Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race: Performance, Pacing and Tactics Between 1890 and 2014

Background: Currently no studies have examined the historical performances of Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race crews in the context of performance, pacing and tactics which is surprising as the event has routinely taken place annually for over 150 years on the same course. Objectives: The purpose of this study was twofold, to firstly examine the historical development of performances and physical characteristics of crews over 124 years of the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race between 1890 and 2014 and secondly to investigate the pacing and tactics employed by crews over that period. Methods: Linear regression modelling was applied to investigate the development of performance and body size for crews of eight male individuals over time from Boat Race archive data. Performance change over time was further assessed in 10-year clusters while four intra-race checkpoints were used to examine pacing and tactics. Results: Significant correlations were observed between performance and time (1890–2014) for both Oxford (r = −0.67; p < 0.01) and Cambridge (r = −0.64; p < 0.01). There was no difference in mean performance times for Oxford (1170 ± 88 s) and Cambridge (1168 ± 89.8 s) during 1890–2014. Crew performance times improved over time with significant gains from baseline achieved in the 1950s (Cambridge) and the 1960s (Oxford), which coincided with significant change in the physicality of the competing crews (p < 0.01). There was no tactical advantage from commencing on either the Surrey or Middlesex station beyond chance alone; however, all crews (n = 228) adopted a fast-start strategy, with 81 % of victories achieved by the crew leading the race at the first intra-race checkpoint (24 % of total distance). Crews leading the race at the final checkpoint (83 % of total distance; 1143 m) achieved victory on 94 % of occasions. Conclusion: Performances and physical characteristics of the crews have changed markedly since 1890, with faster heavier crews now common. Tactically, gaining the early lead position with a fast-start strategy seems particularly meaningful to success in the Boat Race throughout the years, and has been of greater importance to race outcome than factors such as the starting station

Objectifying Tactics: Athlete and Race Variability in Elite Short-Track Speed Skating

Purpose: To objectively capture and understand tactical considerations in a race, the authors explored whether race-to-race variation of an athlete and the variation of competitors within a race could provide insight into how and when athletes modify their pacing decisions in response to other competitors. Methods: Lap times of elite 500-, 1000-, and 1500-m short-track speed-skating competitions from 2011 to 2016 (N = 6965 races) were collected. Log-transformed lap and finishing times were analyzed with mixed linear models. To determine within-athlete race-to-race variability, athlete identity (between-athletes differences) and the residual (within-athlete race-to-race variation) were added as random effects. To determine race variability, race identity (between-races differences) and the residual (within-race variation) were added as random effects. Separate analyses were performed for each event. Results: Within-athlete race-to-race variability of the finishing times increased with prolonged distance of the event (500-m, CV = 1.6%; 1000-m, CV = 2.8%; 1500-m, CV = 4.1%), mainly due to higher within-athlete race-to-race variability in the initial phase of 1000-m (3.3–6.9%) and 1500-m competitions (8.7–12.2%). During these early stages, within-race variability is relatively low in 1000-m (1.1–1.4%) and 1500-m (1.3–2.8%) competitions. Conclusion: The present study demonstrated how analyses of athlete and race variability could provide insight into tactical pacing decisions in sports where finishing position is emphasized over finishing time. The high variability of short-track skaters is a result of the decision to alter initial pacing behavior based on the behavior of other competitors in their race, emphasizing the importance of athlete–environment interactions in the context of pacing

Multisided B-spline Patches Over Extraordinary Regions

We propose a generalised B-spline construction that extends uniform bi-degree B-splines to multisided regions spanned over extraordinary regions in quad-dominant meshes. We show how the structure of the existing cubic multisided B-spline patch can be generalised to work with B-spline basis functions of arbitrary degree and can be spanned over extraordinary vertices as well as extraordinary faces of quad-dominant meshes. The resulting multisided surfaces are Cd-1 continuous internally and connect with Gd-1 continuity to adjacent regular and other multisided B-splines patches. In addition, we design several specialised functions that increase the visual quality of the patches, in both the extraordinary vertex and face settings.<br/

Multisided generalisations of Gregory patches

We propose two generalisations of Gregory patches to faces of any valency by using generalised barycentric coordinates in combination with two kinds of multisided Bézier patches. Our first construction builds on S-patches to generalise triangular Gregory patches. The local construction of Chiyokura and Kimura providing G1 continuity between adjoining Bézier patches is generalised so that the novel Gregory S-patches of any valency can be smoothly joined to one another. Our second construction makes a minor adjustment to the generalised Bézier patch structure to allow for cross-boundary derivatives to be defined independently per side. We show that the corresponding blending functions have the inherent ability to blend ribbon data much like the rational blending functions of Gregory patches. Both constructions take as input a polygonal mesh with vertex normals and provide G1 surfaces interpolating the input vertices and normals. Due to the full locality of the methods, they are well suited for geometric modelling as well as computer graphics applications relying on hardware tessellation

Pacing Decision Making in Sport and the Effects of Interpersonal Competition: A Critical Review

An athlete’s pacing strategy is widely recognised as an essential determinant for performance during individual events. Previous research focussed on the importance of internal bodily state feedback, revealed optimal pacing strategies in time-trial exercise, and explored concepts such as teleoanticipation and template formation. Recently, human–environment interactions have additionally been emphasized as a crucial determinant for pacing, yet how they affect pacing is not well understood. Therefore, this literature review focussed on exploring one of the most important human–environment interactions in sport competitions: the interaction among competitors. The existing literature regarding the regulation of exercise intensity and the effect of competition on pacing and performance is critically reviewed in this paper. The PubMed, CINAHL and Web of Science electronic databases were searched for studies about pacing in sports and (interpersonal) competition between January 2000 to October 2017, using the following combination of terms: (1) Sports AND (2) Pacing, resulting in 75 included papers. The behaviour of opponents was shown to be an essential determinant in the regulation of exercise intensity, based on both observational (N = 59) and experimental (N = 16) studies. However, adjustment in the pacing response related to other competitors appears to depend on the competitive situation and the current internal state of the athlete. The findings of this review emphasize the importance of what is happening around the athlete for the outcome of the decision-making process involved in pacing, and highlight the necessity to incorporate human–environment interactions into models that attempt to explain the regulation of exercise intensity in sports and exercise

A multisided C-2 B-spline patch over extraordinary vertices in quadrilateral meshes

We propose a generalised B-spline construction that extends uniform bicubic B-splines to multisided regions spanned over extraordinary vertices in quadrilateral meshes. We show how the structure of the generalised Bezier patch introduced by Varady et al. can be adjusted to work with B-spline basis functions. We create ribbon surfaces based on B-splines using special basis functions. The resulting multisided surfaces are C-2 continuous internally and connect with G(2) continuity to adjacent regular and other multisided B-splines patches. We visually assess the quality of these surfaces and compare them to Catmull-Clark limit surfaces on several challenging geometrical configurations. (C) 2020 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd

A Comparison of GPU Tessellation Strategies for Multisided Patches

We propose an augmentation of the traditional tessellation pipeline with several different strategies that efficiently render multisided patches using generalised barycentric coordinates. The strategies involve different subdivision steps and the usage of textures. In addition, we show that adaptive tessellation techniques naturally extend to some of these strategies whereas others need a slight adjustment. The technique of Loop et al. [LSNC09], commonly known as ACC-2, is extended to multisided faces to illustrate the effectiveness of multisided techniques. A performance and quality comparison is made between the different strategies and remarks on the techniques and implementation details are provided