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Technological developments Essay Football boots are light weight and are made of such materials as kangaroo leather. Most top level players have sock-liners which fit with the contours of foot to provide extra comfort and strategically-placed traction blades provide maximum grip. Football boots help with a player grip, acceleration and turning ability. Footballs have had technological advancements such as having air retention system, being high density and having a high abrasion surface which provides extra durability. The match balls played with in the premiership is precision engineered to exact standards to ensure that it is produced to within 3g of its ideal weight and to an exact circumference of 68. 5cm. The benefits of the newer footballs are the increased swerve that the ball offers and a better accuracy of passing. Gloves The latest pair of reusch goalie gloves helps to prevent injury to the goalies hands through reusch Ortho-Tec glove which provides protection for vulnerable areas of the hand. The gloves upper hand is reinforced in a way that the fingers including the thumb are braced against forces occurring during a balls impact. The system not only prevents injuries, it is also suitable to disburden and protect an injury already sustained. Gloves have also been adapted to different weather conditions as well; gloves are made from soft latex foam with excellent properties for use in various weather conditions. Goalie gloves benefit the goalie by mainly by providing extra grip and power. Shirts The material design of footballs shirts have improved to provide better comfort. The new Manchester United kit incorporates Nikes new dri-fit technology. Dri wit wicks sweat away so that the player stays dry and comfortable. It also has strategically placed mesh panels that promote air cooling where heat is most generated. Facility design features and benefits Retractable roof The millennium stadium in Cardiff has a retractable roof which means that the roof can be closed if the weather forecast predicts heavy rain. This benefits the game itself and the fans. It saves the fans from getting soaked and it saves the players having to slosh around in mud. Mostly cup finals are played at the Millennium stadium and the fans wish the game to be viewed on a nice good to firm ground not a wet one. Undersoil heating Is valuable asset and a must for all big football clubs. It can allow a team to play or train on a pitch that the weather would otherwise have made unusable or it can generally soften up the ground for training purposes. Astroturf pitches For training purposes Astroturf is of benefit to players because Astroturf is all weather, meaning that when the players unable to play on their training pitch die to water logging they can go and train on the Astroturf pitch instead. Video Analysis Andy Gray is probably the most renowned broadcast analyst in the football industry. He has a 30 minute slot after most live sky matches in which he practically dissects the game explaining the reasons goals were score and analysing player performance. Racquets Tennis has changed drastically since the huge investment in technological advancements the main one being the racquets. They now look completely different to those of 20 years ago, they are now lighter, and have larger faces and shorter shafts. This has created a larger sweet spot and has encouraged players to increase their power. By increasing power to a phenomenal level the game is often much shorter as the serve can kill a game off. This is mainly because the way in which the rackets have been made. This has made tennis players adjust everything about their game, from positioning, this is now further back for the serve, to two-handed return to try and increase power. The player now trains more on power based activity service technique. Trainers Tennis shoes have changed greatly over the years. Reebok have recently developed the DMX technology. This is a sole that claims to reduce the stress on the legs and heels when running; it does this by shifting the force of the impact across a wider area on the foot. This material is also light and so is easy to run in and can help to improve performance. Another company big among tennis players is New Balance who also have their own suspension system. This consists of various different parts of a sole that all work together to reduce the impact on the foot as well as stability in the way that it reduces rolling of the foot as well as over pronation. New Balance also have a brand, called Abzorb SBS, it has been developed so that when impact with the ground has been made the technology displaces the energy over the whole foot. Asics developed gel technology in their trainers nearly 20 years ago and it is still in their trainers today, the silicon gel attenuates the shock made on impact and works in conjunction with the lateral rear foot flex grooves within the sole to improve comfort. Tennis Balls There are different types of tennis balls depending on what surface the game is played on. Some balls are designed for hardcourt and grass, while others are designed for clay courts. The ball can vary by about 1/8 of an inch in size and 1/16th of an ounce in weight. Its rebound height can vary almost 10%. The stiffness, defined by the deformation under pressure, can vary over 5%. The benefits of the different types of tennis balls are that a player can choose a set of tennis balls depending on his style of play or the type of court he is playing on. Shirts Top players such as Raphael Nadal are sponsored to wear Nikes dri-fit range of shirts. This shirt has all the benefits that I described earlier regarding those in football who dri-fit. Other benefits of the shirts are that they have the seams sewn flat to eliminate chafing. Facility design features and benefits Fast Dry Courts Whats new is that todays courts are being watered from underneath. This changes a lot of things, not the least of which is the way fast dry courts play. The benefit of the fast dry court is that it allows players to play when they would otherwise not be able to. These types of dry court surfaces dont get saturated with water and water is not allowed to seep into the base material. Cyclops Cyclops technology helps tennis umpires by emitting a loud beep when a ball lands outside the service area. This helps the umpire with important decisions that could decide big matches such as Wimbledon or the Davis cup. Hawkeye Hawkeye is being tested at the moment before being used in all 4 majors. It has been used in the Australian open where it helps the umpire to make line calls. The benefits to tennis is that if accurate hawkeye will give us a fair tennis result there will be no more John McEnroes I dont believe it just a fair accurate result. PRM PRM has been developed by IBM to help the players and coaches plan their tactics for the tournament. Vital match data is gathered by courtside experts and fed instantly via powerful IBM servers to coaches and players in formats suited to their specific needs. With this data to hand, they can iron out their game, or use it to find weaknesses in their next opponents, which makes for better games. Compare the benefits of technological developments on equipment and facility design in two contrasting sports