Applied Sports Science newsletter – November 10, 2015

There was a moment during the North London derby that seemed to sum up Dele Alli, Tottenham’s preposterously talented young midfielder, rather nicely. Erik Lamela had done good work on the left wing, pressing and harassing the Arsenal players as most of his team had done all game, but after winning back the ball he tried a trick too many instead of playing a simple pass inside.

Alli, all of 19 years old, bawled at his teammate for not choosing the more sensible option, and Lamela bowed his head in apology and even deference. In many situations, a teenager with a handful of appearances above League One level screaming at a £25 million signing with 13 caps for Argentina might be considered impudent, and the actions of a kid with ideas above his station. But in this case it was entirely justified and consistent with the confident manner in which Alli has approached his career so far.

“Best young player I’ve worked with,” Karl Robinson, Alli’s manager at MK Dons with whom he spent the first three years of his senior career, said in Mike Calvin’s book “Living on the Volcano.”

After another recent morning shootaround, Okafor could be seen huddling with three 76ers aides, including David T. Martin, the Australian who was hired last summer as the 76ers Director of Performance Research and Development. They were reviewing laptop video of Okafor from practices and games in order to help him envision his future. … “It has everything to do with his movement — how he’s getting from Point A to Point B. I lean on those things with sports science and wellness, because it’s all measurable. It’s something that interests me, and now I’ve got this 19-year-old kid that I think we can help significantly because of the philosophical way I see basketball and the lessons he can learn. What we’re asking of him is logical, it’s his lifestyle, it’s habits, it’s basketball — it’s everything.”

A brain system that helps us find our way to the supermarket may also help us navigate a lifetime of memories.

At least that’s the implication of a study of rats published in the journal Neuron.

It found that special brain cells that track an animal’s location also can track time and distance. This could explain how rat and human brains are able to organize memories according to where and when an event occurred.

The Hamilton Bulldogs have named Matt Nichol their new Director of Sport Science.

Nichol is a former strength and conditioning coach with the Toronto Maple Leafs (2002-’09) and Canada’s World Cup of Hockey team in 2004.

Nichol founded BioSteel, a sports supplement company that produces high caliber sports nutrition products for elite and amateur athletes.

Illinois has released the full investigation that got former coach Tim Beckman fired before the season, and it has backed up many of the claims made by former Illinois football player Simon Cvijanovic, who said Beckman forced him to play injured.

The full investigation found more troubling notes about Beckman that were previously unknown.

Beckman said he “does not believe in hamstring injuries.”

Beckman would call a player “pussy,” “sissy” or “soft” when they left to get injury assistance from trainers.

Beckman pressured trainers to prematurely clear players from injuries.

On one occasion, Beckman said, “I don’t care if you’re hurt, everyone is practicing when we get back. No one cares if you’re hurt, I don’t care. Your family may care. Northwestern doesn’t care.”

Here’s What You Need to Know:

Focusing on speed and quickness alone isn’t going to help bulletproof your hip, knee, and ankle joints for long-term athletic success. Learning how to slow down the right way is just as important.

Jumping high and producing force through the ground is a highly coveted display of explosive athleticism. However, if you can’t control your body on the way down and land with proper mechanics, it won’t do you any good.

Possessing the ability to decelerate and land in only one plane of motion won’t cut it either. You need to own both of these skills in linear and multidirectional formats.

ResearchKit allows unprecedented numbers of people to participate in scientific research in real time. This potential to engage participants on a global level, brings together developers and scientists who may never have thought their fields would overlap.

I have worked in both fields: as a cancer biologist trained in the lab & as the developer of the Mole Mapper ResearchKit app. iOS development and research have more in common than you might think, but bridging the divide between these disciplines can be challenging. If you are a developer or scientist (or developer-scientist) who is just now joining this community, I have tips from my experience that I hope can be helpful as you get started. In my first post, I’ll share tips for developers.

… The first immediate impression sleeping with it is that you can’t see it or feel the band through the sheet. You simply launch the app before going to bed, choose to set the smart alarm, and leave the phone nearby while you snooze away. The new Smart version of Beddit, paired with a compatible iPhone, doesn’t even need to you to launch the app to start measuring once you get in bed. It also works with the new Apple Watch.

The Beddit uses ballistocardiography, specifically measuring the slight changes in the flexing of the strip on top of the mattress, to detect the heart rate. The same approach works for the breathing rate and detecting movement and times when you get out of bed to take a wee.

The Beddit is impressively accurate as manual measurements of the heart rate have confirmed. The same can be said about movement and the times one gets out of bed. While we’ve seen non-contact vital sign measurement in the clinical world, it’s somehow a little spooky to see such accuracy in a consumer device costing a bit over $100.

The BioStamp technology miniaturizes multiple sensors into a band-aid form factor that can be worn in multiple areas on the body to measure whatever the heart desires. The hardware – indeed if it can be called so because it is meant to bend and twist along with the skin on to which it is attached like a piece of tape — also comes with companion software, ability to work with a smartphone and a cloud platform for storing and analyzing data.

“This will be the first healthcare product from MC10,” confirms co-founder and vice president of technology Roozbeh Ghaffari in an interview with MD+DI. Ghaffari will be discussing advances in sensor technology as a speaker at a two-day conference in Minneapolis jointly hosted by the publisher of MD+DI and LifeScience Alley on Nov. 5.

… How has our understanding of concussions changed in recent years?

We used to think that the head trauma was linear [but] we now know rotational trauma is also important. The brain is really soft tissue encased in fluid inside hard skull, so if the brain rotates around in that hard skull, it can lead to inflammation.

As shown in the movie “Concussion,” the NFL and some scientists denied for a while that CTE was a real condition. Is there any doubt anymore?

It’s a very complicated topic. It’s very complicated from a medical perspective, and I think it’s also complicated from a media-messaging perspective. We know what the pathology looks like, but we are less clear what are the causes that lead to it.

… Both of these injuries tend to occur from a twisting force that either rupture a ligament (both) or break/shift in the bones of the midfoot (LisFranc only). For example, such injuries often occur when your foot is firmly planted on the ground and a sudden large force is applied to the body. This can happen when you are changing direction rapidly, slowing down when running, or landing from a jump, all of which are common mechanisms in sports.

Although multiple types of Movement Signatures have been linked to ACL injuries by predictive modelling, the signature to the right is the largest risk and termed “Extreme Load”. This signature qualifies as Extreme Load because the Load value is 15+ greater than the other two concentric variables.

While we have created clear predictive models for injuries, we may never know exactly why this pattern causes the injury. The theory behind such a pattern’s risk is that the athlete creates substantial initial force (LOAD) yet is unable to disperse that force production over time. In other words, the athlete twists instead of bending. This twisting places a large stress on those hinge joints and associate ligaments like the ACL and foot.

Background A negative association between injuries and team success has been demonstrated in professional football, but the nature of this association in elite Rugby Union teams is currently unclear.

Aim To assess the association between injury burden measures and team success outcomes within professional Rugby Union teams.

Methods A seven-season prospective cohort design was used to record all time-loss injuries incurred by English Premiership players. Associations between team success measures (league points tally and Eurorugby Club Ranking (ECR)) and injury measures (injury burden and injury days per team-match) were modelled, both within (changes from season to season) and between (differences averaged over all seasons) teams. Thresholds for the smallest worthwhile change in league points tally and ECR were 3 points and 2.6%, respectively.

Results Data from a total of 1462 players within 15 Premiership teams were included in the analysis. We found clear negative associations between injury measures and team success (70-100% likelihood), with the exception of between-team differences for injury days per team-match and ECR, which was unclear. A reduction in injury burden of 42?days (90% CI 30 to 70) per 1000 player hours (22% of mean injury burden) was associated with the smallest worthwhile change in league points tally.

Conclusions Clear negative associations were found between injury measures and team success, and moderate reductions in injury burden may have worthwhile effects on competition outcomes for professional Rugby Union teams. These findings may be useful when communicating the value of injury prevention initiatives within this elite sport setting.

Nutrition is one method to counter the negative impact of an exercise-induced injury. Deficiencies of energy, protein and other nutrients should be avoided. Claims for the effectiveness of many other nutrients following injuries are rampant, but the evidence is equivocal. The results of an exercise-induced injury may vary widely depending on the nature of the injury and severity. Injuries typically result in cessation, or at least a reduction, in participation in sport and decreased physical activity. Limb immobility may be necessary with some injuries, contributing to reduced activity and training. Following an injury, an inflammatory response is initiated and while excess inflammation may be harmful, given the importance of the inflammatory process for wound healing, attempting to drastically reduce inflammation may not be ideal for optimal recovery. Injuries severe enough for immobilization of a limb result in loss of muscle mass and reduced muscle strength and function. Loss of muscle results from reductions in basal muscle protein synthesis and the resistance of muscle to anabolic stimulation. Energy balance is critical. Higher protein intakes (2–2.5 g/kg/day) seem to be warranted during immobilization. At the very least, care should be taken not to reduce the absolute amount of protein intake when energy intake is reduced. There is promising, albeit preliminary, evidence for the use of omega-3 fatty acids and creatine to counter muscle loss and enhance hypertrophy, respectively. The overriding nutritional recommendation for injured exercisers should be to consume a well-balanced diet based on whole, minimally processed foods or ingredients made from whole foods. The diet composition should be carefully assessed and changes considered as the injury heals and activity patterns change.

In 1984, Liverpool famously used just 15 outfield players in a 66-match season. 12 of those individuals played in over half of those matches, with just 3 fringe players coming in for cover.

Football has unmistakably changed; large squads are now the norm and rotation is an accepted part of the game. However, teams still rely on a ‘core’ group of 10 outfield players competing in over 50% of possible league playing time, while the 15th most-appearing player on average plays about 25% of possible minutes.

But what of the 20th player? What kind of individual do we want in this role? Virtually all teams use at least 20 outfield players in a season, and on average this player features in about 10% of possible minutes – or 9 minutes per game (in Norway this is as low as 6%, and as high as 13% in the English Championship).