Science and IT in sport

Increased technology has benifitted sport by enabling improvements to be made, improved standards and improved saftety.

In equiptment, materials and facilities

New materials -> lighter, stronger, more durable equiptment

• Rackets (tennis, squash, badminton): made from materials eg fibre glass - polymers and alloys - replaced wooden rackets
• Polevaults: fibreglass or carbon fibre replaced bamboo
• Pads (crickets): made from high density compressed foam - 50% lighter than before 
• Bikes: made from strong lightweight materials
• Helmets (cycling): more aerodynamic

Development of synthetic materials -> revolusionalised sportwear

• Swimsuits: reduced drag - streamlining improved, banned full body suits in 2010 by FINA as unfair advantage
• Surfaces (tennis, hockey, athletics): synthetic turf, synthetic fibre glass blades, rubber and sand granule infills - outdated AstroTurf
• Footwear: composite materials combining synthetic and natural materials eg polyurethane and kangaroo leather (football boots) to provide strength and flexibility

• Purpose built facilities for sports eg gymnastics with recessed areas for safety pits
• Indoor areas for playing all year round eg tennis
• Stadiums with retractable roofs, air conditioning, humidity controls - best possible competing conditions
• State-of-the-art equiptment eg fitness gyms - equiptment specifically targeting uscles or muscle groups, updated cardiovascular equiptment ~ built in monitors for recording heart rate and recovery time

Vast amounts of data can be stored, analysed and presented in various ways

All individuals (students,teachers,professionals) 

Programmes developed to enhance use

Software and hardware developed to enable sophisticated recording and analysis of performance

• Systems for recording and playback wiith features such as déjà vu, sports motion analysis - enable performers to track and view own performance, gain feedback and shown simultaneously with exemplar eg
  • dartfish
  • Kandle
• Match analysis  (eg in football) - review previous games, analyse individual player, sectional analysis and give physical analysis eg
  • ProZone

At basic level

• Photographs, video clips for recording performance and playback and can be reviewed

• Fitness monitoring - heart rate blood pressure, training zones - give constant readouts and advice
• Hawkeye - used in tennis and cricket - decision making by tracking flight and trajectory or balls
• Video Officials - check incidents and support decisions - wireless tranmission links to officials from reviewing booths