Sports Science

When the first Olympics took place in Greece 3,000 years ago, athletes could get by with little more than raw strength. These days, however, talent and guts just aren't enough to make it on the international circuit.

A

Olympic athletes today train with a dedicated team of sports scientists, each applying the latest research and technology to their quest for success. Everything from the fibres in their muscles to the cells in their brains is put through a rigorous workout programme to ensure that, on the big day, they walk out of their changing room with a perfectly designed body and a focused mind. It's not difficult to find examples of this, but what's behind this never-ending increase in performance? Most experts agree that part of it is down to huge advances in sports science, bringing not only a better understanding of the body and mind, but massive improvements in equipment design.

B

Sports science can be split into four areas: biomechanics, physiology, psychology and technology. Biomechanics is the science that applies engineering principles to the motion of the body. Biomechanists analyse an athlete's movements using video, motion tracking, force transducers and instruments to measure electrical muscle activity and gauge internal and external forces on the body. We need to know which muscles are working when, and how hard, to understand technique and coordination, says Dr Neil Fowler, a biomechanist at Manchester Metropolitan University and biomechanics chair for the British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences.

C

Over the years, Fowler has worked with his fair share of elite athletes, including Olympic javelin throwers and long jumpers, and has plenty of examples of when biomechanics has made a difference to performance. We found that in the long jump, it's best if the foot is moving backwards when it hits the board, like a kind of pawing movement. One of our elite jumpers made a radical jumping strategy change as a result of this advice and that season there was a substantial increase in their personal best.

D

But to get the best from biomechanics, an athlete has to be physically capable of making the changes - and that's where the physiology comes in. Physiologists often work closely with biomechanists to fill the physiological gaps that could make the difference between success and failure. What physiologists measure varies from sport to sport and even between events. For an endurance athlete, for example, a priority is to get enough oxygen to the muscles so they can work aerobically for as long as possible. Once your body reaches the maximum rate at which it can process oxygen, your muscles begin to work anaerobically and produce lactic acid, which leads to muscle fatigue. With this in mind, physiologists try to establish what is the maximum sustainable speed where lactic acid levels no longer rise.

E

We know in general that if you want to get stronger, you lift a lot (bones become bigger and there's an increase in density leading to more strength); if you want to be a good endurance runner, you run a lot but it's really about targeting each of these determinants of performance and training at the correct intensity, for the correct duration, at the correct frequency, says Dr Greg Whyte, physiologist and sports science co-ordinator for the English Institute of Sport.

F

But it does seem there is a limit to what the body can do, and in some parts there may now be little room for improvement. So this is where equipment can play an important role. The Sports Engineering Group at Sheffield University is just one group which is designing high-tech sporting equipment that can make changes. However, sometimes not everyone wants the same from technology. We get it from all angles, says the group's Dr Matt Carre. Within industry, a company might want to make tennis rackets that can hit balls faster, but we also get governing bodies who want to know what's happening. Obviously they want new technology, but if it starts to spoil the game then they need to bring in some rule changes to stop that happening.

G

Even with a perfect body and the best equipment, the athlete's mind could let them down on the day. Professor Ian Maynard from Sheffield Hallam University is psychology advisor to the British Olympic Association, and works with the sailing and diving teams. As he explains, mental preparation can begin up to two months before the event, with competitors striving to maintain a positive frame of mind. The whole idea is that consistent preparation leads to consistent performance, says Maynard. They might have videos, music, arrange to meet friends and family, anything that would be a positive distraction. They are also trained to refocus quickly and put themselves back on track in case something goes wrong mid-event.

H

Visualisation can add an extra dimension to training. Reliving your best performances is one of the best ways to build confidence, so we go through a performance in the mind's eye, reliving the emotions and the technical aspects of it, says Maynard. Research also suggests visualisation is almost as good as practice. The neurophysiological explanation is that if you imagine a movement, you go through the same synaptic pathways in the brain as if you were actually executing it, he says.