Blog Archives

Let’s pick him!

How do scouts, coaches, and trainers alike decide which players deserve to get their further attention and which don’t? This is a very pertinent question when you consider that it is often on the basis of the ‘expert’ eye that

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Posted in Football, Joint Action, My own research, Science General, Sport Science

The sport hormone?

This article about our research into the biopsychology of team performance recently appeared in The Lancet (Diabetes and Endocrinology). Check it out!  A review argues that the hormone oxytocin affects athletic performance, because of its role in modulation of emotional and social

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Posted in Football, My own research, Science General, Sport Science, Uncategorized

How fair is youth sport and is it helping our children? Understanding relative age effects in sport.

How can an apostle, a greek sculpture and his creation shed light on the (un)fairness that our children are surrounded by when they take part in their favourite sport. Here’s a great paper I think any parent, and trainers and

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Posted in Football, My own research, Science General, Sport Science

An environmental approach to creativity

Where good ideas come from – and what happens when ideas have sex! What’s relevant to a society is how well people are communicating their ideas, and how well they’re cooperating, not how clever the individuals are. Matt Ridley An idea is a

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Posted in Ecological Psychology, My own research, Science General

Oxytocin as Sports Enhancer

Is playing football like falling in love? That question, which would perhaps not occur to most of us watching hours of the bruising game this holiday season, is the focus of a provocative and growing body of new science examining

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Posted in Football, Joint Action, My own research, Science General, Sport Science

Does Empathy Score in Football?

When you need to perform, emotions either help you, or they throw a spanner in the works. Just ask Arjen Robben who missed a penalty in the final of the Champions League in May. Dr. Gert-Jan Pepping, a researcher at the

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Posted in Football, My own research, Science General, Sport Science

How to end England’s (or anyone else’s) shootout nightmare

For the 6th time since 1990, the British football team has been knocked out of a major tournament by losing the decisive penalty shootout. In the quarter-finals of Euro 2012 against Italy last Sunday, England seemed to finally put an

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Posted in Football, My own research, Science General, Sport Science

Mental Pressure in Football

As a football player you have to be able to deal with pressure. The worst is the mental pressure in an important match. What exactly is the impact of mental stress on your sports performance – and on the performance of your teammates? Researchers of the University of Groningen and the professional football

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Posted in Experimental Psychology, Football, My own research, Sport Science

Oxytocin, Contagion of Positive Emotions and Performing in Team-Sports

Emotional contagion refers to the tendency to automatically mimic and synchronize expressions, vocalisations, postures and movements with those of another person’s and consequently to converge emotionally. Contagion of positive emotions is thought to play an important role in achieving successful

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Posted in Football, My own research, Science General, Sport Science

We all know how grip works, we do it every day

A scientific poster, presented at Mastery of Manual Skill, UMCG, April 2012.

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Posted in Ecological Psychology, Experimental Psychology, My own research