Future Sport 4
Future Sport with the greatest athletes
Public Approved
Name | Value |
---|---|
Code | adi-vid-01146 |
Title | Future Sport 4 |
Subtitle | Future Sport with the greatest athletes |
Subject (keywords) | Performance Analysis ; |
Duration | 00:20:58 |
Created on | 7/13/2006 3:59:29 PM |
Label | Approved |
Privacy | Public |
Synopsis |
Future Sport SynopsisIn this episode of Future Sport, we meet Rick Williams, a handicapped athlete who has overcome his physical limitations to excel in sports. We also meet Shanna Shapiro, a former collegiate gymnastics champion, and Edwin Moses, an Olympic caliber athlete who has dominated his sport. The episode explores the science behind their athletic performances, with Dr. Gideon Ariel providing insights into their techniques and how they can be improved. The athletes discuss their backgrounds, training routines, and the challenges they face in their respective sports. The episode also features a segment on the importance of exercise and caution for those starting out, presented by running advisor Frank Shorter. The show concludes with a powerful message from Rick Williams, encouraging other handicapped individuals to pursue their athletic dreams. The episode emphasizes that sports is for everyone, regardless of physical limitations, and that with determination and hard work, anyone can excel in their chosen sport. Model Id: gpt-4-0613 |
Audio Transcript
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A handicap? Are you kidding me? I'll show you a handicap. Handicap? What kind of handicap
is that? You bummer! Holy mackerel! A guy on the other side of the net is supposed to
have a handicap and you're going to meet him. Rick Williams. A little later in this edition
of Future Sport.
Today on Future Sport, not only will you meet Rick Williams, you'll also meet... Hi,
I'm Shanna Shapiro, 1980 and 81 collegiate gymnastics champion, and I'm looking forward
to being on Future Sport today. When it comes to Olympic caliber performance, no one dominates
a sport like Edwin Moses. His string of wins and the hurdles just might stretch all the
way. If you brought together the hurdlers who had the five fastest times in the world,
you'd only need one pair of shoes and this man, which is Dylan. Welcome back to Future
Sport. With me, an incredible athlete, Edwin Moses. Edwin, delighted to have you here,
and I'm dying to hear the story about how anybody in this day and age can go 72 meets
undefeated. Well, it's been a long road. I've been going racing for six years now in
the 400 meter hurdles, and I've really been trying to take each race individually instead
of thinking in terms of breaking a record, the standing at 88, or winning 100 in a row,
but really just trying to look at each race individually and attack them individually
and plan on one race at a time. Edwin, who are you? What's your background? Who inspired
you to get into track and field? My mom ran track when she was in college, and my father
was a football player in college, and he was good enough to make the Hall of Fame at his
university. When I was young, my father took me and my brothers to track meets almost every
weekend, and I'm from Dayton, Ohio, and high school track is very big in Dayton. We've
always had big meets, and I grew up into track and field, and once I got into high school,
I thought I'd give it a try. Well, you know, Future Sport is about science, and you are
a physicist, and so does that make a lot of difference when you're racing? You seem to
treat everything scientifically. I like to think that physics has really given me an
excellent background in order to pursue this event, and one of the reasons I tried this
event was because I really saw some things before I even began to run the event. I began
to see things in the event and understand a little bit about the technique in advance.
Edwin, are you free to tell about how you have changed the technique of the event? When
I originally started running hurdles and my first race, I had no idea of anything having
to do with it, and I ran 13 strides during the first race, and one guy who was a former
Olympic coach, Bob Gigginy, I could yell, thought it was impossible for someone to run
13 steps over hurdles, and I was the first one to do it for the entire race, and that's
really the major change, but in my experience in the event, I found that running 13 steps
in itself is not the only key. I've seen guys that have run almost 13 steps all the
way and still not run those kind of times, so running 13 steps is not really the key
to it, but really the mechanics involved in the event. You have a problem, man. You're
good, you're undefeated, you can't go around telling everybody you're the greatest thing
since sliced bread, and yet you really are, and yet you don't have people to compete against
to push you in events, so you could even be greater than you are, and it's very difficult
to tell your story. Some writers say, hey, the problem with Edwin, there's Edwin and
then there's the rest of the field, so it's difficult to tell the story, but how do you
keep yourself up and keep your attitude without getting cocky about the thing? Well, I think
the training really keeps me from getting cocky going out there and have to really bust
my buns five days of the week when I'm in training. It really brings me back down to
a very earthly level. It keeps me from going out and having a big head in my event. 400
hurdles is very difficult. Three quarters of the way through the race, you're almost
dead, and you know it's time for you to stop running, but you have 100 meters to go. I've
just been able to maintain my peace of mind by concentrating on what I'm doing and trying
to keep winning every race and trying not to let one single mistake come between me
and a victory. Critics are always saying to athletes, what are you going to give back
after you retire from the sport? After I retire from the sport, I hope to be a medical doctor
and contribute in the area of sports, and right now I really try to do as much as I
can to really reach some of the kids before they get to their age where they can do what
I do, and I try to incite them to motivate themselves and do something positive for themselves,
even if it's academic sports or whatever. It doesn't really matter to me. Well, when
it comes to academia, buddy, you're right in there at the top, and you're a little too
far ahead of me, but we've got a guy, Dr. Gideon Ariel, just chafing at the bit because
he wants to show you the digitization. Remember, we were able to film you earlier this week,
and so now you're going to get a chance to see it. Edwin, great having you with us.
Thank you very much.
Hi, Edwin. How are you? Thank you for coming here. Another superstar in Future Sports.
Edwin, the little dot here in the center of your body is the center of gravity. Most people
when they are running, they're landing with the center of gravity behind their foot, actually
falling backward or stopping themselves. You have a fantastic technique where when you
land after going over the hills, the center of gravity is in front of your foot, which
means all your momentum is transferred to the body going forward. You're falling forward
and continue to run. You don't lose any energy. And that's the main problem in running 400
hurdles is to keep them slowing up between the hurdles. Every time you slow down, then
you have to use a lot more energy to speed up again. You can look at it also in a continuous
trace. Then we see the whole trace, and if you look at this dot in the middle, this is
the center of gravity. You see it's going up and it's going down. You can look at it
also from the front, so we'll see you from the front. How are you doing it from the front?
The criteria here Edwin, that you will not go over the hurdles too high. And as you see
yourself, you stretch pretty good. You're going forward, you can see the little dot,
the center of gravity just going over the hurdles, but you are going to stretch it pretty
good. It's important that you are not going to jump over the hurdles, but actually to
stretch your body as much as possible. For that reason, let's look on the same motion
from the top view, and we'll check how much you stretch over the hurdles. Now looking
from the top view, we see you're going toward the hurdles, and you have a tremendous stretch
with your body. Tremendous stretch. This stretch allows the center of gravity to stay low and
therefore save you time over the hurdles. Here you see the same thing in a multiple
trace. Look on this stretch Edwin. You have incredible stretch here, and this is a fantastic
technique. You're learning anything new Edwin? Yeah, I'm learning a lot here. It's the first
time I've really been able to see myself in slow animated motion, stick figures, first
time for sure. First time. All of them might not be the last time. Edwin, thanks for being
with us. It was a super job. All right. Gideon, great job as usual. Thank you. All right,
thank you. Coming up next, we'll take a close look at an aesthetic event as we meet Sharon
Shapiro, 1980, 1981 Intercollegiate Gymnastics Champion. All this and more when Future Sport
continues. Welcome back to Kota Takaza, from one beautiful picture to another. This is
Sharon Shapiro, 1980, 1981 Intercollegiate Gymnastics Champion. When did you start? How
long have you been in gymnastics? I've been doing gymnastics 11 years. I started at 10,
and I'm now 21. Is that typical for people to start at 10? Nowadays it's old. Then it
was a good age. For me, I think it was a perfect age because I didn't burn out. You know, some
of you people are kind of tiny, and you've got that great body. But then I say, well,
wait a minute, you don't need any strength in your sport. Then I go out and try to hang
on the bar. I can't even get my bod up to the bar. Now where do you get all the strength
and still look this great? It's probably a weight-strength relationship. You try to find
where your best weight is for your most strength. You do conditioning exercises, and your body
just gets used to lifting itself, and it's also timing, a lot of timing. Well, how do
you improve timing? Are you born with it? Or are some people who are going to get into
gymnastics people who should never get into gymnastics? There's a definite talent that
you need, but then there's those people who aren't real talented who just work real hard.
To get to the top, I think it's a combination of talent and hard work. Well, when did all
of a sudden you discover that you had it? Did your mom know it and you didn't? I don't
know when I discovered it. I just went into gymnastics very naive. I didn't know anything
about national, international competition, and I climbed the ladder really quickly. Like
there's beginner, intermediate, advanced, and then elite. And I went through each of
the lower levels one year and was in elite by the time I was 13, which was the youngest
then. So I just climbed the ladder real quickly, never gave it much of a second thought. How
about fear? I got on one of those beams once, and I was so scared I could hardly stand it.
I was shaking. I couldn't even get water up to my mouth just looking down from that dinky
little thing. Now, how do you do all these things in such a small space? You get used
to it. I am not afraid anymore. I went through a phase where I was afraid to do things, but
you almost have to push yourself through it. You have to force yourself to do things even
though you're a little scared. And after the first time you do it, you're not scared
anymore. You say, what was I scared of? You know, I can do that. You build up. You start
from the beginning, you do basics, and you build up to the harder tricks so you're not
scared because you're ready. Well, why get into something where you have to be afraid?
Why not just jump in the pool and pool off, have some fun? Why go through all that rigorous
stuff? All sports are rigorous. Actually, I couldn't take something like swimming because
it's monotonous gymnastics. There's a variety, and it's fun. It's a challenge, and that's
why I like that a lot. You like the challenge, but you've been talking a little bit about
the scientific thing, that your body needs to be a certain body type to do things. You
need to know your body in relation to the task. Well, earlier we had a chance to film
you, put you on Dr. Gideon Ariel's special computer, and now we're going to take a look
at your body and the task that you perform in very difficult situations. Dick, we're
lucky today to see Sharon Shapiro and her performance. You'll see the little dot in
the middle of the body. This is the center of gravity. All the forces and all the motion
of the athlete, the gymnast specifically, is rotate around the center of gravity. See
how the whole body segments going around the center of gravity. The question is, how could
we make Sharon Shapiro even do the same stunt better? Let's follow her center of gravity
better. You see here the little dot, and you see her motion. We're finding out that
according to the biomechanical analysis, that if the center of gravity at that point would
go two inches higher, she would be able to complete the whole stunt much better. Let's
see here in the actual condition. Sharon does not complete the whole turn because she didn't
raise her center of gravity high enough. Here you see the multiple images of the forces.
The athletes in the future will be able to use this computer technology in order to optimize
the performance and to know how to train. But she's still a champion. Right, Gideon,
she's biomechanically efficient, aesthetically beautiful, but sitting right here in a chair,
she's beautiful too. Sharon, absolutely great having you with us. Thank you. It was great
being here. Now it's time for another fine tip from our running advisor, Frank Shorter.
Vic, today's running tip is for those people who have never been on any kind of exercise
program who are thinking of starting out. And the word is caution. If you're over 30
and you've been sedentary for quite a long time, say since high school, call up your
doctor. Maybe he'll let you start, maybe he'll say he wants to take a look at you. And then
once you've gotten the okay, what you want to do is start out moderately. The goal might
be five minutes, ten minutes of exercise. It really depends on how fit you feel you
are and, again, how fit your doctor might tell you you are. At first, start taking your
pulse at intervals during this, say, first exercise session. If you're going to go out
for five minutes after two or three minutes, take your pulse, see if it's going much over
120 beats a minute. If your pulse is much over 120 beats a minute, back off a little
bit. Gradually over time, you'll get to where you can really go for a full 10, 20 or 30
minutes. And the goal should be over time to work up to being able to go a half an hour
without stopping. Thank you, Frank. When Future Sport continues, we'll meet another fine
athlete. You may not have heard of him, but you'll get to know him and he may be an
inspiration to all of us.
Handicap? Are you kidding me? I'll show you a handicap.
On Future Sport, we've been taking a close look at a lot of athletes in our laboratory.
We've discovered one thing. Every athlete has a handicap. And, Rick, what happened to you?
Well, when I was 10 years old, they discovered cancer in my leg. And after radiation and
therapy, they decided they had to amputate. And I've been without it ever since. You know,
I say every athlete has a handicap because for some people, we've watched them mentally.
They start to come down on the golf swing, the golf club locks. They can't get it down
to hit the doggone ball. Some people have an arm that's a little bit different than others.
How does that hold you back? Well, it just kind of slows you down, makes you readapt
your running style, readapt your balance, and just makes you aware that you've got to
stay more on your right side or your strong side. I've done a lot of things as a psychologist
with athletes who have certain handicaps. But I know that when I'm working with paraplegics
or quadriplegics, there are animals on the court. I just have to say it that way. They
are more intense at winning and competing than the average guy we get off the street.
Now, why is that or am I wrong? No, it's really true. The handicapped athlete, in a way,
has to prove to himself that he can do it. But he's got to prove even more to the other
people. And not just doing it well, but doing it extremely well. Because everybody else
is saying, well, it was a fluke shot, or he got lucky, or the other guy was playing easy.
And you've got to go out and prove to them and to yourself that you're going to be able
to keep up with them at their level. The first time I was running some tennis for paraplegics
and one of the chairs went over. And I said, hey, you want some help? I run out there and
the guy goes, get out of here, you toad. He says, I've got to get to the net and volley.
Yeah, it's intense. It really is. It makes for a more competitive game. And it gives
you a greater feeling of accomplishment if you can go ahead and do it.
You know, Rick, sometimes you have only one leg you want to play. But because you have
one leg that's artificial, it gets you into hot water. And I know you had an experience
with that.
When I was in high school football, the coaches told me I couldn't play football because
of my leg. And they said that a ruling could come down through the governing body or through
the school, something like that. And so I had to go out and prove to them that I could
work as hard as the other players, I could hit as hard as the other players, and in some
cases I kind of had to hit a little harder to show them that the other player wasn't,
you know, easing up on me. And I had to put the extra time in the weight room to make
sure that I was physically able to keep up with them. I just had to put up a little extra
to show people it can be done. But you get around it.
Rick, I find out, you're just like the rest of those guys out here, those superstars
that we've been interviewing. I have a feeling that you have a message that you would like
to tell other people who have some handicap.
Well, for those that aren't athletes that are out there doing it, just don't give up.
Get out there, pay the price, be dedicated. It's not going to be easy. You've got to
put in the same training or maybe even more than anybody else. But if you want it bad
enough, you'll be willing to do it. And I don't want to see anybody sitting around.
I want to see people getting up, getting out, and doing it.
You know, I think it's the same message that we've heard from other athletes in NBA-NFL.
If you want it badly enough, you can get it. You've just got to pay your dues.
That's right.
Now I know my life has given me more than memories
Day by day
We can't see
In every moment there's a reason to carry on
Sweet love showing us a heavenly light
Ever since such a beautiful sight
Sea life blowing on a summery night
I know forever we'll be doing it, doing it
Sweet love showing us a heavenly light
I never seen such a beautiful sight
Sea life blowing on a summery night
I know forever we'll be doing it, doing it, doing it
Sweet love, sweet love, yeah
You're a glowing light in my life
So, so bright in my life
I know forever we'll be doing it, doing it, doing it
Sweet love showing us a heavenly light
So we close another edition of Future Sport.
But doesn't it do your heart good to see all the handicapped people involved in sport?
Like Rick Williams. There are a million Rick Williams.
But the heart that he's got is great.
Also, he's found out what every other handicapped person should find out.
That sports is for everybody. Everybody is for sports.
I'm Vic Braden for Gideon Ariel Scenes. So long.
Our executive producer, Jim Millman.
Producer, Jim Kraw.
As a handicapped athlete, our future is mainly guided by our equipment.
We are mentally and physically able to compete at an equal level as our counterparts.
What we hope for now is that technology and medical science is able to make our equipment
that we need to function good enough and strong enough to keep up with everyone else.