Last Week in Applied Sports Science, 11/16-11/22

All of the discussion about talent development with young athletes makes it easy to overlook the assessments made on the remaining talent in older athletes. For example, if you asked Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, he’ll tell you that he’s got lots of miles left in his tank.

Age-related decline is not the only risk that factors into the calculation. Another quarterback, 34-year old Carson Palmer of the Arizona Cardinals, suffered a second catastrophic ACL tear. His age and injury risk profile make him far less likely than Rodger to play many more years. But successful NFL comebacks from ACL reconstructions are numerous. There might be useful information that Palmer has gained with his long career, plus knowledge that he has gained from his past injuries and rehabilitations, information that can go into a sports science approach to manage the final stages of Palmer’s careers and the risk management of the team that hires him.

Baseball players over age 35 had a golden age during the steroids era. The ability to make physical gains after having already played for years at a sports highest-level led to records breaking baseball achievements. The next few years will reveal whether a new era of impressive older athletes is at hand. In this era athletes will choose whether to apply illicit methods knowing what athletes have accomplished in the recent past with late-career steroid and HGH, or to make their late-career gains using more sustainable sports science approaches.

Rodgers has set himself up to be an older athlete to watch. He is far from the only one in the news. Clint Dempsey is fighting late-season fatigue for the Seattle Sounders coming off of last summer’s World Cup, and he still expresses a desire to participate in the next 2018 World Cup. MLB catcher Russell Martin signed a long-term free agent contract with the Toronto Blue Jays where the value for the team value depends on Russell catching later in his career than catchers usually are expected to.

NBA basketball might provide the toughest setting for an aging athlete. Vince Carter, Dirk Nowitzki and Tim Duncan are all players who can sunset their careers and simultaneously contribute to winning teams. But Steve Nash is a cautionary tale that shows how teams can push the idea too far. Every NBA star-level basketball talent has an aging curve that cannot be fully compensated for through training, medical interventions or pure guile, at least not during the relentless regular season schedule of games.

The young talent/old talent decisions are among the biggest opportunities for Applied Sports Science approaches. These front-office decisions are not going away, and it will be a matter of process and culture for organizations, some will be comfortable making guesses while others will develop methods that put a priority on sound evidence.


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