Quality information is a factor in what’s effective sports management and what’s effective sports science. In fact, it might be the most important thread that links everyone involved in athlete and team success. Looking at the Sports Science content for this week, the best teams make the best use of information.
Sports management:
Kings GM Vlade Divac is fully empowered and making more moves (The Sacramento Bee, Ailene Voisin)
Interactive Visualization Illustrates Uncertainty of NFL Draft (Georgia Institute of Technology, School of Interactive Computing)
Collective consciousness: Cognitive science shows that humans are smarter as a group than they are on their own (Quartz, Philip Fernman and Steven Sloman)
Studying 5 years of NFL drafts to find best, worst teams at picking (New York Post, Brian Costello)
Social scouting: How NFL teams track prospects online (ESPN NFL, James Walker)
Chargers GM Tom Telesco hopes to excel at NFL draft, spreadsheets and all (Los Angeles, Dan Woike)
Rating our scouts (21st Club Limited, Omar Chaudhuri)
The Secret Soccer Analyst: Data Analysts Must Adapt Quickly or Die (Paste Magazine)
Colts GM Ballard eyes plan by Cubs’ Theo Epstein in building roster (ESPN NFL, Mike Wells)
Dolphins hire Matt Sheldon as director of football research and strategy (Miami Herald, Adam H. Beasley)
Dallas Red Bulls put faith in youth development to become model clubs (ESPN FC, Jeff Carlisle)
What next for Barcelona? La Masia looks for another Lionel Messi (ESPN FC, Samuel Marsden)
For Sounders, every decision starts with data (FourFourTwo, Charles Boehm)
Coaches and trainers:
A 38-year-old mental coach has become one of the NBA’s premier resources (Business Insider, Scott Davis)
Relationship between trainers, coaches back under spotlight (USA Today Sports, Gary Mihoces)
The college football coach who made his own recruiting app (USA Today Sports, Daniel Uthman)
The ‘bullpen revolution’ is underway in Houston and boosting the Astros into first place (The Washington Post, Dave Sheinen)
NBA’s new arms race: Atlanta Hawks’ $50M facility to merge sports, science (USA Today Sports, Jeff Zillgitt)
Dispatch from Dallas: What talented young American players need (US Soccer Players, Charles Boehm)
Static stretching does not enhance recovery in elite youth soccer players (BMJ Open Sport & Exercise Medicine)
Football youth development in England: ‘We’re shouting and screaming. What have we become?’ (The Guardian, Michael Calvin)
Three Strikes: How the Dodgers are changing the way pitchers are used (SI.com, Tom Verducci)
Sports medicine and nutrition:
Optimising nutrition in a bid to break the two-hour marathon mark (The Conversation, Stephen Mears)
The DEA warned NFL doctors about drug laws in 2011. It didn’t go well. (The Washington Post, Rick Maese)
U.S. SOCCER & PRO LEAGUES HOST HEAD INJURY SUMMIT (GoalNation, Diane Scavuzzo)
A lack of knowledge hampers effective injury prevention in volleyball (Amsterdam Collaboration on Health & Safety in Sports)
What are the barriers to effective implementation of injury prevention practices in high level football? (George Nassis)
Medical Tests: Merged Technologies Yield Dramatic Insight (EE Times, Bill Schweber)
NWSL, MLS and U.S. Soccer combine to host summit on concussions (Excelle Sports)
A fourth Washington Spirit player in 8 months has torn an ACL (The Washington Post, Steven Goff)
Wearable Sweat Sensor Can Diagnose Disease, Stanford-led Study Finds (Stanford Medicine, Scope Blog)
Athletes:
Can Serena Williams be a Champion and Mom? (Stephanie Kovalchik, On the T blog)
Milwaukee (The Players’ Tribune, Jabari Parker)
Eliud Kipchoge applies science to his pursuit of two-hour marathon milestone (The Guardian, Sean Ingle)
Royals Lorenzo Cain sprint speed (MLB.com, Joe Posnanski)
More things that I read and liked last week:
UMSI faculty win ESSI award to improve athletic performance (April 20, University of Michigan, School of Information)
Tails of the Travelling Gaussian model and the relative age effect: Tales of age discrimination and wasted talent (April 20, PLOS One; John R. Doyle)
Health Care Wearables Will Need Better Interfaces (April 19, Design News, Charles Murray)
Jeff Jacobs: Made In The USA? A Resurgence Of American Marathoners (April 18, Hartford Courant, Jeff Jacobs)