Applied Sports Science newsletter – June 24, 2015

As his recovery continues and free agency looms, Wesley Matthews must decide between his head and his heart.

I’ve talked over and over again that overuse is the number one reason why we have so many high school and youth baseball injuries. It’s likely the most significant factor while also being the easiest to address. People grasp the concept that overuse can lead to injury, but overuse is also the number one reason why performance is decreased over the course of a baseball season.

But it’s all about temptation, right? Let’s use a different example. Eating that donut right now probably isn’t going to kill me today (I guess I could choke on it…), but creating a bad habit, like eating a lot of donuts, will have an impact on my longevity and quality of life. My short term actions will decrease my long term results.

There is a perception in professional sports that athleticism is God-given. Many believe athleticism is genetic and it can’t be taught, coached or trained into a player.

The team at the Peak Performance Project is trying to change that perception.

As professional sports organizations start embracing the digital age, the team at P3 has been focusing on using modern technology to train athletes since its foundation in 2006.

Several NFL players have suffered significant injuries during OTAs.

How should teams approach OTAs? Are they really necessary?

Watch as Adam Lefkoe and Bleacher Report NFL Analyst Chris Simms discuss NFL OTAs in the video above.

The aim of the present study was to examine the effects of 3 and 5 weeks of detraining after 14 weeks of resistance training at a specific time of day on performances during the squat jump (SJ) and the maximal voluntary contraction (MVC). Thirty-one healthy male physical education students (age: 23.1±1.0 yrs; height: 176.1±6.3 cm; weight: 74.9±10.9 kg) were randomly assigned to either a morning training-group (MTG, training between 07:00 h and 08:00 h, n=10), an evening training-group (ETG, training between 17:00 h and 18:00 h, n=11) or a control group (CG, no training, n=10). Participants then performed eight test sessions (twice per day, at 07:00 h and 17:00 h) over the course of four phases: during pre-training, immediately post-training, and after 3 and 5 weeks of detraining. Before each test session, oral temperature was recorded. During the first 12 weeks of resistance training, participants performed 3 sets of 10 repetitions to failure (10-RM) for 4 exercises (squat, leg-press, leg-extension and leg-curl, with 2 minutes of recovery between each exercise); during the last two weeks, training intensity increased to 8-RM with 3 minutes of recovery between each exercise. Oral temperature was significantly higher at 17:00 h than 07:00 h during all test periods (p<0.05). Likewise, SJ and MVC performances were significantly higher at 17:00 h than 07:00 h during all four test days in ETG and CG, and before training and 3 and 5 weeks after training in MTG (p<0.05). For both training groups, most SJ and MVC performances (except MTG at 07:00 h and ETG at 17:00 h) returned to baseline values after 5, but not after 3, weeks of detraining. This study showed that 14 weeks of training at a specific time of day blunted the diurnal variation of MVC and SJ in the MTG. The improvement in performance brought about by resistance training was partially retained after 3 weeks of detraining (unless training had taken place at a non-habitual time of day) but was lost after 5 weeks of detraining. There was no effect of the time of training on core temperature.

The world is full of motion that goes unfelt and unseen—the minute trembles and vibrations that become swallowed up by larger and more general perturbations. They aren’t wiped away by these larger forces, but are instead obscured from view. Which means that they can theoretically be retrieved and made observable. It’s difficult business, however, and an excellent signal processing problem.

Enter William Freeman and Frédo Durand, MIT professors of engineering and computer science, respectively. For years now they’ve been hot on a trail of a video processing algorithm that can separate out the tiniest motions of structures from very large motions. They’ve crafted algorithms that can make the human pulse visible and can recover the content of human speech from vibrations carried through otherwise soundproof glass, but these have all had the limitation of assuming that every motion was small and going from there rather than differentiating between big and general motions and little and specific motions. Small movements that are part of big ones are difficult to isolate.

The duo’s latest algorithm, presented earlier this month at the Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition conference in Boston in a paper titled Video Magnification in Presence of Large Motions, offers just that.

Google Inc.’s life sciences group has created a health-tracking wristband that could be used in clinical trials and drug tests, giving researchers or physicians minute-by-minute data on how patients are faring.

The experimental device, developed within the company’s Google X research division, can measure pulse, heart rhythm and skin temperature, and also environmental information like light exposure and noise levels. It won’t be marketed as a consumer device, said Andy Conrad, head of the life sciences team at Google.

… in Silicon Valley, we often hear perspectives from technology-savvy fans expressing frustration that the sports industry is not yet able to meet a standard set by other consumer technology experiences (“I wish buying a ticket online was as easy as shopping on Amazon”). … In general, technology adoption in sports can be slow and product quality often lags compared to commonly encountered consumer web experiences (e.g., Amazon, Twitter). After studying this matter, we’ve come to realize that there are certain structural realties about the sports industry?—?aside from its relatively traditional business culture?—?that produce headwinds for the creation and adoption of superb consumer-facing technology. Four reasons for this are commented upon below.

Background: Anatomic anterolateral ligament (ALL) reconstruction has been proposed to assist anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction in controlling anterolateral rotational laxity of the knee. However, the biomechanical effects have not been reported.

Purpose: (1) To investigate the effect of ALL transection on rotational knee kinematics and (2) to determine the effect on knee biomechanics of ALL reconstruction procedures compared with lateral extra-articular tenodesis (LET).

… Results: Anterior translation increased across conditions for the biomechanical tests. Internal rotation during the simulated early-phase pivot-shift test was significantly different between ACLfull and ALLsec. Anatomic ALL reconstruction did not significantly reduce internal rotation or anterior translation during the simulated early-phase pivot-shift test. After LET, a significant decrease in anterior translation was found. There was no evidence of overconstraint of the knee with either anatomic ALL reconstruction or LET.

Conclusion: The ALL demonstrated a role in controlling anterolateral laxity. LET had a composite effect in governing both anterior and rotational laxity. Anatomic ALL reconstruction did not reduce anterolateral rotational laxity.

Clinical Relevance: Profiling the biomechanical characteristics of anterolateral reconstruction is integral to understanding the implications and potential benefit of such an additional procedure to ACL reconstruction.

… Given the extent to which bacteria are now understood to influence human physiology, it is hardly surprising that scientists have turned their attention to how bacteria might affect the brain. Micro-organisms in our gut secrete a profound number of chemicals, and researchers like Lyte have found that among those chemicals are the same substances used by our neurons to communicate and regulate mood, like dopamine, serotonin and gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA). These, in turn, appear to play a function in intestinal disorders, which coincide with high levels of major depression and anxiety. Last year, for example, a group in Norway examined feces from 55 people and found certain bacteria were more likely to be associated with depressive patients

Injury to articular cartilage has ended more NFL careers than any other physical ailment. Solving this medical problem would mean the Nobel Prize in medicine.

Broncos LB Danny Trevathan said he “got somebody else’s kneecap” to solve this problem. That is hardly the case, although damage to articular cartilage of the patella is especially difficult to treat as it responds poorly to microfracture. Likely, he has a cadaver bone/cartilage plug (osteochondral allograft-OATS) that has been placed into his own kneecap. Whole-patella transplants don’t work and are just not done in the NFL or in regular patients. It is too difficult to anchor a floating bone to the tendon and get blood supply to regenerate in the kneecap.

In medicine, anytime a first-time procedure is done, that means either it is a new condition that has never been seen before (highly unlikely) or there is no good solution to the problem and a new technique is attempted.

Placebo effects are beneficial effects that are attributable to the brain–mind responses to the context in which a treatment is delivered rather than to the specific actions of the drug. They are mediated by diverse processes — including learning, expectations and social cognition — and can influence various clinical and physiological outcomes related to health. Emerging neuroscience evidence implicates multiple brain systems and neurochemical mediators, including opioids and dopamine. We present an empirical review of the brain systems that are involved in placebo effects, focusing on placebo analgesia, and a conceptual framework linking these findings to the mind–brain processes that mediate them. This framework suggests that the neuropsychological processes that mediate placebo effects may be crucial for a wide array of therapeutic approaches, including many drugs.

Researchers have identified some demands of Canadian National Hockey League (NHL) players, yet there is little direction for players hoping to reach the lucrative league. The objectives of this study were to identify the stages, statuses and demands in Canadian NHL players’ careers and propose an empirical career model of Canadian NHL players. In total, 5 rookies, 5 veterans and 13 retirees had their interviews undergo an interpretive thematic analysis. Prospects face the NHL combine, training camp and minor league assignment. While developing into NHL players, rookies deal with NHL call-ups, team competition and formative production while sophomores seemed preoccupied by the opposition. Prime veterans become All-Stars by garnering point production and challenging for the Stanley Cup while seasoned veterans remain relevant through training camps. A discussion about the model’s viability is followed by applications for sport psychology researchers and practitioners.

If you want to see United States women’s national soccer team head coach Jill Ellis really get excited, ask her about tactics. Her eyes will get big. She’ll bounce from her seat and find the nearest blackboard or scrap of paper on which to scribble how her strategic schemes evolve from defense to offense, or where she wants her central midfielders to move in the transition. She’s an old-fashioned X’s and O’s coach.

But she’s also the rare manager in the women’s game to fully embrace the advent of analytics.