Applied Sports Science newsletter – July 22, 2015

… How about this ridiculous team you coach on now? With LaMarcus Aldridgecoming in, Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili coming back.

“Really, it’s the environment, the culture. And I think this is something that professional sports owners and ownership groups need to take a look at, because they’re so quick to pull the trigger for a win-now mentality, and there is no such thing as a win-now mentality. You might win for one or two years, but you’re not winning for 10, 15, 20 years. So the culture, and talking about Pop being a straight shooter, you know that whatever their conversation was with LaMarcus, whatever he told him, LaMarcus can take it to the bank. And don’t think that doesn’t matter. People say, ‘Oh, they’re just athletes.’ No, these are people, and if they know they can trust you, (that’s important). If there’s one thing they’re surrounded with, it’s a lot of people who maybe are pulling on them for the wrong reasons. But if you can get a straight shooter (who says), ‘Hey, this is what we’re doing,’ and will follow it up and back it up and their word is good, that goes a long ways.”

… Hammon is not an imposing presence. She stands just 5ft 6in, with hoop earrings and a ponytail, burying herself in a sweatshirt jacket while the other coaches wear shorts and golf shirts. But this isn’t about size or muscles spilling from form-fitting sleeves, but rather a matter of respect. The players Hammon is coaching this July loom like towers above her, yet they gather quietly around when she calls time outs the way they would Gregg Popovich or Doc Rivers.

“We don’t look at it as female or anything, she’s the coach and we just listen,” Spurs forward Jarrell Eddie said Sunday afternoon.

… Hammon talked about the strengths she’s seen in her players that have made an impact on the court and how they have affected the players’ overall accuracy. “(Jonathan Simmons) is a late addition to Summer League, but we are really familiar with him. He’s a gamer, he’s a baller, he’s someone that can really score the basketball, so we just decided to roll the dice with him.” Hammon said the Spurs’ decision to bring her on staff was similar: “(San Antonio) gave me a chance. “It’s like a lot of these guys who come up from the D-League and just want a chance — that’s how it was for me. I know what it’s like to be a player, so I know to trust these guys and to trust their instincts. I’ve been through all that.”

The team is responding well to Hammon’s direction. “Everything’s going great with her,” said Cady Lalanne, San Antonio’s second draft pick this year. “She knows her plays and puts us in the right position to make things happen. I think she has great play-calling; I think she helps a lot.”

Is it wise to push yourself further in training than you need to go on race day? In other words, is there any benefit to overdistance training, or exceeding the distance of the event you’re training for in your long runs?

The short answer is yes—but there is one major exception, says Jeff Gaudette, head coach of Runners Connect and a two-time All-American at Brown University.

For quite some time now, American educators have been pushing the idea that it is important to make learning “fun”. This is a damaging concept. To understand why, just ask yourself a simple question: What happens when the fun stops?

Activation of the adenosine monophosphate (AMP)-activated kinase (AMPK) contributes to beneficial effects such as improvement of the hyperglycemic state in diabetes as well as reduction of obesity and inflammatory processes. Furthermore, stimulation of AMPK activity has been associated with increased exercise capacity. A study published in 2008, directly before the Olympic Games in Beijing, showed that the AMPK activator AICAR (5-amino-1-?-d-ribofuranosyl-imidazole-4-carboxamide) increased the running capacity of mice without any training and thus, prompted the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) to include certain AMPK activators in the list of forbidden drugs. This raises the question as to whether all AMPK activators should be considered for registration or whether the increase in exercise performance is only associated with specific AMPK-activating substances. In this review, we intend to shed light on currently published AMPK-activating drugs, their working mechanisms, and their impact on body fitness.

Purpose

This study compared the adaptive responses to two concurrent training programmes frequently used in professional soccer.
… Results

With the exception of 30 m sprint, IMVC PF, quadriceps strength (60°/sCON, 180°/sCON, 120°/sECC) pooled data revealed training effects across all other performances measures (P < 0.05). Whilst ANCOVA indicated no significant interaction effects for training condition, the difference between the means divided by the pooled standard deviation demonstrated large effect sizes in the E + S condition for in HBS 1-RM [S + E vs E + S; ?0.54 (9.6 %) vs ?1.79 (19.6 %)], AoP-M [?0.72 (7.9 %) vs ?1.76 (14.4 %)], SJ [?0.56, (4.4 %), vs ?1.08, (8.1 %)], IMVC-LR; [?0.50, (20.3 %) vs ?1.05 (27.3 %)], isokinetic hamstring strength 60°/s CON [?0.64, (12.2 %) vs ?0.95 (19.2 %)], 120°/sECC [?0.78 (27.9 %) vs ?1.55 (23.3 %)] and isokinetic quadriceps strength 180°/s CON [?0.23 (2.5 %) vs ?1.52 (13.2 %)].
Conclusion

Results suggest the organisation of concurrent training, recovery time allocated between training bouts and the availability nutrition may be able to modulate small but clinically significant changes in physical performance parameters associated with match-play. This may have practical implications for practitioners who prescribe same day concurrent training protocols.

We [FabriXense] introduce a novel approach for biomedical monitoring of a person incorporated into smart clothing. The clothing provides active & continuous measure of biomedical parameters such as heart beat rhythm, breathing, oxymetry & blood pressure all measured by a single sensor. Our sensor is a fiber based & it is integrated into any type of closing (sport/regular wears, dippers etc) while in order to perform the measurement no full contact is required between the skin of the person and the clothing.

This year’s Tour de France is developing into a bit of a split race, being both exciting by stage and predictable by General Classification (GC). This was most clearly demonstrated by the blistering performance of yesterday’s stage winner Steve Cummings of MTN-Qhubeka (the African team’s first stage win, on Mandela Day, no less), followed by Chris Froome hoovering up all attacks against him. It was an eventful ride for Team Sky, with fists, saliva and urine apparently being thrown at them. They are currently the sport’s bad guys, for no reason other than dominance. The last team to dominate like Sky did was one of the liveries led by Lance Armstrong, and Sky’s tactics and public relations stance continue to draw uncomfortable parallels with the Armstrong era. This suspicion has led to calls for Sky (and others) to be more transparent about their power data in particular, since the view goes that teams with nothing to hide should hide nothing.

Something something Armstrong, something something Froome. Right, let’s SCIENCE…

Background Stress fractures are common overuse injuries with up to 95% occurring in the lower extremities. Among runners, stress fractures account for 15–20% of all musculoskeletal injuries.

Purpose We systematically reviewed and critiqued the evidence regarding risk factors associated with increased risk of lower extremity stress fractures in runners.

…
Results 8 articles met the inclusion criteria; 7 were considered low risk. 4 articles qualified for meta-analysis. Results of the meta-analysis identified previous history of stress fracture and female sex as the primary risk factors for future stress fracture with a pooled OR of 4.99 (95% CI 2.91 to 8.56; p<0.001; I2=0%) and 2.31 (95% CI 1.24 to 4.29; p<0.01; I2=0%), respectively.

Conclusions Currently, only previous history of stress fracture and female sex are risk factors for lower extremity stress fractures strongly supported by the data.

When Cobus Jacobs blew out his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in a football game back in 2014, he knew he was in for a lengthy recovery. What he may not have fully realized at the time was how much of a role food would play in his recovery. … “I think my recovery went faster based on the way I dieted,” Jacobs, a linebacker with the St. Paul’s Crusaders high school football team, said. “I have more energy and I felt better. I was able to rehab more often. My trainers told me that the foods I was eating were helping my ACL to heal stronger and a little quicker.”

… Hopes therefore were high that 2014/15 would be the season that Everton moved to a different level. Unfortunately, Everton ended the season in 11th, having spent much of the season looking anxiously down rather than upwards towards the highs of 2013/14.

There were possible mitigation for such a disappointing campaign, although they are most likely overstated. The Thursday to Sunday grind of the Europa League and an injury list that deprived Everton of nearly a weighted quarter of their squad value, the worst attrition rate in the Premier League, for example.

But one ubiquitous presence may have raised expectations and Matintez’ stock in 2013/14 giving it potentially further to fall in 2014/15. Namely random variation over a meager 38 matches.

… Dreaming big, however, means something more than just another Gold Cup. It means somehow landing in the top seven in the FIFA world rankings before the draw for the 2018 World Cup. At the moment, that sounds a very long way off, especially since the U.S. men are currently ranked 34th, but if the team can somehow climb into the top seven, it would be a top seed in the World Cup and have a better chance of facing more manageable teams during the group stage.