Sports Research Center
A research-literacy portal over the knowledge graph. 18 research topics across 7 collections — each connecting the science, training, technique and movement pages, with honest open questions and an evidence hierarchy to read research by.
Honest by design
Biomechanics & movement
3 topicsHow the body produces and controls sporting movement.
How is force transferred through the kinetic chain?
How power generated in the legs and trunk is passed through the body into a throw, strike or swing.
Biomechanics & movementWhat makes movement efficient?
Why some athletes seem to do more with less — the idea of movement economy.
Biomechanics & movementHow do we sense body position and stay balanced?
Proprioception — the body’s sense of where it is — and how it underpins balance and control.
Physiology & energy
3 topicsHow the body fuels and sustains effort.
How does the body fuel different kinds of effort?
The aerobic and anaerobic energy systems and how sports draw on them.
Physiology & energyHow is aerobic endurance built?
The principles behind developing the aerobic base that sustains long efforts.
Physiology & energyWhat determines reaction time?
How quickly athletes can perceive and respond — and how much of it can be trained.
Motor learning & skill
2 topicsHow skills are acquired, refined and retained.
How are motor skills learned?
The stages of learning a movement skill, from clumsy first attempts to automatic execution.
Motor learning & skillHow should practice be designed for lasting learning?
Why the practice that feels best in the moment is not always the practice that sticks.
Training & adaptation
4 topicsHow the body changes in response to training.
Why does training have to get harder to keep working?
The overload principle — the idea that the body adapts to a stress and then needs more to keep changing.
Training & adaptationHow does the body adapt to training?
The cycle of stress, recovery and adaptation — and the idea of supercompensation.
Training & adaptationHow specific does training need to be?
The specificity principle — training tends to improve what you actually practise.
Training & adaptationWhy do people respond differently to the same training?
Individual differences — the same programme can produce very different results.
Load & recovery
2 topicsBalancing stress and recovery to improve safely.
Health & lifestyle
2 topicsHow everyday habits support an active life.
Technique & performance
2 topicsHow technique connects to what happens in the sport.
The evidence hierarchy
How to weigh different kinds of evidence when you read research — from the strongest sources to the weakest.
- 1
Systematic reviews & meta-analyses
Structured summaries that pool many studies — the strongest single source when done well.
- 2
Randomised controlled trials
Experiments that randomly assign participants to conditions to isolate cause and effect.
- 3
Cohort studies
Follow groups over time to see how exposures relate to outcomes.
- 4
Case-control studies
Compare groups with and without an outcome to look back at possible causes.
- 5
Case series & reports
Descriptions of one or a few cases — useful signals, weak proof.
- 6
Mechanistic reasoning & expert opinion
Explanations from how the body works or from experience — a starting point, not a conclusion.