When Arjen Robben joined Bayern Munich in August 2009, the Bavarians were very much second-division as far as the European elite was concerned, and the Bundesliga was a fun league that turned out deliciously-random champions (Stuttgart in 2007, Wolfsburg 2009) but mattered exclusively to domestic audiences.
Five years, three Champions League finals and one European Cup for Bayern later, it’s very hard to say whether the Dutch winger has truly changed the club. Hard, because Bayern have not relied on any one player but instead on a collective of outstanding, steady performers like Franck Ribery, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Philipp Lahm and Manuel Neuer to find their way back to the small circle of superclubs. Hard, also, because history teaches us that history is best not pre-empted by sweeping statements when those concerned haven’t hung up their boots yet. But we can say one thing: Bayern have certainly changed Arjen Robben.
… Though Willis, Worilds, Locker and MJD are a small percentage of the NFL, they show a sea change in the NFL. Players are realizing that their life in the NFL can affect life after the NFL.
Uphill running has been touted as a key interval training tactic for distance runners despite few scientifically-derived recommendations for individualized training prescription. To date, a majority of uphill training research has focused on shorter, faster training bouts; however, longer, slower bouts based on an individual’s velocity at maximum oxygen consumption (VMax) may prove more effective. One potential longer bout length may be associated with the time VMax can be maintained (TMax), an approach proven effective in level-grade interval training. Therefore, the purpose of this investigation included examining the TMax, heart rate and test-retest reliability of incline treadmill running (INC) on a 10% grade at 65%, 70%, 75%, 80% and 85%VMax compared to level-grade running at VMax. Twelve moderately trained distance runners (age, 26.4 +/- 4.8; body mass, 64.3 +/- 12.9 kg; height, 171.2 +/- 9.3 cm; and VO2max, 56.6 +/- 7.6 mL[middle dot]min-1[middle dot]kg-1) completed two TMax INC trials at each submaximal VMax and a level-grade TMax at VMax. The dependent variables were TMax, heart rate plateau (HRPlateau) and half-time to heart rate plateau (1/2HRPlateau) of each condition. Statistical significance was set to p < 0.05. Student's t-test revealed no significant differences in: 1) TMax, HRPlateau and 1/2HRPlateau between trials 1 and 2 at any INC condition. One-way ANOVA revealed significant differences in: 1) TMax during INC at 75%, 80% and 85%VMax and level-grade at VMax; and 2) 1/2HRPlateau during INC at 80% and 85%VMax and all other conditions. In conclusion, TMax and heart rate dynamics during INC proved reliable, and simple regression analysis revealed ~68%VMax during INC yields the same level-grade TMax at VMax.
Staring at screens right before sleep turns can be even worse than you think. In the video above, Dr. Dan Siegel, clinical professor of psychiatry at the UCLA School of Medicine, lays out all of the negative effects bedtime screen viewing can have on the brain and body.
Mancheste City Football Club has many reasons to be boastful. They are the reigning Premier League champions, have assembled a first-team squad brimming with star quality, and play their football inside the Etihad Stadium, one of European football’s most intimidating fortresses. However, another fortress was recently built to add to the Manchester City kingdom, a development which speaks volumes of the club’s vision towards becoming the world’s finest footballing institution.
In December, the City Football Academy was officially unveiled, giving birth to yet another exciting chapter in the history of the club. Costing a staggering £200 million, the City Football Academy is state-of-the-art and represents the culmination of the club’s defining vision of promoting youth. Indeed, greeting visitors on the wall of the main reception is a quote from Sheikh Mansour: “We are building a structure for the future, not just a team of all-stars.
This year’s Harvard Deans’ Challenge for student-led teams focused on entrepreneurship has two new categories: food and sports.
This is the first time those two categories have been offered as part of the Deans’ Challenge, which started three years ago. About 80 student teams applied for those categories, and five were chosen for each.
… The tech company is promising this will amount to an Apple-shaped health revolution. “Apple Watch gives us the ability to motivate people to be more active and more healthy,” Cook declared last year. But the claims deserve some scrutiny: the evidence on existing wearables suggests that — as with all other silver-bullet solutions for health — we haven’t yet figured out how to make habit change stick. Scientists are also skeptical about how helpful ResearchKit will actually be in the sea of Big Data about health.
In a month, my office will be packed with people who have avoided the treadmill and the winter weather and have quickly increased their mileage to be able to attend the early spring races. With this ramp up in training, many will develop aches and pains, some of which seem to come and go, some of which are intensifying, but all of which they are trying desperately to ignore, in hopes of being able to just get through the big race.
What runners and people in general fail to realize though is that if you deal with the problem when you feel the pain, you most likely will be able to correct it or at least start taking steps to correct it.
To compare recent internal training load and strain of elite Australian football players for match outcome.
… Methods
Load was quantified from session rating of perceived exertion (sRPE) for individual players from one team in 141 professional Australian football matches over six seasons, then averaged for players that competed for the team each week. Internal weekly-load and weekly-strain (load x monotony) was compared to recent-load and recent-strain (four-week rolling average) as a marker of training-stress balance for each player against the match outcome. Covariates for relative position of teams in the competition and days between matches were modelled. Differences were standardised (Effect Size; ES) and interpreted using magnitude based inferences. Results
Weekly-load was likely higher for match wins (ES ± 90% confidence limits; 0.43 ± 0.27), and when days-break was used as a covariate (0.45 ± 0.27) but only possibly higher with relative ladder position covaried (RLP, 0.29 ± 0.33). There was a possibly greater positive training–stress balance for load in wins (0.31; ±0.38) with db (0.39; ±0.39) and RLP covaried (0.27; ±0.48). There were no clear differences for strain for wins and losses or with either covariate. There was a likely greater positive training-stress balance for strain in wins (0.51; ±0.41) with days-break (0.48; ±0.41) but not RLP covaried. Conclusions
Weekly-load and a positive training-stress balance for strain were the best predictors of match success. The higher weekly-load and training-stress balance for strain highlight the conflict between maintaining the training stimulus and minimising fatigue in Australian football players between matches.
This study investigated the impact of in-season national team duty on injury rates and player availability in a professional soccer club. Time-loss injuries and exposure time during club and national team duties were recorded prospectively over 5 seasons (2009-2014). A time-loss injury was sustained by 37.7% of squad members participating in national duty, all injuries occurring in match-play. The incidence (per 1000 h exposure) for national team player match-play injuries did not differ (P = 0.608) to that for all players in club competitions: 48.0 (95% CI 20.9-75.5) vs. 41.9 (95% CI 36.5-47.4), incidence rate ratio = 1.2 (CI: 0.8-2.4). The majority (58%) of national team injuries resulted in a layoff ≤1 week. Of all working days lost to injury generally, 5.2% were lost through injury on national duty. Injury incidence in the week following national duty was comparable (P = 0.818) in players participating or not: 7.8 (95% CI 3.6-12.0) vs. 7.1 (95% CI: 4.6-9.6), incidence rate ratio = 1.1 (CI: 0.7-2.7). While approximately 40% of participating players incurred a time-loss injury on national duty, no training injuries were sustained and injuries made up a negligible part of overall club working days lost to injury. Following duty, players had a similar injury risk to peers without national obligations.
There is no higher compliment in sport than “having time”. It is an appropriate gold standard. Sport is governed by time. For teams and individuals, it is always running out: the clock, the season, the whole career. For fans, sport concentrates time by containing it. For players, having time is about moving fast, and yet also about slowing the drama to a manageable pace. Speed and stillness are always intertwined, and, occasionally, reconciled.
In one respect, having time is a trick. Sometimes it is simply about moving faster so as to be in position earlier. Pelé had time, to an eerie degree. But in the old footage, the thing that stands out is his explosive speed. When you know you’ve got the legs on someone, you can pick the right moment—a second of imbalance or hesitation—to exploit their inferiority.
Our latest guest blog post comes to us from former Sparta coach and current Strength & Conditioning coach of the New South Wales Waratahs, Jordan Troester.
With all the emerging technology that is available in sports, it is easy to get sucked into the process of trying to track and measure everything an athlete is doing. While there is tremendous knowledge available in all this data, it is easy to get buried in a mountain of information. The real test for any set of data is how easily it can be collected, analyzed, and ultimately how you can use this data to make adjustments to your training program. GPS is one of the athlete evaluation tools that can be extremely valuable but also a little overwhelming.
… “It’s not a case of putting good players out there anymore,” said Angus McNab, Opta’s head of content distribution for North America. “Everyone is better armed and better prepared than ever before. They are just trying to up their level of information and drive any advantage they have.”
A new era for scouting seems to be on the rise. Does this mean a better future for English football?
It would appear that some of England’s top Academies are actively on the lookout for talented youngsters. This is nothing new of course, and with the changes in the Academy system Category 1 clubs are now free (U12+) to recruit from all over the nation. The previous 90 minute rule has been replaced. Why? Because the long term strategy of the EPPP is to have the best talent at the best academies in order to create a pyramid structure which contains the best at the tip. The best facilities, the best coaching for the…best players?!