Brett Zarda

The Score

Swim Watch Counts Your Laps Automatically

An accelerometer in the watch detects when you turn, leaving you to focus on form

Keeping count of repetitions in any sporting endeavor is surprisingly challenging, be it push-ups, wind sprints, or golf shots. Trying to keep count with water between your ears leaves many swimmers pruning in the wet stuff longer than necessary. The brand new Pool-Mate watch is the first automatic lap counter, promising to help the swimming world count to ten.

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Battling the Yips, A Plague Upon Every Golfer

Unexplained jitters when tackling easy tap-ins have befallen even the most legendary pros. Now, a group of scientists hopes to reveal which sections of the brain are responsible for choking

On the greens of the lovely Bethpage Black for this weekend's U.S. Open and golf courses across the nation, it’s a taboo never spoken about yet easily identified – the yips. Talented, sometimes elite-level golfers, suddenly unable to hold their putter straight for seemingly simple tap-ins. It’s like a virus infecting the golfer's mind, causing involuntary reflexes with no warning and no mercy. Cures for the yips are as unknown as its very cause. But two researchers are recruiting the inflicted and hoping that an MRI will shed light on a disease devastating weekend warriors everywhere.

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Skin-Tight Compression Suit Promises Better Recovery

You have warmup gear and performance gear; now put on your after-suit

Under Armour was the first company to convince athletes to wear skin-tight clothing during competition. Now they want you to sleep in it. The Under Armour Recharge is a compression garment designed to be worn after a workout.

The Recharge, available July 15th, consists of a long-sleeve shirt ($99.99) and full-length pants ($89.99) with targeted compression in certain muscular regions. Athletes are instructed to change into the suit within two hours after a workout, and to continue wearing the garment for a full twenty-four hours.

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The Score

The Latest Workout Accessory: Microelectrodes Scanning Your Blood

Electrochemical sensors can tell you when to slow down

Thanks to technology, your heart rate, sweat rate, calories burned, stride length, and whether you're wearing boxers or briefs can all be calculated in real time, wirelessly transmitted to a laptop, and posted to Twitter before you return home from your weekend jog. Engineers in Germany are hoping to add blood lactate levels to the abundance of fitness data using a miniature ear clip containing an electrochemical sensor.

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The Score

Dual-Density Sole Provides a Shoe for All Runners

Nike's LunarGlide+ aims to eliminate a now inescapable decision at the shoe store for runners: stability or cushioning?

Running shoes for real runners are regularly categorized into two types: stability shoes, for those who over-pronate, and cushioning shoes, for those who don't. Nike's LunarGlide+, available July 1 for $100, claims a novel mid-sole architecture described as "Dynamic Support," which eliminates the need to choose between the two types. But more impressive than that assertion is the simplicity of the design by which Nike hopes to revolutionize the industry.

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Wii Vitality Sensor Monitors Gamers' Heart Rates During Play

Innovative new direction for interactive play or creepy medical device disguised as a game?

Apparently Nintendo executives frequent PopSci.com. Last year we evaluated the Wii Fit and begged for more technical ways to quantify how hard someone is working on the Wii. Yesterday, at the E3 conference, Nintendo did just that, unveiling the Wii Vitality Sensor--a finger-clip heart rate monitor add-on.

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The Score

NASCAR Driver Fined $200K for 0.17 Cubic Inch Engine Violation

And thus began Carl Long's worst week ever...

How much is 0.17 cubic inches worth to you? If your name is Carl Long, the answer is: much more than $200,000. That’s the monetary fine (the largest in NASCAR history) that Long received last week for running with an engine that was 358.17 cubic inches in volume, just 0.17 inches above the NASCAR limit. For Long, who was in 63rd place before the suspension, the fine is just the beginning.

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The Score

Heart Rate Updates: Delivered Directly to Swimmers' Ears

Don't even think about coming up for air

How fast does Michael Phelps’ heart beat under water? In the past, Phelps would have had to check by stopping mid-stroke and checking a small screen on his wristwatch. But with the launch of the AquaPulse from Finis, Phelps can receive real-time audible heart rate updates, without coming up for air.

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The Score

Exhaust from Ice Resurfacing Machines Putting Skaters at Risk

Still want to drive that Zamboni?

An investigative report, dramatically titled “Danger in the Air,” by the ESPN news program E:60 suggests that exhaust from ice resurfacing machines is putting skaters around the country at serious risk. The report faults improper ventilation or unmaintained resurfacing machines, which often run on propane or natural gas, for the hazards to skaters.

Read more, and check out the video, after the jump!

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The Score

Gatorade Files Lawsuit Against Powerade

Have false claims been made, or is it just sports drink envy? You be the judge

There’s an old fashioned brawl brewing in the sports drink industry. The undisputed champion, Gatorade, has filed a lawsuit accusing its perennial challenger, Powerade, of “knowingly misleading consumers and deceptively overstating the product benefits of its sports drink Powerade ION4.” The lawsuit is in response to a rash of bold Powerade ads which claim ION4 is an “upgrade” from Gatorade because the Powerade drink contains four electrolytic ingredients, whereas Gatorade contains only two, thus making Powerade a more “complete” drink.

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