FRAMINGHAM, Mass. & CRAIG, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sep 11, 2023--

Virtual reality could help footballers improve their heading without the repetitive head impacts from a ball, a new study indicates. Players involved in a study at Manchester Metropolitan University’s Institute of Sport and its Department of Sport and Exercise Sciences demonstrated greater performance in ‘real world’ heading after training with a VR headset compared to a control group who did no training. The VR group also reported greater self-confidence and efficacy in their heading compared to the control group, the study found. Our findings show that virtual reality (VR) based training can be used to improve real-world heading performance. Dr Ben Marshall, Manchester Metropolitan University Institute of Sport The study, titled: ‘A preliminary investigation into the efficacy of training soccer heading in immersive virtual reality’, has been published in the journal Virtual Reality on Tuesday. It provides some insights into how players may be able to improve heading technique amid restrictions on training. Football Association guidelines advise against any heading training in under-12s, while a trial is ongoing in the current season and next season to eliminate deliberate heading completely from matches up to and including that age group. At ages 12 and 13, heading should be limited to a single session of no more than five headers, and no more than 10 headers per session for children aged 14 to 17, according to FA guidance. Even in adult football at all levels, players are advised to perform only 10 ‘higher force headers’ per training week, such as headers from crosses, corners, free-kicks and returning of goal kicks. The exposure to heading has been limited because of concerns over the sub-concussive impact of repetitive heading on a player’s longer-term wellbeing. The 2019 FIELD Study found professional footballers were three and a half times more likely to die of neurodegenerative disease than age-matched members of the general population. “With increasing restrictions of heading exposure to professional and youth soccer, it is evident that alternative methods for training heading confidence and technique will be required while it remains an integral part of the game,” the VR paper concluded. “The work presented here provides some initial evidence suggesting that immersive VR may have a place in any new approach to training this important skill.” A group of 36 adult recreational-level players, made up of 30 men and six women, participated in the study in total. The 36 were split into two groups of 18, with 16 men and two women in the control group who did not use the VR headsets between ‘real world’ heading sessions, and 14 men and four women in the VR group. The VR group used the Oculus Quest 2 head-mounted display, with the Rezzil Player 22 application used to provide the VR football heading training. Dr Ben Marshall, Lecturer in Sport and Exercise Psychology at the Manchester Metropolitan University Institute of Sport, said: “Our findings show that virtual reality (VR) based training can be used to improve real-world heading performance and that this method is more effective than not training the skill at all. “This is important as current training guidelines recommend limiting the number of physical headers performed in training for all age groups due to the associated long-term risks to player health. “Our findings suggest the inclusion of VR-based training could play an important role in developing football heading skills whilst reducing the number of real-world headers and sub-concussive head impacts that players need to be exposed to – which is really positive.”

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun 22, 2023--

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It sounds like something straight out of a Christopher Nolan film, but scientists have suggested that there could actually be an 'anti-universe' where time runs backwards. And if you’re anything like us, your brain is probably starting to hurt already. It comes from experts studying symmetries, and the new research is all to do with the fundamentals of symmetry in nature – the most significant of which are charge, parity and time. Bear with us… According to LiveScience, a new paper recently accepted for publication in the journal Annals of Physics suggests that there is a combined symmetry to the entire universe. Sign up to our new free Indy100 weekly newsletter As the research attests, the early universe was so uniform that time looks symmetric going backwards and forwards. The paper argues that the way we understand the world and wider universe around us, moving forwards in time, must also be expanded to include a mirrored version which runs backwards in time. It could also provide a deeper understanding of dark matter, too. The theory suggests that it is an invisible particle which only interacts via gravity and provides a pairing to the electron-neutrino, muon-neutrino and tau-neutrino. The research suggests that the conditions in a mirrored universe where time runs backwards would be full of these paired neutrinos, which would account for dark matter. Of course, we’d never be able to experience time running backwards even if it did definitely exist, but it’s a pretty cool theory none-the-less. It comes after Elon Musk made headlines in the world of science and space travel, after giving his estimation for when humans will land on Mars for the first time. The first moon landing famously took place in 1969, but space enthusiasts have been debating when they think the first Mars landing will be – now, the SpaceX CEO thinks we’ll be up there by 2029. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

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An influencer has been criticised for complaining about commuters getting in her way as she posed for photos in front of a tube on the London Underground. In the viral video from last year, TikToker Antonia Freya Lydia (@turnttoni) attempted to show off her black feather strapless dress in a clip but this proved to be challenging as people were walking along the platform. "Taking an aesthetic video in London Underground be like," she wrote in the on-screen text as people walked past and blocked her shot. She added in the caption: "Like can yoh wait just one sec,sir." @turnttoni like can yoh wait just one sec,sir? #fy #foryou #london #underground Since sharing the video, it went with 8.9m views where people took to the comment section and didn't hold back on their thoughts. One person said: "Some people actually use the station to get to places instead of taking insta photos crazy right?!?" "GIRL IT’S A TRAIN STATION—" another person wrote. A third person added: "You know people have to go to work and they're not going to stop their lives for you. Don't want people around, go someplace private." "If you were in a wide open space this would make sense but… in a TRAIN STATION?!" a fourth commented. Someone else replied: "Imagine doing this at Oxford Circus and expecting people to get out of your way." While a few defended the influencer too "Don’t think she knew it was gonna be that busy and she is probably joking lol," one person wrote. Someone else replied: "Idk about y’all but i understand her completely." But this wasn't the end of the matter... The debate was reignited when Twitter user @schizarella (not Antonia in the original video) weighed in with their thoughts after the clip was reposted on the platform on Sunday. "When you see someone recording just walk behind the camera or wait literally ten seconds, if you can't do this then you don't deserve to be part of a civilized society," they wrote in a post that has since become unavailable to view. It prompted many people to disagree and criticise the influencer for her actions - here are some of the comments. In a recent TikTok, Antonia aka the influencer in the original video responded to a critical comment saying they couldn't believe she was complaining about people getting in her shot, and called her content "lame." @turnttoni Replying to @sop excuse me, what do you mean? #fy #foryou #subway To which Antonia replied with a video filled with different snaps of herself all over the world and in different outfits where she seemed to be unbothered as she wrote: "wait.... lame?" Then, she wrote in the caption: "excuse me, what do you mean?" Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

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