| Hi Thomas, how are you enjoying the course so far? |
| Yeah, I think it's good. |
| Remind me, why did you decide to study sports science? |
| Didn't you want to be a professional athlete when you were at school? |
| Yeah, that was my goal, |
| and all my classmates assumed I would achieve it; they thought I was brilliant. |
| That must have been a nice feeling. |
| Mm, I thought I could win anything. |
| There was no one who could run faster than me. |
| Exactly, so what happened? |
| Did your mum and dad want you to be more 'academic'? |
| Not at all. |
| Perhaps they should have pushed me harder, though. |
| What do you mean? |
| I think I should have practised more. |
| What makes you say that? |
| Well, I went out to Kenya for a couple of weeks to train... |
| Really! I didn't know that. |
| I was chosen to go there out of loads of kids and run with some of the top teenage athletes in the world. |
| And... I was so calm about it. |
| I just kept thinking how fortunate I was. |
| What a great chance this was! |
| Everyone back home was so proud of me. |
| But once we started competing, I very quickly realised I wasn't good enough. |
| That must have been a huge shock. |
| I thought 'this can't be happening'! |
| I was used to winning. |
| I'm sorry to hear that. |
| It's OK. |
| I'm over it now |
| and I think it's much better to do a university course |
| and this one has such a variety of sports-related areas. |
| It's going to be good. |
| Oh, I agree, I chose it because of that. |
| So Jeanne, have you thought of any ideas for the discussion session next week on technology and sport? |
| We have to cover more than one sport, don't we? |
| Yeah. |
| You know, we always think technology is about the future, |
| but we could gather some ideas about past developments in sport. |
| Look at early types of equipment perhaps? |
| I remember reading something about table tennis bats once, |
| how they ended up being covered with pimpled rubber. |
| Cos they were just wooden at first, I'd imagine. |
| Yeah. |
| In about the 1920s, |
| a factory was making rolls of the rubber in bulk for something like horse harnesses. |
| Really! |
| Yeah, and someone realised that it would make a perfect covering for the wooden bats. |
| So what about cricket, |
| that's had a few innovative changes. |
| Maybe the pads they wear on their legs? |
| I don't think they've changed much but, I'm just looking on the internet... |
| and it says that when the first cricket helmet came in, in 1978, |
| the Australian batsman who first wore it was booed and jeered by people watching because it was so ugly! |
| Wow, players have to protect themselves from getting hurt! |
| I mean everyone wears one now. |
| Mm, unlike the cycle helmet. |
| Well, unless you're a professional, |
| but you're right, many ordinary bikers don't wear a helmet. |
| Hey, look at these pictures of original helmet designs. |
| This one looks like an upside-down bowl! |
| Yet, the woman's laughing, |
| she's so proud to be wearing it! |
| It says serious cyclists ended up with wet hair from all the hard exercise. |
| I guess that's why they have large air vents in them now |
| so that the skin can breathe more easily. |
| OK, so we've done helmets. |
| What about golf balls or better still golf clubs, |
| they've changed a lot. |
| Yeah, I remember my great grandfather telling me that because a club was made entirely of wood, |
| it would easily break and players had to get another. |
| There's no wood at all in them now, is there? |
| No, they're much more powerful. |
| The same must be true of hockey sticks. |
| I don't think so because players still use wooden sticks today. |
| What it does say here, though, |
| is that when the game started you had to produce a stick yourself. |
| I guess they just weren't being manufactured. |
| So, one more perhaps. |
| What about football? |
| Well, I know the first balls were made of animal skin. |
| Yeah, they covered them with pieces of leather that were stitched together, |
| but... the balls let in water when it rained. |
| Oh, that would have made them much heavier. |
| That's right. |
| You can imagine the damage to player's necks when the ball was headed. |
| Oh, how painful that must have been! |
| Yeah, well, I think we can put together some useful ideas... |