Applied Sports Science newsletter – November 25, 2015

Boston Celtics guard Marcus Smart is sidelined for at least two weeks — and maybe even longer — due to a subluxation of the proximal tibfib joint, or what Celtics coach Brad Stevens joked would only be referred to from now on as a “lower left leg injury.”

Smart, who already missed three games earlier this season with a sprained big toe, is set to miss a minimum of seven more games with the leg injury. And if he’s sidelined through December while rehabbing, it could mean sitting out the other 13 games that Boston has scheduled to close out the calendar year.

Ethan Finlay’s soccer story is a quintessentially American one.

It’s about potential shortcomings in the player development system, blooming a bit late and the myriad twists of fate that shape the gradual rise of so many pros. It’s about being a big man on campus and an unheralded contributor to a small-market MLS club. It’s about the open road, ambition and family. But most of all, Finlay’s story is about movement. His relentless desire to pursue opportunity and cover ground, and the speed at which he does it, has defined his career. And now, it’s helped the Columbus Crew to the MLS Cup semifinals for the first time in seven years.

“Every athlete has a story,” Columbus coach Gregg Berhalter said. “Some, you knew they were going to be great from the time they were three. Others, there’s always a journey that you take … [Finlay is] extremely competitive and an extremely hard worker. Those are good qualities if you want to become a professional, and he has both. There’s no doubt he can take adversity and keep going.”

EIS Sport Science Technician and Physiology PhD Student Luke Gupta has outlined the important role sleep can have on the training sessions of elite athletes.

The role of sleep in the life of an elite athlete is an area that has not been research in huge depth so much of the work Luke is doing in the area is pioneering.

“Although sleep is by no means the most important element of recovery, sleep plays a significant role in the recovery from exercise training,” explains Luke.

When listening to our latest 1:2:1 podcast, featuring a conversation with Kyra Bobinet, MD, MPH, two things jumped out at me. First, Bobinet, an expert in design thinking and behavioral change who says she “leads by my curiosity,” has a very cool personal story, and second: We shouldn’t be so hard on ourselves when we struggle to make positive health changes. In short, it’s not us – it’s a design flaw.

The interests of Bobinet, CEO and founder of a design firm using neuroscience to change behavior, can be traced back to medical school, when she was exposed to a program that taught health education in juvenile hall. “I became fascinated by the behavioral patterns of gang members who had violent pasts and came in and out of the system,” she says. These gang members vowed to stay out of jail when they were released but yet “two days later they were immersed” in their old lives and back in trouble. “Why is that happening? And how is that different than me saying I don’t want to eat french fries during Lent but then doing so the second day?” she wonders aloud.

After the BolderBoulder 10K in May, participants meandered through a postrace festival lined with vendors offering samples of coffee and fare from local food vendors.

They could also treat themselves to an IV drip.

No, it wasn’t from the medical tent. At the Onus iV Hydration clinic’s mobile unit, runners had the option to get a saline drip infused with vitamins, minerals, and pain medications with the hope of jumpstarting the recovery process.

This summer, I went on one of the most visually stunning runs of my life. My path took me to the top of a 16th-century fort in Siena, Italy, as the rising sun lit the surrounding rooftops a brilliant yellow. But as much as I enjoyed the experience, I couldn’t shake the feeling that it somehow didn’t count, that it was less legitimate than my usual runs.

The reason: I wasn’t connected to wi-fi, which meant I couldn’t track myself with my Runkeeper app the way I usually did. Without it, I had no way of knowing if I was running as fast or as long as my marathon training plan dictated. I also worried that the friends who followed me on Runkeeper would see that I hadn’t logged anything all week and assume I’d been slacking—both silly things to worry about while enjoying such beautiful scenery, I know. But I also know I’m not the only one who has these anxieties.

You may think your smart watch or activity tracker can help you keep tabs on your health, but don’t be shocked if your doctor is more skeptical.

Wearable producers such as Apple, Fitbit, and Pebble will ship more than 76 million of the devices by the end of the year, according to market research firm IDC. Some doctors and researchers, however, remain unimpressed, They question the value of the particular metrics tracked, as well as the validity of the deluge of data these gadgets produce.

Skulpt, which has developed a smartphone-connected device that measures a user’s body fat percentage and muscle quality, raised $4.1 million in a round led by Nautilus Venture Partners with participation from Caerus Venture Partners. This brings Skulpt’s total funding to at least $5.7 million. … Unlike most fitness devices on the market, Skulpt’s product, called Skuplt Aim, doesn’t track activity. Instead, it gives users a measurement of specific fat percentage and quality of 24 different muscles. The system includes a scanning device that users place on different parts of the body and a companion app that generates the information about the muscle located there.

… Trust, or the lack of it, between human and machine can also impact much simpler systems than the automated vehicles of the future. For example, in a control room, multiple telecommunication functions – radio, telephone, e-mail, emergency telephone and public announcement system – can now easily be integrated into single touch-screen devices. However, many older operators do not trust that these devices will function correctly in an emergency situation and prefer to have hard-wired back-ups available, leading to unnecessary expense, project management time and, ultimately, a cluttered control room environment – which brings with it yet more ergonomic problems.

In a new paper published in Human Factors, researchers at MIT have investigated what sorts of characteristics make someone a good operator of unmanned vehicles, and how operators can be encouraged to trust the automated systems that are under their influence, leaving them to take care of the mundane aspects of an operation.

Researcher Christian Duval, PhD, and his team have developed a new, simple and non-invasive approach to create a biomechanical and cognitive profile of football players and more quickly and accurately detect concussions in these individuals. Christian Duval and his post-doctoral student Hung Nguyen, PhD, work at the Research Centre of the Institut universitaire de gériatrie de Montréal, which is affiliated with the University of Montreal. They presented their preliminary research findings at the International Congress on Sport Sciences Research and Technology Support, which was held in Lisbon from November 15 to 17.

For their study, Christian Duval’s team performed a dual-task assessment using simultaneous biomechanical and cognitive tests to evaluate the players every week. Thanks to a markerless motion capture system, this approach let them establish a unique profile for each person in just seven minutes and detect signs of concussion in a player before the medical team could. Developing such a fast and effective test is critical, as repeated impact on the young brain over time leaves damage similar to that caused by dementia.

“We had the players walk while avoiding obstacles and while executing cognitive tasks. The combination of these two results established each individual’s personal signature. Our measurements let us quickly detect concussion symptoms that could go unnoticed by health care professionals or by the young athletes themselves. The test we developed also simulates game situations, because in football, players are stimulated both physically and intellectually,” explained Christian Duval.

Tweets from the recent Return to Play conference in Bern, Switzerland.

Ever look at a plate placed in front of you and think, “What the hell is that?” Or more often, “How many calories is that?” DietSensor can tell you. This app tells people what they need to know in the absence of a nutritional label, and is perfect for people that have to monitor their diet. The DietSensor app was chosen as CES 2016 Innovation Awards Honoree in the Software and Mobile Apps category. Award winners get a vast increase in exposure at the event and afterwards, including the right to use the winner’s stamp.

Of course, what makes the app truly stand out is the actual sensor. We took a look at SCiO, the handheld sensor that works with DietSensor, earlier this year at CES. It uses spectrometry for chemical analysis, in this case analyzing the way the unique molecules of food affect light. Hold it about half an inch from homogeneous food — food with the same texture as a glass of OJ, as opposed to mixed vegetables — and the sensor compares the near-infrared signature with patterns stored in the cloud. It will relay nutrient info to your phone via BLE (Bluetooth low energy) and create a food log in the DietSensor app. Snap a pic with your phone to complete the process. Calories, carbs, protein, fat, and alcohol levels are covered. At the very least, it handles the record-keeping hassle.

The specific movement demands of soccer that are linked to post-match recovery and readiness to train are unclear. Therefore, we examined the relationship between Global Positioning System (GPS) variables and the change (?; from baseline) in Creatine Kinase (CK) concentrations and peak power output (PPO; during the countermovement jump) at 24 h and 48 h post-match. Fifteen English Premier League reserve team players were examined over 1–4 matches. Measurements of CK and PPO were taken before (24 h prior to match-play) and after (+24 h and +48 h) each game during which movement demands were quantified using 10 Hz GPS data. High intensity distance covered (r = 0.386, p = 0.029; r = ?0.349; p = 0.050), high intensity distance covered?min?1 (r = 0.365, p = 0.040; r = ?0.364, p = 0.040), high speed running distance (r = 0.363, p = 0.041; r = ?0.360, p = 0.043) and the number of sprints?min?1 (r = 0.410, p = 0.020; r = ?0.368, p = 0.038) were significantly related to ?CK and ?PPO at +24 h post-match, respectively. No relationships were observed between any match variables and ?CK and ?PPO after +48 h of recovery. These findings highlight that high intensity match activities are related to ?CK and ?PPO in the 24 h, but not 48 h, following soccer match-play. Such information is likely of interest to those responsible for the design of soccer player’s training schedules in the days following a match.

Around lunchtime Wednesday, on a quiet, cloudy afternoon, the Washington Nationals held an unusual offseason news conference in front of an unusually limited media contingent, which was more curious than anything.

Nationals General Manager Mike Rizzo walked behind the microphone in the press room at Nationals Park and introduced the organization’s new medical staff. Team doctors, trainers and consultants rarely get so much fanfare.

But Rizzo believes this restructuring, which will place an emphasis on analytics and their ability to prevent injuries, deserves attention.