That's old news – I’ve already listened to the podcast

That's old news – I’ve already listened to the podcast! In part, using these opening lines simply gives me a convenient introduction to letting our readership know that the Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport now has a regular podcast. For all of you time-poor researchers, clinicians, academics, and students, you are now able to hear some highlights of upcoming issues through listening to the journal podcast when in the car, at the beach, or lying in bed. Our podcasts will feature not only an overview of each issue, but will include interviews with authors of papers that delve more deeply into the material they have published. We will also provide you with updates from national and international conferences making sure that you as listeners have the opportunity to keep abreast of current trends. We will not bore you with long and detailed descriptions of studies, but rather whet your appetite and allow you to follow up on those issues that interest you by accessing the relevant journal article through either our electronic or hard copy media. Our plans are to have our podcasts available for easy download through a range of sites including the journal homepage, the Sports Medicine Australia website, and through iTunes. So please join me and the entertaining and mellifluous tones of our podcast host, Professor Kerry Mummery in hearing what is exciting and contemporary in the world of sports medicine and sports science.

I am sure that on listening to our podcast you will want to dive head first into the many articles we have included in this issue of the journal. This issue leads with a position stand on optimising cancer outcomes through exercise, endorsed by the Australian Association for Exercise and Sport Science. The paper provides many directions in the use of exercise for cancer prevention and recovery, based on a growing body of strong evidence in the area, and adds to the journal's commitment to providing evidence-based directions to our readership.

Our other papers cover a range of disciplines. In the Sports Medicine section we lead with an important study by Boettcher et al on the diagnostic ability of two commonly used tests for supraspinatus dysfunction. In an increasingly popular area of research, Rees et al. investigated the effects of whole body vibration on postural steadiness in older people. A study from Thailand investigates serum markers of cartilage degeneration following anterior cruciate ligament injury, and a study by Hubert et al. reports on a variety of diagnostic screening methods for obesity among children. The Sports Injury section includes a paper on the translation of best evidence around lower limb injury prevention within Australian football, and also a paper on drowning risk exposure through direct observation.

Under the theme of Physical Activity and Health, Maïmoun et al. investigated bone turnover and calcitropic hormone levels in relation to walking, and Asztalos et al. from Belgium examined the associations between types of physical activity and perceived stress and psychological distress. The Sport Science section of this issue contains four papers. Kelly and Drust investigated heart rate responses and technical demands of playing small-sided soccer games on different sized pitches, Wittekind and Beneke report on the effect of warm-up on run time to exhaustion, McNicol et al. examined absolute training intensity and its role in adaptations to endurance exercise training, and Castagna explored the match demands of professional futsal. Under Biomechanics, Seifert and Chollet describe the spatial-temporal parameters in swimming, whilst under our Motor Control and Learning section Pearce et al. piloted the effects of wearing a sports compression garment on visuomotor tracking performance. We include a Sports Nutrition study in this issue that demonstrates that fish-oil lowered the heart rate during submaximal exercise in elite Australian footballers. Under Sport Psychology, Hanrahan and Cerin investigated achievement goal orientation and attributional style in sport according to gender, level of participation, and type of sport.

In a guest editorial, one of our Assistant Editors, David Bishop, explores the concept that is common parlance in sport – “train as you play”. This notion is explored in relation to the scientific evidence that is available.

Enjoy the issue and the range of material it presents, and do not forget to seek out our new podcasts that will allow you to listen to the latest in sports medicine and sports science whenever and wherever you want.