Kevin Thompson, head of Sports Science at the University Northumbrian, England, in order to know if the athletes of cycling could go beyond its known, has conducted unusual research.
In the laboratory, Dr. Thompson and his assistant Mark Stone, asked cyclists to pedal as fast as possible on a stationary bicycle. Then the athletes ran against an avatar that ran with the same speed as the cyclist had hit on the bike. The other avatar who really ran with force equals to the force of the rider. In fact the second avatar was scheduled to run faster than the rider. It was requested for the avatar to run against what they believed to represent their best times, cyclists eventually succeeded to combine the two avatars, running much faster than before. According to Dr. Thompson, the improvements in the times of athletes are not simple variability, but a real change in performance.
John Corbett, senior lecturer at the University of Portsmouth cyclists urged to run as fast as they could against a projected image by computer to reproduce the athlete in an attempt to make the best time in the race of 2,000 meters.
According to Dr. Corbett, the brain seems to allow the athlete to use more energy than it would normally be allowed.
According to Dr. Thompson coaches can get a better performance of athletes by means of small mistakes, but it is a risky approach, because the small mistakes can undermine the trust between athlete and coach.
According to Dr. Thompson coaches can get a better performance of athletes by means of small mistakes, but it is a risky approach, because the small mistakes can undermine the trust between athlete and coach.
