Sport science is a collection of scientific disciplines that work together to improve the performance of a given athlete. This can cover the way an athlete sleeps to the food they eat and when they eat it. It can also cover the cloth they wear and the manner in which they train and how often they train. Sport science covers the facilities that they perform in and how they are designed and built.
Finally, sport science also includes the mental needs of the athlete. There can be great strides on the physical front to allow the athlete to go beyond what they think they can. The mental barriers also have to be moved to allow the athlete to move that imaginary point they see as their limit.
Top consultants in the world
Currently the following people are listed as the top consultants in the world on the subject of sports science. They are Dr. Filippo Ongaro (Italy), who works with endurance performance enhancements for elite athletes and astronauts, Dr. Jacques Dallaire (USA/Canada), who works with mental and physical testing and performance for athletes and professional racecar drivers and Ric Charlesworth (New Zealand), who works with high-performance management.
Each of these people brings to the field of sport science a wide range of experience and techniques that help to increase athletes abilities to perform at their peak. They have, in fact, worked to keep moving the point at which the athlete reaches their peak. This effort allows the athlete to perform faster, better and for longer periods of time. They have addressed the mental challenges to endurance as well as the physical challenges to endurance.
Qualifications involved with sports science
The people that are involved in sport science are all professionals at what they do. They may be doctors of various clinical specializations. They can also be dietitians, physical therapists, psychologists and physiologists.
Many will be engineers that focus on different areas of the athletes performance and find ways to get a little bit more out of the athletes efforts. Some will design the training equipment or the actual equipment used to compete with or the facilities they compete in. The one thing that all these professionals have in common is a love for the sport they are involved in and a desire to see it go to the next level
Benefited from sports science
There have been many benefits for the general public because of sports science. Some of these advances have included the way shoes are designed and the way they are built. We have seen changes in bicycle designs that have made them lighter and stronger. We have even seen changes in the types of snacks that have been made popular over the years.
The benefits of sport science have also impacted the way our every day injuries are treated. There are new methods for physical therapy that were developed to help elite athletes heal faster and better. The cloths we wear are warmer, lighter and brighter because of the advances in sports science.