiac output at low intensity and heart rate contributing more at…AQA
Intensity-dependent exercise responses: During exercise, heart rate and breathing rate increase proportionally to intensity, while stroke volume and tidal volume plateau at submaximal levels.AQA
Intent to harm: The primary intention to harm or injure another person, which defines aggression.AQA
Inter-organisational relationships: Hierarchical and collaborative links in which schools and clubs identify talent, regional bodies develop it, and national bodies select and support elite…AQA
Interaction of performer and environment: Objective sport situations combine with the performer's personality to shape the behaviour shown.AQA
Interactionist perspective: Explains behaviour as the product of both personality traits and the situation, rather than either alone.AQA
Interactionist perspective on personality: The view, underpinned by Hollander and Lewin, that neither traits alone nor situations alone explain a performer.AQA
Interactionist theory of leadership: Leadership is a combination of innate traits and the environment, where traits are triggered by specific sporting situations.AQA
Interactive Sports: Sports that require team members to coordinate their actions and work together directly to achieve success.AQA
Intermittent versus continuous activity: Intermittent activities such as team games require interaction of all systems, whereas continuous high-intensity events rely on the aerobic system for…AQA
Internal perspective: Imagery in which the athlete sees the movement through their own eyes.AQA
Internal reference of correctness: A sense developed from immediate and always available intrinsic feedback that lets a performer self-correct.AQA
Internal Standardisation: The process by which teachers within a centre compare their marking to ensure consistency.Pearson Edexcel
Internal-muscular force: Generated by the performer's own muscles and drives propulsion.AQA
International cooperation and enforcement: Governments and sports bodies working together through organisations such as WADA to enforce rules consistently, with whistleblowing and intelligence-led…AQA
Interpretation of data to inform training: Interpreted data informs decisions about training intensity, volume, recovery or readiness.AQA
Interpretation of physiological data: Values slightly above 1.0 can reflect hyperventilation and buffering rather than pure fuel use.AQA
Interval structure of work and recovery: Alternating short bursts of maximal or near-maximal exercise with brief recovery periods.AQA
Interval training: Alternates work and recovery; aerobic intervals build capacity, while anaerobic intervals develop speed.AQA
Intrinsic and extrinsic feedback: Intrinsic feedback is sensed by the performer through proprioception, while extrinsic feedback is provided by an outside source such as a coach.AQA
Intrinsic and extrinsic feedback from output: Intrinsic feedback arises from the movement itself, while extrinsic feedback comes from an external source such as a coach.AQA
Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation: The first comes from within the performer, such as enjoyment, satisfaction or the desire to master a skill, while the second comes from external rewards or…AQA
Intrinsic feedback: Information the performer detects through proprioception and vision, gathered through their own senses during or after the movement.AQA
Intrinsic motivation: A drive arising from internal satisfaction, where the activity itself is rewarding.AQA
Intrinsic reward and the challenge-skill balance: Enjoyment from the activity itself, most likely when the challenge matches the performer's skill.AQA
Inverted U theory: Claims performance improves up to an optimal point then declines, giving an inverted U shape.AQA
Involuntary control by the autonomic nervous system: The autonomic nervous system controls involuntary body functions and is divided into sympathetic and parasympathetic branches.AQA
Isometric contraction: Contraction in which the muscle develops tension but its length stays the same and no joint movement occurs, as when holding a plank.AQA
Isotonic contraction: Contraction in which the muscle changes length and a joint moves.AQA

J

Job insecurity and accountability: A poor run of results can lead to dismissal being reported instantly, and the coach is held publicly accountable for results.AQA
Joint actions: Rotation is the joint action occurring in the transverse plane about the longitudinal axis, turning a limb or the trunk in a horizontal arc.AQA
Joint actions and ranges of movement: Flexion decreases the angle at a joint, extension increases it, dorsiflexion lifts the toes towards the shin and plantar flexion points them away.AQA

K

Knowledge of performance: Feedback that concerns the movement itself, describing how the movement was performed.AQA
Knowledge of results: Information about the outcome of a movement, rather than the quality of the technique used.AQA
Knowledge of results and knowledge of performance: Knowledge of results tells the performer the outcome, while knowledge of performance describes the quality of the movement itself.AQA
Knowledge of results versus knowledge of performance: Knowledge of results is relied on in the cognitive stage, while knowledge of performance becomes more important in the associative and autonomous stages.AQA
Krebs cycle and electron transport chain: Pyruvate enters these stages, producing large ATP yields from glucose, glycogen and fats.AQA

L

Laboratory accuracy versus practical limitations: The method is accurate in the laboratory but requires equipment and can alter normal breathing.AQA
Lactate accumulation and fatigue: Lactate accumulation lowers muscle pH, which interferes with enzyme activity and cross-bridge cycling, contributing to fatigue.AQA
Lactate and fatigue: When pyruvate is converted to lactate, hydrogen ions accumulate and contribute to fatigue, limiting the system to roughly ten seconds to about two minutes of…AQA
Lactate sampling: Measures blood lactate concentration to indicate how much the anaerobic glycolytic (lactate) energy system has contributed during exercise.AQA
Lactate threshold: The exercise intensity at which blood lactate begins to accumulate above resting levels.AQA
Lactate threshold and OBLA: Lactate threshold is the exercise intensity at which blood lactate begins to rise faster than it can be cleared, while OBLA describes the point where lactate…AQA
Lactic acid system and glucose breakdown: Breaks down glucose to pyruvate and then lactate, releasing energy for high-intensity efforts of roughly ten seconds to about two minutes.AQA
Laissez-faire leadership: Sets broad aims and allows the group to organise itself with minimal direction, which can develop independence and creativity in mature, self-motivated groups…AQA
Language as a mediating tool: Language and talk mediate learning, so questioning and peer discussion matter.AQA
Layered model of personality: Hollander's model treats personality as layered: a psychological core, typical responses and role-related behaviour, so behaviour shifts with the situation…AQA
Leadership and performance: The model helps explain behaviour and guides leadership, but it is a framework rather than a fixed law.AQA
Leadership style: The consistent pattern of behaviour a coach or captain uses to influence a group towards its goals.AQA
Learned helplessness: A state in which a performer, after repeated failure, comes to believe that success is beyond their control and stops trying.AQA
Learned optimism: Attributing failure to controllable and temporary causes such as insufficient effort or a poor tactic.AQA
Learning curves: Curves over time that may plateau, then improve with practice, and can show rapid improvement, plateau or gradual improvement depending on the performer and…AQA
Learning plateau: A period during skill learning when performance stops improving and may even dip, shown as a flat section on a performance graph.AQA
Learning through observation and imitation: The social learning approach explains personality as learned this way and through reinforcement, so behaviour changes with the situation and the people present.AQA
Learning through practice: Skill is developed through learning and practice rather than being inherited, unlike innate abilities and traits.AQA
Legal duty to protect spectators: The legal and operational duty to protect people attending a fixture from foreseeable harm.AQA
Lever systems in the body: A lever is a rigid bar that rotates about a fulcrum when force is applied, and its three parts are the fulcrum, the effort and the load.AQA
Lifelong participation: A route into taking part throughout life, along with school sport and community clubs, supported by wider skills such as cooperation, leadership and fair play.AQA
Lifestyle behaviours that reduce re-injury risk: Treating sleep and nutrition as planned parts of rehabilitation, because inadequate sleep or nutrition slows repair, increases fatigue and raises re-injury…AQA
Lifestyle effects on system efficiency: Regular activity lowers resting heart rate and can improve body composition, reducing the cardiac workload of everyday activity.AQA
Lift: The component of the aerodynamic force acting perpendicular to the relative flow of air.AQA
Limitations of analytics technology: Recognising limits such as cost, access and differences between testing and competition.AQA
Limitations of screening: Screening does not guarantee freedom from injury; it flags risk so that training can be adjusted.AQA
Limited processing capacity: The performer is held to be a single-channel processor, so a second decision must wait until the first has been dealt with.AQA
Limited store and oxygen-dependent recovery: Phosphocreatine stores last only a few seconds of maximal effort, and recovery in the minutes afterwards rebuilds phosphocreatine using oxygen.AQA
Limited written communication: Written notices, tickets and newspaper reports reached only a small literate minority, so fixtures were arranged face to face and results were shared locally.AQA
Line of gravity and balance: It acts vertically downwards through the centre of mass, and balance is maintained while it falls within the base of support.AQA
Line of gravity and the base of support: A body topples when the line of gravity passes outside the base of support.AQA
Linear versus curved arousal–performance relationships: Drive theory predicts a straight-line increase in performance with arousal, whereas inverted U theory predicts a smooth curve that rises to an optimum then…AQA
Link from perception to action: The mechanism links perception to action and does not itself produce movement; it prepares the decision that the effector mechanism will execute.AQA
Link to the translatory mechanism: The perceptual mechanism links directly to the translatory mechanism, which carries the selected information onward.AQA
Links between joint action and muscle contraction: This links directly to sporting technique and to muscle roles such as agonist and antagonist.AQA
Local variation in rules: Customs were remembered and adapted locally rather than standardised in print, so rules often varied from village to village.AQA
Local, occasional and vigorous recreation: Recreation had to be local, occasional, cheap and vigorous, fitting around the farming calendar and offering brief relief from hardship.AQA
Localism and regional variation: Limited transport meant people travelled only short distances, so participation was local to the village or parish and rules and customs varied from place to…AQA
Localism and variation in sport: Travel was limited, so contests took place between nearby villages, and rules varied from place to place.AQA
Locus of causality: A dimension that distinguishes internal causes, such as effort or ability, from external causes, such as luck, opponent quality or officiating.AQA
Long duration endurance performance: Aerobic ATP resynthesis is slower than anaerobic resynthesis but sustainable for prolonged periods, supporting events such as marathon running.AQA
Long-term athlete monitoring: The use of databases and performance-tracking software to monitor a performer's development over time.AQA
Long-term degenerative risk: Future effects can include heart disease, stroke, some cancers, organ failure and infertility, with some damage persisting after the athlete stops.AQA
Long-term memory (LTM): A potentially unlimited store holding information for long periods.AQA
Loss of rural recreation space: Reduced space for traditional rural pastimes as urbanisation changed the nature and availability of recreation.AQA
Lower tier: The large group of labourers and rural workers who worked long hours on the land for low wages.AQA
Lung volumes and capacities: IRV is one of the four primary lung volumes, alongside tidal volume, expiratory reserve volume and residual volume, and it contributes to inspiratory capacity…AQA

M

Macro cycle: The whole training plan, typically a full year or a season, containing the long-term aims such as the main competition and the phases leading to it.AQA
Major event hosting: UK Sport supports the hosting of major sporting events.AQA
Maladaptive attributions: Explanations for failure that often involve stable, internal and uncontrollable causes such as lack of ability.AQA
Manipulation of volume and intensity: Adjusting how much work is done and how hard that work is so the two are not raised together indefinitely.AQA
Manual and mechanical guidance: Physically moving the learner, such as a coach supporting a gymnast's hips through a handstand, or using equipment, such as a float supporting a swimmer's…AQA
Manual guidance: Guidance where a coach physically supports the performer.AQA
Mass: The quantity of matter in a body, measured in kilograms (kg), and it stays the same wherever the body is.AQA
Mass and acceleration response: Mass determines how much the projectile decelerates in response to drag, while shape, surface area and velocity determine the size of the drag force.AQA
Massed practice: A practice structure in which a performer rehearses one skill continuously, with rest intervals kept very short or omitted altogether, so that work dominates…AQA
Matching fibre type to sporting demand: The dominant fibre type used in an activity depends on the intensity and duration of the effort, not on the sport alone.AQA
Matching methods to the athlete's stage and context: Prevention, rehabilitation and recovery are distinct but linked phases, and the method chosen depends on the athlete's stage and the nature of the injury.AQA
Matching practice to skill demands: Choosing practice structure to suit the skill, such as distributed practice for continuous or complex skills to manage fatigue.AQA
Matching preparation to activity demands: The choice depends on the demands of the activity, with sustained flexibility suiting static work and fast, forceful movements at end range suiting ballistic…AQA
Matching recovery method to mechanism: The best recovery method depends on the mechanism targeted, such as circulation, soreness or inflammation.AQA
Matching style to task, individual and situation: A leader can move between styles according to the task, the individuals, the situation and their own qualities.AQA
Matching training to event demands: A method should be matched to the dominant energy system of the performer's event, explaining the adaptation and justifying the choice for that event.AQA
Material technology: The design and manufacture of equipment from engineered materials such as carbon fibre, titanium, polymer foams and composites, which are lighter, stronger or…AQA
Maximal exercise testing protocols: Typically performed on a treadmill or cycle ergometer with progressive intensity increases until exhaustion, while the performer breathes through a mouthpiece…AQA
Measurable: Progress can be recorded, for example a time, distance, repetition maximum or success count.AQA
Mechanical advantage: This occurs when the effort arm is longer than the load arm, so a smaller effort moves a larger load.AQA, Pearson Edexcel
Mechanical disadvantage: This occurs when the effort arm is shorter than the load arm, so a larger effort is needed to move the load.AQA
Mechanical guidance: The use of equipment or apparatus to shape a performer's movement as they learn a skill.AQA
Mechanisms of injury in physical activity: Damage occurs either from a single traumatic event or gradually through repeated overload.AQA
Media and sponsorship targeting: Factors such as large numbers, loyal engagement, disposable income and demographic profile make an audience attractive to media and sponsors.AQA
Media duties and public scrutiny: Greater media duties such as press conferences, interviews and punditry, alongside heightened public scrutiny and accountability for results.AQA
Media, public and national expectation: Social pressure from media, public and national expectation can push performers towards doping to meet medal or selection targets.AQA
Medulla oblongata: Processes inputs from the receptors and adjusts sympathetic and parasympathetic activity, altering heart rate, stroke volume and vasoconstriction or…AQA
Memory models: Models in which sensory memory has a very large capacity but brief duration, while short-term memory has limited capacity.AQA
Mental health benefits of sport: These involve improved stress management and a decreased risk of anxiety or depression.AQA
Mental practice: Cognitive rehearsal of a skill without physical movement, helping to build mental imagery, reduce anxiety and reinforce learning.AQA
Mental rehearsal: A cognitive stress-management technique in which a performer repeatedly imagines a skill or performance in vivid detail before executing it.AQA
Mental rehearsal of technique and tactics: Performers use imagery to rehearse technique or tactics, build confidence, control arousal and direct attention.AQA
Mental rehearsal, visualisation and imagery: Going over the performance in the mind without physical movement, or creating a vivid mental picture of successful performance, to improve focus and confidence.AQA
Meso cycle: A block within the plan, commonly several weeks to a few months, each with a focus such as building an aerobic base, developing strength or peaking.AQA
Metabolic cart: A testing and recording system that measures oxygen uptake and carbon dioxide production to estimate energy expenditure by indirect calorimetry.AQA
Methods of collection and analysis: Notational analysis, GPS tracking, video analysis software and simple tally charts, with the results processed and interpreted to identify strengths,…AQA
Methods of guidance: The information a coach or teacher gives to help a performer learn or refine a skill, the main methods being verbal, visual, manual and mechanical.AQA
Micro cycle: The shortest unit, usually about a week, setting out individual sessions, their order, their volume and intensity, and the recovery between them.AQA
Micronutrients and cofactors: Vitamins and minerals act as cofactors and electrolytes, supporting energy release and fluid balance.AQA
Minute ventilation: The volume breathed per minute, which multiplies tidal volume by breathing frequency and is not the same as a per-breath volume.AQA
Mob football: A rough, violent, mass game played by large numbers of working men, often between villages on holy days and festivals, with few rules and basic equipment on…AQA
Moderation: The process where the exam board reviews a sample of the school's video evidence to ensure the teacher's marking aligns with national standards.Pearson Edexcel
Moment of inertia: A body with mass concentrated close to the axis has a small moment of inertia, while mass spread away increases it.AQA
Momentum: The product of mass and velocity, p = m × v, measured in kilogram metres per second (kg m s⁻¹).AQA
Monitoring and prescribing training intensity: Lactate sampling can be used to monitor training intensity and to estimate the lactate threshold.AQA
Motivation: The drive to act, which drops when stable and uncontrollable attributions after failure lower expectation of future success.AQA
Motivational climate: The climate that can strengthen either outcome or task orientation and therefore change the impact on the performer.AQA
Motive to achieve success: One of two opposing motives in the model, it is the tendency to strive for success.AQA
Motive to avoid failure: The opposing motive that is the tendency to avoid failure.AQA
Motor nerve transmission: The sending of motor commands via efferent nerve pathways from the central nervous system to the muscular system, which then contracts to produce the response.AQA
Motor programme priming: A psychological mechanism by which mental rehearsal prepares the motor programme before execution.AQA
Motor programmes: Established patterns from a previously learned skill that are adapted to accelerate the acquisition of the new skill.AQA
Motor reproduction: The learner must possess the physical capability and coordination to copy the modelled action.AQA
Motor response: The physical motor response or movement produced by muscular contraction following a decision.AQA
Motor unit: One motor neurone together with all the muscle fibres it stimulates, with its fibres scattered through the muscle rather than clumped together.AQA
Motor unit recruitment: Motor units are recruited in order of increasing size, so type I units are generally used before type II units at low forces.AQA
Motor unit recruitment and frequency: The means by which whole-muscle force is graded, through recruiting additional motor units and increasing impulse frequency.AQA
Motor unit recruitment and the size principle: The activation of motor units, which increases progressively with intensity so that more and larger motor units are activated as intensity rises.AQA
Motor, verbal and written forms of output: A motor action, such as a badminton serve, or a verbal or written response.AQA
Movement analysis: Naming the joint, deciding whether the limb moves away from or towards the midline, then labelling the action and linking it to the frontal plane and sagittal…AQA
Movement analysis in physical activity: To analyse a movement, identify the plane, name the perpendicular axis, then name the action produced.AQA
Movement competence: One of the outcomes students develop, alongside tactical understanding, physical fitness and confidence to take part throughout life.AQA
Movement parameters: The speed, force, trajectory and direction of a movement, selected as response specifications to achieve the desired outcome.AQA
Movement time: The component of response time improved through physical training, such as developing muscular power, speed and technique.AQA
Multi-use facilities: One space shared between several activities, often through movable seating, retractable dividers or interchangeable surfaces, which raises usage and spreads…AQA
Municipal provision: Public parks, baths and later municipal facilities built by local authorities, giving working people access to space and activities.AQA
Muscle oxygen demand: Continued oxygen use in muscle maintains the steep gradient that helps maintain uptake, with myoglobin aiding oxygen storage and transport.AQA
Muscle soreness and tissue mobility: Massage and foam rollers apply mechanical pressure to muscle, aiming to reduce soreness and improve tissue mobility.AQA
Muscle spindle: Detects rapid stretch and triggers a stretch reflex, causing the stretched muscle to contract.AQA
Muscle spindles: Proprioceptors located within skeletal muscle that detect changes in muscle length and the rate of that change.AQA
Muscle tension detection: It detects the tension developed by the muscle, whether that tension arises from active contraction or from passive stretch.AQA
Muscle-group size: The defining criterion of the gross–fine continuum, where large muscle groups produce forceful, whole-body movements and small muscle groups produce precise,…AQA
Muscular adaptations: Changes including increased mitochondria, increased myoglobin and increased aerobic enzyme activity, improving oxygen extraction and use.AQA
Muscular endurance: The ability of a muscle or muscle group to sustain repeated contractions against a submaximal resistance.AQA
Myoglobin: An oxygen-binding pigment found in skeletal muscle that acts as the muscle's own oxygen store rather than a blood pigment.AQA

N

National fixtures and leagues: Regular competitions became possible because cheaper, faster travel let teams and spectators reach fixtures in other towns and cities.AQA
National governing bodies: Bodies that emerged as industrial Britain urbanised because sport needed consistent rules, and which codified, organised and controlled competition.AQA
National Institutes of Sport: The home-nation bodies that support elite performers with sports science, medicine, coaching, facilities and lifestyle services.AQA
Need to achieve: The desire to succeed and to experience pride in accomplishment.AQA
Need to Achieve (NAch): The personality component that drives a performer to seek success and approach challenges.AQA
Need to avoid failure: The desire to avoid the shame of failure.AQA
Need to Avoid Failure (NAF): The personality component that drives a performer to avoid failure and shy away from challenges.AQA
Negative legacy: A venue that becomes too expensive to maintain, or one that is costly to maintain or falls into disuse.AQA
Negative reinforcement: Removing an unpleasant consequence after the desired response, which increases the likelihood of repetition.AQA
Negative transfer: Prior learning hinders a new skill, for example a badminton wrist action disrupting a tennis shot.AQA
Negligence and injury liability: An injury can give rise to a claim if a duty of care was breached and damage resulted.AQA
Nested structure of training cycles: Several micro cycles make a meso cycle and several meso cycles make the macro cycle, so a change at one level affects the others.AQA
Net force: Found by vector addition of the forces, and it determines acceleration in line with Newton's second law.AQA
Net impulse: The algebraic sum of positive and negative areas, giving the overall change in momentum.AQA
Neural control of breathing: Originates in the respiratory centres of the medulla oblongata and pons, which send impulses via the phrenic nerve to the diaphragm and via intercostal nerves…AQA
Neural transmission: Sensory neurones carry impulses from receptors to the central nervous system for interpretation and decision-making.AQA
Neuromuscular adaptation: Strength training increases muscle cross-sectional area and neural recruitment, raising force production.AQA
Neuromuscular control: The link between nervous control and muscle action, in which the nervous system controls muscle contraction through motor units and the neuromuscular junction.AQA
Neuromuscular control and coordination: Autogenic inhibition is the inhibitory response in which excessive tension leads to reduced muscle force output as a protective response.AQA
Neuromuscular control of range of movement: PNF develops flexibility through neuromuscular inhibition rather than passive lengthening alone.AQA
Neuromuscular preparation and reaction time: A warm-up increases the speed of nerve impulse conduction, so reaction time shortens and the performer is prepared psychologically.AQA
Newton’s first law: A body remains at rest or moves with constant velocity unless acted upon by a resultant force.AQA
Newton's first law and inertia in sporting motion: A body stays at rest or keeps moving at constant velocity unless a resultant external force acts.AQA
Newton’s laws applied to rotation: Newton’s laws can be applied to rotating bodies, with force replaced by torque, mass by moment of inertia, and linear acceleration by angular acceleration.AQA
Newton’s second law: The resultant force acting on a body is proportional to the rate of change of momentum, often expressed as F = m × a.AQA
Newton's second law and the F = m × a relationship: Resultant force equals mass times acceleration, so a larger force or smaller mass gives greater acceleration.AQA
Newton’s third law: For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.AQA
Newton's third law and action/reaction force pairs: For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.AQA
No Compromise Strategy: The funding philosophy adopted by UK Sport where investment is targeted only at athletes and sports with a realistic prospect of winning medals.OCR
No lactate production: The system needs no oxygen and produces no lactate.AQA
Non-competitive or loosely competitive nature: Typically non-competitive, self-paced and flexible, with rules that may exist for safety or organisation but are not enforced for ranking.AQA
Normal contact force: The force between the moving body and the surface, which downward lift increases.AQA
Norms: A set of rules or shared expectations within a group that govern the behaviour of its members.AQA
Norms and cohesion: Norming involves agreement on norms, cooperation and growing cohesion.AQA
Norms and values in sport: Behaviour that departs from the expected norms of sport is deviance, and negative deviance breaks rules or values.AQA
Norms, values and social expectations: Shared expectations transmitted by society that influence which groups take part in which sports.AQA
Notational analysis: A game-analysis system that can count passes, tackles and turnovers.AQA
Number of choices and decision making: Increasing the number of stimulus-response alternatives increases response time, which is the basis of Hick's law.AQA
Number of decisions: How many choices a skill requires the performer to make, with few decisions indicating a simple skill.AQA
Number of subroutines: How many parts a skill requires the performer to coordinate, with many subroutines indicating a complex skill.AQA

O

Objective data: Measurable and factual information that is independent of personal opinion, such as a heart rate reading or a timed sprint.AQA
Objective performance data: Data from technology such as timing gates, GPS tracking and video analysis that can support talent identification.AQA
Objectivity: The extent to which results are free from tester bias, with laboratory tests using automated measurement tending to be more objective than subjective field…AQA
OBLA (Onset of Blood Lactate Accumulation): The point during exercise of increasing intensity at which blood lactate begins to accumulate above resting levels, as its rate of production exceeds its rate…AQA
Observation and imitation: Social learning explains skill acquisition through observing a model and copying what has been seen.AQA
Observational learning: Bandura's theory explaining how a performer acquires a skill by watching a model and then reproducing what was seen.AQA
Occasional play: Mob football was linked to holy days and festivals and often contested between villages, rather than being played regularly.AQA
Oedema: The accumulation of excess fluid in the body's tissues, commonly known as swelling.AQA
Officiating and rule enforcement: Officials manage contests by applying the rules firmly, using cards or sin-bins, and stopping play before tempers escalate.AQA
Olympic legacy: What remains after a Games: venues, transport, participation programmes and elite training environments that continue to serve sport.AQA
Olympic oath: A public commitment by athletes, officials and coaches to compete fairly, respect rules and reject doping.AQA
One-repetition maximum: The maximum load against which strength work is judged, with a high load relative to it and a low number of repetitions completed.AQA
Open skill: A skill performed in an unpredictable, changing environment where the performer must adapt to external factors such as opponents, teammates, weather or surface.AQA
Open skills: Skills where the environment or opponent changes the required response, needing variability so the performer builds adaptable movement solutions.AQA
Open–closed continuum: Classifies skills by how much the environment influences their execution, with skills sitting anywhere along it rather than only at the extremes.AQA
Operant conditioning: Learning explained as a change in behaviour produced by the consequences that follow a response, associated with Skinner.AQA
Operant conditioning and trial and error: Learning in which voluntary responses are strengthened or weakened by their outcomes, occurring through trial and error.AQA
Opposing divisions maintaining internal balance: The two divisions generally have opposing effects on the same organs, allowing the body to switch between activity and recovery.AQA
Optimal arousal as a zone rather than a point: Zone of optimal functioning theory holds that each performer has a range or band of optimal arousal rather than a single ideal point.AQA
Optimal level: An individual's best level of arousal for the task, towards which excessive arousal is lowered.AQA
Optimum arousal and performance: Both approaches aim to move the performer towards the optimum arousal zone, with attention directed at relevant cues.AQA
Oral tradition and custom: Limited communication meant few written rules or mass media, so customs and playing conventions were passed on orally and spread slowly by word of mouth.AQA
Oral tradition and memory: Rules and customs were passed on by word of mouth and learned by watching and joining in rather than by reading a rulebook.AQA
Organisation of skill: How strongly the parts of a skill interact; low-organisation skills have parts that interact only weakly and can be separated without destroying the movement…AQA
Outcome (ego) orientation: A goal perspective where success is judged by beating others or showing superior ability.AQA
Outcome goal: Targets a result, for example winning a tennis match or finishing in the top three, and depends on opponents, officials and conditions.AQA
Outcome goals: Goals defined by a result or placing, such as winning a final or finishing in the top three, and can raise motivation and effort.AQA
Outcome information: Information that confirms whether the goal was achieved and can motivate the performer.AQA
Outcome orientated goals: Goals where a performer judges success by comparison with others, so effort, persistence and enjoyment depend on how they rank.AQA
Output: The observable response produced after information has been sensed, attended to, encoded, stored and retrieved.AQA
Over-conformity and under-conformity: Over-conformity to the norms of sport is positive deviance, while under-conformity that breaks rules or values is negative deviance.AQA
Over-dependence: A risk where the performer becomes dependent on the aid, which can hinder the development of intrinsic feedback.AQA
Overcoming plateau: Changing the practice type, setting new targets, giving fresh feedback, ensuring rest, or breaking the skill into parts.AQA
Overlearning: Learning the skill until it is autonomous, so it needs less conscious attention and an audience is less likely to disrupt it.AQA
Oxygen as final electron acceptor: Oxygen acts as the final electron acceptor to form water, while hydrogen ions are pumped across the membrane and flow through ATP synthase.AQA
Oxygen carriage in blood: Most oxygen binds reversibly to haemoglobin inside red blood cells, forming oxyhaemoglobin, while a small fraction dissolves directly in plasma.AQA
Oxygen deficit: The difference between the oxygen actually consumed and the oxygen that would have been consumed if aerobic metabolism had been fully engaged from the start.AQA
Oxygen deficit at the onset of exercise: The initial oxygen deficit is reduced because oxygen delivery to working muscles is increased from the very start of activity.AQA
Oxygen toxicity: A possible risk of hyperbaric therapy, so exposure must be controlled and used within safe limits.AQA
Oxygen transport and endurance performance: More red blood cells raise haemoglobin concentration, so the blood carries more oxygen to working muscles, which can delay fatigue and improve endurance…AQA
Oxygen transport by haemoglobin: At high pO₂ in the lungs, haemoglobin loads oxygen to form oxyhaemoglobin; at lower pO₂ in respiring tissues, it unloads oxygen.AQA
Oxygen uptake, transport and use: The maximum rate of oxygen uptake, transport and use during maximal exercise is what a VO₂ max test measures.AQA
Oxygen-carrying capacity of the blood: More red blood cells raise the oxygen-carrying capacity of the blood, improving aerobic performance when the athlete returns to sea level.AQA
Oxyhaemoglobin: The combined form produced when oxygen binds to haemoglobin at the lungs.AQA
Oxyhaemoglobin dissociation curve and Bohr effect: The curve is S-shaped, and a rightward shift releases more oxygen when carbon dioxide, acidity or temperature rise.AQA
Oxyhaemoglobin formation and dissociation: Each haemoglobin molecule can bind up to four oxygen molecules, forming oxyhaemoglobin, which dissociates at respiring tissues to release oxygen.AQA

P

Pacemaker activity: The sinoatrial node in the right atrium generates an electrical impulse that spreads across both atria, causing atrial systole.AQA
Pacing and continuity: Externally paced to self-paced relates to timing control, while discrete, serial and continuous relates to the skill's beginning and end.AQA
Pacing and timing: Features of fast, discrete or serial skills where timing and sequencing are critical to the action.AQA
Parameter selection for GMPs: Before the movement takes place, it selects the necessary parameters, such as force or trajectory, and applies these variable parameters to the generalised…AQA
Parasympathetic nervous system and rest: During rest or recovery this system dominates and influences the RCC to decrease somatic impulses, returning ventilation to resting levels.AQA
Parasympathetic support for rest, digestion and recovery: This division dominates during rest and recovery, slowing heart rate and breathing rate and supporting digestion.AQA
Part practice: Breaking the skill into subroutines and practising them separately, useful for serial or low-organisation skills.AQA
Part versus whole practice: Low-organisation skills tolerate part practice, while the whole is retained as the frame that gives the part its meaning.AQA
Partial pressure: The pressure exerted by one gas in a mixture, measured in kPa, with each gas exerting its own.AQA
Partial pressure gradient: A difference in partial pressure between two regions, down which gas molecules move, with a larger gradient increasing gas exchange.AQA
Partial pressure gradients: Binding depends on the partial pressure of oxygen: high at the alveoli, so oxygen loads onto haemoglobin, and lower at active muscle, so oxygen dissociates…AQA
Partial pressure of oxygen: At the lungs this is high, so oxygen loads onto haemoglobin, while at respiring tissues it is lower, so oxyhaemoglobin dissociates and oxygen is released.AQA
Participation patterns and barriers: Social arrangements such as cost, access, role models or labelling that can widen or narrow participation for a named group.AQA
Participation, progression and pathways: Movement along the sporting development continuum, such as from recreational participation to competitive sport, with participants able to move between…AQA
Pattern recognition from memory: The mechanism recognises patterns stored in memory, which speeds up decision making.AQA
Peaking: The process of timing the taper so the performer reaches their best possible performance at the most important competition.AQA
Peaking and tapering for competition: Progressing towards low volume and high intensity before a taper and a rest or active-recovery phase so a performer peaks for chosen competitions.AQA
Perceived effort and wellbeing: Personal feelings such as a rating of perceived exertion, a self-reported sleep-quality score or perceived fatigue, which can capture context that instruments…AQA
Perceived judgement: The performer's perception that others are assessing ability, appearance or outcome, rather than simply the presence of people.AQA
Perception: The stage of the general information processing model in which the brain interprets the sensory information it has received, giving it meaning before a…AQA
Perception and the DCR process: In Whiting's information processing model, perception involves Detection, Comparison and Recognition.AQA
Performance accomplishments: Previous success or failure at the task, the most influential source of self-efficacy, where past success raises efficacy and repeated failure lowers it.AQA
Performance enhancement and health risk: A drug may improve one performance component while harming health or another component, so the overall effect is not uniformly positive.AQA
Performance graphs: A graph on which a learning plateau appears as a flat section.AQA
Performance lifestyle and athlete education support: Support that helps performers manage training, education, work and personal demands.AQA
Performance related goal: Targets the performer's own standard, for example reducing a 200 m time or raising a personal best, so it is measurable against previous data.AQA
Performance related goals: Goals defined against the performer's own previous standard, such as a time, distance or score, so success does not depend on opponents.AQA
Performer: The athlete or player whose behaviour is being examined in the context of violence in sport.AQA
Performer behaviour and reputation: Both forms relate to the performer because they affect the individual's choices, reputation and the spirit of the game.AQA
Peripheral nervous system: Links the CNS to muscles, joints and receptors, carrying sensory input towards the CNS and motor output away from it.AQA
Persistence: Continuing an action over time, which falls when reduced expectation lowers motivation so the performer gives up.AQA
Person and environment interaction: Lewin's approach explains behaviour as an interaction between the person and the environment, often summarised as B = f(P, E).AQA
Persuasive communication: An external attempt to change attitudes through a credible source, a clear and relevant message, an appropriate medium and a motivated receiver.AQA
Phonological loop: Holds verbal-acoustic information briefly, with its phonological store decaying in about two seconds unless rehearsal refreshes it.AQA
Phosphocreatine as fuel: The ATP-PC system resynthesises ATP using phosphocreatine stored in muscle, not glucose.AQA
Phosphocreatine breakdown: The ATP-PC system uses creatine kinase to break down phosphocreatine, and the energy released rebuilds ATP from ADP and inorganic phosphate.AQA
Phosphocreatine recovery: Longer rest between sets allows the phosphocreatine system to recover so subsequent sets can be performed at high intensity.AQA
Phosphocreatine resynthesis during recovery: Recovery intervals allow partial resynthesis of phosphocreatine and removal of metabolic by-products.AQA
Phosphocreatine system: Rapidly regenerates ATP from creatine phosphate and ADP, lasting around 10 seconds.AQA
Phosphofructokinase (PFK): The rate-limiting enzyme of the Glycolytic system, which is inhibited by increased acidity (lower pH).AQA
Physical conditions: Part of the environment including the pitch surface, weather and lighting.AQA
Physical health benefits of sport: These include a decreased risk of heart disease and stroke, decreased risk of high blood pressure, decreased risk of type 2 diabetes, maintaining a healthy…AQA
Physical preparation and injury risk reduction: Progressive pulse-raising work, dynamic mobility and sport-specific drills increase muscle temperature and blood flow, reducing injury risk and improving…AQA
Physical routine: A learned physical action the performer uses, often before or during performance, to bring arousal back towards an optimal level.AQA
Physiological adaptations: The body's structural and functional changes in response to training or drug use.AQA
Physiological mechanisms of drugs: Changes to heart rate, blood pressure, muscle protein synthesis, oxygen transport, arousal and pain perception caused by drugs.AQA
Physiological repair and adaptation: Sleep allows growth hormone release, tissue repair and nervous-system restoration, aiding recovery from training or injury.AQA
Placement along a continuum: Positioning a skill high, low or between the poles, justified with evidence from the skill's sub-routines.AQA
Plane: An imaginary flat surface through which a body part moves.AQA
Planes and axes of movement: A plane is a flat surface through which a body or limb moves, while an axis is the line about which that rotation occurs.AQA
Planes of movement: The transverse plane divides the body into upper and lower portions and lies at right angles to the longitudinal axis.AQA
Planning around a target competition: Achieved through effective tapering and careful planning of the training year so the performer is at their best for a target competition.AQA
Planning training over time: The planned division of a training year into phases so that a performer peaks for chosen competitions and still recovers.AQA
Plantar flexion: Points the toes downwards and away from the shin, increasing the angle between the foot and the front of the lower leg.AQA
Plasma volume and sweating: Plasma volume falls through sweating and fluid shifts, which reduces venous return.AQA
Plyometric training: Training that utilises the stretch reflex to produce a more powerful concentric contraction following a rapid eccentric stretch.AQA
Plyometrics: Uses jumping to develop explosive power.AQA
PNF: Proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation, in which a partner or therapist uses these signals to increase range of motion.AQA
Positive and negative impulse: A positive area, where force is in the direction of motion, increases forward momentum, while a negative area, where force opposes motion, decreases it.AQA
Positive and negative reinforcement: Positive reinforcement adds a pleasant consequence, while negative reinforcement removes an unpleasant stimulus, both increasing the likelihood of the…AQA
Positive and negative transfer: Positive transfer helps, where performance improves, while negative transfer hinders, where an existing skill pattern interferes with learning a new skill.AQA
Positive reinforcement: Adding a pleasant consequence, such as praise or a reward, after the desired response so repetition is increased.AQA
Positive transfer: Prior learning helps a new skill, for example a tennis serve aiding a badminton overhead clear.AQA
Post-1950 development of sport: Since 1950 all three sports have experienced increased media coverage, sponsorship, commercialisation and technological change, but the form of that change…AQA
Potential productivity: The best result possible from members' combined resources and the demands of the task.AQA
Poverty, poor housing and limited diet: Housing was basic, often shared and poorly heated, and diet depended on what could be grown or afforded locally, so hunger and illness were common.AQA
Practical barriers: Obstacles such as cost, time, transport and limited accessible facilities that restrict participation.AQA
Practicality: Considers cost, time, equipment, number of participants that can be tested, and the expertise required, with field tests usually more practical for large…AQA
Practice and feedback: The means through which faster and more accurate decision making develops, building a richer store of relevant memories to draw upon.AQA
Practice and refinement of performance: Effective use means selecting the relevant information, linking it to the technical model, and repeating the refined movement until it becomes consistent.AQA
Practice design and learner stage: Changing the practice type or presentation and using variable or distributed practice are solutions, and a solution should suit the learner's stage of learning.AQA
Practice presentation methods: How the skill is introduced: whole, part, whole-part-whole, or progressive-part, the last chaining sub-routines.AQA
Practice structure: Mental practice is used alongside physical practice, not instead of it, and is most effective when the skill is already well learned and combined with…AQA
Practice types: The practice format: massed with no rest, distributed with rest intervals, variable with changing conditions, and mental as cognitive rehearsal.AQA
Pre-participation assessment: An assessment that identifies risk factors for injury before training or competition.AQA
Precision of movement: Fine-control muscles such as the eye muscles have few fibres per unit, while powerful muscles such as the quadriceps have many.AQA
Prejudice: A preconceived attitude or feeling, usually negative, towards a person or group based on characteristics such as gender, ethnicity, disability, age or social…AQA
Prejudice as attitude versus discrimination as behaviour: Prejudice is the underlying attitude or belief, whereas discrimination is the behaviour or decision that follows.AQA
Preparation: The phase before the main competitive period, when training volume is typically high and intensity is built progressively to develop fitness, technique and…AQA
Prescribed leader: A leader appointed formally from outside the group, with authority derived from the appointment.AQA
Pressure and airflow: Where air flows faster its pressure falls, and where it flows more slowly its pressure rises.AQA
Pressure differences: Air travels faster over the upper surface than the lower surface, and faster air has lower pressure, so pressure above the discus is lower than below it.AQA
Prevention of injury before it occurs: Reduces the chance of harm before it occurs, using screening to flag risk factors, warm-ups to prepare tissue, and protective equipment or taping to limit…AQA
Primary socialisation: Early learning that happens mainly through family and close carers and builds basic attitudes, including early views about play, activity and gender.AQA
Probability of success: A situational factor, the perceived probability of success, with which the two motives interact.AQA
Problem-solving and guided discovery in coaching: Tasks through which a coach can promote insight learning, letting the performer restructure their understanding without step-by-step instruction.AQA
Problem-solving and intervening variables: Performers use intervening variables—like perception and mental reasoning—to solve tactical problems.AQA
Process goal: Targets technique, tactics or behaviour, for example keeping a low centre of gravity when defending or following a pre-serve routine, and is fully within the…AQA
Process goals: Goals defined by technique, tactics or behaviour, such as a specific body position or decision, and are the most directly controllable type.AQA
Productivity losses: Faulty group processes that reduce actual productivity, such as motivational losses including social loafing, and losses from mistimed or overlapping actions.AQA
Professionalism and social class: Professionals were often working-class and earned money from sport, so they were sometimes viewed as inferior.AQA
Progression: Achieved by increasing the number of circuits, repetitions, work duration or resistance, or by reducing rest.AQA
Progression and assessment: A teacher sets intended outcomes, sequences activities and assesses progress, which distinguishes it from casual play.AQA
Progression pathways: Routes such as academies that allow a performer to move from identification through to elite performance.AQA
Progressive muscle relaxation: Involves systematically tensing then releasing muscle groups to teach the performer to recognise and release unnecessary tension.AQA
Progressive overload: Training demand must be increased gradually so the body continues to adapt without excessive stress.AQA
Progressive part practice: Breaking a skill into parts that are practised separately and then linked together in sequence until the whole skill is performed.AQA
Projectile flight in sport: The resulting pressure difference produces an upward lift force that opposes gravity and can extend the flight time.AQA
Prolonged steady-state exercise: Exercise that continues at an unchanged intensity, during which cardiovascular drift develops as a gradual change in cardiovascular variables.AQA
Proprioception: The sense of joint position and movement, which together with vision, touch, hearing and balance provides intrinsic feedback.AQA
Proprioception and balance: Proprioceptors in muscles, tendons and joints provide internal information about body position and movement, which supports balance and coordination.AQA
Proprioception and sensory feedback: The Golgi tendon organ is a proprioceptor lying within the tendon close to where it joins the muscle, and it signals information to the central nervous system.AQA
Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation (PNF) stretching: Stretching that relies on Golgi tendon organs to override the stretch reflex via autogenic inhibition, allowing the muscle to relax and stretch further.AQA
Proprioceptive training: Retrains joint position sense using unstable surfaces or single-leg balances, rebuilding neuromuscular control.AQA
Proprioceptor: Found in muscles, tendons and joints, detecting movement and limb position so that ventilation increases at the onset of exercise.AQA
Proprioceptors: Receptors in muscles, tendons and joints that detect movement and limb position, so ventilation rises at the onset of exercise before blood chemistry has…AQA
Proprioceptors and reflexes: Muscle spindles detect stretch and trigger the stretch reflex, while Golgi tendon organs monitor tension and inhibit excessive force.AQA
Protection of performers and officials: Legislation provides legal remedies for performers injured by negligence or violent acts outside the rules, and protects officials from negligence claims if…AQA
Protective reflex mechanisms: When tension becomes excessive, the resulting afferent feedback triggers an inhibitory response that reduces the force produced by the muscle, limiting the…AQA
Psychological and dependence effects: Lasting psychological problems such as depression, together with mood swings, aggression and dependence, form part of the negative health impact.AQA
Psychological drivers and personality factors: Psychological reasons include believing rivals dope, seeking confidence or anxiety control, and wanting a competitive edge, while personality traits such as…AQA
Psychological impact of cheating: Guilt, anxiety, depression, loss of self-esteem, identity crisis and fear of detection.AQA
Psychological readiness and perceived control: The routine gives the performer a familiar, controllable structure, time to focus on the task and an opportunity to rehearse skills, which lowers perceived…AQA
Psychological refractory period: The observable delay that occurs when a second stimulus must wait until the first has been processed, as explained by the single channel hypothesis.AQA
Psychological rewards: For the performer, these include increased confidence, reduced anxiety before competition and a stronger belief in winning, which can sharpen focus and…AQA
Psychological skills training: A programme through which these techniques are often developed to lower cognitive anxiety and help the performer concentrate.AQA
Punishment: Adding an unpleasant consequence, which decreases the likelihood of a response.AQA
Punishment and shaping behaviour: Punishment presents an unpleasant consequence to decrease a behaviour, while coaches shape behaviour using reinforcement.AQA
Purpose of sports analytics technologies: Knowing the purpose of each tool, the type of data it produces and how that data informs feedback, training or tactics.AQA
Purposes of feedback: Information a performer receives about a movement, with the purpose of reducing the gap between the current attempt and the required technique.AQA

Q

Qualitative data: Descriptive and non-numerical information, such as a coach's observation of a performer's technique, or an athlete's written feedback on their motivation…AQA
Quantitative data: Numerical information that can be measured or counted, such as a VO₂ max of 55 ml·kg⁻¹·min⁻¹, a 30 m sprint time of 4.2 s, or a Rating of Perceived Exertion…AQA
Quickness: The ability to react and move explosively over very short distances.AQA

R

Radian measure: The angle through which a body turns is measured in radians (rad), where one full revolution is 2π rad.AQA
Railway expansion: Improvements in the railway network allowed teams and spectators to travel further, so fixtures could be arranged between distant towns.AQA
Rate and yield of ATP production: Aerobic ATP generation has a higher yield per glucose molecule but a slower rate than anaerobic generation.AQA
Rate of change of angular displacement: Angular velocity, ω = Δθ/Δt, with unit rad s⁻¹.AQA
Rate of change of angular velocity: Angular acceleration, α = Δω/Δt, with unit rad s⁻².AQA
Rational recreation: Codified, orderly, respectable sport promoted by the middle class, which expanded through industry, commerce and the professions.AQA
Rational recreation and social control: Factory provision is linked to rational recreation and social control, with owners using sport to reduce drinking and absenteeism.AQA
Reaction time: The component of response time that ends when movement begins and can be shortened by improving selective attention, using mental rehearsal and developing…AQA
Reaction time and movement time: Reaction time is the delay between stimulus and the start of the response, while movement time is how long the action itself takes.AQA
Real tennis: A game played by royalty and the wealthy upper class on enclosed courts, with written rules, specialist equipment and skilled technique.AQA
Realistic: It fits the performer's role, stage of development and wider commitments.AQA
Recall schema: Formed by combining initial conditions with response specifications, and responsible for initiating the motor programme.AQA
Recall schema and movement initiation: Responsible for initiating a motor response, it is formed by combining information about the initial conditions and the response specifications.AQA
Receptors: Sensory structures that detect a stimulus and convert it into electrical impulses travelling along sensory neurones towards the central nervous system.AQA
Recognition: The final stage of the perceptual process, occurring when a stimulus is successfully identified and understood after being detected and compared to past…AQA
Recognition schema: The schema that uses sensory consequences and response outcomes to evaluate and correct the movement.AQA
Recording and reviewing performance: Video and analysis programmes record performance so it can be replayed, paused and reviewed after the event, measured and improved.AQA
Recovery: Planned rest between sessions allows adaptation and reduces the risk of overtraining.AQA
Recovery and EPOC: During recovery, oxygen consumption stays elevated above resting level to restore ATP and PC stores, clear lactate and replace oxygen.AQA
Recovery and homeostatic restoration: During recovery, heart rate and ventilation decrease gradually as oxygen debt is repaid and waste products are removed.AQA
Recovery and removal of metabolic by-products: A cool down helps clear metabolic by-products such as lactate and carbon dioxide from the muscles and blood and gradually returns the body to resting values.AQA
Recovery and repair: Proteins supply amino acids for repair and adaptation, with a small contribution to energy in prolonged exercise.AQA
Recovery and restoration of homeostasis: During recovery, heart rate, ventilation and blood lactate fall at different rates, with excess post-exercise oxygen consumption restoring oxygen stores and…AQA
Recovery and system interaction: Recovery periods allow partial resynthesis of ATP-PC and clearance of metabolic by-products, with the aerobic system aiding recovery between efforts.AQA
Recovery strategies for restoring readiness: Covers strategies that help the athlete return to normal function and training, such as sleep, nutrition, hydration, active recovery and cryotherapy.AQA
Recovery, overtraining and reversibility: Adequate recovery between hard sessions is required, and reversibility occurs if training stops.AQA
Recruitment: The process by which the nervous system increases the number of motor units activated to produce more force.AQA
Reduced risk of hypokinetic disease: Regular physical activity reduces the risk of hypokinetic diseases, such as coronary heart disease and stroke.AQA
Regulation of ventilation during exercise: The respiratory control centre sends somatic motor impulses via the phrenic and intercostal nerves to increase the rate and depth of breathing.AQA
Rehearsal and encoding: Processes that transfer information from STM into LTM, with rehearsal also maintaining information in STM.AQA
Reinforcement and situational influence: Social learning theory predicts situation-specific behaviour, because what is learned and rewarded in one setting may not transfer to another.AQA
Reinforcement of correct movement patterns: Positive feedback confirms that a response was successful or on the right track, so it strengthens the correct movement pattern and supports motivation.AQA
Reintegration and transfer of learning: The final phase reintegrates the improved part back into the whole skill so the movement pattern is restored, transferring the improved part back into the…AQA
Relationship between centre of mass and stability: Stability depends on its position relative to the base of support, being greater when the centre of mass is lower and when the line of gravity falls within a…AQA
Relative dominance along a continuum: The continuum is a model of relative contribution, not an absolute boundary, so a performer never uses only one system.AQA
Release angle and release height: Because the shot put release height is greater than landing height, its optimum release angle is below 45°, while a shuttle is struck at a steeper angle.AQA
Reliability: The extent to which a test or measure produces consistent results when repeated under the same conditions, with the same protocol, timing method and surface…AQA
Reliability and limitations of data: Inaccurate recording, data overload or statistics that omit tactical context, so consistent definitions and accurate recording are needed for valid comparison.AQA
Reputation and public image of the sport: Violence severely damages the reputation and image of the sport, creating a negative perception.AQA
Reputation and sponsorship: Long-term implications include reputational damage, loss of sponsorship and selection risk.AQA
RER: A ratio comparing the volume of carbon dioxide a performer exhales with the volume of oxygen they consume over the same period, calculated as VCO₂ ÷ VO₂.AQA
Residual volume: The volume of air that remains in the lungs after a maximal expiration and cannot be exhaled.AQA
Resolution of the trait-situation debate: Acknowledges that neither traits alone nor situations alone fully predict behaviour.AQA
Respectability and moral status in sport: Amateurs were generally given higher social status and seen as more respectable than professionals.AQA
Respectability and the spread of sport: They linked sport to respectability and helped spread games through railways and the press, standardising rules that travelling teams and the press could rely…AQA
Respiratory adaptations: Changes including strengthened respiratory muscles and increased lung volumes and capacities, supporting greater oxygen uptake.AQA
Respiratory adaptations and limitations: Typical resting values are around 1.0–1.2 dm³ in healthy young adults, and it is reduced in obstructive and restrictive conditions that limit full exhalation.AQA
Respiratory and circulatory interaction: At the alveoli oxygen diffuses from alveolar air into pulmonary capillary blood while carbon dioxide diffuses from blood into alveolar air, and at the muscles…AQA
Respiratory and gas exchange efficiency: Lifestyle factors such as smoking or inactivity impair gas exchange and vascular function, reducing the efficiency of the respiratory and cardiovascular…AQA
Respiratory centres: Centres in the brainstem that receive information from sensory receptors and increase the rate and depth of pulmonary ventilation.AQA
Respiratory exchange ratio: Calculated as carbon dioxide production divided by oxygen uptake, it indicates the substrate mix: near 0.7 suggests mainly fat oxidation, near 1.0 mainly…AQA
Respiratory pump: Pressure changes during breathing draw blood towards the thorax.AQA
Response selection: Choosing the most appropriate response or motor programme, based on interpreting attended information and comparing it with stored memories.AQA
Response specifications: Combined with initial conditions to form the recall schema.AQA
Response time: The total interval from the arrival of a stimulus to the completion of the movement it triggers, combining reaction time with movement time.AQA
Responses to exercise intensity and recovery: During exercise, increased recruitment and firing rate raise force production as intensity rises; during recovery, recruitment and firing rate decrease and…AQA
Rest intervals: The pauses in a practice structure, which in massed practice are kept very short or omitted altogether.AQA
Resting heart rate and stroke volume: At rest a trained performer usually has a lower heart rate and a larger stroke volume, because the left ventricle fills more and contracts more forcefully.AQA
Retention: The observed skill must be stored in memory, often helped by rehearsal or mental practice.AQA
Retrieval: The process that brings stored information from LTM back into STM for use.AQA
Reversibility: Fitness adaptations decline when training stops or falls below the level needed to maintain them.AQA
Reversible oxygen binding: The iron-containing protein inside red blood cells binds oxygen in a way that allows oxygen to be released at the tissues.AQA
Rewards for the sport: These include higher performance standards, record-breaking displays, greater spectator interest and commercial income.AQA
Ringelmann effect: The tendency for an individual's average effort to fall as the size of a group pulling or working together increases.AQA
Risk reduction in physical activity and sport: Using technology to reduce the chance of injury before and during physical activity by linking data to a specific injury risk and preventive action.AQA
Role models and social impact: Learned aggression from role models is a cause, and disorder can spread beyond the venue with negative role-model effects on young spectators.AQA
Role of long-term memory: Recognition relies on the prior comparison of the stimulus with past experiences stored in long-term memory.AQA
Role of myoglobin during exercise: It releases its stored oxygen to the mitochondria for aerobic respiration when muscle oxygen demand rises and blood flow may briefly lag behind.AQA
Role of oxygen: Oxygen acts as the final electron acceptor at the electron transport chain, forming water.AQA
Role of proprioceptors in inhibiting the stretch reflex: The proprioceptors detect the tension and the muscle relaxes, allowing the limb to be moved further into the new range.AQA
Role of residual volume in preventing alveolar collapse: Because it cannot be exhaled, it ensures that the alveoli and airways remain partly inflated to prevent the lungs from collapsing.AQA
Role socialisation: A sociological theory, alongside labelling and stereotyping, used to explain unequal access, participation or progression in sport.AQA
Rotation about an axis: Angular motion describes this, so every quantity is defined relative to that axis.AQA
Rule adherence: Remaining within the established rules of the sport, as assertive behaviour does, whereas aggression occurs outside them.AQA
Rule changes and governance in sport: Governing bodies changed rules, such as the IAAF permitting trust funds and later full professionalism, ending strict amateur rules.AQA
Rural agricultural society before 1780: Pre-industrial Britain before 1780 was predominantly rural and agricultural, with the majority of the population living a harsh lifestyle.AQA
Rural and agricultural society: Pre-industrial Britain before 1780 was predominantly rural and agricultural, with most people living in rural villages and games tied to the farming calendar.AQA
Rural society and agricultural work: Before 1780, Britain was overwhelmingly rural, with most people living in villages and working on the land as labourers, farmers or servants of landowners.AQA
Rural-to-urban migration: The movement of population from rural areas into towns and cities, producing rapid urban growth.AQA

S

Safe practice and the need for a trained partner: PNF needs a trained partner or coach to control the resistance safely.AQA
Sagittal axis: Runs front to back through the body and lies perpendicular to the frontal plane.AQA
Sanctions and banning orders: Legal responses such as public order offences, banning orders and club or venue sanctions.AQA
Satiety: A feeling promoted by fibre, which adds bulk to the diet.AQA
Saturated fat, trans fat and cholesterol: Forms associated with raised cardiovascular risk when eaten in excess.AQA
Scaffolding and guided practice: Temporary support, such as demonstration, cueing or feedback, which is gradually withdrawn as competence grows.AQA
Scalar: A quantity with magnitude (size) only and no direction, unlike a vector which has both magnitude and direction.AQA
Scalars: Quantities where magnitude alone defines them without a specific direction.AQA
Schema: A set of rules or relationships developed from past experiences of performing a skill, used to adjust variable parameters like force or speed.AQA
Schema theory: A theory in which sensory consequences form a crucial element of Schmidt's recognition schema.AQA
Schmidt's schema theory: A theory in which response specifications form a crucial part of the recall schema, determining the specific parameters of a movement.AQA
Schools as enablers and barriers: Schools can widen participation through compulsory core PE, extra-curricular clubs and school games competitions, yet can reproduce inequality when kit costs,…AQA
Scouting: The systematic search for talented performers, typically carried out by clubs, academies or governing bodies.AQA
Seasonal and occasional leisure: Because work was long and physically hard, recreation was occasional and clustered around festivals, holy days and seasonal breaks such as harvest.AQA
Seasonal and physically demanding work: Work was mainly agricultural, seasonal and physically demanding, with long hours in all weathers and low pay.AQA
Secondary socialisation: Later learning through schools, peers, clubs, media, religion and workplace that can reinforce or change early lessons.AQA
Selective attention: The process by which a performer filters the vast amount of sensory information available and attends only to the cues most relevant to the task.AQA
Selective attention training: Practising with distractions to focus on relevant cues, helping learners ignore irrelevant cues at the input stage.AQA
Self-confidence: A general, relatively stable belief in one's own ability and worth across situations.AQA
Self-confidence in sport: A dynamic interaction between the performer and their environment, shaped by the objective sport situation and the performer's personality.AQA
Self-efficacy: A task-specific belief in one's capability to organise and execute the actions needed for a particular performance.AQA
Self-esteem: An evaluative, affective judgement of self-worth — how positively a person values themselves.AQA
Self-fulfilling stereotype: A stereotype that becomes self-fulfilling when it influences selection, coaching or media coverage.AQA
Self-paced skill: A skill that is started and timed by the performer, who decides when to begin.AQA
Self-serving bias: The tendency to attribute success to internal causes and failure to external causes, protecting self-esteem.AQA
Sensory and perspective dimensions of imagery: Imagery can be visual, kinaesthetic, auditory or emotional, and may be internal (first-person) or external (third-person).AQA
Sensory consequences: The intrinsic feedback a performer receives during and after a movement, primarily involving kinaesthetic information.AQA
Sensory detection: Structures detect information from the display and send it to the brain for processing.AQA
Sensory detection and interpretation: The perceptual mechanism detects and interprets relevant sensory information from the environment, with receptors in the eyes, ears, muscles and joints…AQA
Sensory input: The input stage of the general information processing model, formed by receptors detecting a stimulus and converting it into a nerve impulse.AQA
Serial processing: Central decision making that deals with one piece of information at a time, so a second stimulus must wait until the first has been processed.AQA
Serial skill: A skill that chains several discrete skills together in a sequence, such as a gymnastics floor routine or a triple jump.AQA
Serial skills: Skills with clear, separable subroutines, such as a gymnastics floor routine or a swimming stroke with distinct phases.AQA
Short-term memory (STM): A limited-capacity, limited-duration store that holds information currently being attended to.AQA
Short-term physiological harm: Current effects can include raised blood pressure, disturbed heart rhythm, liver and kidney strain, hormonal disruption, insomnia and increased injury risk.AQA
Sign of an angular quantity: Indicates the direction of rotation relative to a chosen positive sense.AQA
Simple and complex skills: This continuum relates to decision-making demands, and it must not be confused with high-low organisation, which is about separating sub-routines.AQA
Simple equipment and natural spaces: Sports were local, using available space like village greens, fields and rough ground, and equipment was simple and homemade.AQA
Simple reaction time: Involves one stimulus and one response, and choice reaction time is typically longer than it because of the additional response-selection demands.AQA
Simultaneous contribution of energy systems: All three systems contribute at the same time, with only the dominant contribution changing rather than the systems working one after another in strict…AQA
Sinoatrial node as the pacemaker: Sympathetic stimulation releases noradrenaline at the sinoatrial node, raising the rate at which it fires, while parasympathetic stimulation releases…AQA
Situational appropriateness of leadership behaviour: The chosen style should fit the situation, the task, the individuals and the leader's own qualities.AQA
Situational component: Features of the environment or task, such as task difficulty, incentive value and probability of success, that influence achievement motivation.AQA
Situational favourableness: Determined by leader–member relations, task structure and position power.AQA
Situational specificity of trait expression: Traits predispose a performer towards certain responses, but the specific situation determines whether and how that predisposition is expressed.AQA
Size principle: Small units containing slow-twitch fibres and generating little force are activated first, with larger units with fast-twitch fibres added as force demand…AQA
Skeletal muscle pump: Contracting muscles squeeze veins and valves keep blood moving one way.AQA
Skill and technique development: Technology supports the development of skill and technique by giving performers precise feedback that the naked eye may miss.AQA
Skill classification: The classification of a skill, such as simple, discrete or closed, which is linked to the choice of massed practice.AQA
Skill classification continua: Six continua — open–closed, discrete–serial–continuous, gross–fine, self-paced–externally paced, high–low organisation, and simple–complex — used to classify…AQA
Skill-related components: Speed, agility, balance, coordination, power and reaction time.AQA
Slow (lactacid) component: The component that removes lactate and maintains elevated body temperature, heart rate and ventilation, lasting from minutes to several hours.AQA
Slow contraction speed: A defining characteristic of type I fibres, which contract slowly and are identified by this alongside high fatigue resistance.AQA
Social and cultural influences on formation: Formation through social and cultural influences including media coverage and team norms.AQA
Social and economic status of performers: The changing status reflects a shift from the amateur ideal of participation for love of the game towards professionalism driven by money, media and global…AQA
Social barriers: Obstacles such as stereotypes, discrimination and lack of role models that restrict participation.AQA
Social class: The key difference between the two activities in terms of participants, setting and rules, shaping recreation as either harsh and communal or wealthy and…AQA
Social class and leisure time: Regulated working hours and Saturday half-days gave workers limited but regular leisure time, while hours and wages varied by industry and region.AQA
Social class and stratification: Society was layered into three broad classes: upper, middle and working, distinguished by wealth, occupation and leisure time.AQA
Social class differences in access to sport: Middle-class women had more opportunity than working-class women, whose long factory hours left little leisure, though their sport was usually private,…AQA
Social cohesion: The degree to which members like each other and enjoy being together, shown through friendships and positive relationships within the squad.AQA
Social control: Reduces crime rates by providing structured activities.AQA
Social exclusion: A sociological theory applied to explain why some groups are disadvantaged in sport.AQA
Social facilitation: The presence of others raises arousal and can improve performance of well-learned or simple skills.AQA
Social facilitation and social inhibition: Performance improves when the dominant response is usually correct, which is social facilitation, and worsens when it is often incorrect, which is social…AQA
Social inhibition: The presence of others raises arousal and can worsen performance of complex or newly learned skills.AQA
Social interaction and scaffolding: Collaborative learning through which the learner builds upon prior experiences to develop new sporting skills and tactical understanding.AQA
Social interaction in learning: Learning is a social process in which a learner develops skill through interaction with a more knowledgeable other, who guides and supports them.AQA
Social learning theory: Aggression is learned by observing and imitating role models, then maintained by reinforcement.AQA
Social learning theory of leadership: Leadership is learned through observation, imitation and reinforcement of role models or significant others.AQA
Social loafing: A team member reduces effort because individual contribution becomes harder to identify, responsibility feels shared, or they assume others will cover the work.AQA
Social model: The argument that removing barriers, not changing the person, increases equality of opportunity.AQA
Social processes: Recurring forms of social interaction between individuals and groups.AQA
Social rewards: For the performer, these include praise from coaches, teammates and spectators, media attention, sponsorship, selection and status within the sport.AQA
Social spread of games: The process by which teachers, clergy and ex-pupils carried games to churches, clubs and the wider public.AQA
Social structures: The patterned relationships and institutions through which people organise activity, such as schools, sports clubs, families and governing bodies.AQA
Social structures and institutions: Parts of society such as family, education, sport clubs, media, government and the economy, each transmitting expectations about who should play which sport.AQA
Socialisation: The lifelong process through which people learn the norms, values and behaviours expected in society.AQA
Society: An organised collection of people, groups and institutions sharing norms, values and patterns of interaction.AQA
Sodium bicarbonate: Acts as a buffer, neutralising hydrogen ions that lower muscle pH during high-intensity work, so it can delay fatigue in events lasting roughly one to several…AQA
Soft tissue and hard tissue classification: Injuries are grouped as soft tissue (muscle, tendon, ligament, skin) or hard tissue (bone).AQA
Soluble fibre: A type of fibre that can help lower blood cholesterol and slow glucose absorption.AQA
Solutions to the learning plateau: Rest and recovery, changing the practice type or presentation, setting new achievable goals, giving fresh specific feedback, revisiting fundamentals, and…AQA
Somatic anxiety: The physical response, including raised heart rate, sweating, trembling, muscle tension and butterflies.AQA
Somatic arousal control: Somatic techniques work on the body's physical arousal, reducing heart rate and muscle tension and calming the somatic symptoms of anxiety.AQA
Somatic nervous system: Controls voluntary movement of skeletal muscle.AQA
Somatic techniques: Body-based stress management methods that act on physiological arousal rather than on cognitions or self-talk.AQA
Source credibility: The trust placed in the source of a message, which increases the likelihood of attitude change.AQA
Sources of fluid force: It arises from differences in fluid pressure and from friction between the fluid and the surface.AQA
Spatial anticipation: The prediction of where an event or action will occur, contrasted with temporal anticipation, which predicts when it will occur.AQA
Spatial summation: Summation through motor unit recruitment, which differs from summation that depends on impulse frequency on one fibre.AQA
Specific: The goal names the exact behaviour, component or outcome to be changed.AQA
Specific learned helplessness: The belief that failure is inevitable in one particular sport or skill, such as 'I can never score penalties'.AQA
Specificity: Training must match the demands of the activity, so the programme reflects the energy systems, muscle groups, movement patterns and intensities of the target…AQA
Specificity and appropriateness of preparation: Its effectiveness depends on being appropriate in duration, intensity and specificity to the event.AQA
Specificity of the goal: Goals should target a specific behaviour or outcome rather than a vague wish, specifying what is to be changed and how progress will be measured.AQA
Spectator: A person who watches sport rather than taking part.AQA
Spectator safety and regulation: Legislation regulates safety and behaviour for spectators, preventing hooliganism.AQA
Speed: A scalar quantity that is the rate of change of distance with respect to time, calculated as speed = distance ÷ time, so its unit is metres per second (m s⁻¹).AQA
Spin and the Magnus effect: A spinning object drags air with it, increasing speed and lowering pressure on one side while opposing it on the other, which is the application of…AQA
Spirometer trace: A trace from which tidal volume is measured by taking the vertical height of one resting breath and converting that volume using the spirometer's calibration.AQA
Spirometry and measurement: A spirometer is used: the subject breathes normally, then exhales as fully and forcefully as possible, and the volume expelled beyond the tidal volume is the…AQA
Sport development: Managing and developing a specific sport at a national level, including setting rules and organising competitions.AQA
Sport situation: The demands, audience, importance and difficulty of the event, including the standard of opposition and perceived difficulty.AQA
Sport-specific demands and drug effects: The effect of a drug depends on the drug and the performance demand, such as strength, endurance or tremor control.AQA
Sporting applications: These factors apply to many sports, including swimmers wearing smooth suits, cyclists crouching, and skiers wearing tight clothing.AQA
Sporting applications of angular motion: Students should identify the torque, the moment of inertia and the resulting angular acceleration in sporting examples, such as a diver tucking to reduce…AQA
Sporting development continuum: A base formed by the key concepts, along which participation can move from informal play and physical recreation through school sport towards elite sport, and…AQA
Sporting environment cues: The relevant and irrelevant stimuli within the display, from which the performer must extract the most important cues.AQA
Sports clubs as enablers and barriers: Clubs offer coaching, fixtures and social belonging, but membership fees, waiting lists, single-sex provision or location can restrict access.AQA
Sports science and sports medicine support: Specialist services giving athletes access to physiology testing, biomechanics analysis, strength and conditioning, physiotherapy, medical screening and…AQA
Sportsmanship: Behaviour showing respect for opponents, officials and the spirit of the rules, for example returning the ball or acknowledging a good play.AQA
Sprain: Overstretching or tearing of ligaments at a joint, commonly the ankle.AQA
Sprint and power performance: Lactate producing capacity reflects how much lactate the system can generate, supporting sprint and power events such as 400 m or repeated sprints.AQA
Stability: A dimension that distinguishes causes likely to remain the same, such as natural ability, from causes likely to change, such as effort or tactics.AQA
Stability and change in sporting behaviour: A quiet training athlete may become an assertive captain on match day because the role and setting change, not the core self.AQA
Stability and changeability of beliefs: All three constructs can be developed through experience, feedback and success, so self-confidence is not fixed and unchangeable.AQA
Stable and enduring characteristics: The trait approach holds that personality consists of these, which a performer carries into many situations, so behaviour is fairly consistent across contexts.AQA
Stage of learning and task difficulty: The model links arousal, task difficulty and stage of learning, since a well-learned skill usually has a correct dominant response while a skill still being…AQA
Stages of group development: Forming, storming, norming, performing and, later, adjourning, which a group may pass through as it develops.AQA
Stages of motor learning: Fitts and Posner describe three stages of motor learning: cognitive, associative and autonomous.AQA
Standard of a competent coach: Breach occurs when conduct falls below the standard of a reasonably competent coach in that sport.AQA
Standardisation: Controlling conditions such as protocol, equipment, timing method and environment, on which reliability depends.AQA
Standardisation of rules: Players and officials could meet and compare practices through travel and communication, helping spread standardised rules.AQA
State sport confidence: The temporary, situation-specific belief in ability at a particular moment.AQA
Static stretching: Involves holding a position at the end of range for a period, and it develops and maintains flexibility.AQA
Steady state: The point during submaximal exercise where oxygen consumption plateaus and ATP demand is met aerobically, so the deficit remains small.AQA
Steady-state submaximal work: The performer works continuously for a prolonged period, commonly 20 minutes or more, with intensity submaximal and constant.AQA
Stereotype: A widely held but oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person.AQA
Stereotyping: A generalised belief, which differs from prejudice, an attitude, and from discrimination, the unequal treatment that may follow.AQA
Stimulus detection: Detection happens at the receptor, which converts the stimulus into an impulse that is then transmitted to the CNS.AQA
Stimulus-response (S-R) bonds: Links between a stimulus and a response that reinforcement strengthens and punishment weakens.AQA
Storage and access controls: Secure servers and restricted permissions used to prevent unauthorised alteration of data.AQA
Storming: The stage characterised by conflict, rebellion against the leader and competition for roles or status.AQA
Strategies to prevent violence: Strict policing, segregation of rival fans, early kick-off times and banning orders for known offenders.AQA
Strategies to raise participation: Measures including targeted funding, inclusive coaching, accessible venues and positive media coverage.AQA
Stratification: How structures rank people into unequal layers by factors like class, gender, ethnicity, wealth and ability.AQA
Streamlining: A streamlined position with arms extended reduces cross-sectional area and drag coefficient, so the dynamic fluid force opposing motion is smaller than when…AQA
Strength training: Uses progressive resistance to induce muscle hypertrophy, increase tendon strength and restore force production.AQA
Stress: The body's and mind's response to a demand that is perceived as threatening or beyond current coping resources, shown through raised arousal, muscular…AQA
Stress fracture: A small crack in a bone from cumulative impact, common in the tibia, metatarsals and navicular of runners and dancers.AQA
Stressor: The external or internal trigger that produces the stress response, such as a penalty in the final minute, a large crowd, a coach's criticism, an injury worry…AQA
Stretch reflex: When a muscle is stretched rapidly, the spindle sends sensory signals to the central nervous system, triggering the stretched muscle to contract to resist the…AQA
Stretch-shortening cycle: A cycle involving an eccentric phase, an amortisation phase and a concentric phase, used by plyometrics to develop explosive power.AQA
Stroke: Happens when blood supply to part of the brain is interrupted, often by a clot or a burst vessel.AQA
Stroke volume: A component of cardiac output which, when larger in trained individuals, allows a higher maximal cardiac output.AQA
Stroke volume and heart rate relationship: Stroke volume decreases as venous return and ventricular filling decrease, while heart rate rises progressively to maintain cardiac output.AQA
Structure and function of muscle fibre types: Skeletal muscle contains fibres with different contractile and metabolic characteristics, and function follows structure.AQA
Structure of myoglobin: One globular polypeptide chain wrapped around one haem group, so each molecule binds one molecule of oxygen.AQA
Structure of practice: The way practice is organised for learning, such as distributed practice with longer and more frequent rest intervals.AQA
Structured rehabilitation after injury: The structured process after injury: protect the area, restore range of movement, rebuild strength and gradually reload sport-specific movement.AQA
Sub-routines of a skill: The parts of a skill, which may be closely linked and difficult to separate or easily separated and practised in isolation.AQA
Subjective data: Information based on the performer's own feelings, perceptions or judgements, such as a rating of perceived exertion or a coach's observation.AQA
Submaximal and maximal exercise responses: During submaximal work a trained person reaches a given oxygen uptake at a lower heart rate and sustains it longer, while during maximal work a higher cardiac…AQA
Substance-specific risk profiles: Different drug classes carry different risks, so each effect must be linked to a named substance class where the option allows.AQA
Sudden collapse versus gradual decline: In catastrophe theory the drop after the optimum is sudden and severe, while inverted U theory shows performance falling after the optimum as a smooth curve.AQA
Sudden versus gradual learning: Learning that occurs as a sudden, whole understanding of a problem, rather than a gradual build-up of stimulus-response links.AQA
Summation of twitches: Individual twitches fuse into one smooth, powerful contraction because each impulse arrives during the relaxation phase of the previous twitch.AQA
Support: Practical help such as access to facilities or social approval, which may be required so that new behaviour can be maintained.AQA
Sympathetic nervous system and exercise: During exercise this system is stimulated and influences the RCC to increase the rate and depth of breathing.AQA
Sympathetic preparation for activity and stress: This division prepares the body for activity or stress by increasing heart rate, increasing breathing rate and widening the airways.AQA
Systolic pressure: The higher value, recorded when the ventricles contract and eject blood into the aorta.AQA

T

Tactical and technical pattern recognition: Identifying patterns such as a player's most effective shot, or strengths, weaknesses or recurring tactical events.AQA
Tactical Application: The ability to read the game state and adapt your strategy to gain an advantage over the opposition.Pearson Edexcel
Tactical deception in sport: Disguising a first action or presenting a late second stimulus can deceive an opponent.AQA
Tactical decision: A coaching or tactical decision informed by data, such as changing formation or targeting an opponent's weakness.AQA
Talent identification: Recognising potential in a performer, carried out by schools and clubs through scouting.AQA
Talent Identification and Development: Structured ways of finding and nurturing promising performers, including testing, profiling and pathway programmes.AQA
Talent identification processes: Spotting potential through testing or scouting, which is distinct from the long-term process of nurturing it.AQA
Talent pathways: The progression from identification to elite performance, supported by NGBs working with clubs, schools and regional bodies.AQA
Talent pathways and lifestyle support: A structured talent pathway, such as regional squads, gives clear progression steps, and lifestyle support helps athletes cope with demands.AQA
Talent Transfer: A strategic process where an athlete is encouraged to move from a sport they are already proficient in to a new sport where they have a greater potential for…OCR
Tangible and intangible rewards: The first are physical items you can touch, such as trophies, medals or money, while the second are non-physical rewards, such as praise, applause, records or…AQA
Tangible rewards: Extrinsic rewards that are physical or measurable, for example money, medals or certificates.AQA
Tapering: The planned reduction of training volume, and often some intensity, in the days or weeks before a key competition so that fatigue from training dissipates…AQA
Taping and bracing: Support or stabilise a joint, limiting unwanted movement and providing feedback.AQA
Targeted investment in high-performance sport: Resources aimed at elite success, with funding often targeted at athletes and sports with realistic medal potential at major championships.AQA
Task and individual influences on optimal arousal: In inverted U theory the optimum shifts with task type and individual, so fine skills usually need lower arousal than gross skills.AQA
Task and social cohesion: Task cohesion concerns working together on the job in hand, while social cohesion concerns interpersonal relationships.AQA
Task cohesion: The degree to which group members work together towards shared performance goals.AQA
Task difficulty and probability of success: Performers high in NAch prefer 50/50 probability tasks, whereas performers high in NAF prefer very easy or very hard tasks.AQA
Task orientated goals: Goals where a performer judges success by personal mastery and improvement, so effort and persistence tend to remain stable across different opponents and…AQA
Task orientation: A goal perspective where success is judged against personal mastery and improvement, rather than comparison with others.AQA
Team building: A strategy through which coaches can develop social cohesion, along with shared experiences and good communication.AQA
Team-building and performance: Team-building activities can improve social cohesion and interpersonal relationships, and the chosen strategy should match the cause of the problem to enhance…AQA
Technique analysis and correction: Using video and motion-capture systems to reveal poor landing mechanics so a performer can correct them and reduce joint stress.AQA
Technique correction: Helped when knowledge of performance is specific, accurate and given soon after the attempt, so the learner can compare actual technique with correct…AQA
Technology and performance monitoring: Devices and systems that monitor load, technique and environment, producing data that informs safer practice.AQA
Telegraph and popular press: Communication improvements publicised results, fixtures and sporting heroes, building shared sporting culture.AQA
Temporal anticipation: The prediction of when an event or action will occur, as opposed to spatial anticipation, which predicts where it will occur.AQA
Temporal summation: Increasing force by raising the frequency of nerve impulses to a single motor unit, causing twitches to build upon one another.AQA
Tennis elbow: Overuse injury of the tendons attaching to the lateral elbow, caused by repeated wrist extension and gripping, not only by tennis.AQA
Testing and monitoring: Random and target testing of athletes, testing of samples for banned substances, biological passports that track blood variables over time, and whereabouts…AQA
Tetanic contraction: A sustained, maximal contraction a muscle produces when stimulated by a rapid series of nerve impulses before it can relax.AQA
The 1895 rugby split and class-based treatment: In rugby, the conflict over professional payment led to the 1895 split into amateur Rugby Union and professional Rugby League.AQA
The learning plateau and its causes: A period when improvement stalls after initial progress, caused by loss of motivation, fatigue or boredom, poor coaching or feedback, overlearning, incorrect…AQA
The More Knowledgeable Other (MKO): Someone with a higher level of understanding, such as a coach or an experienced teammate, who provides guidance.AQA
The relationship between feedback and guidance: Both types work best when specific, accurate and given soon after the attempt, and they are usually combined with guidance so the performer knows how to…AQA
The respiratory control centre: Located in the medulla oblongata, it receives sensory information and adjusts ventilation, sending somatic impulses via the phrenic and intercostal nerves to…AQA
The role of past experience in learning: Insight learning relies on performers drawing upon past experiences to solve tactical problems.AQA
The role of the model: Imitation is more likely when the learner identifies with the model, and when the model has high status or is similar in age and ability.AQA
The role of varied practice: It strengthens the recall schema by providing a wider range of past experiences to draw upon when selecting parameters.AQA
The training effect: The improved capacity to perform aerobic exercise produced by these system adaptations.AQA
The Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD): The gap between what a learner can achieve independently and what they can achieve with the help of an MKO.AQA
Theory-to-graph matching: Relating the pattern shown in a graph to the theory it represents, such as drive theory or the inverted-U hypothesis.AQA
Thermoregulation and cardiac output maintenance: The drift reflects thermoregulatory and fluid-balance challenges, with cardiac output maintained because heart rate increases as stroke volume decreases.AQA
Thermoregulation and enzyme activity: A warm-up raises muscle temperature, which increases the rate of enzyme-controlled energy release so muscles contract more forcefully.AQA
Thought control and self-talk: Positive self-talk uses encouraging statements to replace negative thoughts, raising confidence and focus, while thought stopping involves recognising a…AQA
Threshold: The stimulus level at which a muscle fibre contracts to its maximum possible extent for its current condition.AQA
Tidal volume: The volume of air moved into or out of the lungs during one normal breath at rest, measuring the depth of quiet breathing rather than a maximum effort.AQA
Time-efficient training for aerobic and anaerobic fitness: Improves both anaerobic power and aerobic capacity and is time-efficient compared with continuous steady-state training.AQA
Timing cues: Signals such as the rhythm of an opponent's movement or the speed of an approaching ball that temporal anticipation depends on detecting.AQA
Total absorption in the task: A positive, absorbed state during performance in which the performer has complete focus on the task.AQA
Trade-off between force and speed: Third class levers give mechanical disadvantage but compensate by allowing greater speed and range of movement.AQA
Training adaptations: Changes such as a greater stroke volume that improve oxygen delivery to working muscles and support endurance performance.AQA
Training load management: Adjusting training volume, such as reducing it after GPS vests record distance and sprint counts, to lower the risk of overuse.AQA
Training method specificity: It suits games players building an aerobic base and endurance athletes in early season, but it is less specific to intermittent, sprint-based sports.AQA
Training specificity: Matching a training method to the energy system it targets so that the body adapts to produce energy more effectively for a given event.AQA
Training status: A major factor, as a trained performer often has a lower resting heart rate and a larger stroke volume, so a set workload produces a smaller heart-rate rise.AQA
Training-load management and injury prevention: Recorded movement data informs coaching decisions such as training load management, fatigue monitoring and injury-risk reduction.AQA
Trait and state anxiety: Trait anxiety is a stable, innate personality characteristic where a person is generally prone to anxiety, whereas state anxiety is a temporary,…AQA
Trait and state sport confidence: A stable general tendency is distinguished from the belief felt in a particular moment.AQA
Trait sport confidence: A relatively stable disposition to believe in one's sporting ability across many situations.AQA
Trait theory of leadership: Leadership qualities are innate and stable, so leaders are identified by characteristics such as confidence, resilience and determination.AQA
Transfer of learning: Describes how prior experience of one skill affects the learning or performance of another.AQA
Transition: The recovery phase after the season, when training volume and intensity drop to allow physical and psychological recovery before preparation begins again.AQA
Translatory mechanism: The second stage of information processing, which receives the information selected by the perceptual mechanism and converts it into a decision or action plan.AQA
Transport and communication: Railway expansion enabled teams and spectators to travel for fixtures, supporting national leagues and competitions.AQA
Transverse plane movement: Movement occurring in the transverse plane about the longitudinal axis, as in horizontal abduction and adduction at the shoulder and hip.AQA
Travel fatigue: Along with unfamiliar surroundings, this may disadvantage away performers.AQA
Triadic model: Describes an attitude as having three components that together shape how a person responds to an attitude object such as exercise, a team or a rival.AQA
Trust, respect and influence: Prescribed leaders may need to earn the group's trust, whereas emergent leaders already hold peer respect but may lack formal authority.AQA
Tuckman's stages: The four stages of forming, storming, norming and performing through which a group develops.AQA
Two-tier class system: A society organised into a small upper tier of landowners and aristocracy and a large lower tier of labourers and rural workers.AQA
Types of performance data: Quantitative data such as distances covered, heart rate, sprint counts and skill success rates, and qualitative data such as video observation of technique.AQA

U

UK Sport: The body that invests National Lottery and Exchequer funding and has a funding and strategic role, rather than delivery.AQA, OCR
Underrepresented groups: Sections of the population whose participation in sport is lower than expected relative to their numbers, often because of barriers rather than lack of…AQA
Upper tier: The small group of landowners and aristocracy who owned land and controlled wealth, leisure time and political power.AQA
Use of data to inform performance decisions: Coaches and performers use collected, processed and interpreted data to make evidence-based decisions about feedback, training or tactics.AQA
Use of technology in physical activity and sport: Technology such as heart-rate monitors, GPS vests and wearable trackers collects objective fitness data during training or competition.AQA
Using findings to optimise performance: Identifying a baseline, comparing it with a target, isolating a weakness, adjusting training or tactics, then re-testing to check improvement.AQA

V

Validity: The extent to which a test measures what it claims to measure, with laboratory tests often having higher validity for physiological variables because…AQA
Variable practice: Practice that changes the environmental conditions or task parameters, developing schema and adaptability for open skills.AQA
Variable skill: One where the performer must adapt movement to changing environmental demands, so no two executions are identical.AQA
Varied-pace running: The performer runs for a set time, changing speed and gradient spontaneously, without formal rest periods.AQA
Vascular shunt: Redirects blood flow, with vasoconstriction reducing flow to non-essential areas such as the digestive system and vasodilation increasing flow to working…AQA
Vascular shunting: The redistribution of blood flow to areas of greatest demand during exercise, achieved through vasoconstriction and vasodilation.AQA
Vascular shunting during exercise: The sympathetic nervous system redirects flow away from less active areas, directing blood towards active muscle.AQA
Vasoconstriction: Narrowing of arterioles supplying non-essential organs such as the gut and kidneys, diverting blood away.AQA
Vasodilation: Widening of arterioles supplying working muscles, increasing local blood flow and oxygen delivery.AQA
Vasodilation in active muscle: Carbon dioxide contributes to local vasodilation in active muscle, increasing blood flow where it is needed.AQA
Vasomotor centre: The centre in the medulla oblongata that controls sympathetic outflow to arterioles.AQA
Vector: A quantity with both magnitude and direction, represented by an arrow whose length shows magnitude and whose arrowhead shows direction.AQA
Velocity: The rate of change of displacement, v = s ÷ t, measured in metres per second (m s⁻¹) with direction.AQA
Venous return: Assisted by the skeletal muscle pump, the respiratory pump and one-way valves in the veins, which prevent backflow.AQA
Venous return and circulation: Compression garments apply graduated pressure to limbs, which may support venous return and limit swelling after exercise.AQA
Venous return and ventricular filling: Blood returning to the heart stretches the ventricular walls, raising the volume of blood in the ventricle at the end of diastole.AQA
Ventricular conduction pathways: The impulse travels down the bundle of His, through the left and right bundle branches, and into the Purkinje fibres embedded in the ventricular walls.AQA
Verbal and visuospatial processing in sport: The phonological loop holds verbal and acoustic information, while the visuospatial sketchpad holds visual and spatial information.AQA
Verbal guidance: Information given through spoken words, such as a coach saying "drive your knee up" during a sprint drill.AQA
Verbal persuasion: Encouragement or feedback from a credible significant other, such as a coach, which works best when realistic and combined with evidence.AQA
Verification methods: Cross-checking devices, reviewing logs and cleaning data before conducting performance analysis.AQA
Vicarious experiences: Observing a similar model succeed, which raises the observer's belief that they too can succeed.AQA
Vicarious reinforcement: Occurs when a learner sees another performer praised or rewarded and is then more likely to copy that behaviour.AQA
Victorian social expectations and respectability: Ideals of modesty, respectability and domestic duty that confined many women to the home and discouraged them from vigorous or public sport.AQA
Virtuous Cycle of Sport: A theory suggesting that the success of elite athletes inspires increased mass participation in sport, which in turn enlarges the talent pool for future elite…OCR
Visual and auditory cues: The eyes detect visual cues such as the flight of a ball, and the ears detect auditory cues such as a teammate's call.AQA
Visual guidance: Showing the skill to be copied or observed, for example a demonstration or a video clip.AQA
Visuo-spatial sketchpad: Holds visual and spatial information, such as a mental image of a route.AQA
Vital capacity: The largest volume that can be forcibly expired after a maximal inspiration, distinct from one resting breath.AQA
VO2 max: The maximal oxygen consumption reached during maximal exercise, when oxygen consumption rises until it reaches this level.AQA
VO₂ max: The maximum rate at which the body can take up, transport and use oxygen during intense exercise, also called aerobic power.AQA
VO₂ max test: Measures the maximum rate at which the body can take up, transport and use oxygen during maximal exercise.AQA
VO₂ max tests: Tests, such as the multi-stage fitness test or laboratory gas analysis, that measure the maximum aerobic energy expenditure.AQA
Voluntary participation: Taking part is generally voluntary rather than a timetabled requirement, though some schools encourage participation.AQA
Voluntary participation in leisure time: Activity undertaken in leisure time and chosen freely, so the participant decides when, how often and how hard to take part and can stop without consequence.AQA
Vygotsky's Social Development Theory: A theory positing that learning is a social process where knowledge is actively constructed, with performers learning skills through interaction with others…AQA

W

Warm up: Raises muscle temperature and blood flow, preparing the body for activity.AQA
Water: Maintains hydration and blood volume, and should be taken before, during and after physical activity to replace sweat losses, as dehydration raises heart rate…AQA
Wave summation: The additive effect of a second stimulus arriving before the muscle fibre has fully relaxed from the first, so the mechanical responses overlap and force…AQA
Wearable technology and athlete monitoring: Wearable hardware such as satellite receivers, accelerometers and gyroscopes is combined with software that records and analyses movement.AQA
Weight: The gravitational force acting on a performer, measured in newtons and acting vertically downwards.AQA
Weight training: Uses external resistance, such as barbells, dumbbells, machines or the performer's own body mass, to overload muscles.AQA
Weiner’s dimensional classification of causes: Classifies the causes performers give for success and failure using dimensions such as locus of causality, stability and controllability.AQA
Weiner's dimensions: Classification of causes by locus, stability and controllability.AQA
Whiting's model: An information processing model in which the display is the starting point, existing before sensory organs detect information or selective attention filters it.AQA
Whole and part practice methods: Practising a skill as a whole when its sub-routines are difficult to separate, or practising sub-routines in isolation before recombining them when they are…AQA
Whole practice: Presenting the skill in its entirety without breaking it down, which is suitable for discrete, fast or highly organised skills.AQA
Whole practice and contextual understanding: Cognitive theories support whole practice, allowing learners to appreciate the full context of a skill.AQA
Whole-part-whole practice: Beginning with the whole skill, isolating a problematic part for focused practice, and then reintegrating it into the complete movement.AQA
Whole–part–whole: A structuring method in which the learner first attempts the complete skill, then isolates a problematic part for focused rehearsal, and finally reintegrates…AQA
Widespread illiteracy: Most of the population could not read or write, so sport and recreation depended on spoken communication, memory and demonstration.AQA
Win-at-all-costs culture and influential others: A win-at-all-costs culture and influential coaches, teammates or entourages can normalise and facilitate doping.AQA
Work-to-rest manipulation: Recovery duration and the work-to-rest ratio determine which energy system is predominantly stressed, with short recoveries keeping stress on the glycolytic…AQA
Work-to-rest ratio: One of the key variables a coach manipulates, alongside the number of circuits and exercise order, influencing the training stimulus and the specificity of…AQA
Working memory components and functions: A system for temporarily holding and manipulating information during cognitive tasks, containing a central executive and three slave systems.AQA
Working-class participation: Involvement of the urban working classes in teams and competitions organised by church Sunday schools and clubs.AQA
Workload and injury-risk monitoring: Tracking workload, recovery and injury risk over time, including load spikes.AQA
Workplace welfare and discipline: Factory owners sometimes provided sports facilities, teams or annual outings to promote discipline, loyalty and health.AQA
World Class Performance Programme: Funds and supports elite athletes and their national governing bodies so they can train and compete at the highest level, often with podium-focused investment.AQA
World Class Programme: A programme whose athletes may access strength and conditioning, physiotherapy, nutrition and psychology through an institute.AQA
World Class Programme (WCP): The specific funding programme run by UK Sport that provides support for athletes identified as having the potential to win medals at Olympic and Paralympic…OCR
World Class Programmes: Olympic and Paralympic sports and athletes are funded through these, as a concrete example of UK Sport investment.AQA

Z

Zero transfer: A continuum position in which learning or performing one skill produces no measurable change in the learning or performance of another skill.AQA
Zone of proximal development: The gap between what a learner can do alone and what they can do with help.AQA

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