Applied Sports Science newsletter – June 12, 2015

Under-21 defender reveals how Duncan Ferguson’s advice is improving his game and why Wednesday night’s return to Oakwell will be so special

… What happened in between James’ 39-point, 50-minute effort in Game 2 and his 40-point, 46-minute performance in Game 3 is a marvel of modern sports science — a tale of how one of the most physically imposing athletes of our time was completely depleted and then put back together.

From training tools as age-old as an ice bucket to more modern accoutrements like electrical stimulation and compression sleeves, James was massaged, squeezed, flushed, frozen, heated and fueled by every trick in the sports recovery handbook. The process began immediately after he walked off the court Sunday night in Oakland and continued in every time zone until he pulled his jersey on and emerged from the home tunnel Tuesday night in Cleveland.

Footblogball is back with another Essential Interview. This time it is with Steve Lawrence who discusses Cruyff, Ajax, Montessori. and RAE. In this interview Steve Lawrence gives us a fascinating insight in to how we can look to challenge tradition and structure the future of youth sport to create a better learning environment for both the young player and the coach.

We examined the temporal changes of isokinetic strength performance of knee flexor (KF) and extensor (KE) strength after a football match. Players were randomly assigned to a control (N = 14, participated only in measurements and practices) or an experimental group (N = 20, participated also in a football match). Participants trained daily during the two days after the match. Match and training overload was monitored with GPS devices. Venous blood was sampled and muscle damage was assessed pre-match, post-match and at 12h, 36h and 60h post-match. Isometric strength as well as eccentric and concentric peak torque of knee flexors and extensors in both limbs (dominant and non-dominant) were measured on an isokinetic dynamometer at baseline and at 12h, 36h and 60h after the match. Functional (KFecc/KEcon) and conventional (KFcon/KEcon) ratios were then calculated. Only eccentric peak torque of knee flexors declined at 60h after the match in the control group. In the experimental group: a) isometric strength of knee extensors and knee flexors declined (P<0.05) at 12h (both limbs) and 36h (dominant limb only), b) eccentric and concentric peak torque of knee extensors and flexors declined (P<0.05) in both limbs for 36h at 60°/s and for 60h at 180°/s with eccentric peak torque of knee flexors demonstrating a greater (P<0.05) reduction than concentric peak torque, c) strength deterioration was greater (P<0.05) at 180°/s and in dominant limb, d) the functional ratio was more sensitive to match-induced fatigue demonstrating a more prolonged decline. Discriminant and regression analysis revealed that strength deterioration and recovery may be related to the amount of eccentric actions performed during the match and athletes' football-specific conditioning. Our data suggest that recovery kinetics of knee flexor and extensor strength after a football match demonstrate strength, limb and velocity specificity and may depend on match physical overload and players' physical conditioning level.

“If, for whatever reason, you were only allowed three 15-minute sessions a week, what would you do?”

The question above is from Dan John’s Can You Go? and is related to strength & conditioning, not basketball. However, the question is one for a coach to consider. If restricted to three 15-minute sessions per week, what would you do?

Whatever your answer, it should be a major portion of your practices.

Practice makes perfect. It’s the typical mantra that applies to nearly everything, and in the case of Bobby Wood and Jordan Morris, it led to a memorable game-winning goal against defending World Cup champions Germany.

Knotted 1-1 late in Cologne on June 10, a hard-hit pass from Brad Evans opened the door to a sequence the young pair of attackers had worked on heavily in training the day before. Since the U.S. coaching staff informed them they’d get minutes on the field together, they put in the extra work.

“Bobby and I were trying to come together as forwards a little bit, doing some pattern work towards goal on Tuesday,” said Morris.

… College athletics programs and pro sports teams across the country have increasingly turned to applied sports psychology consultants to give their athletes a mental edge through tools that help them have the extra focus they need when the pressure is on, or the coping skills in the heat of battle when even the smallest setbacks threaten to derail months of preparation. About 80 percent of U athletes across all sports now use sports psychology services provided by the private consulting practices of Detling, who is a full-time U assistant professor of exercise and sport science, and by Keith Henschen, who led the U’s sports psychology efforts for decades and still contracts with the men’s basketball team. The U also offers degree programs to educate people to take on the role that, for the athletes they serve, falls somewhere between Zen master and someone to just talk to about life.

… research shows that superstitions can actually be linked with improved performance — in short, because they grant players a psychologically important illusion of control over events that often come down to random bounces here and there.

George Gmelch, a professor of anthropology at the University of San Francisco who has studied superstition in baseball for decades, says that superstition indeed tends to be more prevalent in areas where there’s a lot of uncertainty — a big test in school, a job interview, or a first date, for example. And so sports — in which every night brings a new competition to be won or lost — are a natural incubator for them. “What they’re really doing is giving themselves confidence,” says Gmelch. “If I do these little rituals, then I’m gonna feel confident going into this activity, and I can succeed and do well.”

… Implementing the way of playing football, that style of play, based upon the culture / philosophy of the club with constant considerations of the ever increasing demands of elite world football is essential. Examples of this can be seen in the ‘Orange thread’ or the ‘Barca way’ where both players and coaches work to a very precise and establish philosophy which clubs require in order to stay on the road to success.

In my opinion to ensure unity within the club from top to bottom and to create a natural pathway into the first team – the most effective outcome of an Academy, clubs require a Technical Director of Football (some might call it a High Performance Director- some use Head of Coaching or Director of Methodology). They are the one person who ensures the staff are all singing from the same hymn sheet. He protects the interests of the primavera when others want to bring in players from outside.

Charlie Batch, the former Pittsburgh Steeler turned philanthropist and entrepreneur, will headline a program Friday at the Wyndham Grand Pittsburgh designed to showcase Pittsburgh as a sports medicine technology hub. … Batch will kick off events at Create Fest at 3 p.m. at the Rivers Start-up Room at the Wyndham Grand Pittsburgh. He will introduce speaker Inigo San Millian, an exercise physiologist who has spent more than 20 years researching world-class athletes.

Researchers representing Microsoft and Google will present their latest advances Friday in automated image captioning, a hot field that could have broad implications for artificial intelligence.

The researchers will be speaking at a workshop that is part of CVPR, an annual conference on the most cutting-edge advances in computer vision research. The workshop is highlighting the winners of several image-related challenges.

… We are here because the editor of this magazine asked me, “Can you tell me what code is?”

Exercising in the heat induces thermoregulatory and other physiological strain that can lead to impairments in endurance exercise capacity. The purpose of this consensus statement is to provide up-to-date recommendations to optimise performance during sporting activities undertaken in hot ambient conditions. The most important intervention one can adopt to reduce physiological strain and optimise performance is to heat acclimatise. Heat acclimatisation should comprise repeated exercise-heat exposures over 1–2?weeks. In addition, athletes should initiate competition and training in a euhydrated state and minimise dehydration during exercise. Following the development of commercial cooling systems (eg, cooling-vest), athletes can implement cooling strategies to facilitate heat loss or increase heat storage capacity before training or competing in the heat. Moreover, event organisers should plan for large shaded areas, along with cooling and rehydration facilities, and schedule events in accordance with minimising the health risks of athletes, especially in mass participation events and during the first hot days of the year. Following the recent examples of the 2008 Olympics and the 2014 FIFA World Cup, sport governing bodies should consider allowing additional (or longer) recovery periods between and during events, for hydration and body cooling opportunities, when competitions are held in the heat.

As Barcelona raised aloft the Champions League trophy in Berlin for the fifth time, the whole of Catalonia was celebrating.

And so was a man from Ashby de la Zouch, who could take satisfaction in the knowledge that he had played his part in Barca’s domestic and Champions League treble.

Ian Rollo has been working with the Catalan giants for two years as a senior scientist for the Gatorade Sports Science Institute.

He has helped tailor the individual nutritional needs of each of the Barca players to help them maximise their ability.