CBC Sports, The Canadian Press, Donna Spencer from
Natalie Spooner is comfortable out of her comfort zone.
The veteran forward on Canada’s women’s hockey team has carved out a public persona outside of hockey tackling international travel racing and figure skating for reality TV.
Spooner was good at both, which kept her in front of a broad television audience that might not have known she was a good hockey player too.
“I like the feeling of proving myself wrong,” Spooner told The Canadian Press.
… So nearly three months after the fall, (which Doc Rivers seemed to confirm caused the injury amidst speculation last spring Joel may have had a preexisting issue) Embiid has apparently opted to not have surgery.
… In an exclusive interview with bundesliga.com, Adams discusses Marsch’s arrival, why winning a title with Leipzig is so important to him and more on how the Bundesliga is helping to build soccer’s reputation in his native USA…
To hear Brian Kelly so jovially roll through his training camp obstacles this month and his pre-Florida State to-do list Wednesday night, you’d think his only problems were First World problems.
Or maybe it’s just what a thriving college football culture looks and sounds like.
… Before the Kraken take the ice for their first NHL season this fall, Boyd and the team have already started introducing the basics of hockey to schools and youth programs in the area. But they’re doing it differently from what other teams have done in the past.
A former elementary and high school history teacher, [Kyle] Boyd went searching for a school-based ball hockey program the Kraken could build around to introduce the game in physical education classes. There was none that met elementary school physical education standards, so Boyd set about creating one that did while trying to help launch other parts of the franchise.
He partnered with SHAPE America, a national organization that helps create the standards for K-12 physical education, to make sure the program checked all the boxes for educational requirements. He used a local artist to create characters representative of kids of all sizes, ethnicities and abilities to illustrate the skills being taught like stickhandling, passing and shooting.
Global participation in running continues to increase, especially amongst adolescents. Consequently, the number of running-related injuries (RRI) in adolescents is rising. Emerging evidence now suggests that overuse type injuries involving growing bone (e.g., bone stress injuries) and soft tissues (e.g., tendinopathies) predominate in adolescents that participate in running-related sports. Associations between running biomechanics and overuse injuries have been widely studied in adults, however, relatively little research has comparatively targeted running biomechanics in adolescents. Moreover, available literature on injury prevention and rehabilitation for adolescent runners is limited, and there is a tendency to generalize adult literature to adolescent populations despite pertinent considerations regarding growth-related changes unique to these athletes. This perspective article provides commentary and expert opinion surrounding the state of knowledge and future directions for research in adolescent running biomechanics, injury prevention and supplemental training.
With Naomi Osaka and Simone Biles bringing greater attention to mental health in athletics, we asked three Denver sports psychologists for tips on how to ensure your child enjoys their time on the field.
BASF recently launched a new venture into the indoor fitness market with the Keep K2 Treadmill. SportsPro spoke with Jens Dierssen, the German-based chemicals firm’s director of business management, to learn about the evolution of its Infinergy products and the technology’s potential for future collaborations.
Launched by Resolve Partners and ArcLabs, SportX will help founders of sports-tech start-ups in the south-east of Ireland.
A new pre-accelerator programme for founders with sports and wellness start-up ideas in south-west Ireland has been launched by Resolve Partners and NDRC at ArcLabs Fund.
SportX will see founders with early-stage companies or start-up ideas meet customers, mentors and guest speakers over six days between mid-October and the end of November.
On the bucolic campus of McDonogh School, winding roads take you past pristine lawns, exquisite mini-mansions, fleets of school buses and gorgeous brick school buildings before you get to its athletic complex, which is itself as well-manicured as a governor’s lawn. The pre-K-12 private school has a few famous alums strewn across the globe, but on this excruciatingly hot weekend in June, one graduate in particular is being remembered in spirit.
Jordan McNair died three years ago in a football offseason conditioning program at the University of Maryland, and his alma mater is where his parents and family friends are holding a health and wellness clinic designed to make sure it doesn’t happen to anyone else. At the time, the 19-year-old offensive lineman’s death tore the school’s athletic department apart at the seams and ended multiple careers on campus. It was an ugly exposure of the worst parts of college sports encompassing incentivized eating, peer pressure punishments and, unfortunately, fatal negligence.
But on this Saturday, the energy is a far cry from the hostile environment of a College Park, Maryland, workout. Young boys are running around playing 7-on-7 with volunteers from the Terps football team and others, who are volunteering their time to teach not only kids, but their parents about the importance of safety during play.
… A group of former players including Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer released a joint statement this week demanding that soccer’s governing bodies urgently deliver a new strategy to tackle the sport’s dementia crisis, which the “terrified” group labelled a “ticking time bomb”.
Concussion substitutes were trialled last year, children aged 11 and under are no longer taught to head footballs and limitations on heading in training have been enforced across the English professional game.
These measures, however, do not go far enough, according to the group. A real, lasting preventative approach could come via an entirely different world altogether – virtual reality.
There was a moment earlier this season that, in one pitcher’s mind, sums up what ails the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball, the country’s most prominent independent baseball league. It was when ALPB president Rick White visited with a team to discuss forthcoming changes to the mound. On Aug. 3, at Major League Baseball’s behest, the changes went into effect, with the ALPB moving its mounds a foot further back from their standard location of 60 feet, 6 inches from the rear point of home plate. “He said, ‘Oh, you know, when the mounds go back, you pitchers, you’re not going to really have to make any adjustments,'” the pitcher told CBS Sports, speaking on the condition of anonymity to avoid potential retaliation from the league.
“And then, the next words out of his mouth were, I swear to God, ‘well, you might have to adjust where you release the ball.'” Or, in so many words, the most fundamental aspect of pitching.
White’s amendment didn’t plant the seeds of distrust in the players. Neither, it should be said, did the modified mound. But those words and acts, in combination with similar ones from years past, have fertilized what has grown into a garden of wariness that now divides the Atlantic League’s players and leadership.
The pushed-back mound is only the latest experiment ALPB is conducting on MLB’s behalf. The leagues reached a three-year agreement in 2019 that has since seen ALPB serve as a testing ground for various gameplay tweaks: the automated ball-strike system (a.k.a robot umpires); the three-batter minimum; stricter defensive positioning rules; wider bases; and the “double-hook” designated hitter (a team loses its DH whenever it removes its starting pitcher).
… Mismanaging injuries at such a scale as the Phillies goes beyond the manager to medical staff and into the front office.
There have been multiple points this season where the Phillies have had players on the roster who are not healthy. On any given night, Girardi has several arms in the bullpen that he is unable to use due to load management.
Not to mention the Hoskins and Eflin situations. In Eflin’s case, it was advisable to give Eflin another rehab start to work his way back up to strength before returning to Philadelphia. Instead, he was rushed back because the team needed him, and now they do not have him indefinitely.
… Klopp will hope to avoid a cascading injury crisis like his side experienced last season, but Firmino’s injury adds a few tactical problems for the manager’s consideration too.
Jota started against both Norwich and Burnley, and while he scored in each game, Liverpool’s play in the final third was not as fluid, joined up or efficient as it usually is.
That is because Jota plays the number nine position very differently to Firmino. The Portuguese forward takes up more classical and conventional positions, hanging off the shoulder of the centre backs and breaking in behind.