It may seem like I have balls on the brain if my last couple of posts are any indication. Balls are such a big part of sport and Sports Engineers are fascinated by the way they behave as they bounce on the ground and fly through the air. I’ve seen two amazing videos recently which exhibit […]
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 […]
No mountains, turn to freestyle!
Introduction Alpine skiing events are dominated by countries who have the luxury of snow capped mountains, for obvious reasons. Figure 1 shows that 85% of Alpine skiing medals at the Olympics have been won by only 7 countries. The mountainous countries appear to have a monopoly on the medals and the obvious question is; can countries without established ski […]
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 […]
Predicting human performance – the Usain Bolt effect, electronics and war
A lot has been said about Usain Bolt – his brilliance, his stature and his music tastes. But the suggestion that he is the limit of human performance has been soundly rebuffed by sports scientists and statisticians alike. We did the same as many others and looked at previous performances to see if there was […]
Surfing the brachistochrone
I recently came across the term ‘brachistochrone‘ and wondered how I’d missed it, especially as Johann Bernoulli initially created it over 300 years ago in June, 1696. The brachistochrone is the solution to an intriguingly simple question: “Given two points A and B in a vertical plane, assign a path AMB to the […]
ISEA 2010 – Points of Interest day 3
Unfortunately as I spent so much time preparing for my presentation yesterday (time mostly spent pacing around with nervous tension) I’ve decided to cheat a little and combine the last two days of the conference. I’m going to focus on the great work being done by some big sports companies who have presented at the […]
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 