PMID- 35788207
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20220706
LR  - 20220722
IS  - 1932-6203 (Electronic)
IS  - 1932-6203 (Linking)
VI  - 17
IP  - 7
DP  - 2022
TI  - Elite sport hubs during COVID-19: The job demands and resources that exist for 
      athletes.
PG  - e0269817
LID - 10.1371/journal.pone.0269817 [doi]
LID - e0269817
AB  - In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, elite sport leagues implemented hubs, or 
      'bubbles', which restricted athletes' movements and social interactions in order 
      to minimise the risk of athlete infection and allow competitions to continue. 
      This was a new way of working and living for elite athletes and there was a 
      dearth of literature on this topic. The main objective of the study was to 
      investigate the impacts of the hub model on athletes over time, and what job 
      demands and resources existed for athletes through the application of Demerouti 
      et al. (2001) Job Demands-Resources Model. Multiple sequential semi-structured 
      interviews were conducted with Women's National Basketball League (WNBL) athletes 
      during the 2020 season, which was held entirely in a hub in North Queensland, 
      Australia. The key job demands in an elite sport hub identified were the volume 
      of work, simultaneous overload and underload, and nature of work in the hub. The 
      key resources that emerged include recovery services, control and player agency, 
      and constructive social relations. Despite the presence of job resources, which 
      work to counteract, or buffer job demands in order to reduce work stress and 
      improve motivation, they were found to be insufficient for athletes and 
      inequitably distributed between clubs. The intensity of the hub model also 
      amplified demands present in all WNBL seasons. This research is therefore useful 
      for planning of future elite sport leagues to improve the type and amount of 
      resources available to athletes, thereby improving athlete wellbeing and 
      performance both within and outside a hub model.
FAU - Marshall, Samantha
AU  - Marshall S
AUID- ORCID: 0000-0001-7866-3427
AD  - Centre for Sport and Social Impact, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Victoria, 
      Australia.
FAU - McNeil, Nicola
AU  - McNeil N
AD  - Department of Management and Marketing, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Victoria, 
      Australia.
FAU - Seal, Emma Louise
AU  - Seal EL
AUID- ORCID: 0000-0001-8476-9201
AD  - Social and Global Studies Centre, RMIT University, Melbourne, Victoria, 
      Australia.
FAU - Nicholson, Matthew
AU  - Nicholson M
AD  - Malaysia Office of the PVC & President, Monash University Malaysia, Subang Jaya, 
      Selangor, Malaysia.
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
PT  - Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
DEP - 20220705
PL  - United States
TA  - PLoS One
JT  - PloS one
JID - 101285081
SB  - IM
MH  - Athletes
MH  - *Basketball/physiology
MH  - *COVID-19/epidemiology
MH  - Female
MH  - Humans
MH  - *Occupational Stress
MH  - Pandemics
PMC - PMC9255745
COIS- The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
EDAT- 2022/07/06 06:00
MHDA- 2022/07/07 06:00
PMCR- 2022/07/05
CRDT- 2022/07/05 18:17
PHST- 2021/12/20 00:00 [received]
PHST- 2022/05/30 00:00 [accepted]
PHST- 2022/07/05 18:17 [entrez]
PHST- 2022/07/06 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2022/07/07 06:00 [medline]
PHST- 2022/07/05 00:00 [pmc-release]
AID - PONE-D-21-40132 [pii]
AID - 10.1371/journal.pone.0269817 [doi]
PST - epublish
SO  - PLoS One. 2022 Jul 5;17(7):e0269817. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0269817. 
      eCollection 2022.