Applied Sports Science newsletter – August 28, 2017

Applied Sports Science news articles, blog posts and research papers for August 28, 2017

 

How Roger Federer Upgraded His Game

The New York Times Magazine, Peter de Jonge from

Near the end of a conversation with Roger Federer earlier this month, in a small dining room that had been set aside for us off the lobby of the Mount Stephen Hotel in Montreal, I asked if he happened to catch the final poignant seconds of Usain Bolt’s remarkable career as a solo runner in the 100 meters two days earlier at the World Track and Field Championships. Bolt finished a disappointing third, behind his longtime rival Justin Gatlin and another American sprinter, Christian Coleman. “I meant to, but I missed it,” Federer said. “So I caught it on the highlights.”

What did you think, I asked him.

“Well, you know, it was maybe a pity that he didn’t win,” Federer said of his fellow GOAT (Greatest of All Time). “But at the same time, it doesn’t change anything in my opinion if he won the last race or not. I’m long past the thing that you have to end your career in a fairy tale. Everybody kind of wants this — mostly the press — and if you don’t win, it’s: ‘Ohhh, my God! The fairy tale didn’t happen!’ So for me, yes, it would have been nice, but this way is O.K., too.”

 

Ben Simmons wants to be best NBA player in the world

ESPN NBA, Niall Seewang from

… “Physically I feel really good. [I am] ready to play and get the season started,” he said. “I’ve just got to go out and work hard … and if everyone in the team does the same thing, I think we can do great things.

“Our goal is to get there [to the playoffs] and win. We don’t doubt each other, as long as we work hard we might [be able to].

“Joel [Embiid] is doing well. I actually worked out with him before I came to Australia so I know he’s been working hard every day.

 

Isaiah Thomas’s hip injury could derail Cavs, Celtics trade

SI.com, NBA, Michael McCann from

As awkward as it might be, there’s a chance Tuesday’s blockbuster trade involving Isaiah Thomas and Kyrie Irving doesn’t go through.

According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the Cavaliers are concerned about Thomas’s hip after the point guard underwent a team physical. Thomas has battled a significant hip injury since March 15, when the 5’9″ All-Star suffered a right femoral-acetabular impingement with labral tear in a game against the Wolves. Thomas would miss a couple of games but came back and played without restriction.

Thomas then re-aggravated the injury during the playoffs, first during the Celtics’ second-round series against the Wizards and a second time during Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals. The second re-aggravation ended his season.

Thomas, with the Celtics’ backing, has declined surgery. He has instead relied on rest and physical therapy in hopes of obtaining a full recovery.

 

Footballers living on the breadline: low wages, short contracts and no security

The Guardian, Richard Foster from

A few elite footballers make millions but players such as Josip Vukovic and David Low – who earn little and are often paid late – are the norm across the globe

 

When it comes to NFL Training Camps, More Clubs Agree, There’s No Place Like Home

Front Office Sports, Scot Chartrand from

Training camps around the NFL have been a familiar ritual around the country for much of the league’s existence. Today’s landscape of where camp breaks is a far cry from what it looked like prior to the advent of free agency in the 1993 offseason and into the current financial landscape.

Holding camp on the road has its advantages, but so does bringing the multi-week fan experience home to a team facility.

We’ll take a look at how things have changed and at a few case studies on either side to learn more about what incents teams to choose where to hang their cleats in July and August each year.

 

WVU’s Dana Holgorsen says extended practice ‘insane’

Charleston Gazette-Mail, Mitch Vingle from

… “I really wish this were game week,” Holgorsen said. “It seems like we’ve been practicing for a month — and we almost have been.”

Indeed, WVU still had 12 days before its Top 25 showdown as of Tuesday. And it’s an issue Holgorsen wants the NCAA to examine in the offseason.

“By the time we play the first game, all the NFL preseason games will be over,” he said. “They practice for about 10 days and then have preseason games… There are a whole lot of FCS games this weekend. Heck, there are three or four FBS games.”

 

From Learning to Doing: The Effects of Educating Individuals on the Pervasiveness of Bias

ThesisCommons, Jennifer Joy-Gaba from

Despite many trying to be egalitarian in social judgment, discrimination still occurs. One reason for the discrepancy between values and behavior may be the “bias blind spot” (Pronin & Kugler, 2007), which suggests that individuals more easily recognize bias in others than they recognize in themselves. Many people believe that they are objective and impartial and, as a consequence, falsely conclude that they are immune to biased judgments based on social group memberships. The purpose of this dissertation was to investigate whether providing experiential education about one‟s own biases can shift beliefs about bias and social behavior. Study 1 and 2 examined the immediate and long-term impact on beliefs about bias of an interactive lecture about how biases are an ordinary part of human thinking. Study 2 also assessed whether bias education predicts change in social judgments in which biases could be expressed and whether the components of beliefs about bias relate to other social attitudes and beliefs. Study 3 and 4 experimentally compared a shortened version of the automatic bias education to already established interventions. Finally, Studies 5-6 explored whether the shortened version of the education was effective. Results revealed that the original automatic bias education, and not the shortened version, was effective in changing people‟s beliefs about bias in the short and long-term. However, this automatic bias education was not able to influence participants‟ automatic and self-reported racial attitudes or judgments in a stereotyping task.

 

Head Trauma in High School Football May Be More Complicated Than We Thought

Scientific American Blog Network, Observations; Sameer Deshpande, Raiden Hasegawa, Christina Master, Amanda Rabinowitz, Dylan Small from

American football is the largest participation sport in U.S. high schools. Recently, many have expressed concern about the sport’s safety with some even calling for banning youth and high school tackle football. We recently published a study in JAMA Neurology suggesting that, in general, men who played high school football in 1950s Wisconsin did not have a higher risk of poor cognitive or emotional health later in life than those who did not play.

Recent concerns about football’s safety have been driven largely by reports of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) among retired professional players. CTE is a neurodegenerative disease thought to result from repetitive head trauma with symptoms including memory loss, aggression, confusion and depression. A recent study in JAMA reported evidence of CTE in 110 of 111 deceased retired NFL players who donated their brains for posthumous examination. This important study adds to a larger body of work linking repetitive sports-related concussion with neurodegenerative disease.

However, such research, which depends on brains donated by families of players many of whom were symptomatic before death, is not designed to establish the base rate of neurodegeneration among the larger population of football players. A critical question remains: what is the risk of later-life cognitive and emotional dysfunction for American high school football players?

 

Head injuries in sport must be taken more seriously

Nature News & Comment, Editorial from

Sports organizations are only starting to understand the harm that can be inflicted by high-contact activities. Science must play its part in highlighting the problem and in aiding diagnosis.

 

6 Tools to Help Prevent Depression in College Freshman

University of Michigan, Michigan Health from

The start of college comes with expectation and excitement, but it also can trigger depression. A Michigan Medicine psychiatrist offers advice to ease the transition.

 

Wives of former NFL players are left to navigate concussion settlement

ESPN NFL, Mark Fainaru-Wada and Simon Baumgart from

Lorraine Dixon is one of a growing number of women left to take care of men whose brains have been addled from years of playing football. This is the story of their battle for redemption.

 

New study intervenes to help female collegiate distance runners eat enough

Stanford Medicine, Scope Blog from

Like other athletes at risk, female collegiate distance runners are predisposed to develop bone stress injuries from a condition known as the female athletic triad, said Michael Fredericson, MD, a professor of orthopaedic surgery and sports medicine at Stanford, who has worked with Stanford athletes for more than 25 years.

 

Cognition enhancing drugs (‘nootropics’): time to include coaches and team executives in doping tests?

British Journal of Sports Medicine, Editorial from

The use of brain boosting drugs by athletes has been well documented and testing for such cognition enhancing drugs is now implemented. Largely absent from the purview of antidoping agencies, however, is the drug testing of coaches and team executives. This editorial introduces commonly used nootropics (drugs that influence cognition) and describes their on-label effects. We then examine the off-label uses of these drugs and consider whether sport organisations, if they are genuinely determined to eliminate performance enhancing drugs among all participants, should also incorporate the testing of coaches and team executives. Advances in sport analytics have changed coaching and executive roles, with decision-making acumen more important than ever.

 

How many injuries would it take to endanger the Nationals’ lead?

ESPN MLB, Sam Miller from

… They’ve gone 9-5 since Harper went down. Is there anything that can slow this gutted juggernaut?

No, seriously. Is there?

To answer that, we laid out the Nationals’ depth chart, uncapped a black redaction marker, and went crazy. We imagined a human pyramid gone wrong that knocked Strasburg, Gio Gonzalez and Tanner Roark out of the rotation. We spiked the Nationals’ showers with a foot fungus that demobilized Matt Wieters, Ryan Zimmerman, Daniel Murphy, Anthony Rendon and Michael Taylor. We gave relievers Sean Doolittle, Brandon Kintzler, Matt Albers, Madson and Romero counterfeit eclipse sunglasses, and now their whole world looks like modernist art.

 

Stopping the supply: How understanding passing sequences helps win games

Sky Sports, Adam Bate from

Chelsea’s win over Tottenham was just the latest example of why understanding an opponent’s passing sequences can be crucial. Teams are using technology to study it more and more, writes Adam Bate.

David Luiz was at the heart of another Antonio Conte tactical masterstroke as Chelsea beat Tottenham on Sunday. Stepping into midfield, the Brazilian won praise for shutting down the creative flair of Christian Eriksen and Dele Alli. “They always play very well between the lines so I was trying to close this gap and not leave space for them to create,” he explained.

 

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