Although not an avid follower of winter sports, I noticed that the world record for the ski-jump was broken on the 11th of February. Johan Remen Evensen of Norway jumped 246.5 m at the Nordic Vikersundbakken ski jumping hill. The video below shows the jump itself.
Smart Balls, tracking technology in sports coaching
The American science magazine; Popular Science recently posted an article regarding a new basketball sensor system. The system is able to track a player’s performance as they dribble, pass or make a shot, although from the article it is unclear whether this system is legal for use during competition or strictly training only. Sensor systems in […]
The Ashes: cricket ruled by Benford’s law
For those of you who don’t watch cricket, or even know what it is, it is often described to novices as an 11-a-side bat and ball game that lasts up to 5 days, sometimes ending in a draw. For cricket followers, though, a 5 day test match is a chance to immerse yourself in the […]
Charting Inventiveness in Cricket Bats
Introduction In some spare time a few years back I began to compile a record of patents relating to cricket bats. I now have a near definitive record for all patents published. Analysis of this data threw up a number of trends and notions around the inventiveness and capacity to invent in cricket playing nations. Some […]
Is it possible for Haile Gebrselassie to break the 2 hour barrier?
Introduction Haile Gebrselassie from Ethiopia is one of the greatest marathon runners of all time. He set the current world record of 2 hours 3 minutes and 59 seconds at the 2008 Berlin Marathon. Recently he announced his retirement, after dropping out of the 2010 New York Marathon with an injury. He later reversed his decision following a letter from Brendan Foster. “My announcement in […]
World Cup 2010: did altitude affect tactics?
Ok, I admit it – I’m a stats nerd. I love nothing better than perusing the league tables in the back pages of the Sunday papers, so imagine my delight when Prozone offered me the chance to analyse their data from the 48 games of the Group Stages of the 2010 World Cup. In a […]
Engineering Sport 