Applied Sports Science newsletter – August 8, 2015

… “He would never admit it, but the football van Gaal propagates is the football of Cruyff and Wenger. Only his methods are different. Cruyff’s coaching is based on how he was as a player: adventurous, spectacular and offensive. He doesn’t analyse as much, it’s more instinct and technique.

“Louis is didactic. He gives his players instructions to make the system work. And the system is sacred. All players are equal to van Gaal, big names do not exist for him, and everyone is subordinate to the team and system, his system. Cruyff being a great player encouraged individualists because they can decide matches. He challenged them, others play in service of them. Van Gaal could not do that. It would also go against the team he is building.

I’m back. I didn’t have enough time to get to every player I wanted to get to in the first post. You might think I’m relaxing on vacation but my kiddo’s summer hockey schedule is no joke. So this weekend I fired up the old YouTube player again and did some homework on another five snipers. Thanks for all your suggestions on Twitter. This still isn’t a complete list of the guys who give goalies nightmares, so maybe I’ll have to do Part 3 in the future.

Aron Johannsson, a striker for the United States men’s national soccer team, is on the verge of a transfer to Werder Bremen of Germany’s Bundesliga, his Dutch club announced Tuesday. The move will make Johannsson, 24, one of the most high-profile American players in Europe, and it stops a migration of top American pros out of the top European leagues, at least temporarily.

… It’s plausible that international basketball takes more out of a player — the travel, the amped-up competition and pressure, the win-at-all-costs frenzy that gets players flying around in ways they never would during pick-up games. But lots of players enjoy playing for their national teams, they get better because of it, and the idea of removing the option brings the NBA closer to Big Brother territory. The NBA would have to collectively bargain any such changes with the union, and the players would justifiably fight back against any more restriction on their offseason activities.

To their credit, the loudest critics of the FIBA arrangement, including Mark Cuban, have been transparent about their goals: They are concerned with money, not player safety. They get that players are going to risk injury playing in big international tournaments; they just want the NBA, and by extension the players, to get their share of the revenue those tournaments generate.

… in more than a dozen interviews with those around the Pacers and Hibbert, every theory of what went wrong has something do with his mood or mentality.

“I feel like I haven’t done the best in environments that aren’t conducive to me doing well, and I have to do that,” Hibbert says. “Because times are going to get tough, and I’m going to have to let things slide off my back. I’m not going to make every shot. I’m not going to get every block. I can’t let one play affect me the next two or three times down the court. I have had that happen before.”

In working with many Masters swimmers over the years, I’ve seen an array of backgrounds and goals. Some swimmers decide to get back into the sport after many years out of the water and others are exposed to it later in life and develop a pure enjoyment of swimming and accept the challenge of getting better. … In thinking about the commonalities of these performances, I wanted to see if there are factors that helped drive these outcomes that could, in turn, help newer swimmers focus and improve their performance. I’ve boiled it down to these three tips.

HE’S swapped the Hoops for the Stars and Stripes. He’s traded Paradise for the American Dream.

Ciaran McKenna seems to have the football and financial worlds at his feet.

The 17-year-old from Uddingston rejected a three-year deal with Celtic to take up a £200,000 four-year scholarship at the highly prestigious Duke University, North Carolina.

Todd Graham and his Arizona State staff hosted their Sun Devil Youth Football Experience on July 31, and the Devils’ head coach gave an inspired, steam-of-consciousness, and honest 13-minute talk to the youth coaches and parents in attendance. Thanks to YouTube user Renee Coyle, we can now share Graham’s particular brand of Texas wisdom with the world.

Graham touches on a number of subjects, but the main themes of his message were this: kids need love and structure and discipline are necessary avenues to deliver that love, kids deserve high standards, and parents and youth coaches’ influence on young people can not be understated. In sharing bits and pieces of his life message, Graham says that his success is thanks to the confidence and boundaries instilled in him by his single mother and youth football coaches, and he wants to pay that forward on the parents and youth coaches of today.

… there are plenty of studies suggesting that companies with cultures that emphasize ethics, respect, and collaboration perform better: they excel at attracting, motivating, and retaining talented employees, make a better impression on customers, and tend to prioritize long-term impact over short-term targets. On the other hand, there’s also a solid body of evidence that these same practices can reduce efficiency and distract attention from the bottom line. The juxtaposition of benefits and costs leaves me thinking that giving companies, like giving individuals, do tend to hit the extremes of success and failure.

One of the more intriguing examples is Malden Mills: after the company’s factory burned down, CEO Aaron Feuerstein spent $25 million to keep paying all 3,000 employees for six months– with benefits– during the rebuilding. It cost him his job and the company went bankrupt, only to rise again due in part to the loyalty engendered… and then fail again.

The paradox that giving amplifies success and failure is especially salient in the literature on corporate social responsibility and philanthropy.

A few months ago, I wrote about the growing body of research suggesting that it doesn’t really matter how much weight you lift, as long as you lift to failure. A series of studies, mostly by McMaster University researcher Stuart Phillips’ group, has compared the effects of doing three sets to failure with a heavy weight (around 80 percent of max, which you can typically lift 8 to 12 times) with three sets of a lighter weight (around 30 percent of max, or 20 to 25 reps). The results suggest that both techniques produce a similar level of muscle growth.

How is this possible? It’s clear that when you lift a heavy weight, you’re activating more muscle than when you lift a lighter weight. But the theory is that if you lift a light weight to failure, the muscle fibers you recruit initially will gradually fatigue, so that by the time you reach the end of the set—and failure—you’re recruiting as much muscle as you can, just as you would with a heavier weight.

A new study from Joel Cramer’s group at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, published in the European Journal of Applied Physiology, puts this theory to the test.

With success already in the NBA, Phizzle has announced a merge with LSI, hoping to expand to every sport. The partnership of Phizzle and LSI, will create Phizzle Insight, a web-based sports analytics solution.

Phizzle Insight combines player data and situational analysis, such as stats, individual and team performance, training, health and contract information, into a single system. The data instantly generates reports and real-time analytics. The system provides a better understanding of how each player performs. The goal is to have professional and college sports organizations make better business decisions by effectively predicting how a player performs.

… The video above, produced by Teamworks, shows Cut discussing how he feels Teamworks helps Duke football be such an efficiently run and well-organized program. Cutcliffe closes with, “Surround yourself with great people and have great organization and that’s how you win.”

At SIGGRAPH 2015, researchers from Google and MIT CSAIL (https://goo.gl/ZCNNDQ) will present an algorithm that allows a user to take photos through obstructing layers, such as windows and fences, producing images of the desired scene as if the obstructing elements were not there.

With the possibility of a new Internet environment in which literally hundreds of billions of things will be interacting with a few billion humans, the rush is on to make use of existing web services protocols on the Cloud to tie everything together.

Unfortunately, the Internet and the cloud of web service frameworks available currently may not be up to the challenges ahead, in the view of researchers at the University of California, Berkeley Swarm Laboratory. They have been looking closely at the “Cloud” and its role as the intermediary by which the hundreds of billions of future Internet of Things devices may be managed and accessed in the decades ahead. Their conclusion: current cloud-enabled IoT frameworks will not scale to the kinds of numbers that many are predicting, no matter how big and powerful the gigantic Web server farms maintained by the likes of Amazon and others.

… During a meeting at Schembechler Hall in mid-June, Taylor Kavanaugh of Headcase, a Los Angeles-based virtual reality company, holds up a custom-made headset designed to mimic the Wolverines’ famous blue-and-maize winged helmet. Kavanaugh tells the group that, with the blessing of coach Jim Harbaugh and guidance from tight ends coach Jay Harbaugh, Headcase has created several pieces of VR content that will help distance Michigan from everyone else in college football. One segment is about “a day in the life of a Michigan football player,” Kavanaugh says, and another is about the “Michigan game-day experience.” During the recruiting process prospects often ask coaches and players what it’s like to play football at Michigan. With this headset and content, Kavanaugh says, they’ll have an answer they can understand and experience—all from the comfort of their couch.

Over the last two posts (part 1, part 2), a brief overview of hamstring strains was presented, and the need for a better solution was recognized. It has been discussed that most effective eccentric overload protocols are not very practical, require extra time and assistance in the weight room, and come with their own risk of injury.

Background Current knowledge on anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury mechanisms in male football players is limited.

Aim To describe ACL injury mechanisms in male professional football players using systematic video analysis.

Methods We assessed videos from 39 complete ACL tears recorded via prospective professional football injury surveillance between 2001 and 2011. Five analysts independently reviewed all videos to estimate the time of initial foot contact with the ground and the time of ACL tear. We then analysed all videos according to a structured format describing the injury circumstances and lower limb joint biomechanics.

Results Twenty-five injuries were non-contact, eight indirect contact and six direct contact injuries. We identified three main categories of non-contact and indirect contact injury situations: (1) pressing (n=11), (2) re-gaining balance after kicking (n=5) and (3) landing after heading (n=5). The fourth main injury situation was direct contact with the injured leg or knee (n=6). Knee valgus was frequently seen in the main categories of non-contact and indirect contact playing situations (n=11), but a dynamic valgus collapse was infrequent (n=3). This was in contrast to the tackling-induced direct contact situations where a knee valgus collapse occurred in all cases (n=3).

Conclusions Eighty-five per cent of the ACL injuries in male professional football players resulted from non-contact or indirect contact mechanisms. The most common playing situation leading to injury was pressing followed by kicking and heading. Knee valgus was frequently seen regardless of the playing situation, but a dynamic valgus collapse was rare.

A series of experiments has produced incredible results by giving young blood to old mice. Now the findings are being tested on humans. Ian Sample meets the scientists whose research could transform our lives.

Nothing sidelines a young athlete as fast as a sports injury. Doctors say torn ligaments, muscle strains and bone fractures can cost athletes valuable playing time, whether it’s a single game or an entire season.

To help reduce the risk of injuries, athletic trainers are using special software to teach young players how to perform correctly and safely.

The growing use of software, particularly apps for mobile devices, is one of the newest developments in athletic training, said Rocky Tekulve, a trainer with Wellington Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine. “It allows us to videotape the athlete and take a look at their mechanics, frame by frame.”

Take Home Message: Following anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) surgery, patients have changes in the excitability of pathways that go from the brain (primary motor cortex) and down the spinal cord when compared with an uninjured limb as well as healthy control participants.

Breakfast, athletes have long been told, is the most important meal of the day. And lunch and dinner aren’t far behind. But what about the before-bed snack?

A pair of new studies offer contrasting views on how you can boost your strength or endurance by either adding or subtracting evening calories, so that your muscles remain in a heightened state of adaptation while you sleep. While the effects are subtle, they illustrate an often-neglected fitness rule: Sometimes when you eat is almost as important as what you eat.

On the eve of the IAAF World Championships in Beijing the sport has been hit by a new drugs crisis as the Sunday Times and German broadcaster ARD/WDR revealed alarming blood-test data which were leaked by a whistleblower.

The statistics, which included 12,000 blood tests from 5000 athletes from 2001-2012, suggested a third of global championship medals in endurance events during that period were won by athletes with suspicious test readings. “Yet the authorities have failed to take away any of the medals,” reported the Sunday Times.

I had a patient the other day tell me that I couldn’t possibly understand the challenge of getting seven fruits and vegetables in my diet because, most likely, I had double that on any given day. I wish. As we went on in the conversation, I actually started to count how many I had consumed the day before — it was three, total. Sometimes, even for a dietitian, life can get in the way and meeting the mark on diet doesn’t always happen. The perception, however, is that dietitians are perfect eaters, they exercise for 60 minutes, seven days a week and they would not dare touch a piece of candy — ever. It’s probably our fault that this persona has prevailed. Go to any dietitian’s website, including mine, and you’ll find at least one picture with the expert holding colorful produce or cooking with organic vegetables. It’s really no different than a Doctor who takes all of his or her photos in a lab coat with a stethoscope around their neck or a teacher that takes a picture in front of a chalkboard. As a society, we’ve stereotyped what certain professions look like and how professionals must surely act from day to day. As nutrition professionals, I’d like to believe that the majority of us do in fact eat better than the average American. But the secret is, we are human, and we have our slip ups as well. That’s actually what makes us great agents of change in others. I surveyed 15 of my colleagues from around the country to find out exactly how they defy the perception that their patients have put upon them. Here are seven points that stood out.

Clinical and consumer market interest is increasingly directed toward the use of plant-based proteins as dietary components aimed at preserving or increasing skeletal muscle mass. However, recent evidence suggests that the ingestion of the plant-based proteins soy and wheat results in a lower muscle protein synthetic response when compared with several animal-based proteins. The possible lower anabolic properties of plant-based protein sources may be attributed to the lower digestibility of plant-based sources, in addition to greater splanchnic extraction and subsequent urea synthesis of plant protein-derived amino acids when compared with the ingestion of animal-based proteins. The latter may be related to the relative lack of specific essential amino acids in plant- as opposed to animal-based proteins. Furthermore, most plant proteins have a relatively low leucine content, which may further reduce their anabolic properties when compared with animal proteins. However, few studies have actually assessed the postprandial muscle protein synthetic response to the ingestion of plant proteins, with soy and wheat protein being the primary sources studied. Despite the proposed lower anabolic properties of plant vs. animal proteins, various strategies may be applied to augment the anabolic properties of plant proteins. These may include the following: 1) fortification of plant-based protein sources with the amino acids methionine, lysine, and/or leucine; 2) selective breeding of plant sources to improve amino acid profile; 3) consumption of greater amounts of plant-based protein sources; or 4) combining the ingestion of multiple protein sources to provide for a more balanced amino acid profile. However, the efficacy of such dietary strategies on postprandial muscle protein synthesis remains to be studied. Future research comparing the anabolic properties of a variety of plant-based proteins should define the preferred protein sources to be used in nutritional interventions to support skeletal muscle mass gain or maintenance in both healthy and clinical populations.

Modern health folklore and bioscience state that testosterone makes you manly and Vitamin D makes your bones strong. However, recent research indicates that these two famous biomarkers have a wide variety of functions in the body and may, in fact, impact each other’s levels. Below we document some of the key reasons why you need to stay optimized in Vitamin D and testosterone, and look at the nitty-gritty research examining the fascinating relationship between them.

Sport funding is facing a major overhaul in a bid to reverse recent disappointing participation figures.

Amid increasing concerns that Britain is failing to live up to the legacy promise of the London 2012 Olympics, a public consultation has been launched to mark the start of a new strategy for sport.

And the government has warned that the mounting cost of success for Britain’s Olympic and Paralympic athletes is “at odds with the current financial climate”.

The NBA has turned into an 11-month league with an incredibly active July and training camps opening in September. While August serves as a dead time in the calendar, that downshift in activity also provides an excellent opportunity to consider bigger questions. Hopefully, the NBA Utopia Project can help inspire these conversations.

The concept is to think about, construct and share your ideal for how the league could work in an ideal world. This can take many forms, from tweaks to play on the court to adjustments to the rules governing transactions and structure. While grounding suggestions in reality helps create functional options, it can be both fun and worthwhile to spend some time outside those constraints.

Researchers from the University of Surrey and Lund University (Sweden) investigated how frequent, long-distance travel is represented in mass and social media. They found that the images portrayed do not take into account the damaging side effects of frequent travel such as jet-lag, deep vein thrombosis, radiation exposure, stress, loneliness and distance from community and family networks.

Instead, the study found that those with ‘hypermobile’ lifestyles were often seen as having a higher social status. By assessing how first-class flights, ‘must-see’ destinations and frequent-flyer programmes are represented, glamorising hypermobility as exciting, appealing and exclusive, the study shows how the ‘dark side’ of travel is ignored.

… “One of the misconceptions is, our 1s get the same amount of reps as every other team’s 1s across the league, but the way we format our training sessions, our 2s and 3s get more reps than anybody else,” Kelly said at his press conference. “In a lot of places, the 1s get 12 reps, the 2s get six reps, and the 3s get two. For us, it’s even across the board. We’re just rotating in sets of fours. Right now, in a team period, the 1s get 12 reps, the 2s get 12 reps and the 3s get 12 reps. We’ve always felt it’s accelerated the younger guys.

Soccer analysts trade thoughts on Twitter about how professional sports teams collaborate.