Applied Sports Science newsletter – September 1, 2021

Applied Sports Science news articles, blog posts and research papers for September 1, 2021

 

How the NBA Draft Combine turned Joshua Primo into a lottery pick

NBC Sports, ProBasketballTalk, Kurt Helin from

… At the time of the combine, Primo wasn’t projected as a lottery pick, he was more likely headed to the second round. He was the youngest player in the draft at age 18 — with a baby face that makes him look even younger — and in his one season at Alabama he was playing more off the ball as a shooter, averaging 8.1 points a game and shooting 38.1% on 3s on a veteran-heavy team.

Primo rarely got to show off his ball-handling and playmaking skills. NBA teams pegged him as a sharpshooter.

“With the pandemic, there are certain factors we don’t see in any other draft, which is NBA teams’ ability to scout players numerous times in practices or in games in person,” [Todd] Ramasar said. “Including decision makers. I knew from watching film on Josh at Alabama, seeing his role, and knowing teams hadn’t seen him live as much as they would have liked to.


Miles Robinson’s journey from Syracuse to Gold Cup glory for US soccer team

Syracuse University, The Daily Orange student newspaper, Alex Cirino from

… Robinson wasn’t the U.S.’ go-to option on set pieces until its final group stage game against Canada, when captain Walker Zimmerman suffered a tournament-ending knee injury. Each of Robinson’s three national team goals had been headers, something he made himself known for when he played at Syracuse.

He recalled that SU head coach Ian McIntyre — who also played as a center back — had always wanted his defenders to score as often as they could. In his two years with the Orange, Robinson scored nine goals, eight of them being headers. His goal scoring ability helped him win ACC Defensive Player of the Year in 2016 and heavily influenced his high MLS SuperDraft selection.

“Miles can add goals to his repertoire because he is so quick. He is so athletic and powerful that he’s a real mismatch and really tough to mark,” McIntyre said.


Late-blooming Aaronson a rising force as US qualifying opens

Associated Press, Ronald Blum from

Brenden Aaronson played last weekend at Hartberg, Austria, drove to Munich, then flew to New Jersey and on to Tennessee. His first 11 days of September include games in El Salvador, Nashville and Honduras as the United States starts World Cup qualifying, then a return to Europe for a club road game at Swarovski Tirol.

Hurtling ahead is the life of the 20-year-old midfielder. In less than three years, he has moved from second-tier Bethlehem Steel to Major League Soccer’s Philadelphia Union to helping RB Salzburg win an Austrian league title and reach the European Champions League.

In an era when top young Americans are snatched up by European clubs at age 16, Aaronson is the epitome of a late bloomer.


The Brain Doesn’t Think the Way You Think It Does

Quanta Magazine, Jordana Cepelewicz from

Neuroscientists are the cartographers of the brain’s diverse domains and territories — the features and activities that define them, the roads and highways that connect them, and the boundaries that delineate them. Toward the front of the brain, just behind the forehead, is the prefrontal cortex, celebrated as the seat of judgment. Behind it lies the motor cortex, responsible for planning and coordinating movement. To the sides: the temporal lobes, crucial for memory and the processing of emotion. Above them, the somatosensory cortex; behind them, the visual cortex.

Not only do researchers often depict the brain and its functions much as mapmakers might draw nations on continents, but they do so “the way old-fashioned mapmakers” did, according to Lisa Feldman Barrett, a psychologist at Northeastern University. “They parse the brain in terms of what they’re interested in psychologically or mentally or behaviorally,” and then they assign the functions to different networks of neurons “as if they’re Lego blocks, as if there are firm boundaries there.”

But a brain map with neat borders is not just oversimplified — it’s misleading.


Parental Control of Tech Use Does Not Protect Adolescent Sleep

Sleep Review, Sree Roy from

Teens who spend longer watching TV, playing video games, and browsing the internet and social media tend to sleep less and are more prone to daytime sleepiness, but parental control of technology does little to protect their sleep, according to researchers at The University of Western Australia (UWA).


The integration of training and off-training activities substantially alters training volume and load analysis in elite rowers

Nature, Scientific Reports journal from

Training studies in elite athletes traditionally focus on the relationship between scheduled training (TRAIN) and performance. Here, we added activities outside of scheduled training i.e., off-training (OFF) contributing to total training (TOTAL) to evaluate the contribution of OFF on performance. Eight elite rowers recorded OFF and TRAIN during waking hours for one season (30–45 weeks) with multisensory smartwatches. Changes in performance were assessed via rowing ergometer testing and maximum oxygen uptake (V˙O2max). Based on 1-Hz-sampling of heart rate data during TRAIN and OFF (> 60% maximum heart rate (HRmax), the volume, session count, intensity, training impulse (TRIMP), and training intensity distribution were calculated. OFF altered volume, TRIMP, and session count by 19 ± 13%, 13 ± 9%, and 41 ± 67% (p < 0.001). On an individual level, training intensity distribution changed in 3% of the valid weeks. Athletes exercised 31% of their weekly volume below 60% HRmax. Low to moderate intensities dominated during OFF with 87% (95% CI [79, 95]); however, in some weeks high-intensity activities > 89% HRmax during OFF amounted to 21 min·week−1 (95% CI [4, 45]). No effect of OFF on changes of performance surrogates was found (0.072 > p > 0.604). The integration of OFF substantially altered volume, TRIMP, and session count. However, no effect on performance was found.


Dr. Ed Wu on how metabolic health impacts heart health

Levels, Mike Haney from

This cardiac health-tech founder shares why watching glucose and insulin are so critical to cardiovascular disease prevention and recovery


After Winning Big With NBA Top Shot, These VCs Are Teaming With Pro Athletes And A $100 Million Startup To Improve Diversity In Tech

Forbes, Kevin Dowd from

… Many investors talk the talk when it comes to improving diversity. But too few are walking the walk. There’s a reason Black investors hold just 3% of partner-level positions at venture firms, according to a recent study from Deloitte and the National Venture Capital Association.

“We know right away. We can sniff out who’s actually interested in what we have to say versus getting on the phone to say, ‘Hey, I spoke to a Black GP today,’” Wilson says. “They’re meeting their quota by speaking to us, which is essentially wasting our time.”

[Sherrard] Harrington and [Aaron] Wilson were struggling to raise funds in the traditional manner. But they were succeeding in other ways, building close ties to a network of entrepreneurs, influencers and professional athletes who are interested in tech and investing—including the NBA’s Spencer Dinwiddie, a classmate of Harrington’s at the University of Colorado, who became Eonxi’s first investor. The firm started doing deals with a bit of angel backing and its founders’ own capital. It didn’t take long to hit a home run.


A Real-Time Fuel Gauge for Endurance Athletes

Outside Online, Alex Hutchinson from

Supersapiens’s new continuous glucose monitor promises to help athletes manage their energy levels. But can it really stave off a bonk?


Whoop valued at US$3.6bn after US$200m funding round

SportsPro Media, Ed Dixon from

… Whoop, which was founded in 2012, said the funding round now makes it the most valuable standalone human performance company in the world.

Whoop plans to use the new capital to invest in research and development to build future wearable tech, create enhancements across its suite of product, software and analytics, and enter new markets through strategic international expansion.

The company is also looking to acquire leading technology companies to evolve its membership offering, as well as hire top talent across engineering, data science and analytics.


Wearable Dehydration Monitoring Device Takes First Place at Invent@SU 2021

Syracuse University News from

For the first few weeks of Invent@SU, physics major Paul Franco ’22, aerospace engineering student Zach Stahl ’23 and computer science student Anthony Mazzacane ’24 were not always sure their concept would work out. They had identified a clear problem – 80% of NCAA athletes had suffered from dehydration but finding a solution was not simple. They wanted to design a wearable device that could monitor an athlete’s hydration level so coaches and trainers would have better information and keep athletes safe, but would also need to prove their invention worked.


The Kinetic Arm™ Shows Promising Innovation in Preventing Arm Injuries

Digital Journal, GetNews from

Jason Colleran is the owner and founder of The Kinetic Arm™, formerly known as The Perfect Arm, an innovative sports biomechanics company based in Atlanta, GA. He has announced the launch of an upgraded version of his new award-winning throwing support sleeve, which will be available in September 2021. Colleran will be leveraging his knowledge and expertise in biomechanics across media outlets in effort to deliver this new world-class product to help solve baseball’s growing injury epidemic. The Kinetic Arm is now used and recommended by professional athletes, physical therapists, doctors, and coaches at every level.

As a biomechanics consultant, Colleran has had the privilege to work directly with high-level professional athletes, SEC and other collegiate baseball programs, and high school baseball and softball programs to integrate The Kinetic Arm™ as their primary workload management tool. “This is the best I’ve ever felt!” says Matt Ruppenthal, Houston Astros pitcher and former Vanderbilt Commodore.


World First: Smaller than a speck of dust, voltage like a AAA battery – Smallest biosupercapacitor provides energy for biomedical applications

University of Chemnitz (Germany), University News from

The miniaturization of microelectronic sensor technology, microelectronic robots or intravascular implants is progressing rapidly. However, it also poses major challenges for research. One of the biggest is the development of tiny but efficient energy storage devices that enable the operation of autonomously working microsystems – in more and more smaller areas of the human body for example. In addition, these energy storage devices must be bio-compatible if they are to be used in the body at all. Now there is a prototype that combines these essential properties.


Tajon Buchanan’s Transfer Is Actually An Argument Against The MLS SuperDraft

Forbes, Ian Nicholas Quillen from

The news of news of Tajon Buchanan’s transfer to Club Brugge from the New England Revolution following the 2021 MLS season has again stoked fierce debate about the value of MLS SuperDraft.

On one side are folks who believe the draft — open only to college players who do not sign Homegrown Player contracts with MLS teams they played for at the youth level — is an underrated source of potential talent. Players like Buchanan — drafted ninth overall out of Syracuse University in 2019 — are Exhibit A.

On the other are those who just don’t think colleges produce pro-level prospects consistently enough to be worth the effort to scout, which is not the same as saying pro-level college talent doesn’t exist.


Steelers Hire Will Britt As New Football Analyst

Steelers Depot blog, Alex Kozora from

… Pittsburgh has been criticized for having one of the weaker analytics staff in the league and the old-school attitude of GM Kevin Colbert and HC Mike Tomlin. It’s at least nice to see them add a second analyst after losing Whitmire but the team still has a poor track record of retaining talent, losing Karim Kassam and Whitmire in the span of a couple of years.

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