… An undrafted free agent who signed with the Jets in March ‘16, he is a shifty puck hound and snappy checker whose father dubs “a bundle of fire.” It probably helps that Tanev also possesses seemingly limitless energy, at least to the extent that former Providence College teammates joked about him requiring toys on the bench to stay occupied between shifts. “He’d always be standing up, alway ready to go,” Friars coach Nate Leaman says. “He never stops.”
Well … not quite never.
“It’s funny,” Mike Tanev says. “People don’t understand that he was out of hockey for four and a half years.”
Nick Chubb is to be congratulated on his reward for what was obviously a lot of hard work.
The Georgia running back was selected early in the second round by the Browns – with the 35th overall pick, just four slots after teammate Sony Michel was taken by the Patriots.
Chubb suffered a horrific-looking knee injury in 2015.
… Pulisic realizes he hasn’t made it to the pinnacle yet just because he got to this point in his career. He has to do more. With the maturity of someone 10 years older, he’s studying the craft of an attacking midfielder. “Now that I’m at a higher level and playing in the Bundesliga, you think of it more as your job,” Pulisic says. “How can I become the best? How can I take a certain aspect of the game and improve that to make myself better overall? Of course, we play because we always love the game. But it’s about figuring out what you need to take that next step. That’s what I think about now.”
In a case of perfect symmetry, Pulisic’s bedrock philosophy—a relentless pursuit of progress—also applies to how he plays his position on the field. Whether he’s starting out wide (as he often does at Dortmund) or centrally (as he does more regularly for the United States), Pulisic has a visceral distaste for touches or passes that go sideways or backward. “My coaches taught me a lot is about taking the first touch positive, and I think that’s what I’ve tried to base my game off of,” he explains. “A big part of it is being aggressive. It’s not just about getting the ball and figuring out every time how you can keep possession, because there are plenty of players who can do that. That’s just not how I view my performances. It’s about: What can I do to change the game and the attacking aspect of the game?”
… Those closest to Curry—the professionals who know him and his body better than anybody—collectively wondered how Curry might look in his return. They didn’t need to look under the hood to get a sense of Curry’s health; they just needed to see how quickly he’d strike.
Ten seconds in, Curry’s long-time personal trainer and Accelerate Basketball owner Brandon Payne got his answer, leaving no doubt how Curry was feeling.
“He’s good,” Payne texted Bleacher Report from his lower-bowl seat at Oracle Arena moments after Curry’s first three.
In the week leading up to the game, Curry and Payne talked about the importance of making the first one to get into the flow early.
“Then it would be all downhill work from there,” Payne assured him.
There are many reasons why the Boston Red Sox are thrilled that David Price, their $217 million left-hander, is sound of elbow again, bouncing back from the most frustrating summer of his baseball life. They range from his solid results (2-3, 3.78 ERA) to his renewed dependability every fifth day.
The most telltale sign of all, though, is the one that disappeared into the shadows with him last summer.
“When David Price is smiling,” Boston pitching coach Dana LeVangie says, “it vibrates.”
Indeed, Price is right again. He feels good, as if the natural order of the universe has been restored. After making a career-low 11 starts last season following a spring training scare that sent him to elbow specialists and edged him uncomfortably within range of the words “Tommy John surgery,” there are no more concerns.
Despite the high frequency of knee injuries in athletes, few researchers have studied the effects of chronologic age and stage of maturation on knee-joint kinematics in male youth soccer players. OBJECTIVE:
To use a coach-friendly screening tool to examine knee-valgus scores for players of different ages and at different stages of maturation. DESIGN:
Cross-sectional study. SETTING:
Academy soccer clubs. PATIENTS OR OTHER PARTICIPANTS:
A total of 400 elite male youth soccer players aged 10 to 18 years categorized by chronologic age and stage of maturation based on their years from peak height velocity (PHV). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S):
Knee valgus was evaluated during the tuck-jump assessment via 2-dimensional analysis. Frontal-plane projection angles were subjectively classified as minor (<10°), moderate (10°-20°), or severe (>20°), and using these classifications, we scored knee valgus in the tuck jump as 0 ( no valgus), 1 ( minor), 2 ( moderate), or 3 ( severe). RESULTS:
A trend toward higher valgus scores was observed in the younger age groups and the pre-PHV group. The lowest frequency of no valgus occurred in the U18 and post-PHV groups. The highest percentages of severe scores were in the U13 and pre-PHV groups for the right limb. Knee-valgus scores were lower for both lower extremities in the U18 group than in all other age groups ( P < .001) except the U16 group. Scores were lower for the post-PHV than the pre-PHV group for the right limb ( P < .001) and both pre-PHV and circa-PHV groups for the left limb ( P < .001). Noteworthy interlimb asymmetries were evident in the U14, U15, and circa-PHV groups.
CONCLUSIONS:
Reductions in knee valgus with incremental age and during the later stages of maturation indicated that this risk factor was more prevalent in younger players. Interlimb asymmetry may also emerge around the time of the peak growth spurt and early adolescence, potentially increasing the risk of traumatic injury.
Journal of Sports Medicine & Physical Fitness from
BACKGROUND:
In Southern European countries it is very frequent to perform medium-sized games (MSG) as last training drill. We analyzed the individual variability and changes in activity patterns during MSG throughout the preseason. METHODS:
Activity profile during MSGs (10v10+goalkeepers, duration: 10-min, field length: 50 m, width: 90 m, area per player: 204.5 m2) was quantified using a GPS in 14 professional male players (6 defenders, 5 midfielders 5 and attackers). RESULTS:
Inter-individual variability was higher for high-intensity (HIR), very-high speed (VHS), maximum acceleration (Accmax) and maximum deceleration (Decmax) distance (CV=25.2 to 43.3%), compared to total distance (TD), total acceleration (Acctot) and total deceleration (Dectot) distance (CV= 8.3 to 18.3 %). Defenders showed higher variability in TD, HIR, VHS, Acctot and Dectot (ES= 1.30 to 11.28) compared to the other field positions, whereas attackers showed higher variability in HIR, VHS Accmax and Decmax (ES=-4.92 to 2.07) than other the field positions. Variability in TD regularly increased (ES= -2.13 to -0.91) towards the end of the preseason, while HIR and VHS variability tended to increase over the 3rd and the 4th preseason week (ES=-0.94 to -3.05). However, the behavior of variability across the preseason period was more unpredictable for Acctot and Dectot, both decreasing in the 3rd week (ES= 0.70 to 1.20), while Decmax increased in the 4th week (ES=-0.91±0.59). CONCLUSIONS:
During MSGs, individual variability of activity differs among field positions, and tends to increase with either speed or acceleration intensity, underlining the need of an individualized approach for training load monitoring.
If you didn’t hear, USA Swimming recently released its selection criteria for 2018 Pan Pacs and 2019 Worlds, as well as the criteria for the 2020 Olympic team head coaches. SwimSwam recently spoke with National Team director Lindsey Mintenko and asked her about her thoughts on these selection procedures, both old and new.
… The problem, of course, is that Brailsford can never be pinned down in what he might deign to consider an appropriate venue. Although the Welshman has been present at Sky races during the spring, he has generally evaded questions, either by ducking onto the team bus at the sight of a reporter or by flatly refusing to speak on the record with certain publications.
“Well, I’ve been at all the races this year, as usual,” Brailsford insisted when his lack of availability was put to him. “I’m just back from the Classics, I’ve been around everywhere.”
No matter, Team Sky’s pre-Giro press conference was the first opportunity for reporters to question Brailsford on whether he had considered tendering his resignation following the publication of the Parliamentary Select Committee’s report into doping in British sport in early March.
NFL running back Mike James calls it his medicine for pain management, but league officials call it a banned substance. Now, James’ athletic career is hanging in limbo because he chose pot over pills.
In 2013, James was prescribed opioid painkillers after injuring his left ankle in a Monday night football game. Within weeks, he developed a dangerous dependency on the drugs.
To get off of the opioids, he turned to medical marijuana for his pain.
Personalised nutrition remains firmly in the thoughts of one in four industry professionals (26%), as the raft of nutrigenomic activity from firms such as DNAfit, BASF and Spoon Guru will attest to.
… The truth is, this is the kind of stuff that keeps Urban Meyer up at night these days. Not Nick Saban’s dynasty down in Tuscaloosa or the task of replacing the seven Buckeyes selected in the NFL draft or anything going on with a certain school up north. Years ago, any and all of those things might have popped into Meyer’s mind as he laid his head on the pillow, sat at a red light or tried to unwind on a family getaway. But those closest to Meyer say his focus has shifted.
Marotti says that in the early years of his Ohio State tenure, Meyer would return from vacation armed with ideas to help make his guys better football players. Now, Meyer is consumed with finding ways to help his players better navigate what the head coach sees as a very volatile world around them.
“It’s probably 80–20 now,” Meyer says, explaining where his focus lies between real-world issues and football-related matters. “When I was younger, it was probably 30–70 more football.
“This is a topic of conversation among my colleagues in the profession now. It’s constant now. Fifteen years ago, no. Back then it was, Tell me about the spread offense. Tell me about punt return. Now it’s about the mental and well-being of your players.”
The NFL is anticipating only a handful of ejections this season as part of a new rule that prohibits players from lowering their helmets to initiate contact — one of the primary takeaways Tuesday from the first day of a player safety summit at league headquarters.
A review of 40,000 plays from recent seasons revealed less than five instances of what would be considered a flagrant, and thus ejection-worthy, violation, according to NFL executive vice president Troy Vincent. One was a hit by Chicago Bears linebacker Danny Trevathan on Green Bay Packers receiver Davante Adams last season in Week 4, for which Trevathan was later suspended.
Penalty flags for the expanded rule — which replaced a previous prohibition on using the crown of the helmet to initiate contact — are expected to increase in 2018. But during the meeting, as well as in side conversations, Vincent and other league officials sought to downplay the possibility of the kind of mass ejections that characterize the NCAA targeting rule.
Bloomberg, Eben Novy-Williams and Ira Boudway from
Two years ago, after Buzzfeed and the BBC reported widespread match fixing in tennis, the sport’s governing bodies created an independent panel to review the problem. Last week, that panel came back with a report of rampant corruption in the lower levels of tennis.
The three-lawyer panel also identified a culprit — a data deal that makes results from low-level matches instantly available to betting markets — and suggested that the $70 million partnership between the International Tennis Federation and global data firm Sportradar be dissolved immediately.
The report’s recommendation has consequences for the U.S., where the Supreme Court is considering a challenge to the prohibition on sports betting. In anticipation of the court’s decision, legislators are debating whether to offer sports betting and, if so, how to structure any laws to minimize corruption.
Official data — like that in Sportradar’s tennis deal — feature prominently in those discussions. The National Basketball Association and Major League Baseball have argued that bookmakers should be required to use official data feeds. They also want a say in the types of bets offered. Both measures, they say, would limit gambling on games or events they consider at higher risk for corruption.