Author: marcocardinale

I am the Executive Director of Research and Scientific Support in Aspetar (Qatar). The aim of this blog is to present and discuss issues related to sport and sports science.
goalkeeper, handball, Virtual reality

Virtual reality and Handball Training

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I have been recently reading a lot about the use of virtual reality in sport, mainly because I strongly believe in the potential of using this technology in rehabilitation and training. While looking for specific articles, I found some interesting work conducted on Handball Goalkeepers by a French group.

The situation between a shooter and a goalkeeper in Handball is fundamentally a duel. The shooter wants to be beat the goakeeper and score a goal, the goalkeeper wants to beat the shooter and make a save!

In a duel between two players, previous research works demonstrated the role of the opponents’ motions. It means that elements in the opponent’s movements make the other player choose an appropriated reaction. The ability to utilise visual cues and “anticipate” what the shooter is doing is what makes a World class handball goalkeeper.

Endless hours of shooting training help goalkeepers in developing the appropriate strategies and moves, however one could argue that the ability for a goalkeeper to progress depends a lot on the quality of players providing him/her with “cues”. Form a coaching standpoint, a goalkeeper always facing shooters “easy to read”, would never progress further, so allowing him/her to train with more advanced shooters and a variety of shooters and situations can improve the goalkeepers’ ability to develop.

This is particularly true when we are thinking about progressing young goalkeepers and fostering talent. Having been in handball for many years I am still surprised about how old fashioned goalkeepers’ coaching still is.

There is a lot of emphasis on technique and position (all very important), virtually no work on eye movements and visual abilities, and virtually no work on advanced cues and anticipation (due to the limitations of the quality of shooters and drills). Virtual reality could be an innovative solution, and in the promising work of our French colleagues we might find a new way to progress goalkeeping to a whole new level.

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Coaching, Olympic Games, Sports Science

Winning margins in Vancouver

The 2010 Winter Olympics are over. It was absolutely brilliant! Great atmosphere, fantastic venues, and most of all for us a gold medal to remember for years.

 

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A great show where incredible athletes do amazing things with state of the art technology. Science and technology play nowadays a crucial role for success in winter sports. Every move can be analysed in real time, every turn and the technology used can be dissected to show how good some athletes are. Shaun White won an impressive 2nd gold in the Half Pipe and everyone can see why he was better than everyone else.

Every technique can now be studied in details and athletes and coaches can receive feedback on the field of play. Despite the fact technology plays a big role in most of the winter sports I have to say that as usual, it is the athlete who wins.

Having the right mindset and being totally prepared is what makes the difference.

Physical preparation, nutrition, psychological preparation, fitness all play a role. However most of the times people forget that behind a great athlete there is always a brilliant coach. Coaching seems to be underrated in modern times. Reading some of the media during and after the games, it seems that an athlete wins because he/she is good or because he/she has the most advanced technology. What I can say is that many athletes win because they have incredibly good coaches, able to prepare them very well and most of all TEACH them something more or better than other coaches can do. They are the least celebrated individuals, and in my opinion the people who can really make the difference between winning and losing.

The margins between winning and losing are very small. Fractions of seconds separate a gold medal from a silver, bronze or no medal at all. What role can sports science play?

Sports science can only make an impact if a talented athlete has a talented coach and a structured programme is in place. Science can then help the coaching process pushing to reach the limits of the athlete’s potential and identifying the marginal gains.

There is more to be written on this topic, and I promise to write more in the next few months.

Olympic Games, Sports Science

Team GB Blog from the Vancouver games

Dear readers,

I am in Canada for the Winter Olympics and will be writing frequent reports from the Team GB base in Whistler. I will not write much about science, but I hope you will be interested in knowing a bit more about sports science in the real World during the biggest sporting event.

You can follow the blog on:

http://vancouver2010.teamgb.com/blogs/teamgb/marco-cardinale-20.aspx

 

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