Sports science can help any athlete but larger impacts come at younger ages.
Youth development:
LA GALAXY OC’s WOODCOCK ON WHAT COACHES LOOK FOR AT YOUTH SOCCER TRYOUTS (GoalNation, Diane Scavuzzo)
An athlete’s age may be less important to performance than persistent practice (The Denver Post, Ginny McReynolds)
Sporting KC focuses on youth academy to develop future stars (The Kansas City Star, Sam McDowell)
New Jersey Baseball Prospects Take the Game Indoors (The New York Times, Joe Brescia)
3 Warning Signs Your Child isn’t Handling a Sport Injury Well (Dr. Chris Stankovich, The Sports Doc Chalk Talk blog)
MLS clubs feature as US Soccer unveils Development Academy expansion (MLSsoccer.com, Charles Boehm)
College:
Teams utilize heart-rate monitors (Yale Daily News, Kevin Lin & Mark Rosenberg)
Low-tech: College football yet to embrace sideline computers (USA Today Sports, AP)
In the age of constant quarterback transfers, how Stanford gets their QBs to stay (FootballScoop, Zach Barnett)
Young pros:
Noah Syndergaard: How Mets’ ace went from awkward teen to hard-throwing stud (SI.com, Ben Reiter)
So close, yet so far: The challenges of Canada WNT’s goal to be No. 1 (FourFourTwo, Daniel Squizzato)
Injuries are hurting some of the NBA’s most exciting young teams (The Washington Post, Tim Bontemps)
McCaffery: As Sixers slide, questions abound for sports scientists (Delaware County Daily Times, Jack McCaffery)
As top stars like Depay and Janssen flop, why is Dutch football in crisis? (ESPN FC, Simon Kuper)
The Joker: Nikola Jokic Gets Serious In Denver (SI.com, Lee Jenkins)
Gordon Hayward broke the mold to become ‘the man’ in Utah (The Sporting News, Nubyjas Wilbon)
Thon Maker Is the Bucks’ Secret Unicorn (Bleacher Report, Howard Beck)
Avoiding injuries is fundamentally important for developing young athletes, as is effective instruction. Organizations that are serious about improving and developing talent make good use of injury prevention and performance psychology modalities.
Injury risk and prevention:
Youth Soccer Coaches Can Prevent Injuries With Just 90 Minutes of Training (Drexel University, Drexel Now)
As spring training begins, pitchers enter Tommy John danger zone (USA Today Sports, Mike Vorkunov)
Less Sickness For Better Results (Eric Cressey)
The systematic development of a cost-effective sports injury prevention programme. (YouTube, Sports Kongres)
Sleep for health and sports performance (BMJ Blogs: BJSM blog, Dr. Nicky Keay)
Performance psychology:
Comment: Coaching With The Brain In Mind (F.C. Business)
How Constraints Force Your Brain To Be More Creative (Fast Company, Scott Sonenshein)
Self-Determined – What motivates you? Two Rochester experimental psychologists are challenging some cherished assumptions. (University of Rochester, Rochester Review, Karen McCally)
Anticipation – How do we prepare ourselves for the unexpected? (Psychology Today, Dr. Gary Klein)
More things that I read and liked last week:
England’s late tries down to Eddie Jones’ adaptation of Jose Mourinho’s tactical periodisation (February 12, ESPN Rugby, Tom Hamilton)
What makes an elite athlete? One of Ireland’s top physiologists put us to the test (February 11, The42.ie)
Congrats, Founder, You’re Joining the Sixers! (February 08, Backchannel, Andrew Zaleski)
The Devaluation of New Ideas (February 07, FanGraphs Baseball, Dave Cameron)
Inside Baseball Teams’ Battle to Keep Their Secrets Safe (February 06, The Ringer, Ben Lindbergh)