In January’s ITTF top10 list (International Table Tennis Federation), 7 out of 10 athletes in men’s ranking are originated from Asian countries, while in women’s list the same ration is 10 out of 10. China is the top country with 8 athletes (4 for men and 4 for women) and Japan is the second with 5 athletes (2 for men and 3 for women).

In general, Chinese players have won the men’s World Championship 60% of the times since 1959. At the Olympic Games of 2008 in Beijing, at those of 2012 in London and at the last Olympic Games of 2016 in Rio, China won all possible gold medals in Table Tennis. (Single Men/Women, Team Men/Women). During the above-mentioned last 3 Olympic Games, Asian Countries have won 31 of the 36 possible medals.

In U.S.A the examples of athletes who used to take ballet lessons, in order to improve their body abilities, are many. Steve McLendon, Herschel Walker and Lynn Swann in rugby, Ray Emery in ice hockey and Evander Holyfield in boxing are only some of the top level American athletes who confirmed that they were taking ballet lessons during their athletic careers.

In Europe, the most significant example is the men’s national volleyball team of Italy which dominated globally in 90s and 00s. The Italian world class players, members of the volleyball Hall of Fame right now, had taken ballet lessons each summer before every big competition. The results were indisputable. 19 Gold, 9 Silver and 5 Bronze Medals in European competitions and World Championships, 2 Silver and 1 Bronze Medals in Olympic Games.

8/1/2018: Roger Federer is considered as one of the best tennis players in ATP history and the man who influenced the game more than anyone else. Since 2013, he has encountered problems with back injuries which could have minimized his chances of staying at the top tennis level. Although the back problem still exists, he managed to overcome it by working more his body with core exercises than just doing treatment sessions.

Core exercise focus on either the stabilization, endurance or strengthening of the core muscles. It also focus on the abdomen, the lower abdomen and hips, the obliques, stabilizing muscles, the spine and the back muscles. By training these muscle areas to work together properly, an athlete can maintain proper balance, agility, posture and movement to help the body move efficiently as well as preventing injury.

Top players, as they are getting older, need to train themselves more with core exercises because they use only their body weight without any training equipment or extra weight pressure.

From 2013 to 2016, in which he played only 28 matches due to a knee injury, Federer’s success rate was 76.7% and 12 winning titles, but none of them was a Grand Slam. However, in 2017, by participating in less tournaments after surpassing his injurie issues, he achieved to win 2 Grand Slam titles, his first since 2012, by having 94.45% success rate in Grand Slams (18-1) and 90,4% in overall (52-5, 7 titles). Additionally, he became the oldest player that won the Wimbledon and the 3rd oldest winner of a Grand Slam, in general.

10/1/2018: Winter sports such as skiing, ice skating and ice hockey are very popular activities during the last decades, performed by more than 200 million people annually. However, they involve a great number of risks as falls and collisions are highly probable. It has to be mentioned that a severe injury is almost certain if a group of 10 amateurs ice-skate daily for 2 months.

The most affected areas are shoulders, head, knees and spine. Therefore, in order to produce more efficient equipment for the protection of these parts of the human body, polymeric foams are used. These polymers are actually a blend of Perbunan, Wood Glue and PEVA and altogether consent to the development of a highly adsorbing material. In this way, the resulting fabric is soft when not stressed with high speed, and changes its behavior to a rigid material when a fast stress is applied.

This new soft shell technology is also characterized by low thickness materials, hence it contributes to the ergonomic aspect of the whole equipment. Moreover, since the production process allows to develop perforated structures, polymeric foams have higher complacency from the thermal point of view as well. On the other hand, a big drawback of these polymers compared to the conventional “hard-shell” equipment is their slight sensibility to temperature variations, resulting in partial loss of their properties below -10°C

13/1/2018: Technology has invaded for good in sports recently. One of the latest trends in football trainings is the “black half vest type” which the players are wearing on their chest during the training.

This new innovative technological device has multiple functions and it was developed initially for helping the rugby managers to receive information about players’ performances in training. Nonetheless, it is also being used by many top football clubs for bringing out optimum performances from players in order to schedule their workload and set goals.

The “black half vest type” contains a mind-boggling list of components including four processors, a state of the art GPS module, a 3-D accelerometer (which determines direction as well as speed), a 3-D gyroscope (that locates balance and orientation), a 3-D digital compass, a long range radio and a heart rate receiver.

In other words, it comprises a wearable technology that provides multifarious statistics such as speed, acceleration, deceleration, heart rate and dynamic stress load among others. The results are uploaded in a data base which the coaching staff administer and analyze for each player of the club individually.

14/1/2018: Heat production of the human body highly depends on the type of exercise. Metabolism comprises the processes that the body needs to function such as breathing, blood circulation and contraction of muscles. The overall energy expenditure is defined in MET [J/(kg.s)], a unit that determines the metabolic rate of a physical activity.

The metabolic rate of a person at rest is delineated as 1 MET. Sports like golf and ice skating require relatively low amounts of energy, expressed in 4.3 and 6.2 MET respectively. On the other hand, activities like swimming, tennis and basketball increase significantly the metabolic rate, as during these sports energy expenditure is around 8 MET. The most consuming athletic activity is running (with a velocity close to 13 km/h), action that actually has MET levels above 13.5.

In such arduous activities, the core temperature of an athlete may rise up to 40 °C, which could lead to impairments of the central nervous system. The above mentioned situation is exemplary depicted in Gabriela Andersen-Schiess’ finishing at the Marathon of the Olympic Games of Los Angeles in 1984, where she was unable to coordinate her muscles at the very end of the race.

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