… “You cannot run really in a strong way because you are alone,” said Kipchoge, who is based in Eldoret.
“Physically I am training to make sure that I am fit but when you have the whole team then you can train to make sure that you are in the best-ever shape.
“Mentally, you can get tired early,” he added, “because if you have an hour run and you’re running alone, then you can really get tired because you are running alone, you are thinking alone.
Rafael Nadal says it will be “very difficult” for tennis to return to action any time soon and is concerned about the risk of injuries when the sport resumes.
Nadal spoke in a joint interview with NBA player Pau Gasol that was published by Spanish newspapers on Monday.
“I don’t think training would be a problem, but competing… I see it very difficult,” Nadal said. “It’s a moment to be responsible and coherent, so I don’t see how we can travel every week to a different country.
Footballers are less likely to sustain injuries if they practice mindfulness, according to a new study.
Mindfulness allows players to focus more during games, helping them adapt to conditions and avoid injury, suggests Dr Luis Calmeiro, a collaborator in the study from Abertay.
Scientists from Abertay University in Dundee worked with three Iranian institutions – Shahrood University of Technology, Allameh Tabataba’i University and University of Tehran – as well as Springfield College in the US to present the findings.
University of Nebraska–Lincoln, Men's Basketball from
Seldom, if ever, did we hear Fred Hoiberg grumble about his Nebraska basketball team’s effort during practices. Even during his difficult first season as head coach, when youth, inexperience and unfamiliarity dominated the headlines rather than victories, Hoiberg held firm in publicly praising his team’s practice habits.
A motivational ploy to keep his players positive? Perhaps. Yet Hoiberg, most times unsolicited, consistently commended his players for giving maximum effort and showing attention to detail in practice.
… Some models of Fitbit and Garmin smartwatches also have pulse oximetry features. Fitbit can track oxygen level trends during sleep, and Garmin can give on-the-spot readings. Their watches do use red light, but they use the less-accurate reflective method. They also take readings from blood flow at the wrist — which isn’t as strong as it is at the finger. Both companies note on their websites that their devices should not be used for medical purposes.
Accurate blood oxygen readings are important when people are trying to monitor any disease, but it’s particularly key for COVID-19. Usually, someone with a low blood oxygen level knows it — they struggle to catch their breath. If a person has a reading on a lower-quality oximeter that says they have low oxygen levels, but they don’t have those symptoms, doctors can usually assume the sensor just isn’t working, wrote James Hudspeth, the COVID response inpatient floor lead at Boston Medical Center, in an email to The Verge.
We introduce a new platform of modular, conformable (i.e., flexible and stretchable) distributed sensor networks that can be embedded into digitally-knit textiles. This platform can be customized for various forms, sizes and functions using standard, accessible and high-throughput textile manufacturing and garment patterning techniques. We have developed a tailored, electronic textile conformable suit (E-TeCS) to perform large-scale, multi-modal physiological (temperature, heart rate, and respiration) sensing in vivo. [video, 3:18]
University of Tokyo, Institute for Solid State Physics from
Researchers have found a way to convert heat energy into electricity with a nontoxic material. The material is mostly iron which is extremely cheap given its relative abundance. A generator based on this material could power small devices such as remote sensors or wearable devices. The material can be thin so it could be shaped into various forms.
There’s no such thing as a free lunch, or free energy. But if your energy demands are low enough, say for example in the case of a small sensor of some kind, then there is a way to harness heat energy to supply your power without wires or batteries. Research Associate Akito Sakai and group members from his laboratory at the University of Tokyo Institute for Solid State Physics and Department of Physics, led by Professor Satoru Nakatsuji, and from the Department of Applied Physics, led by Professor Ryotaro Arita, have taken steps towards this goal with their innovative iron-based thermoelectric material.
Leading medical journal The Lancet recently published a position paper authored by 24 mental health experts. It begins: “It is already evident that the direct and indirect psychological and social effects of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic are pervasive and could affect mental health now and in the future.”
It is a hypothesis substantiated by Professional Footballers Australia who last week published findings of a survey of over 150 of its members. Since the suspension of professional football in Australia, 58% of players have reported symptoms of anxiety while 45% demonstrated symptoms of depression. Ordinarily, moderate-to-severe anxiety reporting peaks at about 8%.
“The hardest thing is the uncertainty,” Central Coast Mariners striker Matt Simon tells Guardian Australia. “We’ve gone from being around teammates every single day and training every day to all of a sudden just being stood down without pay and no word on what’s going to be happening and no word on when the next payment is coming for everyone’s livelihoods.”
Miami Heat president Pat Riley does not know if the NBA will return for the 2019-20 season, but he said the league has to “rely on science” in making its decision.
“We’re waiting for probably the most challenging decision that Adam Silver and his staff, not only in our sport but in every other sport [has made],” Riley said in a video posted to the team’s Twitter account Friday. “He is being very cautious. I think that’s great, and he’s going to rely on the science. I think we have to rely on the science because this will be an unprecedented move when he decides to start this thing back up.”
… Although training (especially lifting weights) can help to reduce the loss of muscle mass with aging to a certain degree, it’s basically impossible to halt it altogether. With this loss of muscle you also lose a significant chunk of your “reservoir” of fluids as you age, meaning that dehydration when you’re sweating a lot can occur more rapidly than it can for younger athletes.
… “Percentages are meaningless, because it is the absolute amount of carbohydrate and protein that matters,” says Asker Jeukendrup, Ph.D., an exercise physiologist at the University of Birmingham in England and one of the world’s leading experts on the effects of different amounts of carbohydrate and protein intake on endurance performance. “How much you need depends on your goals and the amount of training you do.”
In other words, what matters is not the relative proportions of carbs, fat, and protein you eat, but rather the basic quantity measured as total calories or grams. And since macronutrient needs vary depending on training volume, there is no single macronutrient ratio that could possibly meet the needs of every athlete.
University of Michigan, School of Public Health from
Significant emphasis is placed on the balanced nutrition and performance-based diets mapped out for the Wolverines in every sport.
Caroline Mandel, the University of Michigan athletic department’s director of performance nutrition, is a registered dietitian who works with several teams and oversees a staff that includes dietitians Caroline Knight, Kayla Lawson, and Arthur Lay. The football team has its own dietitian, Abigail O’Connor.
They go to great lengths to assure every fuel advantage possible for student-athletes, even quite often traveling to competitions with teams.
Ryan O'Hanlon, No Grass in the Clouds newsletter from
… To really see where soccer is headed, I think you need to look at FC Midtjylland in Denmark. They’re owned by Brentford owner Matthew Benham, who made his money by outsmarting betting markets, and while Brentford have done an amazing job in the Championship — they remain competitive every year despite a massive revenue disadvantage — Midtjylland are seemingly removed from the financial pressures of English soccer, so they’re able to steer even further outside the box.
“If you can outspend everyone else, then there’s no need to start thinking about how you can out-think them,” Midtjylland chairman Rasmus Ankersen told me. “An abundance of money, I think, kills creativity and innovation very often.” Midtjylland don’t have as much money as their competitors in Denmark, and so creativity has become their currency.
With soccer facing a congested program of games caused by the coronavirus pandemic, FIFA wants to let teams use five substitutes.
FIFA detailed a temporary plan Monday to help prevent more injuries due to “potential player overload” as soccer competitions catch up with a backlog.
The proposal gives competition organizers the option of letting teams use five substitutes instead of three in 90 minutes, and a sixth in knockout games that go to extra time.
The coronavirus pandemic is the biggest crisis professional football has ever faced. The uncertainty about whether leagues will be able to finish the 2019-20 season is just the start of it; beyond that, football won’t return to normal for a long time to come.
“Full stadiums will only be seen again when we are safe, and that is when we have a vaccine,” says Sandra Zampa, undersecretary at Italy’s health ministry. A vaccine is generally reckoned to be about 18 months away from being widely available. That means next season might be played behind closed doors, if at all.