Jim's Sports Lab

Tomorrow (2 March) is the first Workshop. Unlike others it does not have a pre-recorded lecture. The lecture will be done then, recorded and uploaded into Youtube afterwards. For students attending in the Green4 room, please bring calculators as we will be doing some basic maths in class. There will be a lot of housework too, with details of assessments and expectations of everyone to ensure success in SPE205

Jim

Many within sport science (including Jim) say that little changes in disciplines such as anatomy. I think this link shows this is not the case.  An interesting story even if the link only takes you to the abstract (CDU students have access to the full article).

Yesterday was in interesting and engaging day. Presenters ranged from industry reps, research in technology, research in sport science, and business/innovation views.

Today looks just as interesting with presentations from uni reps, athletes, and innovation support.

Today and tomorrow Jim  is in Melbourne attending an analytics and wearables summit. Colleague Danny James has dived in head first and is a keynote speaker. He has also been tasked with chairing the first session. Keeping control of the presenters is a challenge and Dan has cracked the whip to keep them in line.

Danny, hard at work

Here is a reblog from sportstechnology.com. Where Jim gave a lecture along side of Associate Professor Tomohito Wada. Tomo-san’s video clip is worth having a look at. It shows off the Sports Performance Laboratory where he is based – Kanoya, Japan

‘If it does not challenge you, it does not change you.’

Very appropriate – not only for sport, but for learning, improving, growing…

Here is one of nine videos that I created where I had a conversation with Associate Prof Daniel James on the use of technology to monitor and measure human movement.

The full playlist can be found here.

At CDU we have a programme known as iScholar. It is where some academics have been under the guidance of Barbara White to look at alternative ways to deliver teaching and learning material to students. It is based on what is known as “Flipping the Classroom” – in saying that, it is very generic and sometimes not known as flipped learning. Many in iScholar have been very creative in their approach to the concept. I was more in line to how many view what flipping is. This YouTube clip explains my approach:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nnRewBPFec

It is a different way to deliver material. It certainly fits in with the way I aim to provide information.

Many people see scientists as Boffins in white lab coats combining this, mixing that, and whala! A nice piece of smart science comes neatly together. We, however often know better, excruciating hours designing, setting up pilots, ironing out the bugs. Finally our patient duties result in the commencement of some data collection, only for a tiny hiccup to happen – power failure, venue double booked, coach or participant decides not to participate (quite within their rights), it is too wet, it is too hot, someone ate the chocolates – whatever the miriad of possibilities, we end up with comments like the following from twisteddoodles.com (worth a visit for a laugh)…..

 Perhaps this “little known to the world” scientific vernacular should be taught to our up and coming troops? Or should they learn from experience……

Oh, as for the accuracy of the cartoon, while I may say it sometimes, for me the “I hate Science!” is always very short lived….. To paraphrase 10cc’s – Dreadlock Holiday, I don’t like Science. I love it!

Today the CDU EHSE faculty’s Information Technology hosted an IT Code Fair. It showcased their student’s work. On display were coded work from undergrad through to postgrad.  This was judged by industry representatives with awards given on the day. The work was varied and covered many areas where IT now contributes to society. The IT department organised the fair with Barbara White and Rebecca England the main drivers. Their coupe was to attract the Australian Prime Minister, the right honourable Malcolm Turnbull. This caused a buzz in the crowd as few realised he was a guest. Prime Minister Turnbull was introduced by Barbara and he awarded prizes to the winner and runners up. This was followed by a speech where the PM highlighted the importance of IT as a way of the future and the need to embrace and foster it.  Little to say this has been the case within sport in recent years. 

Barbara White introducing the Australian PM, Malcolm Turnbull