Back From The Future: Tennis At Wimbledon, 2036

Posted by Anthony Mowl in EQUIPMENT on 07-06-11    No Comments


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It was another thrilling Wimbledon tournament. Novak Djokovic upset Rafael Nadal to become the top-ranked tennis player in the world, and there were slow-motion shots of Pippa Middleton gasping and cheering during the matches. Yes, slow-mo of Pippa. The tennis gods do exist. Short of the microphone not working in the post-championship interview with Djokovic, tennis’ popularity continues to assert itself with yet another star making his way to the top.

Tennis is one of those sports like golf, where with every match it pays tribute to its lineage and history. There have been few major changes that have altered the sport, unlike the 3-point line in basketball or the forward pass in football. While technology has changed sport in many ways, the best innovation in tennis to date has been getting rid of wooden rackets for graphite rackets. For its 125th anniversary Wimbledon’s banking partner HSBC decided to commission a study of potential technology that will be developed in the future for tennis, and they came up with some pretty neat stuff that shouldn’t pervert the game.

Loughborough University’s Sports Technology institute conducted the study, and research leader Dr. Jouni Ronkainen had the pleasure of imagining what the game would look like in 2036. They looked at three major areas where innovation could occur: the ball, racket, and players’ clothing. The study also mentioned broadcasting matches over hologram, technology that Japan first offered up in their 2022 World Cup bid. Hopefully they won’t stop working on it because they lost the bid.

The major innovations in tennis will come in the remote measurement and reporting of information, stuff like players’ biometric information, tracking where the ball lands on the court, racket speeds, and whether the racket strings are about to break. The neat things about these innovations is that they would improve the game without changing the game too much, something that even sport historians would appreciate. The game will get faster, players will get bigger and stronger, and fans will need neck braces to help them follow the ball back and forth across the court.

Loughborough even came up with some cool graphics that make the tennis player look like some sort of spaceman in the mold of Iron Man. While I believe that we’ll have better-constructed balls and rackets and data on the players’ heart and breathing rates, I have a really hard time thinking that tennis players will dress in a form-fitting body suit. But if Pippa wanted to wear one of those and it was broadcast as a hologram, I’d be all for it. That would prove once and for all that the tennis gods want us to be happy.



Is There A Sports Gene?

Posted by Silissa Kenney in Uncategorized on 07-06-11    No Comments


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When I was a child, my parents brought a sample of my DNA to scientists who then examined my genes to predict my athletic ability. I’m kidding. That’s science fiction. Well, at least it was science fiction when I was a kid. Not anymore: Atlas Sports Genetics is offering mail order genetic testing kits starting at $169 a pop.

The idea is this: You swab the inside of your child’s cheek and send it in the mail to Atlas. They are looking specifically at the ACTN3 gene, which everyone has two copies of (one from each parent). Specific variants in the gene may predict whether you have a predisposition for speed and power sports or endurance sports. I’m not a scientist (surprise!), so I’m not sure how accurate a predictor this test is. Studies have linked the gene to muscle performance, but it isn’t certain what kind of predictive power the test really offers.

So, while this test probably won’t tell you if your kid will be the next Michael Jordan, parents will undoubtedly still want to test their children. And Atlas, I’m sure, is counting on that. At the risk of sounding cynical I have to ask: Is this just about making money off the dreams of parents wanting a superstar kid? Maybe I’m being too harsh, but none of the star athletes we know today were getting their genes tested when they were kids.

And what kind of pressures emerge when a child is determined to have the potential to excel in a sports? If you know your child could be great, do you still let them choose to not be? It all sounds like innocent fun, to get a peek into what nature has already designed. But it just has an ick factor.  Even the choice of the company’s name — Atlas — has that two-sides-of-the-coin thing going on.

In ancient Greek mythology, Atlas was punished for his part in a war against the Titans. He was doomed to carry the heavens upon his shoulders. Such a feat would take admirable strength, yes. But bearing the weight of the world sounds awful. Is genetic testing condemning children to bear the heavens on their shoulders? Maybe this is hyperbolic, but we’ve all known those parents who push their children too far, who want nothing more than to produce the next Olympian or all-star athlete. In the future, maybe people will look back and laugh at our prudish views toward genetic testing. But for now, it’s a little creepy.



Modern Gaming: Two Sports Titles Make IGN List

Posted by Seth in GAMING, Uncategorized on 07-05-11    No Comments


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Like one of those countdown shows on VH1 Classic that are great for killing a Sunday afternoon, the folks at video game website IGN.com have been busy ranking the top 100 modern games. Modern, for their purposes, means games made for the current generation of consoles, the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii. They’ve also tossed some PSP and Nintendo DS games in there as well.

There were only two sports games on the list … no, I don’t count Wii Sports Resort or Forza Motorsport, both of which made it. I’m talking about honest-to-goodness sports games here, and they didn’t pick the one I’d have expected to be there.

The two they singled out are FIFA 11 and NBA 2K11. Definitely two good choices. FIFA 11′s gameplay and customization are excellent. NBA 2K11 featured a whole mode dedicated to the career of Michael Jordan, where you could replay some of his greatest performances. This is the sort of thing more sports video games should embrace. An appreciation for the history of sports is often lost in these games.

The one they left out that would certainly be on my list is NHL 11, which came out last year and added a whole bunch of new in-game tweaks that upped the realism and a new Ultimate Team online mode. But by far the best part of NHL 11 is its fluid, fast-paced, addicting gameplay. It gives you a realistic hockey simulation while still retaining the sense that novices can simply pick up and play. And that doesn’t happen very often with the so-called modern games — especially not the sports titles.



It’s Official: All Old School All The Time On NBA.com

Posted by Seth in INTERNET on 07-01-11    No Comments


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It is the height of absurdity, but as we wrote earlier this week, all traces of current NBA players have been wiped off the face of NBA.com and each of the team websites in the wake of the lockout.

Now, if you’re into old-school NBA heroes of the past or stories about team support personnel or cheerleaders you’re in luck, because that seems to be all you can find on the league and team sites right now, as well as the NBA’s YouTube channel. Everything current is gone. The Oklahoma City Thunder even deleted their roster from their site. Go ahead, try and find it. Many of the other teams still have their rosters listed, but clicking on the players’ names takes you back to NBA.com.

We’re not sure if this is a mistake or an oversight, but the player database link on NBA.com seems to be functioning for now, so you can find stats. Of course, there are lots of ways around the league site for that sort of information. Basketball Reference is my favorite.

And if you need to see NBA players again, just to reassure yourself they still exist, Yahoo Sports has big photo galleries on each of their team sites.

Obviously, the NBA doesn’t need to worry too much about traffic on its website in the middle of the summer. They probably don’t draw much traffic in July anyway. But in the age of instant, on-demand information, it’s really striking to see one of the best pro sports leagues in the world pretend its players don’t exist. What a joke.



NFL Fights To Black Out The Lockout

Posted by John Hamlin in Uncategorized on 07-01-11    No Comments


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The NFL wants to make sure it sells every ticket to this fall’s regularly scheduled grass-growing spectacles before it gives any local moochers a chance to watch the action on TV.

The NFL has become the first to respond to a petition filed in May by the Sports Fan Coalition, a nonprofit organized to give sports fans a collective voice. The group wants the FCC to take a look at its rules regarding sporting event blackouts, arguing that the tactic is merely a tool used in retransmission disputes at the public’s expense.

“We asked the FCC to prevent sports programming from being used as a weapon in retransmission fights and to examine whether sports blackouts are even necessary,” Executive Director Brian Frederick said. ”Only the NFL chose to speak up and absurdly claim that sports blackouts are actually necessary for fans.”

In its reply, the NFL attacked the coalition as pay-per-view shills, saying “commenters have called the SFC ‘a house organ for Dish Network,’” and that the group “has received substantial financial support from Verizon and Time Warner Cable.” The NFL went on to defend blackouts and its policies as a public service, rather than a greedy game of politics.

But the question remains: What exactly does the NFL hope to black out this year? Broadcasts of its empty stadiums? Maybe they’ll at least turn on the sprinklers to liven things up a bit. Then again, watching the grass grow in a barren stadium sounds better than watching the paint dry in a vacant NBA arena.



Suh Takes A Hit (And Measures It) For Player Safety

Posted by Anthony Mowl in ALL, EQUIPMENT on 06-30-11    No Comments


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Let's hope player safety doesn't mean more weird helmets like this one.

Ndamukong Suh is a physical freak of nature. He packs 307 pounds on his 6-foot-3 frame and runs the 40 in 4.9 seconds. As the No. 2 pick in the 2010 draft, Suh racked up the stats. He led the league with 10 sacks in his rookie season, amassed 66 tackles, and threw in an interception and a forced fumble. Let’s not forget he even attempted an extra point. That kick went wide right and hit the upright. No doubt the offensive players who face Suh wish he would miss more often, because the combination of his size and speed leads to highlight-reel pancake hits.

With more players like Suh entering the league, the NFL has faced increasing issues with player safety, especially when it comes to head injuries. Concussions during the 2010 season were up 21 percent over the previous season. Players with body types like Suh’s are steamrolling over players in head-on collisions, which plays a major role in the increase in player injuries.

Player safety is one of the issues on the long list of items at the center of the NFL lockout battle, with players wanting better insurance coverage while the owners hope to increase the schedule — and the potential for injury — from 16 to 18 games.

Amid the dispute, Battle Sports Science may have come up with an intelligent solution that could contribute to player safety. They developed the Impact Indicator, a chinstrap that attaches to any helmet and measures the length of impacts and G-forces that a player endures during a game. While the chinstrap itself doesn’t offer any protection, it does signal to a team’s training staff, coaches, and referees whether a player needs to be pulled off the field for assessment after a particularly brutal hit.

I question whether simply measuring the impact of hit will give a false illusion of security. Preventing concussions should take precedence over simply identifying concussions. Even with measurements from this device, each player will have his own unique physical response to a hit. Some may bounce up off the ground from a particularly brutal hit that measures off the charts, while others may suffer a concussion from a less-severe but well-placed hit. But even with these issues, Battle Sports Science’s system at least gives some indicator and emphasis about safety where there was previously little attention paid.

Having a reputable player like Ndamukong Suh as the first NFL player to wear the Impact Indicator is an excellent start. A player involved in as many violent collisions as Suh should give the system a good test and provide some indication whether it can make the game safer. Soon enough we may see these chinstraps become the standard for every football player. I look forward to seeing players combine the Impact Indicator chinstrap with new helmets that better absorb hits and offer more protection. That would be a formidable one-two punch against getting knocked out.



Xsporture Makes A Play On Social Media

Posted by Silissa Kenney in Uncategorized on 06-29-11    No Comments


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If you use Facebook, you probably know that one of your friends is cooking dinner, that another is watching Glee, and another just loves their kids. Ugh, I’m bored just writing that sentence. Maybe sometimes you really do care, but if  you really wish everyone else was talking about sports, sports, sports, there’s a new social media platform to get your fill: Xsporture.

Xsporture is all sports, all the time for coaches, athletes, and fans. The platform includes sports-specific profiles, interactions between fans, athletes and coaches, and online video competitions. Now in closed beta testing, Xsporture just announced that it has secured angel funding from Atlanta tech entrepreneur Christopher Roland. They’ve also appointed David Eckoff as Chairman. Eckoff has an impressive resume in sports media, including working at Turner Broadcasting, and a stint as Senior Director at RealNetworks Inc., where he developed the company’s live online sports broadcast business and led the live online hit show “CBS Big Brother 24/7.″

“Vertical topic social networks are the next major wave of the social-web,” Eckoff said. “There have been large and profitable vertical social networks created for business, finance and even pets. Sports will be among the next great vertical social networks and it will be global in scope.”

Those are some grand expectations. But actually, Eckoff s right. Combining the explosion of social media use with a passion for sports seems like a winning combination. And instead of shunning traditional platforms like Facebook and Twitter, status updates made on Xsporture can be linked to appear in those feeds as well. This sounds like it just might be really fun, and could earn some revenue. And if you just can’t wait for the official release, you can request to become part of the beta now by going to their site.

Here’s a video with a little more about them.

 



Will NBA.com Do A Disappearing Act?

Posted by Seth in INTERNET, Uncategorized on 06-28-11    No Comments


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Imagine a major pro sports league website without any photos or videos of the league’s players. Later this week, it’s possible you may not have to imagine, because that’s what NBA.com might look like.

While the entire world remains breathless about the status of the NFL’s labor situation, the NBA is also getting ready to revisit its collective bargaining agreement. There could be a lockout coming, and if that happens it seems NBA.com as we know it will disappear with the old CBA. According to several sources, with no CBA in place the player’s association could force the league to remove all player likenesses from league and team websites. Apparently the league and teams have been scrambling their web staffers to get a redesign of every team’s page and the league page by the end of the week. We assume this means the NBA’s YouTube channel will go dark as well.

Wow … where to begin?

First of all, this is ridiculous. Why such a provision would even be part of a CBA is a major question. Obviously, the players have a right to negotiate the use of their likenesses, but forcing the league to yank all that content off the web in one fell swoop is just plain ludicrous. Even in the worst pro sports labor disputes — the 1994 baseball strike and the cancellation of the 2004-05 NHL season — the league survived. The need to promote the teams and players goes on. Indeed, that need is even more critical when you have a work stoppage. It took baseball forever to bounce back from 1994. Public relations is everything, and a vibrant website is a big piece of that.

Beyond that, it’s truly hilarious that anyone could be talking about wiping such a large swath of content off the face of the web. This is the digital age. You can’t stick the toothpaste back into the tube. Once it’s out there, it’s out there, baby. Just ask Anthony Weiner.

Either way, if you want to watch video clips of your favorite players, you’d better do it in the next few days.



Tackle, Touchdown, Type

Posted by Silissa Kenney in INTERNET on 06-28-11    No Comments


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Are you ready for some football? Well, women across the U.S. and Canada are saying hell yeah. I’m not talking flag football, and I’m definitely not talking lingerie football. The Independent Women’s Football League is hardcore, top-tier competitive tackle football. Move over NFL, there’s some new blood in town.

Started in 2000 by women football players, the IWFL now boasts 1,600 women playing for 51 teams across North America. The league is a nonprofit organization, based in Texas, with big-name sponsors like Reebok and Under Armour. These teams are currently playing hard hoping to make it to the IWFL World Championships on July 30 in Round Rock, Texas. But while they’re off the field, there are plenty of opportunities to connect online.

The IWFL is on Facebook, with more than 3,000 fans, and Twitter, with more than 1,500 followers. There is also a Network page on their website just for coaches, players and fans with videos, photos, and conversation. On Twitter you can even find play-by-play updates, just like the NFL. The IWFL has created quite the online community.

Check out this video of the Baltimore Nighthawks:



Way To Go IOC: Olympics Embrace Social Media

Posted by Seth in INTERNET on 06-27-11    No Comments


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The International Olympic Committee isn’t exactly the most forward-thinking body in sports. While the Olympics are exceptionally well televised throughout the world, particularly by NBC here in the U.S., the IOC still doesn’t allow non rights-holders to use video or audio recorded in the Olympic venues.

But starting next year, Twitter and Facebook will go where ESPN and the like can’t tread.

The IOC has announced that both athletes and reporters will be permitted to use social media — including still photos — from within the hallowed Olympic venues. Here is the full text of the recently released social media guidelines.

It seems like a no-brainer, but it’s a pretty big move for the IOC. Maybe one day they’ll let the rest of the TV networks report on the games with actual video — and in color!