Applied Sports Science newsletter – May 13, 2016

… Hunter was one of the guest speakers for an NBA Fit stop at Cascade Elementary School on Thursday. NBA Fit is a campaign whose goal is to help young people learn the benefits of exercise and a proper diet. (Videos of his visit are above and below)

Q: What are you working on this summer?

A: Ball-handling is the main focus. I had a few conversation with Danny (Ainge) and Brad (Stevens) before I left about long-term goals. I’m just trying to get my body as ready as I can for that 2 (shooting guard) position and get that ball-handling right.

With Tim Duncan gearing up to play what could be the last game of his storied career Thursday if the San Antonio Spurs lose to the Oklahoma City Thunder, LeBron James said his eventual decision on retirement won’t be entirely up to him.

“I think later on in my 30s,” James, 31, said of when he will start thinking about hanging it up. “It’s kind of up to my kids, really. I’ve missed so much of my kids’ tournaments and things of that nature when I’m playing. So, it’s kind of up to them. They’ll let me know when they’re tired of seeing me go away.”

Damian Lillard’s thoughts were already turned toward next season on the flight back to Portland following the Blazers’ final playoff loss to the Warriors. He pondered how the team’s surprising success would impact the tightknit group.

“I started getting worried already. I was sitting on the plane like, we had some success this year, it was unexpected, it was no pressure. People are going to expect a little bit more, and I started to get worried about too many pats on the back,” Lillard said. “But we don’t have those kind of guys. We’ve got hungry guys, we’ve got humble guys that work hard. We had a taste this season as a young group of how well we could do, and what it takes.”

He has added reason for that optimism: Many of the Blazers said Thursday they’d be sticking around this summer to work out together.

Two years ago, Brandon Ingram wasn’t even a consensus top-20 recruit in his high-school class. This past November, he was briefly demoted out of Duke’s starting lineup. Now, as the 2016 NBA draft approaches, he’s threatening to be the No. 1 overall pick. How did a once (and still somewhat) frail, small-town North Carolina kid make a case for himself as the most sought-after basketball prospect in the world?

Most people are familiar with the technique of taking deep inhalations to relax themselves, but one breathing technique is more effective at returning your body to a naturally calm and connected state.

… I’ve heard first hand that the club really came together after a loss in the Play-Off semi-final against Watford in 2013. The club had a lot of the pieces of the jigsaw in place that season and went close to promotion to the EPL. They would ultimately fall short after they had a penalty saved at Watford but what happened in the days after would shape the approach of their backroom for seasons to come.

The then manager, Nigel Pearson, invited his backroom staff to his house in the Lake District to bond. Far from relaxing, they set about restructuring how they would work and communicate as a group. The outcome was to have sports scientists, coaches and physios all working together in decisions on training and match-days.

An integrated approach was created to see each section head have a direct influence on player loading.

If I had to spend the rest of eternity trapped in a lift with an armchair football manager or an armchair marginal-gains scientist, I would take the former in a heartbeat.

… There are countless strategies that can be used to enhance enjoyment levels, and below are a few common tactics that can be employed by coaches to heighten a sense of enjoyment.

Emphasize a performance focus

Athletes, just like anyone else, have a basic psychological need to experience some form of control over their life. When the primary focus of preparation and competition is performance (e.g. personal bests, controllable goals), opposed to outcome (i.e. win/loss), then athletes will experience heightened feelings of autonomy and control over their success. If we believe that success is within our control, the journey becomes much more enjoyable.

Compression garments have become a popular item for athletes and recreational gym users, whether that is for their comfort, aesthetical appeal, or for their psycho-physiological function appears to be irrelevant. What is important, primarily for athletes, is their ability to promote recovery and thus improve subsequent performance. The current body of research identifies that compression garments may improve joint awareness, local blood flow, waste product removal, improve running economy, reduce swelling, reduce muscle oscillations, and decrease post-exercise muscle soreness whilst appearing to have no negative impact on performance. However, it is important to acknowledge that this current body of research is of low-quality and riddled with large inconsistencies – meaning the information should be accepted with caution. Nevertheless, as no negative effects on performance have been observed, compression garments remain a recommended tool for promoting recovery and thus influencing subsequent performance. It is also recommended that the compression gradient of the garments are considered and even tailored specifically for each athlete.

Analog Devices has announced its collaboration with Microsoft and Hexoskin regarding a unique, wearable Internet of Things (IoT) solution for athlete and team performance management.

The IoT solution allows coaches and team staff to monitor player information such as motion, heart rate, and other useful health and performance metrics from sensor-equipped vests worn by players. This information, combined with player location and environmental data, is sent to a secure cloud-based analytics platform providing critical insights back to team staff via a dashboard. By informing better player interventions and improving game-time tactical decisions, the IoT solution helps provide significant competitive advantage to teams. In addition, it is designed to enable better overall management of player health, recovery, and injury avoidance, extending the benefits far beyond an individual game.

Last week, Yahoo’s Jeff Passan reported that Angels ace Garrett Richards would miss the rest of this season — and at least part of next year — after undergoing Tommy John surgery. The loss of a talented pitcher who was off to a promising start provided the usual alarming reminder that any arm could be days away from a season-ending diagnosis. But we can serve some chicken soup for the baseball fan’s soul:1 Compared with totals through the same date in recent seasons, 2016’s Tommy John toll has been mercifully light. (Knock on the nearest ulnar collateral ligament.)

Historically, March and April have been the peak periods for Tommy John-inducing injuries. Not only does ramping up from a winter’s inactivity put pitchers at increased risk, but spring is also when pitchers who felt a twinge at the end of the previous season can no longer pretend rest will restore them. From 2005-14, 44 percent of injuries that led to elbow ligament replacements occurred in March or April. The last two springs were particularly costly, yielding record Tommy John totals and depriving fans of full seasons from such prominent pitchers as Yu Darvish, Zack Wheeler and Brandon McCarthy in 2015, and Matt Moore, Patrick Corbin and Jarrod Parker in 2014.

In 2016, however, the parade of early-season elbow injuries has slowed,

Jurgen Klopp is set to test his Liverpool squad with triple training sessions throughout what will be a gruelling pre-season.

Reds add nutritionist who Guardiola brought to Bayern Klopp to give LFC players triple sessions in pre-season “We have a special plan,” says Klopp.

Analytics are widespread in today’s world of professional sports, with franchises using data-driven decision making to guide everything from building a roster to setting ticket prices. And for the first time, students will be able to get a degree in this rapidly growing field.

Syracuse University’s Falk College will announce Wednesday the launch of the first ever sports analytics bachelor’s degree in the United States. Beginning in August 2017, courses will be offered to all undergraduates who want to intersect the disciplines of math, statistics and computer programming with their love of sport. As soon as this August, sports management students will be able to switch over their majors to sports analytics.

During last year’s Big Data Week Conference in London, Malta-based entrepreneur Valery Bollier correctly foresaw that the Leicester midfielder would be the player to keep an eye on. ”I’ll give you a prediction for this season: there is a footballer, named (Riyad) Mahrez.

According to our game, he is at the moment the best midfielder in Europe, not just in England,” said Bollier during the presentation about Big Data, sports and online games back in November. “I bet that at the end of the season his value will be huge.”

… Injuries can open doors for players. We’ve seen that in recent times when Francis Coquelin and Hector Bellerin, somewhat unexpectedly, established themselves as first-team players. Yet without injuries to Mathieu Debuchy, which allowed the young Spaniard to flourish, and almost every other midfielder — requiring Coquelin to be recalled from a loan at Championship side Charlton — you can’t be certain they’d be where they are today.

However, the converse is also true. Injuries can close doors, too. If a player is out long enough, the imbalance their absence causes has to be corrected, and when they do return their path to the first team is much more difficult than it once was. It will be a concern for Welbeck, but he’ll know as well as anyone that’s the nature of the game. You can have all the talent in the world, but if you’re beset with bad luck and fitness issues that hamper your ability to play, forging a successful career is going to prove more difficult.