Applied Sports Science newsletter – September 17, 2021

Applied Sports Science news articles, blog posts and research papers for September 17, 2021

 

April Ross and Alix Klineman, and the micro changes that led to gold

Volleyball magazine, Travis Mewhirter from

… “I played indoor for so long, and I know once you get to a super high level, it’s so hard to get better, and you’re making micro changes, and it’s so hard. You have 20 years of muscle memory and now you’re trying to change one thing and it’s so hard. That’s one of the reasons I quit indoor: It was so hard to get better. That’s one of the things about when I switched to beach: It was a whole world of opportunity to get better at something. That’s really exciting and thrilling for me. I know I’m still getting a lot better.”

To some, the admission of deficiencies might be devastating to their confidence. Stunt their growth. For Klineman, it’s exactly why she was able to make the transition from an indoor standout to a gold medalist on the beach in three years — and perhaps a leading factor in how Ross was able to corral the gold medal that had eluded her in the previous two Olympic Games.

“When she came out, she was so honest about her weaknesses. I never really heard anybody be so real about her weaknesses,” Ross said. “For me, I was always trying to convince myself that I was good at this and this, it was hard for me to admit that I was bad at something. There’s real power in recognizing what you need to get better at, and she was so good at it, and I began to accept that I can talk about this to my coaches, I can fail at these things, I can make mistakes and that’s ok so long as we learn about it.


Colorado’s Mallory Pugh back in the senior USWNT ranks

SB Nation, Burgundy Wave blog, J.A. Babiak from

Focusing on regaining her physical health and psychological wellness. Will be re-joining Colorado stand-out’s Lindsey Horan and Sofia Smith.


The Son of Zeus Forges a New Path

Sports Illustrated, Alex Prewitt from

Orlando Brown Jr. started football in his father’s massive shadow, following in his footsteps to the NFL. Now, he’s starting out in a new city and new spot—on Patrick Mahomes’s blind side—to honor his late father’s wishes.


Landon Donovan: ‘Soccer means nothing when my players suffer’

The Guardian, Cesar Hernandez from

The former USA star on his managerial growth, connecting with his players, and the homophobic and racist incidents that his team dealt with one year ago


CONCACAF under-20s instead of 23s to determine Olympic spots

Associated Press from

… CONCACAF said it will hold under-20 qualifying from Nov. 5-14 this year in the Dominican Republic for nations not in its top 16 of under-20 rankings. Four teams will advance to the CONCACAF under-20 championship next summer. The semifinals will qualify for the FIFA Under-20 World Cup in Indonesia in 2023 and the finalists will qualify for the Paris Olympics.


Mario Cristobal sounds off: Oregon Ducks utilized sound sleep science in front of Ohio State win

The Oregonian/OregonLive, John Canzano from

University of Oregon football coach Mario Cristobal tipped his cap to the sports science folks working on his campus on Monday. Cristobal, speaking in a 1-on-1 interview, said his team followed a careful sleep and itinerary regime in front of the 35-28 upset win over the Buckeyes last Saturday.


Michigan State expects to be ready for heat, humidity in Miami

mlive.com, Matt Wenzel from

… Although there have been plenty of warm days in East Lansing since Michigan State opened fall camp on Aug. 5, Tucker has occasionally had the team practice indoors with the heat turned on. During a post-practice interview on Aug. 24, Tucker said the temperature inside the building was about 88 degrees that morning.

“We have a good plan going forward with our sports science people and our trainers and athletic staff,” redshirt sophomore quarterback Payton Thorne said on Wednesday, “and I think they prepared us well and we’ll see how it pays off down there in Florida.”


One-Step Preparation of a Core-Spun Cu/P(VDF-TrFE) Nanofibrous Yarn for Wearable Smart Textile to Monitor Human Movement | ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces

Applied Materials & Interfaces journal from

At present, wearable electronic sensors are widely investigated and applied for human life usage especially for the flexible piezoelectric sensor based on piezoelectric fibers. However, most of these fiber-based piezoelectric sensors are thin films, which might had poor air permeability, or do not adapt to complex body movements. In this study, a piezoelectric sensing fabric was proposed based on core-spun Cu/P(VDF-TrFE) nanofibrous yarns. These yarns were fabricated by P(VDF-TrFE) as a piezoelectric material and Cu wire as an inner electrode layer through a one-step conjugate electrospinning process. The Cu/P(VDF-TrFE) fabrics showed good flexibility, breathability, mechanical stability, and sensing capability after continuous running for 60 min or after washing. A 4 cm × 4 cm fabric could generate a current of 38 nA and voltage of 2.7 V under 15 N pressure. Once the fabric was fixed onto the clothes, human motion could be monitored by collecting its generated current, and the signal could be wirelessly transmitted onto a smartphone. Therefore, this study may provide a simple and promising approach to design a smart textile for human motion monitoring.


Strive Tech CEO: ‘Our Goal Is to Deliver the Best Muscle Data’

SportTechie, Joe Lemire from

When Nikola Mrvaljevic developed Strive Tech’s first athlete performance product, he didn’t want to focus on internal load data (heart rate and muscle activity) or on external load (movement and distance) because, he said then, “Each independently adds value . . . the power comes when you can start correlating that data.”

That first wearable, a pair of compression shorts with a pod on the waistband, had a cornucopia of tech: ECG, EMG, GPS, accelerometers and gyroscopes. But Mrvaljevic decided to refine that offering to focus on the muscle data, the way it’s processed, and how it’s presented to the user, whether that be a coach or athlete. As part of that revision, Strive eliminated the GPS component earlier this year, a byproduct of which is a significant reduction in size. To ensure that users who wanted precise positional data could still get it, Strive partnered with Kinexon.

Mrvaljevic, a former pro basketball player in Montenegro and Strive Tech’s founder-CEO, recently spoke with SportTechie to share insights from his company’s evolution.


Major college sports are under siege and they want K Street to save them

POLITICO, Hailey Fuchs from

… For most of 2021, the NCAA and its large and powerful athletic conferences have moved aggressively to steer name, image and likeness (NIL) legislation, which would allow players to profit from their own celebrity but put rules on that compensation. In conversations on the Hill, they sought to limit their liability from future lawsuits that could result from congressional action. Those who have worked in this space say it is among the most significant — and potentially perilous — moments for major college sports in a century.

So far this year, the NCAA alone has spent $180,000 on lobbying, $60,000 more than the same period last year. The Power Five conferences — the Big Ten, Big 12, PAC-12 Conference, Southeastern Conference and Atlantic Coast Conference — have spent $900,000, all to influence legislation related to how student athletes can profit from their popularity and “modernizing” college athletics, according to federal filings.

The contracts with K Street accumulated quickly. Almost none of those conferences had registered to lobby before 2019, when California became the first state to pass legislation allowing student athletes to profit off of endorsement deals, the use of their image in video games and along with a host of other potential new revenue streams. Additionally, some NCAA member schools, which collectively have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars lobbying Congress on this and other issues, have sought to influence lawmakers on student athlete legislation. Those close to the negotiations say that in addition to their K Street representation, college presidents, coaches and athletic directors have all served as emissaries to the Hill.


With the shuttering of a major support program, Boston school sports take another loss

The Boston Globe, Bob Hohler from

… Scholar Athletes filled gaping holes, first providing sorely needed supplies, then shifting its focus to academic support and helping to ensure that thousands of students remained eligible to play sports and receive high school diplomas. Hundreds entered colleges and universities, thanks in part to Scholar Athletes.
Get Sports HeadlinesThe Globe’s most recent sports headlines delivered to your inbox every morning.

In all, the foundation spent more than $25 million on direct services to more than 27,000 students whose passion for sports in many cases kept them coming back to school and off the streets.

Now, Scholar Athletes is defunct, done in by the pandemic, Fish said. And the Boston school department is exposed again as having little will to finance and support a robust sports program. Certainly, it lacks a comprehensive plan to fill the void left by Fish’s initiative, leaving student-athletes across the city without the educational enrichment programs that had brightened the futures of many others.


Embedding Child Rights Principles and Practises in Mega Sport Event Planning

Frontiers in Sports & Active Living journal from

Recently, there has been growing concern about the lack of intentionality of mega sport event (MSE) organisers in ensuring that child rights are adequately respected, protected and promoted before, during, and after the events take place. In the context of the summer Olympic Games, reported child rights infringements have been on the rise, both in relation to abuse in sport itself and the negative consequences associated with planning and delivering the Games. In response to reports of child rights infringements, a coalition of actors, including non-governmental and civil society organisations have sought to pressure event owners and organisers to strengthen protections in the planning and delivery of their events. To date, however, child rights commitments have not been fully embedded in policies and principles guiding the planning and delivery of the Olympic Games. In this article, we explore the field of child rights in the context of the Olympic Games, focusing on a case study of the Tokyo 2020 edition. Drawing on documentary analysis and semi-structured interviews with Tokyo 2020 stakeholders and affiliates, detailed appraisal of the planning process was undertaken. Findings show that while the Japanese authorities have signed up to international child rights conventions and embedded some child participation strategies in Games-related activity, there was little evidence that Tokyo 2020 organisers had developed or implemented robust policies, principles or practises to respect, protect and promote child rights in Games planning. This absence, we argue, is because there was no requirement to embed child rights commitments during the bidding or planning phases, as the IOC had yet to enshrine human rights in its host city contract when the Games were first awarded to Tokyo. In conclusion, we argue that it is imperative the IOC embeds child rights principles and protocols in the bidding and planning processes to ensure that the risks to children are foregrounded and acted upon by host cities and their partners, elevating human rights to a position equal to other Games requirements. This study is of international significance as the evidence will aid future host city bidders to ensure children’s rights are embedded in MSE policies for each nation. [full text]


Kansas City Royals promote Moore to president, Picollo to GM

Kansas City Business Journal, James Dornbrook from

… Moore, who also was senior vice president of operations, is being replaced as general manager by [J.J.] Picollo, who has been the team’s assistant general manager the past six years. Picollo also has been with the Royals since 2006, joining the team as director of player development. Before joining the Royals, Picollo spent six years with the Atlanta Braves, last as director of Minor League operations. Moore also came to the Royals from the Atlanta organization.


Most active players on Week 1 NFL rosters:

Twitter, Kendall Baker from

Alabama: 54
Ohio State: 50
LSU: 47
Georgia: 36
ND: 36
Clemson: 34
Iowa: 34
Michigan: 34

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