Football as a platform for cooperation, bringing together a broad range of stakeholders
August kicked off with Athletic Club representatives from Bilbao visiting Finland. Representatives from the Club not only did discuss underlying principles of coaching education and players’ physical parameters with the Football Association of Finland and local club JJK Juniorit, but also witnessed the special stage at Jyväskylä WRC rally. Talks between Athletic Club and the University of Jyväskylä continued and next steps set regarding sport performance research and injury prevention.
Moving forward, the collaboration of the Football Association and the University of Jyväskylä brings numerous exciting events in the coming weeks and months, of which I would like to highlight the following two:
First, BrainSPORT is an emerging project with the aim of supporting healthy brains for wellbeing and sustainable careers in football players. The ecosystem around BrainSPORT offers opportunities for academic research as well as technological innovation. Using the ACT Head Impact Tracker to measure the frequency and magnitude of hits is a good example.
Second, we are staging a hackathon event around football next spring. The goals of the hackathon will revolve around topical issues in both top-level and grassroots sports: sustainability in football, and performance analysis that benefits players, coaches and viewers. If you want to be kept updated on these aforementioned events, join the football research newsletter from here.
Wishing you All a successful autumn season,
Mihaly Szerovay
Professor of Practice, Research and Development in Football
University of Jyväskylä, Football Association of Finland
mihaly.m.szerovay@jyu.fi