May 2003 -- Question: Sport science
seems to have really taken hold in the game of tennis. Could you give a brief history of scientific research in sports and perhaps some of the more interesting applications to sports in general?
Answer: First, much had been written about the history of sport science. I will summarize this in a few sentences and then go into some of the “interesting” applications I have seen.
Ever since human beings have had a competitive edge, they have studied how to get better. Whether it was military combat or the ancient Olympic Games of Greece, human performance and improvement have been examined. Scientific applications in sports hit a zenith around the mid-20th century in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc nations. The application of physics to movement and the physiological principles involved in exercise were only two areas where intense study was undertaken. Quickly, this study of sports moved to the United States, and by the ’60s, many experts were investigating sport-specific phenomena. And, not long after that, the U.S. Olympic Training Center began its sport science department.
Some of the more unique findings in sport performance follow:
- I would be remiss to not begin this with the development of the oversized tennis racquet head by Howard Head. This changed how our game was played, and HEAD’s innovative application of engineering principles still has a large effect on players today.
- Golf balls used to be smooth until scientists found, through wind tunnel research, that the ball would fly farther if it had little dimples on it. The dimples create more air turbulence as the ball flies, which in turn causes less resistance to the flight, enabling the ball to travel a longer distance.
- In the high jump’s Fosbury Flop, notice how the jumper’s legs extend rapidly just as the athlete’s waist goes over the bar. This does not occur by muscularly extending the legs, but by flexing the neck, to create a reflex mechanism that extends the legs. Here’s another on the Fosbury Flop: A person’s center of gravity (COG) is that point where all parts are centralized. If you are standing straight up, your COG is located around your mid-pelvis area. If you lean and start to fall, your COG falls outside your body and you fall. As the athlete clears the bar on the high jump, that person’s COG can actually travel below the bar.
- Periodization or creating long-term and short-term work/rest ratios is critical to enabling a person to endure grueling training and competitive schedules. Recovery has been found to be as important (and more important in many cases) as stressing the system to increase one’s capacity to perform.
- Following a strenuous practice session or competition, the current line of thought is that you must ingest carbohydrates within 15 minutes to properly bind glycogen to the exhausted muscle. Thus, the need for sport drinks.
- Psychologically, athletes have specific and structured rituals in between points that enable them to be in a high positive-energy state (you probably recognize this as the landmark work done by USPTA Master Professional Jim Loehr).
Even the best among sport scientists know that sometimes things happen by accident, not by scientific inquiry. In the early 1980s, I went to San Francisco on behalf of a major shoe company to work with its No. 1 tennis player, who was struggling with his shoes and his movement. They stopped at nothing to help this person. Biomechanists, engineers and design specialists were flown in. We took a few thousand feet of high-speed film, made plaster casts of the athlete’s feet and had boxfuls of shoes from the factory for him to try on. On the third day, the athlete was trying on some of the shoes and was finding nothing to his liking. The shoe supply was being rapidly depleted when the scientist helping the athlete noticed a pair of racquetball shoes that weren’t supposed to be in the box. The company’s representative pulled them out and quickly threw them in a corner. The athlete saw this, however, and exclaimed, “Let me see those shoes!” He loved them, wore them at practice that day, loved them even more and wore them at his match that night. And, to the best of our recollection, that was the first time a pair of three-quarter top shoes were worn by a top tennis player. Yes, high tops had been worn before but this wasn’t even a tennis shoe. Needless to say, the three-quarter top shoe is one of the hottest-selling shoe styles on the market today. By the way, the athlete’s performance problems went away.
And now, you know the rest of the story…
Send questions to jgroppel@LGEPerformance.com.
