Happy 3rd Birthday to us!

The Science of Sport turns three

Well, all we can say is time sure does fly when you are having fun, because it hardly seems like three long years ago that we did our very first post.  But indeed here we are, three years later, officially on 28 April.  So let's take a short and fun look back and also ahead for The Science of Sport!

Growth of readership

We have to begin by thanking you, the readers, for the best birthday present of all if you run a site like this---readers!  In the beginning only our own visits accounted for our hits, until we found out we could disable the counting of our own IP addresses as hits. . .after which of course we saw a plunge in daily and monthly visitors!  But more and more of you come to the site each day, some just passing thru but others discovering our archives and becoming loyal followers.  It was last year in August that, thanks to the incredible interest in the Caster Semenya saga, we passed 1,000,000 visitors, a milestone in our growth.  And now in 2010 we are on track to make it to 2,000,000 before the year ends, and we can promise another big thank you when we hit that mark, too.

The evolution of the site

For those readers who have been with us for the better part of the past three years, you will have seen the changes.  Initially it was scienceofsport.blogspot.com. . .with a basic Blogger template and design.  What can we say---the price was right!  But as we grow and mature as a site and brand we also try to enhance the layout in a parallel fashion, and since then we have tweaked and fiddled, learning as we go about HTML and others techie issues, eventually arriving at the design you see today with the tabs at the top and the columns down either side.  Eventually we added the "Donate" button you see in the top right corner of the site.  It was a tough decision for us, believe it or not, but many of you have clicked and in fact ponied up small and large sums to show your support---something we are forever grateful for because it is these donations that eventually will help us invest in and enhance the site.

So far we have been able to keep up, although perhaps we are reaching the limits of what we can deliver given our large---and vocal and intelligent---audience.  Needless to say, then, that currently we are investigating changes to the site.  Fear not, dear readers---the content stays the same, but we hope to make changes that will only enhance interaction and the experience you have when you decide to click and visit us.

"Voting" on the world wide web

Another area we have seen grow over time is our Google Page rank, which some of you might know is determined by a complex algorithm of how and which sites link back to this one, with each link counting as a "vote" of varying importance according to the site making the "vote" (link).  It goes without saying that we started at 0/10, but currently we are quite proud of our 6/10 ranking, which placed us firmly on the level with other well known sports sites such as Letsrun.com (5/10), Runnersworld.com (7/10), and Cyclingnews.com (7/10).

Again, this is in no small part due to you, our readers, and wide and diverse nature of the audience, who help make the site what it is.   Because had this never gone beyond our own clicks and visits, had there not been a growing audience out there for our musings and analysis and writing, we would have quietly slipped into obscurity and would have been spending our free time on some other endeavour!

One final note---a present of sorts also arrived for us earlier this week, this time in the form of making the Top 50 Doctoral and PhD Blogs in the Medical Field.

Our fourth year - What to expect?

Looking ahead in sports this year, the Athletics season will be heating up with much anticipated performances from the likes of Usain Bolt and others. . .the Tour de France will keep us busy in July, and then the Fall marathon season will include our acclaimed real time and post-race analysis of Berlin, Chicago, and New York.  On the marathon note, Gebrselassie has mentioned he thinks he can lower his WR, and that he might run in Chicago this year.  Of course October is a long way off, and signatures still have to be inked, but Chicago has been proven to be a course worthy of a WR, and although Geb talks a good talk, most of the time his intention is to deliver on that talk.

So it will be more of the same, to be sure, but thanks to our readers for an amazing third year!

Jonathan

About us: Who are we?

Who are we?

Ross Tucker, Ph.D.

I obtained my Ph.D. in Exercise Physiology from the University of Cape Town in 2006.

My thesis, which was supervised by Professor Tim Noakes, investigated the role of the brain in determining endurance performance. It focused on the pacing strategy during exercise performance, and how the brain regulated the degree of muscle activation (and hence running speed or power output) in order to protect the body from potential harm. Therefore, rather than fatigue occurring because the body reaches some limit (temperature, lack of oxygen or glycogen, etc.), fatigue occurs because the brain is regulating exercise specifically to prevent this limit from being reached.

While completing my PhD, I also obtained a Post-Graduate degree in Sports Management from the University of Cape Town's Faculty of Commerce.

My biggest interests lie in the application of science to performance, in the management of elite athletes and sporting systems, and in bridging the gap between science and commerce. Too often, there's a huge discord (a chasm the size of the Grand Canyon is a more apt description of it!) between the science in the lab and its implementation and application to every athlete. My goal is to bridge that gap, be it through news articles, coaching or explaining the science, and this site will hopefully contribute to all three.

I live in Cape Town, South Africa, where I spend most of my time as a senior lecturer with the University of Cape Town's Exercise Science and Sports Medicine Department.  I am also on the management of the Springbok Sevens team, as a sports scientist and strategist.   Most recently, I'm working with two Olympic kayakers, Shaun Rubenstein and Mike Arthur, in preparation for their medal assault in London 2012.

I am also currently the Scientific Editor of Runners World SA magazine, consultant technical expert and physiologist with Adidas South Africa,  contributor and editor to Health24, South Africa's largest fitness and health related website, and I consult to Discovery Health, Powerade, Sports Illustrated and a few other clients.

I am a qualified middle and long distance running coach, and coach a few athletes in various distances and at various levels. Time prevents more commitment to coaching than this, but hopefully, in the future, I can expand my "stable".

My own personal sports involvement lies in running 10km and half-marathons. I also mountain-bike, play tennis and the occasional social game of soccer.

Jonathan Dugas, Ph.D.

I also obtained my Ph.D. in Exercise Physiology from the University of Cape Town in 2006.

My thesis, supervised by Professor Tim Noakes, was titled "Temperature responses to exercise and performance", and looked at fluid replacement, body temperature and performance during exercise in both the lab setting and in competitions, such as the Two Oceans 56 km Ultra-marathon and the Cape Argus/Pick 'n Pay 109 km Cycle Tour.

I showed that the key factor determining body temperature during exercise is the metabolic rate, and not environmental temperature or fluid intake. So what people are traditionally told by the "experts" is that they must drink to help keep their temperature down - this is not correct and the current fluid replacement guidelines are not necessarily relevant to people taking part in marathons and other endurance activities outdoors.

After spending over four years in academia, in March 2011 I became the Director of Clinical Development at The Vitality Group, in Chicago, IL.  In that role I contribute to translating the science of exercise to large populations as we try to encourage exercise and healthy lifestyle choices.  Also, we attempt to ask the right questions that will allow us to uncover the winning combination of factors that will reduce risk and encourage a sustainable healthy lifestyle in both active and inactive individuals.  This keeps me busy, but Ross and I share a passion for applying science to the everyday athlete, and this blog is the result of that.

My sporting background is mixed, starting with soccer through university, then moving to running (Two Oceans twice with a 2:48 marathon PB) and finally cycling. I am a qualified USA Cycling Level II coach, and ride semi-competitively (Category 3) with the xXx Racing-Athletico cycling team here in Chicago.

Our vision

Our vision

Welcome to The Science of Sport!

This site was 'born' at the end of April 2007 as our attempt to give Sports Science and Exercise Physiology a broader appeal, while at the same time providing a site where people could be educated and learn about physiology and exercise performance.

Science without application is really nothing more than stamp collecting, and so we really wanted to give everyone the opportunity to appreciate the physiology and science of performance in a real sense. The aim was to take relevant and interesting (to us, anyway!) topics in sports science and apply them to every one who has every taken part in sport at any level.

We quickly evolved into a news site, and as we stand today, we have two distinct categories of posts:

One is our physiology series, where we try to summarize sports science literature and make it "conversation-worthy" for you. Hopefully, it helps your training, or at least ignites your interest in physiology and science.

Our second type of post is a news story, where we try to add our insights into sports events and current affairs. Our method is to take sports news and try to give you the second, third and fourth level of insight that you can't get from the popular media. These posts are necessarily opinionated, for they reflect our view of sports, based on evidence, which is where we'd like to think we differentiate our coverage from the news sites. Their purpose is to apply a more intellectual approach to debates, to seek discussion and clarity, and to peel away the "mystery" and explain why things happen the way they do.

In other words, you can pick up your local paper or read the sports news on the internet, and they will tell you WHAT happened. Our aim is to fill in the blanks, and try to explain HOW, WHY, WHERE and WHEN it happened, to give that level of insight that we hope can't be found anywhere else!

We're both very interested in cycling and running, in particular. You can read our bios here. We try to cover the range of sports and events, but we do have a natural bias towards these two sports.

I (Ross) have always been a "big picture" thinker (or try to be!), and I think it's really important to pull together interests and information from a wide range of sources. My other qualification is sports management, and the marriage between business, science and sport, especially as applied to sports performance, is my own particular goal. If scientists tend to look at only one square of the chess board, and business another, my goal is to step back and show you the whole board.

We are also both active and qualified coaches, Ross for running and Jonathan for cycling. Our ultimate goal is to apply the science and physiology, and there is no better means to do this than through coaching.

We look forward to much debate and discussion on our posts this year!