Last Thursday’s Business of Sports Science event at the RDS has drawn some great comment and feedback, the latest being from Mike Moynihan in today’s edition of the Irish Examiner newspaper…
Last week, your columnist rolled north on the iron horse to visit the Business of Sports Science conference in the RDS, and a rewarding trip it was, writes Michael Moynihan.
Kudos to Rob Hartnett and his team at Sport for Business for making such a great job of organising the event, and in particular the interview with Paul McGinley.
The Ryder Cup captain was energetic, passionate and articulate, giving sharp insights that went far beyond the world of golf.
However, he pointed out that technology has had a huge impact on golf, and not just in the way you might think — in terms of balls and clubs.
McGinley’s point was that agronomy, which we often overlook, has come on in such leaps and bounds that golf course staff can produce a playing surface to order, practically.
He referred to a particular arrangement where a sponge-type mechanism, such as is used in Augusta, can reduce the moisture in the playing surface after heavy rain.
Although sports science — or more accurately for our purposes, science in sport — has come on in leaps and bounds in recent years, you tend to forget that along with the improvements in performance analysis and GPS tracking, other areas have seen similar developments.
The improvement in playing surfaces generally is certainly one of those ‘well, now that you mention it…’ subjects. The BBC recently ran some magic-of-the-FA-cup documentaries, and the horror of the underfoot conditions were the unifying theme up to the mid-90s: nowadays the muddy goalmouths of yore are a fond memory rather than the third-round staple they once were.
The same applies here: the old undulations in the GAA’s crown jewel, Croke Park, are no more either (if this is a way of conveying to readers that you played in the old Croke Park, it’s less than subtle — ed).
When the stadium was first renovated, there were loud criticisms of its playing area, but you never hear such complaints now.
Agronomy: the science you never considered.
Join us throughout this week as we look back on the interviews with Grant Best of BT Sport, Jim Gavin and Avenir Sports, Donal Ryan of Equinome and Patrick Kennedy of Amárach Research, as well as at the four finalists in the Spark of Innovation Award.
Image Credit: Fennell Photography / BT
