Applied Sports Science newsletter – April 23, 2015

Applied Sports Science news articles, blog posts and research papers for April 23, 2015

 

NBA: How Mike Budenholzer’s system turned the Atlanta Hawks into one of the NBA’s elite

ESPN, NBA from April 22, 2015

In the late spring of 2013, Al Horford got a phone call from Mike Budenholzer.

The longtime Spurs assistant had just been hired by Danny Ferry to coach the Atlanta Hawks about a month after the team was dispatched by the Indiana Pacers in a first-round playoff series. He wanted to do lunch with Horford — and just Horford. Budenholzer was still unsettled in Atlanta, and after running through a list of possible restaurants, Horford decided his house would be the best venue to break bread in.

“It turned into a three-hour thing,” Horford says. “We sat there and he just picked my brain.”

 

7 Psychological Tricks for Getting More Work Done

Inc.com from April 16, 2015

Being more productive starts with willpower and discipline. Here are seven mind tricks for becoming more productive and disciplined.

 

Learning in Both Directions

Software Carpentry from April 21, 2015

… My training as an engineer taught me that only controlled, quantitative experiments were “real” science—that as Ernest Rutherford said, it’s either physics or stamp collecting. I now understand that there are other rigorous ways to generate actionable insights, some of which are better suited to our needs than something like randomized control trials. More than that, I finally understand what one of my first teachers told me:

Teaching only works well when the teacher is also learning.

 

Creating a performance environment

World Athletics Center from April 22, 2015

… how does one create such a culture within a training environment? Our Performance Director, Stuart McMillan, answered this question in a Twitter post a couple of months back by giving this advice:

  • Display empathy – show you care
  • Give autonomy – allow for choice
  • Create competence – do what the athletes are good at
  •  

    Improving breathing

    Athletics Weekly from April 21, 2015

    In this final article in a four-part series, Robin McNelis looks at how to improve your breathing and thus your performance.

     

    Is Nike and Apple’s relationship on the rocks? | Cult of Mac

    Cult of Mac from April 18, 2015

    Apple’s new Activity and Fitness apps for Apple Watch might signal the end of the company’s long partnership with Nike.
    So what does this mean for the millions of us who were introduced to Nike+ by Apple in 2006 and have been logging our runs this way ever since?

     

    Microsoft Fitness Band Gets New Cycling Features, Sleep Data

    Re/code from April 22, 2015

    Aiming to be a more serious player in the fitness space, Microsoft is adding new features to both its fitness band and the companion Microsoft Health app.

    The $199 band now integrates with Strava and MapMyRide to track cycling data, while a forthcoming update to the health app will allow it to track steps using the sensors built into a smartphone for those not wearing their band.

     

    Workers Seeking Productivity in a Pill Are Abusing A.D.H.D. Drugs

    The New York Times, U.S. from April 18, 2015

    Fading fast at 11 p.m., Elizabeth texted her dealer and waited just 30 minutes for him to reach her third-floor New York apartment. She handed him a wad of twenties and fifties, received a tattered envelope of pills, and returned to her computer.

    Her PowerPoint needed another four hours. Investors in her health-technology start-up wanted re-crunched numbers, a presentation begged for bullet points and emails from global developers would keep arriving well past midnight.

    She gulped down one pill — pale orange, like baby aspirin — and then, reconsidering, took one of the pinks, too.

    “O.K., now I can work,” Elizabeth exhaled. Several minutes later, she felt her brain snap to attention. She pushed her glasses up her nose and churned until 7 a.m. Only then did she sleep for 90 minutes, before arriving at her office at 9.

     

    Exclusive: 10,000m hero Jo Pavey hits out at ‘unethical’ hormone-replacement drug thyroxine – ITV News

    ITV News from April 22, 2015

    2014 was a golden year for Jo Pavey, crowned by winning the European 10,000m title in Zurich at 40. Only 10 months earlier she had given birth to her daughter Emily.

    She is quite the inspirational woman.

    But as she pounds the roads near her home in Devon preparing for a new season, it’s not just the long training sessions occupying Pavey’s mind. She’s getting increasingly troubled by the rumours circulating athletics about the hormone-replacement medication thyroxine.

     

    Neuromuscular strategies contributing to faster multidirectional agility performance – Journal of Electromyography and Kinesiology

    Journal of Electromyography and Kinesiology from April 20, 2015

    The aim of this study was to first determine differences in neuromuscular strategy between a faster and slower agility performance, and second compare differences in muscle activation strategy employed when performing two closely executed agility movements. Participants recruited from an elite female basketball team completed an ultrasound to determine quadriceps muscle-cross sectional area; reactive isometric mid-thigh pull to determine the rate of muscle activation, rate of force development, pre-motor time and motor time; and multidirectional agility tests completing two directional changes in response to a visual stimulus. Peak and average relative muscle activation of the rectus femoris, vastus medialis, vastus lateralis, biceps femoris, semitendinosus and gastrocnemius were measured 100 ms prior to heel strike (pre-heel strike) and across stance phase for both directional changes. Faster agility performance was characterized by greater pre-heel strike muscle activity and greater anterior muscle activation during stance phase resulting in greater hip and knee extension increasing propulsive impulse. Differences between directional changes appear to result from processing speed, where a greater delay in refractory times during the second directional change resulted in greater anterior muscle activation, decelerating the body whilst movement direction was determined.

     

    Pac-12 study reveals athletes ‘too exhausted to study effectively’ – CBSSports.com

    CBSSports.com, Dennis Dodd from April 21, 2015

    Pac-12 athletes spend an average of 50 hours per week on their sport and are often “too exhausted to study effectively,” a Pac-12 study revealed this month.

    A sampling of 409 conference athletes found that while they are “generally satisfied”, they are “stressed” and time demands from their sports create “anxiety and a loss of sleep that hinders academic and athletic performance.” The study also concluded that physical exhaustion is a “major issue.”

     

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