That Was The Week That Was, November 3–9, 2025

Dear all,

Last week the following items were published on idrottsforum.org (see below; language and publication dates, YYMMDD, in brackets). Click on the red headings to go to content. Utilize the Google Translate service to turn Scandinavian language pages into (some sort of) English.

And remember, if you’re not already hooked up to one of the social media outlets that we utilize, for now they are Facebook, Bluesky, LinkedIn and X, you’re missing quite a lot of information from idrottsforum.org that never appears on the website. So, if that is the case, check out, by clicking on the names, our Facebook, Bluesky, LinkedIn and X accounts.

Have a great week,
Kjell Eriksson
Editor

Book Review

Ambitious coaching textbook focusing the female athlete

The knowledge base in sports physiology, exercise science and medicine is largely based on research conducted on men. Den kvinnelige idrettsutøveren [The female athlete], edited by Øyvind Sandbakk, Guro Strøm Solli & Hanne Staff (Fagbokforlaget) provides an updated knowledge base and practical recommendations in training, health and performance for the female athlete. Gunn Nyberg’s review, published in both English and Swedish, provides an overall assessment as well as comprehensive presentations of the chapters that our reviewer found particularly interesting. (Book in Norwegian, review in English and Swedish, published 251104.)

Game rules, sport rules, review rules – how hard can it be?

Board games to sports, digital games to party games, gambling to role-playing games. They all share one thing in common: rules – of which there are only five kinds. Indeed, rules are the one and only thing game scholars agree is central to games. But what, in fact, are rules? In The Rule Book (MIT Press), Jaakko Stenros and Markus Montola explore how different kinds of rules work as building blocks of games. Our somewhat reluctant reviewer Bo Carlsson, sport law expert, claims no knowledge of game rules, but his review says otherwise. (Review in English, published 251105.)

The role of English public schools and classicism in the development of modern sports

Public school education in the second half of the nineteenth century was completely dominated by classics and sport. Rejecting the view that these were competing strands resulting in friction between aesthetic scholars and athletic philistines, in Games, Greek and Pluck: Classicism, Masculinity, Elite Education and British Sport, 1850–1914 (Peter Lang) Andy Carter shows how classicism and athleticism were closely entwined. As usual, our reviewer Hans Bolling offers enlightening reflections and comparisons related to the work under review, concluding that Carter has produced an excellent book. (Review in English, published 251106.)

New Issues of Scholarly Journals

• The International Sports Law Journal, Vol. 25, 2025, Issue 3 | The Evolution of Lex Olympica (251104)
• International Journal of Sport Finance, Volume 20, 2025, Issue 2 (251105)
• International Journal of Sport Communication, Volume 18, 2025, No. 3 | Politics, Sport, and Communication: A Global Perspective

News items (calls for papers, vacancies, etc.)

• Call for Papers | “Beyond the Game: The Economics, Governance, and Social Aspects of Esports”, Special Issue of Sport, Business and Management: An International Journal | Call ends December 31, 2025 (251104)
• Call for Papers | “Contested Perspectives on Doping & Anti-Doping”, 2026 INDR Conference | Aarhus University, Denmark, August 20–21, 2026. Call ends May 1, 2026
• Vacancy | Dean / Manutaki, School of Physical Education, Sport and Exercise Sciences, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand | Application due November 23, 2025
• Lediga platser | Professor i Management, inriktning mot idrott och hälsa, till Gymnastik- och idrottshögskolan, GIH | Ansök senast den 9 december 2025