Applied Sports Science newsletter – June 17, 2019

Applied Sports Science news articles, blog posts and research papers for June 17, 2019

 

Say Goodbye to Kevin Durant as You Knew Him

Bleacher Report, Howard Beck from

… There is perhaps no tougher injury for an NBA player to overcome than a blown Achilles. The difficulty is even higher for an athlete in his 30s. Durant turns 31 in September. He’ll probably be 32 by the time he plays again, based on typical recovery times. And he might never be the same player.

The history of NBA players returning from Achilles injuries is, broadly speaking, rather bleak. Few regain their full athleticism and effectiveness. Nearly all see a decline in production and efficiency.

“I think you’re going to likely see at least a step back,” said Jeff Stotts, a certified athletic trainer who analyzes injury trends at InStreetClothes.com. “At least, that’s what the studies show—that there is going to be a dip in productivity.”

 

How nutrition fuels Jonathan dos Santos

LA Galaxy Sports Science Blog from

Have you ever wondered how Jonathan dos Santos keeps his game at the highest level? There is no doubt his talent and hard work play huge roles, but you might be surprised to know that nutrition is equally as important to him and his performance.

I’ve learned over the past couple seasons that quality, healthy foods are a top priority for Jona. Today, I decided to sit down with him to get a quick dish on his nutrition for you all.

 

Lucy Bronze hails a ‘more prepared’ England before showdown with Japan

The Guardian, Suzanne Wrack from

The defender was ill during her side’s agonising extra-time defeat in the last World Cup but believes they are better equipped to overcome their opponents this time

 

A Day In The Life Of Olympic Swimmer Josh Prenot At The Olympic Training Center

Team USA, Josh Prenot from

Swimming is a sport where tiny fractions of a second have huge consequences. In my first and (so far) only Olympic race, which was over two minutes long, first place was separated from eighth by just 0.9 seconds (I earned the silver, 0.07 behind the winner). When swimmers train, we’re constantly looking for any small improvements that can save us an extra tenth of a second – and that’s why we come to the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs.

The Center sits at about 6,000 feet elevation, which means that each breath of air contains about 75 percent of the oxygen that the same breath would contain at my home in Berkeley, California. This lack of oxygen makes demanding workouts even tougher, but it also helps the body adapt and become more efficient. Another reason why swimmers come train here in Colorado is that the OTC provides a very pure training environment – everything revolves around helping athletes improve. The facilities are world class, there are opportunities for video and biomechanical analysis, the dining hall is filled with healthy options for fueling and recovery, and there’s a great sports medicine staff that helps athletes prevent or rehab from injuries. Here’s what a typical day of training there looks like.

 

The Moderating Role of Recovery Durations in High-Intensity Interval-Training Protocols. – PubMed – NCBI

International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance from

Purpose: Over recent years, multiple studies have tried to optimize the exercise intensity and duration of work intervals in high-intensity-interval training (HIIT) protocols. Although an optimal work interval is of major importance to facilitate training adaptations, an optimal HIIT protocol can only be achieved with an adequate recovery interval separating work bouts. Surprisingly, little research has focused on the acute responses and long-term impact of manipulating recovery intervals in HIIT sessions. This invited commentary therefore aimed to review and discuss the current literature and increase the understanding of the moderating role of recovery durations in HIIT protocols. Conclusion: The acute responses to manipulations in recovery durations in repeated-sprint training (RST), sprint interval training (SIT), and aerobic interval training (AIT) protocols have recently begun to receive scientific interest. However, limited studies have manipulated only the recovery duration in RST, SIT, or AIT protocols to analyze the role of recovery durations on long-term training adaptations. In RST and SIT, longer recovery intervals (≥80 s) facilitate higher workloads in subsequent work intervals (compared with short recovery intervals), while potentially lowering the aerobic stimulus of the training session. In AIT, the total physiological strain endured per training protocol appears not to be moderated by the recovery intervals, unless the recovery duration is too short. This invited commentary highlights that further empirical evidence on a variety of RST, SIT, and AIT protocols and in exercise modalities other than cycling is needed.

 

Insufficient Sleep Linked to Mental Health in College Students and Athletes

Sleep Review from

Preliminary results from a new study suggest that there is a dose-response relationship between insufficient sleep and mental health symptoms in collegiate students, including varsity athletes.

Results show that in adjusted models, insufficient sleep was associated with all mental health variables, and a dose-response relationship resulted when insufficient sleep was treated as categorical. With every additional night of insufficient sleep, the risk of experiencing mental health symptoms increased on average by more than 20% – including an increased risk of 21% for depressed mood, 24% for hopelessness, 24% for anger, 25% for anxiety, 25% for desire to self-harm, 28% for functional problems, and 28% for suicide ideation.

 

The Doris Day effect – when obstacles help us

Tim Harford from

… In the wider workplace, we have evidence that the luck of graduating in a benign economic climate can lead to a lasting advantage. One researcher, Paul Oyer, found that young PhD and MBA students who started off in favourable job markets were employed in better places with smarter colleagues, and were still doing better a decade later than those who started out in tougher times.

Hannes Schwandt and Till Marco Von Wachter studied the other end of the US labour market to find the story is even worse there: entering the job market during a recession damages anyone’s prospects, but the harm is deeper and lasts longer for less-educated and otherwise disadvantaged groups.

All this suggests that setbacks are setbacks: they drag us down, perhaps disproportionately. Doris Day was an exception, not the rule.

Yet a striking new study suggests that the Doris Day effect is quite real in one particular group of people: young scientists applying for research grants. Yang Wang, Benjamin Jones and Dashun Wang looked at scientists applying for funding from the US National Institutes for Health, with grants averaging $1.3m. In particular, they focused on borderline decisions, comparing those who scraped through to get a grant with those who just missed out. The near-winners and the near-losers were otherwise indistinguishable before the decision point, but afterwards it was the losers who prospered, publishing substantially more highly cited research papers.

 

Brains and Brawn

BrainFacts.org, Michael W. Richardson from

Even the simplest motions — tapping your foot, clenching your fist — require warp-speed signals from brain to spinal cord to muscles. Lower motor neurons, pictured here in green, relay movement commands from the spinal cord to all the muscles in the body, whether it’s your forearm or, as shown here, the foot of a mouse. Motor neurons and muscles meet at specialized synapses called neuromuscular junctions (red), where antenna-like proteins in the muscle receive chemical messages and kick the muscles into action.

When any part of the junction malfunctions, movement becomes much more difficult. The neurodegenerative disorder amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), for example, destroys motor neurons and leads to progressive weakening and atrophy of muscles.

 

5 Ways We Justify Negative Self-Talk and Why They’re Wrong

Psychology Today, Guy Winch from

… The justifications they give as a response might sound reasonable at first blush—but they are in fact both unreasonable and wrong—all of them. Here are the five most common justifications we use for negative self-talk and why they are entirely invalid:

1. I’m just being honest with myself.

 

Risking Everything in Soccer’s ‘Red Zone’

The New York Times, Rory Smith from

… Little wonder that César Luis Menotti, the venerable general manager of the Argentine national team, believes Messi is “very tired.” “It scares me that Messi plays,” he said. “I see him emotionally fatigued between the Champions League and the national team. He has a lot of obligations and with a lot of emotional baggage, a lot of responsibilities at his feet.”

The issue of overloading players is not a uniquely South American phenomenon; the demands placed on European and African players seems to be growing exponentially, too.

Europe’s season only officially ended last week, in mid-June, with a set of qualifiers for next year’s European Championships and the final of the inaugural Nations League. Preliminary games for the Champions League start in the last week of June, just as the first African Nations Cup to be held in the (northern hemisphere) summer gets underway.

“We have to start thinking about the players,” Jürgen Klopp, the Liverpool manager, warned earlier this season. “If we don’t learn to deal with our players in a better way, competition-wise, then it is the only chance to kill this wonderful game.”

 

Time before return to play for the most common injuries in professional football: a 16-year follow-up of the UEFA Elite Club Injury Study

British Journal of Sports Medicine from

Objectives The objective was to describe the typical duration of absence following the most common injury diagnoses in professional football.

Methods Injuries were registered by medical staff members of football clubs participating in the Union of European Football Association Elite Club Injury Study. Duration of absence due to an injury was defined by the number of days that passed between the date of the injury occurrence and the date when the medical team allowed the player to return to full participation. In total, 22 942 injuries registered during 494 team-seasons were included in the study.

Results The 31 most common injury diagnoses constituted a total of 78 % of all reported injuries. Most of these injuries were either mild (leading to a median absence of 7 days or less, 6440 cases = 42%) or moderate (median absence: 7–28 days, 56% = 8518 cases) while only few (2% = 311 cases) were severe (median absence of >28 days). The mean duration of absence from training and competition was significantly different (p < 0.05) between index injuries and re-injuries for six diagnoses (Achilles tendon pain, calf muscle injury, groin adductor pain, hamstring muscle injuries and quadriceps muscle injury) with longer absence following re-injuries for all six diagnoses Conclusions The majority of all time loss due to injuries in professional football stems from injuries with an individual absence of up to 4 weeks. This article can provide guidelines for expected time away from training and competition for the most common injury types as well as for its realistic range. [full text]

 

Can any NBA team possibly replicate what Toronto just pulled off?

ESPN NBA, Zach Lowe from

… Most championship teams have clear through lines that trace their journey to the top: They draft a foundational player who defines everything that comes next, or acquire one who agrees before stepping in the door to stay for a long time.

The Raptors have neither. There is no apparent modern precedent for a team trading for its only top-five player in a walk year — without free-agency matching rights, without signing said player to an extension as part of the trade — and having that player take the team to a title that same season. Led by Kawhi Leonard, Toronto might be the most unconventionally constructed championship team in basketball history, and its six-game win over the Golden State Warriors has insiders across the league asking: Is there anything we can learn? Can we replicate what Toronto just did?

 

Neville’s compassion for players shows new England culture

Associated Press, Rob Harris from

In the celebratory moments after England advanced to the next round of the Women’s World Cup, coach Phil Neville gently kissed the head of forward Fran Kirby in recognition of her personal journey.

England’s 1-0 victory over Argentina came on the 11th anniversary of Kirby’s mother dying from a brain hemorrhage.

“We’re a family,” Neville said. “Fran is a special person who misses her mum.”

 

After the Injuries, What’s Next for the Warriors?

The New York Times, Marc Stein from

… “Just brutal,” Kerr said.

“The last week,” Lacob said, “has just been like a nightmare.”

In the same hallway outside the Warriors’ locker room three years earlier, Lacob was dropping confident hints about Golden State’s forthcoming pursuit of Durant — without saying Durant’s name. The caution coming from Lacob late Thursday was unmistakable when I asked him about his confidence level when it comes to re-signing Durant.

“We’ll find out,” Lacob said.

 

How the Blues hit reset, then beat the game

ESPN NHL, Greg Wyshynski from

It’s Jan. 2, and the St. Louis Blues are the worst team in the NHL. They’re porous defensively and underwhelming offensively. Their meticulously crafted roster has failed the chemistry test. They fired their coach, Mike Yeo, 43 days earlier, but haven’t improved under interim coach Craig Berube. For lack of a more clinical term, they stink.

Brayden Schenn thought about that dour moment in the season as he lifted the Stanley Cup on Wednesday night, after the Blues ended a 52-year drought with their Game 7 win in Boston. He thought about what the Brayden Schenn who was in last place on Jan. 2 would say if he received a message from Brayden Schenn, Stanley Cup champion, telling him to just hang in there for a few more months.

“[He’d say] you’re a liar. We’re in last place,” Schenn said. “But you keep on fighting. You keep on believing.”

Schenn glanced around the ice at his teammates as they hugged loved ones and took photos with the Stanley Cup on the Bruins’ home ice. “This doesn’t feel real,” he said. “It’s absolutely incredible. It feels like a video game we’re in.”

 

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