News 2019

Researchers at KU Leuven and data intelligence company SciSports have developed a new algorithm to assess football players' on-the-ball actions. Their model goes beyond traditional player statistics like the number of goals and assists, offering a more complete assessment of a player's performance and contribution to his team.

Study reveals dementia risk in former professional footballers A landmark study led by the University of Glasgow has revealed the first major insights into lifelong health outcomes in former professional footballers. In findings published today in The New England Journal of Medicine and funded by the Football Association (FA) and the Professional Footballers' Association (PFA), researchers compared the causes of death of 7,676 former Scottish ma

Kipchoge broke the record thanks to a special arrangement of runners, among other things. Professor Bert Blocken (KU Leuven/TU Eindhoven) confirmed the superior performance of this formation with wind tunnel tests and computer simulations. Kenyan athlete Eliud Kipchoge has become the first person to ever complete a marathon within two hours.

Older people who have never taken part in sustained exercise programmes have the same ability to build muscle mass as highly trained master athletes of a similar age, according to new research at the University of Birmingham. The research shows that even those who are entirely unaccustomed to exercise can benefit from resistance exercises such as weight training.

New research led by Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Rochester Medical Center indicates that concussions aren't the sole cause of damage to the brain in contact sports. A study of college football players found that typical hits sustained from playing just one season cause structural changes to the brain.

Our researchers partnered with No Lights, No Lycra to explore who regularly attends their nationwide free-form dance events held in the dark, including their motivations and self-reported health benefits. The researchers from the University's Faculty of Medicine and Health found the overwhelming majority of participants in No Lights, No Lycra were women in their mid to late 30s, who didn't meet physical activity guidelines.

The neurotransmitter brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) acts in the muscle, so that during strength training endurance muscle fiber number is decreased. Researchers at the University of Basel's Biozentrum have more closely investigated this factor, from the group of myokines, and demonstrated that it is produced by the muscle and acts on both muscles and synapses.

Results of the largest study to date of the pathology of dementia in former footballers and rugby players have been revealed. ‌ In a study published in Acta Neuropathologica and led by the University of Glasgow in collaboration with the University of Pennsylvania, the researchers report that while a pathology associated with brain injury - chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) - might be common in former athletes with dementia, in many cases its clinical significance remains uncertain.

Research team of sport psychologists unravels the role of auditory perception in tennis Exceeding noise levels of 100 decibels, the grunting sounds produced by some tennis players when hitting the ball are on a par with motorbikes or chainsaws. While fans react to these impressive exhalations with either annoyance or amusement, the habit has also been a source of intense debate among professionals.

Elite athletes are less likely to take banned substances if they consider the morality of what they are doing, and not just the health consequences of doping, according to a new study led by the University of Birmingham and funded by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) . In the study, conducted in UK, Denmark, and Greece, 1,500 athletes were asked to complete a questionnaire about two hypothetical doping situations.

Professional football players need to keep a cool head during a match, but some are better at this than others. Cristiano Ronaldo seems to be immune to pressure, while Neymar's performance crumbles under it. It's one of the remarkable findings of a study conducted by KU Leuven and data intelligence company SciSports.