Sports Science: Week in Review, Sep 19-25

Investing in sports science and analytics is no guarantee of wins. In some cases it looks like it resulted in classic cases of “paralysis by analysis.”

Team Sweden was collaborating with SAS, makers of high powered statistical software, in its World Cup of Hockey effort. The tournament was a success until the semifinals where, according to Greg Wyshinski from Yahoo, Sweden outthinks itself in stunning World Cup loss to Europe.

Notre Dame football has been accumulating headlines for the school’s emphasis on new sports science technology. There is the hiring of Duncan French, the functional movement optical mocap, the adoption of the CoachMePlus athlete management system. None it helped the Fighting Irish against Duke who were the tougher 4th quarter team in the Blue Devils’ win.

Even with experienced hands moving forward too rapidly in adopting new technologies is a lot of change for the individual coaches and athletes to handle. And any expected benefit can backfire, especially when the expectations bar is set high.

More things that I read and liked last week:

  • Sweden outthinks itself in stunning World Cup loss to Europe (September 25, Yahoo, Greg Wyshynski)
  • Adidas out of GPS running watch race (September 22, Wareable, UK)
  • Apple Watch speaks the only language wearable consumers understand: Fitness (September 22, Recode, Carolina Milanesi )
  • What is Video Analytics and Why is it Becoming Such a Big Player? (September 22, Datafloq)
  • Mauricio Pochettino (September 21, Aspetar Sports Medicine Journal, Jake Bambrough)
  • A Note Concerning “Extra” In-season Conditioning (September 22, LeCharles Bentley O-Line Performance, Matt Lee)
  • Work Hardest at Rest (September 19, Outside Online, Will Cockrell)
  • Active Voice: Injury History Forecasts Lower Extremity Injury in Cadet Basic Training (September 20, American College of Sports Medicine, Sports Medicine Bulletin)
  • Why Your Player’s Talent Is Irrelevant (September 22, TOVO Football Academy Barcelona)
  • The Changing State of Football: Is Athleticism now More Important than Ability? (September 21, Outside of the Boot, Jeffrey Gamby-Boulger)
  • You Want to be a Performance Analyst? (September 20, Robert Carroll, The Video Analyst.com blog)
  • Teens Who Understand Food Marketing Make Healthier Choices (September 19, Popular Science)
  • Buzzketball: How analytics are redefining Tech men’s basketball (September 20, Virginia Tech, Collegiate Times )
  • “75% of the issues we have were because the athlete was wearing the wrong shoe.” – FootballScoop (September 21, Football Scoop)
  • Private Coaches Proliferate in Hockey’s Elite Ranks (September 19, The New York Times)
  • Analytics is a team sport at Team Sweden (September 15, SAS, Hidden Insights blog)
  • Jockeys, Horses & Analytic Workforce’s | Engageing Analysis (September 21, Oliver Gage, Engageing Analysis blog)
  • Introducing the Technology That’s Helping Notre Dame Football (September 21, Bleacher Report, Team Stream Now)
  • Team Synergies in Sport: Theory and Measures (September 21, Frontiers in Psychology)
  • Applied Technology in Training and Rehab (September 19, Robertson Training Systems, Adam Loiacono)
  • Space: The Next Frontier in Tactical Analytics of Elite Team Sports (September 20, F.C. Business, Bill Gerrard)
  • The Impact of Injuries on Player Valuation (September 20, The Hardball Times, Max Flignor)
  • How Emotions Influence Decision-Making (September 19, The Atlantic, Olga Khazan)
  • Q&A: NFL medical adviser discusses league’s plans for new neuroscience research (September 19, Science, ScienceInsider)
  • Southampton show the worth of looking beyond football’s borders (September 19, The Times & The Sunday Times, UK)
  • Making a Science of Sport Performance :: Notre Dame Football (September 17, UND.COM :: The Official Site of Notre Dame Athletics )
  • Michigan State test should reveal plenty about Notre Dame (September 12, ESPN, College Football Nation Blog, Matt Fortuna)
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