Applied Sports Science newsletter – January 25, 2016

Zach Fagan spent 12 years with Arsenal but the glitter of the Premier League proved an illusion experienced by many youngsters, some picked up at the age of four, in a flawed system.

In Bill We Trust. That’s the near-blind allegiance that most fans of the New England Patriots have for their head coach, Bill Belichick. It’s a rare expression of devotion in the notoriously harsh National Football League (NFL), where teams live or die on their won/loss records, and successful coaches can be one losing season away from being burned in effigy in stadium parking lots. … The Gazette spoke with W. Carl Kester about why Belichick, who graduated college with an economics degree, has been able to outperform his rivals for such a long time, and what businesses might learn from him about leadership and organizational management.

In the NBA the players typically leave the floor immediately (unless interviewed) following the completion of the game. The boys aren’t immediately off to In-and-Out Burger with their friends, family or out partying. They typically complete a series of exercises known as an active recovery.

The use of post-session active recovery sessions is a standard practice in the NBA. Limited research exists on the value of active recovery is yet to be determined, it is suggested to assist in increasing blood flow to fatigued muscle, clearing metabolic-waste and neurological recovery1. Aerobic exercise (0.6 +/- 0.9) has been shown to be more beneficial (p = 0.01) than water-aerobic exercises and passive rest for reducing perceived muscle pain. Unfortunately, active recovery had no effects on the recovery pattern of neuromuscular and biochemical parameters.

… It was reported last week that Hall—at just 33 years of age—is retiring from professional competition. Apparently, Hall has been suffering from severely low testosterone levels. The great runner—known for 140-mile training weeks at high altitude—can’t even sustain 12 miles a week of easy running.

The takeaway for endurance athletes—whether pro or age-grouper—is that seeking optimal performance and optimal health are usually not goals that easily sync.

Joe Watson was in his eighth N.H.L. season, his sixth as a defenseman with the Philadelphia Flyers, when Coach Fred Shero, a mystical innovator known as the Fog, transformed the team’s game-day routine.

Before 1972, Watson recalled, there was really no such thing as a game-day morning skate. Players went to the rink early (often after spending a night on the town), checked their sticks and skates, had a meeting, and went home or to the team hotel for lunch and a nap.

“I think Freddie wanted to get out of the house and away from his family,” Watson said, laughing. “He wanted us to come in and sweat out what we had taken in the night before.”

Following Tyronn Lue’s first game as Cleveland Cavaliers head coach, a 96-83 loss to the Chicago Bulls, Lue held true to his promise to hold his players accountable, telling reporters the Cavs are not well conditioned enough to play up-tempo basketball.

“I don’t think we’re in good enough shape,” Lue said. “I think early, we wanted to push it, we wanted to open the floor, and I think we came out and did that, and then I think we just dropped off the map. I think we got tired.”

… For this new study, we aimed at using the recently validated simple field method for analyzing force-velocity-power in sprinting (Samozino et al. 2015 here) to better understand the effects of real soccer match practice on the sprint acceleration mechanical outputs of force, velocity and power. … To our knowledge, the physical consequences of fatigue in the soccer context had hitherto been studied with either of these approaches (see the paper for detailed references):

non-specific testing (isometric force in single joint testing, vertical jump) occurred before vs. after a real soccer game, or

testing (specific or not) was performed before vs. after a simulation of a soccer game based on 90 min of equivalent amounts of walking, jogging, low-, high-speed and sprint running.

PURPOSE:

Understanding factors that influence accurate assessment of physical activity (PA) and sedentary behavior (SB) is important to measurement development, epidemiologic studies, and interventions. This study examined agreement between self-reported (International Physical Activity Questionnaire – Long Form, IPAQ-LF) and accelerometry-based estimates of PA and SB across six countries, and identified correlates of between-method agreement.
METHODS:

Self-report and objective (accelerometry-based) PA and SB data were collected in 2002-2011 from 3,865 adult participants in eight cities from six countries (Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Spain, UK, and USA). Between-method relative agreement (correlation) and absolute disagreement (mean difference between conceptually- and intensity-matched IPAQ-LF and accelerometry-based PA and SB variables) were estimated. Also, socio-demographic characteristics and PA patterns were examined as correlates of between-method agreement.
RESULTS:

Observed relative agreement (relationships of IPAQ-LF with accelerometry-based PA and SB variables) was small to moderate (r=0.05-0.37) and was moderated by socio-demographic (age, sex, weight status, education) and behavioral (PA-types) factors. The absolute disagreement was large, with participants self-reporting higher PA intensity and total time in moderate-to-vigorous PA than accelerometry. Also, self-reported sitting time was lower than accelerometry-based sedentary behavior. After adjusting for socio-demographic and behavioral factors, the absolute disagreement between pairs of IPAQ-LF and accelerometry-based PA variables remained significantly different across cities/countries.
CONCLUSIONS:

Present findings suggest systematic cultural and/or linguistic and socio-demographic differences in absolute agreement between the IPAQ-LF and accelerometry-based PA and SB variables. These results have implications for the interpretation of international PA and SB data and correlates/determinants studies. They call for further efforts to improve such measures.This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License, where it is permissible to download and share the work provided it is properly cited. The work cannot be changed in any way or used commercially.

… So why have all these gadgets failed to gain traction? First, almost all of them require a smartphone to be fully operational, so instead of replacing our mobile phone, a wearable becomes yet another gadget that we need to lug around.

There’s also the fact that most of these devices are quite ugly. While male nerds may not mind their design, women don’t seem as interested in wearing a fax machine on their wrist, even if it’s painted rose gold or comes with a fancy leather strap.

Then there’s the unpleasant fact that the technology just doesn’t seem ready.

… One core piece of emerging sports science technology is Athlete Management System (AMS) software (like CoachMePlus). Think of it as a scaffold for teams to build their sports science programs and their secret sauce. The increasing adoption of these software platforms speaks to the value they have for teams, but heads up, these are new products in a relatively new market.

The newness of AMS’ products has implications for customers, namely:

These products will change, evolve and improve.

A community of technically-minded AMS users will emerge, connect, and in time, grow to define itself.

AMS’ technical advances will lead to users’ (and teams’) innovations in workflow, analysis, and tactics as the product developers and the community make progress toward interface and usability standards.

A new DARPA program aims to develop an implantable neural interface able to provide unprecedented signal resolution and data-transfer bandwidth between the human brain and the digital world. The interface would serve as a translator, converting between the electrochemical language used by neurons in the brain and the ones and zeros that constitute the language of information technology. The goal is to achieve this communications link in a biocompatible device no larger than one cubic centimeter in size, roughly the volume of two nickels stacked back to back.

The program, Neural Engineering System Design (NESD), stands to dramatically enhance research capabilities in neurotechnology and provide a foundation for new therapies.

“Today’s best brain-computer interface systems are like two supercomputers trying to talk to each other using an old 300-baud modem,” said Phillip Alvelda, the NESD program manager. “Imagine what will become possible when we upgrade our tools to really open the channel between the human brain and modern electronics.”

The aims of the present study were (1) to analyze the association between the time score obtained by a global positioning system device at a frequency of 10?Hz and by timing gates and (2) to assess intrarater reliability and agreement of these two methods in a 20?m straight sprint test. Twelve amateur soccer players (age: 21.08?±?1.57?years) gave their voluntary consent to take part in this study. Each player performed five repetitions of a 20?m sprint test in each of the two test sessions. The start of the sprint for the global positioning system device was determined by a continuous increase in speed from below (0–0.1?km/h). No significant relationship (r?=?0.118, p?>?0.05) between 20?m straight sprint times measured by the timing gates and the global positioning system was found. The test–retest intra-class correlation coefficient obtained from the measurement of sprint times with the global positioning system device was small (r?=?0.118, p?>?0.05). The continuous increase in speed from below (0–0.1?km/h) seems not to be a precise way to evaluate the sprint time by a global positioning system device in a 20?m straight sprint test.

Recovery is the process of returning to a normal healthy condition. This is often a difficult challenge with the size, strength, speed and power of our current football players. Who would have thought we would see the day when a 300+ pound offensive lineman would run a sub 4.6 second 40-yard dash, or where a defensive lineman chases down a wide receiver with 4.3 speed from behind?

As a medical professional that trains and treats many NFL players, getting the players back onto the field quickly and safely is a demanding endeavor. Obviously, there are some well known and proven methods of recovery, such as massage, ice baths, electrical stimulation and proper sleep and nutrition to name a few. This article will take a look at some relatively unknown recovery strategies.

Do you know how stressed Merck employees are? How about the average body mass index of workers at IBM?

Soon, you might. Several giants of global industry, including Novo Nordisk, Johnson & Johnson, and PepsiCo, on Friday joined forces with nonprofit health advocacy groups to call for businesses large and small to publish information about the health of their employees.

The goal: To give executives, investors, and directors a window into the durability of a valuable corporate asset — the workforce.

… “Modern efforts toward explaining human disease purely based upon sequencing cannot possibly succeed in isolation,” says Andrew P. Feinberg, M.D., professor of medicine and director of the Center for Epigenetics at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. “At least half of human disease is caused by exposure to the environment.”

While the contribution of genetic factors to disease is more predictable and easier to study in the case of highly penetrant Mendelian disorders, most medical conditions involve multiple genes that may interact with one another and with environmental factors. Particularly for these conditions, capturing epigenetic changes becomes a crucial aspect of understanding pathogenesis and designing prophylactic and therapeutic interventions.

“In these cases,” notes Dr. Feinberg, “an approach not including epigenetics will be severely limited in what it can accomplish.”