Applied Sports Science newsletter – October 22, 2016

Liverpool legend Graeme Souness fears that Jurgen Klopp’s side could “run out of steam” this season.

The Reds go into Monday night’s showdown with Manchester United at Anfield on a high after five straight wins.

They have run further than any other Premier League side so far this term but Souness says maintaining Klopp’s high intensity style through until May will be a real challenge.

… The NBA will keep its “one-and-done” rule with college basketball, retreating on its original desire to make college players wait two years after high school graduation to become eligible for the NBA draft, league sources said. Two-way contracts between the NBA and NBA Development League will offer teams the chance to add 16th and 17th roster spots, and pay players differently based upon their assignments in either the league’s minor league or as part of the parent team, league sources said.

At the end of the 2015 campaign, the Seattle Sounders looked like a stock car that had been run into the wall one too many times. It was still able to get around the track most days, but the breakdowns due to wear and tear were happening too often.

By the time FC Dallas dispatched Seattle on penalties in the Western Conference semifinals last November, the Sounders were running out of bodies. Leo Gonzalez, Brad Evans and Ozzie Alonso were out injured. Marco Pappa and Nelson Valdez were less than 100 percent. At one point midfielder Cristian Roldan had to play left-back. The offseason mantra was simple: While a complete overhaul wasn’t needed, Seattle needed to get younger, faster and more durable.

“When we were kind of planning for the season, we had Clint [Dempsey] and Oba [Martins] and those were kind of the mainstays,” Seattle interim manager Brian Schmetzer said via telephone. “We had guys like Alonso and Evans. We had signed some guys at the end of last year — Andreas Ivanschitz, Valdez, we had Erik Friberg coming back — so we knew we had an experienced group of guys.

[Aaron Ramsey] was aiming to be back and fit to feature in Wednesday’s Champions League clash with Ludogorets.

But following his extended absence due to a hamstring injury picked up on the opening weekend of the season, a comeback this week is again too soon.

According to The Sun, Arsene Wenger will not risk the Welshman at the Emirates in midweek, and he won’t make an appearance for at least two more weeks.

Guided by Deci and Ryan’s (2000) self-determination theory, this survey study aimed to examine the effects of the talent development environmental factors on athlete burnout. Talented adolescent athletes (n = 691) filled out a survey form measuring the talent development environmental factors, needs satisfaction and burnout. The findings showed that three talent environmental factors (i.e., long-term development focus, holistic quality preparation and communication) were negative predictors of burnout via needs satisfaction. It was concluded that the three talent development environmental factors may be important for facilitating athletes’ needs satisfaction and preventing burnout.

Last spring, a student I was tutoring told me his back hurt. The boy, a 14-year-old in Northwest Washington, had played on school and travel soccer teams in the fall. Despite his pain, he was still playing travel ball, competing in weekend tournaments and practicing twice a week. I watched him struggle to squeeze in schoolwork around these commitments — even when he was reduced to lying on the floor with his feet up against the wall as we worked to prepare him for quizzes.

After a few weeks of this, he saw a doctor, who diagnosed a spinal stress fracture. In an email to me, his mother faulted all the soccer he had played — even after his back began to hurt.

This story is hardly unique. Every year, thousands of kids suffer injuries — including stress fractures and jumper’s knee — caused by intense sport specialization and overuse. As a tutor and a medical writer, I see how students are affected. Having suffered from overuse injuries when I was a youth athlete, I also know how they feel.

Former Georgia Tech offensive lineman Will Jackson’s memories practically invite shudders. During his college days, it was during this stretch of the fall semester that Jackson was inching through marathon study sessions, midterm exams, papers and presentations, all the while trying to help the Yellow Jackets compete for an ACC championship.

He has a particular recollection of ordering pizza, brewing coffee and holing up in the offensive line with teammate Ray Beno to hammer away and finance and math until 3 or 4 in the morning. The next day started at 7 or 8 a.m., followed by classes, position meetings, practice and more studying.

“For the midterm period, it’s an absolute grind,” Jackson said.

Historically, insomnia has been thought of as secondary to other disorders such as depression. The idea was that you became depressed – and that your sleep got messed up as a consequence. This might involve difficulty falling asleep, excessive time awake at night or waking up earlier than hoped.

This may make sense to those who have experienced depression and found that thoughts of distressing events such as of a deceased loved one, or previous failures, keep them awake at night. The possibility that depression leads to insomnia is also consistent with research in which I have been involved – where we found that adults with insomnia were more likely than others to have experienced anxiety and depression earlier in life.

But could things really be the other way around? Could poor sleep be making you depressed?

We determined the effect of concurrent training incorporating either high-intensity interval training (HIT) or moderate-intensity continuous training (MICT) on maximal strength, counter-movement jump (CMJ) performance, and body composition adaptations, compared with single-mode resistance training (RT). Twenty-three recreationally-active males (mean ± SD: age, 29.6 ± 5.5 y; “V” ?”O” 2peak, 44 ± 11 mL?kg-1•min-1) were ranked by one-repetition maximum (1-RM) leg press strength and randomly allocated tounderwent 8 weeks (3 sessions•wk-1) of either: 1) HIT combined with RT (HIT+RT group, n=8), 2) work-matched MICT combined with RT (MICT+RT group, n=7), or 3) RT performed alone (RT group, n=8). Measures of aerobic capacity, maximal (1-RM) strength, counter-movement jump (CMJ) performance and body composition (DXA) were obtained before (PRE), mid-way (MID), and after (POST) eight weeks of training. Maximal (one-repetition maximum [1-RM]) leg press strength was improved from PRE to POST for RT (mean change ±90% confidence interval; 38.5 ±8.5%; effect size [ES] ±90% confidence interval; 1.26 ±0.24; P<0.001), HIT+RT (28.7 ±5.3%; ES, 1.17 ±0.19; P<0.001) and MICT+RT (27.5 ±4.6%, ES, 0.81 ±0.12; P<0.001); however, the magnitude of this change was greater for RT vs. both HIT+RT (7.4 ±8.7%; ES, 0.40 ±0.40) and MICT+RT (8.2 ±9.9%; ES, 0.60 ±0.45). There were no substantial between-group differences in 1-RM bench press strength gain. RT induced greater changes in peak CMJ force vs. HIT+RT (6.8 ±4.5%; ES, 0.41 ±0.28) and MICT+RT (9.9 ±11.2%; ES, 0.54 ±0.65), and greater improvements in maximal CMJ rate of force development (RFD) vs. HIT+RT (24.1 ±26.1%; ES, 0.72 ±0.88). Lower-body lean mass was similarly increased for RT (4.1 ±2.0%; ES; 0.33 ±0.16; P=0.023) and MICT+RT (3.6 ±2.4%; ES; 0.45 ±0.30; P=0.052); however, this change was attenuated for HIT+RT (1.8 ±1.6%; ES; 0.13 ±0.12; P=0.069). We conclude that concurrent training incorporating either HIT or work-matched MICT similarly attenuates improvements in maximal lower-body strength and indices of CMJ performance compared with RT performed alone. This suggests endurance training intensity is not a critical mediator of interference to maximal strength gain during short-term concurrent training.

Speed is a crucial element an athlete must possess to be successful. In soccer, the ability to accelerate faster than your opponent can result in being first to reach a ball on a breakaway or stopping a counter attack. A unique way to train explosive movements is to evoke postactivation potentiation (PAP) in the working muscles. Traditionally, an overload stimulus with a long rest period is used, but a model utilizing an overspeed stimulus with shorter rest periods is less understood. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine the acute effects of varied rest intervals following assisted sprinting on bodyweight sprint time. Twenty-four female soccer players were split into two groups: recreational (n:11; age:20±1.67yrs; ht:162.30±4.35cm; mass:61.02±8.78kg) and collegiate athletes (n:13; age:19.76±0.83yrs; ht:166.85±5.98cm; mass:61.23±3.77kg). All participants attended five separate sessions, performed a dynamic warm up, then executed one 20m sprint (with 5m splits) at 30% bodyweight assistance (BWA). They then rested for 30s, one, two, or 4min in random order, followed by one bodyweight sprint with no BWA. Baseline sprint times were measured without BWA on the initial session of testing. Results revealed no difference in sprint time for the full 20m distance in either group. However, sprint time was significantly decreased for the 0-5m split only for the athletes following 1min (1.15±0.06s) and 2min (1.16±0.06s) rest compared to baseline (1.21±0.04s). Therefore, trained athletes should rest one or two minutes after 30% BWA supramaximal sprinting for increased bodyweight sprint speed.

The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of a 14-week dynamic Whole-Body Electrostimulation (WB-EMS) training program on muscular strength, soccer relevant sprint, jump and kicking velocity performance in elite soccer players during competitive season. Twenty-two field-players were assigned to 2 groups: WB-EMS group (EG, n = 12), jump-training group (TG, n = 10). The training programs were conducted twice a week concurrent to 6-7 soccer training sessions during the 2nd half of the season. Participants were tested before (baseline), during (wk-7) and after (wk-14). Blood serum samples for analyzing IGF-1 and CK were taken before each testing, 15-30min post and 24h post the training program. Our findings of the present study were that a 14-week in-season WB-EMS program significant increased one-leg maximal strength (1RM) at the leg press machine (1.99 vs. 1.66 kg/kg, p = 0.001), and improved linear sprinting (5m: 1.01 vs. 1.04s, p=0.039), sprinting with direction changes (3.07 vs. 3.25s, p = 0.024), and vertical jumping performance (SJ: 38.8 vs. 35.9cm p = 0.021) as well as kicking velocity (1step: 93.8 vs. 83.9 km·h-1, p < 0.001). The TG showed no changes in strength and performance. The EG revealed significantly increased CK levels 24h post training and yielded significantly higher CK levels compared to the TG. IGF-1 serum levels neither changed in the EG nor in the TG. The results give first hints that two sessions of a dynamic WB-EMS training in addition to 6-7 soccer sessions per week can be effective for significantly enhancing soccer relevant performance capacities in professional players during competitive season.

The NBA and USA Basketball have partnered to develop a first-ever set of youth basketball guidelines to enhance the way children, parents and coaches experience the game, emphasizing the importance of player health and wellness, the NBA announced Monday.

The recommended playing and rest guidelines — which have been endorsed by a handful of organizations such as AAU, Boys & Girls Clubs of America, Adidas, Nike, Under Armour and the NCAA — were established over the past six months by three working groups (health and wellness, playing standards and curriculum and instruction) made up of coaches, administrators, former players (including retired NBA champions Shane Battier and Bruce Bowen) and leading medical experts from around the world.

Interval exercise typically involves repeated bouts of relatively intense exercise interspersed by short periods of recovery. A common classification scheme subdivides this method into high-intensity interval training (HIIT; ‘near maximal’ efforts) and sprint interval training (SIT; ‘supramaximal’ efforts). Both forms of interval training induce the classic physiological adaptations characteristic of moderate-intensity continuous training (MICT) such as increased aerobic capacity (VO2max) and mitochondrial content. This brief review considers the role of exercise intensity in mediating physiological adaptations to training, with a focus on the capacity for aerobic energy metabolism. With respect to skeletal muscle adaptations, cellular stress and the resultant metabolic signals for mitochondrial biogenesis depend largely on exercise intensity, with limited work suggesting that increases in mitochondrial content are superior after HIIT compared to MICT, at least when matched-work comparisons are made within the same individual. It is well established that SIT increases mitochondrial content to a similar extent as MICT despite a reduced exercise volume. At the whole-body level, VO2max is generally increased more by HIIT than MICT for a given training volume, whereas SIT and MICT similarly improve VO2max despite differences in training volume. There is less evidence available regarding the role of exercise intensity in mediating changes in skeletal muscle capillary density, maximum stroke volume and cardiac output, and blood volume. Furthermore, the interactions between intensity and duration and frequency have not been thoroughly explored. While interval training is clearly a potent stimulus for physiological remodelling in humans, the integrative response to this type of exercise warrants further attention, especially in comparison to traditional endurance training.

… When we think of punishment in athletics, we need to stop thinking about compliance but instead about what message we are sending athletes. If I’m a soccer player or a football player, what does ‘running’ a few laps if I show up late do to me? It shifts my mindset to ‘the only reason I’m showing up is that I don’t want to get punished’ instead of “I show up on time to get better and out of respect for others.’ Additionally, it frames running (or whatever exercise) as a negative. All of the sudden, running becomes tied to ‘I’m in trouble.’

What this does is even more detrimental. It means that any time this player has to run, he’s not looking at it as an opportunity to get better, he’s looking at it as something he has to suffer through because of something he did wrong. That means, we further reinforce the horrible sloppy shuffle run thing that team players often do, as they go through the motions with no intention or focus.

… Players have been using the devices since May, when DeSoto became one of the nation’s first high schools to sign on with Catapult Sports, which for years has provided the devices that use GPS and accelerometers to pro and college sports teams. Among its clients are the Cowboys and more than half of the NFL’s teams, as well as more than 50 colleges, including Baylor and Texas A&M. A dozen NBA teams are using the devices, including the Mavericks — and owner Mark Cuban is an investor in the company.

About 30 high schools nationwide are now Catapult clients, but DeSoto was the only one in Texas until a month ago, when Coppell signed up. Coppell coach Mike DeWitt said he’s impressed with the data that the devices provide, but because his team began using them after the season started, he expects to see most benefits next year.

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to examine the reliability, validity and usefulness of the 30-15IFT in competitive female soccer players. METHODS: Seventeen elite female soccer players participated in the study. A within subject test-retest study design was utilized to assess the reliability of the 30-15 intermittent fitness test (IFT). Seven days prior to 30-15IFT, subjects performed a continuous aerobic running test (CT) under laboratory conditions to assess the criterion validity of the 30-15IFT. End running velocity (VCT and VIFT), peak heart rate (HRpeak) and maximal oxygen consumption (VO2max) were collected and/or estimated for both tests. RESULTS: VIFT (ICC = 0.91; CV = 1.8%), HRpeak (ICC = 0.94; CV = 1.2%), and VO2max (ICC = 0.94; CV = 1.6%) obtained from the 30-15IFT were all deemed highly reliable (p>0.05). Pearson product moment correlations between the CT and 30-15IFT for VO2max, HRpeak and end running velocity were large (r = 0.67, p=0.013), very large (r = 0.77, p=0.02) and large (r = 0.57, p=0.042), respectively. CONCLUSION: Current findings suggest that the 30 -15IFT is a valid and reliable intermittent aerobic fitness test of elite female soccer players. The findings have also provided practitioners with evidence to support the accurate detection of meaningful individual changes in VIFT of 0.5 km/h (1 stage) and HRpeak of 2 bpm. This information may assist coaches in monitoring ‘real’ aerobic fitness changes to better inform training of female intermittent team sport athletes. Lastly, coaches could use the 30-15IFT as a practical alternative to laboratory based assessments to assess and monitor intermittent aerobic fitness changes in their athletes.

… Before IO-Link, communication from sensors was limited. For example, linear and rotary sensors could not communicate if a position element was in or out of range. Similarly, a temperature sensor without IO-Link may only be able to communicate if it’s inside its optimal operating range.

With IO-Link, sensors can communicate more than just the basics. They can communicate about health, safety, and environmental factors, such as specific temperature, placement of a position element, or if a pressure rating has been exceeded.

Gone are the days of playing a sport and having your coach decide whether or not you had a good game. First came statistic tracking and basing your performance off of numbers, then came watching film of past game. While those methods are not obsolete, the Quinnipiac men’s soccer team is keeping tabs on its players performances in a brand new way – a performance tracking system.

The performance tracking system, known as Playertek, is a GPS system that calculates anything from how many miles the players run each game, how often they’re sprinting, their impacts, and where they are on the field each game.

All the information comes from a pod nestled in a vest the players wear under their shirts during games and practices, which after a match they can plug in to the computer and see exactly how much they exerted themselves each game.

This system, according to head coach Eric Da Costa, is helpful in keeping the players accountable.

Researchers from MIT and Harvard Medical School have developed a biocompatible and highly stretchable optical fiber made from hydrogel — an elastic, rubbery material composed mostly of water. The fiber, which is as bendable as a rope of licorice, may one day be implanted in the body to deliver therapeutic pulses of light or light up at the first sign of disease.

The researchers say the fiber may serve as a long-lasting implant that would bend and twist with the body without breaking down. The team has published its results online in the journal Advanced Materials.

Using light to activate cells, and particularly neurons in the brain, is a highly active field known as optogenetics, in which researchers deliver short pulses of light to targeted tissues using needle-like fibers, through which they shine light from an LED source.

“But the brain is like a bowl of Jell-O, whereas these fibers are like glass — very rigid, which can possibly damage brain tissues,” says Xuanhe Zhao, the Robert N. Noyce Career Development Associate Professor in MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering. “If these fibers could match the flexibility and softness of the brain, they could provide long-term more effective stimulation and therapy.”

ShotTracker, a company that got its start by launching a wearable sensor to track and analyze your basketball shots, has announced a $5M seed round that includes participation from basketball legend Magic Johnson and former NBA Commissioner David Stern.

R/GA and Elysian Park Ventures, which manage the LA Dodgers’ sports accelerator also participated, as well as Greycroft Partners.

…
Stoke City FC, Leicester City FC and Swedish FA use AP Viewer

Previous

Posted on October 20th 2016 by Josh Bryan

In today’s blog, I would like to welcome a new team as an AP Viewer user and thank our existing users for continuing to renew their service. The team we are welcoming is Stoke City FC.

Stoke City started using AP Viewer this season, with 21 AP Viewer iPad licences that can be used by their players and coaches to easily review their video, timeline and matrix data that is generated in SportsCode. With the app running on the iPad Minis at the club, all players and coaches can instantly review their matches and performances wherever they are at the tap of a button. Due to the portability and easy user interface of AP Viewer, everyone can review whilst on the exercise bikes or travelling to a game for example.

Transferring a package onto the iPads is a simple process for analysts Scott Coomber and Stephen Corns. After preparing a SportsCode package, they just have to drop this onto the AP Packager application to licence it so it can be shared with the registered AP Viewer licences. A physical transfer through iTunes then puts the timeline and matrix data straight onto the iPad so it can be reviewed at any time, without needing a connection to the internet for example.

… the benefits of technology always outweigh the temporary “gotchas” that occur. Here’s an example. Let’s say you only have access to your playbook and print-outs from the game. OK. How long does it take to view the photos? You already know you won’t be watching any replays during the game unless you look up at the stadium screens. This is not about perfect apps and hardware. Technology is a tool to help us process information and make better decisions. When we start expecting technology to be 100% reliable every time we use it, we start assuming that technology can provide all of the answers. It never will. Even in a far future society where everyone owns a driverless car and speaks to a robotic assistant (hopefully not implanted directly into our brains), there will be bugs. In some ways, you might say it is part of the human experience. Perfection has never been in our DNA and it is not in our technology, either. We can expect some aspects of technology to be almost flawless, but never totally flawless in every way.

For most consumers, the idea of monitoring movement through wearable technology is new. However, coaches, trainers, and athletes have been using lightweight sensing devices for more than a decade. While the consumer markets have focused on activity tracking and coaching, the power and accuracy available in today’s wearables are bringing lab-grade technology into the field for specialized use cases. This includes everything from tracking your golf swing to concussion sensing.

At Scribe Labs, we developed a wearable sensor for running, called RunScribe. Over the past year, we’ve amassed what we believe is one of the largest databases of “real world” run data comprised of advanced metrics, including: symmetry, flight ratio, pronation, pronation velocity, footstrike type, shock, impact Gs, and braking Gs. At last count, we’ve captured more than 45,000 runs, 200,000 miles and 245 million steps. From those runs, we’ve calculated more than three billion run metrics. So yeah, we’ve got a lot of data. With that data, we have a unique perspective on what works—and what doesn’t—when sports professionals bring wearable tech into their programs.

… For Kai Sato, co-founder of the sports social network FieldLevel, the Dodgers’ accelerator program is just the beginning. Once teams recognize the opportunity in sports tech — as both consumers of products and investors of startups — he think they’ll be tripping over themselves to get involved.

“It’s already happening,” Sato said. “We’ve been approached by several companies that are running similar types of initiatives for pro teams. It comes down to vertical integration. … No question, everyone in the sports world really wants to take notice.”

Sato points out that Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert helped launch Courtside Ventures, a $35 million venture capital fund focused on investments into technology and media, with an emphasis on sports. Other tech billionaires now in the professional sports world, such as Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, already possess the expertise on both sides of the industry to oversee the merging of sports and tech.

The secret to better running—faster times and lower injury risk—might lie in your hips rather than in your feet. According to Rebecca Shultz, a biomechanist at wearables company Lumo Bodytech, how you move and control your body’s core can matter more than the shoes that you wear.

Lumo’s latest product, Lumo Run, is a small, pebble-shaped device that clips onto a runner’s waistband at the base of their spine. Accelerometers and gyroscopes inside can then determine how the runner’s pelvis is moving through space. That data can be used to determine your running biomechanics, and with coaching, teach you “how to be efficient,” Shultz says, “and how to reduce your risk of injury.”

These are the men Gareth Southgate is relying on to help him make an instant impact as England manager.

Southgate’s reign began with victory over Malta on Saturday and the caretaker boss – drafted in to fill the gap following the departure of Sam Allardyce – was surrounded by his trusted advisers on the Wembley bench.

Among them are a former lead doctor at British Athletics, a physiotherapist with experience of working in South Korea, an ex director of the Crewe academy and a shipyard worker from Dumbarton who used to drive the team bus. Here, Sportsmail breaks down Southgate’s crew, what they do and where their careers have taken them…

Shoe surface – Interaction Influences Injury Risk in Football by Athol Thomson, Podiatrist – Aspetar on 22nd Sep ’15.

Ben Roethlisberger will need surgery but his season will not be over. Big Ben has a meniscus tear like Adrian Peterson; however, the Steelers quarterback will return in short order.

Not all meniscus tears are the same. A locked bucket-handle displaced meniscus tear like the Vikings running back had requires repair to prevent long-term problems. Sutures require healing time measured in months. By video, Roethlisberger has a simple smaller meniscus tear that likely will be trimmed without the option for repair and his return will be measured in weeks. When laying down new sod, one must “keep off the grass”; however, after mowing the lawn, one can play football on the grass immediately.

The worst fears of injury were avoided. Roethlisberger described what he thought was a hyperextension injury but fortunately there was no serious ligament tear.

Purpose: Achilles tendinopathy (AT) is a prevalent injury in running sports. Understanding the biomechanical factors associated with AT will assist in its management and prevention. The purpose of this study was to compare hip and ankle kinematics and kinetics in runners with and without AT.

Methods: Fourteen male runners with AT and eleven healthy male runners (CTRL) ran over-ground whilst lower-limb joint motion and ground reaction force data were synchronously captured. Hip and ankle joint angles, moments, and impulses in all three planes (sagittal, transverse and frontal) were extracted for analysis. Independent t-tests were used to compare the differences between the AT and CTRL groups for the biomechanical variables of interest. Following Bonferroni adjustment, an alpha level of 0.0026 was set for all analyses.

Results: The AT group exhibited an increased peak hip external rotation moment (p= 0.001), hip external rotation impulse (p <0.001) and hip adduction impulse (p <0.001) compared to the CTRL group. No significant differences in ankle biomechanics were observed.

Conclusion: This study presents preliminary evidence indicating that male runners with AT display altered hip biomechanics with respect to their healthy counterparts. Due to the retrospective design of the study, it is unknown whether these alterations are a predisposing factor for the disorder, a result of the condition, or a combination of both. The results of this study suggest that optimizing hip joint function should be considered in the rehabilitation of runners with AT.

OBJECTIVES:

previous studies investigating the ability of isokinetic strength ratios to predict hamstring injuries in soccer players have reported conflicting results.
HYPOTHESIS:

to determine if isokinetic ratios are able to predict hamstring injury occurring during the season in professional soccer players.
STUDY DESIGN:

case-control study;
LEVEL OF EVIDENCE:

3.
METHODS:

from 2001 to 2011, 350 isokinetic tests were performed in 136 professional soccer players at the beginning of the soccer season. Fifty-seven players suffered hamstring injury during the season that followed the isokinetic tests. These players were compared with the 79 uninjured players. The bilateral concentric ratio (hamstring-to-hamstring), ipsilateral concentric ratio (hamstring-to-quadriceps), and mixed ratio (eccentric/concentric hamstring-to-quadriceps) were studied. The predictive ability of each ratio was established based on the likelihood ratio and post-test probability.
RESULTS:

the mixed ratio (30 eccentric/240 concentric hamstring-to-quadriceps) <0.8, ipsilateral ratio (180 concentric hamstring-to-quadriceps) <0.47, and bilateral ratio (60 concentric hamstring-to-hamstring) <0.85 were the most predictive of hamstring injury. The ipsilateral ratio <0.47 allowed prediction of the severity of the hamstring injury, and was also influenced by the length of time since administration of the isokinetic tests.
CONCLUSION:

isokinetic ratios are useful for predicting the likelihood of hamstring injury in professional soccer players during the competitive season.

Welcome to this #IOCprev2017 #tweetchat with @MarkusWalden & @MHgglund

Let’s talk #football injuries & their prevention #Soccer

Background

Hamstring injuries are among the most common non-contact injuries in sports. The Nordic hamstring (NH) exercise has been shown to decrease risk by increasing eccentric hamstring strength.
Objective

The purpose of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to investigate the effectiveness of the injury prevention programs that included the NH exercise on reducing hamstring injury rates while factoring in athlete workload.
Methods

Two researchers independently searched for eligible studies using the following databases: the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials via OvidSP, AMED (Allied and Complementary Medicine) via OvidSP, EMBASE, PubMed, MEDLINE, SPORTDiscus, Web of Science, CINAHL and AusSportMed, from inception to December 2015. The keyword domains used during the search were Nordic, hamstring, injury prevention programs, sports and variations of these keywords. The initial search resulted in 3242 articles which were filtered to five articles that met the inclusion criteria. The main inclusion criteria were randomized controlled trials or interventional studies on use of an injury prevention program that included the NH exercise while the primary outcome was hamstring injury rate. Extracted data were subjected to meta-analysis using a random effects model.
Results

The pooled results based on total injuries per 1000 h of exposure showed that programs that included the NH exercise had a statistically significant reduction in hamstring injury risk ratio [IRR] of 0.490 (95 % confidence interval [CI] 0.291–0.827, p = 0.008). Teams using injury prevention programs that included the NH exercise reduced hamstring injury rates up to 51 % in the long term compared with the teams that did not use any injury prevention measures.
Conclusions

This systematic review and meta-analysis demonstrates that injury prevention programs that include NH exercises decrease the risk of hamstring injuries among soccer players. A protocol was registered in the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews, PROSPERO (CRD42015019912).

Purpose: Supplementation with dietary forms of vitamin D is commonplace in clinical medicine, elite athletic cohorts and the general population, yet the response of all major vitamin D metabolites to high doses of vitamin D is poorly characterized. We aimed to identify the responses of all major vitamin D metabolites to moderate and high dose supplemental vitamin D3.

Methods: A repeated measures design was implemented in which 46 elite professional European athletes were block randomized based on their basal 25[OH]D concentration into two treatment groups. Athletes received either 35,000 or 70,000 IU.week-1 vitamin D3 for 12 weeks and 42 athletes completed the trial. Blood samples were collected over 18 weeks to monitor the response to supplementation and withdrawal from supplementation.

Results: Both doses led to significant increases in serum 25[OH]D and 1,25[OH]2D3. 70,000 IU.week-1 also resulted in a significant increase of the metabolite 24,25[OH]2D at weeks 6 and 12 that persisted following supplementation withdrawal at week 18, despite a marked decrease in 1,25[OH]2D3. Intact PTH was decreased in both groups by week 6 and remained suppressed throughout the trial.

Conclusions: High dose vitamin D3 supplementation (70,000 IU.week-1) may be detrimental for its intended purposes due to increased 24,25[OH]2D production. Rapid withdrawal from high dose supplementation may inhibit the bioactivity of 1,25[OH]2D3 as a consequence of sustained increases in 24,25[OH]2D that persist as 25[OH]D and 1,25[OH]2D concentrations decrease. These data imply that lower doses of vitamin D3 ingested frequently may be most appropriate and gradual withdrawal from supplementation as opposed to rapid withdrawal may be favorable.

Like many of my friends, I spent years using prescription stimulants to get through school and start my career. Then I tried to get off them.

… In the two days embedded with GSSI staffers, we learned about Gatorade’s new Gx sports fuel customization platform, which is touted as a revolutionary and more precise way for athletes to know when and how to hydrate during competition and athletic training. Gx includes new equipment, including a bottle with flip cap, pods with pre-made Gatorade formula and additional technologies to provide athlete fueling recommendations. Teams such as the Kansas City Chiefs, Denver Broncos, Chicago Bulls, FC Barcelona and University of Florida are currently using the platform.

Mobile device technology and the range of tools available to track nutritional intake are playing an increased role in maintaining optimal fitness and staying more active.

Not too far in the future, when you reach for a healthy drink, it might be full of water from a cactus.

Your main course at dinner might be a pear-like fruit from Southeast Asia that does a remarkable job of imitating meat. The next candy bar your children bite into might be infused with mushrooms that help cut down on the sugar needed to sweeten the treat. And their breakfast cereal might be colored with algae instead of chemicals.

Why the wave of exotic delights? Nutrition science—and customers’ rapidly changing tastes—are forcing the food business to search ever farther afield for new edibles.

Everybody knows standards change—fat was bad, for instance, until the big no-nos became carbs and gluten—and each time they do, a rash of new products appear that claim to be packed with good stuff and free of things that cause harm.

Out of all motivational states, thirst should have been a simple one to understand. One feels thirsty when one is dehydrated, which can be detected from blood volume and osmolarity. Drinking water hydrates one’s body and quenches thirst. This is a homeostatic model. Intuitive, right? Well, the strange thing about thirst is that it is quenched within seconds to minutes after drinking water, which is too fast for any changes in the blood to happen. This is as if the brain gets hydrated before the body, which makes little sense since there is no specialized canal that passes water from mouth to brain (thank goodness). On the other hand, the buildup of the thirst drive is usually rather slow, meaning that thirst state can change on both a fast and slow time scale. How does it work?

To answer these kinds of questions, Zack Knight’s lab at UCSF uses mice as a model and records the activity of excitatory neurons in a brain region called SFO (referred to as the SFO neurons below). These SFO neurons have been previously shown to drive avid drinking in fully hydrated mice when stimulated optogenetically. This new work2, led by Zack’s graduate student Christopher Zimmerman, begins by showing that the activity of the SFO neurons behaves exactly as what one expects from the thirst drive. Their activity increases dramatically after the injection of either salt solutions (which increases blood osmolarity) or a drug that reduces blood volume (which normally happens during dehydration). Both phenomena are to be expected from the classic thirst homeostatic model.

The homeostatic model fell apart when Zimmerman et al. found that the SFO neurons’ activity decreased dramatically minutes after a thirsty mouse started drinking and stayed low after (Figure 1). This is in contrast to the blood osmolarity level, which does not start decreasing until later. When looked at in detail, the SFO neurons’ activity starts decreasing when the animal starts licking (i.e. drinking) water. These results suggest that sensory inputs from mouth directly tell the SFO neurons that the animal is drinking water, therefore dampening down the thirst drive in anticipation of a drop in blood osmolarity and an increase in blood volume.

As another season of baseball wraps up, and players in the 2017 Playoff series “jump the gap” of athletic baselines and become heroes through feats of sheer “not-human” athletic prowess fueled by only willpower, the question remains…

“Where are we going wrong with injury prevention?”

Not one- but two Major League Baseball teams set injury records this season.

Social scientist Kate Crawford (previously) and legal scholar Ryan Calo (previously) helped organize the interdisciplinary White House AI Now summits on how AI could increase inequality, erode accountability, and lead us into temptation and what to do about it.

Now, writing in Nature, the two argue that AI thinking is plagued by a “blind spot”: “there are no agreed methods to assess the sustained effects of such applications on human populations.” In other words, to quote Pedro Domingos from The Master Algorithm: “People worry that computers will get too smart and take over the world, but the real problem is that they’re too stupid and they’ve already taken over the world.”

Liverpool have introduced an Academy wage cap in an effort to combat the ‘too much, too young’ culture in English football.

Teenagers are being lured to join the biggest Premier League clubs with huge financial incentives but the Merseyside club has decided it will no longer pay more than a basic salary of £40,000 a year to their 17-year-old first season professionals.

That will increase with bonuses such as Under 23 appearances and first team promotions at Anfield or while on loan in the lower divisions.

Athlete gender has a greater impact on various performance metrics (speed, pace variation, hitting the wall) than age.

While men are faster than women, women are more disciplined. Women enjoy more even pacing and hit the wall far less than men.

Faster runners are more likely to be repeat marathoners. Men are more likely to repeat than women and older runners repeat more than younger runners. And the experience gained from repeat marathons has a positive impact on performance in terms of speed, pacing, and the tendancy for athletes to hit the wall.

Background

In the first decade of this century players in the National Football League, the NFL community, fans, even the public at large, became aware that multiple concussions, heretofore considered inconsequential, could have devastating consequences later in life.
Results

Since 1978, each one of the 32 teams in the NFL plays 16 games in the regular season. In the 25 years from 1978 to 2004 home advantage in the regular season tended to increase with Game Number (1–16). Then in the following decade (2005–2014) it changed direction and tended clearly to decrease. The change in direction was highly reliable statistically.
Discussion

The result reported in this paper is an association in time between two striking events, a new consciousness regarding the long-term consequences of concussions in football, and a change in the course of home advantage in the regular season. The paper then advances a possible explanation for this association. The home advantage may be equally well treated as an away disadvantage, the disadvantage being that away players tend to feel on the defensive, that both the hometown crowd and the officials are against them. Injuries put players on both teams on the defensive. The higher the percentage of players on a team who are injured or playing hurt (injury prevalence) the less likely it is that as-yet-uninjured players will adopt an attacking style of play. Injury prevalence increases linearly with Game Number. It turns out, however, that formal considerations require that injury prevalence be the same or close to it for teams playing at home and teams playing away. Therefore, the away disadvantage in total defensiveness (defensiveness due to playing away plus defensiveness due to injury) starts at 1 in the first game of the season, decreases steeply at first, and then decelerates as it approaches .5. This downward course of the away disadvantage in total defensiveness leads directly to a corresponding downward course of the home advantage in game outcome (by the teamwork theory of home advantage).
Conclusions

Further research on the reported association or its explanation may be complicated by continued change in the association itself. [full text]

‘Le petit chou-chou du vestaire’ – ‘the little pet of the dressing room’ – is what they called N’Golo Kante when he played for Caen. He was a player whose former Leicester City teammates found impossible to draw into conversation and who is so small that the club’s security staff assumed he was over on trial with the youth team when he arrived at the Belvoir Drive training ground to sign, on August 3 last year. “Staying in the Marriott?” one of them asked him as Kante waited for a taxi that day. “Nice of your mum and dad to put you up in a big hotel…”

Quiet man; quiet purchase. While other Premier League clubs blew a fortune on high profile targets, Leicester displayed nothing more complicated than intelligence, rigour and a willingness to sift the evidence. Esteban Cambiasso was leaving the club, so they asked the analytics team to look for metrics such as most interceptions, tackles and forward passes per 90 minutes across Europe’s top leagues. Then they profiled statistics relevant to Leicester’s playing style, such as turnover of possession and ‘ball recoveries.’ Kante’s name just kept cropping up. A French agent who had been involved in the player’s development thought that 5ft 6ins was too small for the Premier League but Steve Walsh, chief scout and now Everton director of football, insisted this was the one. Caen were paid £5.6m and the rest is history.

The story of his capture – finalised because Marseille, a club Kante would have preferred, foolishly tried to lowball Caen – is one of many told in ‘Fearless’, a new book on Leicester’s incredible title season by the journalist Jonathan Northcroft. Required reading for every club aspiring to achieve a fraction of what Leicester did, it reveals in its impeccably researched detail some of the less appreciated reasons why “the greatest miracle in sports history” actually happened.

The Pirates front office staff and coaches gathered in Bradenton, Fla., last week for their annual post-season meetings. There they evaluated the previous season and began setting a course for the coming offseason.

The clear goal is to close the gap on the Cubs in the National League Central. The team must find and improve pitching and overall run prevention to cut into the 25-game difference between the two teams this year.

Identifying the issue is one thing. Fixing it is an entirely different challenge.

In June, Forbes published its annual list of the world’s highest paid athletes. Of the top 25, nine are Americans employed by teams in the NBA or NFL. At first glance, $77 million in total income for LeBron James?—?he of the World Champion Cleveland Cavaliers and arguably the greatest basketball player on the planet?—?seems like a lot of money for someone who “plays” a game for a living. But as is often the case, things are not what they appear. In reality, James and many other athletes are actually wildly underpaid?—?specifically when it comes to their on-field salaries.