Applied Sports Science newsletter – May 16, 2016

… “When he was first called up first, up here, he’s jamming at guys’ feet, whacking at rebounds,” defenseman Ian Cole said. “It doesn’t matter who it is, Sid [Crosby], [Patric Hornqvist], Geno [Malkin], he’s whacking at guys, trying to clear them out of the crease.

“Guys are like, ‘Oh my God, this guy thinks he’s a 20-year vet. Thinks he’s Tom Barrasso in there or something.’”

But that competitiveness has fueled Murray’s rapid rise in the NHL, where he has emerged as a star between the pipes for the Penguins. He is likely to start tonight in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference final against the Tampa Bay Lightning at Consol Energy Center, though Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said he would wait until today to say whether Murray or Stanley Cup-winning goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury will be in net.

… Liverpool are, at the moment, a tactical design, a group of players, and a team-sheet some distance from Klopp’s perfect team. However, they are a team that understand the basic yet powerful principles of Gesamtkunstwerk and thoroughly deserve all of their improbable victories. The Anfield faithful have good reason to be licking their lips at the prospect of Klopp’s Liverpool two or three years from now.

In another trait which appears on the contrary to many of his peers, and one that should delight Liverpool fans, Klopp appears to form a deep-rooted loyalty with his clubs. After all, one cannot preach benefits of work and long-term processes if they’re moving clubs every three years.

Your players may not want to say it, but every one of them will be mentally fatigued at some time or another. An often unspoken yet crucial responsibility of a coach is to be able to recognize when this is happening and to modify training appropriately. Pushing players who are mentally fatigued can be inappropriate and dangerous to their development. Here are three signs I pay attention to.

1) The Energy They Emanate

Cornell economist Robert Frank, author of The Darwin Economy and The Economic Naturalist’s Field Guide, has written a new book, Success and Luck on the role of luck in success and the importance of how people make sense of that dynamic. Below are snippets from a couple of pieces he’s written recentl

Time and time again USC cornerback Kevon Seymour was in position to make an interception. Whether his elite speed and explosiveness had put him in position to jump a route, or he had leverage on a receiver, Seymour was often in the right spot to make plays on the ball. The problem was instead of interceptions he was just knocking passes away.

Seymour was recruited to USC as both a receiver and a cornerback, so he had good hands. He was a good-sized corner at six-foot and he could outleap most wideouts with his 35-inch vertical. His elite skill set said NFL prospect, but his lack of production earned him a seat on the bench as a rotational defensive back despite being an upperclassman.

It just wasn’t adding up.

That’s when Bills Director of College Scouting Kelvin Fisher got to work

Jürgen Klopp will put Liverpool players through triple training sessions and hire a second member of Bayern Munich’s backroom staff in pre-season as he seeks to improve fitness levels for the 2016-17 campaign.

The Liverpool manager, a long-time admirer of Bayern’s fitness work, has already tempted Andreas Kornmayer to leave his position as fitness coach at the Allianz Arena for Anfield this summer. To the annoyance of Carlo Ancelotti, who is to replace the Manchester City-bound Pep Guardiola, Bayern’s nutritionist Mona Nemmer has also accepted Klopp’s invitation to be part of a new-look conditioning team at Anfield next season.

… Some teams, such as the Jaguars, Broncos and Dolphins, scaled back or eliminated on-field activities at their rookie minicamps last weekend. Meanwhile, other people in and around the league are pondering how teams might better protect their draft picks.

The Tribune spoke to White, Fox, Bears general manager Ryan Pace and White’s agent about White’s experience. Those four joined other people in league circles in discussing some of the broader issues related to how rookies acclimate to the NFL.

… In today’s real-time, online environment, good ideas matter less; testable hypotheses matter more. Tomorrow’s innovations and strategies will increasingly be the products — and byproducts — of real-time experimentation and testing.

Since the 2001 popping of the Internet bubble, digital networks have successfully evolved into virtual research centers, laboratories, and design studios for entrepreneurs and enterprises to field-test hypotheses that typically required dedicated teams and facilities. As a result, traditional innovation investment paradigms emphasizing Research & Development (R&D) increasingly yield to practices supporting Experiment & Scale (E&S).

Background

Hamstring strain and anterior cruciate ligament injuries are, respectively, the most prevalent and serious non-contact occurring injuries in team sports. Specific biomechanical and neuromuscular variables have been used to estimate the risk of incurring a non-contact injury in athletes.
Objective

The aim of this study was to systematically review the evidences for the effectiveness of injury prevention protocols to modify biomechanical and neuromuscular anterior cruciate and/or hamstring injuries associated risk factors in uninjured team sport athletes.
Data Sources

PubMed, Science Direct, Web of Science, Cochrane Libraries, U.S. National Institutes of Health clinicaltrials.gov, Sport Discuss and Google Scholar databases were searched for relevant journal articles published until March 2015. A manual review of relevant articles, authors, and journals, including bibliographies was performed from identified articles.
Main Results

Nineteen studies were included in this review. Four assessment categories: i) landing, ii) side cutting, iii) stop-jump, and iv) muscle strength outcomes, were used to analyze the effectiveness of the preventive protocols. Eight studies using multifaceted interventions supported by video and/or technical feedback showed improvement in landing and/or stop-jump biomechanics, while no effects were observed on side-cutting maneuver. Additionally, multifaceted programs including hamstring eccentric exercises increased hamstring strength, hamstring to quadriceps functional ratio and/or promoted a shift of optimal knee flexion peak torque toward a more open angle position.
Conclusions

Multifaceted programs, supported by proper video and/or technical feedback, including eccentric hamstring exercises would positively modify the biomechanical and or neuromuscular anterior cruciate and/or hamstring injury risk factors.

Background Knee reinjury after ACL reconstruction is common and increases the risk of osteoarthritis. There is sparse evidence to guide return to sport (RTS) decisions in this population.

Objectives To assess the relationship between knee reinjury after ACL reconstruction and (1) return to level I sports, (2) timing of RTS and (3) knee function prior to return.

Methods 106 patients who participated in pivoting sports participated in this prospective 2-year cohort study. Sports participation and knee reinjury were recorded monthly. Knee function was assessed with the Knee Outcome Survey—Activities of Daily Living Scale, global rating scale of function, and quadriceps strength and hop test symmetry. Pass RTS criteria were defined as scores >90 on all tests, failure as failing any.

Results Patients who returned to level I sports had a 4.32 (p=0.048) times higher reinjury rate than those who did not. The reinjury rate was significantly reduced by 51% for each month RTS was delayed until 9?months after surgery, after which no further risk reduction was observed. 38.2% of those who failed RTS criteria suffered reinjuries versus 5.6% of those who passed (HR 0.16, p=0.075). More symmetrical quadriceps strength prior to return significantly reduced the knee reinjury rate.

Conclusions Returning to level I sports after ACL reconstruction leads to a more than 4-fold increase in reinjury rates over 2?years. RTS 9?months or later after surgery and more symmetrical quadriceps strength prior to return substantially reduce the reinjury rate.

Background: Tarsometatarsal (Lisfranc) joint injuries commonly occur in National Football League (NFL) competition; however, the career effect of these injuries is unknown.

Purpose: To define the time to return to competition for NFL players who sustained Lisfranc injuries and to quantify the effect on athletic performance.

Study Design: Case-control study; Level of evidence, 3.

Methods: Data on NFL players who sustained a Lisfranc injury between 2000 and 2010 were collected for analysis. Outcomes data included time to return to competition, total games played after season of injury, yearly total yards and touchdowns for offensive players, and yearly total tackles, sacks, and interceptions for defensive players. Offensive power ratings (OPR = [total yards/10] + [total touchdowns × 6]) and defensive power ratings (DPR = total tackles + [total sacks × 2] + [total interceptions × 2]) were calculated for the injury season and for 3 seasons before and after the injury season. Offensive and defensive control groups consisted of all players without an identified Lisfranc injury who competed in the 2005 season.

Results: The study group was composed of 28 NFL athletes who sustained Lisfranc injuries during the study period, including 11 offensive and 17 defensive players. While 2 of 28 (7.1%) players never returned to the NFL, 26 (92.9%) athletes returned to competition at a median of 11.1 (interquartile range [IQR], 10.3-12.5) months from time of injury and missed a median of 8.5 (IQR, 6.3-13.0) regular-season games. Analysis of pre- and postinjury athletic performance revealed no statistically significant changes after return to sport after Lisfranc injury. The magnitude of change in median OPR and DPR observed in offensive and defensive Lisfranc-injured study groups, ?34.8 (IQR, ?64.4 to 1.4) and ?13.5 (?30.9 to 4.3), respectively, was greater than that observed in offensive and defensive control groups, ?18.8 (?52.9 to 31.5) and ?5.0 (?22.0 to 14.0), respectively; however, these differences did not reach statistical significance (P = .33 and .21, respectively). Evaluation of the durability of injured players after the season of injury revealed no statistically significant difference in career length compared with controls.

Conclusion: More than 90% of NFL athletes who sustained Lisfranc injuries returned to play in the NFL at a median of 11.1 months from time of injury. Offensive and defensive players experienced a decrease in performance after return from injury that did not reach statistical significance compared with their respective control groups over a similar time period.

Eugene Monroe has had his share of bumps and bruises during his seven-year N.F.L. career as an offensive tackle with the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Baltimore Ravens. He has had shoulder injuries, ankle sprains, concussions and all the usual wear and tear that comes from hitting defenders dozens of times a game.

To deal with these injuries, Monroe has stepped forward and called upon the N.F.L. to stop testing players for marijuana so he and other players can take the medical version of the drug to treat their chronic pain, and avoid the addictive opioids that teams regularly dispense.

… There are three main ways we learn to like (or dislike) certain flavors, explains Michael Tordoff, a psychologist at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia. One is “flavor-nutrient learning,” where we learn to form positive associations between the flavor of a given food and what that food does to our bodies. If you regularly snacked on cherry-flavored fruit roll-ups as a kid, for example, you may have learned over time to associate cherry with the burst of energy that comes from the sugar hit: “You pair the taste in your mouth, that flavor that you’re getting, with the post-ingestive consequences,” he says.

There’s also what Tordoff calls “taste-flavor learning,” where we associate a given flavor with one we already like.

… Ten years into its existence, the influence of SSAC permeates American sports. Take Daryl Morey for example, a computer science graduate and co-founder of the conference, who has been appointed General Manager of the Houston Rockets and has earned plaudits for his use of analytics to drive improvement in the Rockets’ performance and recruitment. The traditional focus of the conference has been on this ‘Moneyball’ approach to player recruitment, or in real terms: “looking for players whose surface appearance is deceiving the market place about their value”. However, with the recent success of teams such as the Golden State Warriors, who have pioneered the strategic sleep and rest of players, there has been a palpable shift towards exploring the use of analytics in optimising athlete health and preventing injuries.

With that in mind, here are some insights from the 2016 Conference which may be of use to the sports medicine community:

Football has changed this season. We used to talk about teams passing the opposition to death, as Spain, Barcelona and their imitators dominated possession and trophies. But now teams are passing themselves to death, ending up sterile in attack and vulnerable on the break.

The most impressive two sides this season, Atletico Madrid and Leicester City, have realised this. They have developed a deep-lying counter-attacking game which goes against so much of what we were told for the last few years, and is all the more effective for it.

Now, at the top level, the game is determined by counter-attacking, both scoring from them and defending against them. Which is why Louis van Gaal and Arsene Wenger, two great managers at their peaks, must now adapt or risk getting left further behind.