Applied Sports Science newsletter – September 21, 2015

… [Roberto] Martinez spoke this week of Monk’s credentials as a potential England manager, but for a fuller insight into his impact on Swansea’s fortunes, it is worth listening to another Spaniard, Pep Clotet. He is the latest Catalan playing a role in the Swansea story as Monk’s assistant manager and is therefore the ideal man to explain how the rookie boss, still only 36, has succeeded in adjusting the Swansea model to take the club forward.

… Inside the Training Industry

When it comes to the NBA summer scene in L.A., nothing is more expansive than the training world.

For starters, the area offers a variety of environments, from the UCLA track to Runyon Canyon (where the Heat ran in August) to Sand Dune Park at Manhattan Beach (where Chase Budinger, Richard Jefferson, Steve Nash and J.J. Redick played in a volleyball tournament) to Venice Beach (where Thompson spent the summer biking, surfing and skateboarding).

Also, the city sees some of the most sought-after trainers in hoops set up shop in town for the offseason: fitness instructor Gunnar Peterson, skills coaches Drew Hanlen, Rob McClanaghan and Idan Ravin, shooting specialist Mike Penberthy and ball-handling expert Johnny Stephene.

… you executed a legendary comeback. You’d had enough success, and earned enough money, to retire happily to Las Vegas at that point, so why keep at it?

It wouldn’t have been retiring happily. It would have been quitting miserably. I was at a critical point where if I made one more misstep, I wouldn’t get a chance to be on the court again, and the climb back would have been truly impossible. So I made a commitment to take ownership of my life. I started to get more connected, and then I just kept going with tangible daily goals. It wasn’t about a destination. Getting back to number one was something I was pretty convinced I’d never achieve. But that journey from rock bottom to the summit a second time was a great accomplishment for me. Without it I don’t know if I would believe in myself as much as I do when I face other challenges now.

The curious case of Deron Williams began with a coup of a trade pulled off by the then-New Jersey Nets in 2011 and ends … how, exactly?

Williams’ body and impact have been in steady decline since he was shipped out of Utah as a proactive strike against his impending free agency. But the intrigue surrounding one of the league’s most enigmatic talents continues to grow.

Imagine this scenario: You’re ranked second in the world. You take sixth at the Olympic triathlon test race in Rio one year before the 2016 Games. But unfortunately, it’s just not quite good enough to make the American Olympic team.

That was the weird position Katie Zaferes found herself in back in August. Rio de Janeiro was the stage for the first Olympic triathlon qualification race, and two Olympic berths were up for grabs for the American women, with the third to be awarded later. To claim a spot, an athlete had to be in the top eight overall at the highly competitive event.

Zaferes was sixth. But in front of her were two other U.S. women: Gwen Jorgensen, 29, who had won an unprecedented and unheard-of 11 World Triathlon Series races in a row, and Sarah True (née Groff), 33, who was the highest American finisher, in fourth, at the 2012 Olympics.

It’s been said by a number of coaches over the past several seasons – the most important hire on your staff should be your strength coach.

“We did a study, and about 86% of a student athlete’s time is spent with your strength and conditioning staff.” Butch Jones explains in the clip. ” So he’s [strength coach Dave Lawson] very, very engaged with them, very, very in-tune, and they trust him and they know that the program works.”

Dana Santas, yoga mobility trainer for three Major League Baseball teams (the Atlanta Braves, Tampa Bay Rays, and Philadelphia Phillies), an NBA team (Orlando Magic), and NHL team (Tampa Bay Lightning), as well as private trainer to dozens of other pro athletes including NFL and PGA players, explains how her yoga-based moves help prevent injury and give players the full range of motion they need to excel in their sports. Plus: The breathing exercise the guys love … and the poses they “love to hate.”

At the 2016 Rio Olympics Swimming finals begin at 10pm.
The Australian Dolphins will be ready.

While many soccer clubs now use wearable trackers to gain additional insight into player performance, the Seattle Sounders FC was largely ahead of the curve, utilizing new gadgets and software to gain an edge on competition before the technology became more mainstream.

One result of that early adoption is the ability to be more precise with the way certain data is used to help make tactical decisions and prevent injury. Last month, we stopped by the Sounders practice facility to catch up with Sounders Sport Science and Performance Manager Dave Tenney, who talked about separating signal from noise.

… CK: The Review Article titled, “Fructose–Glucose Composite Carbohydrates and Endurance Performance: Critical Review and Future Perspectives,” appears to find that a formulation of multiple saccharides in a sports drink or supplement provides better performance outcomes, gut comfort and oxidation of the ingested carbohydrates, yes?

TS: In short, yes. As with most one-line conclusions, this review represents 14 different studies, over about a 10-plus year period, from three or four different labs – so there is a lot of work that was done by a lot of good researchers.

UEFA has dismissed the notion that drug use may be common among top footballers after a study it commissioned showed a high number of suspicious testosterone levels.

The study, which was published in a monthly science journal this month, said high testosterone levels were found in urine samples of 7.7 percent of the 879 players tested by researchers. Those levels could indicate the use of anabolic steroids.

UEFA never publicized the research, which came to light Sunday in a report by German broadcaster ARD, but announced this month that steroid use by players was being added to its biological passport program this season.

What explains variability in norms of cooperation across organizations and cultures? One answer comes from the tendency of individuals to internalize typically successful behaviors as norms. Different institutional structures can cause different behavioral norms to be internalized. These norms are then carried over into atypical situations beyond the reach of the institution. Here, we experimentally demonstrate such spillovers. First, we immerse subjects in environments that do or do not support cooperation using repeated prisoner’s dilemmas. Afterwards, we measure their intrinsic prosociality in one-shot games. Subjects from environments that support cooperation are more prosocial, more likely to punish selfishness, and more trusting in general. Furthermore, these effects are most pronounced among subjects who use heuristics, suggesting that intuitive processes play a key role in the spillovers we observe. Our findings help to explain variation in one-shot anonymous cooperation, linking this intrinsically motivated prosociality to the externally imposed institutional rules experienced in other settings.

… Sports science and medicine is the next big thing in basketball analytics.

“Wearable technology” was probably the most-used buzzword during the conference. This technology, such as Catapult Sports’ popular GPS-enabled vest, can track the distance a player travels in practice, heart rates, breathing patterns, and overall workload. This data can aid in evaluating a player’s practice workload and effort, as well as helping a team to monitor a player when they are returning from an injury. Interestingly, a team can only have players wear these devices for practice and not games, because of restrictions in the Collective Bargaining Agreement with the Players’ Union.

Sunny Mehta has been a musician, a professional poker player and an author, and he has worked in finance. He has lived in New Orleans, Chicago, Miami and Las Vegas.

But through it all, one constant has remained: his love for the Devils.

So when the owners of the Devils, Josh Harris and David Blitzer, wanted to start the N.H.L.’s first full-time analytics department last year, Mehta made sense as its director.