… Stephen Hill came to Georgia Tech as a highly touted wide receiver, and a state record-breaking track star. He fit right along the axis of current star NFL wide receivers to come from Georgia Tech, Demaryius Thomas and Calvin Johnson. Much like his predecessors, Hill never amassed the production a player of his physical gifts should, due to his school’s triple option offense. In his three-year playing career, Hill only managed to record 49 catches for 1,248 yards and 9 touchdowns. It was the big plays that contributed to that 25.2 yards per catch average that tantalized evaluators. Perhaps those sparks would ignite a fire when presented with more opportunity in the NFL.
The legend only grew when Hill traveled to the annual Scouting Combine in Indianapolis.
Tony Parker is consumed by one of his worst shooting slumps, his confidence is compromised amid a search for answers and he’s dragging around a slow-healing, sore hamstring that’s neutralized his impact on the court now for weeks.
But the San Antonio Spurs’ star point guard isn’t struggling to find perspective. Just pardon his delivery if it seems a bit awkward.
“You just have to keep pushing,” Parker exhaled as he summarized a bevy of issues that have contributed to the Spurs’ recent slide.
Mary Cain stood near the starting line with 31 other high-school girls at a track in Greensboro, N.C., in June 2011, waiting to run in the national championships of the 4 x 800 meter relay. With their long ponytails and soft bodies, racing numbers pinned to their hips, none of the girls looked like much — but Cain, a freshman, looked like less. She wore hot pink shorts and a black sports bra, and her shoulders slumped with the impatient awkwardness of being 15. The first two runners from Bronxville, N.Y., Cain’s hometown, ran their 800-meter splits (a little less than half a mile) in 2 minutes 13 seconds and 2 minutes 14 seconds. The two runners each from the Bishop Guertin track club in New Hampshire and the Achilles track club in North Carolina logged times within a second of that, because 2:13 is about how long it takes a good female high-school athlete to complete two laps of the track. The third Bronxville runner faded slightly and ran her 800 meters in 2:18. That left Cain, the anchor, shaking out her legs and waiting on the matte black oval.
The 800 is a crushing race. Runners go out hard, then try to hang on to the pace in a showcase of will.
Now we have a better idea of the definition of overtraining, it is important to discuss the symptoms and what causes them. For many years, the prevailing theory was that there were two different types of overtraining: a parasympathetic and a sympathetic form. A situation of hyperactivity was followed by a period of insensitivity. Hypothalamic dysfunction (a disturbance in the normal functioning f the hypothalamus) was believed at the origin of the switch from one form to the other.
A brief summary of the way it is often explained is that various stresses (including too much training) bring the body in a state of alertness: stress hormones are high all the time and this can interfere with a number of processes in the body.
Managers can have a powerful, positive impact on their employees’ performance, engagement and development through coaching. When skillfully done, it can help employees clarify meaningful goals and make progress toward achieving them. But, many managers make the mistake of stopping the coaching process at the end of each conversation. You’re likely to get better results if you end each session with something for your employee to take away and work on independently — homework.
Coaching homework might come in the form of an inquiry to ponder, an assignment to complete, or an experiment to try. Occasionally, you might also agree on homework for yourself, such as introducing your employee to someone from whom they can learn, or seeking authorization for training expenditures.
To compare recent internal training load and strain of elite Australian football players for match outcome.
… Methods
Load was quantified from session rating of perceived exertion (sRPE) for individual players from one team in 141 professional Australian football matches over six seasons, then averaged for players that competed for the team each week. Internal weekly-load and weekly-strain (load x monotony) was compared to recent-load and recent-strain (four-week rolling average) as a marker of training-stress balance for each player against the match outcome. Covariates for relative position of teams in the competition and days between matches were modelled. Differences were standardised (Effect Size; ES) and interpreted using magnitude based inferences. Results
Weekly-load was likely higher for match wins (ES ± 90% confidence limits; 0.43 ± 0.27), and when days-break was used as a covariate (0.45 ± 0.27) but only possibly higher with relative ladder position covaried (RLP, 0.29 ± 0.33). There was a possibly greater positive training–stress balance for load in wins (0.31; ±0.38) with db (0.39; ±0.39) and RLP covaried (0.27; ±0.48). There were no clear differences for strain for wins and losses or with either covariate. There was a likely greater positive training-stress balance for strain in wins (0.51; ±0.41) with days-break (0.48; ±0.41) but not RLP covaried. Conclusions
Weekly-load and a positive training-stress balance for strain were the best predictors of match success. The higher weekly-load and training-stress balance for strain highlight the conflict between maintaining the training stimulus and minimising fatigue in Australian football players between matches.
Aim of the study was to compare the effects of compound versus complex resistance training on strength, high-speed movement performance and muscle composition. Eighteen young men completed compound (strength and power sessions on alternate days) or complex training (strength and power sets within a single session) 3 wk-1 for 6 weeks using bench press, leg press, Smith machine box squat and jumping exercises. Pre- and post-training, jumping and throwing performance and maximum bench press, leg press and Smith machine box squat strength were evaluated. Vastus lateralis and gastrocnemius muscle architecture was assessed using ultrasound imaging. Vastus lateralis morphology was assessed from muscle biopsies. Jumping (4 +/- 3%) and throwing (9 +/- 8%) performance increased only with compound training (P < 0.02). Bench press (5% vs. 18%), leg press (17% vs. 28%) and Smith machine box squat (27% vs. 35%) strength increased after both compound and complex training. Vastus lateralis thickness and fascicle angle, and gastrocnemius fascicle angle were increased with both compound and complex training. Gastrocnemius fascicle length decreased only after complex training (-11.8 +/- 9.4%, P = 0.006). Muscle fiber cross sectional areas increased only after complex training (P < 0.05). Fiber type composition was not affected by either intervention. These results suggest that short-term strength and power training on alternate days is more effective for enhancing lower-limb and whole-body power whilst training on the same day may induce greater increases in strength and fiber hypertrophy.
Longtime MLS executive Kevin Payne served as D.C. United president during its golden years of the 1990s and has also held key positions with U.S. Soccer. Payne became U.S. Club Soccer’s CEO in January. U.S. Club Soccer, which gained U.S. Soccer Federation membership in 2001, has member clubs and leagues in all 50 states, runs national and state cup competitions, a player identification program (id2) and sanctions the girls Elite Clubs National League (ECNL).
SOCCER AMERICA: How would you explain what U.S. Club Soccer is to someone unfamiliar with the American youth soccer landscape?
KEVIN PAYNE: The easiest way to put it that distinguishes us from other youth soccer organizations is that we are a youth soccer organization that focuses on soccer clubs as its members as building blocks for the game. We’re not a political organization. We’re a soccer organization.
This is a topic which, for some reason, some find controversial. I don’t have a clue why, personally, but I suppose when you see a model that works well in over two hundred countries, you tend to think of that as a good case study. That being said, don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Every year it seems there are new initiatives to helping U.S. Youth Soccer and youth development within the country to reach new heights in order to produce world class players. What about promotion and relegation? Is youth development within the U.S. stunted due to a lack of pro/rel, or do the two concepts have nothing to do each other.
DNA-based ‘genetically-tested performance’ sounds scary: nightmare images of cloned sheep and lab-modified Russian weightlifters loom large.
The reality, however, is a deeply clever and distinctly non-terrifying system of maximising athletic ability, and it’s already being used by several top players.
Pioneered by DNAFit, a simple test of 445 gene variants, taken via a mouth swab, gives feedback on how an individual’s body responds to certain exercises, their speed of recovery, vulnerable soft tissue and most suitable diet.
Brian Hainline didn’t know what to expect when the diverse group of professionals first gathered in front of him for the NCAA Soccer Summit in Indianapolis.
There were coaches and athletic trainers, conference commissioners and medical officers for several national governing bodies. Youth soccer was represented, and even professional soccer. It’s a diverse group Hainline, the NCAA’s chief medical officer, wanted for the summit because they brought such different backgrounds and perspectives, and because they had one commonality he figured could make the format constructive: a passion for soccer.
The group left energized and congratulating each other on a successful meeting. While no specific actions were taken, several groups were formed to continue conversations on some of the most pressing medical issues facing soccer. Those groups are expected to bring recommendations back to the summit participants over the next several months, which could lead to recommended guidelines and best practices that will inform health and safety decisions within the NCAA governance system and soccer organizations at all levels of the sport.
When the NCAA hired a neurologist two years ago to improve protocols for handling concussions, nobody foresaw that he would make a priority out of sudden cardiac death.
But as the first chief medical officer in the history of the NCAA—an organization founded to promote athlete health— Brian Hainline has no intention of limiting his influence to neurology. “Concussions have overshadowed everything,” says Hainline, a New York University neurologist. “Why aren’t we talking about death?”
Personal trainers have been a part of professional sports for decades. Personal data analysts are newer.
As a trained mathematician, Justin Zormelo provided Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma City Thunder with personalized analytics during Durant’s MVP season. And in his most recent undertaking, Zormelo is training a 17-year-old, 7-foot-1-inch Sudan native named Thon Maker. Zormelo’s story is told in the latest “Signals” film from FiveThirtyEight and ESPN Films: “By The Numb3rs (With Justin Zormelo),” directed by Jamie Schutz. [video, pre-roll + 15:07]
The use of analytics is increasingly commonplace in business — and as a result, it’s hard to gain a lasting competitive advantage from analytics. Nonetheless, there are companies that have done just that over time.