Sports Science: Week in Review, Feb 20-Feb 26

Long seasons have become the rule for competitive sports, even as the intensity of the matches increases. Players train and prepare more and better than before, and so they also have to recover more and better. And when the inevitable injury occurs the rehabilitation and return to play are managed processes. Athlete health during long seasons is also crucial for player development.

For teams, college and pro, there are major advantages to proactively managing athlete health. Otherwise, when the response to unexpected injuries is unplanned, the cascade of injuries to the “next man up” is more likely, and even more disastrous to team success.

  • Health of pitching rotation will be key to Angels’ success in 2017 (Los Angeles Times, Pedro Moura)
  • The Effect of the Number of Carries on Injury Risk and Subsequent Season’s Performance Among Running Backs in the National Football League (Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine)
  • Tommy John: Pitch counts ‘good first step’ at preventing injuries (The State Journal-Register, Springfield I)
  • Chelsea have built a commanding lead in the Premier League thanks to player fitness (ESPN FC, Phil Lythell)
  • UP CLOSE: Understaffed, Yale sports medicine struggles with student injuries (Yale Daily News, Sebastian Kupchaunis and Matthew Mister)
  • Play vs. Rest: For many NBA teams, it’s still a real battle (Associated Press, Tim Reynolds)
  • Oregon sports science looks at foot injuries on men’s basketball team (Eugene Register-Guard, Steve Mims)
  • Fatigue is catching up to the Penguins (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Paul Zeise)
  • Health management plans are only as useful when they are intelligent and practical. The ongoing progress into prevention, recovery and rehabilitation make it important to keep up to date.

  • Sleep – Effects on Performance, Injury Risk, & Player Success (NBSCA Sport Science, Barnett Frank)
  • Team sport athletes’ perceptions and use of recovery strategies: a mixed-methods survey study. (BMC Sports Science, Medicine and Rehabilitation)
  • Forward motion: UVa’s SPEED Clinic helps athletes recover with state-of-the-art analysis (dailyprogress.com, Cavalier Insider)
  • The Importance of Easy Run Days (TrainingPeaks, Frank Campo)
  • Banking sleep ahead of time can stave off exhaustion, study shows (The Globe and Mail, Alex Hutchinson)
  • Eighty-three per cent of elite athletes return to preinjury sport after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction: a systematic review with meta-analysis of return to sport rates, graft rupture rates and performance outcomes. (British Journal of Sports Medicine)
  • The effects of “Prevent Injury and Enhance Performance Program” in a female soccer team. (PubMed, Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness)
  • How baseball players are trying stem cells to avoid Tommy John (Yahoo Sports, Jeff Passan)
  • Older athletes, the elite ones, have, in many cases, done enormous amounts of work to attain their performance. The lifetime volume of work gives the older, elite athlete advantages over the long season. Athletic declines have become another kind of management process.

  • LeBron James is playing an astounding number of minutes (Nylon Calculus blog, Bo Schwartz Madsen)
  • Ashlyn Harris’s personal triumph puts her in position to succeed Hope Solo as USWNT goalkeeper (Yahoo Sports, Eric Adelson)
  • For Mets’ Infield, Chiropractor May Be the Most Important Position (The New York Times, James Wagner)
  • Santi Cazorla is next Arsenal man out longer than expected (Daily Mail Online, UK)
  • From 1,042nd to a More Positive Place: Del Potro Finds Tennis Contentment (The New York Times, Cindy Shmerler)
  • Daniel Murphy had a career season; he’s planning, relentlessly, to have another (The Washington Post, Barry Svrluga)
  • Is it time for LeBron to take a break? (The Ringer, Zach Cram)
  • Frank Gore Isn’t Aging (Football Perspective, Chase Stuart)
  • Ex-Bull Ben Gordon attempts NBA comeback (Chicago Tribune, K.C. Johnson)
  • One more challenge of the long sports seasons are the interpersonal dynamics. Human relations are a critical part of working together. The relationships that support the collaborations are subject to highs and lows. The lows can ruin seasons.

  • Changing an athlete’s behaviour: what can we learn from sport psychology? (Graeme Close, Close Nutrition blog)
  • Women Do Like to Compete — Against Themselves (The New York Times, Coren Apicella and Johanna Mollerstrom)
  • Behind MLB chemistry: How teams try to sniff out ‘bad guys’ (New York Post, Ken Davidoff)
  • Ottawa Senators coach Guy Boucher on getting the most out of people (Sportsnet.ca, Ryan Dixon)
  • Why Your Lazy Colleague Gets Under Your Skin (Misbehaving, Syon Bhanot and Jacky Ye)
  • Murray makes sure athletes and coaches are working in concert (Eugene Register-Guard, Ryan Thorburn)
  • More things that I read and liked last week:

  • Bruce Schneier Who controls your medical data? (February 23, TEDMED)
  • How does Iowa football turn 2-star recruits into NFL prospects? Through grit, science and a whole lot more (February 26, Land of 10, Scott Dochterman)
  • Why the TEETH of Cardiff City, Swansea City and Manchester United players could be affecting their performance (February 23, Football Medic Association (UK))
  • This is how trades go down in the NBA (February 21, HoopsHype, Alex Kennedy)
  • What are sports drinks, and do regular athletes need them? (February 21, Chemical & Engineering News, Alexandra A. Taylor)
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