Applied Sports Science newsletter – April 23, 2021

Applied Sports Science news articles, blog posts and research papers for April 23, 2021

 

The Reason Jae’Sean Tate Has Defied the Naysayers

The Ringer, Mirin Fader from

There aren’t too many 25-year-old rookies in the NBA. Nor are there many people who have had to overcome as much adversity as Jae’Sean Tate. “A lot of people don’t know that part of my life because I’m always smiling … but it took a lot for me to get that way.”


Exclusive: Brenden Aaronson talks dream start in Salzburg, USMNT hopes and more

MLSSoccer.com, Greg Seltzer from

His mindset on arrival was one of “If I don’t play, then I’m going to show them why I should play.” As it turns out, this brand of resolve was not at all necessary.

Aaronson debuted in the club’s first league game back from the winter break, and then started the second, in which he set up the early winner. A few months on, he has four goals and three assists in 14 matches since joining American head coach Jesse Marsch’s team. Last MLS season, Aaronson moved to Salzburg from Philadelphia for a reported $6 million initially, a deal that could potentially rise to $9 million.

“You get a chance and take it,” he said matter-of-factly. “Now it’s just keeping it going, and show them you can help the team on a day-to-day basis.”


Ibrahimovic to keep playing with AC Milan when he’s 40

Associated Press from

… Ibrahimovic’s return at the start of last year signaled a turnaround for Milan that saw the Rossoneri leading Serie A for much of this season. Milan is currently in second and still in the Champions League places.


RJ Barrett Is a Brand-new Player

The Ringer, Kevin O'Connor from

On this episode of The Void, The Ringer’s Kevin O’Connor breaks down RJ Barrett’s development during his second season in the NBA and what it means for the future of the red-hot New York Knicks. Plus, Kevin is joined by NBA trainer Drew Hanlen to discuss what changes Barrett made to his shooting form and what areas he is looking to improve next [video, 9:52]


Detroit Lions: Detroit Lions hire Jill Costanza as sports science director

Detroit Sports Nation, Michael Whitaker from

The Detroit Lions are hiring a new sports science director, and she just so happens to have some pretty interesting past experience.

Jill Costanza is being brought aboard here in the Motor City after having previously worked with branches of the US military, as well as an athletic performance coach with the University of Texas.


The Importance of ‘Durability’ in the Physiological Profiling of Endurance Athletes

Sports Medicine journal from

Profiling physiological attributes is an important role for applied exercise physiologists working with endurance athletes. These attributes are typically assessed in well-rested athletes. However, as has been demonstrated in the literature and supported by field data presented here, the attributes measured during routine physiological-profiling assessments are not static, but change over time during prolonged exercise. If not accounted for, shifts in these physiological attributes during prolonged exercise have implications for the accuracy of their use in intensity regulation during prolonged training sessions or competitions, quantifying training adaptations, training-load programming and monitoring, and the prediction of exercise performance. In this review, we argue that current models used in the routine physiological profiling of endurance athletes do not account for these shifts. Therefore, applied exercise physiologists working with endurance athletes would benefit from development of physiological-profiling models that account for shifts in physiological-profiling variables during prolonged exercise and quantify the ‘durability’ of individual athletes, here defined as the time of onset and magnitude of deterioration in physiological-profiling characteristics over time during prolonged exercise. We propose directions for future research and applied practice that may enable better understanding of athlete durability.


Effects of Variations in Resistance Training Frequency on Strength Development in Well-Trained Populations and Implications for In-Season Athlete Training: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Sports Medicine journal from

Background

In-season competition and tournaments for team sports can be both long and congested, with some sports competing up to three times per week. During these periods of time, athletes need to prepare technically, tactically and physically for the next fixture and the short duration between fixtures means that, in some cases, physical preparation ceases, or training focus moves to recovery as opposed to progressing adaptations.
Objective

The aim of this review was to investigate the effect of training frequency on muscular strength to determine if a potential method to accommodate in-season resistance training, during busy training schedules, could be achieved by utilizing shorter more frequent training sessions across a training week.
Methods

A literature search was conducted using the SPORTDiscus, Ovid, PubMed and Scopus databases. 2134 studies were identified prior to application of the following inclusion criteria: (1) maximal strength was assessed, (2) a minimum of two different training frequency groups were included, (3) participants were well trained, and finally (4) compound exercises were included within the training programmes. A Cochrane risk of bias assessment was applied to studies that performed randomized controlled trials and consistency of studies was analysed using I2 as a test of heterogeneity. Secondary analysis of studies included Hedges’ g effect sizes (g) and between-study differences were estimated using a random-effects model.
Results

Inconsistency of effects between pre- and post-intervention was low within-group (I2 = 0%), and moderate between-group (I2 ≤ 73.95%). Risk of bias was also low based upon the Cochrane risk of bias assessment. Significant increases were observed overall for both upper (p ≤ 0.022) and lower (p ≤ 0.008) body strength, pre- to post-intervention, when all frequencies were assessed. A small effect was observed between training frequencies for upper (g ≤ 0.58) and lower body (g ≤ 0.45).
Conclusion

Over a 6–12-week period, there are no clear differences in maximal strength development between training frequencies, in well-trained populations. Such observations may permit the potential for training to be manipulated around competition schedules and volume to be distributed across shorter, but more frequent training sessions within a micro-cycle rather than being condensed into 1–2 sessions per week, in effect, allowing for a micro-dosing of the strength stimuli. [full text]


Smart Folk Often Full of Crap, Study Finds

Willie Storax, The Multidisciplinarian blog from

For most of us, there is a large gap between what we know and what we think we know. We hold a level of confidence about our factual knowledge and predictions that doesn’t match our abilities. Since our personal decisions are really predictions about the future based on our available present knowledge, it makes sense to work toward adjusting our confidence to match our skill.

Last year I measured the knowledge-confidence gap of 3500 participants in a trivia game with a twist. For each True/False trivia question the respondents specified their level of confidence (between 50 and 100% inclusive) with each answer.


Devils Sign VR Deal as Cognitive Training Takes Off in Pandemic

Sportico, Jacob Feldman from

The New Jersey Devils and virtual reality training company Sense Arena have signed a deal that will bring the team’s new official cognitive training tool to both Devils pros and youth hockey players.

Sense Arena offers evaluation and training modules designed to improve both skaters’ and goalies’ decision-making abilities and reaction times without having to step onto the ice. Users wearing a VR headset are put onto the virtual ice, where they can react to simulated plays and attempt to stop realistic shots.

The Devils’ performance department will implement the software, while activations are planned within Prudential Center as well as throughout New Jersey to go with digital content sponsorship.


Toronto Raptors coach Nick Nurse joins sports data company Noah

CNBC, Jabari Young from

National Basketball Association coach Nick Nurse of the Toronto Raptors is the newest board member of sports data analytics firm Noah Basketball.

The company was formed in 2002 under CEO John Carter and analyzes shooting arcs and performances of basketball players. Noah’s basketball tracking systems are used by various NBA teams, including the Los Angeles Lakers, New York Knicks, Golden State Warriors and Toronto Raptors.

The company said Nurse would use his NBA experience to help convey “the relevance” of its shot tracking systems for “evaluation and improvement.” Philadelphia 76ers forward Anthony Tolliver is also on Noah’s board.


Plastic Logic’s colour display revolutionises smart wearables

Plastic Logic (UK) from

Plastic Logic, a leader in the design and manufacture of flexible, glass-free electrophoretic displays (EPDs), has announced a new flexible 5.4in colour display that is set to revolutionise smart wearable devices.

Smart wearables, such as jewellery, have become increasingly popular among consumers over the last decade. The problem is most wearable displays are black and white – Plastic Logic is changing all that with its new full-colour display technology.

“Wearable device designers can now source innovative flexible colour display technology to incorporate into applications including smart jewellery, smart clothing and even smart health-tracking devices,” said Tim Burne, CEO, Plastic Logic. “Colour really enhances the functionality and look-and-feel of any smart wearable – in fact, it makes smart wearables even smarter.”


Athletes push for cannabis changes in sports

Cronkite News, Jacob Rudner from

… Jake Plummer, the legendary Arizona State quarterback and former Arizona Cardinals signal-caller, is among those athletes pushing for marijuana reform in sports. He believes the benefits far outweigh the potential negatives.

“It could help you sleep, reduce anxiety, inflammation, arthritis,” Plummer said. “Here we are talking about football players with inflammation, the onset of arthritis, with sleep issues, with anxiety, PTSD and all this crazy stuff, and here’s this natural plant that can help with all that.”

Before the 2020 NFL season, the league announced drastic changes to its drug policy as part of its new collective bargaining agreement. The window for the NFL to test players for THC, the main psychoactive compound in cannabis that produces a high sensation, was narrowed from four months to two weeks at the outset of training camp.


Really important piece on the challenges facing sportswomen to “make weight”. I personally found it difficult to read (TW).

Twitter, Anna Kessel, Pippa Field from

Courageous voices from the women’s sport community, thank you. And essential insight from @summerstack
on how men and women’s bodies respond differently.


Dairy protein still a force in sports nutrition products

Food Business News, John Gelski from

A partnership and a product launch point to a promising future for proteins sourced from cow’s milk. Already benefiting from a history of use in the sports nutrition category, dairy proteins may offer opportunity for clean label promotions, in addition to better known functional and health benefits.

FrieslandCampina Ingredients, based in The Netherlands, has partnered with Cayuga Milk Ingredients, Auburn, NY, to produce Refit milk proteins MPI 90 and MPC 85. The two farmer-controlled cooperatives will seek to provide a source of milk proteins from the Finger Lakes region in New York state.

“These ingredients ensure a more sustained release of protein than whey proteins do, so are ideal for recovery or endurance sports,” said Uwe Schnell, managing director North America for FrieslandCampina Ingredients. “We’re happy to now offer our American customers a local, trusted source of milk proteins, while also ensuring customers achieve stable access to high-quality, easily traceable solutions.”


‘Information is king’: Why the Ravens’ embrace of analytics could help in a daunting draft year

Baltimore Sun, Jonas Shaffer from

For all the concerns the Ravens might have about taking a first-round wide receiver in next week’s NFL draft — value, fit, the middle finger of history — they can be assured of at least one thing: He will not be slow.

At LSU’s Pro Day, Terrace Marshall Jr. ran a 4.38-second 40-yard dash. Minnesota’s Rashod Bateman and Florida’s Kadarius Toney each posted a 4.39. Mississippi’s Elijah Moore came in as quickly as 4.32. By the unofficial times measuring straight-line speed over an arbitrary distance inside a controlled environment, these are fast prospects.

But as the Ravens and 31 other teams approach an unprecedented draft, their challenge of finding a signal amid the noise of testing numbers and statistical production and historical comparisons is perhaps more daunting than ever. The coronavirus pandemic kept college scouts off the road in the fall and canceled the NFL scouting combine this winter. Big-name players opted out. Some small-school programs never played. Front-office officials flocked to Pro Days where, as ESPN draft analyst Mel Kiper Jr. quipped, “I could maybe crack 5-flat” in the 40-yard dash.

The teams that can best bring order to the chaos, that can separate game speed from track speed, may be the ones most willing to fill in the blanks of old-school scouting with new-age technologies: GPS tracking, computer vision, proprietary metrics.


Making Sense Of: Closed League Bottleneck

Christopher Long, a sports data analyst, recently commented on a Nate Silver tweet where Silver wondered if a new, breakaway league could make professional soccer more popular in the U.S. Long’s thought, “I’ll see and raise you the hot take that if the club soccer system of promotion/relegation existed in the US, soccer could become the most popular sport. But that’ll never happen.”

Long’s point is matter of fact and, I think, correct. But the explanation is hard to quantify. It has to do with the bottleneck created by closed professional sports leagues, as opposed to the promotion/relegation found in many open professional soccer leagues.

An excellent example of Bottleneck Analysis comes from Columbia University business school professor Nick Arnosti. Eliminating bottlenecks is worthwhile, but rarely actionable because the analysis is overly complex, and needlessly so, according to Arnosti. Bottlenecks in multi-step processes still have a single rate-limiter, which offers a clear target and path to improvement without so much angst.

The fan response to the European Soccer Superleague proposal killed the idea. According to Brown University economist Mark Blyth (responding to questions by journalist Ryan O’Hanlon), it was because those “football fans are football fans, and not American sports fans.”

The difference between American sports management and English soccer league management is the subject of 24-minute YouTube analysis by Bloomberg’s Jason Kelly. The piece doesn’t predict the Superleague but it does render it obvious. For a legit prediction of the Superleague go back to this 1999 economic analysis by Thomas Hoehn and Stefan Szymanski.

The bottleneck of a closed league is the ceiling it places on fan support. The rate limiter that a closed league creates is the absence of financial risk it offers to team owners. Increase the risk to owners and fans increase their enjoyment of the professional sport.

The closed league bottleneck also changes player development dynamics. There are fewer jobs and few advancement opportunities for young players in closed leagues. The U.S. soccer player pool has grown as the best young talent has moved to open leagues in Europe, where they are thriving. Not thriving are the young soccer players who fail to progress here in the U.S., as shown by the recent failure to qualify for the 2021 Olympics tournament.

Closed leagues are better for owners. Open leagues are better for fans. Populism has dropped far down the list of American cultural values but that might change. If it does, I think that attitudes about professional sports leagues and owners will be a barometer to reflect new norms and changing values.

Thanks for reading. Enjoy your weekend.
-Brad

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