Applied Sports Science newsletter – July 24, 2015

… How do you end a chapter of your life that has defined you for over 20 years, when the conclusion to that chapter seems very much unresolved?

This thought consumes me daily. With the accumulation of every injury, all signs point to retirement, but as soon as I start accepting my fate off the field, the universe sends me signals that it’s not time. My body tells me I’m fit and strong, and I pass every test in the gym and on the field. However, I’ve passed all of those tests before, and then my body failed me upon my return to previous teams.

Knowing I have more to give, the inevitable question being for how long? Is it worth the risk of getting injured again and all of the trials and heartbreak that comes with that? Is it worth the blood, sweat and tears to pick myself off the gym floor for the umpteenth time? I wish nothing more than that this period of my life — living as an injured player — was over. [video, 7:33]

Single limb stance instability is a risk factor for lower extremity injuries. Therefore, the development of proprioception may play an important role in injury prevention. The present investigation considered a professional basketball team for six years, integrating systematic proprioceptive activity in the training routine. The purpose was to assess the effectiveness of proprioceptive training programs based on quantifiable instability, to reduce ankle sprains, knee sprains, and low back pain through developing refined and long-lasting proprioceptive control. Fifty-five subjects were studied. In the first biennium (2004-2006), the preventive program consisted of classic proprioceptive exercises. In the second biennium (2006-2008), the proprioceptive training became quantifiable and interactive by means of electronic proprioceptive stations. In the third biennium (2008-2010), the intensity and the training volume increased while the session duration became shorter. ANOVA was used to analyze the differences in proprioceptive control between groups, years, and bienniums. Injury rates and rate ratios of injury during practices and games were estimated. The results showed a statistically significant reduction in the occurrence of ankle sprains by 81% from the first to the third biennium (p<0.001). Low back pain showed similar results with a reduction of 77.8% (p<0.005). The reduction in knee sprains was 64.5% (not significant). Comparing the third biennium to the level of all new entry players, proprioceptive control improved significantly by 72.2% (p<0.001). These findings indicate that improvements in proprioceptive control in single stance may be a key factor for an effective reduction in ankle sprains, knee sprains, and low back pain.

One of the most effective coaching tools I’ve used is teaching athletes how to tune into their bodies and run by effort instead of pace. I began emphasizing this more when GPS gadgets became mainstream and runners were looking to the devices rather than their bodies for feedback. By focusing on your body’s cues you are instantly connected to your greatest asset: your inner GPS.

The body knows effort, not pace, and when we only follow numbers, we can undertrain or overtrain. GPS watches and apps provide useful information, but it’s most useful for evaluating your performance after you finish your run.

… Certain styles of play have become a trademark of different clubs and countries. Does it make sense to have a specific style for your club, or should you teach players more than one?

Firstly it is important to consider the mentality and the vision of the club. That then dictates the style of play that the teams should follow. Everything starts with a plan. If you want to build a house you start with architectural drawings – you choose the shape and you draw the walls. Not until after that is done do you think about where the television and furniture go. I think that when you talk about youth players you need to develop creativity within players, and enhance their ability to solve problems that arise from situations within then game. That means for a training session the starting point is the game (11v11). Important ingredients are:- specific area; having two competing teams; creating the opportunity to attack, defend, and transition; allowing the ball to be free (unstructured); setting rules that make sense; and the possibility to win or lose. If you consider all of these ingredients in a training exercise or session, you create the framework for soccer development.

ASM Sports is one of the largest and most successful basketball agencies in the world. Founded by Andy Miller, ASM Sports represents some of the NBA’s elite talent including Kevin Garnett, Kyle Lowry, Serge Ibaka, and Jeff Teague. This year, ASM had 8 players selected in the NBA Draft, the most of any agency.

One way ASM Sports separates themselves from other agencies is by putting together their own pre-draft combine. “It’s a great way of creating visibility for our players and showing their strengths and what they’ve improved on,” said President and Founder Andy Miller. “We had scouts and the GM from every NBA team at our combine which provides real value for our players and their draft potential,” continued Miller.

In addition to their own combine, ASM Sports has their players train at Impact Basketball in Las Vegas. “Impact has been an amazing training facility for our clients pre-draft preparation. Joe and the entire team has provided a very personalized program for each of our clients,” said Miller.

Two years ago, the overall economic impact of the Las Vegas Summer League in the city totaled $30 million, which included outside entertainment. This year? $50 million, estimates Albert Hall, who co-founded the event.

A big reason is not only the league itself, which has grown in the past 11 years to have an operating cost of more than $1 million, but also the widespread industry that has developed with its success. League and union programs. The Pro Scout School. Workouts at the Impact Basketball gym. Job placement for free agents and league personnel. Even the Korean Basketball League tryout and draft.

For a week in Vegas, Bleacher Report circulated around the landscape surrounding summer league to capture the unique behind-the-scenes basketball business throughout the city. Here’s an inside look.

The adoption of Virtual Reality in the sports world is undoubtedly the hottest new trend in sports technology. The San Francisco 49ers are now the latest pro team to join the VR movement as they are partnering with STRIVR Labs.

STRIVR Labs provides college and NFL football teams with a customizable virtual reality solution. The company started as Derek Belch’s, a former Stanford kicker, Master thesis. It was originally created to train quarterbacks with more exercises and repetitions in less time. But before long it grew into a device for other positions and grabbed the attention of the NFL.

The Moneyball revolution completely transformed the sport of baseball, turning it from a game built on intuition and heuristics into a data-driven sport for spreadsheet gurus. The idea was simple: by analysing player data coaches and managers could spot players who are undervalued. These players might be as good as the superstars, but without the celebrity status, small teams could snap them up for cheap and make huge progress.

Slowly, this data-driven approach has been tried in other sports and today Bath Rugby has announced a new deal with a sports-science company that it says will take this same data-driven approach, but apply it not to player selections, but to the challenge of tackling player injuries.

… Loren Landow, the director of Steadman Hawkins Sports Performance in Englewood and the training guru to many Broncos and other NFL players, has been testing another new toy to improve his clients’ performance, monitor their recovery and reduce their risk of injury.

His new toy? ViPerform, a biomechanical analysis technology by the Australian-based company dorsaVi that measures an athlete’s movements so trainers and coaches can assess injury risk and tailor treatment programs.

ViPerform uses sensors that send data wirelessly to a computer in real-time and are synced with HD video to show how the measurements correlate with the movements.

When Patriots training camp opens next week, the coaches won’t be the only ones on the field tracking Tom Brady and his teammates during practices.

A 360-degree camera will be positioned near the quarterback to capture footage from his point of view. Later, off the field, players will wear headsets resembling oversized ski goggles to review the workout in a virtual reality environment, where turning their head lets them look around the field and see plays unfold the way the quarterback does.

The Patriots are expected to be the third NFL team to work with STRIVR Labs, a Silicon Valley company that develops immersive sports experiences, two sources with direct knowledge of the team’s plans confirmed.

The doctor’s role in professional sport is changing. Local GPs turning up on match day with the ‘magic’ bucket and sponge have been replaced by specialist, often full-time, sports physicians, equipped with expert skills in clinical assessment, and knowledge of sport-specific injuries. This evolution in sports medicine has undoubtedly enhanced athlete welfare; but where next for a specialty that is still finding its feet? Should the role be limited to a reactive philosophy of mainly treating injury and illness, or should sports doctors take a definitive lead in preventing injuries?

If it’s not already happening, the time has come for doctors to develop the skills to engage in greater depth with other support staff in designing training programmes, monitoring athlete load, and ultimately, minimising injuries. Such action will naturally demand that doctors try to understand and embrace the emerging use of technology in sport.

This study investigated the relationship between GPS variables measured in training and gameplay and injury occurrences in professional soccer. Nineteen professional soccer players competing in the Australian Hyundai A-League were monitored for one entire season using 5Hz Global Positioning System (GPS) units (SPI-Pro GPSports, Canberra, Australia) in training sessions and pre-season games. The measurements obtained were Total Distance, High Intensity Running Distance, Very High Intensity Running Distance, New Body Load and Metres per Minute. Non-contact soft tissue injuries were documented throughout the season. Players’ seasons were averaged over one and four week blocks according to when injuries occurred. These blocks were compared to each other and to players’ seasonal averages. Players performed significantly higher Metres per Minute in the weeks preceding an injury compared to their seasonal averages (+9.6 % and +7.4 % for one and four week blocks respectively) (p<0.01), indicating an increase in training and gameplay intensity leading up to injuries. Furthermore, injury blocks showed significantly lower average New Body Load compared to seasonal averages (-15.4 % and -9.0 % for one and four week blocks respectively) (p<0.01 and p=0.01). Periods of relative under-preparedness could potentially leave players unable to cope with intense bouts of high intensity efforts during competitive matches. Although limited by FIFA regulations, the results of this study isolated two variables predicting soft tissue injuries for coaches and sports scientist to consider when planning and monitoring training.

When I talk about ways of evaluating players, I often add that metrics for players can be combined in meaningful ways for teams. Here are two quick examples.

First, ratings from different models can be combined to show who’s most important to a team. The graph below shows 2014-15 ratings from two of my models (explained here) along with Shapley values for the club I support, Newcastle United. Shapley values aren’t as persistent from season to season as the other models’ ratings, but they can help to suggest who’s a misfit on a team and who’s pivotal. The diagonal lines consist of combinations of ratings that have the same total. If each model has equal importance, then players along the same diagonal line should be equally useful as well.

The most recent edition of the International Journal of Performance Analysis has just been published. This is a much needed journal and I have even had a paper published myself. One thing that stands out to me is that the vast majority of the papers look at ‘performance indicators’ rather than looking at the science of Performance Analysis. That may be the remit of the journal, I don’t know, but I do feel there is a need to look at the science of Performance Analysis.

Top Secret

It’s safe to assume that in a lot of cases the most cutting edge of analysis is not going to be published, there is very little upside for a club to allow analysts or sport science staff to publish papers. For minority sports academic papers might offer the only opportunity for good detailed statistical analysis to be performed but that is not necessarily the case in all sports where data companies can employ there own data analysts and create proprietary products & services.