Sports Science: Week in Review, Nov 14-Nov 20

Collaboration, and what it means, was a major theme is this week’s reading:

  • Special Talent, Special Treatment: How to Manage Superstar Athletes (CONQUA Sport, Daniel Gallan)
  • In the new NBA, the gunner is a good teammate, not a ball hog (The Undefeated, Mike Wise)
  • Tim Gabbett: When it comes to player welfare, communication remains the key (Irish Examiner)
  • NFL doctors should not report to teams, Harvard study recommends ( The Washington Post, Rick Maese)
  • Breaking down Tech men’s basketball’s unique methods of self-evaluation ()
  • (Virginia Tech, Collegiate Times)
  • Should coaches start to speak some data? (Rob Carroll, The Video Analyst.com)
  • How hosting a startup accelerator can help pro sports franchises be more innovative (GeekWire, Taylor Soper)
  • There are also two great pieces of journalism with stories about collaboration, and how it leads to great work. In an excerpt from an upcoming book, Michael Lewis tells stories about pioneering economic psychologists, Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, for Vanity Fair. And Bleacher Report’s Jonathan Abrams gives us the origin story of Greg Popovich, documenting his early years in San Antonio.

    Take the two articles together and what they have in common isn’t immediately obvious. In one, a pair of longtime collaborators share adventures while also sharing ideas, leading to breakthroughs in understanding behavior and economics. In the other, early decisions by a smart basketball mind put him on a path for success. Hidden is how skillful collaboration is, in part, opportunistic. Great work has many facets. Choosing what to work on is critical, but so is choosing who to work with, and who not to work with.

    Technology can help with collaboration when the user interface supports it. Data and information interfaces often have features that help with collaboration, making them an important contributor to inter-disciplinary work. And just like choosing to work with other people, interfaces and technologies have to be things that people want to work with. In most cases the technologies for sports science would benefit from interfaces that were more usable and better for collaboration. See:

  • For cutting-edge Maryland men’s soccer team, future of conditioning looks much like a sports bra (Baltimore Sun)
  • How Nutrition Apps Are Misguiding Users (Vocativ, Alexandra Ossola)
  • How to design digital health tools to boost patient engagement (MedCity News)
  • (TechCrunch, David Boloker)
  • Rapsodo, Trackman, and Pitch Tracking Technologies – Where We Stand (Driveline Baseball)
  • Meaningful fitness tracker data is finally on the agenda (Wareable)
  • Am I a Baller? Basketball Skill Assessment using First-Person Cameras (arXiv, Computer Science > Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition)
  • 3D Gait (Dr. Reed Ferber)
  • Kinematix raises $2.15M for in-shoe activity tracker with coaching service (MobiHealthNews)
  • Sports are intensively collaborative, but also, they also require decision-making by individuals. Stanford Graduate School of Business produced a 27 minute video looking sports management executive decision-making. And Longreads has an extensive Q&A with behavioral economist Dan Ariely, A Conversation With Dan Ariely About What Shapes our Motivations.

    More things that I read and liked last week:

  • The Challenge of Evaluating the Intensity of Short Actions in Soccer: A New Methodological Approach Using Percentage Acceleration (November 15, PLOS One; Karin Sonderegger, Markus Tschopp, Wolfgang Taube)
  • PSG’s Unai Emery: ‘We watch all our games around 12 times’ (November 20, The Guardian, Football)
  • [Talk] Data-Informed vs Data-Driven (November 20, Greg Reda)
  • Special Talent, Special Treatment: How to Manage Superstar Athletes (November 19, CONQUA Sport, Daniel Gallan)
  • Mental Health Services in NCAA Division I Athletics (November 15, Sports Health)
  • Dr. James Andrews: Football wouldn’t be allowed if invented today (November 16, SI.com, SI Wire)
  • In the new NBA, the gunner is a good teammate, not a ball hog (November 18, The Undefeated, Mike Wise)
  • Atkinson Draws From Past to Energize Nets (November 16, Basketball Insiders )
  • John Chayka, the 27-year-old NHL GM: ‘We’re trying to do things the right way’ (November 18, The Guardian, Joshua Kloke)
  • For cutting-edge Maryland men’s soccer team, future of conditioning looks much like a sports bra (November 19, Baltimore Sun)
  • Surf Science: Why it Matters (November 20, SURFING Magazine)
  • How stressors are dynamically appraised within a team during a game: An exploratory study in basketball – Doron – 2016 (November 18, Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports)
  • InsideTracker: Using Blood Testing to Cut to the Truth (November 18, LAVA Magazine)
  • 3D Gait (November 16, Dr. Reed Ferber)
  • How to design digital health tools to boost patient engagement (November 20, MedCity News, Ted Quinn)
  • How the cloud, infused with analytic insights, impacts athletes and sports fans (November 18, TechCrunch, David Boloker)
  • Tim Gabbett: When it comes to player welfare, communication remains the key (November 18, Irish Examiner)
  • How Nutrition Apps Are Misguiding Users – Vocativ (November 18, Vocativ, Alexandra Ossola)
  • A Conversation With Dan Ariely About What Shapes our Motivations (November 17, Longreads)
  • How Leicester City Made Every Premier Power Better (November 18, Wall Street Journal, Joshua Robinson)
  • Rapsodo, Trackman, and Pitch Tracking Technologies – Where We Stand (November 18, Driveline Baseball)
  • Special post: mcmillanspeed Strength Series part IX from Dr Angus Ross (November 17, Altis)
  • Liverpool reveal the diet plan that has fuelled their rise to the top of the table (November 18, The Telegraph, UK)
  • Dare to be different (November 17, 21st Club Limited, Ben Marlow)
  • Data-driven spinning class? How tech is revolutionising fitness (November 15, The Guardian, Digital Business)
  • Jabari Parker Fulfilling His Promise In Year 3 (November 17, RealGM, Keith P Smith)
  • From overlooked to NWSL MVP, USWNT: Lynn Williams’ rise, through her eyes (November 15, FourFourTwo, Scott French)
  • NFL doctors should not report to teams, Harvard study recommends – The Washington Post (November 17, The Washington Post, Rick Maese)
  • Steven Johnson: How play leads to great inventions (November 16, TED)
  • Meaningful fitness tracker data is finally on the agenda (November 16, Wareable, UK)
  • Breaking down Tech men’s basketball’s unique methods of self-evaluation (November 17, Virginia Tech, Collegiate Times)
  • Maple Leafs working with slumping rookie star Matthews (November 16, Associated Press)
  • Electronic Ice and an App for Sore Muscles (November 17, IEEE Spectrum, Tekla S. Perry)
  • 7 research grants awarded to grad students (November 16, NCAA.org )
  • [1611.05365] Am I a Baller? Basketball Skill Assessment using First-Person Cameras (November 16, arXiv, Computer Science > Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition)
  • Should coaches start to speak some data? (November 14, Rob Carroll, The Video Analyst.com)
  • Inside Sports Management – How executives make the tough calls in a demanding industry. (November 14, Stanford Graduate School of Business)
  • Applying the acute:chronic workload ratio in elite football: worth the effort? (November 17, Martin Buchheit, British Journal of Sports Medicine)
  • Surprised by the Gambler’s and Hot Hand Fallacies? A Truth in the Law of Small Numbers (November 16, Social Science Research Network, Joshua Benjamin Miller and Adam Sanjurjo )
  • Pop’s First Rodeo – Before he built a Spurs dynasty, rookie coach Gregg Popovich lived this nightmare in San Antonio (November 14, Bleacher Report, Jonathan Abrams)
  • How hosting a startup accelerator can help pro sports franchises be more innovative (November 15, GeekWire, Taylor Soper)
  • The Changes to Expect in the NBA’s Upcoming Collective Bargaining Agreement (November 15, The Ringer, Kevin O’Connor)
  • Kinematix raises $2.15M for in-shoe activity tracker with coaching service (November 14, MobiHealthNews)
  • ‘A technological arms race:’ New replay devices widen the gap on high school sidelines (November 14, The Washington Post, Jacob Bogage)
  • How Two Trailblazing Psychologists Turned the World of Decision Science Upside Down (November 14, Vanity Fair, The Hive blog)
  • Dos A Sorrow: The fact that Jurgen Klinsmann still has a job makes me sad (November 14, Howler, Bobby Warshaw)
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