和体育相关的专业你都知道哪些？
The Science of Sports
我从小便是一个体育迷。迄今为止，不论是追随我死忠的凯尔特人足球俱乐部征战苏格兰和欧洲，还是亲身参加国内外的武术比赛，可以说体育运动占据了我生命中很重要的一部分。
I’ve always been a sports fan, ever since I was a small child. Whether it’s following my beloved Celtic Football Club across Scotland and Europe or personally participating in local and national martial arts tournaments, it’s fair to say that sport has been a huge part of my life for as long as I can remember.
然而时至今日，体育运动已经越来越缺少激情、奉献以及运动员的个人魅力了，它运作得越来越像一个产业，而且包含了很高的科技。
These days however, sport is becoming less and less about the passion, dedication and drive of the individual athletes and more and more it is being run like a business, and a highly scientific one at that.
就像一个公司需要会计在每个会计年度结束时结算一个公司的收支一样，每个体育俱乐部也需要越来越多的特定员工来维持、促进整个团队积极运作。
In the same way that an accountant has to balance the accounts of a company at the end of each fiscal year, so too, sports clubs must take on more and more staff to maintain and improve the well-oiled machine that is the whole team.
这种被称为“幕后工作人员”的员工，让所有团队人员整体合作的成效显著。
When this “backroom staff” as it is often called, works well together the results can be remarkable.
拿上一季的英超联赛做例子吧，尽管许多足球博彩的庄家在赛季伊始都提出高到离谱的5000:1的赔率，但是默默无闻的莱切斯特城队却爆冷赢得了冠军。这个童话故事告诉我们，团队的力量远比个人的力量强大。
Look to last season’s English Premier League Soccer as an example. Despite various bookmakers offering odds as outrageous as 5000-1 at the start of last season, little-fancied Leicester City shocked everybody to go on and win the Championship. It truly was a fairy tale story of a unit that, when working together was far greater than the sum of its parts.
然而，当报章头条自然而然地集中报道大家认为有卓越贡献的前锋杰米·瓦迪以及具有战术天才的教练克劳迪奥·拉涅利时，有谁会书写关于保罗·巴尔森的故事呢？
However, whilst the newspaper headlines inevitably focused on the admittedly amazing contribution of the players, such as England striker Jamie Vardy, and the tactical genius of the team manager Claudio Ranieri. But how many stories were written about Paul Balsom?
好了，这个时候你大概会问，保罗·巴尔森是何方神圣？
Ok, you’re probably thinking, who is Paul Balsom?
如果我告诉你他和他的团队跟杰米·瓦迪和克劳迪奥·拉涅利的功劳不相上下呢？
Well, what if I told you that he and his staff are arguably every bit as integral to Leicester City’s ongoing success as both Vardy and Ranieri?
巴尔森先生是一名运动科学家，这在十年前是体育界之外的人闻所未闻的职业。
For Mr Balsom is a sports scientist, a profession which perhaps just a decade ago very few people outside of the headquarters of sports’ various governing bodies had even heard of.
运动科学家的工作就是寻求任何可能的、合法的、科学的方法来帮助球员发挥出最高水平，以提高每场赛事的胜算。
It is the job of the sports scientist to find every possible, legal, scientific method to boost player performance and as such increase the chances of victory on the field.
总的来说，体育科学是一个很特别的术语，涵盖了几个不同的专业领域。
Overall, sports science is something of a very general term, encompassing several different specializations.
就拿莱切斯特城队的体育科学团队为例，在巴尔森先生的领导之下有不同的体能、力量及健身教练，他们运用最尖端的技术以及操练来改进运动员的表现，营养学家和物理治疗师则负责确保运动员吃上最好的食物、肯定运动员的努力，甚至还有运动心理学家帮助球员建立信心、自我认同以及培养他们良好的心理素质。
Take the Leicester City sports science staff for example. Under Mr Balsom there are strength, power and conditioning coaches, who utilize cutting edge exercise techniques and drills to boost performance, nutritionists and physiotherapists, who ensure the players eat the best possible diet to compliment their training and even a sports psychologist, who works to boost players’ confidence, self-belief and mental stamina.
然而英超联赛里面的其他球队，甚至是欧洲的其他球队都依然沿用一个经理、一个教练和一个队医的旧有模式，莱斯特城队的幕后却拥有各方面的人才。这正是为什么莱斯特城队能够得以在这个赛季当中傲娇地宣称自己不仅是最快、最优胜的团队，而且是整个赛事受伤最少的球队。
Whilst other teams in the English Premier League and indeed across Europe still persist with the outmoded model of a manager, a coach and a team physio, Leicester’s backroom staff covers every conceivable angle. This is probably why they boasted not only the fastest and fittest team in the league last season, but also they were among the least likely to get injured during matches.
那么，你将怎么为你所在的当地球队塑造下一个莱斯特城队式的传奇呢？也许你并没有乔克·斯坦的管理天才，或者是比尔·香克利的战术意识（译者注：两者都是英国足球史上赫赫有名的足球教练），但只要你有体育科学方面的学位，你就会比他们职业生涯巅峰时期挣得还多。
So, how would you like to help shape the next Leicester City-type story for your local sports team? Perhaps you don’t have the managerial genius of a Jock Stein, or the tactical awareness of a Bill Shankly, but with a degree in the field of sports science, you could find yourself earning far more than they ever did in their stellar managerial careers.
体育科学事业的伟大之处在于能够进入足球产业的快速通道。随着越来越多的全球顶尖院校开设关于体育科学的专业课程，这可能就有你能够施展才能的专业领域。
The great thing about a career in sports science is the sheer number of potential pathways into the industry. Whilst a number of high-ranking universities across the world are offering degrees in general sports science, it may be more beneficial to you to find a specialist area to focus on.
也许你一直梦想着自己能够给予球员阿历克斯·弗格森（译者注：英格兰曼彻斯特联队的主教练，擅长激励球员。）般的激励式谈话，那么你为何不尝试攻读一个运动心理学学位呢？
Perhaps you’ve always dreamed of giving one of those Alex Ferguson style motivational managerial talks, if so then why not work towards a degree in sports psychology?
你也许不会给球员进行赛前鼓舞士气的讲话，但相信我，作为一个团队的心理专家，在大赛之前你对球员说什么、你做什么都对他们的表现有着深远的影响。
You may not get to give the pre-match pep talk, but believe me, as a team psychologist, what you say and what you do with the players before the big game will have every bit as profound an effect on their performance.
另一方面，也许你是一个健身狂。也许你已经看到过鼓舞人心的阿诺施瓦辛格的纪录片《施瓦辛格健美之路》，并认为：“我也能行！”
On the other hand, perhaps you are a fitness fanatic. Maybe you’ve seen the inspirational Arnold Schwarzenegger documentary “Pumping Iron” and thought, “I could do that!”
那么，全球许多一流大学提供的体能、健身、塑身训练、营养学以及其他相关专业便很适合你。
Again, various world class universities across the world offer degrees in strength and conditioning, fitness training, nutrition and various others.
从我自身的经历来说，我在大学就开始是一名剑道选手，我的教练出身于爱丁堡大学体能与适应力专业。他的训练方法就让我在短短的一年之内从一个小白成为英国高校锦标赛四分之一决赛的选手。
From my own experience, as a kendo practitioner during my university days, I had the privilege of being trained by a teacher who was also part of the strength and conditioning course at Edinburgh University. His training methods took me in just one year from being a complete novice to a quarter-finalist in the UK universities championships.
体育科学有着许多不同的方面，如果你像我一样，没有相关专业的指导，也没有达到问鼎冠军的运动水平，那么你可能需要摸索很长一段时间才能带领你的团队走上正确的道路了。
Sports science has many different facets, and if like me, you don’t quite have the sporting ability to make it on the pitch, with the right degree, you could still go a long way towards helping your team get it right on the park!
