Back to school time is a time for transition in the professional sports. Football and European soccer are gearing. Hockey and basketball are almost ready to get going. The offseason is pretty much over.
Off season usually means different things to team management than it does to players. Front offices assemble rosters (also this) and invest in technology and infrastructure.
Players work on their games. SI.com’s Andrew Sharp has an excellent feature on trainer Chris Johnson. EXOS is another off season stop for many pro athletes.
Adam Himmelsbach at The Boston Globe documented what the Celtics do in the summer to bridge the team-player gap during the summer. The team sends coaches on the road for extended home town visits to players, and everyone seems to like the practice.
Professional tennis and baseball athletes are, in many cases, reaching the end of their long seasons. A couple of tennis players who finished their season very strong, U.S. Open champion Angelique Kerber and quarter-finalist Simone Halep can point to pre-season workouts as helps for late-season performance.
Baseball teams face a neverending triage as the marathon season goes on and on. Paul Zeise argues that the game becomes drastically different when MLB rosters expand to 40 players on September 1. The New York Times reports that the overarching trend is to add pitchers to the roster. And the Dodgers adopted a season-long strategy to use the injured reserve to keep key players off the field for parts of the regular season.
Attempting to rehabilitate injured players doesn’t appear to be a viable strategy for front offices. The San Francisco 49ers have had no success investing in players recovering from ACL injuries. Even when a time succeeds with a reclamation project, like the Los Angeles Angels’ relief pitcher, Andrew Bailey, it is little help when so much of the rest of the team is terrible.
The takeaway from looking at transition time in pro sports: Players need to prepare and to improve (if possible) in their off season but it’s less clear what teams should be doing to get ready. What the Celtics are doing, helping players to prepare during the off season, is one thing with little downside and the chance for considerable upside.
More things that I read and liked last week:
Why the federal government should stop spending billions on private sports stadiums (September 08, Brookings Institution)
Angelique Kerber: How the gym has changed my tennis – CNN Video (August 18, CNN.com)
Angels appear to have found a good fit for ninth-inning role in well-traveled Bailey (September 06, Los Angeles Times)
This is how sports teams choose their tech gear – The Washington Post (September 02, The Washington Post, The Switch blog)
NBA trainer Chris Johnson explains life with Jimmy Butler and more (September 08, SI.com, Andrew Sharp)
Noise: How to Overcome the High, Hidden Cost of Inconsistent Decision Making (September 08, Harvard Business Review; Daniel Kahneman, Andrew M. Rosenfield, Linnea Gandhi, Tom Blaser )
Paul Zeise: Are expanded rosters in September good for MLB? (September 05, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Paul Zeise)
Chelsea have a list of clubs they won’t loan players to after broken promises, claims Bristol City boss (September 08, Mirror Online, UK)
8 steps to make you run correctly (September 08, Kinematix)
Linking Perception to Action (September 07, University of California-Santa Barbara, The UCSB Current)
Summer is a bonding time for Celtics coaches and players (September 07, The Boston Globe)
Is a smart court the secret weapon to beat Serena? (September 07, CNN.com)
David Camarillo: Why helmets don’t prevent concussions — and what might (September 08, TED Talk, TED.com)
More Pitchers and Fewer Innings as Teams Battle Injuries (September 08, The New York Times)
NFL players’ careers most affected by surgery to patellar tendon, Achilles tendon and ACL (September 06, Northwestern Medicine)
49ers, Baalke see no returns on ACL investments (September 05, CSN Bay Area)
The NFL Has an Age Problem (September 07, The Ringer, Kevin Clark)
Barcelona’s Andrés Iniesta: ‘I was a victim of something that terrified me’ (September 06, The Guardian)
Researchers Envision Ultrathin, Flexible Circuit Boards (September 03, Wall Street Journal)
European football approaching break even point could be seismic for the sport (September 05, ESPN FC, Gabriele Marcotti)
Strengthening Your Kinetic Chain For Injury Prevention (September 05, DrJohnRusin.com, Dan Swiscoe)
Director of Football on City’s global talent drive (September 02, Manchester City FC)
Why Nike sparked the college sport data gold rush (September 02, The Fields of Green blog)
Inside EXOS: An Exclusive Look at the Most Elite Gym in the World (September 02, Men’s Fitness)
Premier League’s Wealth Often Subsidizes Clubs Across the Channel (September 03, The New York Times, Rory Smith)
Dodgers Injuries: Here’s Why LA has so Many Hurt Players (August 05, NBC Southern California)
Overtraining Is Killing Your Kids Athletic Development (July 25, Dr. John Rusin The Strength DOC blog, Greg Schaible)
Ed Smith on how sportspersons turn stress into purposefulness (July 25, ESPN Cricinfo)