For those interested, we were just notified of the following employment opportunities:
1. Converse - Footwear Designer: Duties will include the design and presentation of a wide range of footwear product across the Converse franchise portfolios of Converse Star Chevron (Basketball, Skate, and Lifestyle product) and Chuck Taylor All Star.http://www.coroflot.com/public/job_details.asp?job_id=24196
2. Puma (Germany) - Footwear Designer: Create unique new footwear designs that address consumer, retailer and company needs on a seasonal timeline.
http://www.coroflot.com/public/job_details.asp?job_id=24200
3. Speedo International (England) - Social Media Manager: Help in getting more exciting content on their websites. More detail at the link.
http://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=172898724263&id=87691502056
As a former soccer player, I found this new m-station from Munin Sports absolutely fantastic. There are drills one can do by themselves and there are other drills that simply require additional players. The m-station solves that problem. It is quite simply the best rebound technology that I have seen and enables user to practice numerous soccer drills individually or with a group.
The specially manufactured strings provide a serious amount of strength and explosive rebound.
The aluminum construction is light weight, easy to handle and won't rust
The tires are filled with foam and won't puncture.
You have to see the video to get the versatility of this product. If you're a soccer (football) player, you will absolutely understand.
It’s incredible what you can see at 500 frames per second. Tell someone to jump, and after asking how high, they’ll bend their knees to a point and then explode upwards and off the ground – down, then up. Simple and efficient. So why are the best gymnasts in the world adding an extra ‘down’ and ‘up’ when jumping on the spring floor and vault? The answer, lies in the floor.
In live footage, one might watch a gymnast on a spring floor and believe they jump just like we do (plus all those twisty things). But after a rash of injuries following the 2003 world championships held in the in the States, the USOC wanted to take a look at their equipment and ensure it wasn’t causing problems.
The USOC reviewed the high-speed footage of the athletes and the equipment in action. Clicking frame by frame through the footage, they noticed an ever so slight, extra down/up in the athletes’ mechanics before launching. Even the gymnasts didn’t know they were adding the inefficient motion. They turned their attention to the floor itself and noticed that it was tuned incorrectly resulting in a rattling that caused the extra hiccup in the gymnast motion.
The little things do make a big difference, so the USOC has been testing various combinations of spring / foam floors which has offered some opportunity for improvement, but further research is necessary. We've been writing on this blog for some time the importance of proper biomechanics and injury prevention, in this case the equipment exacerbated the problem, which went unnoticed without the help of high speed cameras.
Apparently a simple split is not enough. With degrees of flexibility
correlating with tenths of points, gymnasts will try any form of
Voodoo to get that limb just millimeters higher. So you can imagine, the USOC got pretty excited when they uncovered researching showing 100 percent improvement in flexibility in male phys ed students.
The source of the absurd improvement relied less on Voodoo than it did on vibration. Research had shown that resting a limb on a vibrating surface during stretching greatly increased the flexibility of that limb. So, Dr. Bill Sands, leader of the Recovery Center for the USOC cobbled together $1,000, a local machine shop and an engineering intern to make his own vibration box. The machine itself is surprisingly simple. It’s shaped like a small pommel horse and shakes continuously at 30 hertz. After trials with young male gymnasts showed 400 percent improvements acutely and significant increases they felt that the device was ready for Olympic prime time.
In short, the results have been staggering, so much so, that they simply stopped studying because it works. Now, not only are gymnasts using this device, but synchronized swimmers, divers and even figure skaters are increasing their flexibility with this new device.
The World Village of Women Sports will give women around the world the same opportunities to develop as their male counterparts. Almost $200 million will be invested in this research development and training center now taking shape in Malmö, Sweden, 20 minutes from Scandinavia’s largest airport.
The World Village of Women Sports is a private sector initiative including a multi-functional complex of 100,000 square meters. The first stage is scheduled for completion in 2012.
The new center will provide new opportunities for international sports organizations, clubs and companies with products and services in the pharmaceutical, nutrition and sports equipment fields.
In short, this is very cool and a great opportunity.
Want to extend the surf season by a few more weeks or even months? It looks like Quicksilver has found the answer without electrocuting the surfer.
The new Quiksilver Cypher PS+ Heated Vest system is the first ever battery powered heat vest that can be worn and operated under any wetsuit. I wonder if this might make sense for some of those cold open water swims. Anyway, this new surfing technology utilizes Far-infrared heat technology and delivers hours of heat (129 deg on high setting and 116 deg on low setting) to your vital organs to maintain your core temperature and extend your experience. The Quiksilver Cypher PS+ Heated Vest system comes with a rechargeable battery that will last 2 hours on "High" and a car charger and wall charger with adaptors for different countries.
This heated vest doesn't have to be limited to just extending your surfing time in cold water, how about taking a surf trip to colder climated or, and I'm just saying, could be useful when you are in the lift line or chair lift when snowboarding. Let us know if you have any other interesting use ideas.
Progressive Sports Technologies, a Loughborough University spinout
company, is working with Speedo to develop a world-class triathlon suit.
Inspired by the record breaking LZR Racer swim suit worn by athletes
including Michael Phelps and Rebecca Adlington to take 94% of the
swimming gold medals in Beijing, the new triathlon suit is designed to
be the lightest, fastest and most comfortable suit on the market.
Progressive tested a selection of elite triathletes running and cycling in the LZR racer Tri-Pro suit in a controlled climate chamber. With a constant temperature of 90° and 70% humidity, the suit’s quick dry, moisture wicking properties were pushed to the limit. Infrared skin temperature measurements were captured, along with the athlete’s perception of comfort, fit and function.
Progressive works with many of the world’s leading sports brands on cutting edge research. Current projects include bringing to market wearable fabric that boosts athletic performance by training breathing muscles. They have also developed a their own line of licensed fitness equipment, including an abdominal muscle training device (Ab-pump).
Having participated in several triathlons, I'll take any advantage I can get and look forward to trying out the new suit.
The SPEED-VEST is a bicycle safety device and advocacy tool which displays the wearer’s current speed on their back in easy-to-read lighted numerals. There are some clear benefits to the Speedvest including attracting attention and letting motorists know that "on occasion" you may be going a little faster that the speed limit. The LCD's on the back illuminate your speed, very much like those lovely radar signs, letting everyone know exactly how fast your are traveling.
The system consists of a wheel speed sensor, a wearable numeric display and a small computer that does the thinking. The computer is an Arduino: an open-source embedded computing platform powered by an Amtel microcontroller. It runs for 6 hours on a 9 volt battery.
There could be some pretty interesting add-on applications once this hits mainstream. Imagine the bike path lit up with everyone's speed. Oh I can hear the chatter now....
Bending it like that guy, special shoes, and one very hot training chamber are all part of the making of a modern player.
Dutch defender Taeke Taekema is known for his ability to curve shots off of set plays. He even has his own piece of equipment to help amplify his talents. Bend it like Beckham? How about twist it like Taekema.
The legend of Taekema was cemented following the European Championship in 2007 where he scored 16 goals in the tournament (apparently that’s good). Taekema’s skills are centered on his ability with penalty corners. Similar to a soccer free kick, a special shot known as the “drag flick” has revolutionized the game in just the past 15 years. And like pulling a wrist shot in ice hockey, the player drags the stick along the permanently wet ground (more about that in a future post) allowing him to either lift the ball or sling it along the ground. In a quasi jai-alai move, the ball rolls up the stick and then back down again adding more speed.
Beckham could bend before his Adidas Predator shoe and Taekema doesn’t need his Adidas TT-10 stick to flick—but apparently it doesn’t hurt. The TT-10 is a carbon fiber stick designed with a more extreme curve and lower blade profile than traditional sticks making it ideal for flicks. With the advent of flicks, the governing bodies have even begun to limit the amount of curvature allowed in the equipment
We'll continue this series in future posts and learn more about the game of Field Hockey.