Applied Sports Science newsletter – July 31, 2017

Applied Sports Science news articles, blog posts and research papers for July 31, 2017

 

25-year career? Seahawks’ Russell Wilson bolsters offseason routine

ESPN NFL, Sheil Kapadia from

… Wilson saw how Brady appeared to be moving better at age 39 than he did at 25. He took notice of how Brady maneuvered in the pocket. He took notice of how Brady’s arm looked as strong as ever. He listened this offseason when Brady said he’d like to play at least into his mid-40s before he even considers retirement.

“Uh, yeah, I pay attention,” Wilson told ESPN.com. “I’ll say that. I pay attention. Something that I’ve observed and seen. He’s a great example of longevity. He’s a great example of being able to be mobile — a different mobility, but you know what I mean. Being able to seem like he’s just getting better. That’s what I always want to be. That’s my focus.”

 

Detroit Lions quarterback Matt Stafford says he worked with personal quarterback coach in offseason

ESPN NFL, Michael Rothstein from

Toward the end of the 2013 season, with the Detroit Lions heading toward another collapse of a finish, quarterback Matthew Stafford scoffed at the idea he should work with a private quarterback coach. At the time, he said he didn’t think it would be “beneficial” to him.

Now, at age 29, Stafford has changed his mind.

For the first time in his career, Stafford spent time with a private quarterback tutor this offseason. He worked in California — the Detroit Free Press tweeted it is Tom House’s group, the same one who works with Stafford’s friend, Matt Ryan — trying to find small areas here and there to improve his game.

 

Lionel Messi should get better with age for Barcelona

ESPN FC, Gabriele Marcotti from

If there’s a downside to being Lionel Messi, it probably manifests itself in contract negotiations. Earlier this month, less than a year away from free agency, he signed an extension tying him to Barcelona through 2021.

Ordinarily, you’d expect a GOAT candidate running down his contract to foster endless media speculation. Is he looking for a new challenge? What does he want from the club? Can somebody make him an offer that can’t be refused?

Not here, and not Messi. It was about as anti-climactic as it can reasonably get in these circumstances. An object at rest remains at rest. This is a guy who was with the same woman — the mother of his children, whom he has known since he was 5 years old — for 10 years before getting married on July 1, just a few days before signing his new deal. He turned 30 just over a month ago and yet, if you can somehow ignore the hair and the beard, he looks like the little guy we see scampering across the pitch in his early YouTube videos.

 

The Next Great Point Guard? Layshia Clarendon Makes Her Case

The New York Times, Howard Megdal from

… When evaluating the next great American point guard, the question now is: Why not Clarendon?

It has been a remarkable leap forward for someone who had not played the primary point guard position in the pros until recently. At California, which reached the Final Four in 2013, her senior season, Clarendon shared distribution duties with Brittany Boyd, now of the Liberty.

“One of the reasons we were so good that year was that we essentially had two point guards on the floor at all times,” Bears Coach Lindsay Gottlieb said. “Layshia was technically our two guard, but had the green light to handle the ball and push in transition whenever she wanted. I think it made her a better player because she had to think like a point guard, but also play with the mentality of a go-to scorer.”

 

We Evolved to Run—But We’re Doing It All Wrong

National Geographic, Simon Worrall from

These days, running seems to have little to do with survival—it’s all about sport watches and burning calories.

But for our remote ancestors, the ability to run over long distances in pursuit of prey, such as ostrich or antelope, gave us an evolutionary edge—as well as an Achilles tendon ideal for going the distance. (Related: “Humans Were Born to Run, Fossil Study Suggests.”)

In his new book, Footnotes: How Running Makes Us Human, University of Kent researcher Vybarr Cregan-Reid reminds us of this often forgotten history. To him, running is ultimately about freedom and leaving the gadgets behind to connect with nature (he calls treadmills the “junk food of exercise.”)

 

Largest ever biomechanics research project in athletics to be undertaken at IAAF World Championships London 2017

IAAF from

Leeds Beckett University, in cooperation with the IAAF, will carry out the biggest biomechanics research project ever conducted in athletics during next month’s IAAF World Championships London 2017.

The aim of the project is to support athletes and coaches in optimisation and improvement of their training and competition performance.

 

Sports science — the next frontier — comes to high school sports

Indystar.com, Kyle Neddenriep from

John Lewis reported to Lawrence Central on Wednesday morning with the rest of his underclassmen football teammates with little idea of what to expect. All he knew was this: the word “combine” was involved.

“I thought it was going to be a 40-yard dash and shuttle run,” Lewis said. “Stuff like that.”

It was not. Lawrence Central hosted a “Sports Science Combine” on Wednesday, billed as the first of its kind in the country. Dozens of high school football players from multiple area schools participated in a combine that tested for behavioral and physical traits designed to arm coaches and players with data to maximize the potential of the individual and team.

In other words, advanced — and personalized — analytics at the high school level.

 

The digital native is a myth

Nature News & Comment, Editorial from

The younger generation uses technology in the same ways as older people — and is no better at multitasking.

 

Why Mistakes Matter in Creating A Path For Learning

KQED, MindShift, Hechinger Report, Claudia Wallis from

Most of us can remember a moment like this from our school years: the teacher poses a question – maybe it’s math, maybe history. You raise your hand, you give your answer with full assurance. And then? You’re shot down. You got it wrong.

We remember moments like this because they brim with some of our least favorite emotions: shame, humiliation, self-recrimination, and that gutting sense that you want to melt into the floor. Ah yes, I remember it well.

As it turns out, though, such moments are ripe with learning opportunity. Contrary to what many of us might guess, making a mistake with high confidence and then being corrected is one of the most powerful ways to absorb something and retain it.

 

Playing video games changes your brain. This is how

World Economic Forum, Frontiers Communication from

Scientists have collected and summarized studies looking at how video games can shape our brains and behavior. Research to date suggests that playing video games can change the brain regions responsible for attention and visuospatial skills and make them more efficient. The researchers also looked at studies exploring brain regions associated with the reward system, and how these are related to video game addiction.

Do you play video games? If so, you aren’t alone. Video games are becoming more common and are increasingly enjoyed by adults. The average age of gamers has been increasing, and was estimated to be 35 in 2016. Changing technology also means that more people are exposed to video games. Many committed gamers play on desktop computers or consoles, but a new breed of casual gamers has emerged, who play on smartphones and tablets at spare moments throughout the day, like their morning commute. So, we know that video games are an increasingly common form of entertainment, but do they have any effect on our brains and behavior?

 

Tackling Tech: The NFL, MLB Teams Get Sound Advice on Player Muscle Health

New England Patriots, Bob Wallace from

Coaches and medical staffers for pro and college sports have found sound advice on the muscle health of their players thanks to an emerging sports tech company whose product detects issues and suggests corrective actions for the underperforming and injured.

MuscleSound uses nearly ubiquitous ultrasound technology and it’s version of a device that is best known for gliding over the stomachs of pregnant women to produce images. Muscle test results are immediately accessible to coaches from the firm’s cloud-based app.

The Colorado Rockies are believers in MuscleSound, having recently celebrated a five-year partnership with the upstart that began as a pilot effort in 2013. The upstart’s non-invasive scans are being used by NFL teams to detect problems and set a baseline for muscle health measurement before training camps.

 

Kiwi tech helps sports superstars recover

New Zealand Herald, Matthew Theunissen from

After a car accident left him unable to walk or pursue his dream of becoming a professional swimmer, Mark Finch has dedicated the past six years to creating groundbreaking technology that helps athletes recover from injury.

The University of Auckland bio-medical engineer and his collaborator, Thor Besier, have developed small wearable sensors that can precisely measure the impact placed on athletes’ bodies, with potential to determine their best course of rehabilitation and prevent further injury.

Their start-up, IMeasureU, was recently acquired by motion-capture giant Vicon, the company behind the technology that created Gollum in the Lord of the Rings films, and the characters in Pirates of the Caribbean and Transformers.

“The sensors in here are kind of like the same sensors in your phone when you turn left to right … but it’s the maths that you put behind it that makes it interpretable and useable,” Finch says.

 

Wearables: Not dead, but need focus

CNBC, Christina Farr from

… “I still think the data play is interesting, though it’s hard to bet on hardware,” said Stephen Kraus, a health investor with Bessemer Venture Partners who is continuing to meet with wearables start-ups.

Thus far, wearables makers have made money through consumer sales and enterprise contracts. But, in the future, these companies might find new revenue opportunities from other health industry stakeholders.

“Ultimately, the signal out of these devices will be large enough that it will matter to practitioners and pharmaceutical companies,” Kraus predicted.

 

These Footballs Provide Eagles With Next Gen Stats

Philadelphia Eagles, Dave Spadaro from

An embedded chip inside the football will help keep the Eagles ahead of the curve in the analytics battle.

For the first time, the footballs the Eagles use in Training Camp this summer, in the preseason games, and throughout the 2017 season will have a chip inserted under the laces of the ball. The chips will help the team gather a great deal of data to share with the coaching staff and fans, providing a treasure trove of facts on the game that have never been seen before.

The data collected for fans will be more limited this season but it will still be fun and informative. But will the more in-depth data help coaches win games? That is the question, says James Hanisch, the Eagles’ director of performance science, can a simple Wilson football provide the coaching staff and players with real insight that is meaningful?

 

VR technology for new Bears QBs? It’s a virtual hit

Chicago Tribune, Rich Campbell from

… The Bears mainly hope it will help them overcome the shortage of practice repetitions for Glennon, second-overall pick Mitch Trubisky and veteran Mark Sanchez. There’s also an evaluative component that’s different from conventional overhead video.
Bears quarterback Mitch Trubisky

Trubisky, for example, can strap on a VR headset in the comfort of a classroom and see and hear exactly what Glennon did as he dropped back on that crisp completion Thursday.

“I’m really surprised what that technology has allowed us to do,” Trubisky said. “Especially calling plays in the huddle — I call the play, go out and practice it, and Coach can see on the screen where my eyes are going. So it has helped me with progression and timing without actually going onto the field and having to do it.”

 

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