… A personalized food order, vitamins and supplements tailored to Gronkowski’s exact nutrition needs will then be ordered via third-party delivery service DoorDash, Beyond Protocol announced Friday, in what it’s calling the first blockchain transaction of patient health information.
The idea is for athletes to have their biometric data uploaded and stored in a secure blockchain where they can sign off to have it released to top physicians and researchers for advancements in sports medicine and potentially prevent sports injuries, a rep for Beyond Protocol told FOX Business.
As Leylah Annie Fernandez basked in the joy of her improbable third round comeback win over Naomi Osaka earlier last week, she was asked on the court in her post-match interview at what point she truly believed that she could topple such a champion. Her response was immediate. “From the very beginning,” Fernandez said. The crowd reacted with a surprised murmur. “Right before the match, I knew I was able to win.”
Against Osaka, Fernandez had trailed 7-5, 6-5 as the third seed served for a straight-sets win. Two days later, Angelique Kerber led their contest 6-4, *4-3 and appeared to have taken the upper hand in a tight tussle. Both times that Fernandez found herself at the cliff edge, she elevated her level and recovered her footing to win.
Her win on Sunday against Kerber, who had played well herself, was even more impressive. After falling down a set and a break, Fernandez snatched control of the match by exhibiting all of the various qualities that define her game: her athleticism, her forehand’s sublime racquet head speed, her court sense and the return of serve that ravaged Kerber throughout.
… Directed by Jake Scott, viewers are given unparalleled access to the infinite steps taken to accomplish Kipchoge’s goal. Without stating the obvious, you can deduce that perfection was necessary for success.
Perhaps the most remarkable part of this story is Kipchoge’s demeanor throughout the entire process. An undertaking like this would surely elicit feelings of anxiety for anyone tasked with completing something literally no human has done before. But Kipchoge’s attitude for the entire hour and 27 minutes of the production is a marvel. He remains unflappable to the noise, unfazed by the pomp and circumstance. He maintains such a serious personality, naturally you wonder if this is someone incapable of showing emotion.
This study examined test-retest reliability of soccer-specific skills within a modified version of the soccer match simulation (SMS) protocol. Methods
Ten professional youth academy soccer players (18 ± 1 years) from the United Kingdom completed 30 minutes of the modified SMS on two occasions under standardised conditions. During each trial, participants performed 20-m dribbling, short passing (4.2-m), long passing (7.9-m), shooting skills, and 15-m sprints within four blocks of soccer specific activity. Results
Collapsed normative data (mean (SD)) for trial 1 and trial 2 for dribbling speed was 2.7 (0.2) m/s, for sprint speed 5.9 (0.4) m/s, for short pass speed 11.1 (0.5) km/h, for long pass speed was 12.2 (0.5) km/h, and for shooting speed was 13.3 (0.4) km/h. Mean results from trial 1 and trial 2 were not different for all measures evaluated (P > 0.05). Good to excellent reliability (ICC 0.76-0.99) was observed for long and short passing speed, shooting speed, sprint speed, and long pass accuracy, with CVs typically < 5-10%. Moderate reliability (ICC 0.50-0.75) was observed for dribbling speed. Poor reliability (ICC <0.50) was observed for dribbling accuracy and shooting accuracy.
Conclusions
The reliability of the modified version of the SMS protocol is promising for most of the skills assessed, with the exception of dribbling and shooting accuracy in this group of professional youth soccer players. The modified protocol is easy to implement within professional clubs without specialist equipment, but due to the limited sample size the reliability requires further confirmation in a larger sample. [full text]
Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports from
Hamstring muscle injuries are the most prevalent among athletes who engage in sprinting activities. Their most frequent location is where the long head of the biceps femoris joins with the semitendinosus muscle to form the conjoint hamstring tendon. Just distal to this area an additional group of fibers of the semitendinosus originate from medial aspect of biceps femoris. The objective of this study was to analyze the morphological characteristics of this union and to discuss its potential role in hamstring tears.
Anatomical dissection was performed on 35 thighs. Samples obtained from this region were sectioned and stained with Masson’s trichrome for further histological evaluation.
A group of fibers from the semitendinosus muscle originating from the long head of the biceps femoris were observed in all 35 specimens. This origin was located 67 ± 12mm from the ischial tuberosity and was 32 ± 14mm in length. This group of muscle fibers had a width of 10.9 ± 5.3mm and a thickness in the anteroposterior axis of 3.2 ± 1.4mm. Its pennation angle was 9.2 ± 1.5 degrees. Microscopic examination showed muscle cells from both muscles contacting interposed tendinous tissue.
In conclusion, fibers of the semitendinosus muscle consistently arise from the proximal aspect of the long head of biceps femoris. The morphological characteristics of this junction have functional implications. The horizontal component of the semitendinosus vector could pull the long head of the biceps femoris medially during its shortening—lengthening cycle, rendering it an intrinsic risk factor for hamstring injuries.
The smartwatch market doesn’t appear to be cooling down any time soon — if anything, it’s heating up. Strategy Analytics estimates smartwatch shipments grew by a whopping 47 percent year-over-year in the second quarter of 2021, with 18.1 million of the wearables shipping this spring. Demand (at least from retailers) has returned to “pre-pandemic levels,” according to the analyst firm’s Steven Waltzer — it hasn’t been this hot since 2018.
Strategy Analytics attributed the spike to continued demand for personal health devices. It’s not clear how much the pandemic recovery fuelled demand, although it wouldn’t be surprising if the renewed interest in going outside prompted extra sales.
It wasn’t just the usual companies that benefited from the surge, either. Apple held on to a comfortable lead with 52 percent of the market and the most popular individual smartwatch (the Apple Watch Series 6), and Samsung saw its shipments jump 54 percent. Garmin’s fitness-focused watches still jumped 25 percent, though, and “others” (including Fossil and other Wear OS backers) saw their shipments climb 55 percent. This was a strong overall market, even for smaller brands.
It should have been a perfect moment for Carson Caprara, head of footwear development for Brooks Running, when the company’s star athlete claimed bronze in the 1,500-meter finals at the Tokyo Olympics.
Instead, there was a catch. The runner, Britain’s Josh Kerr, wore shoes designed by Nike. That’s because, amid the complications of COVID-19, Brooks had been delayed in developing a version of next-generation track spikes that are transforming the sport.
“It was so frustrating,” said Caprara, whose company let Kerr and other sponsored elites race in spikes from rival brands. “We’ve always responded for our athletes, every time. To come up a little short really grounded us.”
… “We know tissues adapt to load and the environment they are in,” says Jay Dicharry, a physical therapist and running injury expert. “If you put them in less, they tend to adapt and become stiffer and stronger.” Dicharry has kept his own children in light, flexible footwear for that reason. “If you give your kids that gift now, when they are our age, we won’t be having this conversation,” he says.
A successful serial entrepreneur who runs a 3D-printed personalised supplements firm will join NutraIngredients’ Sports and Active Nutrition Summit in October to discuss the huge opportunity that this new tech brings to the health and nutrition industry.
University of California-Berkeley, Berkeley Research, Bakar Fellows Program from
… Ultra-small sensors are powered by their counterparts: ultra-small batteries. As the pace of miniaturization and its applications accelerates, so does the need for ever-smaller sensor batteries that can last a lifetime.
Kristofer Pister, professor of electrical engineering and computer science, leads research to embed microbatteries directly into sensor circuitry, providing a built-in power source instead of an external one. The technology could shrink circuit boards to make the sensor, microprocessor and battery all one unit that can speak to the internet.
The Bakar Fellows Program supports his on-going work to fabricate and print microbatteries within the sensor circuitry itself. Much of the work is also being done by his post-doc, Dr. Anju Toor, who has developed a battery design and fabrication process to print high-capacity batteries. Pister describes the technology and its potential.
… Adam Owen has returned to Europe to reunite with his family following one-and-a-half seasons in Seattle. Owen served in a dual role of High Performance Director & Technical Advisor, where he oversaw sports science and performance programs for the club across all levels of the organization, while also advising the club on technical matters. Owen has 16 years of experience as a fitness coach, assistant manager and manager, in addition to a decade of playing experience in Wales and Scotland.
Said Lagerwey, “We’d like to wish Adam luck on the next phase of his career. He was well-regarded during his time here and helped us on and off the field. During these challenging times amidst a global pandemic, family is more important than ever, and we’re happy that Adam is able to reunite with his back in the United Kingdom.”
Sean Muldoon has been promoted to Vice President of Performance, joining Vice President of Sports Medicine & Head Athletic Trainer Chris Cornish and Vice President of Soccer Analytics & Research Ravi Ramineni as recent VP promotions on the club’s technical staff.
The widely-held notion is, typically, that these players can see what others can’t, enabling them to then act on those esoteric opportunities. We call these people maestros or artists, in large part, due to their ability to create beauty out of what we might perceive as nothingness–but it’s often not the technical, execution-level ability, itself, that manifests in these stunning passes. It’s the amount of information they collect, and base their decisions off of, instead.
Norwich City’s record transfer spend was only one part of their bid to stay ahead of the game in the Premier League, with a bold quest to harness big data.
The Canaries’ £750,000 investment in the revolutionary ‘SoccerBot’ training aid, the first club in England to invest in that technology, is now up and running under the guidance of Dr John Iga, who joined the Canaries this summer as head of strategy and innovation.
Former USA head coach Jill Ellis has been appointed as FIFA’s new lead to the Technical Advisory Group on the future of women’s football; FIFA’s chief of global football development Arsene Wenger is the driving force behind plans for a men’s World Cup every two years