Income: Tennis vs Golf

In Tennis players want more money? It's not as absurd as it sounds Greg Jericho compares the income of top tennis players to top golfers. In summary, for men, unless your right at the very top (think Federer or Nadal) you're better off being a golfer. Women, however, are better off playing tennis.

Is beetroot the secret to increased endurance?

In Secrets of two-hour marathon men may alter running for ever Jamie Doward describes the work of Professor Andrew Jones, a specialist in endurance running. Jones is currently involved in the Nike project attempting to lower the record for the marathon below the two hour mark.

Jones has identified nitrates as a key ingredient in performance. Sources of nitrates include leafy green vegetables as well as beetroot juice.

Genetics also helps.

So what is it about their physiology that has allowed African runners to dominate distance running so comprehensively in recent years? “Their body types tend to be smaller and naturally leaner,” Jones said. “Their limbs have slightly different proportions, which make them run more efficiently. They have slightly longer shanks; their lower legs tend to be relatively long compared to their thighs, they don’t tend to carry a lot of muscle on their calves and they have quite long achilles, which can be quite advantageous. Their V02 Max [maximum oxygen uptake] may not be much higher than what you’d find in a good class of distance runner in the UK, but they’re much more economical and they’re able to operate at high fractions of their max almost without fatigue.”

New study identifies CTE in living ex NFL players.

In New Study Finds Brain Damage in Living Ex-NFL Players Steve Fainaru and Mark Fainaru-Wada report on a study identifying disease known as Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, or CTE, in living former NFL players.

When a bronze medal can be better than a silver

In Why Bronze Medalists Are Happier Than Silver Winners Jason G. Goldman writes that studies show that often the bronze medalist seem happier than the silver medalists:

Psychologists Victoria Medvec and Thomas Gilovich of Cornell University, and Scott Madey of the University of Toledo think that this phenomenon can be explained by counterfactual thinking. This means that people compare their objective achievements to what “might have been.”

The most obvious counterfactual thought for the silver medalist might be to focus on almost winning gold. She would focus on the difference between coming in first place, and any other outcome. The bronze medalist, however, might focus their counterfactual thoughts downward towards fourth place. She would focus on almost not winning a medal at all. The categorical difference, between being a medalist and not winning a medal, does not exist for the comparison between first and second place.

It is because of this incongruous comparison that the bronze medalist, who is objectively worse off, would be more pleased with herself, and happier with her achievement, than the silver medalist.

Goldman then goes on to note a study of the Judo competition in the 2004 summer Olympics that had similar findings. However, I'm not sure that other factors don't come into play in sports like Judo. In Judo judoka have to win the bronze medal contest to claim the medal. So a bronze medalist has by definition just one their last bout. By contrast, the silver medalist has just lost their last bout. I'm sure that has an effect.

The controversy around Ye Shiwen

16 year old Chinese swimmer Ye Shiwen swam a remarkable race to win gold in the 400m Individual Medley at the London 2012 Olympics. Afterwards doubt was cast on her performance by some in the media and within swimming circles.

I don't know if Ye has ever been involved in doping. However, while her performance is remarkable, it's also not inconsistent with that of other young swimmers who are drug free. Have a read of Don't be too quick to question Chinese success by Phil Lutton who documents other cases of young swimmers (Stephanie Rice) lowering their personal bests by significant amounts to break records. Lutton notes:

To the wider sporting world, Ye is only now becoming a notable name. Yet to swimming diehards, she has been one of the rising stars for some years, even if her surge of form in London has caught most people by surprise. Beisel and Rice had been the favourites for gold.

Ye won the 200m IM at the Asian Games in 2010 (2.09.37) and the 400m IM (4.33.79), all at age 14. At the time, she was listed at 160cm tall. Now, the official Olympic site lists her 12 cm loftier at 172cm. That sort of difference in height, length of stroke and size of hand leads to warp-speed improvement.

A swimming coach once told me that you can't swim faster than your height. In other words, the taller you are the faster you can swim (which is why there aren't any short swimmers winning medals amongst the men).

Lutton also writes:

If America - a nation of 300 million - can produced a Michael Phelps and Australia an Ian Thorpe, is it really so bizarre to think China - with a population of 1.3 billion and a state sporting program run with military precision - could have found his female equivalent?

Ye has spent time training in Australia. Her coach in Australia, Denis Cotterell has come out and said that he believes here to be clean:

Denis Cotterell, the former coach of Olympic gold medallist Grant Hackett, has trained Ye and other top Chinese swimmers.

He said he was "100 per cent certain" Ye was clean and said the questions over doping had been raised by people who do not understand the sport.

"You have to have a look at the improvements in Beijing," he told PM.

"If people do their homework and you have a look at some of the world records ... the margins that they have been dropped by some of the extremely talented swimmers that have applied themselves over the past – it is a combination of their talent and their work ethic."

Cotterell said Ye's five-second improvement to her personal best time was not a one-off.

"[There have] been great achievements by people in the sport, it's part of the history ... and talent comes along and makes a good drop and shocks a few people but we generally seem to have accepted it," he said.

"But for some reason in this case now, it's not, because of the Chinese [history]."

"Ian Thorpe, no one questioned, Michael Phelps, no one questioned. And having worked with the girl and seeing how hard she works and the talent she is, it is disappointing that the kid is in the media conference on her own with 100 journalists having to defend herself."

The Australian swimmer who won the silver medal behind Ye also defender her:

"I like to believe innocent until proven guilty. As far as I'm concerned I think she is an amazing swimmer and it's just amazing that I got to be as close as I was with how amazing she is," Coutts said.

"I have never been in that position myself, I have never been accused [of doping] but I'm sure it would be tough for the athlete knowing people are saying things like that about you. It wouldn't be a nice feeling. As I said, innocent until proven guilty. You can't speculate something about someone if you don't know."

So, why the criticism of Ye? I think partly it's because of the alleged doping by Chinese swimmers in the 1990s (guilt by association), partly because of her remarkable performance (a young Ian Thorpe also faced accusations), but mostly I think it's racism. If she had been American or Australian I very much doubt that such accusations would have been made (or at least not so publically).

So, well done Ye Schiwen.

The shadow of drugs in athletics

Greg Jericho again excels, this time with an article, Doping's shadow looms large over athletics, where he looks at the legacy of doping on the athletics records books.

The long-term impact of doping during the 1970s and 1980s is greater on women's athletics than it is on men's because doping on women has a greater physiological impact. Thus, while a man might break a world record through doping, his time or distance will not be as far ahead of a clean athlete as would the respective woman cheat over her clean competitors.

Thus the world records set by women during the 1980s, when doping was rampant and out-of-competition testing non-existent, remain on the books and for the most part far beyond the reach of contemporary athletes.

After reading the article I think I now understand why Sally Pearson won the International Association of Athletics Federations Female Athlete of the Year.

Split second decision making in sport

The article In the blink of an eye looks at the decision required in the high speed sports like cricket, baseball and tennis.

So what sets such batsmen apart? It is tempting to assume that they simply have better visual reaction times than the rest of us and can pick the ball up quicker. But according to “Wait”, a new book by Frank Partnoy, that is not the case. The book is about general decision-making in life, but contains a chapter on “super-fast sports”. It concludes that the best batsmen are no faster at “seeing” than their less successful colleagues, or even many amateurs. Whether you are Virender Sehwag or a village-green clubber, it will take you around 200 milliseconds to react to the ball. The best batsmen are set apart by what happens in the next 200 milliseconds, which the book calls the preparation stage. This means deciding on the shot, moving into the correct position and swinging the bat. (The third stage, hitting the ball, accounts for the last 100 milliseconds.) And here the margin between us and them is miniscule: “A cricket batsman who is just fifty milliseconds slower than an average professional—in other words, someone who is slower by just a fraction of the time it takes to blink—simply has no chance of competing with the pros.” Quoting Peter McLeod, an Oxford professor, the book goes on: “Their skill, it seems, lies in how they use the information to control motor actions once they have picked it up, not in the more elementary process of picking it up.”

The myth about sporting riches

Justin Shaw in Coates and McGuire: men on a screeching mission agrees with Chris Berg that major sporting events don't offer the economic benefits their proponents claim and with Greg Jericho questioning the level of funding for Olympic sport.