Applied Sports Science newsletter – August 2, 2016

… “I’ve seen him get younger just since his injury,” coach Bruce Arians said, referring to Palmer’s 2014 ACL tear. “He’s adding longevity to his career.”

Palmer has upgraded his eating habits and his training. Arians credits sports science for the ability of quarterbacks to
play to later and later ages – Tom Brady turns 39 Aug. 3, Drew Brees is 37, Tony Romo is 36. Palmer, who turns 37 in December, falls into that category.

His rigorous rehab from the knee injury not only put him in better shape but also seems to have increased velocity on his throws.

In the fourth of her exclusive blogs for The Mixed Zone, 400-metres hurdler Eilidh Doyle offers an insight into her final preparations ahead of the Olympic Games, which start on August 5. She reveals that she is primed and ready for action, though fully aware that over-confidence could trip her up as much as any obstacle on the track.

Ever since I finished my college career, I’ve heard about the speed of the NFL game, how it’s different than anything you’ve experienced in the past. Everyone talked about it at the Combine and during my first few months with the Browns. It’s natural to kind of shrug it off but let me tell you: it’s lived up to the hype.

It’s just a fast game. You have to remember your plays and you’ve got to hear the coaching.That’s definitely a big shock but you kind of expect it whether you wanted to believe it or not, these are professionals.

Winning his third NFL Defensive Player of the Year award in four years was no easy task for J.J. Watt, especially since his play was hampered by a number of injuries throughout the year. Once the season ended, Watt underwent surgery on his groin early January. But even with several weeks of prescribed rest forcing him out of the weight room following his groin surgery, the Texans’ defensive end didn’t slack off.

“[Taking time off] made me re-think almost everything about my life,” Watt says. “You just sit there for five weeks not training and that’s all I’ve known my whole life is training.”

… The increasing sophistication and professionalization of sports has led to the rise of personal skills gurus not only in hockey—where Johnson, known as the Shot Doc, counts Hall of Famer player Adam Oates as a peer—but also with quarterback instructors in football, hitting and throwing coaches in baseball, and basketball trainers like Idan Ravin, who has worked with the likes of LeBron James, Stephen Curry, and Kevin Durant.

These coaching consultants lurk outside the framework of the player’s professional organization; most of their work is done remotely, communicating by phone, text, and email with lessons imparted via video annotations.

PURPOSE:

The purpose of this study was to examine the acute and chronic training responses to strength-, hypertrophy- and cluster-type resistance training.
METHODS:

Thirty-four trained males were assigned to a strength [STR: 4 × 6 repetitions, 85 % of one repetition maximum, (1RM), 900 s total rest], hypertrophy (HYP: 5 × 10 repetitions, 70 % 1RM, 360 s total rest), cluster 1 (CL-1: 4 × 6/1 repetitions, 85 % 1RM, 1400 s total rest), and cluster 2 (CL-2: 4 × 6/1 repetitions, 90 % 1RM, 1400 s total rest) regimens which were performed twice weekly for a 6-week period. Measurements were taken before, during and following the four workouts to investigate the acute training stimulus, whilst similar measurements were employed to examine the training effects before and after the intervention.
RESULTS:

The improvements in 1RM strength were significantly greater for the STR (12.09 ± 2.75 %; p < 0.05, d = 1.106) and CL-2 (13.20 ± 2.18 %; p < 0.001, d = 0.816) regimens than the HYP regimen (8.13 ± 2.54 %, d = 0.453). In terms of the acute responses, the STR and CL-2 workouts resulted in greater time under tension (TUT) and impulse generation in individual repetitions than the HYP workout (p < 0.05). Furthermore, the STR (+3.65 ± 2.54 mmol/L-1) and HYP (+6.02 ± 2.97 mmol/L-1) workouts resulted in significantly greater elevations in blood lactate concentration (p < 0.001) than the CL-1 and CL-2 workouts.
CONCLUSION:

CL regimens produced similar strength improvements to STR regimens even when volume load was elevated (CL-2). The effectiveness of the STR and CL-2 regimens underlines the importance of high loads and impulse generation for strength development.

The purpose of the present study was to provide a detailed analysis of the physical demands of competitive international female soccer match-play. A total of 148 individual match observations were undertaken on 107 outfield players competing in competitive international matches during the 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 seasons, using a computerized tracking system (Prozone Sports Ltd., Leeds, England). Total distance (TD) and total high-speed running distances (THSR) were influenced by playing position, with central midfielders (CM) completing the highest (10985±706 m and 2882±500 m) and central defenders (CD) the lowest (9489±562 m and 1901±268 m) distances, respectively. Greater total very high-speed running (TVHSR) distances were completed when a team was without (399±143 m) compared to with (313±210 m) possession of the ball. The majority of sprints were over short distances with 76 % and 95 % being less than 5 m and 10 m, respectively. Between half reductions in physical performance were present for all variables, independent of playing position. The current study provides novel findings regarding the physical demands of different playing positions in competitive international female match-play and provides important insights for physical coaches preparing elite female players for competition.

Whilst Euro 2016 may not be remembered for the performances of Europe’s most established stars, it was undoubtedly a fantastic showcase of the exceptional young talent emerging across the continent. Both Renato Sanches, who won the Young Player of the Tournament award, and Kinglsey Coman, who was integral in France’s journey to the final, announced themselves on the world stage, much to the delight of Bayern Munich fans around the world, who will have the pleasure of seeing the duo playing together in their red and white next season.

The Bavarians, however, will not be the only Bundesliga fans enjoying watching some of the continent’s finest youngsters in action, week in week out, as the league continues to develop a host of exciting young players, both German and international, with world class potential. This high-level of youth development within their domestic game has transcended into success for Germany’s national team who, despite narrowly missing out on a place in this summer’s Euro 2016 Final, remain world champions with one of the best squads in world football and a unified team that have had experience of playing, and winning, together for a number of years.

Sports specialization in young children has been a popular trend over the past couple of decades, fueled by parents seeking ways to find college scholarship money for their children. Some kids are specializing in a sport by the time they leave elementary school.

The stampede for scholarship money has created unintended consequences in one sport, with leading orthopedic surgeons calling the staggering number of teenagers undergoing elbow surgery as an epidemic.

Young baseball players represent the highest number of athletes getting ulnar collateral ligament surgery, more commonly known as Tommy John surgery. What was once a specialty surgery performed on professional players is now most popular among teenagers because their arms are being overused at such a high rate.

You need to speak in public, but your knees buckle even before you reach the podium. You want to expand your network, but you’d rather swallow nails than make small talk with strangers. Speaking up in meetings would further your reputation at work, but you’re afraid of saying the wrong thing. Situations like these — ones that are important professionally, but personally terrifying — are, unfortunately, ubiquitous. An easy response to these situations is avoidance. Who wants to feel anxious when you don’t have to?

But the problem, of course, is that these tasks aren’t just unpleasant; they’re also necessary. As we grow and learn in our jobs and in our careers, we’re constantly faced with situations where we need to adapt our behavior. It’s simply a reality of the world we work in today. And without the skill and courage to take the leap, we can miss out on important opportunities for advancement. How can we as professionals stop building our lives around avoiding these unpleasant, but professionally beneficial, tasks?

Former Millwall and Crystal Palace player Matt Lawrence on the bad, the ugly, and the dowright dangerous pre-season training techniques of yesteryear

It’s called a Turkish getup. And if you’ve never heard of it, then you and Indianapolis Colts defensive end Kendall Langford have something in common.

It looks rather ridiculous, this funky, multistep, kettle-bell exercise that you’ll likely never see performed at your local gym and certainly would not expect to see in an NFL weight room.

Yet this exercise and others like it have become workout staples for Langford and his teammates. The story of how that came to be, the Colts hope, will be one of the reasons they are both healthier and better prepared for 2016.

The Athlome project is an international joint effort to identify performance genes and genes that may influence the injury and predisposition to injury and illness.

The Buccaneers are the first NFL team to have three cryosaunas on site, willingly investing in a technology that helps their players recover more quickly and effectively.

Co-Director of Football Rasmus Ankersen on why Brentford will always look for new ways of doing things to achieve success