Applied Sports Science newsletter – July 2, 2016

… “The agents are holding their players back a little bit more this year, making sure they’re in position before they go out for workouts,” said Jazz vice president of player development Walt Perrin, who did not name players who declined Utah invitations. “It seems like some of them are being very selective in where they’re sending” guys.

“The last four years in the lottery, because we have Gordon (Hayward), because Rudy (Gobert) has come on, because we have Derrick Favors, because of Dante (Exum), because of Rodney Hood – it’s tough to get guys in because their agency, they don’t see a starting spot for them.”

There’s little doubt in the minds of Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson or his trainer James Cooper that the NFL’s reigning rushing champion can do it again this year at age 31 or play long enough to break Emmitt Smith’s career rushing record.

It’s the toll of the NFL grind that could cause him to walk away, Peterson said.

In an interview with ESPN on Monday, Peterson said he believes his body will hold up as long as he wants to play. He needs 6,681 yards to break Smith’s all-time rushing record, and even though only 12 players have ever surpassed 1,000 yards in a season at age 31, the running back isn’t fazed.

… Syndergaard has the highest average fastball velocity of any starting pitcher in the majors. Asked why he may be having the elbow flare-ups, Syndergaard said: “I guess you could say the workload. I’ve thrown quite a bit more pitches than I did last year at this time. I’m throwing harder than I did last year. It’s probably just basic wear and tear.”

He offered no regrets for volunteering Wednesday’s elbow difficulty to the staff.

“When I come to elbows, I really don’t like to screw around with those,” Syndergaard said. “If something is bothering you, I like to speak up and voice my opinion about it. It turned out to be nothing. I couldn’t be more thankful for that.”

Two weeks after Russell Wilson threw the most devastating interception in Super Bowl history, he and his personal team of trusted advisers came up with a plan for how to best move forward.

They settled on San Diego as his offseason home that year. They interviewed perspective trainers who could help him work on his lower body strength and speed. Then they discussed what he needed to do to take the next step in his career.

One of the people by Wilson’s side was his mental conditioning coach, Trevor Moawad. According to Moawad, there was no lengthy discussion of why the Seattle Seahawks’ season ended the way it did. Instead, Moawad decided to show Wilson clips of all of his successful fourth-quarter comebacks over the years.

… While some homegrowns, such as Andy Najar and current United goalkeeper Bill Hamid, are match-ready, most need nurturing. The club initially sent Robinson to its third-division affiliate in Richmond, but because he would have a hard time cracking the lineup, United shipped him to third-tier Arizona United.

Last year, aside from starting 16 matches for Richmond, Robinson was recalled by United for domestic (Open Cup) and international (CONCACAF Champions League) tournaments.

When the 2015 campaign ended, United made clear he needed to take the next step.

… Once the coach has been around for a while, knows how to coach, and does a damn good job at it (and they know what to expect and what they should be SEEING happen in the athletes during a session and after a series of session) they’re ready to start adding in technology.

Also, since everyone is worried about the numbers they seem to forget about the people. Your programming should be science based, but your coaching is a human endeavor. You get a lot more out of people when you get to know them and you learn what makes them tick. The athletes will work a hell of a lot harder for you when they know you and know you care.

Hamstring strains are a common sport-related injury, which may limit athletic performance for an extended period of time. These injuries are common in the soccer setting.1 As such, it is important to determine an appropriate prevention program to minimize the risk of such an injury for these athletes. Hamstring strains occur when external loads exceed the strength of the tissue. Development of eccentric muscle control has been shown to be an effective and inexpensive intervention to improve strength. Eccentric hamstring training then, may provide an effective and practical hamstring strain prevention strategy.

There remains a great deal of debate among performance coaches regarding topics such as optimal exercise selection for enhancing sprinting speed, the limiting factors of maximum velocity sprinting and so forth. Slowly over time as more research is produced, more evidence in support of a given training theory becomes revealed and open-minded coaches adjust their programming accordingly. The squat exercise has long been hailed as the kind of lower body movements for strength and power development as well as for transfer to sprinting speed. However, more recently and based on the strong link between horizontal force production and acceleration ability, specialized exercises (e.g., the barbell hip thrust) that strengthen the hip extensors in a horizontal plane are becoming more popular. However, it’s unclear which exercise (i.e., a squat variation or hip thrust) better transfers over to performance variables such as sprinting and jumping.

A new study published ahead of print in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning research put the front squat and the hip thrust exercises in a head to head battle to determine which elicits the greatest improvements in performance variables.

… “Much of the battle is mental, believing you can win,” Bowden said about turnarounds. “I’ve been a head coach for 23 years at 5 different institutions since 1983, and almost invariably, when you take over a losing program … the biggest difference as you continue to build is your players expect to win tight ballgames, as opposed to expecting to lose.

“When you take over a bad program — this has always been true — you’re going to have four phases whether you like it not. You’re probably going to lose big, then lose close, then win close, and then win big. You can’t ever determine how long you’ll be in any phase. Going from lose close to win close was as much about a culture of winning, believing, having the expectation as a true change in talent. It was a change in attitude, and the talent kept getting better. That’s the difference. You’ve got guys used to being in close games and believing they’re going to win

We have just returned from Barcelona’s ECOSEP and MuscleTech Network conference, where we had the opportunity to listen to some of the world’s foremost experts on tendon and muscle injury, and to sit in the Camp Nou stadium, where some of the world’s best footballers play.

It is to be expected, considering the value of the players and the budget of this club, that injury prevention is a priority and that the very best of evidence is implemented.

One of the presentations was on FC Barcelona’s ‘preventive training’, where we heard an excellent talk on a series of practices encompassing strengthening, mobility drills, agility and proprioception in the hope of preventing injuries.

With only six total hours allowed at the facility on OTA days — which includes lifting, meetings and practice — time constraints are a legitimate concern. It’s not enough, and the coaches I’ve talked to agree. They want more time with every rookie. And quarterbacks are no exception.

Think of a pilot who wants more time in the simulator. Maybe another hour. Or two. Put in some extra work, right? Sure. But that doesn’t happen in the NFL. When the clock runs out, that’s it. Pack it in and come back tomorrow — regardless of what was left unfinished.

For a young quarterback, that’s trouble. Technique, mechanics, release point. The progressions. The reads. The pre-snap checklist. The transition to the five and seven-step passing game.

Hey, those are just the basics, a cover charge that gets you into the door.

… So far, there are four projects to offer a decisive advantage over competition. One is the “sensorbike”, aiming to analyse braking behaviour and the way to corner ideally, with the analysis being used to improve the individual riders’ descending skills. Another is data science, where all training and racing data of riders are scientifically analysed, by the use of advanced statistical modeling and data analysis techniques, offering valuable new insights.

The third project touches the areas of mathematics and informatics, and concerns the optimisation of power distribution – how a rider can optimally ride and how this correlates to the correct choice of equipment. And last but not least, aerodynamics, based on how to optimise the rider’s clothing and position on the bike in order to reduce air resistance. TU Delft uses a wind tunnel and advanced measuring techniques.

When Fatigue Science signed its first contract with a professional sports team in 2012, understanding of wearable technology was in its infancy. And the idea that sleep was a key factor in professional sports was just starting to surface. Now the use of wearable tech is exploding across professional sports. And sleep? Sleep is widely recognized as amongst the most important factors in elite human performance.

Fatigue Science’s early combination of scientifically validated sleep monitoring and wearable technology is not only continuing to push what is possible for professional athletes. Now it can predict fatigue across large industrial workforces. And that, could save lives.

“Our first NFL engagement was with the Seattle Seahawks three years ago,” says Fatigue Science CEO Sean Kerklaan. “At that point, capturing meaningful, accurate sleep and fatigue data on ten professional football players using wearable technology was difficult, to say the least. But we’ve come a long, long way and that early experience is translating into innovation.“

Under Armour Inc. CEO Kevin Plank believes manufacturing can once again thrive in the U.S. And the sportswear maker sees itself playing a big role — starting in Baltimore.

Under Armour on Tuesday took the wraps off UA Lighthouse, a 35,000-square-foot manufacturing and design center located inside City Garage, the former South Baltimore bus garage converted by Plank’s development firm into a maker space for entrepreneurs.

… USA Cycling is pushing the limits of training technology in the run-up to the Rio Olympics, first with a revolutionary track bike that took years of design, then with proprietary hardware and software they can use to better gauge how well their athletes are training in the months leading up to the Summer Games.

“We are always looking for technologies to improve and push the limits of our athletes’ performance,” said Andy Sparks, director of the U.S. track cycling program, “especially aiming at our goal for gold in Rio.”

The bike from manufacturer Felt, with its odd-looking left-side drivetrain, is what viewers at home will notice in August. But smart glasses from Solos combined with custom, cloud-based software from IBM have become an integral part of training — and could ultimately be the secret to their success.

We caught up with Nick Brown, Deputy Director for Performance, Science and Innovation at the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS), who has embraced a data culture to help the AIS’s elite athletes in their journey to bring home gold from Rio.

… LG Innotek’s sensors have highly elastic polyurethane material to fit your body comfortably. And its measurement of face pressure distribution by sensing capacitance change caused by pressure. The company has filed thirteen patents regarding the related technologies in South Korea and secured the product quality for mass production in this year.

The company’s development of the textile flexible pressure sensors are flexible, making them suitable for products such as gloves and chairs that come in direct contact with the human body.

… Maximizing athletic performance requires playing at a peak physical level, as well as having a high degree of self-confidence. When an athlete deals with an injury, not only are there physical constraints and limitations that must be addressed, but often the anxieties of uncertainty cloud the future and chip away at self-confidence. Sometimes athletes get so confused by it all that they become consumed by questions relating to their recovery.

Patellofemoral pain (PFP) typically presents as diffuse anterior knee pain, usually with activities such as squatting, running, stair ascent and descent. It is common in active individuals across the lifespan,1–4 and is a frequent cause for presentation at physiotherapy, general practice, orthopaedic and sports medicine clinics in particular.5 ,6 Its impact is profound, often reducing the ability of those with PFP to perform sporting, physical activity and work-related activities pain-free. Increasing evidence suggests that it is a recalcitrant condition, persisting for many years.7–9 In an attempt to share recent innovations, build on the first three successful biennial retreats and define the ‘state of the art’ for this common, impactful condition; the 4th International Patellofemoral Pain Research Retreat was convened.

The 4th International Patellofemoral Research Retreat was held in Manchester, UK, over 3?days (September 2–4th, 2015). After undergoing peer-review for scientific merit and relevance to the retreat, 67 abstracts were accepted for the retreat (50 podium presentations, and 17 short presentations). The podium and short presentations were grouped into five categories; (1) PFP, (2) factors that influence PFP (3) the trunk and lower extremity (4) interventions and (5) systematic analyses.

… Robust evidence supports that over half of these injuries could be prevented if young people received appropriate balance and agility training. This training teaches them how to land properly on their knee and move so that the potential for injury is not sustained. A preventive training program should include exercises that are done 2-3 times a week over the course of the entire season, take no more than 15 minutes to complete, and can be incorporated by coaches into regular training sessions. Many forward thinking countries around the world have implemented such training programs with great success. An Australian sports injury prevention program targeting all 12 to 17-year-olds and high risk 17 to 25 – year -olds would cost $1 million per year and cut future public health costs by $120 million over four years.

On both coasts, campaigns are building to get desperate patients faster access to stem cell treatments — in some cases, before they are proven to work. And that is making some scientists nervous.

In Washington, a US senator recently introduced a bill that would allow the Food and Drug Administration to grant conditional approval to stem cell treatments without data from the big Phase 3 trials usually required before a drug hits the market. In California, meanwhile, the state stem cell agency is enlisting patients to back an aggressive push to speed up the federal regulatory process for stem cell therapies.

Proponents say an accelerated regulatory process will help patients, but a chorus of critics warn that faster approvals could undermine the FDA’s authority to ensure that only rigorously tested therapies make it to market.

Doctors affiliated with the National Football League attempted to use the league’s $30 million pledge to the National Institutes of Health as leverage to appoint more NFL-approved experts to a 2012 workshop run by the federal agency that was attempting to reach a medical consensus regarding the degenerative brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), documents obtained by VICE Sports reveal.

In May, a congressional report detailed how the NFL improperly pressured the NIH behind closed doors to redirect $16 million from a major study on CTE and football led by a Boston University researcher to members of the league’s committee on brain injuries—money that would have come out of the $30 million pledge to the NIH, which the NFL called an “unrestricted gift.”

The 91-page House Committee on Energy and Commerce Democratic staff report concluded that the NFL and its affiliated doctors violated policies governing relationships between private donors and the NIH, and that the league’s actions were part of a “long-standing pattern of attempts” to steer and shape brain trauma research.

When NFL lineman Eugene Monroe spoke out publicly against the NFL’s ban on marijuana, it sparked a national conversation about the merits of cannabis as an alternative method of pain management for players.

“What I noticed was that former players would openly speak about their experiences being addicted to opioids that they were prescribed by their team doctors,” Monroe told Yahoo Global News Anchor Katie Couric. [4 videos]

The airline’s own data suggested that captains could potentially save 3 to 6 per cent on fuel — a substantial financial and environmental gain. But how to incentivise them? … Merely telling captains that the experiment was happening prodded them into being more careful and saving a lot of fuel. It is always possible that the sudden switch to fuel-saving behaviour had a cause that was nothing to do with the experiment but there are no apparent alternative explanations.

The second outcome was that all three treatments saved fuel compared with the control group but setting targets (with or without the charitable donation) had a particularly notable effect. And the third outcome was that captains who hit their targets were substantially more satisfied with their jobs.

We like to think of our own personalities, and those of our family and friends as predictable, constant over time. But what if they aren’t? What if nothing stays constant over a lifetime?

In America personality is often seen as destiny. Whether you’re a famous CEO like Steve Jobs or a serial criminal like Hannibal Lecter, most of us think that our position in life has a lot to do with our personality. This episode looks more closely at this belief. We start at a Court House where lines of people who are getting married describe the personality of the person with whom they are to be joined for life. Then travel to a prison in Ohio where a woman has struck up a work relationship with a prisoner who it turns out did something far worse than she imagined. Finally Lulu talks to a scientist to come up with a complete catalogue of all the things about us that actually do stay stable over the course of our lives. They look at everything from cells to memories until ultimately they come up with a list — but it’s a really short list. [audio, 57:28]

Manchester City will host the first hackathon (#HackMCFC) to be organised by a football club and will provide participants with access to world leading performance analysis systems, as well as detailed player and match data, to help them uncover new insights on player performance.

A particular strength of Cohesion Analytics and the TWI metric is the ability to predict season-by-season outcomes. There is always a lot of talk in analyst and sport science circles about identifying the 1%ers to further enhance performance. Because we believe that Cohesion can impact performance as much as 40% it is not only a tool that can be used to enhance performance but also be used the predict performance because of the significant factor it plays in how teams work.

The impact Cohesion has is influenced by the structure of the competition, most specifically how talent flows within that competition and the factors that influence the talent flows. For example, in the English Premier League the strongest predictor of success is team salary. On a recent discussion with a director from a Top 4 EPL club, he was quite open with the fact that they use team salary as part of their strategic planning around the competition outcomes.

Misperceptions about politics and health can undermine public debate and distort people’s choices and behavior. Why do people hold these false or unsupported beliefs and why is it so difficult to change their minds? An emerging literature examines the difficulty of correcting false or unsupported beliefs and the reasons for this resistance, but relatively
little is known about the sources of misperceptions, the psychology of misperception belief, or how to most effectively counter these false claims. In addition, most studies focus
on the mass public’s beliefs in well-known misperceptions; the mechanisms by which false
beliefs become politicized, disseminated, and integrated into individual belief systems and
the role of elites and the media in that process are less well understood. [pdf]

… “The match [against Turkey] was a complete flop,” Sablon told Bleacher Report. “The way Belgium had been eliminated was simply not acceptable. The team hit rock bottom. There was a quality vacuum, and something needed to be done.”

Michel D’Hooghe, then president of the Belgian FA and long-standing FIFA executive committee member, agreed. His achievement of bringing the European Championship to Belgium as co-hosts had rebounded: Euro 2000 had magnified Belgium’s failing football culture, shackled by partisan interests and thwarted by the lack of an overarching vision.

He asked Sablon to tailor the future.