Applied Sports Science newsletter – August 25, 2021

Applied Sports Science news articles, blog posts and research papers for August 25, 2021

 

Don’t Expect Kawhi Leonard or Klay Thompson to Play Opening NightDon’t Expect Kawhi Leonard or Klay Thompson to Play Opening Night

Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation, Joey Linn from

he NBA has released its schedule for the 2021-22 season, and the LA Clippers will open up against the Golden State Warriors. While it was expected that Kawhi Leonard would be absent for this matchup after suffering a partial ACL tear in the Western Conference Semi-Finals, it was not until just recently that it became known that Klay Thompson will also likely be out.


5 NFL players who have quietly retired so far in 2021

sportskeeda, Wesley D Keefer from

… With all of the commotion, there were a few notable NFL retirements that you may have missed, including an impressive feat from the New York Giants having three players retire in four days during training camp.

On that note, let’s take a look at five NFL players who quietly retired in 2021.

#1 – TE Jake Butts, Chicago Bears


Great read on @katieledecky and leveraging Stanford roots including lessons from Sleep and Dreams.

Twitter, Cheri Mah from

Loved that she reached out to us for #sleep and travel optimization for #TokyoOlympics and congrats on phenomenal races! ????


Using Artificial Intelligence for early detection and treatment of illnesses: TU Dresden researchers develop an implantable AI system

TU Dresden, News Portal from

Artificial intelligence (AI) will fundamentally change medicine and healthcare: Diagnostic patient data, e.g. from ECG, EEG or X-ray images, can be analyzed with the help of machine learning, so that diseases can be detected at a very early stage based on subtle changes. However, implanting AI within the human body is still a major technical challenge. TU Dresden scientists at the Chair of Optoelectronics have now succeeded for the first time in developing a bio-compatible implantable AI platform that classifies in real time healthy and pathological patterns in biological signals such as heartbeats. It detects pathological changes even without medical supervision. The research results have now been published in the journal ‘Science Advances’.


Atlanta Falcons owner creates early-stage sports tech investment fund

SportsPro Media, Ed Dixon from

AMBSE Ventures will target technology startups in the sports and entertainment sectors, with the goal of strengthening AMBSE’s various properties, which include Major League Soccer’s (MLS) Atlanta United and the US$1.6 billion Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

Initially, the fund’s verticals will be fan engagement, sports performance, live event operations, emerging categories such as esports and betting, and tools for media and sponsors to better engage with supporters.

AMBSE chief executive Steve Cannon will lead the new division, which is being backed by Falcons and Atlanta United owner Arthur Blank (pictured above) and will begin operations without any outside partners.


How the Utes’ improved approach to athletes and mental health kept wide receiver Jaylen Dixon at Utah

Salt Lake Tribune, Josh Newman from

… Ten months later, [Jaylen] Dixon is still at Utah, ready to contribute for this Utes team, which is expected to contend for a third Pac-12 South title in four seasons. The Frisco, Texas, native’s time away from football was an exercise in patience and perseverance. His situation is a prime example of how college football programs and athletic departments have evolved in terms of addressing mental health issues, rather than ignoring them.

Dixon declined to go into specifics when asked by The Salt Lake Tribune after a recent practice, but he was willing to offer some insight.

“I had some things going on personally,” Dixon said. “It wasn’t about playing time or anything to do with my teammates. I love my teammates, it was just, sometimes you really have to take some time off to see what’s going on and what’s really right for you. After that time off, I really found that this is the right place for me. These teammates, this coaching staff.”


Absolutely stunned – pleasantly so – at this announcement from such a major SEC school.

Twitter, Zachary Binney, Brody Miller from

#LSU announces it will require proof of vaccination or a negative COVID PCR test taken within 72 hours in order to attend a game in Tiger Stadium for those 12 or older.


Nutrition and tech experts bring carb-coding power to the masses with AI startup

Nutra Ingredients, Nikki Hancocks from

Pullman is one of the hardest places to win in the sport. After Smith’s success with an analytics-driven approach at Saint Mary’s, Columbia and San Francisco, there are early signs it can carry over to the highest level.


Reeling San Diego Padres fire pitching coach Larry Rothschild

ESPN MLB, Alden Gonzalez from

… “Larry’s brought a lot to us — a lot of experience, a ton of knowledge,” Tingler said. “I believe he was the right guy at the right time; we’ve won a lot of games with Larry as the pitching coach. But moving forward — we’ve been in a situation where we’ve certainly had some injuries, there’s no doubt about that, but we’ve had just some inconsistency on the mound, and I just think at the end of the day we haven’t reached our level of consistency on the mound. With 36 games to go, we wanted to try to give a different message, a different voice.”


Why You May Have More Friends Than Your Friends Do

Nautilus, Joshua Holden from

It is a mathematical fact that if you average over all of the net popularities in a network, then that average will be negative: Your friends have more friends than you do. You are more likely to be Carolina’s friend than Annika’s, exactly because Carolina has more friends. If someone has lots of friends, one of them is more likely to be you. In his paper, Feld suggested that this might be psychologically significant. People, when they wonder how many friends they ought to have, could be looking at the number of friends their friends have as a point of comparison, which will almost always leave them feeling inadequate. A 2017 paper identified a “happiness paradox” and suggested that it might be related to the friendship paradox—perhaps your friends are also happier than you are because they are more popular.

But in a new paper, a trio of researchers from the Santa Fe Institute and the University of Michigan, who study physics and networks, show that the truth of the friendship paradox isn’t as gloomy as it might seem. There are some networks where the friendship paradox doesn’t meaningfully manifest at all. The authors—George Cantwell, Alec Kirkley, and Mark Newman—confirmed this by comparing their mathematical results against over 30 real-world networks, including among jazz musicians, collaborating scientists, drug users, and dolphins. So, if you were ever bummed out in the way Feld suggested, cheer up—the reality is much more complicated than the headline. You might be more popular than one single number makes it seem.


Why Southampton changed the Head Coach and assistant model

Training Ground Guru, Simon Austin from

Southampton Director of Football Matt Crocker has explained why the club have introduced a system of Game Coach and Individual Development Coach, rather than the traditional Head Coach and assistant model.

This is the first season that the Premier League club are running the innovative new coaching model for their B team and Under-18s. In the B team, Lee Skyrme is Individual Development Coach, working alongside Game Coach Dave Horseman. And in the U18s, Mikey Harris is Individual Development Coach, with Carl Martin as Game Coach.


Canada had a slow start today but completely controlled the game from the middle of the first period onwards.

Twitter, Mikael Nahabedian from


Washington State basketball’s Kyle Smith uses Moneyball approach

Sports Illustrated, Kevin Sweeney from

Pullman is one of the hardest places to win in the sport. After Smith’s success with an analytics-driven approach at Saint Mary’s, Columbia and San Francisco, there are early signs it can carry over to the highest level.


Why Canadian women’s soccer thrives at Olympics but can’t shake World Cup struggles

Yahoo Sports, CBC from

… Former Canadian midfielder Amy Walsh, who played at the 1999 and 2007 World Cups and the 2008 Olympics, argues that this makes the World Cup a more difficult tournament to win.

“The field of 12 teams in Tokyo was missing Germany and France, so with the smaller field, you are reducing the competition and the level of play, to a certain extent,” Walsh told CBC Sports.

Walsh also argues there is far less margin of error at the World Cup than the Olympics, which is more forgiving when you consider eight of the 12 teams qualify for the knockout round.


How To: Get Summer League Data

The F5 newsletter, Owen Phillips from

This week’s tutorial goes over how I retrieved summer league data and matched it up with a player’s rookie season stats. Let’s jump right in.

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