Applied Sports Science newsletter – December 12, 2015

Eden Hazard has been placed on report by Jose Mourinho following his return to form for Chelsea.

Mourinho revealed that he gave the Chelsea forward a written breakdown of his performance following the 0-0 draw with Tottenham at White Hart Lane last Sunday in a special dossier.

… Draymond Green’s emergence is what took them to the next level. Swapping out Green for Lee before the start of last season turned them from a good team to a great one and sliding Green down to center for stretches of the game turned them from a great team to one with the chance to be one of the greatest in NBA history. For as talented a scorer as Thompson is, Green has become the second banana in Golden State and the best team in the NBA is defined by the unlikely partnership between him and Curry.

Everything starts with the Green and Cury pick-and-roll, which could go down as this generation’s twist on John Stockton to Karl Malone. There has never been two players with their skill-sets who have been able to attack a defense so well in tandem.

The United States women’s national soccer team took one look Saturday at the artificial turf field that was to be the playing surface for Sunday night’s friendly against Trinidad and Tobago and said, enough.

Finally, enough.

For years, the team had put up with the scrapes and the rug burns and the rock-hard surfaces that come with playing on fake grass, but this was a field too far. The seams at Aloha Stadium were pulling apart, and there were sharp pellets embedded in the carpet. It wasn’t safe, the players said, and neither was the grass field they had been given for practices at the University of Hawaii.

Once deemed a journeyman, the industrious creator and supplier to Palace’s flair on the flanks is now integral to Alan Pardew’s revitalised team. A real local hero talks about the lessons learned on his tough journey.

Ask someone how they invest, and you’ll probably get a pretty standard answer involving stocks, bonds and maybe some real estate or cash. But rarely will people mention something that is even more important: their investments in human capital.

… Hopkins doesn’t dwell on how long it took to get here; instead he remembers everyone who said he’d fail. He keeps three binders marked “Inspirational Quotes” in his office. He recently read a book titled “Onward: How Starbucks Fought For Its Life Without Losing Its Soul” to study a company’s success. He became Syracuse’s next head basketball coach by turning every experience into a learning opportunity, by turning every day into a step toward that dream.

In some ways, it all began with the purchase of an oversized coat when he got to Syracuse some 27 years prior. Hopkins reached out his arms to show the freshman from Atlanta just how puffy it was. Time, he explained, has acquainted him with the cold. Time has done a lot of things.

… What’s come along with this attempted patenting of simple ideas and concepts is a shift in mindsets.

Dan Pfaff had a great quote the other day on twitter that struck a chord:

“I’m a believer that coaches have been doing movement screens for over 100 years and it’s called watching practice.”

All sports and their subsequent positions demand more speed than a decade ago. The games have favored schemes with faster tempos, often times even supported by the leagues themselves by installing shorter play clocks or the MLB’s upcoming vote to install a pitch clock for the first time. What is left for the athlete and coach is an acceptance of this relatively new game where speed beats strength. Perhaps the best example are outside linebackers who have transitioned to inside linebackers. For example, Clay Matthews intentionally and successfully transitioned from outside linebacker to play inside linebacker, formerly known to be a larger, contact driven position where running in the open field was less of a priority.

We must be careful however, because the two aspects of strength and speed cannot be separated so easily; a critical component of speed is the ability to create force, the definition of strength. Speed in essence is the skill of the particular measured movement and the ability to apply that force in the desired direction. So the real puzzle is deciding how much strength is enough for you or your athletes to maximize their speed. This puzzle is where a database is helpful to provide context to such a dilemma. To know how much strength is too much we must evaluate two things; how closely the athlete reflects the profile found in the most successful individuals at the position, and secondly, how the athlete relates overall to his gender.

Is sleep induced by a benzodiazepine counted as restorative sleep?

Researchers hate to admit it, but they don’t know enough about sleep to answer this question. Their best guess, several experts said, is that sleep is sleep.

Dr. John Weyl Winkelman, a sleep disorders expert at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, said if a patient asked him whether medicated sleep was restorative, “I’d say: ‘You tell me.’”

… Founded in the early 2000’s, Fusionetics is a human performance based company that integrates complex science into a simple system used to enhance human movement. By combining sports science, clinical applications, and cutting edge technology, Fusionetics is able to focus on providing a platform that helps athletes decrease injury, optimize performance, and enhance recovery.

Founded by Dr. Micheal A. Clark, one of the nation’s top experts in human movement science, Fusionetics was a result of a decade worth of clinical and trial research done by scientists, coaches, athletes, sports medicine professionals and other leaders.

Mayo Clinic Square in downtown Minneapolis was touted as sports medicine’s new “gold standard” when it opened in June. It might soon be getting bigger and better.

Dr. Jonathan Finnoff, medical director of Mayo Clinic Square, said Thursday that that possibility of expanding skyward to provide additional services is being discussed. While those talks are preliminary and have no specific timeline, the first six months of operation have shown the facility fills a unique medical niche.

They weren’t fastballs, but there was a lot of pitching at Busch Stadium on Thursday.

The founders of four sports startups threw their best stuff at investors gathered inside the ballpark. It was Stadia Ventures first demo day.

The St. Louis-based accelerator offers 10-week mentorship for sports entrepreneurs and investments of up to $100,000. Co-founder Art Chou said it’s the right city for the sports innovation hub.

… Besides increasing fans’ engagement, virtual reality could also be a very profitable opportunity for sports leagues and broadcasters.

For example, the NBA could sell its $2,000 courtside seats more times than what the arena’s capacity allows, thus generating an “infinite ticket”.

This is one of the potential revenue streams identified by investment bank Piper Jaffray in a report published in May.

Helping our athletes take their game to the next level is at the heart of what we do–making tools that allow every athlete, no matter who they are or where they live, to get noticed. That’s why we’re proud to partner with Nike in creating a new way for football athletes to prove themselves and advance to the next level.

Background: Lisfranc joint injuries are increasingly recognized in elite soccer and rugby players. Currently, no evidence-based guidelines exist on time frames for return to training and competition after surgical treatment.

Purpose: To assess the time to return to training and playing after Lisfranc joint injuries.

Study Design: Case series; Level of evidence, 4.

Methods: A consecutive series of 17 professional soccer and rugby players in the English Premier/Championship leagues was assessed using prospectively collected data. All were isolated injuries sustained during training or competitive matches. Each player had clinical and radiological evidence of an unstable Lisfranc injury and required surgical treatment. A standardized postoperative regimen was used. The minimum follow-up time was 2 years.

Results: Clinical and radiological follow-up was obtained in all 17 players. Seven players had primarily ligamentous injuries, and 10 had bony injuries. The time from injury to fixation ranged from 8 to 31 days, and hardware was removed at 16 weeks postoperatively. One athlete retired after a ligamentous injury; the remaining 16 players returned to training and full competition. Excluding the retired player, the mean time to return to training was 20.1 weeks (range, 1d8-24 weeks) and to full competition was 25.3 weeks (range, 21-31 weeks). There was a significant difference between the mean time to return to competition for rugby (27.8 weeks) and soccer players (24.1 weeks; P = .02) and for ligamentous (22.5 weeks) compared with bony injuries (26.9 weeks; P = .003). Three patients suffered deep peroneal nerve sensation loss, from which 1 patient did not fully recover.

Conclusion: Return to competitive elite-level soccer and rugby is possible after surgically treated Lisfranc injuries. Return to training can take up to 24 weeks and return to playing up to 31 weeks, with bony injuries taking longer.

This high quality RCT recruited 579 amateur soccer players into either a control group that performed ‘normal training’ or a intervention group that performed 13 weeks of nordic hamstring strengthening. The intervention group suffered 2/3 less (p=0.005) hamstring injuries than the control group over the season.

Hamstring injuries remain one of the most common muscular injuries in sports that require sprinting and cutting movements. There are still conflicting views on the protective benefits of nordic hamstring exercises despite encouraging evidence over the past decade.

Among the valuable behind-the-scenes members of the Ducks organization is one guy who is only seen by fans when something bad has happened.

Joe Huff is in his third season as the Head Athletic Trainer for the Ducks, the guy who usually doesn’t make an appearance until somebody gets hurt. But that’s just fine for the unassuming Huff, who loves what he does just as much as when he started in this field two decades ago.

“Every day is different,” Huff says. “Every day there is a new problem you’re trying to solve, and I really enjoy that.”

Break out the body bags! While this might not shock many Giants fans, the Big Blue Wrecking Crew (well, they aren’t doing much wrecking, as a matter of fact, they’re getting wrecked) is in line to be the most injured team in the NFL for the third straight season. To be the most injured team in the league for one season is bad luck. To be the most injured team in the league two seasons in a row is suspicious. To be the most injured team in the league for three straight seasons is lunacy – and in the case of the New York Giants, you can seriously question the personnel and training staff decisions that have been made. Let’s take a look at some data.

… Samuele Marcora, a well-known exercise scientist from the University of Kent, thinks so. In a recent and provocative article for the journal Sports Medicine, Marcora makes a strong call for experimentation and research “on the use of psychoactive drugs to facilitate physical activity behavior.” In layman’s terms, Marcora thinks we should develop drugs that will make exercise feel easier.

My initial response to the Marcora article (and I wasn’t alone) was that this couldn’t be a good idea. For starters, doping and performance enhancing drug use is already rampant in environments ranging from athletics to academics. And c’mon, I thought, must we really prescribe pills to get people to move, in essence medicalizing exercise?

The Food Literacy Center in Sacramento, California is a nonprofit organization teaching low-income elementary students about nutrition and food systems. Using positive reinforcement and enthusiastic, creative lessons, the Food Literacy Center inspires kids to eat more fruits and vegetables. Forty percent of Sacramento youth struggle with obesity and the Center is working through local non-profits and schools to teach kids how to make healthy food choices. The Center also hosts a Food Literacy Academy, which cultivates aspiring food geniuses to become leaders in the food literacy movement.

Founder and Chief Food Genius Amber Stott spoke with Food Tank about the Food Literacy Center’s approach to nutrition education and the status of the Food Literacy movement.

In the wake of Al Jefferson’s suspension, the question should be asked: Will the NBA finally heed the science on marijuana?

… how did a low scoring team managed to average more than two goals per game over the last three games of the regular season and the playoffs, carrying them to the MLS Cup? It wasn’t due to simply attempting more shots, as the club actually attempted fewer over the final three games of the season and playoffs. However, the Timbers were more accurate with their shooting, converting shots and shots on target at a well-above average rate after spending much of the season well below the league averages.

Researchers at Umeå University in Sweden have discovered unique muscle fibers in the soft palate of the mouth in both infants and adults. The fibers seem to be present in greater number in snorers and sleep apnea patients. The findings were recently published article in the Journal of Anatomy.

“This discovery of special group of fibers gives us deeper insight into the complex anatomy and physiology of the upper airway and evolutionary specialization. These unique fibers have a special molecular build-up with an absence or modified design of some key proteins. Surprisingly, absence of these proteins have only been reported in genetic muscular diseases,” says Farhan Shah, researcher at the Department of Integrative Medical Biology at Umeå University and lead author of the article.

Earlier this week, the Montreal Canadiens sent Alex Semin to the AHL, and then terminated his contract so that he could go to the KHL instead.

He’ll play the rest of the season for Metallurg Magnitogorsk (assuming they don’t get sick of him, too). That makes three pro teams for Semin in the last eight months or so, and two of them were so sick of him they just let him walk. In fact, Semin is still collecting checks from his Carolina buyout to the tune of $2.33 million, and will be until 2021.

He is such an interesting case in the old school versus new school way of evaluating hockey, perhaps the most important one.

Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll gives his take on the Nike Football Rating and how it is both a useful tool for high school athletes, as well as coaches who are recruiting.

… Over the past five years, England’s great powers have been locked in an intellectual arms race. Premier League teams have hired fleets of analysts, all of them sifting through hundreds of millions of data points on their own players and on their opposition, looking for the slightest competitive advantage, trying to find a signal in the noise.

The likes of Liverpool and Manchester City were early and enthusiastic adopters of analytics, particularly as a way to crack the transfer market. For all their expertise, though, there is a growing consensus that it is Arsenal — in the words of one analyst at another Premier League club — who are at the very “cutting edge”.

That stands in stark contrast to the widely held belief that Wenger was sliding inexorably out of date. Accused of being tactically unsophisticated, wedded to old ideas. The reality, though, is somewhat different.