Sport Science premieres on FSN
by FOX Sports Net
Can high-flying basketball players actually defy gravity? Could a Joey Porter blindside tackle really have more impact than a car crash? Does anyone create more force at anything in sports than MMA champion Rampage Jackson? Is it possible that softball legend Jennie Finch actually throws harder than most Major League Baseball pitchers? And how unhappy are NBA officials going to be when Jason Kapono and Jordan Farmar team up to disprove one of their long-standing rules?
SPORT SCIENCE, the eagerly-anticipated, highly-acclaimed new series of one-hour shows that challenge everything you thought you knew about the games fans are most passionate about and the athletes who play them, makes its series debut on Sunday, September 30 at 9 p.m. local.
By 10 p.m., the sports world as we know it will never be seen the same way again.
Sample Clips:
An all-pro list of athletes — NFL legend Jerry Rice, US Olympic legend Finch, NFL stars Ben Roethlisberger, Matt Leinart, Joey Porter, Luis Castillo, Maurice Jones-Drew, Chad Johnson, USA soccer star Abby Wambach, NBA stars Cuttino Mobley, Corey Maggette, Kapono and Farmar, MMA stars Jackson and Bas Rutten, former heavyweight boxing champion Chris Byrd, MLB Gold Glove winner Steve Finley, NHL Hall of Famer-in-waiting Luc Robitaille and dozens of others — rushed into the SPORT SCIENCE lab knowing what their years of experience had taught them about their respective sports and abilities.
They walked out of the lab stunned, bombarded by scientific information that forced them to see their performances in an entirely new light
"SPORT SCIENCE is a breakthrough series not only for FSN, but for all of television. From the first second of each telecast, the viewer will experience a 360° view of how elite athletes perform in the throes of competition," said George Greenberg, FSN Executive Vice President of Programming and Production. "The videography is so stunning, it makes you feel as though you're riding a visual roller coaster."
In the debut episode, SPORT SCIENCE features NFL legend Rice, Bengals WR Johnson, street ball legend Chris "Skywalker" Lowery, Clippers guard Mobley, Raiders RB Dominic Rhodes and others undergoing experiments to help answer:
Throughout the series, SPORT SCIENCE will also examine sports' hardest hitters, reaction times, how injuries affect athletes, the effect of weather on the game and if homefield really is an advantage.
Plus, the show takes a look at the science behind the most impossible and improbable plays in sports history, determines what really is the hardest thing to do in sports and delivers a finite answer to the age-old question, "Does having sex before the big game really impact performance?"
The Science and Technology
"SPORT SCIENCE was created to push both cutting-edge technology and the world's greatest athletes to their limits in order to reveal the performance and scientific secrets behind the games we play," said Executive Producer and host John Brenkus. "My partner Mickey Stern and I are huge sports fans. Like everyone else, when we watch world class performances at the highest level, we can't help but wonder how they do it. We knew we had something special when the greatest athletes in the world told us that we blew their minds."
SPORT SCIENCE uses the newest scientific, performance and television technology to produce a show that leaves fans anxious to see the next act of each episode.
Motion capture technology: Dozens of the best athletes in their respective sports entered into a state-of-the-art infrared motion capture studio, since the producers didn't want to rely on computer dramatizations of an event when the actual athlete can show their exact movements. Motion capture and biomechanical data measures everything from impact to velocity to aerodynamics.
CGI: Popularized amongst the mainstream in shows such as CSI, when applied to the details of sports, CGI allows for a computerized graphical look at previously unseen body movements during competition. CGI will show muscles firing, nerves puling and skeletons colliding as athletes jump, hit, run or throw.
High-speed cameras: Using a unique digital, High Definition, slow-motion jib camera allows SPORT SCIENCE to showcase shots never seen on television before. Shooting some experiments at more than 10,000 frames per second allowed producers to show viewers how little safety a baseball helmet actually provides, how fast a golf ball actually moves, why football face masks should be reinforced much more than they are and why standing in front of a Jennie Finch fastball may be hazardous to your health.
Biomechanical sensors: Numerous types of pressure sensors, accelerometers and load cells are utilized throughout the series - this is crash test, ballistics and explosion technology brought to the world of sports. These sensors can give specific mathematical responses to everything from impact forces to speed and acceleration, and from calibrating weight distribution to impact areas to reaction times.
SPORT SCIENCE is co-produced by BASE Productions and FSN. Bob Thompson oversees the series for FSN. George Greenberg and David Leepson serve as FSN's Executive Producers while Brenkus and Mickey Stern serve as co-creators and Executive Producers for BASE Productions.
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