Applied Sports Science newsletter – August 12, 2015

… I’ve definitely gotten stronger again this offseason, but in basketball being strong isn’t just about how much you can bench press, or how much you can squat. Being basketball strong requires strength of your core. That’s why the work I’ve done at St. Vincent has been so important. Every year when I go back there, we start with, “Is there anything that’s bothering you? How did the year go? What do you want to do this upcoming off-season?” And then we kind of go from there.

Those guys over there — especially Greg Moore my strength and conditioning guy — do a great job of making me a better basketball player, and making me a strong basketball player (as opposed to just being a powerlifter). That’s something that I really appreciate.

Caraun Reid looks like a different person this season.

And that’s because he is a different person, sort of.

The Detroit Lions defensive tackle trimmed his body fat by about 3 percent this offseason, and currently checks in around 295 pounds. That’s 10 pounds lighter than what he played at as a rookie in 2014.

In recent years, the value of social learning approaches as part of the design and delivery of formalised coach development initiatives has gained credence in the literature. However, insight is currently lacking into the fundamental social dimensions that underpin coach learning. Accordingly, this study aimed to explore coaches’ perceptions of their actual and preferred methods of acquiring new coaching knowledge, the types of knowledge they currently acquire and/or desire, and their application of new knowledge. Responses to an online survey, completed by practicing coaches (N = 320) in a range of sports and contexts, were analysed descriptively and inductively. Results revealed that coaches preferred, and mostly acquired, coaching knowledge from informal learning activities, especially when these permitted social interaction. Notably, however, formal coach education courses were also reported relatively frequently as a source of recent knowledge acquisition. Nevertheless, critical justification for and application of acquired knowledge was largely absent. Based on the findings, we suggest that, before social learning activities such as mentoring schemes and communities of practice are placed at the centre of formalised coach development provision, coach educators must put in place the support structures to better enable coaches to recognise and deal with the potentially mixed influences of the social milieu on coach learning, aiming to ensure that their informal development is sufficiently open-minded, reflective and critical.

On 11 August 2015 JSS interviewed Dr John Stoszkowski about his recent paper ‘Sources, topics and use of knowledge by coaches.

No published research has assessed sleep patterns of elite rugby union players following match-play. The present study examined sleep patterns of professional rugby union players, prior and post-match-play, to assess the influence of competition. Twenty-eight male rugby union players (24.4?±?2.9 years, 103.9?±?12.2?kg) competed in one of four competitive home matches. Player’s sleep behaviours were monitored continuously using an Actiwatch® from two days before the match, until three days post-match. Repeated measures of analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed significant differences across the time points measured for time to bed (F?=?26.425, ?2 ?=?0.495, p < .001), get up time (F?=?21.175, ?2?=?0.440, p?<?.001), time spent in bed (F?=?10.669, ?2?=?0.283, p?<?.001), time asleep (F?=?8.752, ?2?=?0.245, p?<?.001) and percentage of time moving (F?=?4.602, ?2?=?0.146 p?<?.05). Most notable, post hocs revealed a significant increase for time in bed the night before the match (p?<?.01; 95% CI?=?0?:?10–1?:?28?h; 9.7?±?13.5%) compared with the reference night sleep. Furthermore, time asleep significantly decreased post-match (p?<?.05; 95% CI?=??0:03 to ?1:59?h; ?19.5?±?19.8%) compared to two nights pre-match. Across all time points, sleep latency and efficiency for most players were considered abnormal compared to that expected in normal populations. The results demonstrate that sleep that is deprived post-match may have detrimental effects on the recovery process.

Progress in micro-electromechanical systems has turned inertial sensor units (IUs) into a suitable tool for vertical jumping evaluation. In total, 9 men and 8 women were recruited for this study. Three types of vertical jumping tests were evaluated in order to determine if the data provided by an IU placed at the lumbar spine could reliably assess jumping biomechanics and to examine the validity of the IU compared with force plate platform recordings. Robust correlation levels of the IU-based jumping biomechanical evaluation with respect to the force plate across the entire analysed jumping battery were found. In this sense, significant and extremely large correlations were found when raw data of both IU and force plate-derived normalised force–time curves were compared. Furthermore, significant and mainly moderate correlation levels were also found between both instruments when isolated resultant forces’ peak values of predefined jumping phases of each manoeuvre were analysed. However, Bland and Altman graphical representation demonstrated a systematic error in the distribution of the data points within the mean ±1.96 SD intervals. Using IUs, several biomechanical variables such as the resultant force–time curve patterns of the three different vertical jumps analysed were reliably measured.

There’s a shift under way in large organizations, one that puts design much closer to the center of the enterprise. But the shift isn’t about aesthetics. It’s about applying the principles of design to the way people work.

This new approach is in large part a response to the increasing complexity of modern technology and modern business. That complexity takes many forms. Sometimes software is at the center of a product and needs to be integrated with hardware (itself a complex task) and made intuitive and simple from the user’s point of view (another difficult challenge). Sometimes the problem being tackled is itself multi-faceted: Think about how much tougher it is to reinvent a health care delivery system than to design a shoe. And sometimes the business environment is so volatile that a company must experiment with multiple paths in order to survive.

I could list a dozen other types of complexity that businesses grapple with every day. But here’s what they all have in common: People need help making sense of them. Specifically, people need their interactions with technologies and other complex systems to be simple, intuitive, and pleasurable.

Origin stories for technology companies are typically unconventional. How about the one Steve Jobs started? Or Bill Gates?

The latest example of that can be found right here in downtown Salt Lake City, where a company called MEP Tech (the MEP stands for Make Everything Possible) has created what just might be The Next Big Thing: a device that allows apps on your smartphone or tablet to be projected onto any surface — a desk, a dining room table, a wall, the hood of a car, the basketball court at EnergySolutions Arena. You name it.

Once the app is projected — anything and everything from a Monopoly board to a video game to a Power Point presentation to Google Maps — the images can be moved around exactly the same as on your smartphone or tablet.

It sounds so simple and smart. Buy one of them small flying thingamabobs, throw a camera on it, and use it to snap all new kinds of photos and video during practice.

Three NFL teams did just that during spring workouts — by launching drones into the air above their practice fields to capture new and potentially edifying angles of their players’ work. But not a single drone has flown — at least not for football purposes — in the first two weeks of training camp. Some teams have been delayed or deterred by FAA regulations, but based on recent conversations with multiple coaches, there remains a fair degree of skepticism about the current value and necessity of drone videos.

Advocates say a drone’s ability to hover close to the line of scrimmage offers a unique vantage point for teaching and correcting mistakes. As of now, however, only a few NFL decision-makers agree.

“We looked at it hard, “and for us it’s just not there yet,” Baltimore Ravens coach John Harbaugh said. “It’s like the virtual reality technology that everyone’s talking about. You start studying it, and it’s incredibly cool. Then you start looking at applications. How can it help you?

Anyone who has read my recent product reviews knows that I work with regular everyday people, high school athletes, and a few very talented collegiate athletes. I want to emphasize this point, as I do not work with anyone who makes a living from physical/athletic talent. Accordingly, this review has a strong bias towards the “average” population. If you are interested in Omegawave applications and their uses in high-level or elite sport, I recommend reading the likes of Henk Kraaijenhof, Mark McLaughlin, Landon Evans, Val Nasedkin, Roman Fomin, and others who work with athletes in that world.

That said, I will discuss the Omegawave Team system (from late 2013), upgrade options, accompanying equipment, problems people have with the system, compliance, and logistics, as well as things to consider when looking at different options. This article will not deal with what I do with the data; however, if there is enough interest, I could easily do a Part 2. For now, though, I will just shed light on the Team system itself.

Researchers have identified a protein produced by white blood cells that puts the brakes on muscle repair after injury.

By removing the protein CD163 from mice, scientists at Emory University School of Medicine could boost muscle repair and recovery of blood flow after ischemic injury (damage caused by restriction of blood flow).

It surely cannot be just because Jose Mourinho was unhappy with her running on to the pitch to treat Eden Hazard that Dr Eva Carneiro is poised to have her role at Chelsea vastly reduced.

If it is then Mourinho has made a mistake. He may not value the quality of the work carried out by his head doctor – which he has every right to question – and this may have been the final straw but by making his complaints so public the Chelsea manager has erred.

He cannot be blamed for the higher-than-usual profile that Carneiro has – given her gender – which, although it should be irrelevant, has also led to awful sexist abuse in the past from fans.

Q: Last year my season was riddled with injury and illness. How can I change my diet to stay healthy?

A: What we eat all day long, and specifically before and after training sessions or races, greatly affects our immunity and injury rates. Research shows athletes suffer from more cases of upper respiratory tract infections and injuries following heavy training or depletive racing. Here are my top five recommendations for boosting immunity and decreasing injury rate:

As the Premiership juggernaut rumbles back to centre stage, bringing with it the usual impassioned debate about footballing philosophies and the respective merits of “parking the bus” and possession, spare a thought for innovation policy. Innovation is often defined as the successful application of new ideas to create wealth. But innovation policy is itself in need of innovation – and a footballing analogy goes a long way to explaining why.

Route-one football is especially associated with the traditional English game. The ball is booted directly from defence straight to the forwards, who try to control it and mount an attack on goal. Although it can sometimes lead to exciting surprises, the tactic is not held in high regard. It is considered uninspired, limited and sometimes comical.

Contrast this with tiki-taka – the head-spinning passing game associated with Spanish football and, in particular, with FC Barcelona. Here an attack is made up of a long sequence of passes involving defenders, midfield players, wingers and forwards. Anyone and everyone may be involved. In contrast to route-one, it is highly inventive and offers myriad routes to goal.