Applied Sports Science newsletter – August 22, 2015

… “We think she’s a star as far as understanding the game,” Popovich said. “Ever since the first time I saw her play (in the WNBA), chewing that gum, taking no prisoners on the court, we thought she was something special. And then when we got to know her, and her being with us for a whole year and in our coach’s meetings, then I knew for sure that she’s a basketball junkie.”

As the newest hire, Hammon followed protocol and sat behind the Spurs bench during the season, but her input was weighed the same as anyone else’s. Then Popovich gave her the Vegas Summer League assignment. Hammon lost the first game … and then won the rest. More importantly, she showed a command of the huddle and substitution patterns, all while handling the anticipated media crush like a veteran. In all, she looked like she belonged.

In my time in the NFL, I liked and respected all my coaches. This is an observation, not a criticism. Even in the preseason, “Coach speak” still occurs.

Certainly all coaches play their injury cards close to the vest in the regular season and playoffs. I was the head team physician when head coach Norv Turner chose not to reveal surgery or an ACL tear for star quarterback Philip Rivers prior to the 2008 AFC Championship Game vs the undefeated Patriots.

Deception/omission is understandable for competitive advantage, but what about in the preseason? There is little to be gained by hiding injuries when games don’t matter. If a player doesn’t practice the entire preseason, are you really fooling your first real opponent that he will play?

… A significant turning point in Shelvey’s career came in December 2014, after his manager very publicly criticised his application and attitude after a Boxing Day game against Aston Villa. While acknowledging the player’s “frightening ability”, Monk emphasised the need for him to develop a greater sense of responsibility.

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“It’s about doing your job properly, understanding the role that you’re playing, not just for yourself but for the team. Jonjo has to learn very quickly from it, otherwise he won’t play games, it’s as simple as that. I don’t want to be in that position where he gets a yellow and I’m thinking the rest of the game that there could be a sending off.” That left a mark on Shelvey and it has come to represent a waypoint in his career. Some would respond badly and, in this age of entitlement and ego, Monk was playing a risky game. But, to the player’s credit, there has been no evidence of a sulk and the ill-discipline to which his manager was referring has dissipated.

AFTER six years at Alberton, Port Adelaide’s strength coach and performance nutritionist Andrew Rondinelli is packing his bags and leaving the Power.

His new destination is the world tennis circuit as the head strength and conditioning coach for Adelaide-based tennis tyro (and Port ambassador) Thanasi Kokkinakis.

… The words “active recovery” are a bit of a buzz term within sports medicine. But what does the term imply? Essentially it is any activity that aids in recovery, this is not limited to the physical aspect but can also include coping with the mental rigour of training.

Going off this definition a variety of activities could be considered as active recovery, as long as the intensity is low enough so as not to cause another stimulus-response.

Ratings of perceived exertion (RPE: 0–10) during resistance training with varying programming demands were examined. Blood lactate (BLa) and muscle activation (using surface electromyography: EMG) were measured as potential mediators of RPE responses. Participants performed three sets of single arm (preferred side) bicep curls at 70% of 1 repetition maximum over 4 trials: Trial (A) 3 sets?×?8 repetitions?×?120?s recovery between sets; (B) 3 sets?×?8 repetitions?×?240?s recovery; (C) 3 sets?×?maximum number of repetitions (MNR)?×?120?s recovery; (D) 3 sets?×?MNR?×?240?s recovery. Overall body (RPE-O) and active muscle (RPE-AM) perceptual responses were assessed following each set in each trial. Biceps brachii and brachioradialis muscle EMG was measured during each set for each trial. RPE-O and RPE-AM were not different between Trial A (3.5?±?1 and 6?±?1, respectively) and Trial B (3.5?±?1 and 5.5?±?1, respectively). However, RPE-AM was significantly greater in Trial C (7.5?±?1.5) and Trial D (7.5?±?1.5) than in Trial B. There were no significant differences in muscle activation or BLa between trials; however, work rate (tonnage/min) was greater in Trials C and D compared to Trial B. In conclusion, BLa and muscle activation were not related to RPE, but resistance training variables, such as work rate, may impact on RPE when intensity (%1RM) and the number of sets completed remain constant.

The National Sleep Foundation’s newly formed Sleep Technology Council (STC) will hold its first-ever Sleep Technology Summit & Expo this October, alongside the 9th Annual Health 2.0 conference. And they’re looking to showcase the latest in digital health innovations that help both the sleepers and those who study them to figure out how to get a better night’s sleep.

… “What you’re going to find in the NBA, in professional soccer, in the NFL is that men will listen to just about anyone who they think will make them a better player and perform better,” Dr. Justine Siegal of Northeastern University’s Center for the Study of Sport in Society told CNN.

Clemson quarterback Deshaun Watson is one of the brightest talents in college football. He has an incomparably strong arm and a certain poise in the pocket that makes him seem twice his age.

Unfortunately, the rising sophomore’s college career involves only three full games. Following a fluke of a broken finger that left him out for three games, Watson returned to the field against Georgia Tech and suffered an LCL sprain in that very game. What left him out for the rest of the season was a pre-existing ACL injury that doctors caught after an MRI on his knee.

This sort of scenario would make the people over at Kitman Labs cringe. Not only because this is a nightmare situation for any athlete, but they develop the exact software that could prevent this oversight.

Quest Diagnostics, Inc. is partnering with pro sports teams and endurance sports events to promote its first service designed specifically for athletes.

The clinical testing company has kicked off three sponsorships on behalf of its Blueprint for Athletes service: the WNBA New York Liberty, Ironman Boulder and the Leadville Trail 100 ultramarathon.

Quest is titling Ironman Boulder and Leadville 100 on behalf of Blueprint for Athletes, while the service gains exposure on New York Liberty practice jerseys.

Joe Harrington knew he could replicate the trick.

Tennessee’s veteran sports technology coordinator just needed some time.

Shortly after the Volunteers wrapped up spring practice in April, Harrington — the program’s video guru for more than 20 years — and the coaching staff sampled a virtual reality service, a technology rising in popularity among college and NFL teams.

… What makes Catapult even more unique and aptly suited for football programs around the country is their ability to take raw data and convert it into an easily consumable form. With the recent rise of analytics in sports, plenty of skeptics are quick to reject it and posit that it takes the fun or human side out of the game. Yet in reality, analytics has become misrepresented as some intrinsically complicated and unnecessary way to view sports, when at its core, it is simply more information.

“It’s not the hardware that does this?—?it’s information being used by great practitioners that’s the difference.”

Next week Ralph Lauren will start selling a line of shirts, called PoloTech, which have embedded fitness tracking sensors, thanks to a partnership with OMsignal announced last year. The shirts will be available August 27 on Ralph Lauren’s website as well as its flagship NYC store and its US Open store in Flushing, New York.

The PoloTech shirt has silver fibers woven into its fabric to help it track heart rate, heart variability, breathing depth and recovery, intensity of movement, energy output, stress levels, steps taken, and calories burned. The wearer must also keep a “black box” device on their person to receive the data collected by the sensors and to capture the activity-related data since that’s where the accelerometer sits. The data is then transmitted to an iOS app called PoloTech running on an Apple Watch, iPhone, or iPod touch.

A truck pulling a trailer backed into the loading dock outside Alabama’s football locker room Monday morning. Round 1 of the final two-a-day was just wrapping up, and the pick-up brought help in a new form.

It was Donny Dockery and his cryotherapy chamber was hitched to the back of his truck. The concept has been used by athletes like LeBron James for a few years is being used by Alabama this August.

Inside the trailer is a one-person pod designed to help the players recover by freezing them faster than a popsicle.

Take Home Message: Banning heading from youth soccer would likely prevent some concussions; however, reducing player-to-player contact may play a more effective role in preventing concussions as well as other injuries.

Chris Froome has begun a series of physiological tests from which he will share data because he wants to prove people can “trust” his achievements. [video, 0:18]

PURPOSE: To determine the effect of a caffeine-containing supplement on golf specific performance and fatigue during a 36-hole competitive golf tournament

METHODS: Twelve male golfers (34.8 +/- 13.9 yrs, 175.9 +/- 9.3 cm, 81.23 +/- 13.14 kg) with a United States Golf Association (USGA) handicap of 3-10 participated in a double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover design in which they played an 18-hole round of golf on two consecutive days (36-hole tournament) and were randomly assigned to consume a caffeine-containing supplement (CAF) or placebo (PLA). CAF/PLA was consumed before and after 9 holes during each 18-hole round. Total score, drive distance, fairways and greens in regulation, first putt distance, heart rate, breathing rate, peak trunk acceleration and trunk posture while putting were recorded. Self-perceived ratings of energy, fatigue, alertness and concentration were also recorded.

RESULTS: Total score (76.9 +/- 8.1 vs 79.4 +/- 9.1, p=0.039), greens in regulation (8.6 +/- 3.3 vs 6.9 +/- 4.6, p=0.035) and drive distance (239.9 +/- 33.8 vs 233.2 +/- 32.4, p=0.047) were statistically better during the CAF condition compared to PLA. Statistically significant main effects for condition (p<0.05) and time (p0.05).

CONCLUSION: A moderate dose (1.9 +/- 0.3 mg[BULLET OPERATOR]kg-1) of caffeine consumed before and during a round of golf improves golf-specific measures of performance and reduces fatigue in skilled golfers.

The purpose of this review is to examine vitamin D in the context of sport nutrition and its potential role in optimizing athletic performance. Vitamin D receptors (VDR) and vitamin D response elements (VDREs) are located in almost every tissue within the human body including skeletal muscle. The hormonally-active form of vitamin D, 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D, has been shown to play critical roles in the human body and regulates over 900 gene variants. Based on the literature presented, it is plausible that vitamin D levels above the normal reference range (up to 100 nmol/L) might increase skeletal muscle function, decrease recovery time from training, increase both force and power production, and increase testosterone production, each of which could potentiate athletic performance. Therefore, maintaining higher levels of vitamin D could prove beneficial for athletic performance. Despite this situation, large portions of athletic populations are vitamin D deficient. Currently, the research is inconclusive with regards to the optimal intake of vitamin D, the specific forms of vitamin D one should ingest, and the distinct nutrient-nutrient interactions of vitamin D with vitamin K that affect arterial calcification and hypervitaminosis. Furthermore, it is possible that dosages exceeding the recommendations for vitamin D (i.e. dosages up to 4000-5000 IU/day), in combination with 50 to 1000 mcg/day of vitamin K1 and K2 could aid athletic performance. This review will investigate these topics, and specifically their relevance to athletic performance.

At Hudl, we take great pride in our Coach Relations team and the world-class support they provide for our customers. To help them out and to foster communication between the product team and Coach Relations, we have an ongoing rotation known as Firesquad. Each squad on the product team takes a two-week Firesquad rotation, during which we build tools and fix bugs that will help Coach Relations provide support more efficiently and more painlessly.

This year, for our Firesquad rotation, we on the Data Science squad wanted to help automate the classification of support emails. The short-term goal was to reduce the time Coach Relations needs to spend when answering emails. Longer term, this tool could allow us to automatically detect patterns and raise alarms when specific support requests are occurring at an abnormal rate.

Spectator effects represent a central concept in (behavioral) sports economics. A thorough understanding of the phenomenon promises to further our understanding as to the nature of performance production under pressure. In traditional home advantage studies, it is difficult to isolate the net crowd effect upon relative team performance. In a typical sports setting, multiple factors change at once for a visiting team. Experimental evidence suggests that supportive crowds may hinder task performance. In that it serves as home stadium to two National Basketball Association teams, the Staples Center in Los Angeles offers a rare natural experiment through which to isolate the crowd effect upon competitive output. Each team possesses equivalent familiarity with built environment, and teams face similarly sparse travel demands prior to games between one another. However, the team designated as “home team” in a contest enjoys a largely sympathetic crowd due primarily to season ticket sales. Moreover, crowd effects are sizable in motivating a home team win, raising the likelihood of such an event by between an estimated 21 and 22.8 percentage points. The point estimate implies that essentially the entire home advantage between the two teams is attributable to the crowd effect.

Want to help your students improve their critical thinking? Then give them opportunities to make decisions during your lab exercises. According to a research project at Stanford University and the University of British Columbia, students who make decisions about how to improve their data gathering abilities, even in the simplest of experiments, gain skills of decision-making that will help them in more advanced science courses.

Football Preview
August 19, 2015
by Matt Hinton

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One of the cornerstones of college football is the small army of former high school quarterbacks who arrive on campus labeled “athletes,” a term that roughly translates to “not cut out to be a college quarterback.” Their career arcs tend to unfold along one of several well-worn tracks: For most, the writing is on the wall clearly enough, early enough, that the full-time transition to wide receiver or defensive back is a foregone conclusion; for others, it may take a year or two behind center, or maybe even a transfer, before the inevitability of a position switch finally sinks in. If an “athlete” does stick at quarterback, it’s typically in one of the few remaining systems in which passing is an afterthought, or in the dreaded “change of pace” role behind more polished passers in more conventional schemes — and either way, the NFL is likely a pipe dream.1

Then there’s TCU’s Trevone Boykin, a relatively lightly recruited prep QB from Mesquite, Texas, whose evolution from anonymous three-star project to entrenched All-American triggerman on one of the pass-happiest offenses in the nation has transcended any attempt at typecasting

… Barely 15 years ago, the extent of data available was a win/loss column and who scored the points. Then Opta, the sports data company, came along, sports science was embraced and technology such as GPS became ubiquitous.

Now after every international, anyone with internet access can view how many metres a player has made or tackles he missed.