Applied Sports Science newsletter – June 18, 2015

… In a tournament played on unforgiving turf and with games basically every four days — the U.S. doesn’t play again until the 22nd, courtesy of their first-place finish in Group D — most teams won’t have the ability to rest and recover. For the U.S., who’ve played three different forward pairings in three games, the ability to shuffle pieces while not losing anything in the attack could prove to be invaluable. At least, that’s the hope.

The Golden State Warriors were the last ones standing. As bodies broke down all around the NBA this season, it was the Warriors who remained intact. … This wasn’t all luck. This was all part of the plan: to rest, to recover, to outlast.

Building big muscles requires lifting big weights. That’s an article of faith in gyms around the world – which is why McMaster University exercise scientist Dr. Stuart Phillips has faced such an uphill battle to convince people that it’s wrong.

Phillips has published a series of studies in recent years suggesting that lifting relatively light weights can produce similar gains in strength and muscle size compared with traditional heavy-load workouts, as long as you lift to near failure, the point where you can’t complete another repetition of each exercise.

More speed. Better efficiency. Fewer injuries. These are the three biggest reasons why runners should try to improve their running form. But how do you know which changes are right for you?

Fundamentally, a runner’s stride is a complex mix of two different energy sources: metabolic, energy produced by the muscles; and elastic energy produced by tendons and other connective tissue that stretch and recoil like a series of springs to propel you forward. A runner’s fitness level will limit the amount of energy the muscles can produce, while the functional strength of the soft tissue will dictate the most efficient way for a person to run.

“The more you utilize that elastic energy, the better you become at hitting the ground and absorbing those impact forces,” explains elite-level coach Steve Magness, author of “The Science of Running” and head cross country coach at the University of Houston. “The problem for novice runners is that their tendon strength tends to be very low, so they’re not really storing or utilizing much of that elastic energy. They can make huge gains by doing things like plyometrics and practicing sprints.”

… Yes there are lots of ways you can monitor, from data heavy technology to pen and paper. However, what is the best way to get to the best result?
What I am looking at personally, is the issues that face my athletes specifically and how to monitor those isses, rather than looking at what i could monitor with tech or apps or what is in vogue. Predomominantly, the people I work with are 16-19 full time students, with little or no athletic experience, but highly likely to over play and under train. We do have a quite a lot of access to the players but little time to process data. They are not contracted to a club and athletics is side issue to their academics. Therefore compliance is also an issue, both with data collection and following the interventions it creates.

So what are the big challenges around these athlete? So far these are the issues I have identified as key

Poor Sleep – Late nights and over stimuation before sleep, through a whole range of social issues, inc video gaming, social media and phome use, TV, part time jobs.

Over playing – especially in young football (soccer) players, will often be asked to play in 3-4 games per week, by teams outside the college environment,

Poor Diet – choosing to eat poor foods, both in composition and quality.

The 2015 NBA finals are in full swing and Australian basketball is deservedly receiving world-wide attention with Andrew Bogut and Mathew Dellavedova battling it out on the biggest stage of all.

Fans and media in the United States are asking how does a country with a small population, where basketball is often overshadowed by the football codes, produce players that excel in the toughest competition in the world.

When NBA draft prospect Frank Kaminsky does single-leg Romanian deadlifts precisely eight times on each side, it’s not because he has an affinity for central European fitness techniques. Kaminsky, the 22-year-old Wooden Award winner who led Wisconsin on an impressive Final Four run, goes through specified workouts like single-leg RDLs and split squat jumps because his biomechanic and performance data informs his trainers that the 240-pound seven-footer has room to improve on his vertical jumping ability.

With the influx of advanced sports technology and training centers such as P3 in Santa Barbara, Calif., where Kaminsky is preparing ahead of the draft later this month, players are able to hone in on specific aspects of their development like never before. After putting the player through initial testing, which included the use of force plates and a 10-camera 3D motion-analysis system, Kaminsky’s trainers at P3 determined he was the most mobile big man they’d ever assessed, but also that he needed to improve his “knee extension acceleration, velocity and peak concentric force,” all underlying factors that contribute to a player’s jumping ability.

Intel is continuing to drive its ambitions in the competitive wearable device market with the acquisition of Recon Instruments, which is best known for its Jet smartglasses and a company the chip maker initially invested in two years ago.

Intel completed the acquisition June 16, with the vendor not only gaining the products but also a “talented, experienced wearable computing team that will help us expand the market for head mounted display products and technologies,” Josh Walden, senior vice president and general manager of Intel’s New Technology Group, wrote.

The 2015 Sensors Expo, held in Long Beach, Calif., has announced the winners of its annual “Best of Sensors Expo awards.” In a ceremony held Wednesday, a panel of judges and experts from Sensors Magazine awarded 14 awards in two categories — Application and Innovation — to the most innovative sensor technologies as well as the best applications of sensor technology.

The Minnesota Timberwolves and Lynx unveiled the Timberwolves and Lynx Courts at Mayo Clinic Square today by hosting a grand opening ceremony featuring NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, WNBA President Laurel Richie, Timberwolves and Lynx owner Glen Taylor, Mayo Clinic President & CEO Dr. John Noseworthy and Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges. The facility, a $25 million all private investment, is home to the teams’ new training center, basketball and business operations, the Mayo Clinic Sports Medicine Center and the Timberwolves and Lynx Basketball Academy.

Hamstring pain or injury happens to many athletes during their career. Our office seems to have an abundance of them once running season is in full swing and tempo training starts or when people begin to start pushing their races and runs. Unfortunately, hamstring pain/strain if left alone will not go away. Simply stopping running will not fix the problem. You need to address the issue of why your hamstring hurts in the first place.

… Being the smallest sometimes isn’t a disadvantage, it can be really helpful (if you get IN the system). And that’s the challenge. Getting in. However, once you are in the accelerated learning experience you can get compared to others is important to recognise.

… The economist Tyler Cowen, looking at this state of affairs, considers the adoption of three-point shooting as an ominous parable for technological progress. This is, after all, the simplest “technology” out there. All you gotta do is step back a few feet and reap the rewards.

Cowen notes the cultural factors that slowed down the diffusion of the technique.

“Coaches had to figure out three-point strategies, which include rethinking the fast break and different methods of floor spacing and passing; players had to learn those techniques too. The NBA had to change its rules to encourage more three-pointers (e.g., allowing zone defenses, discouraging isolation plays),” Cowen writes.

Today marks the 12th birthday of “Moneyball” (the book), though; on June 17, 2003, W.W. Norton officially published Michael Lewis’s “Moneyball” with what must have been just the faintest idea of what might come next. So let’s start there …

I knew about the book before there was a book. I was at the SABR Convention in Boston in the summer of 2002, when this fellow came up and introduced himself. It was Lewis, and he said he was working on a story about sabermetrics, and the Oakland A’s, and Billy Beane said I’d be a good guy to talk to.