Sports imPULSE

Tennis Channel Shoots For A Win With Launch of New Online Portal

The Tennis Channel just announced the launch of a new online video portal, Tennis Channel TV, giving fans an opportunity to tune into their favorite multimedia content, live matches and on-demand programs online.  We've seen the MLB move in this direction and it's always great to see other sports follow suit.

This all-in-one online media offering will expand the reach of traditional Tennis Channel programming to online viewers. Content will include VOD channels, highlights, interviews and archives.

The video player allows fans viewing of up to five courts simultaneously, live games, archive matches from earlier in the tournament, highlights, interviews, and live chat with fellow fans.  Now that will be pretty cool.  Can you imagine the trash talk?

Tennis Channel TV was first launched on May 24th live from Paris for the French Open with live streaming to U.S. based fans. With the Wimbledon Tournament now underway, Tennis Channel TV streams VOD, interviews, highlights and other primetime coverage online.

Tennis Channel TV coverage includes the U.S. Open, Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon. The service is currently available and free to U.S. fans at www.tennischannel.com.

Big Business For Healthier Video Games

Video games might actually be good for you. the Nintendo Wii is actually changing the way medical professionals are seeing video games and has gained popularity through motion sensor technology and innovation during game play. With the wireless ability, players are encouraged to whip, throw, gyrate, and above all, move with a number of titles.

Now, the Medical Industry has grown interested in the Wii for its health benefits. Nintendo's Wii Fit has grown to become the fifth best selling videogame in history, with over 18 million copies sold as of March 31, 2009.

Using the Wii Balance Board peripheral, a player's weight and body mass are calculated, and they are introduced to over 40 activities such as yoga poses, push-ups, and aerobic exercises.

Future titles by Big John Games' include Butt Kicker, an action-based fight against cigarettes for the Nintendo DSi, and Karate Bears for Wii, which teaches players real karate using the Wii Remote controllers.

Healthy gaming is not limited to households. In January of 2006, the state of West Virginia and game publisher Konami introduced their music series, Dance Dance Revolution, into the curriculum of almost 800 public schools for physical education, which records one of the highest rates of childhood obesity in the country.

Now about my golf game...

Technology Changing The Face Of Recruiting

In Facebook lingo, football coaches would like to add a number of hot-shot players as friends. And if they wanted to, these high school athletes could update their Facebook status on any given night to "listening to recruiting pitches."

Forget the future of recruiting. This is its present – for now at least.

Football and basketball coaches spent the offseason increasing their presence in cyberspace at a furious pace. By the end of May, dozens of head coaches and assistants in a number of sports had established Twitter pages. A few more had beefed-up their presence on Facebook. And that was before many of them knew the NCAA considered email-based correspondence on social networking sites to fall under the same rules as email, meaning they basically can be unlimited in nature.

Under NCAA rules, coaches in Division I and II can communicate with prospects via one-on-one messaging from social networking sites even if a recruit wants to receive the coach's message as a text. Phone-to-phone text messages and instant messaging, even through a social networking site, remain off-limits. In 2007, Division III prohibited social networking in recruiting along with text messages.

The exception for direct messaging via social networking sites is a change of pace for coaches, who have seen their ability to contact and evaluate prospects curtailed in recent years. The NCAA banned coach-to-recruit text messaging in 2007.

However, coaches are right to question how long Facebook and Twitter will be permissible as a recruiting tool.  What is legal today might not be legal a year from now, as coaches learned when text messaging was banned.

HOT System Provides Early Warning Against Heat Stroke For Football Players

According to USA Football, more than 21 million Americans - from pee wee to the NFL - will play football this year. Overheating, especially among programs in the South, is an area of long-time concern for coaches, parents, and athletic trainers. Heat-related injuries have caused the deaths of 25 athletes since 2000. As you can imagine, getting an accurate temperature of an athlete on the playing field does present challenges.

Schutt Sports and HotHead Technologies have developed the first-ever helmet fitted with a temperature sensing device that can identify athletes who are overheating before they require bags of fluid - and before the heat does irreparable damage to their bodies. A dime-sized sensor in the forehead pad of the helmet relays accurate body temperature readings of every player on the field to a PDA on the sidelines that is monitored by an athletic trainer.

The H.O.T. System™ can now act as an early warning detection system for heat stroke and other heat-related injuries, giving athletic trainers, coaches and doctors a distinct advantage in their battle with heat.

Dallas Cowboys and Cisco Team Up For Ultimate Fan Experience

The largest NFL stadium ever built is also the most technologically advanced entertainment venue.  Cisco, my former employer, is outfitting the Dallas Cowboys stadium with Cisco Connected Sports technologies.  The new stadium has 3 million square feet, cost $1.1 billion and can host up to 100,000 fans for major sports and entertainment events.

Central to the fan experience will be Cisco's sports technologies, which will provide the flexibility to adapt the stadium to support any number of events.  The integration of high-def video, digital content and interactive fan services will enable the Cowboys and the fans to connect in entirely new ways. For example:

• Fans remain engaged anywhere in the stadium, whether in the concourse, club or concessions areas, with nearly 3,000 TV displays featuring customized HD video game footage and real-time, relevant information.
• Using Cisco StadiumVision, the Cowboys can customize displays to keep fans entertained pre-event, in event and post-event, by showcasing video and content such as out-of-town games and scores, team trivia, weather, traffic and news from around the world, in addition to the action on the field.
• Fans in one of the more than 300 luxury suites also will have the opportunity to further customize their event experiences by choosing from video options made available via a touch-screen IP phone.

Taking me out to the ballgame will never be the same...

Golf Gear That Could Shave Strokes Off Your Score - Part 3

This is the final in a series of posts summarizing some interesting golf gear that will help you get ready for the summer golf season or at least make you look good.

Golf sunglasses for women

Leave it to Adidas to improve golf gear for women, and not just to improve performance but also to imbue it with sleek style. The new line of lightweight adilibra half-rim shades from Adidas is incorporated with lens-stabilizing technology, which helps you keep your eye on the ball by harmonizing light fluctuations, and the de-centered Vision Advantage gives you a distortion-free view of the close-up tee as well as the faraway flag on the green. The fashion-forward temple design is complimented by a number of fit options, with adjustable temples and slim "double-snap" nose pads. In shiny black and gray, shiny brown and chocolate, shiny berry and mauve, and shiny khaki and gray.  Are there any non-shiny colors?

Custom cart garage

So you feel pretty good about yourself now that you’ve got a spiffy custom golf cart. But are you really going to park it in the garage where it could be dinged and scratched, or, worse, leave it at the course for others to fondle? To truly treat your baby right, your cart needs its own stone home. New World Stoneworks of Boston will send you a complete Stone Golf Cart Garage kit, with each hand-chiseled, pre-shaped piece numbered so a mason can assemble it, potentially in a single day depending on the size and the custom features. $13,000-$30,000, plus $950 for delivery; installation extra.  Of course.

Hit 'em straight this summer!

Chicago Bulls Looking For Full-Time Web Coordinator

The Chicago Bulls are looking for a full-time Web Coordinator that has the right combination of web development skills, passion for sports and web technology, love of a fast paced work environment, the ability to learn quickly and thrive within a world class organization.

More info here.

Golf Gear That Could Shave Strokes Off Your Score - Part 2

Our previous post began to highlight the latest golf gear that could shave a few strokes from your golf game, or at a minimum, help make you look good.  To help get your summer golf game in shape here are a few more gear suggestions:

Callaway uPro Golf GPS

This GPS device almost makes the game too easy. Almost. Of course, it tells you the yardage to the pin, but the SmartView technology lets you see the course on the 2-inch-by-2-inch color screen from your exact location; as you move, so does the view on the screen to give you optimal insights as to how to attack the green. No annual fees, and there are 12,000 courses in the database. The ProMode version lets you download specific courses, and you pay for only those you want.

Bionic golf glove

Rarely does your glove give you a distinct advantage, but we can attest that the Pro Golf Glove by Bionic Gloves (a division of the company that makes Louisville Sluggers) puts confidence in your hand like no other. Developed by an orthopedic hand surgeon, the leather glove offers support where you need it and a slip-free grip that is soft but sure. There’s a mini terry-cloth layer that keeps the hand cool while absorbing moisture, but you can still feel the dimples in the club grip. $39.95 for the Pro version, $24.95 for the Classic and $49.95 for the pair made specifically for those with arthritis

Golf Gear That Just Might Shave Some Strokes From Your Game

Every game gets more fun with new gadgets, equipment and technology.

Since the US Open is being postponed by rain, we though we would highlight some of the latest golf gadgets that come across our desks. 

Of course, if you had the best of everything you needed when it came to golf equipment, you’d have no excuse for your questionable play. But these items might, just might, shave a few strokes off your soon-to-be inexcusable score.

Visual Golf simulator

Turn that spare room or unused garage bay into any golfer’s dream by installing a full-size simulator. You hit from a mat, slamming a real ball onto a huge screen; a sophisticated system of cameras and sensors tells you how far away your ball settled. Make another club selection and hit again, all the way until you drain it on the green. With the Visual Sports Systems' simulator, you play just about any course you like, anytime you like — and never pay another cart fee — and you can play against real partners or virtual ones. The golf simulator uses four high-speed cameras that take 2,000 pictures each second; the MicroSight technology determines the trajectory, direction and speed of the ball with uncanny accuracy. If you don’t start dropping strokes with this, take up hockey. The system also doubles as your multimedia room for watching movies and listening to music. Basic systems start at $7,500; installation varies.

How To Watch The US Open LIVE Online

They don't have the telecast online, instead they follow a few select groups live on Thur/Fri only - here

However, it's nothing but highlights online on the weekend. Might be a little scared of NBC.

The full TV schedule is here

Naturally, they have a twitter account this year: http://twitter.com/usopengolf

And what's a sports event without a widget

You might want to turn off the volume to avoid hearing the fake bird chirping, but this is very cool if you're into this kind of thing:

And there's always Justin.TV