Applied Sports Science newsletter – December 30, 2015

… The Eagles ran a no-huddle program that focused on tempo and efficiency. They hired a former Navy SEALs coordinator to head their sports science department. They focused on nutrition and sleep and physical conditioning.

And while there were plenty of positives — Kelly went 26-21, put together a pair of 10-win seasons and made the playoffs once — the most important pillars of Kelly’s philosophy ultimately failed to yield positive results. And that is why he is no longer the Eagles’ head coach.

… Much of that is the situation. The Mavericks have struggled with the NBA Draft in recent years, and Carlisle is known for being difficult on rookies. Anderson, then, can take solace that he’s not alone. Carlisle has coached four other first-rounders as rookies while with the Mavericks — Shane Larkin, Jared Cunningham, Dominique Jones and Rodrigue Beaubois — and they only averaged 10.4 minutes in 32.5 games. Carlisle’s system is demanding, particularly for guards, and he expects rookies to learn from the bench.

That’s the perpetual conundrum for a player in his circumstance. Anderson was drafted after three college seasons, with an NBA-ready body. He was expected to contribute early on entering the draft. But he must work with extraordinary intensity before, during and after practice to improve enough to succeed as an NBA regular. But for the time being he sits on that bench knowing that two times out of three his avenue into the game is likely to result from his team’s misfortune. That’s an odd place to rest.

“You’ve got to stay into the game regardless. You’ve got to stay into it every possession, see what’s going on out there,” Anderson said. “You have to think: If you were to be put in where you could make an impact, whether it’s offensively or defensively. You’ve got to stay engaged.

Recent literature supports the importance of horizontal ground reaction force (GRF) production for sprint acceleration performance. Modeling and clinical studies have shown that the hip extensors are very likely contributors to sprint acceleration performance. We experimentally tested the role of the hip extensors in horizontal GRF production during short, maximal, treadmill sprint accelerations. Torque capabilities of the knee and hip extensors and flexors were assessed using an isokinetic dynamometer in 14 males familiar with sprint running. Then, during 6-s sprints on an instrumented motorized treadmill, horizontal and vertical GRF were synchronized with electromyographic (EMG) activity of the vastus lateralis, rectus femoris, biceps femoris, and gluteus maximus averaged over the first half of support, entire support, entire swing and end-of-swing phases. No significant correlations were found between isokinetic or EMG variables and horizontal GRF. Multiple linear regression analysis showed a significant relationship (P = 0.024) between horizontal GRF and the combination of biceps femoris EMG activity during the end of the swing and the knee flexors eccentric peak torque. In conclusion, subjects who produced the greatest amount of horizontal force were both able to highly activate their hamstring muscles just before ground contact and present high eccentric hamstring peak torque capability.

It’s a great myth that creative geniuses consistently produce great work. While consistency may be the key to expertise, the secret to creative greatness appears to be doing things differently—even when that means failing.

The objective of this 1-year, longitudinal study was to examine the development of perceived competence, tactical skills, motivation, technical skills, and speed and agility characteristics of young Finnish soccer players. We also examined associations between latent growth models of perceived competence and other recorded variables. Participants were 288 competitive male soccer players ranging from 12 to 14 years (12.7 ± 0.6) from 16 soccer clubs. Players completed the self-assessments of perceived competence, tactical skills, and motivation, and participated in technical, and speed and agility tests. Results of this study showed that players’ levels of perceived competence, tactical skills, motivation, technical skills, and speed and agility characteristics remained relatively high and stable across the period of 1 year. Positive relationships were found between these levels and changes in perceived competence and motivation, and levels of perceived competence and speed and agility characteristics. Together these results illustrate the multi-dimensional nature of talent development processes in soccer. Moreover, it seems crucial in coaching to support the development of perceived competence and motivation in young soccer players and that it might be even more important in later maturing players.

Developing synchronised player movements for fluent competitive match play is a common goal for coaches of team games. An ecological dynamics approach advocates that intra-team synchronization is governed by locally created information, which specifies shared affordances responsible for synergy formation. To verify this claim we evaluated coordination tendencies in two newly-formed teams of recreational players during association football practice games, weekly, for fifteen weeks (thirteen matches). We investigated practice effects on two central features of synergies in sports teams – dimensional compression and reciprocal compensation here captured through near in-phase modes of coordination and time delays between coupled players during forward and backwards movements on field while attacking and defending. Results verified that synergies were formed and dissolved rapidly as a result of the dynamic creation of informational properties, perceived as shared affordances among performers. Practising once a week led to small improvements in the readjustment delays between co-positioning team members, enabling faster regulation of coordinated team actions. Mean values of the number of player and team synergies displayed only limited improvements, possibly due to the timescales of practice. No relationship between improvements in dimensional compression and reciprocal compensation were found for number of shots, amount of ball possession and number of ball recoveries made. Findings open up new perspectives for monitoring team coordination processes in sport.

Samsung Electronics, a world leader in advanced semiconductor technology, announced that it is addressing the growing trend of quantified health with an all-in-one advanced system logic chip for the health-oriented wearables market, the Bio-Processor. The Samsung Bio-Processor, now in mass production, is specifically designed to allow accelerated development of innovative wearable products for consumers who are increasingly monitoring their health and fitness on a daily basis.

“With improvements in smart, fitness devices and an increase in consumer health consciousness, more and more people are looking for ways to monitor various personal bio-data, or fitness data, to constantly manage their health” said Ben K. Hur, Vice President of marketing, System LSI business at Samsung Electronics. “Samsung’s Bio-Processor, which can process five different biometric signals, is the most versatile health and fitness monitoring chip available on the market today and is expected to open up many new health-based service options for our customers.”

… Everyone is trying to make image recognition more accurate by using deeper networks – last year, the team was working with neural networks that had 20 layers but this year they used a network with 152 layers.

“We call this extremely deep neural network ‘ultra-deep learning’,” Microsoft researcher Jian Sun told pro. All 152 layers of the network are in a single computer, with an eight-GPU Nvidia graphics card. “The network has 152 layers because of the limitations of current GPU resources,” Sun told us, adding that “we’re very optimistic about advances in GPUs so that we can have an even deeper network”.

The problem is, it’s hard to train very deep networks because the feedback (telling the system when it’s right or wrong) gets lost as it goes through the layers.

… Samsung officials are looking to drive the development of more fitness devices with the all-in-one Bio-Processor. The chip integrates analog front ends (AFEs), but also a microcontroller unit (MCU), power management integrated circuit (PMIC), digital signal processor (DSP) and eFlash memory, enabling it to process the bio-signals it measures without having to rely on external processing parts. It also will help drive down the size of wearables: It takes up about a quarter of the space that all those parts, if used in discrete form, would occupy, officials said.

Purpose: Despite significant rehabilitation, many athletes experience protracted weakness and faulty mechanics following anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR). Clinical tests performed early in rehabilitation that predict knee mechanics at return-to-sport are virtually unknown and critically needed to guide clinical decision making. The purpose of this study is to determine if quadriceps strength, Y-Balance anterior reach distance (YB-A), and single-limb step-down test performance (SLSD) conducted 3 months post-ACLR are predictive of knee flexion excursion (KFLEX) and knee extensor moment (KEM) during running 6 months post-ACLR.

Methods: Thirty (16 F) subjects were collected 3 and 6 months post-ACLR. Age 21.3+/-7.6 years, mass 69.85+/-11.4 kg, height 1.73+/-0.09 m. At 3 months post-ACLR, subjects performed isometric quadriceps strength testing, YB-A, and SLSD assessments. At 6 months post-ACLR, subjects underwent 3-D motion analysis while running on an instrumented treadmill. Pearson’s correlation coefficients and stepwise multiple regression were used to assess the relationships of 3 month and 6 month variables.

Results: Quadriceps strength (r=.493, p<0.01), YB-A (r=.394, p=0.03), and SLSD (r=.648, p<0.01) were significantly correlated to KFLEX. Quadriceps strength (.505, p<0.01) and SLSD (.541, p<0.01) were significantly correlated with KEM, while YB-A (.276, p=0.06) was not. SLSD and quadriceps strength were predictive of KEM (Adj R2 .36, p=.001) while only SLSD was predictive of KFLEX (Adj R2 .40, p<.001).

Conclusions: After ACLR, better performance in SLSD and quadriceps strength 3 months post-surgery is predictive of improved sagittal plane knee mechanics during running 6 months post-surgery.

Context: Lateral ankle ligamentous sprain (LAS) is one of the most common injuries in recreational activities and competitive sports. Many studies have attempted to determine whether there are certain intrinsic factors that can predict LAS. However, no consensus has been reached on the predictive intrinsic factors.

Objective: To identify the intrinsic risk factors of LAS by meta-analysis from data in randomized control trials and prospective cohort studies.

Data Sources: A systematic computerized literature search of MEDLINE, CINAHL, ScienceDirect, SPORTDiscus, and Cochrane Register of Clinical Trials was performed.

Study Selection: A computerized literature search from inception to January 2015 resulted in 1133 studies of the LAS intrinsic risk factors written in English.

Study Design: Systematic review.

Level of Evidence: Level 4.

Data Extraction: The modified quality index was used to assess the quality of the design of the papers and the standardized mean difference was used as an index to pool included study outcomes.

Results: Eight articles were included in this systematic review. Meta-analysis results showed that body mass index, slow eccentric inversion strength, fast concentric plantar flexion strength, passive inversion joint position sense, and peroneus brevis reaction time correlated with LAS.

Conclusion: Body mass index, slow eccentric inversion strength, fast concentric plantar flexion strength, passive inversion joint position sense, and the reaction time of the peroneus brevis were associated with significantly increased risk of LAS.

Matthew Brien has struggled with overeating for the past 20 years. At age 24, he stood at 5?10?? and weighed a trim 135 pounds. Today the licensed massage therapist tips the scales at 230 pounds and finds it particularly difficult to resist bread, pasta, soda, cookies and ice cream—especially those dense pints stuffed with almonds and chocolate chunks. He has tried various weight-loss programs that limit food portions, but he can never keep it up for long. “It’s almost subconscious,” he says. “Dinner is done? Okay, I am going to have dessert. Maybe someone else can have just two scoops of ice cream, but I am going to have the whole damn [container]. I can’t shut those feelings down.”

Eating for the sake of pleasure, rather than survival, is nothing new. But only in the past several years have researchers come to understand deeply how certain foods—particularly fats and sweets—actually change brain chemistry in a way that drives some people to overconsume.

Scientists have a relatively new name for such cravings: hedonic hunger, a powerful desire for food in the absence of any need for it; the yearning we experience when our stomach is full but our brain is still ravenous

When Sir Alex Ferguson later listed all the things that were wrong with Manchester United’s first team when he took over in 1986, including the drinking culture, the lack of fitness and the aging squad, he also recalled his grave concerns over the state of the club’s youth system.

Once the great tradition at United under Sir Matt Busby, it had largely fallen away under Ron Atkinson. They had produced one decent crop, including Mark Hughes and Norman Whiteside who had reached the 1982 FA Youth Cup final, but otherwise Ferguson looked around the club in despair.

Alabama and Michigan State face each other in a late New Year’s Eve game that could stretch into 2016 (depending on your time zone). Alabama is the favorite, according to FiveThirtyEight’s model, as the Tide have the nation’s top defense and a dominant running back in Derrick Henry. The Heisman winner is quite the workhorse, rushing 90 times in his previous two games. Michigan State, on the other hand, is lucky to be in the playoff at all. Although they’ve managed an impressive record en route to a Big Ten championship, the Spartans have often won — as against Michigan — by the skin of their teeth.

… While the nature of the international game demands a certain amount of tactical flexibility, Jurgen Klinsmann’s schizophrenic approach to choosing his lineups and formations was probably the defining characteristic of 2015.