Applied Sports Science newsletter, February 21, 2015

Marco Verratti is visibly relieved. “Oh, it’s so nice to finally hear someone speaking Italian,” the Paris Saint-Germain midfielder says to FourFourTwo, as we greet him in a photography studio in the heart of the French capital, a short walk from the Arc de Triomphe. He’s here to promote PUMA’s latest range of boots and is consequently being asked to perform all manner of acrobatics for a future advertising campaign. At 22, Verratti is still coming to terms with his accelerated path to superstardom, but he’s relaxed enough to take on every request with a smile on his face.

… An athlete may put up a record time in the 40-yard dash, but is that raw straight-line speed valuable for NFL teams?

Using combine data dating back to 1999, we set out to answer whether players with faster 40 times succeed in the NFL at a greater frequency.

A blip on the NFL calendar a decade ago, the annual showcase of prospects has turned into a money-making circus watched by millions. Draft guru Mike Mayock explains the popularity boom and shares five storylines he’ll follow in Indianapolis.

The goalkeeper was dropped earlier in the season, but reveals how his fianceé suggested he may be overthinking things, and greater decisiveness has seen him shine.

For the Minnesota Timberwolves, for example, the face of the franchise beyond the court is head coach, president of basketball operations and part-owner Flip Saunders. The buck might stop with Saunders, but it has to pass through many hands first, including those of the man who deals with much of the day-to-day operation of the franchise. That is general manager Milt Newton. … “Every day you have decisions to be made,” Newton says. “Managing your staff, managing the players, talking on the phone with other teams and, when a deal is made, it’s not just that we made a deal on Thursday and spoke about it on Wednesday. It may be months in the making, circling back to other teams. You know: ‘Are you guys making any moves? Who do you like on our team? We’ll tell you who we like on your team.'”

One of the most interesting facts (for me, at least) that came out when Nicola Cortese left Southampton last year was that one of the changes that the former general manager had brought about during his time at the club was the personalised way in which the players travelled to away games.

In particular, Southampton ensured that each player had his own personal mattress and each player slept on this mattress during their overnight stays in hotels for games away from the St Mary’s Stadium.

1. They set various types of goals.

Goals vary and will likely change as you improve and gain more running experience. Newer runners may want simply to complete the distance for the first time, while more experienced runners may be focused on running a personal best or hitting a desired time. Regardless of your intentions, there are two types of goals: outcome goals and process goals. Highly effective runners recognize the importance of both.

… Raymond Verheijen, a coach and fitness coach who has worked with several different professional clubs and national teams from all over the world (most recently with the Argentinian Men’s National Team at the 2014 World Cup) gave a lecture titled “Always Play with your Best 11”, centred around proper preiodization in top level soccer.

This tone of this lecture was serious right from the start. One of the points Mr. Verheijen made right in the beginning of his presentation was that coaches, in their work, and in their coaching/education courses, are too comfortable, and without being made to feel uncomfortable (by being challenged) they will never learn, develop and improve themselves.

The risk of injury during competition matches is twelve times higher than during training sessions in players of the “Professional Football League.” The most common ones are muscular injuries and those resulting from overexertion, which imply recovery periods of around one week. These findings follow an extensive epidemiological study that analyses the characteristics of injuries to professional soccer players in Spain.

Inter Milan are an Italian institution. Although they may be faltering somewhat in the current Serie A landscape as Juventus and Roma soar, they remain a monumental club in European football. The prestige, tradition and glamour associated with this great club are enduring and undeniable. Throughout their decorated history, Inter have showcased some of the finest footballing talent ever to grace the game and while the high-profile transfers attract the headlines, the club has always espoused the nurturing of youth talent.

Inter have always paid special attention to their youth academy. They train their players intensively and relentlessly, honing their fledgling personalities with the ultimate goal of producing champion footballers of genuine world-class quality.

… After years of working on the wrong applications, the printed electronics industry is now focused on bringing products to the market. Sensors may be the lowest hanging fruit but they still represent a solid opportunity. If the current technology trends are any indication of what is coming up, the next decade could be a golden age for sensors.

Not all breakthroughs are created equal. Some arrive more or less as usable things; others mainly set the stage for innovations that emerge later, and we have to estimate when that will be. But we’d bet that every one of the milestones on this list will be worth following in the coming years.

It seems like everybody’s talking about fitness device accuracy these days. A small study at the University of Pennsylvania found that out of clip-on pedometers, wristworn wearables, and apps, the wristworn devices were the least accurate. Another study, from the American Council on Exercise, found a range of accuracy levels for step counting on wearable devices, but found them lacking when it came to tracking calories. And when a BBC reporter recently tried out four popular devices at once, she found their readings didn’t line up.

Fitness trackers, though they continue to grow in popularity and add new health tracking features, are apparently not keeping up with their core competency: tracking steps accurately. Unless, of course, that’s not their core competency at all.

Ryan Diesem, research manager of Valley Inspired Products, led a recent study examining the efficiency of PVDF airflow sensors and how different variables affected the outcome produced. The resulting white paper “Comparison of Polyvinylidene Fluoride (PVDF) Airflow Sensor and Nasal Cannula Pressure Sensor Output During Simulated Breathing With and Without Temperature Change,” compares the output of a traditional nasal pressure sensor to that of a PVDF airflow sensor in simulated breathing conditions with and without temperature change. The research team wanted to see how temperature and heat might affect each method of measurement. The resulting nasal pressure and PVDF traces retrieved from the PSG software were compared.

The N.F.L. will not use sensors in players’ helmets next season to measure head hits, ending — at least temporarily — one effort to gain a better understanding of concussions.

The league suspended the pilot program, which was voluntary, even as researchers around the country are continuing to collect data from the helmet sensors to scrutinize how often and how hard players are hit in the head.

Background: Tunnel widening after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACL-R) is a well-accepted and frequent phenomenon, yet little is known regarding its origin or natural history.

…
Methods: Patients underwent arthroscopic ACL-R with the same surgeon, surgical technique, and rehabilitation protocol. Each patient underwent preoperative dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry and clinical evaluation, as well as postoperative time zero MRI followed by subsequent MRI and clinical examination, including functional and subjective outcome tests, at 6, 12, 24, 52, and 104 weeks. Tibial and femoral tunnel CSA was measured on each MRI at tunnel aperture (ttA and ftA), midsection (ttM and ftM), and exit (ttE and ftE). Logistic regression modeling was used to examine the predictive value of demographic data and preoperative bone quality (as measured by dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry) on functional outcome scores, manual and instrumented laxity measurements, and changes in tunnel area over time.

Results: Eighteen patients (including 12 men), mean age 35.5 ± 8.7 years, underwent ACL-R. There was significant tunnel expansion at ttA and ftA sites 6 weeks postoperatively (P = .024 and .0045, respectively). Expansion continued for 24 weeks, with progressive tunnel narrowing thereafter. Average ttA CSA was significantly larger than ftA CSA at all times. The ttM significantly expanded after 6 weeks (P = .06); continued expansion to week 12 was followed by 21 months of reduction in tunnel diameter. The ftM and both ttE and ftE sites decreased in CSA over the 2 years. Median Lysholm and International Knee Documentation Committee scores significantly improved at final follow-up (P = .0083 and <.0001, respectively), and patients returned to preoperative activity levels. Pivot shift significantly decreased (P < .0001). Younger age (<30 years), male sex, and delayed ACL-R (>1 year from time of injury) predicted increased tunnel widening and accelerated expansion in CSA (P < .005). Conclusion: Tunnel expansion after ACL-R occurs early and primarily at the tunnel apertures. Expansion may not affect clinical outcome. Younger age, male sex, and delay from injury to ACL-R may be potential risks for enlargement.

Once [Katy Andrews] Neves finished her collegiate track career, she started researching running injuries as a graduate student. Her research has focused on the Achilles tendon, a common injury site for distance runners—an estimated 52 percent of which injure their Achilles at some point.

Now a new study authored by Neves and three BYU exercise science professors reveals great news about the Achilles heel: the Achilles tendon is capable of adapting to uphill and downhill running better than previously believed.

Recognizing that consumers rely on the experience of others when choosing elective care, the top-ranked orthopedic hospital today introduced an unprecedented online forum where hundreds of patient-submitted stories are searchable by type of care, physician, and patients’ hometown. Because patients come to Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) from 105 countries and all 50 states, the stories cover a wide range of afflictions, aspirations, and outcomes. The site (hss.edu/backinthegame) debuts with more than 400 stories, but that number is expected to rise quickly as it becomes known to the nearly 30,000 patients served by HSS annually.

“This new forum connects our patients’ desire to share their experiences with the desire of those considering similar care to hear from people they can relate to — beyond the handful of testimonials that every physician touts,” said John Englehart, Chief Marketing Officer at Hospital for Special Surgery.

Today’s well-meaning managers watch over their young starters very closely, but if caution doesn’t mitigate injury risk, what’s the point?

Nutrients in food are critical for building and repairing body tissues and for regulating digestion, energy production and muscle contraction. The human body needs fuel in the form of calories from all three macronutrients—protein, carbohydrates and fat. Each macro plays an important role in the body and has specific functions. With all the hype around macros, and how much or little we really need of each, it seems that following a higher-protein, lower-carbohydrate diet is the way to go. Or is it? Should we be eating more protein than carbohydrates or fat? What are the best sources of protein—animal or plant based? Let’s break it down.

Humans have been using cannabis for more than 5000 years. So why don’t scientists know more about it? Three experts gathered here at the annual meeting of AAAS (which publishes Science) to discuss what scientists and doctors know about the drug and what they still need to learn. “By the end of this session, you’ll know more about cannabis than your physician does,” said Mark Ware, a family physician at the McGill University Health Center in Montreal, Canada, who organized the talk.

Every team in baseball is shifting way more often than they did as few as three years ago. And it is paying off. But there are 10 teams (a third of the league) who shifted less than 260 times each for the season. Collectively they saved 27 runs (less than three runs per team). The other two thirds of the teams more than doubled their effectiveness, averaging over eight Shift Runs Saved per team.

… The Celtics had won three playoff series in 15 years when they hired Ainge, who arrived with no front-office experience. Within five years he was winning the 2007-08 NBA championship while making his own way on a number of fronts:

1. Brain-typing. Ainge’s first hire as GM of the Celtics was Jon Niednagel, known as the “Brain Doctor,” who believes that people are hard-wired in a way that can be diagnosed, and that their wiring predisposes them to certain behaviors.

After Synergy Sports Technology discontinued the “MySynergy” app just prior to this season1, it’s absence has been felt. Even as someone with some reservations about relying on top level play coding as a hard-core analytics tool, the ability to see breakdowns of the amount of time various teams spend in isolation situations or rough estimates of their ability to contain pick-and-roll point guards has been a loss. Even more so, having linked video of plays certainly makes visual breakdowns a much quicker task. Continuing the NBA’s longstanding trend of driving fan interest through data and interactivity, help was on the way.

Hinted at by some cryptic tweets from Co-Founder and CEO Garrick Barr over the last few weeks, on Thursday morning NBA.com unveiled the first iteration of Synergy-based play type data. Including 11 play types and some basic sorting functionality, we can now see the Phoenix Suns spend more than twice the amount of time in transition offense as do the plodding Charlotte Hornets, or than out-of-nowhere sensation Hassan Whiteside is averaging 1.56 points per possession as a pick-and-roll finisher, shooting 79.3%(!) on those chances.

I spoke with Barr about how this came about in a wide-ranging interview.

… The runners are the supporting cast and many a player earns his bread simply by their ability to run with a dutiful sense of pride. Today’s elite players are proficient in several competencies as the game requires a breed of player capable of being part destroyer, part playmaker, but above all else, a complete footballer. And everything is measurable.

For example, watching Barcelona or Bayern Munich pass teams to death and subsequently produce lopsided possession and pass completion figures is a sign of quality and an expectation derived from data analysis. Measuring possession statistics is sign of effective football. There is a place for metrics and even with an overabundance of available data at the ready, football statistics can be misleading.

The second annual Basketball Analytics Summit will be held at the University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler Business School April 17-18. Best practices in analytics will be discussed and shared by leading college and professional basketball experts and corporate partners. Professionals, students and academics, who are passionate about or conduct research in the discipline of performance (individual or team) and business analytics, will attend.