Applied Sports Science newsletter – October 21, 2020

… [Betnijah] Laney did that and much more, defying the preseason scouting reports that labeled her an offensive afterthought. She started all 22 games for the Dream and averaged 17.2 points, 4.9 rebounds and 4.0 assists per game en route to winning the 2020 WNBA Most Improved Player award.

The MIP award has been given out since 2000, when New York Liberty forward/center Tari Phillips won the inaugural award. Since then, there have been co-MIPs once (Connecticut’s Wendy Palmer and Indiana’s Kelly Miller in 2004), and only one player has won the award multiple times (Leilani Mitchell in 2010 with New York and in 2019 with Phoenix).

But what, exactly, does a player have to do to be Most Improved? And do winners usually use the award as a springboard to even better performances in the next season, or do they regress to their previous level of performance? To answer those questions, we compiled data from Her Hoop Stats on all 22 award winners in their MIP season and the seasons directly before and after.

… This isn’t a coincidence. Rather, it’s the result of a concerted effort by U.S. Soccer, MLS and others to standardize player development through the U.S. Soccer Development Academy.

Six of the 10 players listed above — Pulisic, Reyna, McKennie, Adams, Steffen and Richards — spent time in the Academy.

“The Academy changed youth soccer, bringing players into an environment where they trained together exclusively for 10 months per year under dedicated and licensed coaches,” Sports Illustrated writes.

… Born in Phoenix, [Madison] Hammond’s passion for soccer was ignited on the fields in Albuquerque, New Mexico, at age 5. Her mother, Carol Lincoln, is Navajo, San Felipe Pueblo, and Hammond’s father is Black, but she said he “has never been foundational in my life.”

Hammond played with a diverse group of boys until age 9 when her mother, who’s in the military, moved their family to Alexandria, Virginia. Hammond joined competitive girls clubs and lived near the military base.

“In the moment, I never felt like there were barriers for me to play,” Hammond said. “A lot of that is because my mom was willing to put in a lot of sacrifices for me to continue playing. Club soccer is so expensive, and it’s even more expensive than when I was playing seven, eight years ago. It’s gotten to a point where it’s almost ridiculous.

While the NBA’s record-long season is over, former player and coach Brian Shaw is still waiting for his season to begin.

Shaw is currently the head coach of the G League Ignite, the new developmental team featuring elite young prospects, including Jalen Green, ESPN 100’s top-rated prospect in 2020. The Ignite began practicing in Walnut Creek, California, not far from where Shaw lives in Oakland, on Aug. 28. But due to the pandemic, the 2020-21 G League season is up in the air. Shaw’s job is not only teaching basketball and life skills to teenagers, but also helping them navigate the uncertainty of the season.

“As a coaching staff, we have to improvise and keep it fresh and make it challenging,” Shaw recently told The Undefeated. “But the seed that I planted from the very beginning is, ‘Look, we can complain about it all we want, but the situation is what it is.’ We can’t control a virus that is controlling everything. And so instead of complaining about it, let’s just adapt to it and do what we can in the situation. So, they’ve embraced that kind of thought process.

There’s a reason you feel tired: Not knowing where the end is. How the running mindset can help, and how living through the pandemic might make us better runners.

Background

Behavior change interventions have the potential to have a transformative effect on the health of populations. Allied health professionals have a key role to play in delivering these interventions. However, traditionally undergraduate allied health professional programs have not had a behavior change focus. The aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness of a training program on sport and exercise science students’ knowledge, confidence and skills in the provision of behavior change support.
Method

A mixed method convergent design was used to address the research question. Fifteen sport and exercise science students took part in a training program consisting of seven 90-min weekly face to face group sessions. Student satisfaction with training methods was assessed. Pre-to-post training changes in students’ confidence and knowledge in the provision of behavior change support was evaluated. Delivery of behavior change support was assessed by an audio recorded role-play rated by an expert using the Health Care Climate Questionnaire, and an adapted version of the Communication Evaluation in Rehabilitation Tool. Students also completed a reflective assignment.
Results

Students were satisfied with the training. There were increases in students’ confidence and knowledge of certain behavior change components post-training but not behavior change techniques. Students delivered behavior change support in a broadly needs supportive manner. The reflective assignment showed that students found particular behavior change strategies difficult to implement.
Conclusion

It is feasible to train undergraduate students in particular components of behavior change support. Academic institutions should embed behavior change training into the allied health professional curriculum to ensure graduates are job ready with the knowledge, confidence and skills to support health related behavior change within the wider health system. [full text]

A biotechnology business based in Portland is one of six startups chosen for a sport and health technology incubator program in Florida.

Justin Hafner, a University of Maine graduate who is CEO and co-founder of KinoTek, will spend the winter and early spring in Orlando as part of a six-month accelerator program sponsored by the LEAD Lake Nona Sports & Health Tech Academy.

Hafner said the competitive application process began in February and included 442 startups from 44 countries. KinoTek, which pivoted away from sports applications and toward physical therapy when the pandemic helped show the need for telehealth services, is the only company from New England selected for the 2020-21 cohort.

… By combining two imaging techniques, 3D microcomputed tomography and 3D scanning electron microscopy, the OHSU team was able to create high-resolution, 3D images of the whole heart of a chicken embryo, and zoom in to study the organisation within the heart cells. They then used this tool to examine the differences in cells and the structures within them between a healthy, normal developing chicken heart and one with a defect called tetralogy of Fallot, a relatively common form of congenital heart disease in humans. This revealed structural differences between cellular components within the healthy chicken heart and the heart with the defect.

“Our imaging technology will allow us to study exactly what happens within the heart and its cells when the heart has a defect or is diseased,” Rykiel says. “This knowledge will give us clues to design better treatments for patients with heart defects and other anomalies.”

It has been documented that up to 22% of all soccer injuries are concussions. This is in part due to players purposely using their head to direct the ball during play. To provide a more complete understanding of head trauma in soccer athletes, this study characterized the effects of four soccer ball characteristics (size, inflation pressure, mass, velocity) on the resulting peak impact force as it relates to the potential for incurring neurophysiological changes. A total of six hundred trials were performed on size 4 and 5 soccer balls as well as a novel lightweight soccer ball. Impact force was measured with a force plate and ball velocity was determined using motion capture. These data were used, in conjunction with dimensional analysis to relate impact force to ball size, mass, velocity, and pressure. Reasonable reductions in allowable ball parameters resulted in a 19.7% decrease in peak impact force. Adjustments to ball parameters could reduce a high cumulative peak translational acceleration soccer athlete down into a previously defined safer low loading range. In addition, it was noted that water absorption by soccer balls can result in masses that substantially increase impact force and quickly surpass the NCAA weight limit for game play. Additional research is required to determine whether varying soccer ball characteristics will enable soccer players to avoid persistent neurophysiological deficits or what additional interventions may be necessary and the legal implications of these data are discussed. [full text]

… “Highly restrictive diets are usually not advised unless there is an underlying medical condition that warrants it,” says Josiemer Mattei, PhD, MPH, an associate professor of nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. For example, someone who has a metabolic or gut disorder may need to avoid certain foods. But for most people, diets that eliminate whole macronutrient categories or food groups present more risk than reward. Mattei says that restrictive diets also tend to be unsustainable in the long run and in some cases can lead to disordered eating.

Another problem with highly exclusionary diets: What works well for one person may not work for another. “There are many individual factors that could cause differential responses to the same diet,” says Regan Bailey, PhD, MPH, a professor in the Department of Nutrition Science at Purdue University. These include person-to-person genetic variation, age, baseline nutritional status, inflammation levels, and microbiome makeup — to name just a few.

To what degree was the 2020 summer transfer window impacted by COVID-19, the subsequent empty stadiums, rebates offered to TV companies, fleeing sponsors and the circa €4.5 billion loss across two seasons predicted by the European Club Association? It depends which numbers you choose to look at and how you read them.

If you look at the total volume of transfers in the big five European leagues, then sure, it’s down. Way down, in fact. We went from €5.82 billion in 2019 to €3.31 billion in 2020. That’s a drop of 43% percent. You have to go back six years, to 2014, to find a lower total. But if you look at net spending, a slightly less cataclysmic picture emerges.

Andrew Friedman isn’t quite torn.

The Dodgers’ president of baseball operations since October 2014, he helped build Los Angeles into a power that reached the World Series for the third time in four seasons.

He had been Tampa Bay’s executive vice president of baseball operations since 2006, building a team that reached the World Series in 2008 and overseeing the acquisition of Kevin Kiermaier, Blake Snell and Diego Castillo and a staff with many holdovers still in place.

With the Dodgers, he oversaw the acquisition of Mookie Betts and Brusdar Graterol, the drafting of Walker Buehler and the signing of A.J. Pollock, Max Muncy and Blake Treinen.

Ahead of a World Series capping the pandemic-shortened season, baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said he hopes to keep two of this year’s innovations: expanded playoffs and starting extra innings with runners on second base.

“People were wildly unenthusiastic about the changes. And then when they saw them in action, they were much more positive,” Manfred said Tuesday during an interview with The Associated Press.

Manfred said the 30 teams combined for $3 billion in operating losses due the coronavirus pandemic, which caused all 898 regular-season games to be played in empty ballparks without fans.

… The injury is awful, not only because of the freak, accidental nature, but because Van Dijk is a fantastic soccer player at the tail end of his prime in a profession where your career is typically over before you turn 40. He might miss the Euros this summer for the Netherlands, and who knows if he’ll ever be the same player again. The older you get, the harder it is to bounce back from something this serious. Whatever color glasses you’re wearing while reading this, I think we can all agree that we hope we get to see the old VVD again, but there’s no guarantee we ever will.

And without their ever-present lodestar still leading the way, might Liverpool never be the same, either? It all depends on one thing: just how big of an impact can one defender can make?

Let’s start with the betting market, which remains the most-likely-to-be-accurate reflection of what will happen on a soccer field. Before the game against Everton, Sporting Index projected Liverpool to finish on 85 points — down one from their preseason projection, but even with Manchester City for most in the league. The draw with Everton likely would’ve dropped their projected total by a point