Applied Sports Science newsletter – October 10, 2015

Over at least the past couple of seasons, offensive line play in the NFL has been criticized by many as being subpar. This year hasn’t exactly been a banner season, as star quarterbacks such as Ben Roethlisberger, Tony Romo, Drew Brees and Andrew Luck are already dealing with injuries, with some out for stretches of the season. In addition, the 3.96 yards per carry average through three weeks would be the lowest for an entire season since 1999 (3.90).

To get a sense for where line play stands for those that coach it, I made my annual pilgrimage to the C.O.O.L. Clinic (C.O.O.L. stands for coaches of offensive linemen) where hundreds of coaches from peewee football all the way to the NFL gather each May in Cincinnati.

By the time Washington Nationals manager Matt Williams was dumped Monday morning after a season of dysfunction, the weeks-long drumbeat of predictions that his exit was going to happen made it seem like old news. The talk was already about who would be the next to go. It didn’t take long to find out, with the Miami Dolphins booting head coach Joe Philbin soon after the Williams news broke.

Getting fired is one of the most taken for granted and yet least illuminated occurrences in sports. Nobody seems immune from getting ousted, canned, axed or the more genteel “relieved of their duties.” Players get cut constantly. Head coaches and managers get whacked. Team presidents and general managers get replaced. The backstories are often brutal.

If Chris Bosh was nervous in his first game back in a Miami Heat uniform after recovering from career-threatening blood clots in his lung, not even his teammates could tell Sunday night.

Bosh made his first three shots, scored a team-high 14 points and delivered a between-the-legs bounce pass to Dwyane Wade for a score during the highlight moment of the Heat’s 90-77 preseason-opening loss to the Charlotte Hornets.

“It was normal — back doing my job,” Bosh said.

With 20 players on the roster, the San Antonio Spurs plan to leave some guys behind Wednesday when they travel to Sacramento for their preseason opener against the Kings.

And Spurs coach Gregg Popovich finds himself wrestling with how to divvy up the minutes, with so many new faces who need to play with the returners for the squad to gain chemistry.

Earlier this season, Danica Patrick changed the color of her car and firesuit to all black everything. But in her everyday life — especially when it comes to what kinds of food she puts in her body — the 33-year-old NASCAR driver and Instagram yoga star is still very much as green and healthy as they get.

Patrick recently took some time away from her new stock car to chat with espnW about her love of trail mix, how yoga is helping to tame her self-proclaimed scary side, and the home sanctuary she calls her “wo-man cave.”

When talking to cyclists I often get the same response when discussing the importance of strength training. It typically goes something like, “I don’t want to take away from my riding time.” The fear is that any time that’s available would be better spent training specifically for their sport, and not on strength and conditioning. This sentiment is not unfounded for time-crunched athletes looking to squeeze every possible gain from the time that they have available.

However, the importance of strength training cannot be underestimated, and the shoulder seasons are the perfect time to integrate off the bike training. This is the time to identify weaknesses and strengthen those areas. Shifting a small amount of time to strength-focused training can lead to big gains when the volume begins to increase.

Just how thoroughly Simon Cvijanovic once identified as an Illinois football player sits right there in his Twitter handle. And it was on that social media platform, in a series of tweets in May, that the former offensive tackle known as @IlliniSi documented how he had allegedly been abused, and thereby emphatically put on notice a college sports establishment where power has long tilted toward coaches at players’ expense.

Cvijanovic, a senior starter from Cleveland, charged that third-year coach Tim Beckman pressured him to play with knee and shoulder injuries. Cvijanovic resisted, which he says prompted Beckman to ridicule him by forcing him to watch practice while dressed in an opposing team’s uniform. Further, he claimed that Beckman concealed from him the extent of his injuries. “If I’m hurt, I’m hurt,” he tweeted. “I don’t need to be called a pussy to make me make bad decisions for my body.”

Was this a cri de coeur or sour grapes from someone who had quit the team late in the 2014 season? Athletic director Mike Thomas first called Cvijanovic’s outburst a “personal attack” on Beckman, and a core of Illini players sided publicly with their coach. But then the script flipped. Andrew Weber, a former kicker at Toledo, where Beckman coached before coming to Champaign, weighed in with a tweet of his own: “We had the exact same issues. Thanks for standing up!”

HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW…

1. Running doesn’t cause arthritis, but the way we run can cause pain and overuse in the muscles around the hips and knees. Making sure that you’re running with proper form of the hips, knees and ankles will prevent those nagging injuries from starting in the first place or coming back.

2. Loss of strength around the knee can cause knee pain and we lose strength as we get older. Adding strength training in 2-3x/week, focussing on the key lower body muscle groups and core, can keep the knees strong and your mileage climbing. [and 3 more items]

…

Not everyone who runs a marathon will “hit the wall.” There are many factors that contribute to this phenomenon, and some are within your control while some may not be. Researchers suspect it is likely that genetics plays some role in this, and your daily diet may also be a factor.

In general, hitting the wall refers to depleting your stored glycogen and the feelings of fatigue and negativity that typically accompany it. Glycogen is carbohydrate that is stored in our muscles and liver for energy. It is the easiest and most readily available fuel source to burn when exercising, so the body prefers it. When you run low on glycogen, even your brain wants to shut down activity as a preservation method, which leads to the negative thinking that comes along with hitting the wall.

The use of global positioning systems (GPS) has increased dramatically over the last decade. Using signals from orbiting satellites, the GPS receiver calculates the exact position of the device and the speed at which the device is moving. Within team sports GPS devices are used to quantify the external load experienced by an athlete, allowing coaches to better manage trainings loads and potentially identify athletes who are overreaching or overtraining. This review aims to collate all studies that have tested the validity and/or the reliability of GPS devices in a team sport setting, with a particular focus on 1) measurements of distance, speed, velocities and accelerations across all sampling rates and 2) accelerometers, player/body load and impacts in accelerometer-integrated GPS devices. A comprehensive search of the online libraries identified 22 articles that fit search criteria. The literature suggests that all GPS units, regardless of sampling rate, are capable of tracking athlete’s distance during team sport movements with adequate intra-unit reliability. 1Hz and 5Hz GPS units have limitations in their reporting of distance during high intensity running, velocity measures and short linear running (particularly those involving changes of direction), although these limitations seem to be overcome during measures recorded during team sport movements. 10Hz GPS devices appear the most valid and reliable to date across linear and team sport simulated running, overcoming many limitations of earlier models, while the increase to 15Hz GPS devices have had no additional benefit.

Sportswear innovators are focusing on growing demand for environmentally-friendly fibres and fabrics and lightweight materials that can keep sport consumers comfortable while optimising performance.

… There are three motivations that matter right now in wearables, Bell said: Empowering and augmenting what our bodies can already do; enabling new connections with other people and things; and communicating our identities and attitudes. She pointed to the historical example of chatelaines, chains attached to a woman’s belt that were “highly modular” and able to carry or link to everything from jewelry to sports accessories to children.

“Battery life is really important,” she said. “But the other kind of power, the why, is important too. What does the object say about us?”

All the big VR players are lining up their hand tracking tech and Sony is no exception. Oculus has its Touch controllers, HTC has Valve’s Lighthouse and the Manus Machina’s wireless gloves are coming to almost every big VR headset in 2016.

But the future isn’t controllers, it’s tracking our hands with futuristic, gesture sensing camera and laser systems that let developers visualise our hands in VR. That’s the reason Oculus spent $60 million on the gesture tracking company Pebbles Interfaces.

Wearable tracking devices incorporating accelerometers and gyroscopes are increasingly being used for activity analysis in sports. However, minimal research exists relating to their ability to classify common activities. The purpose of this study was to determine whether data obtained from a single wearable tracking device can be used to classify team sport-related activities. Seventy-six non-elite sporting participants were tested during a simulated team sport circuit (involving stationary, walking, jogging, running, changing direction, counter-movement jumping, jumping for distance and tackling activities) in a laboratory setting. A MinimaxX S4 wearable tracking device was worn below the neck, in-line and dorsal to the first to fifth thoracic vertebrae of the spine, with tri-axial accelerometer and gyroscope data collected at 100 Hz. … Processing time can be reduced through feature selection methods (range 1.5-30.2%), however a trade-off exists between classification accuracy and processing time. Movement capture duration also had little impact on classification accuracy or processing time. In sporting scenarios where wearable tracking devices are employed, it is both possible and feasible to accurately classify team sport-related activities.

Although existing anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury prevention programs have been successful at reducing the incidence of ACL injury, a new study suggests that tailoring interventions based on four risk profile subtypes could be more effective.

A team of researchers hailing from Australia, Greece, and the US analyzed a large cohort of high school female athletes during an unanticipated cutting task and identified high-risk profiles based on observed biomechanical characteristics associated with ACL injury.

“Recent reports indicate that targeted neuromuscular training to identified deficits can further enhance the effectiveness of neuromuscular training aimed to prevent injury,” said study co-author Greg Myer, PhD.

Kiko Alonso, Victor Cruz and Breshad Perriman all were in the news for receiving the latest medical treatments. Does this mean they will be ready to go soon?

Eagles star LB Alonso had surgery and stem cells were injected into his damaged ACL. Giants standout WR Cruz had PRP injected into his ailing calf muscle. Ravens first-round pick Perriman had his knee scoped for his PCL injury and stem cells were injected. Despite the cutting-edge care, don’t look for any of them to be ready in the next week or two.

Neither stem cells nor PRP are quick fixes. Although both show promise, they are not yet completely proven. In addition, both processes take time to work.

David Luiz, Christophe Jallet, Paul Pogba, Arjen Robben, Diego Costa, Yoann Gourcuff, Romelu Lukaku, Marc Planus, Aaron Ramsey … A non-exhaustive list of players treated for hamstring injury last month. In a study conducted by UEFA to the clubs involved in the Champions League the past 12 years, it has been shown an annual increase of this type of injury by about 3%. “Two explanatory factors for this: First, the intensification of the game, because it is a typical injury sprinters, Professor Jan Ekstrand says physician and vice president of the medical committee of UEFA, which led the study. The velocity of the game is very high and has increased over the past fifteen years. The second: the preventive methods used today are not sufficient.

At most clubs, the physio is responsible for managing the entire rehabilitation of the player. … You are both the player’s medical advisor on their physical recovery and their professional counsellor for the frustrating months ahead when they’re not able to play.

For as long as there have been competitive sports, there have been those who look to circumvent the rules or use the situation to their benefit. Some may call it cheating. Some may call it just part of the spirit of the game. But whatever the case, there’s no denying that professional athletes engage in trying to find an advantage.

In the NFL, that is regulated by what are known as substance policies. These can be Performance-Enhancing Drugs (or PEDs) or substance abuses, both of which can range from recreational drugs legalized in some states (like marijuana) to more intense procedures, such as gene doping or steroids. The World Anti-Doping Agency lists no less than 192 illegal drugs or doping methods for athletes in the Olympics. When “the difference between the very best and the next ten might be a half of a percent,” as Dr. Thomas H. Murray, President Emeritus of the Hastings Center and Chair of the Ethical Issues Review Panel for the World Anti-Doping Agency put it, even a “five percent boost in performance overwhelms everything else.”

… A study published recently in the journal Obesity Research & Clinical Practice found that it’s harder for adults today to maintain the same weight as those 20 to 30 years ago did, even at the same levels of food intake and exercise. … They found a very surprising correlation: A given person, in 2006, eating the same amount of calories, taking in the same quantities of macronutrients like protein and fat, and exercising the same amount as a person of the same age did in 1988 would have a BMI that was about 2.3 points higher. In other words, people today are about 10 percent heavier than people were in the 1980s, even if they follow the exact same diet and exercise plans.

In 2012, the Los Angeles Lakers held an intervention for Dwight Howard, the team’s All-Star center. Howard was joined by his personal assistants, including his chef, and Dr. Cate Shanahan. In hopes of salvaging Howard’s miserable season, and improving his quality of life off the court, Shanahan, with the Lakers permission, was there to wean Howard off his addiction: sugar.

Howard, who anointed himself Superman, was heroically consuming, through candy and soda, the equivalent of 24 chocolate bars a day. Candy was stashed in his nightstand, in his car, hidden in his locker at the Staples Center. His affinity for sugar well-known, Skittles once sent him 30 pounds of their product to sample.

For Shanahan, Howard’s inconsistent and mostly terrible play that season could be explained, at least in part, by his diet.

The aim of the study was to evaluate the association between fast food consumption and incidence of metabolic syndrome (MetS) and its components among children and adolescents over a 3.6 year follow-up. Dietary data of 424 healthy subjects, aged 6–18 years, was collected using a valid and reliable food frequency questionnaire. Metabolic syndrome was defined according to the Cook et al criteria. Consumption of fast foods including hamburgers, sausages, bologna (beef), and fried potatoes was calculated and further categorized to quartiles. Multiple logistic regression models were used to estimate the incidence of MetS and its components in each quartile of fast food intake. The incidence of MetS was 11.3% after a 3.6 year follow up. In the fully adjusted model, compared to the lowest quartile of fast food intake, individuals in the highest had odds ratios of 2.96 (95% CI: 1.02–8.63; P for trend<0.001), 2.82 (95% CI: 1.01–7.87; P for trend = 0.037), and 2.58 (95% CI: 1.01–6.61; P for trend = 0.009) for incidence of MetS, hypertriglyceridemia, and abdominal obesity, respectively. No significant association was found between fast food intakes and other components of MetS. Fast food consumption is associated with the incidence of MetS, abdominal obesity, and hypertriglyceridemia in Tehranian children and adolescents.

Vitamin D is an essential, fat-soluble nutrient that is a key modulator of bone health. Despite the gaining popularity throughout published medical studies, no consensus has been reached regarding a serum vitamin D level that will guarantee adequate skeletal health in a patient with an increased functional demand. The purpose of the present investigation was to examine the serum concentrations of vitamin D in patients with confirmed stress fractures. A total of 124 patients were included in our retrospective cohort study. Of the 124 patients, 53 had vitamin D levels measured within 3 months of diagnosis. An association was seen in patients with a stress fracture and vitamin D level measured, as 44 (83.02%) of the 53 patients had a serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D level <40 ng/mL. Although an association was seen at our institution in patients with stress fractures and a serum vitamin D concentration <40 ng/mL, a larger and prospective investigation is warranted to further understand the effect of vitamin D level and stress fracture prevention in an active, nonmilitary population.

The CIES Football Observatory has produced a report titled “Exporting countries in world football” providing an overview of migration of footballer’s around the world and, based on the data used, suggesting Brazil is the most represented country amongst migrant footballers , followed by Argentina and France.

The dataset is not precisely defined but includes “6,135 clubs and 458 leagues of 183 countries.” “18,660 foreign players of 194 origins,” representing 13% of the total number of players included in the analysis, have been identified.

According to the authors: “With 1,784 players, Brazil is the most represented country among foreigners. Brazilians are clearly ahead of Argentineans (929 players) and the French (758). These three nationalities alone account for almost 20% of foreigners present on a global level.”

It’s not every day that graduate students get to test out their research on their advisors. But MIT’s David Hill, a PhD student in media arts and sciences, builds computational models of human locomotion, which are the basis for designing ever-better prosthetics — and his advisor, Hugh Herr, an associate professor of media arts and sciences, is a double amputee.

Hill says living in the world of theoretical models can be somewhat insular, so having a real-life example of someone who can benefit from — and pilot — some of the work he does is part of what helps him stay focused.

“I don’t ever want to do research that doesn’t benefit someone else’s life directly,” Hill says.

In 2005 Sebastian Coe presented the London 2012 vision: “To make an Olympic champion it takes eight Olympic finalists. To make Olympic finalists, it takes 80 Olympians. To make 80 Olympians it takes 202 national champions, to make national champions it takes thousands of athletes. To make athletes it takes millions of children around the world to be inspired to choose sport”. This statement paired with the impressive bid video and the Heather Small soundtrack almost brought tears to my eyes. But behind this inspirational message is the harsher and darker reality of Talent Identification schemes.

It seems obvious that sporting organisations should try and identify the very best footballers, gymnasts, swimmers, cyclists at an early stage to maintain our success as a sporting nation. But what is the impact of that on the young individuals concerned?

I really enjoyed this video featuring the work of Jaak Panksepp, who studies the brain science of playing. Why do we like to play? What part of the brain is involved? Why is play important for our development, and even necessary for survival?

This video digs in to the brain on play – with surprising and interesting conclusions.

Sometimes English football is so conservative you feel it should wear a blue rosette, serve cucumber sandwiches with the crusts sliced off and be done with it. Last week was one of those occasions. Brentford – the chief cymbal-clappers for analytics in football – had sacked their manager, Marinus Dijkhuizen, eight games into the season. And so came the cackles and told-you-sos from former players and some in the media. How dare they try to do something different. And look where it got them.

The truth behind the story is slightly more complicated. Brentford insist Dijkhuizen’s sacking had little to do with results, but what was happening on the training pitch. Some even knew they had the wrong guy before the season started. Even so, it was embarrassing for a club with so many smart people to get it so spectacularly wrong. And doubly so when Mark Warburton, who took Brentford to the play-offs last season only to leave when asked to give up his veto over transfers, is flying with Rangers in the Scottish Championship.

But to use Dijkhuizen’s dismissal as a stick to put analytics back in its box, as some have done, seems strange.