Staples Center Time Lapse Court Change

Last weekend the Staples Center hosted 6 playoff games for 3 different teams; the Lakers (NBA), the Clippers (NBA) and the Kings (NHL).  The turnaround of changing out the floors and rink was nothing short of incredible.  It takes approximately 2 hours and 15 minutes to switch from ice to a basketball court, and about 90 minutes to change from basketball court to basketball court.  Below is a time lapse video of the weekend’s events.  For my Kindle subscribers, this is one worth checking out on a desktop or phone.  Ref. sbnation.com, yahoo.com

LPGA Caddies’ Bibs Worth a Second Look

LPGA caddies will be doing more than carrying clubs and offering advice this summer, they will also act as a billboard sporting their golfer’s Twitter handle.  Next month, fans will see golfer's handles on their caddy's bibs at the LPGA Championship at Locust Hill Country Club.  According to Kraig Kann, chief communications officer of the LTGA Tour, there are 113 LPGA players with Twitter accounts.

The apparent goal of including handles on the bibs is to boost excitement about the event and encourage a long-term relationship between players and fans via Twitter.  Of course Twitter handles appearing in sports is not an entirely new concept.  They have already appeared on soccer uniforms and in football end zones.  Twitter even helped land a golfer an invite to the Northern Trust Open.  I wonder if this will open the door to other proxy-athletes wearing handles.  For example, will mascots start slapping star players' handles across their shirts?  Will cheerleaders don a handle of the star quarterback?  Probably not, but I love the placement ingenuity by the LPGA. Ref. espn.com, theuksportsnetwork.com Pic. Ref. theuksportsnetwork.com

London Olympics Torch Tech

Last week the Olympic torch was lit in Olympia, Greece.  For many this represents the unofficial start of the Games.  Each Games has a uniquely designed torch.  When you look at the different torches through the years, technology plays a huge role in design.  Each year the torch is designed to be aesthetically pleasing, representative of the county or representative of another special aspect of the Games.  However the design goes way beyond ‘looking sharp.’  The torches must also function as a fire-bearing device.

This year’s torch was designed by the Barber Osgerby firm.  The outside is made of aluminum alloy and punctured with 8,000 holes to represent the 8,000 torch-bearers.  The burner, according to bbc.co.uk has “a propane-butane gas canister that can burn for about 10 minutes - will be dropped into the core. When it comes to the relay, these will be turned on to let the gas flow by a torch attendant before the flame is received by the bearer.”

Below are some of my personal favorite torches from the past and the London 2012 Games torch.  Pictures from bbc.co.uk, click here to view torches from many other Games and read some really cool facts about each.

Berlin Summer 1936

Mexico City Summer 1968

Calgary Winter 1988

Sydney Summer 2000

London Summer 2012

Everton Gets Analytical

Premier League teams, most notably Everton, are at the forefront of using statistics and analytics to prep for upcoming matches.  Leveraging stat providers like Prozone and StatDNA, Premier League teams have been able to gather key information about the opposition long before stepping out on the pitch.  SI.com recently highlighted Everton and their manager David Moyes who introduced data analysis to the team back in 2002. 

Some of the information Everton can gather by examining analytics includes their opposition's style of play, tendencies and set-pieces.  Perhaps most interesting is the detailed look managers take at specific players on the opposing team.  Steve Brown, First Team Performance Analyst at Everton, said "We will identify certain trends of a player, for example a winger, and show our fullback what we think they're more likely to do in certain situations.”  Additionally Brown was quoted, "It's the small detail which we are meticulous in. We examine if the players have certain patterns to their play which we think we can expose or need to be aware of. Do certain wingers have a style of attacking play in order to create a crossing position? Something that we might be able to predict and counter. The idea is to give them a picture of what the opposition [player] is doing."

Not everyone loves the idea of applying analytics to the game.  Many fear the metrics could be misinterpreted, which could lead to confusion and misinformed decision-making.  However others, including Tim Howard and Landon Donovan, are eager to learn as much as possible from analysis done on the competition.  Brown does concede that interpreting the raw data is key, but if done correctly, this information is an incredibly powerful tool for managers and players alike. Ref. Pic. si.com Ref. Tottenham-Spur.blogspot.com