Applied Sports Science newsletter – July 20, 2015

MUSCLEWATCH traditionally makes its debut each fall as NBA teams assemble for training camp. But sometimes the muscles just can’t be ignored, as has been the case thus far this summer.

But first! What, you may ask, is MUSCLEWATCH? Basically, it began decades ago when my friend Matt and I noticed our local paper would always report that players had gained 15 pounds of MUSCLE in the offseason. No matter the sport, it was never 12 pounds, never 16, never 9, never 18, but seemed to always be 15 pounds of muscle. So we began keeping an eye on the papers looking for references to the magic 15 pounds of MUSCLE. Eventually, MUSCLEWATCH became about more than just the 15 pounds of muscle and more about guys who had either gained or lost a lot of weight. Previous winners include Thad Young and Rudy Gay.

… Ream wasn’t used in the first four U.S. games under Klinsmann but entered in the 72nd minute for Carlos Bocanegra in a match against Ecuador in October with the U.S. nursing a 1-0 lead. In that game, Ream made another mistake that led to the tying goal. He wouldn’t play for the U.S. again until last year.

“It was humbling,” Ream said. “But you learn from the mistakes and decide to get better.”

What Ream decided to do was leave his comfort zone in MLS. With the Red Bulls, he was a lock starter, a clean, cerebral player who rarely fouled and relied on anticipation more than athleticism. But at the national team level, Ream seemed to struggle with bigger and faster players so he went someplace where he’d consistently get tested by rugged play: England.

… To put it simply, SPEED is the ultimate weapon in athletics.

Ask any athlete what bio-motor ability they would most like to possess-and it’s SPEED! Speed makes the difference between an average, good and great player!

Before I begin to explain improving speed and acceleration for the sport of football, it’s important that you understand a few goals of training that are the foundation of every program I write…

… As a general rule, if an athlete is not running at full speed, they are not developing speed. An athlete sprinting at less than full-speed is usually not attributed to effort, but rather fatigue due to condensed rest intervals or inappropriate volume. Determining rest intervals can be as simple as understanding the applicable work to rest ratio. We have adapted a formula from Charlie Francis for non-track athletes. Normally, at least 30 seconds of rest for each second a sprint lasts. For example, if an athlete is sprinting a 40 yard dash in approximately 5 seconds; that rest interval should be about two and a half minutes. Total volume should usually be about 200-300 yards for all combined sprints.

Despite the common misconception that Gastrocnemius is the main force producer during running it is in fact Soleus. During running the Soleus muscle produces up to 50% of the total vertical support force(5), which is made possible by the fact it makes up 52% of the volume of the posterior calf.(6) The actual forces it produces are around 8 times body weight.(5) In comparison the Gastrocnemius produces forces around 3 times body weight.

The psychologist and bestselling author of Thinking, Fast and Slow reveals his new research and talks about prejudice, fleeing the Nazis, and how to hold an effective meeting.

The first FDA cleared wireless neuromuscular electronic stimulation (NMES) was presented by DJO Global, Inc., in San Diego this week. The new device, called Compex Wireless USA, is a wireless electric muscle stimulation device designed for athletes and fitness enthusiasts.

DJO Global has products used for rehabilitation, pain management and physical therapy and is one of the largest non-surgical orthopedic rehabilitation companies in the United States. Many of their devices, like the Compex Wireless USA, are used by athletes and patients to prevent injuries.

NMES involves the use of a device which transmits an electrical impulse to the skin over selected muscle groups by the way of electrodes. It causes muscles to contract as a form of exercise or physical therapy.

The University of Leeds may have solved one of the biggest holy grails in medicine, the ability to measure blood glucose levels without penetrating the skin. Currently, finger pricking is the daily grind of diabetics worldwide, which also involves careful pipetting of the blood samples into the glucometer. Neither the pain nor the process is pleasant, and is particularly difficult for young children that don’t understand the purpose of it all.

The new technology relies on a special silica glass that has ions throughout that fluoresce in infrared in response to laser light. The length of the fluorescence is proportional to the level of glucose present near the surface of the skin when the glass slide is pressed to a finger. Simply measuring how long the fluorescence lasts provides an estimation of the sugar level in the blood below. In a small scale clinical study at the Leeds Institute of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Medicine, the technology has shown considerable promise to be able to match currently used glucometers.

… Diet is the principal regulator of what healthy bacteria make up our microbiome—the ecosystem of the human GI tract, explained lecturer Mark Heiman, vice president and chief scientific officer at MicroBiome Therapeutics, a pharmaceutical company focused on improving the human microbiome. Climate change plus our current farming practices have lead to less nutritionally diverse produce, plus most of us only eat a limited diet—in fact, rice, maize, and wheat alone make up 60 percent of the calories people consume around the world, Heiman said. (And we eat things packed with these 7 Ingredients That Are Robbing You of Nutrients.)

“Like any ecosystem, the one that is most diverse in species is the one that is going to be the healthiest,” Heiman said. “In almost every disease state that has been studied so far, the microbiome has lost diversity.”

Changes in gut microbiota can modulate the peripheral and central nervous systems, resulting in altered brain functioning, and suggesting the existence of a microbiota gut–brain axis. Diet can also change the profile of gut microbiota and, thereby, behavior. Effects of bacteria on the nervous system cannot be disassociated from effects on the immune system since the two are in constant bidirectional communication. While the composition of the gut microbiota varies greatly among individuals, alterations to the balance and content of common gut microbes may affect the production of molecules such as neurotransmitters, e.g., gamma amino butyric acid, and the products of fermentation, e.g., the short chain fatty acids butyrate, propionate, and acetate. Short chain fatty acids, which are pleomorphic, especially butyrate, positively influence host metabolism by promoting glucose and energy homeostasis, regulating immune responses and epithelial cell growth, and promoting the functioning of the central and peripheral nervous systems. In the future, the composition, diversity, and function of specific probiotics, coupled with similar, more detailed knowledge about gut microbiota, will potentially help in developing more effective diet- and drug-based therapies.

Understanding how to work effectively on a team is critical for a successful career in computer science, you can be a great programmer no matter when you start learning — and, yes, the perks for employees at big tech companies are pretty sweet.

Those were some of the takeaways from a panel that the University of Washington Computer Science & Engineering department hosted on Friday afternoon as part of an annual event called CS4HS to expose middle and high school teachers to computer science.

… “So if you’re talking about shifts,” Scully said, “it might go to 1877.”

The strategy might not be new, but the frequency with which it is now deployed is off the charts.

The number of shifts has nearly doubled every year since 2011, from 2,357 to 13,298 last year, according to Baseball Info Solutions. And there has been another spike this season, to 10,262 by the All-Star break.

As data visualisations become increasingly ubiquitous, just like the data on which they are based, the ability to make sense of and engage with them becomes increasingly important.

We are pleased to announce that the KDD Workshop on Large-Scale Sports Analytics will be taking place in Sydney this year on August the 10th. Similar to last year, it will be a full day workshop consisting of invited speakers as well as poster sessions for submitted papers.