In an interview with Spanish daily MARCA in 2010, Zinedine Zidane spoke exclusively about Lille’s Eden Hazard. The Frenchman was in high praise of the 19-year-old, stressing that he would take the Belgian to Real Madrid with his eyes closed – and indeed asked president Florentino Pérez to consider the idea. Of course, nine years later Hazard did move to the Spanish capital – to play under Zidane – and what happened in the years between was exactly as the Frenchman predicted.
Hazard moved to Chelsea in 2012 and became one of the best players in England over the next seven years, winning two Premier League titles, two Europa League honours and one FA Cup – and there were individual accomplishments aplenty. It was his early years at Lille, however, that caught the eye of many around Europe, Hazard breaking through and helping turn them into one of the best sides in the country.
Paul Dorochenko was able to get to know Roger Federer in depth as he coached the Swiss for fitness training when the Basel native was in the beginning of his career. Dorochenko said: “He was a very complicated young guy, a bit crazy.
He was a good person but a really controversial one: he broke rackets, behaved bad. Federer changed because of three reasons: having had a physiologist from 18 to 22 years, having a woman who was an ambitious person and thank to Nike who wanted him to be a brand image.
Money from Nike helped him to behave better. And in private life he is a good person too.” Federer spoke about the future of the Laver Cup: “I think it will be like on Tour: at some point when Rafa, me and Novak will not be there, there will be a transiction going on.
Dashun Wang, associate professor at Kellogg School of Management, crunched big datasets of entrepreneurs, scientists, and even terrorist organizations to better understand the fine line between failure and success. One surprising finding is that people who experience early failures often become more accomplished than counterparts who achieve early successes. Another insight is that the pace of failure is an indicator of the tipping point between stagnation and eventual success. Wang is a coauthor of the study in the journal Nature: “Quantifying the dynamics of failure across science, startups and security.” [audio, 23:11]
There have been many headlines in recent years about the potentially negative impacts contact sports can have on athletes’ brains. But a new Northwestern University study shows that, in the absence of injury, athletes across a variety of sports – including football, soccer and hockey – have healthier brains than non-athletes.
“No one would argue against the fact that sports lead to better physically fitness, but we don’t always think of brain fitness and sports,” said senior author Nina Kraus, the Hugh Knowles Professor of Communication Sciences and Neurobiology and director of Northwestern’s Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory (Brainvolts). “We’re saying that playing sports can tune the brain to better understand one’s sensory environment.”
Journal of Sports Medicine & Physical Fitness from
BACKGROUND:
The physical activity and playing actions performed during a soccer match vary according to player position. The aim of the present study was to analyze the recovery kinetics of cognitive performance, physical performance and subjective ratings after a competitive soccer match. METHODS:
Eight goalkeepers and eight outfield players played in the match with data collected before, 45 min, 24 h and 48 h after the match. Subjective ratings, Vienna Reaction Test (reaction time, motor time), Vienna Determination Test (number of stimuli, number of correct responses), squat jump, countermovement jump and 6-s sprint were analyzed. RESULTS:
No significant interaction between position and time was found for Vienna Reaction Test and Vienna Determination Test performance. No significant interaction between position and time was found for squat jump and countermovement jump but squat jump and countermovement jump significantly decreased (P<0.01) at 24 h. Countermovement jump performance was still significantly affected at 48h (P<0.05). A significant interaction between position and time (P<0.05) was found for 6-s sprint. Sprint performance was significantly reduced for outfield players only immediately after the match (P<0.01). There was no interaction effect of position and time on subjective ratings. A significant correlation was found between number of jumps and ball kicks performed during the match by goalkeepers and the change score in squat jump (r =-0.90; P<0.01) and countermovement jump (r =-0.90; P<0.01) observed at 48 h.
CONCLUSIONS:
Outfield players require a longer time than goalkeepers to recover sprint performance whilst cognitive function tested in the present study is not affected by the match whatever the position.
Zhenan Bao has developed stretchable, degradable semiconductors, with the ability to conform to internal organ surfaces, and dissolve and disappear when no longer needed.
This is the first example of a material that simultaneously possesses the three qualities of semiconductivity, intrinsic stretchability and full degradability. Other attempts resulted in semiconductors that either did not break down completely, or had reduced electrical performance when stretched.
Zhenan Bao has solved this problem – by combining a rubbery organic polymer with a semiconducting one.
… one of the world’s top researchers in the field of electronics and technology, Prof. Bao has a broad scientific interest, working across several disciplines including chemistry, physics, engineering, and biology. She is intrigued by the ability to genetically alter DNA sequences, and believes that ‘customized’ chemical–biological advances signify a new era in both medicine and basic science. However, she is also concerned by the power of these techniques: “There should be strict oversight and guidelines,” she believes, “to ensure that such immensely powerful techniques are not abused for global security reasons”.
Prof. Bao’s current research is focused on the development of a more sophisticated electronic skin (e-skin), which integrates sensors and circuits. More precisely, her group is working to interface their electronic sensors with the brain and gastrointestinal system in the hope that, one day, her lab’s e-skin devices will be synergized with everyday life.
Purdue University, The Exponent student newspaper, Joe Duhownik from
… Doug Boersma, associate athletics director of sports performance, does not see this season as being indicative of any larger problem, though.
“I know a lot of attention was drawn to the injuries that we had in the football season,” Boersma said, “but I don’t think that, if you would look at other places in the country, that you’re not seeing an increase in injury rate in athletics (overall). We do a lot of training. I’m not by any means (trying) to suggest that we overtrain, because we’re doing the same things that other places are doing.”
While the department has done the same things in terms of training, the department of sports medicine has implemented various technological advancements in the past few years. One such advancement is the implementation of Fusionetics.
… “It’s a mammoth issue. It really is,” [Doc] Rivers said. “I think we do a terrible job. I can see it all the time. I can see it in other coaches where I can tell that they’re going through it.”
Just this week, Rivers was watching a game and saw a coach who looked frayed (he declined to say who). He picked up the phone and called, confirming what his eyes told him — that this coach was going through a difficult stretch.
Prisoners of a lifestyle that tempts coaches with a constant barrage of food and adrenaline, little sleep and an overflow of stress, the NBA’s coaches battle wellness problems that they all easily could succumb to.
… it appears that highly trained athletes adapt to their imposed training demands (no surprise there), and that one location of adaptation is around the gut bacteria. This is demonstrated here through the increase in gut bacteria that breakdown exercise-associated metabolites. Based on this, there is a suggestion that we might be able to augment exercise-induced adaptations by supporting optimal gut health and function. Quite what this looks like at present is somewhat unclear, but we know that a wide variety of minimally processed whole foods appears to support microbiome diversity, and that this diversity is a good thing.
Secondly, there are times when we can do our gut bacteria some serious damage. A course of antibiotics or the use of general anesthetic can substantially alter the composition of our gut bacteria. If, as this study suggests, our gut bacteria may be driving at least some of adaptations underpinning elite performance, then the use of antibiotics may negatively affect exercise performance in this way.
University of Pennsylvania, The Wharton School from
The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania announced today the establishment of the Wharton Sports Analytics and Business Initiative (WSABI). WSABI represents an expansion of school-wide sports business activities by building on the Wharton Sports Business Initiative (WSBI), founded in 2008. The addition of sports analytics offerings dramatically expands the scope of engagement for industry, alumni, and students.
“With sports being a multibillion-dollar international industry that engages individuals around the globe, Wharton is uniquely capable of applying our prowess in data analytics to yield new understanding of a topic that has fascinated societies for thousands of years,” said Wharton Dean Geoff Garrett. “The Wharton Sports Analytics and Business Initiative will give the leading minds involved in sports – from students to owners to ‘Moneyball’ type data scientists – a ringside seat to better examine the future of sports.”
Speaking to minor league baseball’s executives about a controversial proposal to contract 42 teams, MILB president and CEO Pat O’Conner delivered a blistering rebuke of the plan.
“We cannot allow ourselves to be splintered for this next deal,” O’Conner said. “No one’s future is safe, unless all of your futures are safe.”
Halfback Aaron Smith has revealed the full extent of the ‘ruthless’ review that the All Blacks underwent following their Rugby World Cup semifinal defeat to England.
Speaking on the Rugby Bricks podcast, Smith revealed that head coach Steve Hansen got 51 people into the room to review the defeat, including everyone from management to the physios, with everyone having their say about what went wrong.