Has science ruined or enhanced sport?

[The Coon Dog]

Interesting when you look back at sporting film clips from days gone by & it all just seems so simple; go faster or higher than your opponent/s & win on merit alone.

Now the lines are blurred with just how much is down to an athletes performance & the role science has played.

I look at archery & think that with all the telescopic sights, compass, wind gauge, protractor, net link to NASA etc... even someone like FDOTM would struggle to miss the target.

Swimming; now once again there is wide spread debate about the merits of the Speedo LZR suits where they are seamless, have water repellent bit & pieces in strategic spots & give the appearance of a fur seal at Phillip Island. What ever happened to budgie smugglers?

Look at the bikes cyclists use today. Bet you couldn't go to Beasley's in Buckley Street & buy one off the shelf & those aerodynamically designed helmets!

Motor racing seems like those with more to spend get faster engines. So is it the driver or the car?

I'm a bit of a purist & am not overly wrapped in all the bells & whistles that allow sports people an extra edge, but then again I might just be living in the past.

[westdog54]

Interesting when you look back at sporting film clips from days gone by & it all just seems so simple; go faster or higher than your opponent/s & win on merit alone.

Now the lines are blurred with just how much is down to an athletes performance & the role science has played.

I look at archery & think that with all the telescopic sights, compass, wind gauge, protractor, net link to NASA etc... even someone like FDOTM would struggle to miss the target.

Swimming; now once again there is wide spread debate about the merits of the Speedo LZR suits where they are seamless, have water repellent bit & pieces in strategic spots & give the appearance of a fur seal at Phillip Island. What ever happened to budgie smugglers?

Look at the bikes cyclists use today. Bet you couldn't go to Beasley's in Buckley Street & buy one off the shelf & those aerodynamically designed helmets!

Motor racing seems like those with more to spend get faster engines. So is it the driver or the car?

I'm a bit of a purist & am not overly wrapped in all the bells & whistles that allow sports people an extra edge, but then again I might just be living in the past.

I think the problem doesn't lie with advances in technology but with the failure of sport governing bodies to keep their rules up to date.

Motor Racing? Well, I suppose it could go either way. I look at Michael Schumacher and what he was able to achieve in the inferior (lets not beat around the bush) Benetton car, before he went to Ferrari and swept all before him. Then again you've got his former teammate, Rubens Barrichello, who while a good drive probably over-achieved having been inside the Ferrari as 2nd Fiddle to Michael. Additionally, technology has also made for better built cars, safer racing and reduced likelihood of injury to the driver in a crash.

As for Cycling, if you look at the Tour De France most of the equipment seems, not so much 'off the shelf' but it strikes me as stuff that would seem fairly readily available (with the possible exception of EPO).

I agree with you in some respects, but I think it should be acknowledged that such technological advances are a mixed blessing, some good some bad.

[Lantern]

EPO is pretty readily available.

[Sockeye Salmon]

I really hate that footballers wear GPS and heart monitors during games.

[westdog54]

I really hate that footballers wear GPS and heart monitors during games.

From the POV that its extra weight carried around or that its just more meaningless statistics?

[Chops]

From the POV that its extra weight carried around or that its just more meaningless statistics?
Possibly cos it really has nothing to do with football?

[azabob]

Possibly cos it really has nothing to do with football?

But it does have something to do with football in today's day and age. Maybe with sports science Matthew Croft and Steve Kretiuk would've played a lot more football as opposed to get soft tissue injuires all the time.

[Chops]

The game of football would survive without it.

[Sockeye Salmon]

From the POV that its extra weight carried around or that its just more meaningless statistics?

I want to see coaches make decisions based on observations and conversations with players and other coaches. I don't want to see coaches make decisions based on a computer printout.

"Crossy, how you feeling? Can you stay on the ball for another 10 minutes?"

or

"Crossy, the computer says you've run 12.3 km's and your heartrate is 154 bpm. Time to come off".

Those decisions made ordinary coaches great. They've taken some skill out of the job.

[azabob]

The game of football would survive without it.

Yes the game would've survived, but we would've survived without the internet so should we not use that cause its new technology?

[Chops]

Yes the game would've survived, but we would've survived without the internet so should we not use that cause its new technology?
Stupid arguement.
The internet is the internet, football isn't new technology. Never said we shouldn't use it.

[Sockeye Salmon]

Yes the game would've survived, but we would've survived without the internet so should we not use that cause its new technology?

Perfectly happy for them to use GPS and heartrate monitors at training but I don't think it's right during a game.

[ledge]

I cant understand how a player kicks an up lifting goal which obviously gets his adrenalin going , then the coach takes him off?
A great reward for doing something the team needed, in my day you took a player off after that and you were mad!
You can look at all the statistics in the world but in that split second doesnt mean they are right.
I actually get pissed off with all the American jargon now like offence and hard ball gets and all that rot.
Just get the ball and handball or kick it the quickest way to the goals.
I dont care how many kicks or whatever a player gets.

[FrediKanoute]

I cant understand how a player kicks an up lifting goal which obviously gets his adrenalin going , then the coach takes him off?
A great reward for doing something the team needed, in my day you took a player off after that and you were mad!
You can look at all the statistics in the world but in that split second doesnt mean they are right.
I actually get pissed off with all the American jargon now like offence and hard ball gets and all that rot.Just get the ball and handball or kick it the quickest way to the goals.
I dont care how many kicks or whatever a player gets.

I agree. I find that more annoying than the use of technology in footy. If it means that I'm going to se more of Cooney and Griff b/c they aren't going to be as susceptable to soft tissue injuries then so be it.

[Mofra]

I want to see coaches make decisions based on observations and conversations with players and other coaches. I don't want to see coaches make decisions based on a computer printout.

"Crossy, how you feeling? Can you stay on the ball for another 10 minutes?"

or

"Crossy, the computer says you've run 12.3 km's and your heartrate is 154 bpm. Time to come off".

Those decisions made ordinary coaches great. They've taken some skill out of the job.
Too late. Last year (or late the year before) the Swans paid big $$$ for a computer simulator to determine how hard they could push players before they enter an area of unacceptable risk of soft tissue injury. Calculates on a wide variety of individual factors of each player.

They ran a retrospective simulator on 4 players who were wearing tracking devices in a practice match (one who suffered injury) and they claimed the program actually calculated very near the moment of injury. I think during the season proper one of the assistants in the box uses the data to help Longmire queue his bench rotations.

[mighty_west]

Perfectly happy for them to use GPS and heartrate monitors at training but I don't think it's right during a game.

I don't think they look great either, i don't mind it so much for praccy matches, and maybe the Wizzer Cup, but i don't think it's a good look, they can get all the data they need with those pre season games.

I think science has definatly enhanced sport, it's just made it all more professional.