Enter Breathing World 2022

David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation ( DSWF ) thanks you for your interest in taking part in our youth composer (作曲家) competition Breathing World. This competition is designed as a way to use nature as the source of inspiration for a piece of music which celebrates the natural world and wildlife or that highlights some of the most pressing environmental issues.

Entries for the Breathing World 2022 competition are open to people aged 12 to 18. The winner will get the chance to work with an expert team of musicians including Laura Wright, to develop and finalize the piece before its first live performance. A recording of the piece will be available for the composer, for DSWF and for the partners of the competition.

Entries must be submitted (提交) digitally through the given form with audio (音频) files sent by a file sharing site such as GoogleDrive or Dropbox to events@davidshepherd.org. Audio files must be no more than 5 minutes in length and should be uploaded as a digitally audio file as an MP3. Don’t submit large .wav or .aif files.

Please name your files with your surname followed by the title of the audio recording. We do not recommend using “ Breathing World ” in the title as it might get lost. Please read the Breathing World terms and conditions before submitting your entry. Don’t send your entry form and audio files to the DSWF offices.

To help relieve the pressure of creation, we have decided to extend the application time for Breathing World until Friday 30th September 2022. It is our hope that this will provide a greater opportunity for our young composers to fully enjoy this challenge and create something truly special.

Figure skating, speed skating, and ice hockey can all trace their beginnings to early civilizations that fastened animal bones to their feet to skate on ice, according to A Dictionary of British History. Bone runners found in Switzerland date as far back as 3000 B.C. and there is also evidence of ice skating in Scandinavia in the Middle Ages.

Modern skating likely got its start in the Netherlands, where it was considered a national recreation in the early 17th century, when nobles skated on frozen canals for fun. Wealthy Europeans picked up the sport while visiting the Netherlands, and British royals soon brought skating back to England in the late 1600s. When the Thames froze over in 1683, skating was among the many recreations at London’s famous winter fair on the ice, which King Charles II attended.

At the end of the 18th century, American ballet dancer Jackson Haines transformed the sport into what is now known as figure skating by introducing elements of ballet to the ice. According to the Dictionary of American History, Haines skated in bear and ballet costumes and toured with exhibitions across Europe, where he was most admired in Vienna, Austria.

Ice skating evolved into other sports, including speed skating and ice hockey. Speed skating has been around as early as Dutch people dared to race on their skates, but hockey developed in 19th century Canada as an icy version of field hockey. Both were well-established by the 1900s, so they were on the list in the first Winter Olympics.

Since the 1900s, different ice skating clubs have been founded around the Western world. As interest grew, the clubs’ membership increased over the next 50 years. By the end of 20thcentury, ice skating was so widespread that it was one of the few recreations enjoyed by almost every westerner.

A recent study suggests that for young soccer players, participating in repetitive technical training activities involving heading during practice may result in more total head impacts, but playing in actual soccer games may cause greater magnitude (程度) head impacts.

“Headers are a fundamental component to the sport of soccer. Therefore, it is important to understand differences in header frequency and magnitude between practice and game settings,” said study author Jillian Urban, PhD, from Wake Forest School of Medicine. “Practices are easier to change than games. Therefore, understanding how we can restructure practice to reduce head impact exposure while teaching fundamental skills is critical to improving head impact safety in the sport.”

The study followed eight soccer players who were aged 14 and 15 for two seasons. Players wore a sensor (传感器) during all practices and games. Researchers recorded all activities on the field with a camera, and identified each time head contact was made.

Head impact exposure was evaluated in terms of peak head motion and impacts, or impact rate per player per hour. Researchers then compared impact rates across different activity types.

Researchers amazingly found that technical drills like heading the ball and practicing ball-control, were associated with an average impact rate of 13.7 head impacts per player per hour. Team interaction activities such as small-sided games in practice were related to an average impact rate of 0.5 head impacts per player per hour, which was slightly lower than the 1.3 head impacts observed during actual games.

The study also revealed that games were associated with the highest numbers of average rotational (旋转) head motion, which signified the greatest magnitude head impacts. However, technical training recorded the lowest numbers.

“If the goal is to reduce the number of head impacts a young soccer player may get on the field, our findings suggest the best way may be to rearrange technical training practices,” said Urban. “However, if the goal is to reduce the likelihood of players sustaining head impacts of greater magnitude, then the best bet may be to look at factors related to high-magnitude head impacts that can occur during games.” A limitation of the study is the small number of players involved.