Applied Sports Science newsletter – May 21, 2015

… Before the Cinderella run, Curry was a longshot. [video, pre-roll + 13:48]

Sometimes, probably most times, Steve Kerr’s Warriors coaching staff looks and acts like a lively bunch of high achieving, highly diverse camp counselors.

That’s exactly the way Kerr assembled his group of five formidable assistants, and that was how they were all splayed out on the Warriors’ practice court a few weeks ago.

There was veteran Ron Adams twisting on the floor into yoga positions, long-time Kerr pal Bruce Fraser feeding passes to Stephen Curry, and rookie assistants Luke Walton and Jarron Collins yelping and thrashing with a few Warriors bench players in a three-on-three game.

… that man, Coach Steve Kerr, laughed at a question about whether he ever reminded Stephen Curry, the N.B.A. Most Valuable Player Award winner who is gaining a reputation as the best long-distance shooter in league history, that he, not Curry, is the game’s most-accurate 3-point shooter. … “The percentage, that’s irrelevant. The degree of difficulty on his shots is remarkable. He’s the best I’ve ever seen — just the total package of shooting and ball-handling together.”

The truly elite players have their own issues, trying to find the right fit to nurture their prodigious talents. Then you have another group of players who will comfortably make a travel team at any large club — they may grumble about being on Red or Green or Magenta instead of White or Black or Puce, but their needs will be met.

It’s the large group of borderline kids who have the biggest reasons to fret. And we have two reasons for that stress:

1. We’ve devalued recreational leagues. That’s one of the concerns raised in the Project Play report. … 2. Kids who don’t make the cut at age 8 have a tougher time keeping up developmentally.

Shoelaces come untied, loosen, bind and can be a knot in your stride. Too loose makes for sloppy striding, too tight and shoes bind and pinch.

Here are three lacing methods to keep you running in your sweet spot.

The USA earned a spot at the 2015 World Cup with a penalty-kick shootout at win over Jamaica on March 15, leaving Coach Richie Williams with seven months to fine-tune his team for the World Cup that kick off Oct. 17 in Chile. We spoke with Williams about preparing a team whose squad is split between players in residency in Bradenton, Fla., and those already signed with professional clubs; the future of U-17 residency; and lessons from qualifying.

“Times are changing,” said Williams, who held a May 2-11 camp in New Jersey. “We’ve had some players who weren’t with us at all in residency because they signed with foreign clubs before the cycle started. And we’re seeing more of that since the cycle started. Some players came for one year and signed with clubs. We have about 10 players, some MLS players, who aren’t in Bradenton.”

The ball fields at Delano-Hitch Park were covered in snow when Jim Wilson launched a campaign to keep them in use. As president of the City of Newburgh Little League, he had seen participation numbers plummet to the point where the league was in danger of folding. Now, he and the league’s board of directors were calling parents one by one, asking if their children would play this spring.

“We kind of felt like telemarketers,” he said.

Some parents told him their children were more interested in lacrosse. Others cited a preference for basketball or soccer. Many didn’t respond to voice mails at all. When the season began last month, the league had only 74 players spread across four age groups, down from 206 in 2009. “Over the last couple years, it’s dropped like a rock,” Wilson said.

… Although the exact details are elusive, yesterday’s Apple Watch software update included changes to the way the watch tracks standing activities, changes to how it tracks calories for indoor cycling and rowing workouts, and changes to how it calculates distance and pace for outdoor running and walking workouts. Fitness features seem to have been a pretty major part of the update.

Meanwhile, 9to5Mac is reporting, citing multiple unnamed sources, that Apple has plans to expand the Watch’s health and fitness features.

field – a london based studio – created an audio/visual installation for nike ‘free run’ called a ‘force of nature’. the experience is an interactive treadmill fit with custom sensors, that takes the runner through a passage of immersive visual effects that boosts the feelings of getting into the rush of running. ‘force of nature’ is a reflection of the running journey by applying different pattern and perspective forms that are influenced by the athlete to help him or her to run faster, stronger and farther. the setup involves microsoft’s kinect sensors that focus on gesture based motions and a custom intuitive treadmill to generate an active display effected by the runner’s movements. ‘force of nature’ was directed and designed by co-founder of field marcus wendt, who specializes in shareable digital artifacts through advanced technology and research led approaches. the project was developed for the april 2015 Nike innovation summit at truman brewery in england. [video, 1:03]

… No-contact drills in OTAs don’t come without risk. Since 2011, nearly one in four ACL tears occurred in practice (61 of 224), according to NFL research.

“You have ACL (tears) because there are high-speed practices with big guys putting torque on their knee,” said Dr. David Chao, the San Diego Chargers physician from 1997-2013. “A walk-through becomes a run-through, and that high intensity is how you get a foot caught (in grass) and tear an ACL.”

Background The Nordic hamstring (NH) exercise programme was introduced in 2001 and has been shown to reduce the risk of acute hamstring injuries in football by at least 50%. Despite this, the rate of hamstring injuries has not decreased over the past decade in male elite football.

Aim To examine the implementation of the NH exercise programme at the highest level of male football in Europe, the UEFA Champions League (UCL), and to compare this to the Norwegian Premier League, Tippeligaen, where the pioneer research on the NH programme was conducted.

… Results The response rate was 100%. Of the 150 club-seasons covered by the study, the NH programme was completed in full in 16 (10.7%) and in part in an additional 9 (6%) seasons. Consequently, 125 (83.3%) club-seasons were classified as non-compliant. There was no difference in compliance between the UCL and Tippeligaen in any season (?2: 0.41 to 0.52).

Conclusions Adoption and implementation of the NH exercise programme at the highest levels of male football in Europe is low; too low to expect any overall effect on acute hamstring injury rates.

INTRODUCTION:
Breakfast omission may reduce daily energy intake. Exercising fasted impairs performance compared to exercising after breakfast, but the effect breakfast omission has on evening exercise performance is unknown. This study assessed the impact of omitting breakfast on evening exercise performance, as well as within-day energy intake.
METHODS:
Ten male, habitual breakfast eaters completed two trials, in randomised, counterbalanced order. Subjects arrived at the laboratory overnight fasted, and either consumed or omitted a 733 ± 46 kcal (3095 ± 195 kJ) breakfast. Ad-libitum energy intake was assessed at 4.5 h (lunch) and 11 h (dinner). At 9 h subjects completed 30 min cycling exercise at ?60% VO2peak, followed by a 30 min maximal cycling performance test. Food was not permitted for subjects once they left the laboratory after dinner until 08:00 the following morning. Acylated ghrelin, GLP-1(7-36), glucose and insulin were assessed at 0, 4.5 and 9 h. Subjective appetite sensations were recorded throughout.
RESULTS:
Energy intake was 199 ± 151 kcal greater at lunch (P<0.01) after breakfast omission compared to breakfast consumption and tended to be greater at dinner after consuming breakfast (P=0.052). Consequently, total ad-libitum energy intake was similar between trials (P=0.196), with 24 h energy intake 19 ± 5 % greater after consuming breakfast (P<0.001). Total work completed during the exercise performance test was 4.5 % greater after breakfast (314 ± 53 kJ vs. 300 ± 56 kJ; P<0.05). Insulin was greater during BC at 4.5 h (P<0.05), with no other interaction effect for hormone concentrations.
CONCLUSIONS:
Breakfast omission might be an effective means of reducing daily energy intake, but may impair performance later that day, even after consuming lunch.

Below is my HRV trend following my first year of working on my PhD. Training was held pretty much constant throughout this time period (lift 4x/week, moderate aerobic work 2-3x/week). Both my first and second semester were equally as busy, however my perception of stress and my HRV trend was much lower and higher, respectively, in semester 2. The first few weeks of the first semester were so bad I was sick for over a week with the flu, which rarely happens to me (occurring at the lowest dip, early in the trend).

Tomorrow Real Madrid and Microsoft will launch a new app to connect fans to the club and to each other. The app will offer extra content during matches, including video from multiple camera angles, as well as games and competitions for users. But it will also give fans access to about 250 series of match data in real time… and that’s what caught my eye.

Today I asked José Ángel Sánchez, the club’s director-general, and Orlando Ayala of Microsoft just how they were going to make all that information available. For example, would fans be able to download the data and use it themselves?