Applied Sports Science newsletter – June 18, 2020

Applied Sports Science news articles, blog posts and research papers for June 18, 2020

 

Inside the NBA’s 100-page safety plan: Big questions and key details

ESPN NBA, Brian Windhorst and Tim Bontemps from

After months of work, the NBA released its health and safety protocol for the resumption of the 2019-20 season on Tuesday. It covers the teams’ ramp-up over the next several weeks in their home markets, the onboarding of every team upon arrival at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, and the guidelines for how the season will restart.

Over 100 pages long, the protocol is a monster document that details everything from what happens in the event of a positive COVID-19 test to the rules for playing pingpong in players’ lounges at team hotels.


Prepping on a new court, Serena Williams will enter US Open

Associated Press, Howard Fendrich from

Here’s how all-in Serena Williams is on participating in the 2020 U.S. Open: She set up a practice area at her home with the new brand of hard courts being used at Flushing Meadows this year.

For all the doubts about which top players will actually enter the first Grand Slam tennis tournament of the coronavirus pandemic, the biggest name in the sport made clear Wednesday that she intends to be there when the main draw begins Aug. 31.


No full shields for players; NHL talking off-ice protection

Associated Press, Stephen Whyno from

… Equipment changes have not been a focus of return-to-play negotiations between the league and players’ union, according to a person with knowledge of those talks. The person, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because no agreement has been reached, said the emphasis has been on testing and other off-ice safety precautions.

Because players are expected to be tested daily, there isn’t expected to be additional on-ice equipment required for practices and games. Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly additionally said he didn’t anticipate any mandatory equipment changes to ensure player safety.


Club Adapting to Altitude and Workloads in “Unique” Preseason

OL Reign from

As OL Reign completes the second week of full-team training ahead of the 2020 NWSL Challenge Cup, the club is working hard to balance the need for getting players match-fit while making sure it doesn’t overtax them after a long time away from the pitch. Director of High Performance Nick Leman, back with the club for his fourth season, explained the delicate process.


Coaches, players make best of NFL’s 1st virtual offseason

Associated Press, Teresa M. Walker from

Turns out there’s only so much that can be done virtually.

Six teams decided to end their offseason programs even with the NFL allowing two more weeks to keep working: the Bears, Titans, Rams, Texans, Cardinals and Redskins.

With coaches and players scattered and team facilities shut by the NFL because of the COVID-19 pandemic, video meetings helped the league act as if business was continuing as usual. Some coaches decided their teams had done everything possible until players are allowed to join them inside team headquarters and on the practice fields.


Human information processing in complex networks

Nature Physics journal from

Humans communicate using systems of interconnected stimuli or concepts—from language and music to literature and science—yet it remains unclear how, if at all, the structure of these networks supports the communication of information. Although information theory provides tools to quantify the information produced by a system, traditional metrics do not account for the inefficient ways that humans process this information. Here, we develop an analytical framework to study the information generated by a system as perceived by a human observer. We demonstrate experimentally that this perceived information depends critically on a system’s network topology. Applying our framework to several real networks, we find that they communicate a large amount of information (having high entropy) and do so efficiently (maintaining low divergence from human expectations). Moreover, we show that such efficient communication arises in networks that are simultaneously heterogeneous, with high-degree hubs, and clustered, with tightly connected modules—the two defining features of hierarchical organization. Together, these results suggest that many communication networks are constrained by the pressures of information transmission, and that these pressures select for specific structural features. [full text]


Brothers in arms: the brain and its blood vessels – Study shows how blood vessels sense the metabolic state of neuronal cells

Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics from

The brain and its surrounding blood vessels exist in a close relationship. The vessels supply the energy-hungry neuronal cells with nutrients. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics in Freiburg have now discovered how cells of the blood vessels sense the metabolic condition of the brain and alter vascular function in response. The result could be important for patients with neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s or vascular dementia because the onset of these age-related diseases coincides with vascular defects and breakdown of vascular function in the brain.


Developing and training mental toughness in sport: a systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies and pre-test and post-test experiments

BMJ Open Sport & Exercise Medicine journal from

Objective To investigate the efficacy of interventions designed to train and develop mental toughness (MT) in sport.

Design Systematic review and meta-analysis.

Data sources Journal articles, conference papers and doctoral theses indexed in Embase, Scopus, PubMed and SPORTDiscus from inception to 22 November 2019.

Eligibility criteria for selecting studies Observational and pre–post experimental designs on the efficacy of physical and/or psychological interventions designed to promote MT in athletes.

Results A total of 12 studies, published between 2005 and 2019, were included in the review. A majority of the studies included a sample comprised exclusively of male athletes (54.55%), MT interventions were primarily psychological (83.33%) and most studies measured MT via self-report (75%). The Psychological Performance Inventory (25%), the Mental Toughness Questionnaire-48 (16.67%), and the Mental, Emotional and Bodily Toughness Inventory (16.67%) were the most popular inventories used to measure MT. Methodological quality assessments for controlled intervention studies (k=7), single group pre-test–post-test designs (k=4) and single-subject designs (k=1) indicated that the risk of bias was high in most (75%) of the studies. The meta-analysis involving k=10 studies revealed a large effect (d=0.80, 95% CI 0.30 to 1.28), with variability across studies estimated at 0.56.

Conclusion Although the findings of this review suggest there are effective, empirically based interventions designed to train MT in sport, practitioners should be aware of the level of validity of intervention research before adopting any of the MT training programmes reported in the applied sport psychology literature. [full text]


Feedback of GPS training data within professional English soccer: a comparison of decision making and perceptions between coaches, players and performance staff

Science and Medicine in Football journal from

Purpose

The aim of the study was to examine the perceptions of training data feedback from key stakeholders within the coaching process of professional soccer clubs. A survey assessed the importance of training data towards reflection and decision-making, potential barriers and player preferences.
Methods

A total of 176 participants comprising coaches, players and performance staff completed the survey.
Results

The training data coaches most commonly identified as wanting to see to support reflection was ‘high-intensity’ actions and variables recognised by the coach as ‘work rate/intensity’. All stake- holders reported training data as at least somewhat important in guiding their coaches’ practices, with lack of a common goal and high volumes of information being the main barriers to effective feedback of training data. Players deemed feedback as positive to change their behaviour, with total distance, high-speed running and sprint distances as the information they would most like to see. It would be likely to be looked at via message or pinned up in the changing room.
Conclusion

Training data are seen as an impactful and effective tool for use by all key stakeholders. Despite this, its use can be optimised by increasing opportunities for informal reflection, using less information, and improving communication of data. [full text]


Returning to Play after Prolonged Training Restrictions in Professional Collision Sports

International Journal of Sports Medicine from

The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 has resulted in widespread training disruption in many sports. Some athletes have access to facilities and equipment, while others have limited or no access, severely limiting their training practices. A primary concern is that the maintenance of key physical qualities (e. g. strength, power, high-speed running ability, acceleration, deceleration and change of direction), game-specific contact skills (e. g. tackling) and decision-making ability, are challenged, impacting performance and injury risk on resumption of training and competition. In extended periods of reduced training, without targeted intervention, changes in body composition and function can be profound. However, there are strategies that can dramatically mitigate potential losses, including resistance training to failure with lighter loads, plyometric training, exposure to high-speed running to ensure appropriate hamstring conditioning, and nutritional intervention. Athletes may require psychological support given the challenges associated with isolation and a change in regular training routine. While training restrictions may result in a decrease in some physical and psychological qualities, athletes can return in a positive state following an enforced period of rest and recovery. On return to training, the focus should be on progression of all aspects of training, taking into account the status of individual athletes.


Performance Training Strategies to Prevent Catastrophic Injuries and Death (CATS)

YouTube, Wienot Films, h/t Korey Stringer Institute from

What happens when athletes are pushed to the limit during training? Learn how to help protect athletes in this animated video from the College Athletic Trainers’ Society (CATS). [video, 3:45]


Will keto craze be among things that won’t survive pandemic?

Nutra Ingredients, Hank Schultz from

The keto trend may have run its course, with the tumult caused by the pandemic crisis as a final push over the edge, a clinical nutritionist says.


A rambling thread on McGwire/Sosa, as someone who was a baseball writer in the late ’90s and started writing about PEDs in ’02.

Twitter, T.J. Quinn from

Almost no one seemed to have a clue what was behind the power in ’98. It was insanely fun to watch and no one though much about steroids. 1


German Soccer Tries to Kick Off a Comeback for Pro Sports

The New York Times Magazine, Bruce Schoenfeld from

The play unfolded with precision, like so many of Borussia Dortmund’s goals have this season. A nudge with the side of a foot sent the ball from the middle of the field down the right wing. A perfectly placed cross put it, on a single hop, into the path of Erling Haaland, as he approached the penalty area on a sprint. And then Haaland, a 19-year-old Norwegian striker who seems to be on the cusp of becoming world soccer’s next great scorer, redirected it into the corner of the net with a left-footed flick.

Haaland raised a finger and wheeled off toward the corner flag. Two of his teammates chased after him. Goals are relatively uncommon in soccer — most games have fewer than three — and every one of them is an occasion for players to converge and celebrate.

“The first instinct when you score,” says Gio Reyna, another Dortmund teammate, “is to give a hug to the player who gave you the pass.”


Premier League hosts beware — German data shows end of home advantage

Reuters, Karolos Grohmann from

Clubs who demanded the right to play games at home when the English Premier League restarts may live to regret that stance after data from the Bundesliga shows how home advantage in Germany has been wiped out by empty stadiums.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published.