The smoldering aftermath of national signing day sparks plentiful chatter.
Coaches who’ve just signed highly ranked recruiting classes point to their numbers as a telltale sign of future success. Those lower on the pecking order argue that star ratings aren’t really all that they’re made out to be. Many writers espouse the vital importance of recruiting rankings when it comes to predicting future success, but examples of programs that outperform their signing day numbers inevitably persist.
Since the beginning of its turnaround in 2007 — and outside of last season’s dip to 8-5 — Stanford has been one of these programs.
In the era of personalized medicine, interindividual differences in the magnitude of response to an exercise training program (subject-by-training interaction; “individual response”) have received increasing scientific interest. However, standard approaches for quantification and prediction remain to be established, probably due to the specific considerations associated with interactive effects, in particular on the individual level, as compared to the prevailing investigation of main effects. Regarding the quantification of subject-by-training interaction in terms of variance components, confounding sources of variability have to be considered. Clearly, measurement error limits the accuracy of response estimates and thereby contributes to variation. This problem is of particular importance for analyses on the individual level, because a low signal-to-noise ratio may not be compensated by increasing sample size (1 case). Moreover, within-subject variation in training efficacy may contribute to gross response variability. This largely unstudied source of variation may not be disclosed by comparison to a control group but calls for repeated interventions. A second critical point concerns the prediction of response. There is little doubt that exercise training response is influenced by a multitude of determinants. Moreover, indications of interaction between influencing factors of training efficacy lead to the hypothesis that optimal predictive accuracy may be attained using an interactive rather than additive approach. Taken together, aiming at conclusive inference and optimal predictive accuracy in the investigation of subject-by-training interaction entails specific requirements which are deducibly based on statistical principles but beset with many practical difficulties. Therefore, pragmatic alternatives are warranted.
The School of Sport and Exercise Sciences continued their series of industry expert Question and Answer sessions for students with professional footballers Peter Clarke from Blackpool and player-coach Chris Shuker from Tranmere Rovers and former professional football and English Premier League club liaison officer, Paul Lake.
Peter and Chris used their expertise and experience to explore Player perceptions of sports science support in professional football. Paul provided an insight into the psychology element of Sport Science, talking the students through his journey and personal challenges.
On the night Kansas won its first NCAA men’s basketball championship, Dean Smith stepped onto the floor for just 29 seconds. It was, in many ways, a forgettable span of time.
On that night in Seattle in 1952, on the floor of the Hec Edmundson Pavilion, the Jayhawks prepared to celebrate as the final seconds ticked off the clock. Coach Phog Allen was set to claim his first NCAA title. All-American Clyde Lovellette would be selected Most Outstanding Player.
It was, as you might expect, pretty easy to overlook the junior reserve from Topeka, enjoying a few seconds of mop-up duty in the final minutes. And for years, they did.
… The fundamental identity attached to the club, and by association the academy, is a fluid and lightning-fast attacking brand of football. This has come from the high representation of home-grown youngsters in the first team hungry to impress the local crowds. Or more simply, it has come from goals. The club proudly proclaims to have scored over 12,000 times in its 103-year history, more than any other side has ever managed, which speaks volumes for the priorities and values that are held in such high esteem at the Estádio Urbano Caldeira. It therefore makes it a fitting stage for Pelé’s 1,283 strikes.
In 2011, women made up half the professors of molecular biology and neuroscience in the U.S. but less than a third of the philosophy professors. How come? Is it because men in philosophy are biased against women or because women choose not to go into philosophy? But why would philosophers be more biased than molecular biologists? And why would women avoid philosophy and embrace neuroscience?
Science suggests an interesting answer. Sarah-Jane Leslie, a philosopher at Princeton University, Andrei Cimpian, a psychologist at the University of Illinois, and colleagues studied more than 1,800 professors and students in 30 academic fields. The researchers asked the academics how much they thought success in their field was the result of innate, raw talent. They also asked how hard people in each field worked, and they recorded the GRE scores of graduate students.
Professors of philosophy, music, economics and math thought that “innate talent” was more important than did their peers in molecular biology, neuroscience and psychology. And they found this relationship: The more that people in a field believed success was due to intrinsic ability, the fewer women and African-Americans made it in that field.
A technology best known for bringing animated characters to life in games and films is changing how human movement is studied in research and industry.
“MVN Biomech is moving inertial motion tracking to the next level by taking it from research laboratories to where the action is. Combined with reduced pricing, this means that digitising 3D motion is now accessible to a much wider user base.”
The new MVN Biomech system from Dutch technology innovator Xsens transforms 3D human motion tracking into a wearable technology that can be used on production lines, sports fields, in vehicles and aircraft, in the home or any location where human body movement needs to be analysed with high accuracy.
Last June in a draft guidance document, the FDA proposed to further de-regulate a specific type of health software, which included a number of mobile medical apps and telehealth platforms, from FDA-registered Class 1 devices to an unregulated status. Last week the FDA moved to finalize that guidance, building on a spate of recent guidances that both make clear where regulatory lines for health software already exist and move some healthtech categories into unregulated territory.
The most recent final guidance specifically relates to MDDS software, which the FDA deregulated from Class 2 to Class 1 in 2011. MDDS are systems designed and marketed to transfer, store, convert according to preset specifications, or display medical device data without controlling or altering the function or parameters of any connected medical device.
Back pain is the leading cause of disability in the western world and a major reason for activity avoidance and athlete retirement. In spite of enormous and increasing costs, current approaches to management are fuelling rather than reducing the burden of the problem.1 This was highlighted by the huge media interest generated recently over the demise of Tiger Woods and his golf game relating to his back pain disorder. Tiger’s story has demonstrated common underlying beliefs about back pain often reinforced by well-meaning health professionals, which in turn leads to the quest for ‘magic bullet’ treatments to ‘fix’ the disorder. Tiger’s situation highlights the diagnostic and management dilemma faced by many health professionals regarding the mechanisms for, and the management of, recurrent and disabling back pain disorders.
The NFL has hired Dr. Elizabeth Nabel as its first chief health and medical adviser.
Commissioner Roger Goodell said before the Super Bowl that the league would be hiring someone to oversee its medical policies. Nabel will work directly with Goodell.
Due to the limitations of single-center studies in achieving appropriate sampling with relatively rare disorders, multi-center collaborations have been proposed as a solution to achieve desired sampling levels. However, documented reliability of biomechanical data is necessary for multi-center injury prevention studies and is currently unavailable. OBJECTIVE:
To measure the reliability of three dimensional (3-D) biomechanical waveforms from kinetic and kinematic variables during a single leg (SLL) landing performed at 3 separate testing facilities. DESIGN:
Multi-center reliability study. SETTING:
Three laboratories were involved in a novel reliability study design. PATIENTS:
Twenty-five female junior varsity and varsity level high school volleyball players visited each facility over a 1 month period. INTERVENTION:
Each subject was instrumented with 43 reflective markers to record 3-D motion as they performed single leg landings (SLL). During the SLL the athlete balanced on one leg, dropped down off of a 31 cm high box and landed on the same leg. Kinematic and kinetic data from both legs were processed from two trials across the three laboratories. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES:
Coefficients of multiple correlations (CMC) were used to statistically compare each joint angle and moment waveform for the first 500ms of landing. RESULTS:
Average CMC for lower extremity sagittal plane motion was excellent between laboratories (Hip 0.98, Knee 0.95, Ankle 0.99). Average CMC for lower extremity frontal plane motion was also excellent between laboratories (Hip 0.98, Knee 0.80, Ankle 0.93). Kinetic waveforms were repeatable in each plane of rotation (three-center mean CMCs ≥ 0.71), while knee sagittal plane moments were the most consistent measure the across sites (three-center mean CMCs ≥0.94). CONCLUSIONS:
CMC waveform comparisons were similar relative to the joint measured to previously published reports of between session reliability of sagittal and frontal plane biomechanics performed at a single institution. Continued research effort is needed to further standardize technology and methods to help ensure that highly reliable results can be achieved with multicenter biomechanical screening models.
… Rookie season. Torn ACL, MCL, and meniscus. Devastation hit me like a train. Suddenly I had a new vision, a new dream: the best comeback a rookie has ever had. This one thought pushed me every single day to come back.
On further introspection, though, to come back to what, really? The sad truth of women’s professional soccer is that most of us continue to play not for the benefits that one would expect from being a “professional” athlete, but because we’re addicted. There’s no million dollar signing bonus. No showy car, fancy jewelry, or huge mansions as a benefit of becoming a professional. We’re paid pathetically. We live with host families. We take buses on eight-hour trips. We’re equivalent in standards to minor league men’s professional sports.
Ok, so we’ve busted the myth that fat makes you fat. It doesn’t. The real culprit of America’s expanding waistlines? Sugar. And it’s not just the root beer floats, either. Sugar has found its way into your spaghetti sauce, canned peas, and “health food” hummus.
What are the sugar health risks? Does “good sugar” exist? Which sugars are the worst? With the food industry and nutrition experts constantly contradicting each other, it’s hard to know what’s safe anymore. Here’s some straight talk on the sweet stuff.
Even a registered dietitian can’t tell how much added sugar is in packaged foods, so what hope do the rest of us have? In a new video from the University of California, Kimber Stanhope — a registered dietitian who studies the health effects of sugar consumption — explores some of the proposed changes to the current Nutrition Facts labels and how they fit into the extra sugar lurking everywhere.
Among other proposed changes to the current nutrition label, the Food and Drug Administration wants to start denoting the amount of “added sugars” found in foods, so that consumers can differentiate between naturally occurring sugars and sugars added by food manufacturers. And that’s important if people are going to try to actually follow current dietary guidelines, Stanhope notes.
As Performance Analysis slowly aims to reach the heights of analytics that has been topped across the pond in sports such as Baseball and American Football, no stone is left unturned, every statistic examined with a magnifying glass by players and media alike. The armchair fan gets so many statistics thrown at them, it’s difficult to believe whether they really digest what all those ‘final third entries’ really mean and if locals at the pub understand what Roberto Martinez means when going on a rant about ‘asymmetric systems’ when really he’s set up for a draw.
One such statistic that is discussed more than others is the distance that is covered by players and the teams in kilometres (KM). Such is the appreciation, fans alike almost nod in agreement that Jordan Henderson must of had a good game because he’s covered every blade of grass and registered in the top 3 of players who have run the most in the game. This recently came to my attention listening to 5Live on transfer deadline day, when ‘experts’ to put it mildly in Jermaine Jenas, Phil Neville and Joey Barton seemed obsessive with the amount of high-intensity runs or overall Kilometres they have run as well as using it as a tool to judge how good a player is. Safe to say, Pirlo and Xavi wouldn’t get in their teams. When discussing Chelsea’s new acquisition of Columbian world cup star Juan Cuadrado, Phil Neville turned full scout mode on us and discussed how he had never seen a player run as much as intense as him, stating it so frequently that I almost forgot you needed to pass the ball to be a decent footballer and not run around like a headless chicken for 90 minutes cue Park-Ji-Sung.