Applied Sports Science newsletter – August 25, 2016

The NBA’s only three-time Sixth Man of the Year didn’t last this long by avoiding bad decisions, but by learning from them

When Mo Farah sealed his historic ‘double double’ at Rio 2016, he confirmed himself as the preeminent distance runner of his age. But what is it about the Briton that makes him so quick?

Diet

Mo’s favourite meal is a burger – but he only allows himself to have one a year.

Playing in the NWSL is a dream for many young women footballers. But it’s not always an easy life. Even during the season, the league’s fairly low salary range can make life in women’s soccer something of a struggle. And during the offseason, which lasts six months, keeping your head above water is a real challenge.

Nobody knows this better than Rachel Wood. The 26 year old midfielder-cum-centerback for the Boston Breakers is one of a handful of Americans who have yet to be capped for the national team. This means that Wood, who went to college at North Carolina and UC Irvine and spent her first year as a pro playing in Iceland, is on the lower end of the salary table on her team and in the league. While some NWSL players spend the offseason on temporary loan at a club overseas, Wood stays behind in Boston and tries to cobble together enough work to get by until the next season starts. [video, 8:03]

The purpose of this study was to quantify the workload during basketball-specific drills measured through microtechnology. Twelve professional male basketball players from the Spanish 1st Division were monitored over a 4-week period. Data were collected from 16 sessions, for a total of 95 ± 33 drills per player. Workload data (Acceleration load; AL) were obtained from a tri-axial accelerometer at 100Hz sampling frequency, and were expressed over time (AL.min-1). Comparisons among training drills (i.e., 2v2, 3v3, 4v4, and 5v5) were assessed via standardized mean differences. Full-court 3v3 and 5v5 showed the highest physical demand (AL.min-1: 18.7 ± 4.1 and 17.9 ± 4.6, respectively) compared with other traditional balanced basketball drills such as 2v2 and 4v4 (14.6 ± 2.8 and 13.8±2.5, respectively). The AL.min-1 on half-court showed trivial-to-moderate differences with a likely increase of ~10-20% in 2v2 drill compared with any other formats. This study provides insight into the specific requirements of a range of exercises typically performed in basketball sessions. The use of accelerometer data is presented as a useful tool in assessing the workload. [full text]

There is now a major college football strength and conditioning coach making nearly $600,000 a year: Iowa’s Chris Doyle.

Doyle will make $595,000 in base compensation from the university for a one-year period that began July 1, according to information provided by the university in response to an open-records request from USA TODAY Sports.

Doyle’s compensation reflects a raise of $80,000, or 15.5%, over his pay for last year and it matches the basic amounts that Hawkeyes offensive coordinator Greg Davis and defensive coordinator Phil Parker are scheduled to make.

This study aimed to translate movement patterns, technical skills and tactical actions associated with high-intensity efforts into metrics that could potentially be used to construct position-specific conditioning drills. A total of 20 individual English Premier League players’ high-intensity running profiles were observed multiple times (n = 100) using a computerised tracking system. Data were analysed using a novel high-intensity movement programme across five positions (centre back [CB], full-back [FB], central midfielder [CM], wide midfielder [WM] and centre forward [CF]). High-intensity efforts in contact with the ball and the average speed of efforts were greater in WMs than CBs, CMs and CFs (effect sizes [ES]: 0.9–2.1, P < 0.05). WMs produced more repeated efforts than CBs and CMs (ES: 0.6–1.3, P < 0.05). In possession, WMs executed more tricks post effort than CBs and CMs (ES: 1.2–1.3, P < 0.01). FBs and WMs performed more crosses post effort than other positions (ES: 1.1–2.0, P < 0.01). Out of possession, CFs completed more efforts closing down the opposition (ES: 1.4–5.0, P < 0.01) but less tracking opposition runners than other positions (ES: 1.5–1.8, P < 0.01). CFs performed more arc runs before efforts compared to CBs, FBs and WMs (ES: 0.9–1.4, P < 0.05), however, CBs completed more 0–90° turns compared to FBs, CMs and WMs (ES: 0.9–1.1, P < 0.01). The data demonstrate unique high-intensity trends in and out of possession that could assist practitioners when devising position-specific drills.

If only we could jack in our brains and download new knowledge and skills the way the Matrix films depict. But learning—whether historical facts, musical mastery, or athletic aptitude—takes effort and time. The long duration of childhood is surely evidence enough of that. So sorry, would–be Einsteins, there are no shortcuts.

But if accelerated learning is the stuff of myth and science fiction, then are there any tricks that actually can help us master new material? There are, and here are four of them.

A future of soft robots that wash your dishes or smart T-shirts that power your cell phone may depend on the development of stretchy power sources. But traditional batteries are thick and rigid — not ideal properties for materials that would be used in tiny malleable devices. In a step toward wearable electronics, a team of researchers has produced a stretchy micro-supercapacitor using ribbons of graphene. … “Most power sources, such as phone batteries, are not stretchable. They are very rigid,” says Xiaodong Chen, Ph.D. “My team has made stretchable electrodes, and we have integrated them into a supercapacitor, which is an energy storage device that powers electronic gadgets.”

Ear-based heart-rate monitoring gained momentum recently, as sensor maker Valencell Inc. announced it has licensed its biometric earpiece technology to Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd for use in so-called “hearable devices.”

The earbud technology could be an important move for Samsung because the human ear is said to be one of the best and least intrusive locations for accurately monitoring the heart. “We can pull all the heart rate information off the waveform at the ear and we can get blood pressure information, too,” Steven LeBoeuf, president and co-founder of Valencell, told Design News. “We can’t do that at wrist right now because the wrist doesn’t have the same blood perfusion.”

Eliminating particular high-impact drills in youth football practices significantly reduces the risk of head injuries, according to a study published in theJournal of Neurosurgery on Tuesday.

Researchers at Virginia Tech identified one drill, called “King of the Circle,” that was the most dangerous for 34 Virginia football players ages 9-11 who were followed in the study. The tackling drill consists of a ball carrier rushing from the center of the circle at defenders at the perimeter of the circle.

“The is the first such study that examines specific drills,” study co-author Stefan Duma, professor and head of the department of biomedical engineering at Virginia Tech, told USA TODAY Sports. “Others have focused on practice times and the quantity of impacts absorbed in practice. This is the first that studied specific kinds of drills that causes the most problems, like King of the Circle.”

… Traumatic brain injury caused during sports or recreation sends more than 170,000 kids and teens to the emergency ward each year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (link is external). And while many of those kids and teens do not suffer the same fate as Zack, sport concussion is globally recognized as a major public health concern that not only affects youth, but also college and professional athletes, as well as other adults in a wide range of sports.

Researchers at the University at Michigan are working on a number of projects that address traumatic brain injury, with a focus on reducing sport concussion and properly evaluating athletes before they return to play.

Got an early Ironman race-day start and wondering whether you really need to eat 2-3 hours before? Mark Kleanthous and Emma-Kate Lidbury has some advice

Most studies are done on men. What do we really know about the impact of hormone fluctuations on women’s nutritional needs for optimal fueling and recovery?

The pace of development of artificial intelligence is going to get faster. And not for the typical reasons — More money, interest from megacompanies, faster computers, cheap&huge data, and so on. Now it’s about to accelerate because other fields are starting to mesh with it, letting insights from one feed into the other, and vice versa.

That’s the gist of a new book by David Beyer, which sees him interview 10 experts about artificial intelligence. It’s free. READ IT. The main takeaway is that neural networks are drawing sustained attention from researchers across the academic spectrum.

… If MLS academy teams are the strongest, then superficial logic drives one to conclude they should just be playing each other and not against academy teams from amateur clubs.

For us, though, that would still be a problem. MLS teams are all pretty much the same. They don’t really give you different looks in terms of style of play. On the team front, there’s almost no top-shelf orchestration going on. Yes, a few coaches are trying some orchestrated tactics, but it’s simply not up to snuff.

On the player front, in general, they don’t have that intelligence, that nastiness, that craftiness, that wisdom, their international counterparts do – they’re very naive. That, in turn, contributes to our players staying naive as well.