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.
Armstrong, Cycling, Sports Science

Sports Science and Elite Athletes: The Ed Coyle/Lance Armstrong controversy

 

Dear readers, I came across this interesting commentary of the never-ending story of the famous Ed Coyle’s paper published on the Journal of Applied Physiology in 1998 entitled “Improved muscular efficiency displayed as Tour de France champion matures”. This paper generated a lot of controversy already as soon as it was published with a lot of discussions at scientific conferences and letters to the editor.

Now it appears that Prof. Coyle has admitted some “minor errors” in his analysis of efficiency.

Jonathan Dugas and Ross Tucker have analysed and discussed very well the issue in their blog “The Science of Sport”. So, I invite all readers to visit their blog and read the story, it’s really interesting.
Then, when you are done with it, you can read the details of the error here:
“ Story 2 “

While I believe at times the authors of the blog took a clear position maybe lacking some objectivity, the process they went through is excellent and the quality of the discussion and presentation of the case is brilliant. I also suggest you read the comments as some are really valuable.

Activity Monitor, Equipment, Gadgets, GPS tracking

Interesting gadgets

Christmas is fast approaching, so it is time to think about presents. I came across a couple of interesting gadgets which could have some useful applications for sports scientists.

The first one is a GPS tracking device which looks small and portable and can be integrated with Google Earth.

trackstick

The Trackstick records its own location, time, date, speed, heading and altitude at preset intervals. With over 1Mb of memory, it can store months of travel information. The website for more info is here:

http://www.gearthstore.com/products/gps/trackstick/trackstick2/details.html

I don’t know the reliability and the accuracy of the system nor the sampling frequency, however this is something that could be easily tested and maybe it’s a little project I will undertake in the next few months.

The second gadget is an activity monitor (don’t we all love to know how much we move?).

It’s called FITBIT (http://www.fitbit.com)

fitbit

You can view calories, steps and distance on the Fitbit Tracker software. Interesting concept with simple small technology and what looks like a user-friendly software. Again, I am not aware of reliability and accuracy and validity data, but, if it works, it is a promising tool at least to determine general energy expenditure and activity patterns, maybe useful in athletes that are injured and cannot train intensively to be able to adjust the diet and avoid gaining some excess weight.

I have no conflict of interest and no relationship with the above mentioned companies/products.

Activity Monitor, Equipment, Gadgets, GPS tracking

Interesting gadgets

Christmas is fast approaching, so it is time to think about presents. I came across a couple of interesting gadgets which could have some useful applications for sports scientists.

The first one is a GPS tracking device which looks small and portable and can be integrated with Google Earth.

trackstick

The Trackstick records its own location, time, date, speed, heading and altitude at preset intervals. With over 1Mb of memory, it can store months of travel information. The website for more info is here:

http://www.gearthstore.com/products/gps/trackstick/trackstick2/details.html

I don’t know the reliability and the accuracy of the system nor the sampling frequency, however this is something that could be easily tested and maybe it’s a little project I will undertake in the next few months.

The second gadget is an activity monitor (don’t we all love to know how much we move?).

It’s called FITBIT (http://www.fitbit.com)

fitbit

You can view calories, steps and distance on the Fitbit Tracker software. Interesting concept with simple small technology and what looks like a user-friendly software. Again, I am not aware of reliability and accuracy and validity data, but, if it works, it is a promising tool at least to determine general energy expenditure and activity patterns, maybe useful in athletes that are injured and cannot train intensively to be able to adjust the diet and avoid gaining some excess weight.

I have no conflict of interest and no relationship with the above mentioned companies/products.