Big and bloated or slim and sleek, plenty of big league players showed up to spring training this year looking nothing like they did last season.
Ryan Howard trimmed down. CC Sabathia bulked up. Jered Weaver packed on muscle, Jesus Montero shed some flab. They all transformed their bodies with varying intentions, some hoping it leads to bounce-back seasons, others trying to stay healthy over a 162-game grind.
… Football Outsiders keeps a metric called Adjusted Games Lost (AGL) … The Eagles ended up fifth on the list in 2014. In other words, only four teams were healthier than the Birds.
Considering the injuries the Eagles suffered on the offensive line last season, that ranking might come as a surprise. But Football Outsiders also ranked individual units. The Eagles ranked in the top eight (most healthy) at running back, wide receiver, tight end, defensive line and defensive back.
Rudy Gobert stands out even in the impossibly strange genetic environment of pro basketball. Listed at 7’2 with a 7’9 wingspan and a preposterous standing reach of 9’7, he appears even taller and longer in person, which is both frightening and fascinating. The fear manifests itself in all the would-be scorers who stay as far away from the paint as possible. What’s fascinating is that like Anthony Davis, young Rudy grew up on the perimeter as a guard.
While not as as skilled as AD, Gobert is a willing and surprisingly deft passer, which suggests that he’s barely scratching the surface of his developing skill set. His length forces even the most graceful opponents into awkward moments of indecision, but Gobert is surprisingly nimble. (He also tried his hand at boxing when he was younger, which helps explain his coordination and tenacity — his “spirit,” as he refers to it. “I had too much energy when I was young,” he says with a laugh.)
A teenage growth spurt made him a prospect and he first gained notice as an 18-year-old on the French national team. It was during last summer’s FIBA World Cup in Spain when he became a phenom. Playing without Tony Parker and Joakim Noah, Gobert dominated Spain defensively in a stunning quarterfinal upset.
Field sports are sports such as soccer, rugby union and rugby league, Australian Rules football (AFL), Gaelic football and field hockey. They are characterized by a somewhat stop-start nature, varying movement speeds, multiple changes of direction and the execution of decisions and individual skills under conditions of game pressure and/or fatigue and in the case of some of those sports, the threat of imminent collisions. The nature of the movements in these sports requires the utilization, and therefore training, of all three energy systems (ATP-PC, Glycolitic/Lactic acid and Aerobic systems). However despite the often stop-start nature of these sports, which heralds an increase in anaerobic energy contributions (10), high-intensity aerobic power and conditioning can be critical for success in field sports (4).
The purpose of this article is to detail a number of methods to develop high intensity aerobic conditioning and describe the practical implementation and integration of these methods into the Preparation Period training for field sport athletes.
… how do you go about determining how much specific and how much general work you want and where it is done?
Dave: I think there are a couple of different layers to this question. First there is the weight room component. At some level you have to acknowledge whether the culture of your sport embraces strength training or not. What we are doing is not just based on what is ideal, but a compromise. Soccer players are playing year-round in an 11-month season and do not want to embrace weight training as much as American football or Australian football might. We do one main strength session a week and perhaps 1-2 accessory lifts a week. This is about 20% of our time, but as I said that is a compromise. Everything else we do is on the field.
The second layer consists of what we do when we are on the field. This is more specific, although we can split this into generalized work and very soccer-specific work with the ball. I think that coaches often make the assumption that they are training in a “sports-specific” way when in fact they are not.
No matter how successful a coaching session feels while it’s underway, if it doesn’t lead to change after it’s over, it hasn’t been effective. Unfortunately, too many managers don’t adequately follow through and thereby squander the important time they’ve invested in coaching. You can make the process more effective by adopting these practices after every session.
Use this list of tips and questions to help you track the progress of everyone you’re coaching. It will help you offer meaningful support in follow-up meetings, as well as in between meetings.
Historically, debriefs originated in the military to discuss what happened on the battlefield or on a specific mission. What went wrong? What went right? What can we do better next time? What happened that we weren’t prepared for, etc. We view our post-competition debrief as very similar to this strategy. We are looking to gather as much information as we can about what happened prior to, during, and after the competition that we can use to then prepare for the next competition. It is our opinion that one of the end results of the debrief process is athlete accountability; they have to look back and take an honest perspective of what happened, report it to the coach, and move forward in the process with a renewed passion for honing their craft. Ultimately, this accountability leads to an increased sense of Mindfulness.
Wrapped around a person’s wrist, a new foldable fabric patch can scavenge enough energy from arm movement to power small electronic devices. The fabric patch paves the way to clothing that can charge smart watches and cell phones while the wearer moves or walks around, the researchers say.
The OV16880 is a 16-megapixel CMOS image sensor from OmniVision Technologies Inc. with a pixel size of 1-micron. The sensor uses PureCel-S stacked die technology and supports phase detection autofocus (PDAP).
The OV16880 captures 4672 by 3504 resolution images at 30 frames per second (FPS), thus allowing burst photography and zero shutter lag at full resolution. Additionally, the sensor is capable of capturing 4K video at 30 FPS, 1080p video at 90 FPS, and 720p video at 120 FPS. The OV16880 supports interlaced high dynamic range (iHDR) timing functionality to further ensure high quality image and video
Three years ago in a Seattle coffee shop, Mario Esposito’s wife Victoria tripped and spilled the cappuccino she had just bought him over his feet. Instead of leaping up in pain as the hot liquid seeped into his socks, Esposito took a different sort of leap.
A Microsoft engineer—he worked on the first Xbox—and serial inventor, Esposito had been searching for inspiration. Now he had it: socks. Using a chemical process he’s keeping secret, Esposito realized he could convert any fabric into a pressure sensor. “The idea essentially is that every time pressure is applied to this particular fabric,” he says, “the value of resistance changes.”
Over the course of investigating the Apple Watch, I’ve spoken to several sources who have spent extended time with it.
There are a lot of interesting details, some of which we’ll get into. But, by far, the biggest recurring theme is how little you use your iPhone once you have one.
After these discussions, it seems certain that the Apple Watch will shortly be the primary way you access your iPhone during the day.
“I’ve got the pictures here,” says Sir Dave Brailsford, jabbing at an iPhone that appears weathered enough to have lived through at least one of Team Sky’s Tour de France victories. A minute passes. The swiping becomes more frenetic. Then eureka. “Here we are,” he cries, flipping his phone to show a startling image of him playing darts with electrodes clamped around his skull.
Another flick, another photograph. This time close up. Brailsford’s head now bears more than a passing resemblance to the Borg from Star Trek, but the technology he is wearing is not something from science fiction, but a prototype from a tour of San Francisco last week. “I absolutely loved the experience,” says Team Sky’s head principal. “There’s an energy and buzz about the city – it’s an extremely exciting place to be.”
During his stay Brailsford visited 20 tech companies, met venture capitalists, and tested a wide range of products that in one, two or five years’ time may see the light of day. Repeatedly he found himself asking this simple question: how many of these ideas swirling around Silicon Valley, no matter how esoteric or crazy-sounding, could help his riders go faster?
If you’ve ever wondered what professional athletes eat to fuel their morning, you’re right: It’s not Frosted Flakes or a Pop Tart. From cyclists to ultra-marathon runners, everyone has his own version of the perfect, performance-based breakfast — a meal that delivers solid nutrients, energy, and good taste. “Whatever level of an athlete you are breakfast is important, so it’s good to see all of these athletes taking it so seriously,” says Dr. Liz Applegate, director of sports nutrition at the University of California Davis. “Research shows people who are eating breakfast can better control their weight, their overall diet throughout the day, and have better cognitive skills at school and work.” Here, six athletes share their recipes for their favorite first meal — and we tell you what the combo can do for you.