23 February 2007

UK started talent trasfer programme

Talent Transfer in Full Swing@UK Sport

The Talent Transfer Programme aims to recruit athletes already retired, or nearing retirement, and provide them with a ‘second chance’ opportunity to switch sports and directly contribute to Team GB success in 2012.

To kick-start the transfer process, over the next few days 150 athletes previously funded on the World Class Programme will receive a letter, inviting them to pursue their Olympic dream – by switching sports. This group were chosen from 1,200 who have been through the lottery funded programmes since 1997. If they get through the initial screening exercise and are identified as potential medal-winners, they will be put on fast-track programmes for their new sport.

21 February 2007

Australian targets for the talent ID programme

ASC looks to next generation of talented athletes@ASC

A total of 17 sports are involved in the project, funded by the Australian Government to the tune of $20 million dollars over the next four years.

A major part of the initial four year project is the identification and development of indigenous athletes in the sports of boxing, track and field, hockey, basketball and field hockey.

Money will also be invested in developing Australian talent in sports that are popular and successful in Asia, including judo, badminton and short-track skating.

At a function at the AIS in Canberra today the ASC’s NTID program demonstrated some of these talent search initiatives in shooting, indigenous boxing, tae kwon do and badminton.

20 February 2007

brain monitoring?

The brain scan that can read people's intentions@Guardian

A team of world-leading neuroscientists has developed a powerful technique that allows them to look deep inside a person's brain and read their intentions before they act.

The research breaks controversial new ground in scientists' ability to probe people's minds and eavesdrop on their thoughts, and raises serious ethical issues over how brain-reading technology may be used in the future.

The team used high-resolution brain scans to identify patterns of activity before translating them into meaningful thoughts, revealing what a person planned to do in the near future. It is the first time scientists have succeeded in reading intentions in this way.

19 February 2007

vaccinations for Austlaian athletes before Beijing Olympics

Immunisation program for 2008 Australian Olympic Team@AOC

one thousand potential team members will be offered vaccinations for Hepatitis, Typhoid, Polio, Tetanus, Whooping Cough and Diphtheria, Measles-Mumps-Rubella and Influenza to avoid any infection that might have an adverse effect of their performance.

17 February 2007

WADA new coaches tool kit

WADA Launches Its New Coaches Tool Kit@WADA

The WADA Coaches' Tool Kit is designed to assist World Anti-Doping Code signatories meet their responsibility to educate athletes, coaches and other athlete support staff about the dangers and consequences of doping in sport. The Coaches Tool Kit is available in English, French and Spanish.

USOC training centre in China

USOC UNVEILS CHINA TRAINING CENTRE@sportbusiness

The US Olympic Committee has confirmed it is to spend $500,000 on establishing a training centre in China ahead of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

USOC chiefs confirmed the high-performance centre at the Beijing Normal University which will accommodate 400 athletes.

10 February 2007

monitor readiness to perform with software

Fitness becomes a matter of computing@The Australian

While the Sydney Swans were reaping the benefits of their Italian job, St Kilda was developing software of its own in partnership with Athletic Logic, a Sydney based IT company.

The Saints' software is purpose designed to keep more players on the field for more of the season.

The difference with the Sydney system - or the reams of information collected and analysed by Adelaide Crows coach Neil Craig and his sports science team - is that the players enter the data themselves, after every training session, via a touch-pad screen on one of four computer tablets.

Whenever a St Kilda player finishes a training session, he must tell the computer how he is feeling, how well he is sleeping, and answer other questions about his general well-being.

This subjective information is then collated with more objective measures of weight loss, training loads, distances run and heart-rate fluctuations to give an overall picture of how each footballer's body is standing up to the demands of training.

01 February 2007

Australian funding for Beijing Olympics

AOC funding increased@AOC

Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) costs for the 2008 Beijing Olympics have climbed to almost $33 million as a result of a larger team and higher preparation costs