Applied Sports Science newsletter – August 23, 2021

Two QUT law researchers argue Ms Jack should be free to compete having served the two-year ban

Ms Jack awaits decision on appeal by the World Anti-Doping Agency and Sports Integrity Australia to extend the ban to four years.

This case could resolve the appropriate sanction for athletes who returns a positive doping sample but are unable to explain how the drug entered their system

… In recent years, there have been ongoing talks in the league about players using cannabis for all sorts of issues – from helping them sleep to pain management. The U.S. has now legalized marijuana in 19 out of 50 states, and the perception against it is slowly eradicating, although it still exists.

In the past, some players received stiff penalties and suspensions after getting caught using substances. OJ Mayo has not returned to the NBA, and he admitted to smoking marijuana before. Tyreke Evans also got the boot, but it was unconfirmed if it was due to cannabis use. However, the NBA has a softening stance regarding smoking marijuana as more players are getting more confident in admitting they are using it.

New data: specializing early predicts faster progress but a lower peak. World-class athletes played more sports early, focused later, and took longer to excel than national-level athletes.

A jack of all trades becomes a master of one.

Friends don’t let friends use stoplight color schemes. This is the tiny hill I am willing to die on. So Friend, let’s talk about why this has got to stop. There are three solid reasons, each of which, on its own, is more than enough to get the red-yellow-green scheme uprooted.

1: It is not color-blind friendly.

The most common form of color-blindness is red-green. Which means that when we use the stoplight colors to communicate that red means “bad” and green means “good,” people who are red-green color-blind literally can’t tell if you are talking about the worst stuff or the best stuff.

FINIS Inc., announced that its FINIS Smart Goggle, Powered by Ciye™, a game-changing goggle that enables swimmers to see their splits and results in real time, has been instrumental in
helping Olympians train and medal at the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics. The FINIS Smart Goggle is a tool for beginner to master swimmers, casual swimmers to club swimmers of all ages, and World Record-holding Olympians and Paralympians, as they train for their swims and international competitions.

… “I think this is something other mental health apps aren’t covering,” said Maya McClendon.

McClendon, through her company The Sports Metaphor, is developing Timeout, an app meant to address athlete mental health.

It’s something McClendon understands firsthand, as a former volleyball player for both University of Louisville and Arizona State University.

Wearable epidermal sensors that can provide noninvasive and continuous analysis of metabolites and electrolytes in sweat have great significance for healthcare monitoring. This study reports an epidermal sensor that can wirelessly, noninvasively, and potentiometrically analyze metabolites and electrolytes. Potentiometry-based ion-selective electrodes (ISE) are most widely used for detecting electrolytes, such as Na+ and K+. We develop an enzyme-based glucose ISE for potentiometric analysis of sweat glucose. The glucose ISE sensor is obtained by modifying a glucose oxidase layer (GOD) on an H+ ISE sensor. GOD catalyzes glucose to generate H+. The generated H+ passes through the H+ selective membrane to change the potential of the electrode. We have fully examined the limit of detection, detecting range, and stability of our epidermal sensor. Meanwhile, using this epidermal sensor, we can easily analyze the relationship between blood glucose and sweat glucose. The concentration curve of sweat glucose can represent blood glucose concentration, significantly contributing to sports and chronic disease monitoring.

Clear decreases in horizontal force production capacity during sprint acceleration have been reported after hamstring injuries (HI) in football players. We hypothesized that lower FH0 is associated with a higher HI occurrence in football players. We aimed to analyze the association between sprint running horizontal force production capacities at low (FH0) and high (V0) velocities, and HI occurrence in football. This prospective cohort study included 284 football players over one season. All players performed 30 m field sprints at the beginning and different times during the season. Sprint velocity data were used to compute sprint mechanical properties. Players’ injury data were prospectively collected during the entire season. Cox regression analyses were performed using new HI as the outcome, and horizontal force production capacity (FH0 and V0) was used at the start of the season (model 1) and at each measurement time point within the season (model 2) as explanatory variables, adjusted for individual players’ (model 2) age, geographical group of players, height, body mass, and previous HI, with cumulative hours of football practice as the time scale. A total of 47 new HI (20% of all injuries) were observed in 38 out of 284 players (13%). There were no associations between FH0 and/or V0 values at the start of the season and new HI occurrence during the season (model 1). During the season, a total of 801 measurements were performed, from one to six per player. Lower measured FH0 values were significantly associated with a higher risk of sustaining HI within the weeks following sprint measurement (HR = 2.67 (95% CI: 1.51 to 4.73), p < 0.001) (model 2). In conclusion, low horizontal force production capacities at low velocity during early sprint acceleration (FH0) may be considered as a potential additional factor associated with HI risk in a comprehensive, multifactorial, and individualized approach. [full text]

The three largest public universities in North Carolina spent a combined $5 million testing student-athletes for COVID-19 last school year.

The added expense proved costly at a time when fans weren’t allowed in the stands, games were canceled and athletic departments lost money.

Records show UNC Charlotte alone spent more than $1 million in Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF) money on thousands of COVID-19 tests for student-athletes. For comparison, the university spent roughly $1.4 million in HEERF funds improving technology for distance and hybrid learning, according to quarterly reports.

… He found his way to Tallahassee after a meeting with FSU athletic director David Coburn and the rest of the Seminoles coaches including football coach Mike Norvell.

“I look forward to the continued evolution of taking sports medicine and blending in more at the performance team with the focus being, obviously, the experience of the student-athlete,” said Trulock. “Athletic trainers have always worked with physicians and strength coaches but kind of taking that group with the nutritionist and the mental health and how can we put that all together for the experience of the student-athletes so they see a seamless transition.”

Nano Barahona, Cristóbal Otero, Sebastián Otero, and Joshua Kim. 2021. “Equilibrium Effects of Food Labeling Policies.” Working paper, downloaded July 2021. [video, 8:21]

At a Constitutional Convention this fall, a committee will reconsider the NCAA’s bylaws and its overall place in college sports governance.

FOS asked Title IX and gender-and-sport experts whether and how they think the NCAA should adjudicate sexual assault matters.

Despite the International System of Units (SI), as well as several publications guiding researchers on correct use of terminology, there continues to be widespread misuse of mechanical terms such as ‘work’ in sport and exercise science. A growing concern is the misuse of the term ‘load’. Terms such as ‘training load’ and ‘PlayerLoad’ are popular in sport and exercise science vernacular. However, a ‘load’ is a mechanical variable which, when used appropriately, describes a force and therefore should be accompanied with the SI-derived unit of the newton (N). It is tempting to accept popular terms and nomenclature as scientific. However, scientists are obliged to abide by the SI and must pay close attention to scientific constructs. This communication presents a critical reflection on the use of the term ‘load’ in sport and exercise science. We present ways in which the use of this term breaches principles of science and provide practical solutions for ongoing use in research and practice. [full text]

The return of the 82-game regular season will help the Suns finish with another high seed in the Western Conference standings.

Teams including the Los Angeles Lakers, Los Angeles Clippers, and maybe the Golden State Warriors will be focused on resting the stars again. Entering next season, there will be plenty of talk about load management.

LeBron James of the Lakers learned his lesson last season in respecting the season like he should. The first half of the season should not matter to James as much as it did last year. I think he was trying to prove how much he cared and it backfired. Whether you believe he was really hurt or not, at the end of the Lakers first round exit, James knew that going into next season, his effort will be saved for the postseason. That too of Anthony Davis.

To which we add “Never explain by incompetence what can be adequately explained as an understandable mistake.”

Not sure the latter applies here.