… Derrick Rose, Durant and Westbrook again, Bradley Beal, DeMarcus Cousins, Kyrie Irving and so many more key players going down with injuries major or minor, leading Minnesota Timberwolves president and coach Flip Saunders to wonder if the break is actually a little bit too long for the players’ good.
“That long time, giving a player six, seven days off, where basically they go off to Hawaii or the Bahamas and don’t do anything, has it become counter-productive?” Saunders wondered. “Are we going to have more injuries when they come back? I think we kind of have to evaluate that after the season.”
The Miami Marlins made national headlines this off-season with a stunning move: a 13-year, $325 million contract extension for slugger Giancarlo Stanton, the most lucrative deal ever for an American athlete.
But that wasn’t all they did. Their most unusual winter acquisitions were never made public.
One was a private jetliner, customized to include training tables and first-class seats for the entire team. The other was an executive chef, whose job will be to prepare more nutritious meals for players.
The U.S. Women’s National Volleyball Team could streak to three straight titles, if only head coach Karch Kiraly can keep his players fit. The team already has a gold medal from the FIVB Volleyball World Championships in Italy last October, defeating China 3–1 in the final match. Next up is the World Cup in Japan this summer, and then the Olympic Games in Rio in 2016. Team USA has never won either.
“It’s very important in these next two years to keep this group healthy,” Kiraly says. “If they breakdown, it they have lots of injuries, then the gold medal-winning group at the world championships has less of a chance to do something special in Rio.”
International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance from
PURPOSE:
To determine how consecutive days of prolonged tennis matchplay affect performance, physiological, and perceptual responses. METHODS:
Seven well-trained male tennis players completed 4h tennis matches on 4 consecutive days. Pre- and post-match measures involved tennis-specific (serve speed and accuracy), physical (20m sprint, countermovement jump, shoulder rotation maximal voluntary contraction, isometric mid-thigh pull), perceptual (Training Distress Scale, soreness), and physiological (creatine kinase) responses. Activity profile was assessed by heart rate, and 3D load (au; accumulated accelerations measured by triaxial accelerometers), and rating of perceived exertion (RPE). Statistical analysis compared within and between day values. Changes (±90% confidence interval (CI)) ≥75% likely to exceed the smallest important effect size (0.2) were considered practically important. RESULTS:
3D load reduced on days 2-4 (mean effect size±90% CI; -1.46±0.40) and effective playing time reduced on days 3-4 (-0.37±0.51) compared to day 1. RPE did not differ and total points played only declined on day 3 (-0.38±1.02). Post-match 20m sprint (0.79±0.77) and pre-match countermovement jump (-0.43±0.27) performance declined on days 2-4 compared to pre-match day 1. Although serve velocity was maintained, compromised post-match serve accuracy was evident compared to pre-match day 1 (0.52±0.58). Creatine Kinase increased each day, as did ratings of muscle soreness and fatigue. CONCLUSIONS:
Players reduce external physical loads, through declines in movement, over four consecutive days of prolonged competitive tennis. This may be impacted by tactical changes and pacing strategies. Alongside this, impairments in sprinting and jumping ability, perceptual and biochemical markers of muscle damage, and reduced mood states may be a function of neuromuscular and perceptual fatigue.
At some point in your life, you may have gone to a therapist, for them to say to you ‘wow, you’re tight’. This visit would shortly be followed by them digging in an attempt to loosen your muscles.
Believe it or not, tight muscles can sometimes be a good thing.
Andrew Hawkins can see it clearly. One day in the non-so-distant future, an NFL player will be called into the general manager’s office. He’ll sit down at a table …
“… And they’ll just slide the paper over,” Hawkins said. “You’ll look at it, get up and walk out. It will be pretty challenging to dispute.”
Hawkins, a wide receiver who played last season for the Cleveland Browns, was outlining a scenario he believes will result from the NFL’s looming technology boom. Speaking at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference, Hawkins said the pending availability of performance data will make player evaluation “less of a conversation” and more of an objective assessment, one that can be displayed neatly on a line graph generated by software aligned with GPS-like chips embedded under their pads.
A couple weeks ago, the NHL held an Innovation Event in Northern California to announce that the league’s website would now feature dozens of “enhanced” metrics that had previously been available to the public only on independently operated sites. Enhanced! These metrics were to be the most advanced ever available in hockey—meaning that they’re still way behind the kinds of stats available in other professional sports.
HTC announced its long-awaited wearable on Sunday at Mobile World Congress. It’s called the Grip, and it’s a joint effort with Under Armour, the sportswear and now-fitness software brand.
The Grip doesn’t run Android Wear or other any major smartwatch platform. It can serve phone or calendar notifications, but it’s not really a smartwatch: It’s a fitness-focused trackers for serious athletes who want something more involved than a Fitbit.
For Apple, the hard part — making a smartwatch — is nearly over.
Soon it will be time for the harder part: selling the long-anticipated Apple Watch to consumers who, so far, are not very excited about the idea of wearing computers on their bodies.
Elite athletes’ spit may hold the key to better health.
The world’s finest endurance performers are giving saliva samples for DNA analysis to Stanford University researchers, who hope to find new drugs, perfect training methods, and improve exercise and heart health for the merely normal.
… Since 2009, the UO student rec center’s Group X workouts – a series of fitness sessions for drop-in involvement – have experienced a 136 percent increase in participation. The programming had 31,984 participations in 2012-13, up from 13,564 participations in 2009-10. The number of workout sessions offered since that time has also risen from 87 to 197 and the number of student-instructors teaching them has shot up from a measly three to 27.
Numbers like these are what Marbury and the rest of the student recreation administrative staff are interested in.
The purpose of this investigation is to develop a potential model for how muscle fiber type, Achilles tendon length, stretch shortening cycle potentiation (SSCP), and leg strength interact with running economy. Twenty trained male distance runners 24-40 years of age served as subjects. Running economy (net oxygen uptake) was measured while running on a treadmill. Leg press SSCPforce and SSCPvelocity were determined by measuring the difference in velocity between a static leg press throw and a counter-movement leg press throw. Vertical jump SSCP was determined by measuring the difference in jump height between a static jump and a drop jump from a 20.3 cm bench. Tendon length was measured by magnetic resonance imaging, and muscle fiber type was made from a vastus lateralis muscle biopsy. Type IIx muscle fiber percent (r = 0.70, p < 0.001) and leg strength (r = 0.95, p < 0.001) were positively and independently related to late eccentric force development. Achilles tendon length (r = 0.42, p < 0.05) and late eccentric force during stretch shortening cycle (r = 0.76, < 0.001) were independently related to SSCPforce. SSCPforce was related to SSCPvelocity which in turn was related to running economy (r = 0.61, p < 0.01). These results suggest that longer Achilles tendon length, type II fiber type and muscular leg strength may enhance the potential for stretch shortening cycle potentiation, running economy, and physiological effort while running.
… “It is great. I’ve been coming here for five years,” Washington Capitals assistant general manager Don Fishman said. “It just opens your eyes to what people are doing in other sports, what they’re doing, what the themes and trends are. As you can see, the conference has grown immensely in popularity. For our sport in particular, there’s not that much content. It is growing, but it is a great eye-opener.”