In his fourth season, Derrick Henry put it all together. The NFL’s leading rusher is physically gifted — at 6-foot-3, 247 pounds, he’s bigger than most running backs, yet he has the speed to break a long run — but that isn’t what sets the Tennessee Titans’ star apart.
Conditioning, stamina, work ethic — that’s why Henry continues to run strong late in games and deep into the season. His 997 second-half rushing yards are the fourth-most in the past 30 seasons, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. Slowing him down will certainly be a priority for the New England Patriots on Saturday.
… Paul’s arrival prompted reports that he, too, might be dealt quickly — both to allow him to chase a ring with a title contender and to allow the new-look Thunder to collect even more assets. But eventually the music stopped, and it became clear that the 34-year-old and his enormous contract would stay put. Little did we know that ending up with the Thunder would unlock this renaissance version of Paul — one that can take over games and legitimately be the NBA’s best closer.
Jakub Vrana tries to keep everything in perspective. He knows that when he plays well, people will praise him. And that when he doesn’t, the opposite will happen.
Heading into the NHL All-Star break later this month, the 23-year-old Capitals forward is on pace to nearly double his scoring output from all of last season. His 20 goals, 19 of which have come at even strength, rank second on the Capitals—behind only Alex Ovechkin—and 20th in the league.
After a poor performance in last season’s playoffs, where he scored zero points, Vrana is back to playing with a level of confidence that his coaches and teammates have expected from the former first-round draft pick. But Vrana refuses to give himself too much credit.
Sir Mo Farah has claimed he would have been the “first one out” of the Nike Oregon Project if he had known about Alberto Salazar’s dubious practices – despite sticking with his former coach for two years after serious allegations were made against him in 2015.
Farah had previously refused to be overly critical of Salazar after he was banned by the US Anti-Doping Agency for four years last October, instead turning his crosshairs on reporters when they asked him whether he felt let down by his former mentor.
But in an interview with the BBC on Thursday the 36-year-old, who worked under Salazar between 2011 and 2017, said he would have acted differently if he knew what was really going on.
… About a dozen players age 16 or younger have signed with MLS teams this winter, and more are likely to follow. The growth of the academy system, Homegrown Player Rule, MLS partnerships with USL clubs, and fewer players opting to play in college have all contributed to this growing trend. Teenagers have traditionally signed pro contracts in Europe and South America. MLS teams are increasingly following suit as soccer continues to grow into a major sport in this country.
These young players are domestically-developed stars that could make an impact in MLS as early as this spring. This runs contrary to other American leagues. The NBA, for example, has been contemplating changing the league’s age-limit entry rule, which is 19. The NHL’s age limit is also 19, while Major League Baseball’s is 18 for Americans and 17 for internationals. It’s not surprising since basketball has a robust college season, while hockey and baseball have extensive minor-league networks.
BMC Sports Science, Medicine and Rehabilitation from
Background
Given the multi-modal nature of triathlon (swimming, cycling, running), training for a triathlon event has numerous potential health benefits including physical fitness. However, triathletes also have a high prevalence of health issues including overuse injury, illness, fatigue, and burnout. To address the ongoing prevalence of health issues, roundtable discussions were organized at the International Triathlon Union Science of Triathlon 2017 conference to develop strategic objectives deemed necessary to “futureproof triathlon”. Futureproofing as a concept serves to design new approaches and ways of thinking to reduce consequences in the future. In this case, the futureproof process aimed to develop key recommendations for triathlon. Methods
This qualitative study had 22 participants including athletes, coaches, practitioners, academics, and policy makers who participated in roundtable discussions at the Science of Triathlon conference. Seven of these participants completed follow-up semi-structured interviews on the same topics. The data collected from the roundtable discussions and the semi-structured interviews was analyzed using thematic analysis. Results
Five main themes were produced: “Critical appraisal and application of knowledge”; “Integrated approaches to developing, disseminating, and using research and expertise”; “Appropriate development and use of measures for monitoring training and recovery”; “Knowing your athletes and adopting holistic approaches to athlete/person-development”, and; “Challenging accepted cultural and sporting norms”. Participants indicated the need to reduce the knowledge gap between research and practice as well as a more collaborative approach to triathlon research development amongst coaches/practitioners and academics. It was stated that current monitoring tools require more research to determine which are most useful to informed decision making for coaches/practitioners. It was cautioned that data driven assessments should be used judiciously and be athlete centered. Triathlon as a sport should also have a greater focus on healthy participation and development of youth athletes. Conclusions
A series of applied implications were developed based on these five themes as guiding principles for how to futureproof triathlon. Additionally, roundtable and interview participants who held varying positions and opinions within the sport of triathlon agreed that the unique challenge of training for and competing in a triathlon should not be forgotten in the futureproofing of the sport. [full text]
It affects your whole body, upends your life and impacts every athlete differently. So, how do the world’s best come back and compete after giving birth?
The National Football League (NFL) Scouting Combine has been used since 1982 to collect performance information on the top-rated NFL prospects including physical test results from the vertical jump, broad jump, 3 cone drill, shuttle run, 40-yd dash, and bench press. The correlation between NFL Scouting Combine test results and NFL player performance is frequently questioned, and thus this study endeavored to identify significant relationships between NFL Scouting Combine test results and NFL player performance indicators for all offensive and defensive positions, including quarterback (n = 107), fullback (n = 31), running back (n = 228), wide receiver (n = 336), tight end (n = 137), offensive tackle (n = 204), guard (n = 128), center (n = 66), cornerback (n = 276), free safety (n = 92), strong safety (n = 96), outside linebacker (n = 215), inside linebacker (n = 116), defensive end (n = 212), and defensive tackle (n = 223). A Spearman rank-order correlation analysis set at a p of ≤0.01 and p of ≤ 0.05 level of significance indicated that every offensive and defensive positions had at least 1 NFL Scouting Combine test result that correlated with NFL player performance. These results can be useful for those in charge of making player personnel decisions in the NFL, such as general managers, draft analysts, and scouts by helping them select NFL prospects. Furthermore, these results could inform strength and conditioning coaches in preparing athletes to excel in the NFL.
Pew Research Center, FactTank, Emily A. Vogels from
As 2020 begins – and health-related New Year’s resolutions take effect – roughly one-in-five U.S. adults (21%) say they regularly wear a smart watch or wearable fitness tracker, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted June 3-17, 2019.
As is true with many other forms of digital technology, use of these devices varies substantially by socioeconomic factors. Around three-in-ten Americans living in households earning $75,000 or more a year (31%) say they wear a smart watch or fitness tracker on a regular basis, compared with 12% of those whose annual household income falls below $30,000. Differences by education follow a similar pattern, with college graduates adopting these devices at higher rates than those who have a high school education or less, according to the survey of 4,272 U.S. adults.
Minnesota Timberwolves head coach Ryan Saunders tells Men’s Journal how he uses data and analytics in his coaching and his everyday life, including sleep, step count and heart rate data from his Fitbit Versa 2. [video, 3:15]
This Editorial describes the rationale, focus, scope and technology behind the newly launched, open access, innovative Food Modelling Journal (FMJ). The Journal is designed to publish those outputs of the research cycle that usually precede the publication of the research article, but have their own value and re-usability potential. Such outputs are methods, models, software and data. The Food Modelling Journal is launched by the AGINFRA+ community and is integrated with the AGINFRA+ Virtual Research Environment (VRE) to facilitate and streamline the authoring, peer review and publication of the manuscripts via the ARPHA Publishing Platform.
The last decade has seen a steep increase in the number of athletes achieving personal bests in their 40s and beyond. This group of dedicated older athletes has redefined the idea of aging, rewriting the record books with performances in the pool, on the track, and in the saddle. So remarkable are their achievements, exercise scientists have been busy studying their training and lifestyle habits to see if they can gather more information on what successful aging looks like.
According to a group of French researchers, there is still a dearth of published research on the link between nutrition and performance in master athletes. In particular, do older athletes have a different set of nutritional needs than their younger counterparts?
“We proposed to identify the metabolic challenges that master athletes may face and that require specific nutritional recommendations,” said the French researchers in their article Nutrition for Master Athletes: Is There a Need for Specific Recommendations.
… I tried to think back to the last central defender who was starting in that position at such a young age for a club of that magnitude. There weren’t many. Mats Hummels at Borussia Dortmund and Jose Gimenez at Atletico Madrid came to mind. Sergio Ramos played plenty at centre-back for Real Madrid, as a 19- and 20-year-old, but was then shifted to right-back and did not return to the middle until he was 23.
Take the latest FC 100, ESPN’s annual ranking of players by position. (Yes, you may disagree with many selections — I certainly do — but as a general cohort of top players, it does a solid job.). One thing that strikes you immediately is that other than De Ligt, Gimenez and Ramos (who, as we mentioned, shifted over to right-back for several seasons) not one of them was a regular central defender for a top club at the age of 20. In fact, you’re struck by how circuitous their routes to the top were.
The Houston Astros’ reputation is ruined, and their future severely damaged.
Astros GM Jeff Luhnow and manager A.J. Hinch will never be looked at the same way again, suspended by Major League Baseball and fired by the Astros in a single day.
It’s grossly naive to think the Astros are the only team who cheated, using video monitors to illegally steal signs, but they were the most blatant violators, showing the most disdain, with an utter arrogance and aloofness.