Innovations in sports equipments
Over the years sports has gotten more and more integrated with technology. From special camera technology in cricket and tennis to new innovations in clothing and equipment. Technology is becoming ingrained into sports day by day. Is this a good thing or not, a question many people ask is; were sports better or more fun before all this technology entered the arena? There are a lot of different opinions on both sides of the fence; those that say that sports in the olden days were much better and more enjoyable to watch and there are those that say that sports are much fast paced and more entertaining now with all this technology in them. Who is right and what sorts of technology have been introduced and what is the latest stuff going on in the world of sports innovations?
First let’s look at the point of view of those that say that sports were better in olden times with much less technology. According to them athletes in olden days were real and true and now they see all these good looking young sports players in shampoo ads and male makeup commercials and they feel something somewhere went wrong. It seems to them that in the olden days when sports players were real and gritty and ready to get dirty in pursuit of their overall sports goals, that was when sports were much better.
The other side to this argument says that with newer and better technology, sports become faster, more enjoyable and up to date. They say that this way as the world gets more technologically advanced then the sports that people of this technologically advanced world enjoy cannot be left behind. They are right though because why would a technologically advanced world want to watch sports that reminded them of the 1940s or 1950s. Even sports from the 80s seem dated now.
As technology in the world keeps getting faster and better every year sports technology has been steadily keeping pace with it. Little things can be seen in the specific equipment that athletes use. For instance there have been steadily improving technological advances in racquets that tennis players use and in the shoes worn by top football players. The tennis racquets have been getting lighter and stronger and providing the tennis stars with the ability to improve their games, while the shoes that footballers use are getting lighter and thinner and are able to be bent easier to make curving shots easier. The poor goalies have found their work suddenly increasing due to this fact. Other very interesting innovations can be found on the Guardian newspaper’s website.
The site describes five new sports innovations that might change the world of sports. The first of these is a training bicycle costing £25,000 that can monitor the rider’s heart rate and the pressure of their surroundings while only weighing 7kgs. The second innovation is a pair of skiing goggles with an inbuilt display monitor, which shows things like altitude, speed and temperature. The third innovation is a specially designed surfboard that is designed to better turn in the water and enhances the surface of the board to interact better with the waves. The second last innovation is a long handled cricket bat that is designed to be able to give the batsman a greater hitting advantage. Finally the last innovation is compression wear for golfers, which allows their skin to breath easier and gives them a sleeker look. These innovations can be seen in full at:http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/gallery/2010/jan/08/sports-equipment-innovations?picture=357813095.
As technology continues to grow rapidly we will see many more innovations like those above entering every sport that is played competitively. A final word on these innovations is that first male swimmers found that if they shaved all the hair from their bodies they were able to swim faster in the water. Then a company invented a full body suit that reduced drag and enabled the swimmers to go faster than shaving all the hair from their bodies. Even though we will see many innovations in many sports what is the next big invention that will hit the world of sports? Could it be in football, basketball, athletics or some other sports? It could very well be in motor sports where the engineers are always adding new things to the cars. However we will have to wait and see where the next big thing in sports pops up.
Tags: