… what, exactly, is shoulder impingement and why would it impact Irving’s ability to shoot?
There are multiple forms of shoulder impingement, but with regards to Irving, there are two main suspects.
The first is known as internal impingement. This condition occurs when the structures in the back of the shoulder — also known as the posterior shoulder — are repeatedly pinched. This is most commonly seen in throwing athletes as the posterior shoulder maximally impinges during end-range external rotation combined with abduction. While it can’t be ruled out, this is unlikely the diagnosis that Irving is suffering from.
… While it’s early to know exactly how Tua’s stock will be impacted by his latest injury — he had surgery Monday and his doctor says a full recovery is expected — NFL people are forming initial opinions, based on not only the hip but durability concerns raised by two previous ankle injuries. Yahoo reports it’s unlikely he will be healthy enough to work out for teams before the draft.
When the sports world found out that Alabama star quarterback Tua Tagovailoa had not only dislocated his hip, but also broke the back wall of the hip socket, thoughts immediately turned to the worst-case scenario. Three ugly, little letters came to mind: AVN.
Avascular necrosis is when, due to the lack of blood flow, the bone tissue dies. It is what ended Bo Jackson’s career, and immediate panic set in that the potential top pick could suffer the same fate. With that in mind, Tagovailoa’s surgeon had a message for the player’s family.
From Dr. Chip Routt of The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, it was this: Tua is more likely to get mauled by a bear than get AVN, sources say Routt told the family. In other words, this was far from worst-case.
Vitor Matos was appointed as Liverpool’s Elite Development Coach in October – a role which had been vacant since Pepijn Lijnders left in January 2018.
This position is becoming more and more common in top-level football. The idea is that the Development Coach smoothes the transition from Academy to first team for the club’s best youngsters by working with them individually.
In a wide-ranging interview with Liverpool’s official website, Matos explained his role at Liverpool. You can read an abridged version below.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has seen his side drop leads all season long and has also had to do without key personnel due to injury
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is seeking to restructure the physiotherapy department at Manchester United, with appointments expected to be made soon.
Goal has learned that United will bring in a new head physio, a role currently occupied by Richard Merron. The potential new recruit has been identified as Celtic’s Tim Williamson, the Scottish club’s head of physiotherapy, with United having recently been interviewing a substantial number of candidates for the role.
More than 150 delegates from countries including France, Denmark, Russia and the United States attended TGG’s first Big Data Conference at Emirates Old Trafford on Friday.
The focus of the day was on how elite clubs and national federations are using data science to enhance coaching and performance. Sixteen of the Premier League clubs were represented, with attendees including Sporting Directors, coaches, analysts and sports scientists.
… If you think it’s simply assembling a group of highly talented people and letting them do their thing, then you’re in good company. Research shows that’s what people tend to believe. But, unfortunately, you’d also be wrong.
Teams are more than the sum of their parts. In fact, sometimes having lots of top talent on a team actually hurts performance. We’ll get back to that in a minute.
First, let’s look at why it’s become increasingly important to know how to lead, and be part of, teams.
Inspired by a University of Michigan professor’s recovery after a cycling crash, an innovative patch could bring the assessment of human joints into the 21st century.
The patch uses electronic sensors to understand the functional range of motion as opposed to today’s static measurements. Influenced by kirigami, the Japanese art of creating 3D structures from cut paper, the sensor can hug the curves of a joint and yet can be manufactured flat.
“The shoulder in particular moves in a very complex way. It’s one of the most well-articulated joints in the body,” said Max Shtein, a professor of materials science and engineering at the University of Michigan, who crashed his bike and collaborated with his students on the work.
A vert, a piece of wearable technology roughly the size of a USB drive, sits on a volleyball in this photo illustration during practice in Moby Arena in Fort Collins, Colo. on Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2019. As volleyball players wear the device in a belt along their hip, it tracks various statistics, including quantity and height of jumps.
There are numerous things to dislike about going to the doctor: Paying a copay, sitting in the waiting room, out-of-date magazines, sick people coughing without covering their mouths. For many, though, the worst thing about a doctor’s visit is getting stuck with a needle. Blood tests are a tried-and-true way of evaluating what is going on with your body, but the discomfort is unavoidable. Or maybe not, say Caltech scientists.
In a new paper published in Nature Biotechnology, researchers led by Wei Gao, assistant professor of medical engineering, describe a mass-producible wearable sensor that can monitor levels of metabolites and nutrients in a person’s blood by analyzing their sweat. Previously developed sweat sensors mostly target compounds that appear in high concentrations, such as electrolytes, glucose, and lactate. Gao’s sweat sensor is more sensitive than current devices and can detect sweat compounds of much lower concentrations, in addition to being easier to manufacture, the researchers say.
Using inertial measurement units (IMUs) in monitoring and analysing sport movements has become popular in sports research since it avoids the laboratory limitation. However, the accuracy of modern IMU-systems (hardware combined with software) needs to be validated using gold-standard systems as baseline. In this study, we investigated the feasibility of the aktos-t IMU-system for in-field biomechanical research by comparing its outputs in various tasks (repetitive movements, gait and jumping) undertaken by 14 participants, with those of an optoelectronic system. The results showed that the accuracy of aktos-t varies according to the task performed. The accuracy of pelvis, hip and knee joints ranged between acceptable (root mean squared error (RMSE) < 5°) and tolerable (RMSE < 10°) in gait, while the upper limb joints showed inaccuracy (RMSE > 10°) and imprecision (coefficient of repeatability > 10°) during the repetitive movement test. Jump impact appeared not to influence the IMU outcomes (p > 0.05). The main sources of error could be related to the IMU-alignment during the reference T-pose. Finally, the study provides researchers the means for evaluating the accuracy of aktos-t (hardware, software and biomechanical model) as sufficiently precise for its application in their in-field investigations.
Objective To analyse differences between athletic disciplines in the frequency and characteristics of injuries during international athletics championships.
Methods Study design, injury definition and data collection procedures were similar during the 14 international championships (2007–2018). National medical teams and local organising committee physicians reported all newly incurred injuries daily on a standardised injury report form. Results were presented as number of injuries and number of injuries per 1000 registered athletes, separately for male and female athletes, and for each discipline.
Results From a total of 8925 male and 7614 female registered athletes, 928 injuries were reported in male and 597 in female athletes. The discipline accounting for the highest proportion of injuries was sprints, for both men (24%) and women (26%). The number of injuries per 1000 registered athletes varied between disciplines for men and women: highest in combined events for male athletes (235 (95% CI 189 to 281)) and female athletes (212 (95% CI 166 to 257)), and lowest for male throwers (47 (95% CI 35 to 59)) and female throwers (32 (95% CI 21 to 43)) and for female race walkers (42 (95% CI 19 to 66)). Injury characteristics varied significantly between disciplines for location, type, cause and severity in male and female athletes. Thigh muscle injuries were the main diagnoses in the disciplines sprints, hurdles, jumps, combined events and race walking, lower leg muscle injuries in marathon running, lower leg skin injury in middle and long distance running, and trunk muscle and lower leg muscle injuries in throws.
Conclusions Injury characteristics differed substantially between disciplines during international athletics championships. Strategies for medical service provision (eg, staff, facilities) during athletics championships should be discipline specific and be prepared for targeting the main injuries in each discipline.
Objectives To enhance knowledge on pregnancy and return to sport in the postpartum period in elite female athletes.
Methods 34 Norwegian elite athletes (33.1 years) and 34 active controls (31.5 years) were asked about training and competitive history, pregnancy-related issues, injuries, body dissatisfaction (BD), drive for thinness (DT), eating disorders (ED) and practical experiences, through a questionnaire and interview. Independent samples T-tests or χ² tests for between-group differences and paired-samples T-tests and repeated measures analysis of variance for within group differences were used.
Results No group differences in fertility problems, miscarriage, preterm birth or low birth weight were found. Both groups decreased training volume all trimesters and the first two postpartum periods compared with prepregnancy, and more athletes returned to sport/exercise at week 0–6 postpartum. We found no group differences in complications during pregnancy and delivery, but athletes reported fewer common complaints. Four athletes experienced stress fracture postpartum. Athletes had higher BD and DT postpartum, while controls reduced DT score. Number of athletes with clinical ED was reduced postpartum, while constant in controls. Athletes were not satisfied with advice related to strength training and nutrition during pregnancy.
Conclusion Elite athletes and active controls get pregnant easily, deliver healthy babies and decrease training during pregnancy and the first postpartum periods compared with prepregnancy. Most athletes and every third control returned to sport or exercise at week 0–6 postpartum. Athletes report stress fractures and increased BD and DT, but decreased ED postpartum. However, since relatively few athletes were included these findings need further investigation. [full text]
Standing at midcourt just in front of Gregg Popovich, Minnesota head coach Ryan Saunders shouts “33!” at Minnesota guard Andrew Wiggins. It appears to be a mundane late third-quarter possession against the San Antonio Spurs in early November, but what transpires next is a peek under the hood of the youthful and remodeled Minnesota Timberwolves.
It begins with Saunders, who, at 33 years old, is the NBA’s youngest coach. Saunders was just 10 years old when the guy a few feet to his right, Popovich, took over coaching duties in San Antonio in 1996. Despite the obvious symmetry, the “33!” play-call was not a reference to Saunders’ age, but rather an idea that encapsulates everything that’s different in Minnesota these days.
Saunders has been hell-bent on getting his team to maximize efficiency wherever they can.
In the 1970s, Liverpool Polytechnic was at the heart of the debate about sport science. Vaughan Thomas, Tom Reilly and Frank Sanderson were right in the middle of this debate and set in place structures that promoted sport science. Vaughan arrived in 1971, Frank in 1973. Tom was at Liverpool before Frank arrived.
I was teaching physical education at the time and had started doing some hand notation in real time. This meant that I did keep an eye on what the Liverpool group were doing. The The School of Sport and Exercise Sciences at Liverpool was founded in 1975 and soon thereafter, the School became first institution in the world to host a single honours’ program in sport science (link).
Vaughan had moved in 1971 from St Mary’s College at Strawberry Hill to the Liverpool Polytechnic. He shared some of his laboratory experience in a book published by Faber in 1970 Science and Sport: The measurement and Improvement of Performance. João Medeiros (2018) (link) regarded this as “one of the seminal monographs in exercise physiology” and underscored Vaughan’s belief “that if this nascent science was to make progress and gain credibility, then an interdisciplinary approach was required” (link).