Applied Sports Science newsletter – February 19, 2016

Some glue guys are made, and others are born.

Myself, I’ve been a glue guy in one capacity or another since I was just a little kid. I viewed it as a matter
of survival. You see, I grew up in a predominantly white part of Detroit called Birmingham. My dad was
the only black guy in town, and I was born mixed race in a neighborhood where races generally didn’t mix.

… “Sometimes that magic ingredient is confidence,” Ellis said. “She was so close [to making the World Cup team]. One of the first games [last fall], I said to her: ‘Just continue to believe in what you do.’ That honestly was the difference for me. She believes she belongs here. Self-belief is a real big common denominator at this level.”

With a maturing mind-set and dynamic style, Dunn has taken the step from terrific club player to influential international player.

… My sense is still that “training load errors” are the driving factor in most running injuries: too much, too fast, too soon. It’s not that things like landing forces don’t matter at all; they do, and it’s particularly worth thinking about them (as Davis points out in the NYT article) if you repeatedly get injured.

It’s just a question of emphasis. The idea that figuring out the “right” way to run will make you injury-proof is understandably and enduringly popular. But it’s nowhere near as important as learning to be patient.

PURPOSE:

To investigate the kinematic and muscle activation adaptations during performance of the Nordic hamstring exercise (NHE) to a 6-week eccentric hamstring training programme using the NHE as the sole mode of exercise.
METHODS:

Twenty-nine healthy males were randomly allocated to a control (CG) or intervention (IG) group. The IG participated in a 6-week eccentric hamstring exercise programme using the NHE.
RESULTS:

The findings of the present study were that a 6-week eccentric hamstring training programme improved eccentric hamstring muscle strength (202.4 vs. 177.4 nm, p = 0.0002, Cohen’s d = 0.97) and optimized kinematic (longer control of the forward fall component of the NHE, 68.1° vs. 73.7°, p = 0.022, Cohen’s d = 0.90) and neuromuscular parameters (increased electromyographic activity of the hamstrings, 83.2 vs. 56.6 % and 92.0 vs. 54.2 %, p 1.25) associated with NHE performance.
CONCLUSION:

This study provides some insight into potential mechanisms by which an eccentric hamstring exercise programme utilizing the NHE as the mode of exercise may result in an improvement in hamstring muscle control during eccentric contractions.

Different parts of our body seem to talk to and influence each other, even when they are far apart and—one might think—unconnected.

Allowing learners to control the video presentation of knowledge of performance (KP) or an expert model during practice has been shown to facilitate motor learning (Aiken, Fairbrother, & Post, 2012; Wulf, Raupach, & Pfeiffer, 2005). Split-screen replay features now allow for the simultaneous presentation of these modes of instructional support. It is uncertain, however, if such a combination incorporated into a self-control protocol would yield similar benefits seen in earlier self-control studies. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to examine the effects of self-controlled split-screen replay on the learning of a golf chip shot. Participants completed 60 practice trials, three administrations of the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory, and a questionnaire on day one. Retention and transfer tests and a final motivation inventory were completed on day two. Results revealed significantly higher form and accuracy scores for the self-control group during transfer. The self-control group also had significantly higher scores on the perceived competence subscale, reported requesting feedback mostly after perceived poor trials, and recalled a greater number of critical task features compared to the yoked group. The findings for the performance measures were consistent with previous self-control research.

… “When we first came here it was just an abandoned warehouse,” [Irina Pavlova] said against the backdrop of a pristine basketball court. “It definitely took a lot of vision, faith and commitment to turn it into the beautiful facility that you see here today.”

And the Nets’ new practice facility and team headquarters is beautiful. The gym has two full-sized basketball courts, lined on either side by a wall of 16-foot windows, offering up a panorama of Brooklyn, lower Manhattan and New Jersey. That’s just the centerpiece.

The federal government is continuing its push to help those in the healthcare industry better understand HIPAA regulations–most recently releasing guidance focusing on mHealth.

The new guidance examines six scenarios overall focusing on two questions that deal with health apps and HIPAA:

How does HIPAA apply to health information that a patient creates, manages or organizes through the use of a health app?

When might an app developer need to comply with the HIPAA Rules?

For centuries, our desire to reproduce accurate, pretty images for “human consumption” has driven the advancements of camera technologies. But what if we were to change the premise and design image sensors for computers to see and analyze the information?

In that case, the fundamental data an image sensor needs to capture—and how each pixel should operate—would change completely. Further, processing would be reinvented and known algorithms would become obsolete.

Hamstring injuries can sideline a soccer player for months. Hamstring injuries occur with quick violent movements. If your leg slips out from under you, or if you are tackled and your leg is stretched a ton of stress is put on the entire hamstring group in the back of your thigh. Because hamstring injuries are so common, a lot of attention has been turned towards prevention strategies. Similar to our findings with certain knee injuries, the research shows that the incidence of hamstring injuries can be diminished with a proper warm up.

One of the benefits of working in sport is that you usually get to see injuries first hand, the mechanism, the severity, even the initial management. We have discussed pitched management before (here) but what about the day, or days, following? Are we doing enough to aid the healing processes in the early stages, or perhaps too much? With our best intentions of helping an injured athlete, are we over looking the importance of “protection”?

This blog discusses the assessment of those more serious injuries – the ones that require athletes to stop in their tracks, cease the game / training. Not those little niggles that walk in at the end of the day.

Background The prime focus of research on sports injury has been on physical factors. This is despite our understanding that when an athlete sustains an injury it has psychosocial as well as physical impacts. Psychosocial factors have been suggested as prognostic influences on the outcomes of rehabilitation. The aim of this work was to address the question: are psychosocial factors associated with sports injury rehabilitation outcomes in competitive athletes?

Study design Mixed studies systematic review (PROSPERO reg.CRD42014008667).

Method Electronic database and bibliographic searching was undertaken from the earliest entry until 1 June 2015. Studies that included injured competitive athletes, psychosocial factors and a sports injury rehabilitation outcome were reviewed by the authors. A quality appraisal of the studies was undertaken to establish the risk of reporting bias.

Results 25 studies were evaluated that included 942 injured competitive athletes were appraised and synthesised. Twenty studies had not been included in previous reviews. The mean methodological quality of the studies was 59% (moderate risk of reporting bias). Convergent thematic analysis uncovered three core themes across the studies: (1) emotion associated with rehabilitation outcomes; (2) cognitions associated with rehabilitation outcomes; and (3) behaviours associated with rehabilitation outcomes. Injury and performance-related fears, anxiety and confidence were associated with rehabilitation outcomes. There is gender-related, age-related and injury-related bias in the reviewed literature.

Conclusions Psychosocial factors were associated with a range of sports injury rehabilitation outcomes. Practitioners need to recognise that an injured athlete’s thoughts, feelings and actions may influence the outcome of rehabilitation.

It’s now 18 months since Matthew Benham introduced his analytical approach to a small Danish club who had never won anything. After a first league title last term, Andreas Kjäll picks up the story ahead of Thursday’s clash with the Red Devils…

The question of the day: Why do baseball’s projection systems hate the Kansas City Royals?

They do, you know. Three years ago, in 2013, PECOTA — Nate Silver’s ingenious system for projecting players’ futures based on similar players’ career paths — predicted that the Royals would win 76 games. The Royals won 86 instead, their best season in a generation.

The NFL passes no more. As football warms to what Moneyball-style stats have done for MLB, Booth alumni and faculty are changing the way the game is played.