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Sports Technology?
An anonymous reader writes "With the 90th Tour de France starting today, it is fun to marvel at the improvement of road bike technology over the years. Like others, I have traded up from heavy steel to aluminum, and now carbon fiber, ending up with a bike far better than its rider. How have advances in sports technology enhanced your own performance and enjoyment of sport?"
Using a bunch of SGI boxes to make a hockey puck look like a comet? Uncool.
It all depends on how it's meted out. I mean, we're talking about the melding of man and machine here, for the most part. I doubt anyone on Slashdot is going to complain about that, unless you are one of those people that are freaked out about genetically modified corn seed. But I digress.
I've got a garage full of Kevlar and Carbon fiber, and all sorts of trick chemicals to do some pretty cool things with it. However, I'm most amazed at the *design* behind technology in sports. It's not enough to have the materials to make something that can outperform a lesser material like wood, metal or even bone. It's the *way* in which it is applied.
My experience is mostly around Motor Sports, and that background is 80 years deep in my family. Hell, my Mom used to race. My last *name* is Race.
All that, and I race in basically a production class. I make the trick bits for other people.
With the 90th Tour de France starting today, it is fun to marvel at the improvement of the human body's haemoglobin levels and the increased ability to store oxygen in the blood stream.
[quote]How have advances in sports technology enhanced your own performance and enjoyment of sport?[/quote]
They haven't. Sometimes, they've made it worse. Sports and challenges in general are best when there's as few things involved as possible.
Dude, we're computer geeks. The only technological enhancement which has increased our enjoyment of sports is high definition television and surround sound. If you want sports, ESPN is down the hall.
The Outdoor Network, which has American Television rights, is advertising this as the 100th Tour De France. Is anonymous poster correct?
Aside from that, my golf game has improved, and with HDTV, watching baseball is wonderful...
Well, given that I've been racing bicycles for 15 years now, I think that the biggest advances have to be lightweight suspensions and disc brakes on mountain bikes, integrated shift/brake levers on road bikes, and scandium as a frame material.
:-)
Scandium's a pretty new development -- gives you the weight of aluminum with the durability and "liveliness" of steel...
Carbon fiber -- I've never liked, not even Trek's OCLV -- too much of a "dead" feel to the ride...
For my road bike, I too, am on aluminum, but I'm going back to steel this fall -- because, in the end, steel is real. I can get a bike similarly equipped to my aluminum one, at a similar weight (steel's got some great new alloys), with the feel and responsiveness I've always loved...
I could write forever on this subject, so I'll just shut up now.
blog |
My optical mouse has improved my Counter-Strike scores dramatically. I am feared by all.
*twitch*
You do realize who you're asking right? For most of us, Surfing the net is the closest we're going to get to sport.
All Jokes Aside, here's some real commentary.
I wish i had thousands to spend on a bike. Watching those guys toss those bikes around as they were riding in the tour this morning really wish i had it that easy. When I think of sport, I think of the guys who got it hard, like those kenyan's who run, with nothing but a pair of shoes. I like to see sports where winning or losing isn't about the technology, it's about how good you actually are at the sport.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
...my favourite new tech is 'Turbonium,' like what the New Beetle is made out of. Great stuff.
For proof that technology has had an impact on sports please see any recent article regarding Mark McGuire's performance enhancing supplements or Samy Sosa's performance enhancing bats.
Sorry for the sarcasm. My favorite piece of technology over the past few years is the yellow virtual 10 down marker on NFL games. The NHL trying to do that with the puck was certainly amusing but in no way does it compare to the value created by that imaginary yellow line during football games.
From a fan's perspective:
MLB: K-Zone - see the balls and strikes clearly.
MLB: dead-straight camera - judge the strike zone with the naked eye more clearly.
NFL: overlayed first down marker - see where the ball needs to go clearly.
Football (soccer if you must): more cameras - a multitude of viewing angles including in goal cameras.
Cricket: stumpcam - see the ball coming from inside the middle stump.
Cricket: overlayed stump lines - judge LBW decisions more clearly.
Cricket: super magnified replays - see and hear close nicks more clearly.
Formula One: in car cameras - see what the driver sees in real-time.
But the best sporting technical innovation: scores displayed permanently in the top left corner of your TV picture. We take it for granted nowadays but there was a time that you had to wait for the commentator to tell you what the scoreline was - how annoying was that?
There are others but these are the ones that most improve my enjoyment of sports.
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
I'm a wrestler, one of the few sports completely unaffected by any technological advances. Maybe the only advances applicable would be in nutrition and biological things like that, but when your sport has no real equipment, technology means little.
Really, this is an extremely retarded ask slashdot...what are the answers going to be? My baseball bat is lighter and stronger. Replace baseball bat with golf club, etc. I mean there should be little direct impact of technology on sport, or the sport is sucked out of it. But I suppose we would need to agree on what a sport is for that one...or we run into racecars and other technocentric activities.
A more realistic question would be how has technology enhanced the training aspect of your sport. That makes sense. Golf swing analysis, hell video tapes are an indispensable tool for team sports.
Anyways. Worthless ask slashdot question.
My enjoyment of sports would be nigh impossible without this bad boy.
Parabolic (shaped) skiis are a great example of technology in sports. It's not uber-high-tech, but it's made a world of difference. Ski lengths have plummetted, along with turning radii, and it's far easier for beginners to progress from snowplow to parallel and carved turns.
My other sig is funny!
One word: aimbots. mcb
In Soviet Rush, today's Tom Sawyer gets high on you.
bike-wise, Titus' Exogrid(?) is pretty cool. Its a titanium grid in the carbon fiber weave. Colnago still continues to blow me away with thier vast experience with carbon fiber (could some of that possibly be coming from thier partnership with Ferrari?) Thiers most certainly doesnt have the dead, woodlike feel of Trek's OCLV. Shimano's new Saint freeride gruppo looks very promising and hopefully will incoperate even more upgrades than the '03 XTR. Also the widespread use of Ti and its associated technologies is pretty sick. Since I also throw discus, carbon fiber side panels, exceedingly fast rotating discs, and shoes that you can spin forever on
---how do you like them f--kin' apples - Lance Armstrong
There are a lot of ethical questions involved here. Improving materials in sports have lead to big improvements in some sports. Take polevaulting. If you plot the polevault world record versus year for the 20th century, you will see significant jumps as the athletes switched from hardwood to bamboo to fiberglass to carbon fiber. Concequently, you can't compare records from different eras.
Golf in another sport where this has become a problem. The advances in golf clubs have made it difficult for the courses to keep up. The USGA has finally had to set limits on the properties of golf clubs for official play because the alternative (making the courses longer) is very difficult and expensive.
College baseball is another one. They have had to slap limits on the properties of aluminum baseball bats because they were starting to affect the game too much. There are now rules governing how much rebound is allowed from a bat. Note that major league baseball doesn't have this problem because they still use wooden bats.
I am a materials scientist, and I'm always amazed how every new material immediately gets made into golf clubs. Titanium, Beryllium-Copper, Cermets, Amorphous metals. Each has been made into golf clubs.
--
The internet is the greatest source of biased information in the history of mankind.
it's the 100th year of tour de france not 90th
Probably the worst thing in sports technology is Questec. For those who don't know, it's a system in baseball to decide if a pitch is a ball or strike. It's installed in ten of 32 parks, and umpires who don't agree with the machine at least 90% of the time are considered bad umpires.
The problems with these cameras are that they don't have depth perception. It doesn't catch the late break on a pitch, which may affect if curveballs are called properly. Second, the umpires have a lot of experience in baseball. Yet the ads for the people to run the machines don't require knowledge of baseball. And someone who doesn't necessarily know about baseball tells the computer what the strike zone is for a particular hitter. Not only is this subjective, but the decision is made by someone who may not have a clue about baseball. I trust the umpires.
Lastly, hitters mostly want the strike zone to be reasonably fair and consistent. That's all the pitchers want, either. If a pitch on the outside corner is consistently a strike, but a pitch on the inside corner is consistently a ball, nobody's going to care. As long as you don't call both corners and the strike zone isn't tiny, neither hitters nor pitchers will have a problem with the strike zone. As it is, nobody except the management - not hitters, not pitchers, and not umpires - likes the Questec system.
It's a neat idea to use technology to improve baseball. But for now, it has to go.
http://espn.go.com/moresports/news/2003/0704/15767 45.html
I forgot about the Fox TALAS shocks, and Specialized's Epic (simply amazing), and the return of steel frames. some of them are approaching the weight of Al frames at a much lower cost.
---how do you like them f--kin' apples - Lance Armstrong
I started racing soon after fibreglass skis were turning the race world upside down. Winning times had been pretty steady for decades, and suddenly in the first Olympics where fibreglass skis appeared, times went down by 10%. In the course of a few years, we went to aluminum poles to fibreglass to carbon fibre. Skis also started using carbon fibres and other advanced composites. The technology war got so bad that they had to limit the minimum width of skis to stop people trying to come up with stronger materials to get away with narrower skis.
Meanwhile, the biggest change came about with plastic soled ski boots. The Salomon Nordic System boot/binding system turned the world upside down. These boots gave you so much control over your skis that skiers invented a "skating" technique. This technique is much, much faster than the old classic technique, and lead to further technological changes in the construction of skis, poles, and boots. Unfortunately, the skating technique is also murder on my knees, and so I had to quit skiing.
The next Cmdr Taco duplicate will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and see it early!
Didn't most swimmers in the last summer olympics use full body swimsuits which helped them slip though the water faster? I believe they were modeled from shark skin. The shark's skin is rough, not smooth. Almost like a fine grit sand paper. If I remember correctly, this combination of micro bumps and holes made it so that the water would flow by the swimmer and only touch the bumps, thus creating less surface area which "touched" the water.
Anyone else recall how exactally this worked?
And, it wasn't just one country using these suits, Nike offered them to any athlete who wanted one.
And lastly, as the Tour de France begins... GO LANCE!!!!
Sure, How about this? :)
Here's a better link To the story.
I don't do it myself, but the technology is intressting?
Like the klap skate or areodynamic strips they put on the suits.
I've ridden aluminum, carbon fiber, titanium and steel bikes from the 70s, 80s and 90s. I most recently bought a frame built from Reynolds steel - it's light and lively. All the prior bikes were good in some respects and aluminum will remain a favorite of mine, but the latest steel is an AMAZING material when done well.
Now is this improvement in frame design, metallurgy??
Like others, I have traded up from heavy steel to aluminum, and now carbon fiber, ending up with a bike far better than its rider.
I wouldn't call that trading up in all instances. I have both aluminum and steel frame bicycles, and while my aluminum frames are a few pounds lighter, that's not my only consideration. Steel is generally much more comfortable (especially on crappy roads with three-inch-wide cracks, like around here). This is because it is more flexible and absorbs the jolts better than aluminum - although, it also absorbs a small amount of the energy you put into each pedal stroke too.
Steel frames are a lot more durable too - your steel bike will probably be in better shape after a minor wreck than an alluminum frame. For that matter, I've seen aluminum forks bend while mounted in a car or truck because of potholes in the road, etc. It's not common, but it happens more frequently than people would like.
Unless you're racing or doing time trials, the small weight difference will not be a big factor. I've toured 100 miles on steel and aluminum without noticing the difference in weight.
Bottom line: "newer" technology is not always better. It's all about the circumstances in which it will be used. Get that carbon fiber frame if you've got the money to blow and you want to shave those extra grams off for your next big race. Otherwise, don't worry too much if the bike you've got your heart set on is steel, or aluminum, or even cast iron. :) Get what's comfortable and what suits your style of cycling.
"Wow, you're like some kind of superhero able to ward off happiness and success at every turn."
-- Ryan Stiles
...it no longer fazes me when I see 7' goliaths on the basketball court. I just lace them up, ignite the rocket packs embedded in the soles, and dunk all over my meager competition. From 4'6" to 25' in 2.2 seconds, as the ads say.
And it helps to use the RimPop Magneto Homing Ball, too, because at 60mph it's hard to actually make a clean shot.
Heh. Last time I did anything sporting-like was fighting over the last Athlon XP2000+ at Fry's.
Any connection between your reality and mine is purely coincidental.
The yellow first-down marker has revolutionized my Sunday sports.
Most of the people here can't even handle sports video games, let alone any sort of activity. I guess if they improved football so it could be played easily with a 20oz of Mountain Dew in one hand and a rapidly congealing breakfast burrito in the other there might be more interest.
A good friend of mine wrote some software for the palm and ppc that analyzes tennis matches, tennischarter.com.
10 years ago if you wanted detailed analysis of stats you would have to lug a laptop out to the court, or tape the match and enter the data into a desktop machine, but thanks to the new high powered pda, mobile devices, and even cellphones(!) this can be done with a $89 mobile device!
Sticking with tennis, ESPN has a feature called "ShotSpot" that can pinpoint the location of a tennis ball on a court to within 1mm.
They use this to show if balls that were very close, were actually in or out. Also, because it can track the location of the ball in 3D, in real time, they can do all kinds of cool "fly-by" type 3D simulations, showing stuff like the different trajectories of a first and second serve, or showing how much a slice serve is curving, or how much a kick serve is jumping when it hits the court.
Very cool technology!
The advances in technology that have led to the installation of sensors on the courts (?) that can immediately indicate if a ball is IN or OUT and thus provide the backup to a judge's call OR the successful and irrefutable challenge to the same has been terrific.
The same technology can be used to show where a majority of a player's first serves are landing, second serves, returns, etc. and thus make for more interesting and informative sports commentary.
I first saw this at work at the Queen's Club (the precursor to Wimbledon in London -- on grass). Of course another technology that's been around a bit longer enables the ability to see that Andy Roddick's serve was at 149 mph. Many also agree that the development (technological advance) of raquets is what enables Andy and others (to some degree) to be such power hitters. No doubt, tennis is the most muscular it's ever been.
I get to think about the cool games on my computer when benching a good old-fashined barbell. Used to be that I had to think about something low-tech...
--
Victor Danilchenko
Anytime you can take a V-10 engine and turn it at 13,000 rpm, that's technology. So much so that the connecting rods (pistons for the computer geeks) actually strech and that has to be accounted for. Take a V-8 engine and make it produce 7,000 horsepower and go 300 mph in 4 seconds, thats technology. From Lance Armstrongs newest concept bike he will race to Top Fuel Drag Racing, it's all impressive.
Good Grief. - Charles Brown
...with the "glowing puck" is a great improvement for me. I'm a casual hockey fan and as such, I need the assistance in order to follow the play as easily. However, I'm sure that hard-core hockey fans will curse me (and the technology) and its very existance.
This is a case where MORE technology, i.e. the ability to enable/disable this feature of the broadcast would be a nice thing to offer. Would I pay a subscription service for this alone? No. But if the technology were included in a satellite package versus one which didn't offer the feature, I'd likely pay a little bit extra just to get the option.
The surest sign of intelligent life in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us. -- Calvin & Hobbes
The Nimbus 2000 and the Nimbus 2001 brooms were good in their day, but for real competitive edge, the Firebolt is the best.
...than their riders since they had playing cards stuck in the spokes for effect. Moving from a chrome-moly frame to carbon composite merely increases the gap in my case.
This state-of-the-art racing broom sports a streamlined, super-fine handle of ash, treated with a diamond-hard polish and hand-numbered with its own registration number. Each individually selected birch twig in the broomtail has been honed to aerodynamic perfection, giving the Firebolt unsurpassable balance and pinpoint precision. The Firebolt has an acceleration of 0-150 miles an hour in ten seconds and incorporates an unbreakable braking charm.
Is sex considered a sport?
I play a lot of judo, a sport where technology doesn't directly have a lot of impact. At the end of the day it's still two people in a judogi on some mats. Over the years the mats have improved, but the judogis are more or less the same.
One area which has caused impact across all sports is the improvements in sports medicine. The know-how and technology has vastly improved over the years, most likely (imho) due to the commercialisation of sporting in general. Athletes can now come back faster from an injury than, say, 20 years ago.
I say I ain't giving you no tree fiddy you goddamned Loch Ness monster, get yo own goddamned money!
Except for materials and gears, mainstream bikes have truly changed little in the last 100 years.
The same basic diamond frame, same chain drive. And that is not a bad thing. THe chain drive on a bike is about the most efficient power transfer device ever designed. Many alternatives have been tried, and we keep coming back to the chain. The riding position closely simulates a walking/running movement. Optimized over several million years.
Go to the USAF Museum at Wright-Patterson AFB and look at Orville's bike. No real difference between that and a new bike. Same basic riding position.
Lance could hop on that bike, and trash just about any rider, on any new bike around.
Except for recumbents, there's been little real change. And even there, the riding position/movement is the same, just rotated ~90 degrees. Possibly better aerodynamics, though.
It's not the bike.
- Lance Armstrong
It doesn't get easier, you just go faster.
- Greg LeMond
Shut up and ride.
-Anon
I disagree.
Footware has gotten better.
The mats don't burn as easily as they used to.
Oh yeah -- don't forget the improvements that have been made in diet, training, and physique improvement.
And, there has been improvements in both things like this and this.
Sure, the equipment hasn't changed much... but technology has altered the preperation for competition in every sport. Cameras. Nutrition. Fitness. Just to name a few.
Support a few technologists in Washington.
Yeah, "Troll", like it's some kind of big secret that the french and italians love to pump up meds to increase red bloodcell counts/oxygen uptake, and then pump up on more meds to hide the fact.
The truth hurts, eh? Corrupt bastards.
Once upon a time, Scot Nicol of Ibis Cycles wrote "Metallurgy for Cyclists," an article about different frame materials for bicycles. Out of date by now, but still an informative.
(Google search result used because none of the servers it's on looks able to sustain much traffic.)
...the tiny bubbles in beer has enhanced my enjoyment of sports the most.
In my chosen sport of CounterStrike (a Half-Life mod) technology has improved my frame rate and ultimately my enjoyment of this game.
And technology keeps improving while at the same time becomes more affordable.
All the running around I did in this morning's 2 hours session has made me tired. I think I better lie down.
In my sport, fencing, technology has beed both good and bad. Most comptitive fencing is done today with electrical equipment. You wear a electicly conductive jacket and when a weapon make a valid contact a light and buzzer go off. You are connected to the scoring machine by means of wire conncted to a reel at the back of the piste.
We are only just now getting wireless scoring that elimiates the reel and wire. (thank goodness)
The problems come in that electical scoring can take place so quickly that the rules of right-of-way which, in short, state that you must defend agaist an attack beofor starting one of your own get thrown right out the window and fencing is reduces to a contest to see who can land a touch first no matter what the rules say.
When you fence dry (without electric equipment) the right-of-way rules are much more likely to be observed due to teh fact that you have 5 judges rather than just one.
Everyone here seems to be talking about the able bodied sports.
I am involved with prosthetics and orthotics, and technology plays a huge part in the paralympics.
Look at carbon fibre legs. The fastest paralympian is Marlon Shirley who can do the 100m in 11.09 seconds.
But this tech is also used in able bodied athletes. Take for example that carbon fibre plates are used inside runners shoes to act as energy storage devices and allow the runner to be more efficient than his body would be without the shoes.
The first Tour-de-France was completed on bikes that weighed 40 lbs, obviuosly unsuited for the grueling mountain stages. They were bikes that people used to go pick up baguette, but that didn't stop some determined gentlemen from going 2,000 miles on rickety steel monstrosities. They had rust problems, and prizes were non-existant.
I'm too young to have seen the development of the most revolutionary advances in climbing: the shoes, ropes, harnesses, belay devices, protection, etc. etc. But I sure do appreciate their benefits -- both in my ability to climb more difficult routes and (more importantly) the safety with which I can climb.
As an example of the benefits of new technology, consider the American climbing ratings system (the Yosemite Decimal System). Originally there were ten difficulty levels, from 5.1 to 5.10, 5.10 being "physically impossible". Today, it goes to 5.15 -- and thanks to the technical advances in gear, an amateur like myself can climb 5.10 or 5.11 (once considered "advanced" climbs).
-Thomas
When I first got into road bikes it was reasonable to get into the sport.
Now with all the advances in technology you have to spend at least $1500.00 just to get an entry level racer. That doesn't include the ultra hip clothes $200.00 and up for a pair of shorts and a jersey. $150.00 bucks for the shoes. $100.00 + for a nicely shaped foam helmet with a very thin layer of plastic over it.
I'll keep my 12 year old custom Cannondale until the wheels fall off.
When these came on the market, they were a boon to our way of viewing sport. Where one had to chug multiple containers of puny 12 ounce beer cans, now with a 2 quart can, one could drink longer in between fillups.
Golf - While they have done a nice job reiging in club technology, you have ball technology going through the roof. Golf courses are being made obsolete. Expect the governing bodies to put in restrictions very soon to level things off.
Tennis - Due to new racket technology, it is possible to just crush the ball. Because of this new technology, the game is just turning into serve-ace or serve-return-point. Wimbledon, which is played on a very fast surface, has become very boring to watch. Unless this trend is reversed, expect tennis to become extremely boring with all surfaces rendered obsolete.
Swimming - With the new swim suits everyone has started wearing, you have seen records just start to fall like rocks. At first this seemed like a joke, but if you realize it, this is taking away factors that in many ways could be considered unimportant to the sport, like drag in the water. Of course, you could also think of it in a way that the most prepared (ie, do all you can to reduce drag) wins.
Track - new surface technology as well as wind suits (similar to the swimming suits) have allowed people to run faster. Still, you have to accelerated your body to be that fast, and world records are not falling at any serious rate (the world record has only changed .1 seconds in about 15 years).
The list could go on and on. These are just technologies that have improved or altered the ways that athletes interact with the sports. Other things have been done to make the sports more accessable for the viewer. HDTV is probably the most pronounced, but other things (many of which have been mentioned) - constant scoreboards on the screen, 1st and 10 lines in football, glowing pucks, and even instant replay have done a lot to improve what the viewer knows about what they are watching.
It all depends on your point of view. However, when talking about improvments to the game (for the players), IMHO, it all comes down to this: If technology begins to have a bigger impact on the sport than the people who are playing; ie- you hit the ball further because of technology, NOT your skill; then technology is a bad thing. If all it works to level out factors that should not be included in the sport, then it is a good thing.
It is human nature to take shortcuts in thinking.
There are, of course, pros and cons to each frame material, geometry, tube shape, and so on. I recently purchased an alloy bike with carbon fork and seat stay, which in itself is an interesting piece of work.
I also work at a local bike shop and therefore deal with a whole lot of people every week who are anywhere from cycling newbies to seasoned professionals.
Granted, there have been leaps and bounds in cycling technology over the years, making bikes lighter, stiffer, smoother, and more tuned for good power transfer and efficiency. But, every week, I get at least half a dozen customers who just want the most expensive bike in the shop and don't even bother to test ride, fit, or anything. These people believe that the bike will make them a fast rider. I try to beat through their thick skulls and educate them that all the technology in the world will not make them a fast rider. These people just don't want to hear it.
But, I'll again scream at the top of my lungs that _it's not about the bike_ !!! It's all about attitude, desire, and that burning spirit inside you that can yell at you louder than your aching legs. It's also about learning good technique on the bike. I see so many "posers" on expensive bikes (almost always Trek, of course) pounding away at a cadence of 50 pushing 53/16 or so going 16 mph, leaning on the hoods. As I whiz by spinning 100, I can't help yelling "wrong wrong wrong!" as I fly by.
Don't get me wrong, I think it's fantastic that so many people are getting into cycling - and at least blowing money on bikes that will serve them well if they learn how to ride. What bothers me are these bike shops that push expensive bikes out the door and don't lift a finger to teach people how to ride.
The other day, I ran into a guy that was out with his two sons. He had dropped 4 large on a pair of Fuji Professionals (the bike I ride) - and the kids were in toe clips!!! I had stopped because I like to acknowledge other Fuji riders, and since they rode the same bike I do, it was a nice conversation. The shop that sold him the bikes didn't do anything to set up the bikes properly, not even doing him the favor of selling him decent clipless pedals for his sons.
I admired the kids' desire to learn to ride - they both hoped to ride fast, which is great. I just hope they take me up on my offer to come into my shop for a free fitting and riding lesson (and, of course, to buy pedals and shoes). Maybe there's hope yet for the pair of teenage boys who both want to be the next Lance Armstrong.
Bottom line - technology helps, but don't forget the cyclist inside of you who needs to be set free to tear up the roads. Only armed with the right technique and skill will the technological revolution in cycling be of any use to you.
part of the satisfaction is that that I too am an inner tech weenie. I used to lust after the gizmos. But slowly I stripped them off my bike. few really help you. and you spend more time worrying about your bike and tweaking it than riding it.
The other thing is that I found that light-weight does not mean its better. I break light weight gear. heavy may be better if its solid and reliable. Front shock ride less precicely over a rock garden. Back shocks give you less control too.
I've busted handlebars and could easily have gotten impaled on the fragments. Thus no more trick handle bar alloys for me, please--give me something that known not to metal fatigue or fail catastrophically before it bends.
I've broken al lsorts of parts in all sorts of places I did not want to have to walk out of. thus repairable stuff is good too. I carry lots of tools and people laugh at how heavy my bike is--but somehow I end up using them all and not just on my bike.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
It's my opinion that the greatest technological advances in sports are modern hunting firearms. Without beauties like this, hunting would be ridiculously difficult. Pick one up for yourself today, and fill that deer quota in hours flat. On a sidenote, we really must thank the NRA for vigorously protecting our right as patriotic Americans to carry gas-powered semiautomatic pistol grip combat shotguns (capable of firing 7 76mm Magnum slugs in under 5 seconds) for the purpose of sport.
LEARNING, n. The kind of ignorance distinguishing the studious. A. Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary
Virtual Spectator (http://www.virtualspectator.com/) I'd say is the biggest jump in sports viewing technogly. Made by some Kiwi's down in Dunedin.
It has made wacthing Yacthing interested and has come a long way since American's Cup 1995.
Along with yacthing they have also doing golf, WRC and F1.
http://blog.karit.geek.nz/
In in practicing such recreational sports, I believe that technology can improve the experience, by providing more comfort for example:
a few years ago, due to back aches, biking was becoming less fun for me. So I got a Trek Y22 - not because it was carbon-fiber, but because I wanted a rear-suspension bike, and in 1997 there wasn't as much choice as nowadays (expecially at the lower end of the market). At clearance prices, it ran for $1000 and I did not mind having a cool bike...
So in this case I have to admit that technology has made biking very enjoyable again. But I had just as much fun, when I was younger and did not have back problems, with a 20-yrs old Legnano!
I think the biggest technological improvement is the Bra and Panty matches.
My wife and I are serious bicyclists. This year, we are attempting longer and harder rides than ever before, with more elevation gain. So we got new bikes.
My wife's bike is built on a frame by Wylder, called the Queen of the Road. Wylder is going out of business; when they were in business, they charged $1800 for that frame, but they are selling the frames they have left for $750. (Their web site says they have 42 cm, 45 cm, 52 cm, and 55 cm frames left. If you know a woman who wants a ti bike and can fit one of those sizes, send her this link!)
My bike -- I'm still amazed, I feel so lucky -- is a Colnago Ovalmaster. It's 6/4 titanium, the extra-stiff kind, and it has oddly shaped tubes; the shaped tubes help make the bike very stiff in the ways I want it to be stiff (when I hammer on the pedals, the frame doesn't flex) but still light and springy when I go over bumps. I love it.
I was able to afford my frame because I got it used on ebay. You can get some great deals on bike stuff on ebay.
Anyway, our new bikes have really helped us improve our speed. I didn't realize how much my wife's old bike was holding her back, until she got the new one. Her old bike is comfortable and stable, but it's six full pounds heavier than her new one, which matters when you are spending many hours climbing tall hills. And a lot of the weight savings is in moving parts: pedals, cranks, wheels. (The rule of thumb is that rotating weight counts double, so you should sooner get a lighter wheel than a lighter saddle.)
For me, the biggest improvement with the new bike is not the climbing, but the descending! My old bike was not stiff enough for me, and I got very nervous going down a steep hill. My new bike feels rock-stable under me when I am descending. I am still not a speed demon on downhills, but I'm a lot happier and a bit faster.
The metric I like to apply to bikes is dollars per mile. We ride enough miles that even just this year, both bikes will drop to well under a dollar per mile. If you only ride 10 miles at a time, don't spend serious money on a bike; get an inexpensive starter bike. (But don't buy a $200 bike from Wal-Mart. If you are considering buying a new bike, please read my thoughts on my personal web page about bikes.)
When you think about it, there is a lot of technology going with us on bike rides. We have heart rate monitors that also record speed, distance, and altitude changes (Polar S720+). We have technical fabric clothing, such as CoolMax jerseys or microfiber polyester rainwear. We have helmets that can save us in a bad accident, yet are light and don't make our heads overheat. We carry cell phones while riding, in case a bike totally breaks down and we need a taxi, or in case someone needs medical help.
No matter how much technology I buy, the pro riders could still ride me into the ground on a low-end bike. But our titanium bikes, and our other gear, let us ride up to our ability and have fun doing it.
steveha
lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
I'm too lazy to do this. would rather sit around and hack computer programs, watch tv and eat food.
*yawn*
Yeah. I'm always impressed when I hear about kids in Central America playing baseball naked, barehanded (regulation hard ball) because they can't afford a real glove and only own one change of clothes (if that), and don't want to wreck them.
Lets face it... You are a true gamer if you play at 100% when you're totally naked. (Think sliding without pants on... OUCH! That's dedication...) This is probably off-topic, but this type of dedication you don't see in most professionals who have every technical, financial, and medical advantage (not to mention clothes to protect their bodies when sliding.)
Technology is great, but you have to remember why you play the game (or run the race, or whatever) otherwise it is all pointless. Look how spoiled, whiny, and decadent most pro ballers are these days... Think any of them really remember what its all about?
Who did what now?
Ah... the true sport for masochists everywhere! Definitely the progress of electronic ball-hoppers are one of the main advances I've seen as of late... The Halo e-hopper for one, and the Tippman A-5's cyclone feeder. ;)
w00f.
Much like my computer equipment, I bike with what I can afford, which is a 8 year old Trek 800. It is mounted 24/7 on a bike carrier on the back of my car, and I replace the parts that rust after a while. It works, and if I take care of it, it runs. Much like my computer equipment. I don't buy high end. I buy yesterday's high end because I can afford it and make it do what I want.
-- Having a Creationist Museum is like having an Atheist place of worship
Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
Formula 1 is almost certainly a candidate for most technology dependent. In a sport where the best teams spend more than 5x the worst, results (championship points) can be correlated almost linearly with dollars spent. Testing, wind tunnel time, and engine control hardware and software all cost money. Not to mention the fact that if you can afford to throw away an engine at the end of a race rather than the end of a season, you can manufacture it closer to its theoretical limits and build in less of a safety margin. Ferrari, for instance, has Shell analyze its motor oil after every race. Depending on what type, size, and concentration of metal particles are found, different components are inspected or replaced.
FIA, taking a page from NASCAR's playbook, is considering making drastic alterations to the rules of F1 to make the races more "viewer friendly" than recent seasons. Some of the things under consideration:
-Increasing the number of races an engine must survive
-Forcing all teams to use identical wings, brakes, or transmissons
-Banning driver aides such as torque control or semi-auto shifting
While I can see FIA's reasoning for considering these changes, I hope they do not go through. Even if all cars were identical, the wealthiest teams could still afford the best drivers and would therefore tend to finish better. Limiting budgets could be an option, allowing teams to invest in technologies they felt offered the most return on investment. My guess is that this is not under consideration because it would be too easy for teams to sneak in extra dollars in the form of corporate R&D or deals with suppliers.
Have you seen my stapler?
I can't think of anything having a more profound effect in sports than the first-down line they show during NFL games.
I'm not sure what the reason was - be it lack technology or just knoledge of what could happen, but 80-odd years ago, nobody thought much about head protection or body armor for batters. In 1920, Ray Chapman became the only major league player to die during a game when he was hit in the head with a pitch.
Today, batting helmets are quite strong and very light. Sure, people get hit in the head with 100 MPH fastballs, and I'm sure it hurts, but nobody really worries about dying anymore because the equipment is so effective.
While helmets are definitely necessary, I sometimes wonder about the benefits of all the body armor that batters wear now. Since virtually every tender surface that is exposed to the pitcher can be protected, hitters are crowding the plate more than ever. This wouldn't make a difference if pitchers could pitch inside like they used to be allowed to, but it seems like the MLB is really discouraging it. I remember in 1999, Indians pitcher Jaret Wright was called into the ML chief disiplinarian's office about his tendancy for hitting pitchers. Sure, Jaret has been injured a lot the last few years, but he never regained the confidence to pitch inside, and has been ineffective since.
Insightful: 76, Off-Topic: 379, Flamebait: 24, Funny: 152, Interesting: 201, Underrated: 55, Troll: 9, Total: 896
Even though they're not a recent development, dive computers make a huge difference. Most beginning divers have to learn the concept of dive tables developed by the US Navy. This is sensible and very much like learning the multiplication tables before being allowed to use a calculator.
When used properly, the computers are an extra safety measure and help make the dives last longer without incurring unnecessary risks. I usually dive with 2 (Suunto Cobra air-integrated with compass for primary, Suunto Mosquito on my wrist for backup) and have enjoyed my diving much more since I got them.
This has been the 'holy grail' of mountain biking for some time now, and I think the technology is getting close. Since the introduction of rear suspensions in mtn bikes, purists have been criticizing the fact that a certain percentage of your pedaling power was being diverted to compressing the rear suspension.
The first rear suspension frames (The 'Y' frames) were awful when it came to efficienctly tranferring power from pedal to the drivetrain. Most of these bikes had to be equipped with a switch that would lock out the rear suspension so that you could ride the bike up hills.
Over the years, there have been many, many wacky frame designs that have tried to solve this problem. Based on the trends in frame designs over the past 3 years, I think the industry is nearing a solution. Examples of which can be seen:
Ellsworth Truth
Iron Horse
Giant NRS
Now if I only had the $2500 it would take to upgrade my 7-year old Gary Fisher Joshua, I would be all set.
These are selling like hotcakes yet I can usually outshoot them with my Glock that costs half as much.
This guy is way out there
Anonymous Coward, why focus purely on European countries, while inside the US, there is very well as much 'corruption', many athletes are so dedicated they will do anything to improve thier performance, be they male, female, white, black, gay, or any other characteristic, such as nationality as you were pushing, when in fact it makes no difference. As a high school tennis player, I will say on my level, the only real advancements for me are improved raquet design, allowing us to get maximum performance, and since we are not hitting any 100mph serves, I dont feel it takes away from the game at all.
It's the lobby of Framebuilders that prevented bikes built like this one or this one from being permitted to the Tour de France and other major events. Actually they lobbied to change the rules to prohibit these modern bicycles which literaly kick the living crap out of the old 'hunchback' designs.
...causes me serious problems taking *any* hunchback riding those ancient-style, so-called 'racingbikes' serious and for granted. No matter how flashy they look in their silly candycolored trunks. On the contrary.
Talking about innovation and using all kinds of supermodern material may sound oh so cool and hip. But after more than 10 years after the first professional Windcheetahs still...
1.) riding in a postion that's not only seriously unhealthy,...
2.) grossly inefective in bringing your legpower to the street and into your movement,...
3.) gives you the aerodynamics of a frigerator box,...
4.) is near to unbearably uncomfortable...
5.) and looks somewhat silly...
The promoters and sponsors of the Tour de France and other races ought to be boykotted completely for their outright childish kiddiecrap traditionalisim.
Sports technology? My ass. If you want innovation, go check the newest sneakers, but don't ask bike-racers.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
figure skating boot technology has not changed in around 50 years now. Sure, the new boots are now heat mouldable, so you throw them in an oven and they fit better, but they don't work any different from decades ago.
Some blade companies have slightly changed the design of toepicks or whatever, but the basic shape is the same from even 100 years ago.
There was some talk a few years ago that the current technology will see an end to innovation in the sport, with the weight of the boots and blades preventing further advances in jumping.
And furthermore, the boots break down fast and can be quite dangerous, with athletes prone to hip, back and ankle injuries due to stiff, heavy landings compacted by boots that are absolutely unforgiving.
I do a fair bit of cycling and road racing, and I would credit equipment with very little of my success or failure. Like most things, at the elite level every fraction of a percentage matters, but the biggest determination of speed and success lies in the engine. Put Lance Armstrong on an old beater bike and he will still clean my clock no matter what bike I ride.
Some sports do have a bigger technology divide. Professional sports car racing is one example I can think of. There is a mostly consistent relationship between team funding and team success, but in cycling no one is losing races because they couldn't afford a better bike. In fact, bicycle manufacturers are falling over themselves to give bikes to pro teams for the exposure and endorsement.
I must say though, I do enjoy the technological advancement of the sport. Most of it is snake oil, but every once in a while something comes along that really changes things, like clipless pedals or earo bars. Here's to Lance winning!
-- Solaris Central - http://w
Admittedly, increases in bicycle technology have improved many aspects of the sport. However, at times it seems to interfere with the simple pleasure of riding.
A fixie removes the derailleurs and shifters. The drive train is direct drive. See Fixed Gear for the Road for many details.
Riding a fixed gear bicycle gives a unique riding experience, unadulterated by any technology issues. Without going into too much detail, it's extremely pleasurable to strip away some of the technology and really feel the essence of bicycling.
Plus, it's fun to think about someone trying to steal your bike!
As a sports fan, the greatest advancement in technology has to be TiVo. I'd say my viewing and appreciation of sports has increased at least by a factor of 3 with the convenience of "automatic" time shifting and TiVo's powerful review abilities.
I now understand what "delayed offsides" is in hockey, "tail braking" is in motorcycling, and why the move from filament to LED starting bulbs on drag racing tracks is throwing the scoring system into chaos.
...is better than it's ever been. My new skates give me flexibility and support that just wasn't available when I was a kid. My composite stick really does add power to my shot. The shin pads/helmet/pants/etc. you can buy these days offer better protection while being lighter than what was available only 10 years ago. But I don't think any of that has really added to the enjoyment of the game. It was just as much fun to play then as it is now. I'm sure that's true with all the sports. As long as you can join in on the game, that's all that matters.
"Anyone that has ever gotten an idea based on any of my work and done something better with it-good for you."--J.Carmack
Can we talk about this a minute? All streams are for Windows. Not only does this suck, it's anti-competitive. Please write OLN and point out the error of their ways.
Thanks
AC
I tore my left ACL skiing in 1988. I was given a heavy and bulky brace.
It was fine for keeping my knee from rotating, but was a great hinderance in raquetball. The plastic hinge cover would fall off and the hinge would tear holes in my right leg.
Not having learned my lesson, I tore my right ACL skiing in 2000. This time, I was given an new carbon fiber Don Joy (www.donjoy.com) brace.
Though I probobly won't go skiing again, I can play other cutting sports without the weight or bulk while retaining the stability and mobility.
"When Stalin says dance, a wise man dances" Nikita Kruschev
It seems as if the UCI doesn't like change as much as it seems - banning new cycling technology from races - for instance my Softride couldn't be used in the tour de france, i guess this technology (http://www.softride.com/bike/advantages.asp) is too much of a change for the UCI races.
I think the biggest technical advance that has affected my sports experience is the TV remote control. Now any time anything resembling sports appears on TV, I can change channels WITHOUT GETTING UP!
Yeah! Nothing wrong with your eyes and yes, this is the *real* /.!
Since nature decided 8 years ago that conjoining a geek with bodybuilding seemed like a Good Idea©, I've been hoisting iron in Good Faith©. And a true bodybuilder sneers at the concept of "new technology"; barbells and dumbells r0xx0rs!
Seriously, I doubt any other sport has such resentment to employing new devices in order to advance the sport. The two latest Mr. Olympia has left no doubts as to how and with what equipment they're using to excel in this brutal sport. Especially Dorian Yates has been an advocate of using old-school methods championed by Mike Mentzer with brief sets and reps, and using only basal equipment. I prefer this as well, but include machines which surpass the dum/bar-bell routines with respect to isolation-movements.
On the other hand, when drugs are concerned, bodybuilding is on the bleeding edge; sad but true...
"The only clear view is from atop the mountain of our dead selves." - Peter Carroll
Step in bindings are great. I have really crappy ones that take longer than strap ins but for everyone else they seem to work fine. Stay away from Ride bindings.
"Technology is great for sports... Just look what it did for me!" -- Sammy Sosa on corked bats
Skydiving today has computers that can automatically open your reserve parachute for you if you get knocked out: http://www.cypres-usa.com/
Also the refinement/design of the parachute containers has made the sport safer than ever.
On the flip side, CAD and laser cutting have transformed parachute canopies into high speed extremely manueverable wings that can be very dangerous to fly without good training. I wouldn't be suprised if in another 10 years more people died under a perfectly good parachutes than those that died because they couldn't get one out. It's almost at that point today.
...on my mountain bike. The rear linkage is 6061 Aluminium. I love this frame, it continually impresses me how fast you can change direction in the rough stuff. The suspension design also lends itself towards minimal energy loss while climbing -- you'd swear you were on a hardtail sometimes.
...is still inversely proportional to the weight of your bike. Alas, with all this progress, all bikes still weigh 50 pounds:
- A 49-pound bike requires a 1-pound lock.
- a 1-pound bike requires a 49-pound lock.
You'd be amazed at how bowling ball technology has changed in the last 30 years. Ball have gone from hard rubber, to plastic, to polyurethane, to reactive resin, and now to resin balls with particles of mica or other solid materials embeded in the surface for extra traction. All these innovations make the ball slide longer and hook harder, so pin carry is much better than it used to be. A perfect game used to be a rarity for any but the very best bowlers, now they occur frequently among good league bowlers. The typical recreational bowler who throws the ball straight has not been affected by this technology, but the typical leage bowler who throws a mild to heavy hook has seen averages increase by 10 to 20 pins per game.
It used to be unusual for a league to have more than one or two bowlers who averaged over 200. Today many good amateur bowlers average over 220.
Hockey equipment, like equipment in most sports has been evolving for a good while. For instance, sticks used to be of the all-wood variety. These were great and all anyone had ever known until Easton came out with an aluminum shaft (this still required a wooden blade). This new shaft made the overall weight of the stick lighter, while also adding beneficially to the flex and other properties of the stick. Some old-school types complained that they couldn't get the same "feel" for the puck with the new sticks and that may have been somewhat valid, but the increase in shot velocity with the new sticks was just too much to turn down. As recently as the last couple of years, a new type of stick was introduced by Easton - a one piece composite. Super-light and very responsive. These composite one-pieces are now adding 10% more speed to the shot of every player that uses them.
-- jimmycarter
The wireless remote control.
A huge addition to my enjoyment of sport.
I've been riding skateboards for over 15 years and there has been little technological change in the boards themselves. There has been more of a slow evolution. The shapes of the boards have changed a good bit, more concave, steeper tails and noses, symetrical front and rear... I got back in after an absence of about 3 years and EVERYTHING had changed just a little bit. All of those small differences did make a big difference. The boards are still made of the same hard rock Canadian maple though. The wheel bases got shorter, the wheels got smaller, not to mention all of the new skateparks we get to ride now. Not just the equipment is changeing in sports, the arenas are changeing as well.
The incredible advances in technology in the last 20 years that have made my 56 inch television possible, and have allowed the NBA League Pass and NFL Sunday Ticket to be beamed into my home have greatly improved my enjoyment of sport.
Top it off with internet Fantasy Sports that I monitor with my wireless notebook while I'm lounging in the comfy chair eating a pizza I ordered with my cell phone and drinking the beer I bought at my online grocer, and technology has been a true boon.
Laugh while you can, monkey-boy!
It's the centenary (100th anniversary, first run in 1903) Tour de France this year, which would seem to trump it's being the 90th running of the Tour for the purposes of headline writing, even on /.
It's been shelved, the microswitch on Button1 died.. but it's fixable.
I don't find the same things happen, at all.. I did on the first MS Intellimouse Opticals.. but I can lift my logitech opticals no problem..... as for sensitivity.... I found the razor not really that much more sensitive. I can execute all the same manoevers with my logitech dual optical that I could with the boomslang.
I can turn or reposition the mouse with no more error than I got with the boomslang.
In all honesty, I would use the boomslang if the button worked again.. but probably only cause it's weird, and I blew a hundred bucks on it.
My bike is a Columbia. It has balloon tires, and when I traced it's serial number on the web, it came up as being manufactured in 1967.
It has coaster brakes and the handlebar is rusty.
I do need to get a light on it somewhere. Here in central Indiana I am finding the drivers are idiots who pay little attention to bicycles. This is the f*cking jalopy republic part of the country, it seems. I suppose I could make it a flashing LED light. I wouldn't want to spoil a classic Columbia bike with too much tech, though.
Coaster brakes rule. If I wanted a bike that wasn't excercize to ride, I suppose I'd get some ultralight thing that I could make monthly payments on.
keep improving swimsuit design so they cant be pulled off
Don't forget the technology used in the training regimen that athletes use today. Technology has created advances in areas of sports science including biomechanics, motion analysis and nutrition among others. These advances have been the major factor in the number of records being broken and re-broken in every sport over the last decade.
Think about how Babe Ruth would have fared going up against Roger Clemens or Sammy Sosa. Not well. Or another babe, Babe Zaharious playing tennis against Serena Williams...ugly. This is the reason all comparison of records uses the term "the modern era" for recent achievements.
Of course, performance enhancing drugs like androstenedione (a testosterone booster) are often cited as being a major 'contributor' to baseball and other sports today, but this isn't true in all cases. Lance Armstrong doesn't use anything and he has won 4 Tour de France races in a row.
..get over it you prickless fop. Buy an SUV and get with the pogrom.
I study kendo, and the bogu (the armor) that employs plastics and nylon and more modern materials are much cheaper and less desirable than bogu that are constructed of bamboo slats, ray skin, and leather. The plastic bogu are fine for beginners, but more experienced and dedicated kendoists prefer the traditional material, even though it requires more upkeep. This is the inverse of sports such as cycling, i.e. more technology, the better.
There are carbon fiber shinai (the bamboo sword) available, but many experienced kendoists still prefer a handmade bamboo shinai, which is still cheaper than the carbon fiber shinai.
Technology is helpful and promoted vigorously in many sports, but some retain tradition and focus on improving the person rather than the equipment.
Stop making that big FACE!
> With the 90th Tour de France starting today, it is
> fun to marvel at the improvement of road bike
> technology over the years.
Come on, now. We all know that the UCI blocked the last important improvement of bicycle technology in 1934. All that has happened since is minor incremental change and numerous broken necks.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
But in the last few years, a few shops have popped up that will make boards to order. Now you can pick your length, width, sidecut radius, and flex pattern (and how much do you weigh?), and get a board made to order, for not much more than a production board. The freeride and freestyle people haven't taken much advantage of this, but the carvers and racers totally have.
Donek - kind of expensive, but they have a dedicated following among carvers
Prior - also lurking beneath the brand-name logos of various professional racers
Coiler - inexpensive, perhaps because of the Canadian dollar, and they kick much ass
CustomCraft - only custom shop I know of that mostly builds freestyle and freeride boards
The technology of the boards themselves isn't revolutionary, the cool thing is the technology that lets these builders give you a high-quality made-to-order board at a totally reasonable cost.
I have no affiliation with any of the above companies, but I do have an alpine board from Coiler and an alpine/freeride hybrid from CustomCraft. Both have saved me the trouble of searching through piles of catalogs to find a board with the specs I want, and both have given me the confidence to push my envelope further, after 15 years of riding mass-produced boards.
If you want to play with the numbers before having a board built, I have a web-based calculator that you might get a kick out of.
Gotta run. There's a lot to be said about snowboard binding development too, maybe later.
Build stuff. Stuff that walks, stuff that rolls, whatever.
I like to run trail marathons and can attest to the great strides Montrail and others have made with specific trail running gear that is distinguished from the already excellent selection of road running shoes.
No, not really.
Even 25 years ago hard stuff was being sent, i think the FA on Midnight Lightning (V8/9) came in the late 70's or early 80's when the rest of climbing was stuck in the 5.11 and 5.12 range. The think that held roped climbing back was far from technology. To sport climbing as we know it, there has not been any advance in technology in 50 years that has advanced the sport to unknown limits.
The thing that allowed climbing to progress more than anything was a change in ethics. Back in the 70's and 80's it was considered cheating to use bolts and draws as a form of protection, so a lot of hard routes were done trad style. The primary reason was the unsighlyness of the bolts, but also because some people have trouble letting go. Also the way we work routes, hanging at each move we can't get until we figure it out was considered cheating too. People used to try a route once and if they fell, lowered all of the way to the ground to try it again. At this point in time that was the only way to get a true 'redpoint', hanging until you could get the move earned you the label a 'hangdog' and any send you eventually could get was called a 'pinkpoint'. Chalk wasn't widely used until the 80's because it was considered to have unsightly consequences just like bolting, and is still banned in some places (skeleton cave, OR for example)
Bouldering however, the moves were still as hard, but there were no silly things holding people back from thier potential. Since climbing became what it is now, it has been advanced by an elite cadre of freaks of nature who can do one arm pull-ups off of thier pinky fingures. **cough**fred**cough** and it'd be silly to think that anyone could climb that hard.
That's a great example of where technology can have a really bad effect on a sport.
:)
I loved fencing in a previous life. But I really hated electrics for the reasons you state... strategy went out the window and every engagement seemed to turn into a kamikaze blitz.
My only solace is that if it had been real swordplay, I might have come away with a few nicks, but my opponents would have looked they had been run through a Quisinart. (damn that was fun. and i'm one of those pr*cks who always used a *really* stiff blade.
hardly a troll, a friend of mine decided not to go pro to avoid having to take drugs
^Z
[1]+ Stopped
These days you can get excellent skis from every vendor at every price range. If you don't care for parabolics (yes, they will slow you down), K2 in particular is still pushing long straight skis. Personally I am an Atomic snob - excellent feel, nice turning, and fast at the 198 length.
Who needs 'em. I'm still using my Burton Woody and loving it. I have no interest in the new freestyle trick boards, I just want to do straight alpine boarding, no frills. I've thought about getting a Burton Fish but this is the first year they have a large enough one available for me.
The biggest change to the game occurred in the mid-1970's with the introduction of astroturf hockey fields instead of grass fields. These became common in club-level hockey by about 1985. The introduction of a predictable surface made possible a lot of things that were impossible to do reliably before - stretching the stick out horizontally, on both the "forestick" (right) and "backstick" (left) sides, to trap the ball, evading players by dragging the ball from left to right, faster passing as players needed much less time to control the ball before laying off the pass, and far greater accuracy in passing and hitting.
Just about every other piece of hockey equipment has changed in response. The balls changed from leather to plastic, and dimples were added. Goalkeeping gear was completely revolutionised, with cricket-style pads replaced with huge foam numbers which are great on synthetic fields but would not survive long on muddy grass. However, the greatest changes occurred in stick design.
On grass fields, sticks were designed to have a fairly wide, flat head. This was great for controlling the ball on a bumpy grass field, but was totally unsuitable for swivelling the stick around to drag the ball from left to right - not to mention horizontal-stick trappings (with the old style sticks the ball would often sail straight under the gap formed by the head of the stick on the ground when this was attempted). So the long, flat heads were replaced with a short, stubby surface.
Around the same time, somebody figured out that a stiffer stick hit the ball more efficiently than a less stiff model, and the wood sticks were gradually reinforced with a succession of materials, starting with fibreglass, then proceeding through various fibreglass/kevlar/carbon fibre composites, and so on. Soon, the only wood left in these sticks was in the heads, which at the time was required by law. Easton even released an aluminium stick featuring replacable heads, which was banned after a couple of seasons on (exaggerated) safety grounds. A rule change saw the emergence of pure composite sticks, which is what I play with now. Even a mug like me can hit the ball extremely hard with one, and the top international players strike the ball at upwards of 100 mph - and remember, a hockey ball is heavier and harder than a baseball or cricket ball. Despite the faster ball speed, the synthetic surface has meant that the ball is far more trappable now than back in the pre-synthetic days.
Then, there are the subsidiary technologies. Instead of playing in studded football boots, we wear astroturf shoes, which are much more comfortable and provide much better shock absorption. Our shin pads have improved tremendously. Even the clothing is more comfortable than when I began.
There are a couple of downsides to the changes, though. The first is that with the faster ball speed, defending "penalty corners" has become much more dangerous than it used to be (the game is still relatively safe, compared to many other sports). The second is the massive cost of the facilities and gear. A top-of-the-range hockey stick costs 150 USD or so, and lasts about a season. Goalkeeping gear now costs over 1000 USD. A synthetic field, even the cheaper "sand-based synthetic" fields, costs about 300,000 USD to set up initially, and needs to be resurfaced about once a decade at a cost of about half that, if I recall correctly. An international-standard "water-based" field costs about 750,000 USD. Considering that very few players can play professionally, it is one of the most expensive team sports there is.
But would I go back to the old days of grass fields? Once every so often for a hit-and-giggle game, maybe. But full-time? Not on your life.
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo
--Andy Finkel (J. Klass?)
The idea that a steel frame will flex and therefore be more comfortable on bumpy roads is a complete myth. Frames do flex, but hardly at all in the vertical plane. Any microscopic vertical flex that does occur would be impossible to differentiate from the much greater flex of the tyres, saddle, and handlebar tape.
The only possible way in which a steel frame may be more comfortable than aluminium (all other things being equal) is if there is some difference in the way it vibrates.
Well, there hasn't been much technelogical developement in weightlifting. Its just the athlete, a solid surface to lift on, shoes that have no give, the bar and the weights. Not much you can improve on. In fact the only way technology is udes in weightlifting is weighing the athletes and running the clock.
The advent of plastic boots for telemark skis has gone far to explosively repopularize the sport among Europeans, and Americans as well.
The leather boots, replaced by their plastic counterparts which were unbeknownst to the market even a _decade_ ago, were ill-fit for serious skiing. The new boots are quite comfortable and vastly superior by measures of performance.
It is interesting that the Norwegian Sondres Norheim developed the telemark binding and turn some centuries ago, but it is only modern sports technology which has proliferated its use.
No kidding, what's next? A /. story on dating?
"It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance." - Thomas Sowell
The new Employee of the Month is..... This inanimate Carbon Rod!
--
"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
Back when I raced seriously (15 years ago), the best advice one could find in the public domain was, "Ride this way this much of your training schedule, then this other way this much, then that way. Eat lots of carbohydrates. Schedule some recovery time." I always forgot that last part.
Nowadays, Lance Armstrong weighs each meal during the season, and his coach knows exactly how much power (scientifically measured, not some armchair term) he can exert for how long, how much impact that effort has on his musculature and how much on his cardiovascular system. His time trial bike, equipment and position are all wind-tunnel tested. Lance KNOWS how fast he can expect to ride over which part of the course for how long, and uses tactics to decide when to attack. His year-round training and racing schedule is targetted directly at the Tour de France, to maximize his physical potential in July.
Other riders do the same, but Lance does it best. All this knowledge is available to any athlete with enough money. (I hear one can get a VO2Max test for $25.)
Oh yes, those integrated brake and shift levers, and high-performance clincher road tires, are keen!
Has gotten extreme technological gains over the years. The top GP bikes have engine management systems to rival F1 cars, carbon fibre rotors, fuel mapping that can be changed by the rider on the track to alter HP delivery. Even motorcycle tires that race at daytona have two seperate compounds on each side of the tire. One is for the large bank, and one is for the rest of the infield course. Even the ducati I bought this year has a computer with lap timer and data recorder built into the bike. it can even interface with a trackside IR lap timer. The tech that was available 5 years ago to the pro team is now available for the amaetur racer.
Revolutions are never about freedom or justice. They're about who's going to be top dog. -- Kilgore Trout
Sorry to hear this. My experiences have been varied, but mostly when it's bad it's because I don't understand the choices I need to make for new technology to work best. In example, I used to play a wicked game of tennis with a 20 year old wood racket. Then I (stupidly) gave it away when I got a graphite racket. The strings were loose enough in the wooden model to afford greater control at a cost in speed. The lighter graphite model was very tight and I gained a lot of speed, but lost considerable control. Simple solution is just to have the string loosened a little.
My experience with bicycles is much more influenced by larger gaps in technology. My road bike (in pieces atm and soon to be replaced) is an 1988 Fuji Tivoli. CroMo frame, some fussy components, but pretty good for when it sold. It weighs in at a hefty 25 lbs, but is a far cry lighter than its predecessor, a Schwinn varsity which probably was in the 50+ lb ballpark. The Schwinns comp group was so weak I wore it out or mangled it in about 3 weeks of hard pounding. The Fuji fared better, thanks to better alloys and better quality. Cost adjusted for inflation both probably were about the same expense.
About 5 years later I picked up a Cannondale Delta V600, hardtail mountain bike w/headshock. The first real techy set of wheals, aircraft aluminum frame and a decent comp set. I still ride this, after some upgrading and it's still a very competitive bike. The only thing I'd change is more front suspension, as when I bought it I lived in flat-as-a-pancake Saginaw Valley. Now I live in the Santa Cruz area and climb (and descend) real mountains. Santa Rosalia, 2600' vertical gain is a favorite and I wouldn't dream of doing it with a heavier bike. I could strip a few pounds with some carbon/Ti replacements, but for 10 years old it's still a competent ride for a decent climb. Much better with a few of Shimano's advances (though I'm a bit miffed by their 5 to 4 bolt crankset change, goodbye old 5 bolt spares...)
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Thanks for being someone that loves bikes so much that they take the time to teach others about cycling. I found a local bike store with people like you, and I'm ten times the cyclist that I used to be. Without people like you encouraging and teaching, the poseurs get tired of their four kilobuck bikes and hang them up in the garage after a season of not getting Lance Armstrong fast.
Boron Carbide (CB4) was a classified defense material for years, probably for radar invisibility or some such. Lots of neat stuff which used to be classified has made it to the consumer market, which has been very good, for the choices it has allowed.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Believe it or not, there are still climbing and time trial records from 30 years ago that still stand today. The only technological improvements that have really mattered in a race like the TdF are index shifting and aerobars. Index shifting helps the sprinters and aerobars help the time trials. But the basics of climbing mountains have been unchanged for a long time. Whenever Lance Armstrong is asked about his place in tour history, he always defers to the greats like Eddy Merckx and Miguel Indurain. Merckx was especially amazing, because he didn't just win tours like Lance, he also won the classics in the same year. The new bikes are really nifty, but they haven't really changed anything. Every time I've ever raced, I've been beaten by someone on an older bike, and I'm pretty fast.
I was quite surprised that nobody mentionned drugs.
The Tour the France is basically corrupted because of the drugs. If you think that Lance Armstrong is running on clear, spring water, you are delusional. He just happens to have better train^H^H^H^H^H doctors.
I couldn't think of a worse sport to use as an example for the demonstration of technological advances. Frames made of alternative materials, such as aluminum frames, have been around since at least the 30's. Indexing shifting has been around since the at least 70's. Cantilever brakes have been around since at least the 40's. Disk brakes since at least the 60's. Suspension systems have been around since I don't know when. Sturmey Archer used their basic design for a multiple speed hub for over 100 years. There's nothing new in cycling, just refinement of designs that come and go based on marketing campaigns. That's why companies like Brooks are still making saddles the same way they were making them over 100 years ago. The last true innovation for bicycles was the derailleur, and that one is decades old.
If someone could explain to me why an 18 pound aluminum frame is faster than a 23 pound steel frame, but a 200 pound rider doesn't get any faster if he drops his weight to 190 I'd appreciate it. IMHO it's not the technology that makes one bit of difference, it's committing to an activity, gaining knowledge, and getting better at the activity. It sure aint the shoes.
You could try epee instead of foil and saber, because it has been about hitting people first all along, and there is the added bonus of being able to score anywhere on the body, which leads to fun toe or mask shots.
I'm a firm believer in the philosophy of a ruling class. Especially since I rule. -Randal, Clerks
This is Slashdot, I can tell you anything: true, false, some of each. Funny, not funny, some of each. On topic, off topic, some of each. Poorly written... (there's an opposite, I just can't locate a good example ; )
Looking for freelance Actionscript (Flash/Flex) or ColdFusion work and/or freelance developers. Email me, put Slashdot
It's always been about the rider (and knowing the doping test schedules).
Training techniques have made a much bigger impact on the TdF, bike racing, and sports in general than equipment.
The equipment helps, but Lance or just about every other pro rider could kick 99% of the rest of our sorry fat asses whether they're riding a Schwinn Varsity with stem shifters, those cool "safety" brakes, 27mm tires, etc., even if we were all riding on Lance's special TT bikes.
For most sports, training is now a year-long endeavor for professionals and very serious amateurs. Granted, it is not full-on everyday, but gone are the days of taking a two or four month vacation in the off-season. There is no more off-season.
they have some really great, light hockey sticks. They are expensive. One piece Easton Synergy's are awesome. I've tried one at the rink. but $150 for a one-piece stick. Ouch. Breaking that is painful. See the playoffs and all those broken sticks? I do use a $35 carbon blade on my stick. It improved my slap shot considerably and weighs about half as much as a wooden/abs blade.
DO NOT DISTURB THE SE
But it always was high-tech, even from the onset when it was invented in the 1920's by Yves Leprieur (Cousteau merely improved the gear - by re-using a 1865 design spurned by Leprieur).
During the last 20 years, we've seen composite materials enter the scene to make suits, fins, masks and other gadgets, very fancily machined balanced regulators, and, of course, computers.
But SCUBA-diving is also high-tech because it calls for a good knowledge of human physiology to properly understand what pressure does to the human body, in order to avoid serious crippling injury.
But most advances in recent years involve more "software" than "hardware"; that is, new methods that use slightly modified diving gear, such as Nitrox mixes, that is, oxygen-enriched gases that offers all sort of benefits.
Or, at the other end of the spectrum, special inert gas mixes for deeper diving, once the province of commercial divers, being used by sport divers.
And the rebirth of old technologies, such as rebreathers (used by combat swimmers during World-War II), but with computers monitoring their function to enable mixing a continuously variable breathing mix optimized for the current depth in order to minimize nitrogen exposure without skirting oxygen toxicity.
Sailing supply stores (called chandleries) offer line (rope to you landlubbers) 1 inch (25 mm) in diameter with a breaking strength of 100,000 lbs (45000 kg).
Before the last Cup, I read an interview with the manager of Paul Cayard's team, who talked about shipping his two hulls from San Fran to Auckland on a steamer with the keels attached. They were worried about shipping the hulls without the keels because these 70 foot long hulls weigh only 3 tons without the keels. Most recreational 35 foot boats weigh that much; the hull on a competitive 70 footer (like the Santa Cruz 70) would normally weigh at least double that. Those 140-foot masts have lead to advances in carbon fiber technology not imaginable 10 years ago.
Even the recreational racer these days is in an arms race. Unless your racing class or club prohibits it, materials and manufacturing technology in sails produces a new breed of sails every couple of years. Changes in underbody design, the continual adoption of newer and better modelling software, etc., make each generation of boat lighter, faster, stronger than the previous.
Now if they'd apply some of that design and materials genius to a comfortable, lightweight marine head (toilet) that didn't clog, I could spend my afternoon sailing instead of knee-deep in $#!%...
The single biggest advance that made the decimal system seem cramped was the modern sticky rubber shoe that appeared in the 60's. At first it was also seen as cheating by some purists.
Once you learn to trust these shoes, just about anyone in great shape can follow 5.10, a rating that originally would have been off the scale.
I think you undervalue exposure as a component of climb difficulty. Exposure being the general climbing term for the degree to which the climb exposes you to, or makes you aware of danger. The ratings on many climbs actually take this into account. While there are probably some climbers immune to the effect, I would say most climb at a somewhat lower level when under conditions of extreme exposure, due to factors such as muscle tension and unwillingness to trust marginal holds. When you add bolts to a previously runout climb, you effectively decrease the level of difficulty. The invention of the spring-loaded cam had the same effect for many of the classic Yosemite crack climbs.
Not that I'm complaining. I may be a "geek" but I've an extensive collection of sports injuries from a lifetime of extreme sports, and no desire to add to them.
The bicycles Armstrong & co are using today are not fundamentally different from those used by Merckx, Anquetil, and even earlier. A few grams here or there does not make a "technological revolution", except in the minds of the people buying and admiring them hanging in their garage. Go out and ride.
The last real technological revolution in cycling was the invention of the double-triangle safety bike, right about the same time as the first TdF (displacing the penny-farthing high-wheeler). And I guarantee those guys on their old bikes would beat the pants off of you gearhead wankers riding carbon fiber any day. There were heroes in those days.
Happy couch sitting, guys.
It is now to the point where a significant amount of the touches (esp. in foil) are actually scored on the opponents back as he faces you, by whipping the blade over his shoulder. Rather bizarre to the uninitiated, and a far cry from the sports origins.
I have basically two circles of friends, intellectual geeks and sports geeks, with quite a bit of crossover between the two. Don't really see much difference, except that they geek out about different things.
I live on a sailboat. My boat is based on a traditional schooner design from about 100 years ago. But that is about as traditional as it gets. My hull is aluminium, masts are carbon fiber, lines are spectra, sails are dacron. I also have solar panels, GPS, radar, diesel generator, and sat phone. Because of this I can work from anywhere in the world and post to slashdot from N1820.153 W07820.305.
I think sports tech goes overboard though when it costs over 100 million to put a F1 team together for a season or several hundred million to be competitive in an Americas Cup Challenge.
People who bite the hand that feeds them usually lick the boot that kicks them
Running shoes have made an amazing change for me over time. I have US size 13,5 feet. The first shoes I bought when I was 18 did not fit. They did not exist. Now there are a lot of shoes that fit more or less. When you have a big size they do not go by halves so I can buy 13 or 14.
.. The sturdy shoes average 1500 km. Good are Asics, New Balance and Brooks.
The technology is great; the shock absorption, the weight, the progress has been awesome.
The main drawback is that the milage you can get our of running shoes is less than stellar. Some shoes have a max of 600 km. When you consider that some run 100 km a week
The shock absorbtion materials in shoes bounce back over time so it is a smart move to have two pairs and alternate them. This enhances the longevity a lot.
The great thing about good shoes is that they prevent injuries. But that is true only when you wear the right shoes for YOUR feet. It really pays to buy them in a speciality shop.
PS IANASSM
Gerard
Comfort is the underlying motivator of all human behavior. Advances in sporting goods technology make these activities easier, and therefore more comfortable. We find ourselves going faster, yet in more control. The rushes we get from it provide yet more comfort.
Think about it. Everything we do breaks down to seeking comfort.
Nice try, but I don't believe you get "out there" any more than the rest of us. Personally I got hooked on watching professional basketball when my coach told me to watch it to learn about mental toughness. Its called modelling. One can learn things from emulating the elite athletes who are the best at what they do. Things to improve your game, or even cross over to other facets of life such as teamwork in business. Plus it can simply be high drama.
You also might want to look into why you have such a strong negative reaction to the sight of men being affectionate in physical contact. I'm about as straight as they come and it bothers me not at all. Perhaps you are suppressing something?
Agreed! If only I had the money to buy this technoloGee when I deserved it--still it makes this old flabby rider better, without a doubt. Same goes for carbon fiber and brake shifters.
With the 90th Tour de France starting today, ...
Actually it is the 100th edition this year.
Both give advantages to people with money, normally meaning that countries which are poor cannot afford to spend such money on their athletes (particularly as people like trainer makers don't have a huge market there).
Sadly, they don't seem to allow these bikes. I'm really puzzled why. They go much faster than normal racing bikes.
It was changed a year after the other forward pass rules because of the infamous forward-pass-look-alike-really-a-tuck tuck.
Mountaineering stopped being a sport when 80 year olds started to make it up Everest.
The arrival of new materials has certainly improved my work-outs enormously! I lift weights for work-out, something I'm quite happy with. The weights used to be made from steal, and was extremely heavy, almost impossible to lift. Nowadays, i use weights made from high-tech composit materials, that weigh almost nothing! I can lift TWICE as big weights with less than HALF the effort! It's incredible!
SIG: TAKE OFF EVERY 'CAPTAIN'!!
I don't see it being very easy either going up that mountain or down it on a recumbent. Racing for endurance with gentle hills may be somthing else, but otherwise the traditional bike seems somewhat better.
See my journal, I write things there
But, if you're shit at something, no matter how much you spend on kit, you'll still be shit.
In terms of bicycles, the single bit of kit that'll make you faster is... A pair of toe clips. £5 for a pair. Or cleats if you don't need to walk around.
After that, a set of high pressure slick tyres and well maintained chainset. The last thing that matters is the frame.
I see it more on motorcycles though, people go out, buy a gsxr 1000 sportsbike or similar and then can't ride for toffee, sure, they can accelerate quickly in a straight line, but then, so can a rock, they go round corners like they have training wheels on.
Government of the people, by corporate executives, for corporate profits.
I just cannot tell you how much the yellow line in football improved my enjoyment of the game.
What, was *estimating* the position really that hard? It cost how many millions to create that technology? Good god, people need everything shown to them nowadays.
I hate 'em. The thing that makes sport interesting is that it's *people* playing, and people make mistakes. I consider the referee making a mistake to be part of that interest. The recent explosion in using video replays to resolve any remotely questionable decision vastly reduces the attraction of watching or playing sport, IMHO.
The sum of the weights of a bike and the
chain necessary to keep it from being stolen
is a constant.
Today we have many people with significant disposable income who want to look fast and manufacturers who take advantage of them.
Now, take this to rec.bicycles.* and see the flames begin...
Because of developments in plastic moulding/construction, it's now easier for schools and community centres to offer outdoor/indoor soccer (or football, depending upon where you're reading this from) programs seeing as how the availability of comparatively lightweight portable nets has improved. Compare this to those iron tombstones stuck in the highschool athletic field, their white painted frames seemingly always in the midst of disintegration.
This wasn't just plain terrible, this was fancy terrible. This was terrible with raisins in it. - Dorothy Parker
more play, more fun
But one technology that's gone way too far is parental involvement in kids' sports.
I was at a recent Little League end of season game/picnic for my son. The game, mind you, was really an exhibition, no score was kept, everyone batted. Probably the least structured game of the whole season. But, toward the end of the game, one of the coaches noticed that a few of the boys had gone off on their own and were throwing a football around. He yelled at them to get back with their teams and sit on the bench.
I walked over to him and said, "You tell 'em coach! Imagine the nerve of those kids, having unsupervised FUN. Where do they LEARN these things?"
He kind of chucked back but I really don't know if he got it.
JoAnn
As I approach becoming a 50-year-old geek, a Kevlar canoe for wilderness camping is a welcome technological aid. Its light weight allows old farts like me to still portage with ease. It is 17 feet long (about 5.5 meters) and weights about 40 pounds (a bit less than 20 kg). It isn't as pretty as a wood-canvas beauty, nor does it perform as well as some I have used, but I can carry it, it is quiet, and it does track well on lakes.
Living in The Netherlands, a bicycle is for me primarily an efficient means of transport. Offroad capabilities are irrelevant, weight is of minor importance. I need a bike that is comfortable, has room for luggage, will stand rough handling, dutch weather and brine, and requires minimal maintenance. This can be achieved by careful choice of materials (corrosion-resistant) and sensible design. For me sensible means a fully enclosed chain, well laid control cables and electrics (including a hub dynamo) and fully enclosed journal ball bearings everywhere instead of antiquated cup and cone bearings that are the devil to adjust.
It buggers me no end that with all the advances in bike technology I still can't purchase a bike that fulfils these modest requirements for a reasonable price. Leave an expensive bike standing outside a store here and you can almost count on it being nicked before you come back for it. That is probably the main reason why people here tend to buy cheap mass-produced trash, so there is not enough incentive for the development of quality commuter bikes. Oh well.
I think the problem is that technology is way outrunning what we expect in many sports. The result is that there is way too much emphasis on the "power" game and that ruins the experience for everyone in the long run. I expect the following to happen:
.1 seconds in about 15 years).
Golf - While they have done a nice job reiging in club technology, you have ball technology going through the roof. Golf courses are being made obsolete. Expect the governing bodies to put in restrictions very soon to level things off.
The USGA and the Royal & Ancient Club of St. Andrews are very seriously looking at the issue of oversized clubheads and golf balls with too much "bounce." Expect with a few years a very strict standard for clubhead sizes, materials used etc. As for golf balls, we may see within a few years a standardized golf ball with a lower "bounce" rate than currently.
Tennis - Due to new racket technology, it is possible to just crush the ball. Because of this new technology, the game is just turning into serve-ace or serve-return-point. Wimbledon, which is played on a very fast surface, has become very boring to watch. Unless this trend is reversed, expect tennis to become extremely boring with all surfaces rendered obsolete.
I expect that within a few years we will see a reference standard for tennis rackets that will limit the size of the head and also limit how much "bounce" it can put on the tennis ball. Also, we may see a slightly larger tennis ball with a lower "bounce" rate, which means the ball will travel slower.
Swimming - With the new swim suits everyone has started wearing, you have seen records just start to fall like rocks. At first this seemed like a joke, but if you realize it, this is taking away factors that in many ways could be considered unimportant to the sport, like drag in the water. Of course, you could also think of it in a way that the most prepared (ie, do all you can to reduce drag) wins.
I wouldn't be surprised if we see these new style swimsuits banned after the 2004 Summer Olympics. These new suits are very expensive and offer too much an advantage to any team that can afford them.
Track - new surface technology as well as wind suits (similar to the swimming suits) have allowed people to run faster. Still, you have to accelerated your body to be that fast, and world records are not falling at any serious rate (the world record has only changed
One thing we may see is that there will be a strict ban on full-body suits in running races up to 1,600 meters. Such full-body suits offer too much an advantage in terms of lowering wind resistance and also are extremely expensive to procure.
Today you can't even compare penultimate-generation athletes with current ones in most sports, specifically because the way "technology" has affected the respective sport. Take Baseball for example - the "technology" is taking as many steroids as you can and hitting the ball out of the park as many times as you can, to make as much money as you can. All while looking like a freak of nature. And the public is okay with this. Little kids are shown these games and brought up to regard these drug-for-more-money users as role models.
Then you have the positive impact of technology. When this doesn't include drugs (hence the dropping of the quotes), a lighter shoe will give an minute edge. It's a natural progression, it shows our technological abilities allow us to scientifically reduce drag/friction/[insert fav force here]/etc. to propell us/the object we are hitting/throwing faster/farther/better/more accuratly.
TV coverage has also improved. But is it all that much interesting? It may be just me, but after watching the same stuff on TV, same teams, same comentators, same network-specific graphics/animations, I am secretly just tired of it all. What am I really watching? I know all the stats, I've got a _much_ better view and overall take on the game than if I were there (esp. in racing sports such as F1). Still, somehow it doesn't feel the same. It doesn't feel like a real event. It feels like I'm sitting in front of a box that shows me products I should buy, masquerading like it's doing me a favor.
Then you have sports that are untouched by technology. Like chess. And how popular is chess? Not very. People are have such "busy" lives these days, they want to watch mindless explosions in movies and drugged freaks flex their muscles in sports. All from the comfort of their couch-potato setting.
</rant>
Must-not-watch TV!
Almost too many to list.
How have they benefitted me? Well, I LOVE watching those "extreme sports" fucktards injure themselves. And I don't mean the people who make a living out of doing that shit, I mean the dumbass high school kids who do it to impress their friends and be seen as cool.
I love watching them hop a bike over a short wall, not knowing there was a 30' drop to a concrete surface on the other side. I love watching them try brainless rollerblading stunts that leave them sliding down a railing after landing hard on their testicles. I love seeing them knock their teeth out on the pavement. I love to see an ankle or arm shatter after a bad landing while jumping a skateboard over a curb. I laugh when someone accelerates a snowmobile right into a telephone pole, or when their ATV rolls over backwards on top of them while they were trying to ride it up a too-steep incline.
Why do these things fill me with such glee? Because it's like being a fly on the wall in Darwin's waiting room. These morons do inherently dangerous things, and they don't bother with the proper safety equipment. I think the best was when some dumbass really (and I mean *really*) fucked himself up good while trying to do a stunt with no pads or helmet, and then started crying because he had no health insurance to pay the hospital bills that were sure to ensue.
Advances in technology have brought down the cost of the equipment these idiots need, making it accessible to them. And since video cameras have likewise gotten smaller, lighter, and cheaper, there's almost certainly going to be at least one rolling at the right moment, as one of those rocket scientists jumps his bike into a pool from a 3rd story roof and lands on the rim. And that video will eventually make its way somewhere where I will see it and be entertained.
God bless technology!
As a golfer, I was fitted for a new driver recently on a launch monitor. It senses the club speed, ball speed, rotation of the ball, and launch angle upon ball strike. It tells you how far the ball would roll and how far it would carry. They can use them to find the perfect shaft/angle combination for your particular swing.
Also, GPS systems in the golf carts allow you to get completely accuracte distances to the pins, and allow the course managers to know the flow of play in real time. In additions, the GPS systems can give you tips for each hole, such as where to leave the ball and what the distance is to that spot.
Saying pro bike racing prevents recumbent bikes is like saying that F1's refusal to allow motorcycles prevents motorcycle development.
Someone comes up with a new invention that happens to be human-powered, and you think that an existing series has to incorporate it? Nope. It's their series, they do what they want. You're so convinced about recumbent bikes, start your own recumbent series, and if they are really that much better, you'll be the premier league in short order.
Recumbent bikes are essentially a whole different than than regular bikes. They aren't for the same users. I've seen plenty around here (Silicon Valley) and most people just don't seem interested in them. To be honest, the I think the fact that they are easy to overlook them in traffic makes them unpopular for transport and the fact that they are so large makes them unpopular for the "load it on the car and go to the hill" set.
The real advantages to recumbents (higher efficiency especially at high speeds) simply isn't something that means much to the average bicyclist. Those who are biking for a workout don't necessarily want to have to go faster for a workout. And if you aren't doing it for your health and simply want to go faster get a motorbike.
Does anybody know where the guy on Team Bianchi got that way cool helmet with the built in goggles??
Any preoccupation with ideas of what is right or wrong in conduct shows an arrested intellectual development. (Wilde)
I was never impressed with step-ins. I really dislike the fact that you have to get special boots, and those boots didn't feel as comfortable for me. It's mostly preference I think.
However, I recently bought a brand new GNU Altered Genetics board. They use a much different method for manufacturing boards keeping them stiff enough to provide a greater spring while remaining flexible. I highly recommend them to anyone.
I don't think we should forget the advances in sports medicine. This field has helped many people who would otherwise not be able to particiatpe in sports, become more active, and competative.
It may be a bit off topic, but I for one am happy I can partake of my favorite sport (Tae Kwon Do) thanks to such advances.
the influence of science and computing on sport is a very interesting scientific topic and i think very suitable for slashdots forums. modern sport is so scientific and technical these days that if some of these readers creating noise on this list actually made an effort to read the good mailings then they might learn something
Powerlifting only involves one thing - namely moving as much weight as possible in three relatively untechnical lifts - the bench press, the squat, and the deadlift.
However, advances in bench shirt and squat suit technology by companies like Inzer have really made people question the sport. Way back people figured out they could bench slightly more if they were wearing a tight T-shirt. Then people started wearing stiffer shirts, and eventually it became part of the sport to wear an overly tight, one or two ply heavy non-stretch polyester that's so rigid the bencher actually has to PULL the weight to his chest in order to complete the lift. You heard me correctly..... one recent competition had a lifter try a NINE HUNDRED POUND BENCH PRESS, and he had to actually force the weight DOWN to his chest by HAULING DOWNWARDS on the bar.
Naturally, the rebound kicks the weight up some, and some believe the right technique and the right shirt can kick up your max weight for a 40-100lb gain.
As for the squat - between the Inzer or Titan knee wraps, the canvas underwear (yes, you heard that right) and the exceedingly tight double ply squat suit, how much of that 1200lb squat is the lifter, and how much the equipment?
Yes, the weights DO go up as a result of the technology, and people can compete longer because the equipment provides some degree of safety. However, you can easily see how some people would denigrate the sport entirely because it works out to who has the best gear, sometimes.
Before the Olympic weightlifters scoff too much, consider that they use a "springy" bar and "bounce" with it to get some rebound and momentum in the lift. No strength sport is without some kind of recoil component.....
I'm kind of torn. Part of me says hey, this is garbage, take the stuff off and make it a competition as to who can lift the weight himself, and the other part realises that the trickiest part of the bench, for example, is the end of it, where the triceps lock the weight out unassisted by the shirt. People who train with the gear are stronger without it than people who don't use it at all, most of the time.
--- Jump!! Fire!! Bullet time!! - Lego version of the Matrix
for those who aren't bike geeks, what the hell does this term refer to?
I used to practice Tai-koan-do intensivly
one of our best tools was the ability to watch
ourselves on video, with people commenting
on my form(or lack there of).
Now in college I gave up Tai-koan-do for a much
more sangerous sport, Debating which uses
the same tool to help us improve form and technique.
With the 90s came the latest development--reactive resin bowling balls. Urethane balls used to hook fairly early. With reactive resin, the balls traveled further down the lane, hooked later, and hooked even more.
Since then, various forms of reactive resin have been developed. In addition, new forms of weight blocks have been developed, some with very sophisticated, multi-piece construction.
The end result is that it is now a lot easier to hook a bowling ball than it was in the 70s. With the greater angle of entry into the pocket, strikes have become more common and scores have gone up. The old timers long for the good old days where accuracy was more important. (Ironically, as the balls have become easier to hook, people ("crankers") want to hook the ball even more, resulting in a loss of top players who throw a normal size hook.)
In many ways, these developments are similar to the use of materials in tennis and golf, with power becoming more and more important.
this rudy project one, perhaps?r ono.asp
http://www.rudyproject.com.sg/helmets_k
Yes, go ahead, laugh.
Step on board the hottest racing boats and you'll see as much or more carbon fiber, kevlar, and titanium as in any F1 car.
Boats are entirely CAD designed, virtually tow-tested inside super computers, and individual carbon and kevlar fibers laid along stress lines to control flex and structure while minimizing weight. Imagine building an F1 car or a bridge with a safety factor of 1.5 or less... thats what sailboat designers do every day. Americas Cup racers have hulls that weigh the same as a VW Beetle, but support 100 foot masts and keels that weigh 15,000 lbs. Hundreds of millions of dollars go into researching hull and foil shapes.
Then look at the sails. No self-respecting racer leaves the dock without a full suit of Kevlar, PBO, or carbon fiber sails. Sails are constructed on 3D molds that form perfect airfoils, and robots lay individual fibers so the sails keep that perfect shape.
And of course the hardware. Every ounce of weight you can remove from a yacht improves its chance of winning, so blocks (pulleys) and winches are made from titanium or even more carbon fiber. Imagine the engineering that goes into making a 150 foot carbon fiber mast less than a foot in diameter stay up under tens of thousands of pounds of load (and many many times that amount in SHOCK loads), while still leaving it flexible enough to be tweaked and tuned to maximize the performance of the sails.
Oh yes, and electronics. Modern race boats are wired from end to end like F1 cars, with load cells, weather instruments, GPS, and gyrocompasses. Race teams use doppler RADAR, LIDAR, and supercomputer weather models to predict the wind for any given race.
And all so we can go sail in circles chasing some crazy trophy.
http://chrismetcalf.net
Technology has allowed me to go mountain biking with my wife. When riding uphill my wife rides my Litespeed titanium hardtail, since it climbs easily. When we get to the top we switch and she rides her full-suspension monster downhill because it is stable as can be and soaks up all the bumps. I'll leave it as an "exercise" for the reader to determine which bike get to ride uphill and which one I ride on the way down.
Lasers Controlled Games!
This is far and away the worst thing to happen to sports television ever. Look, if you can't stand to pay attention to the frickin' game, then don't. Why I should have to bear witness to the Flash equivalent for sports TV, is beyond me.
No, the greatest innovation in sports viewing is yet to come: total control of what I see and who I hear. Don't want the goddamned score box in the top left corner? Go to options, and remove it. Ears can't withstand Dicky V? Go to options, kill the color man's mike, maybe the play-by-play man's too, and leave the action sound on. Can't stand the extreme closeup of Phil Jackson's nostril? Choose a wide angle camera and lock it.
Sports broadcasting has come a long way and has enhanced a lot of things, but I've reached my limit and want my ballgame back.
Which speaks for itself. http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=Naked+coe d+quidditch&spell=1
There is nothing wrong with yr Internet. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling the transmission - NSA
I still have the first (Fuji) bike I ever built, but it's there only for two-stage (bike-bus) travel, because I love my recumbent.
d f_vs_vola e.jpg
It may be harder to pedal uphill, but the feeling of control which comes from the semi-reclined seating position gives me much more confidence that I won't become street pizza because some damfool in an SUV craters me.
As Neil Stephenson said about urban biking, if you rely on the other guy to avoid you, you're toast (sic). With a 'bent, I have eye contact with drivers, which makes a tremendous difference in maintaing a 'bubble' of protective space around me.
I had never expected to be bike commuting at 50, but the recumbent bike makes that 12-mile commute a joyous sport.
Look at these pix and then tell me which causes less wind resistance and which can be maintained longer with less stress:
http://www.hostelshoppe.com/images/tech/
There is nothing wrong with yr Internet. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling the transmission - NSA
When I go jogging I listen to a cd player, does that count? >:)
That data is already being transmitted to the teams, it would be awesome if they would forward that on into an Enhanced TV where you could choose what racer's telemetry you wanted to see. Also, cameras that you can switch to -- to be able to choose from the angles allowed, not just the ones that they want to broadcast at the moment. This would mean streaming about 100 video feeds and another 20 or so telemetry feeds, but it would be amazing for racing fans.
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