Applied Sports Science newsletter – October 31, 2015

A noted Doug McDermott watcher took in the former Creighton star’s appearance in Lincoln last week and made the following observation:

“Watching Doug this year, I thought he looked more like a part of the team than a year ago, when he often looked apart from the team. A lot of times last year it was hard to tell if he was really adding to the team.

“This year, even when they weren’t running plays for him or he wasn’t scoring, he looked more a part of things.

Think about something at your job that you do every day that requires the help of another person. If you’re on TV or radio, think of your co-host. If you’re a lawyer, think of your assistant or paralegal. If you work at Starbucks, think of the barista making lattes next to you.

Now, replace that person with somebody else.

How much more difficult did your job just get?

Even if the new person is just as qualified, just as talented and just as smart and motivated as the person you’re used to working with, there’s one thing they could never walk in the door and just have right away: Chemistry.

Minientrevista realizada a Xavi Schelling, Director de Ciencias Aplicadas al Deporte de los San Antonio Spurs, en el pabellón AT&T Center de San Antonio, el 20 de octubre de 2015. [in Spanish, video autoplays, 4:43]

… While Jose Pozo and Marcos Lopes got first-team chances, Cole and fellow long-time academy player Jordy Hiwula left the Etihad without making any competitive appearances. Striker Cole, now 20, is scoring goals at League One Bradford City as he seeks a return to the Premier League.Hiwula is at Huddersfield in the Championship.

‘I played for the first team in South Africa but when I came back, I wasn’t in and around it,’ Devante says. ‘The foreign players were always pushed first and if you’d seen us all train, you wouldn’t see a difference in ability. [commercial video autoplays in right column]

Ice hockey is a physiologically complex sport requiring aerobic and anaerobic energy metabolism. College and professional teams often test aerobic fitness; however, there is a paucity of information regarding aerobic fitness of elite youth players. Without this knowledge, training of youth athletes to meet the standards of older age groups and higher levels of hockey may be random, inefficient, and or effective. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine the aerobic fitness of elite youth hockey players. A retrospective database review was performed for 200 male AAA hockey players between the ages of 13 and 17 (age, 14.4 ± 1.2 years; height, 174.3 ± 8.5 cm; body mass, 67.2 ± 11.5 kg; body fat, 9.8 ± 3.5%) before the 2012-13 season. All subjects performed a graded exercise test on a cycle ergometer, whereas expired air was collected by either a Parvo Medics TrueOne 2400 or a CareFusion Oxycon Mobile metabolic cart to determine maximal oxygen consumption (V[Combining Dot Above]O2max). Body mass, absolute V[Combining Dot Above]O2max, and the power output achieved during the last completed stage increased in successive age groups from age 13 to 15 years (p ? 0.05). Ventilatory threshold (VT) expressed as a percentage of V[Combining Dot Above]O2max and the heart rate (HR) at which VT occurred decreased between the ages of 13 and 14 years (p ? 0.05), whereas the V[Combining Dot Above]O2 at which VT occurred increased from the age of 14-15 years. There were no changes in relative V[Combining Dot Above]O2max or HRmax between any successive age groups. The aerobic fitness levels of elite youth ice hockey players increased as players age and mature physically and physiologically. However, aerobic fitness increased to a lesser extent at older ages. This information has the potential to influence off-season training and maximize the aerobic fitness of elite amateur hockey players, so that these players can meet standards set by advanced elite age groups.

… There is a direct relationship between blood flow and skeletal muscle activity. Within the microcirculation, the terminal arterioles control flow distribution, and the capillaries respond to blood flow changes based on muscle metabolism. At the onset of exercise, the number of perfused capillaries increases to provide more surface area for oxygen exchange and decreases the distance for oxygen diffusion. This leads to increased blood flow through the capillaries of working muscle. Eccentric exercise has been shown to increase blood flow by 78% and cause delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS) 24 to 72 hours after exercise.

BBC Sport follows England’s Rugby League performance manager Mark Bitcon around St George’s Park as he takes us through the modern techniques and technologies used to improve performance.

England are preparing for their three-Test series against New Zealand at the FA’s performance centre in Burton-upon-Trent, with the first Test on Sunday 1 November at the KC Stadium, the second at the London Olympic Stadium on Saturday 7 November, and the final Test at Wigan’s DW Stadium on Saturday 14 November.

From a mental health standpoint, [Theresa] Hailey might as well have won the Olympics. “[Her response] is extraordinarily healthy, productive, and satisfying,” says Jeffery Simons, a sports psychologist at California State University at East Bay, who has worked with elite athletes in several sports, including distance running.

It’s also simply not what most of us do. We get down on ourselves for not achieving our goals. All too often, in fact, we demand more even when we achieve our goals, wondering if we might have done better had we set the bar a bit higher. Alan Webb, who holds the American record for the mile, refers to this as the never-satisfied syndrome. “[It] is common among runners,” he says, “especially high-level runners.”

Partly, that’s because there’s a confusion between satisfaction and complacency, something most competitive runners want to avoid.

Running shorts that talk to you. A dress that adjusts to your mood. A clip-on that acts as a posture coach.

They’re all part of a growing trend in wearable technology that goes beyond the fitness band and smartwatch to take a proactive role in managing health.

The Bay Area is alive with wearable startups and Silicon Valley’s largest companies have dived in, seeing a potentially vast market on the horizon. Fitbit, which makes a fitness tracker, went public in June. Intel has engineers working with New York fashion designers on wearable tech and sponsored a “Make it Wearable” contest which CEO Brian Krzanich helped judge. Apple sold 1 million watches on the first weekend.

… do we really need chemicals? What are the requirements for high-performance products? Isn’t it possible to manufacture those without using any chemicals? And how can we distinguish between good and bad chemicals?

In the following interview with Petra Thaller, journalist and publisher of ‘Mountains4U’, two experts go into the details of chemical management. They discuss what is already possible in the development of functional sports products, where the challenges lie and how the adidas Group promotes sustainable chemistry. And they also provide insight into what the future holds.

Oklahoma is one of a growing number of programs using GPS to track and enhance practice performance, aid in recovery and get a fuller picture of what athletes or putting their bodies through as they prepare for competition.

There are so many paradoxes in the world of personal health devices, as attendees at the 12th annual Connected Health Symposium heard Thursday.

Those who are healthiest — and perhaps a few “worried well” people — are most likely to have wearable health devices. Those who could benefit the most from such products either don’t have or don’t use them, said Lisa Gualtieri, a digital health researcher at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston.

In fact, so many people are abandoning their fitness trackers that Gualtieri had a booth in the exhibit hall to collect unwanted devices for a research project she’s conducting. RecycleHealth will employ the donated trackers for fitness programs for low-income people in need of lifestyle changes.

John Rogers, Richard Chad Webb, and colleagues at the University of Illinois have built a flexible (epidermal electronics based) monitor that measures blood flow in the outermost 2 millimeters of skin. Blood flow measuring devices typically use optical imaging, which requires patients to not move. This technology can be used in a wearable that obtains measurements during motion.

The thin, light device sits on top of the skin, without distorting the blood flow it seeks to measure. It detects differences in heat patterns. Computer algorithms interpret the heat pattern differences as blood flow rate.

A smaller knee flexion angle and larger knee valgus angle during weight-bearing activities have been identified as risk factors for non-contact anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries. To prevent such injuries, attention has been focused on the role of hip strength in knee motion control. However, gender differences in the relationship between hip strength and knee kinematics during weight-bearing activities in the frontal plane have not been evaluated. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine the influence of hip strength on knee kinematics in the frontal plane in males and females during a single-legged landing task. Significant correlations between hip strength and knee kinematics during SML were observed in both genders. Hip strength may, therefore, play an important role in knee motion control during sports activities, suggesting that increased hip strength may help to prevent non-contact ACL injuries in athletes of both genders. Moreover, gender-specific programs may be needed to control abnormal knee motion, as the influence of hip strength on knee kinematics may differ based on gender.

Much has been made about the lack of certified athletic trainers on the sidelines of a large percentage of American high school athletic programs, and for good reason; not having an athletic trainer is akin to driving down the street without wearing a seatbelt and just hoping for the best. Now a new study from the National Athletic Trainers’ Association (NATA) highlights just how bad that lack of trainers has become, as well as some of the critical issues that make it hard for athletic directors to hire them.

Albi Gilmer has been instrumental at The Andrews Institute Rehabilitation in implementing standardized return to play decisions across multiple Andrews Institute facilities using the Move2Perform software.

Re-Writing Protocols to Include Move2Perform

According to Albi, “We have actually started a process of re-writing protocols to include Move2Perform testing to assign risks levels for rehab following many common surgeries: ACL-PTG reconstruction, meniscus repair, PCL repair, and combinations of these surgeries in the lower extremity. We are using it for the upper extremity as well for labrum repairs, SLAP injuries and repair, sub-acromial decompression, ulnar collateral ligament repair, etc.”

Every year, the NCAA releases data from its substance abuse survey, and every year, we look around at each other and go, “yep, well, that makes sense.” This is one of those years.

Thanks to a handy visualization from Samuel Bennett, we can see exactly which sports have the biggest substance abuse problems. What the fuck is going on, lacrosse? Also, who are the 10 percent of golfers who don’t drink? I thought a beer was a prerequisite before stepping onto a golf course.

The Southwest Cannabis Convention featured more than just information about the products and services of the medical-marijuana industry. The convention, which concluded Wednesday in Phoenix, also hosted a number of seminars led by local experts and nationwide enthusiasts, some of whom are former NFL players.

“We are human beings with pain and emotion, and the more people talk about it, the better off we will be,” said Nate Jackson, a keynote speaker and former NFL player.

Jackson and former pro football players Ricky Williams, Eben Britton — an offensive lineman who played at the University of Arizona from 2006-09 — and Kyle Turley formed the Gridiron Cannabis Coalition when they all ended their professional careers.

Most of the debate about running form focuses on how your feet hit the ground (i.e. heel, forefoot). But there’s another question worth thinking about, which is where your foot touches down. The conventional advice you often hear is that you should avoid having your foot land too far in front of your body, because this will effectively cause you to brake and waste energy. But how far is “too far?”

There has been an explosion of data in sport over the past few years, but if you look at it the data centers on two areas: what happens on the field and what happens in the weight room. These are areas where data has always been readily available, and new technologies often focus on acquiring even more detailed and tangential data in these areas. What is ignored in this whole process is the huge gap between the field and the weight room. Historically not much data has been available in that gap, but if data collection is about finding data that we can use to improve training, then why are we ignoring a crucial element of training like specific strength training?

There will be 1,230 NBA games this season. The Detroit Pistons want to watch every one.

The Pistons have four pro scouts, and that’s their job: Watch basketball. A lot of basketball. Two or three games a day, all season. Last year, they watched between 90-95% of NBA games, and for each one, they evaluated every player in the game in several categories, and entered their scouting reports into the team’s database. The Pistons want to know everything relevant about every player in the league—and really, about every NBA-quality player in the world.

It’s an enormous and unprecedented effort that could change how business is done in the NBA.

Prozone recently presented at U.S. Soccer’s Data in Soccer Workshop in Chicago, a professional development forum attended by MLS franchises, leading college programmes, and sports technology companies.

Dr. Paul Neilson, Head of Prozone Performance.LAB, presented the advanced analytical services Prozone offers to clubs and organisations in the North American market. Outlining frameworks such as playing styles analysis and game intelligence metrics, the presentation highlighted the applied value such services can bring to the performance analysis and athlete monitoring processes.

The event also featured presentations on data application, visualisation and management from U.S. Women’s National Team, Georgia Tech University and Tableau representatives before an open discussion regarding potential improvements to the U.S. Soccer data pipeline.

… Kalman filtering is an algorithm that uses a series of measurements observed over time, containing statistical noise and other inaccuracies, and produces estimates of unknown variables that tend to be more precise than those based on a single measurement alone (adapted from Wikipedia). The Kalman filter has numerous applications in technology – including IoT. Specifically, Kalman filters are used in Sensor fusion. Sensor fusion helps to determine the State (and also the overall Context) of an IoT based computing system which relies on inferring the combined meaning from different sensors.

In Part One, we describe the workings of Kalman filters and in Part Two we describe the implications for IoT devices.