Applied Sports Science newsletter – March 9, 2016

Objectives To quantify age, sex, sport and training type-specific effects of resistance training on physical performance, and to characterise dose–response relationships of resistance training parameters that could maximise gains in physical performance in youth athletes.

Design Systematic review and meta-analysis of intervention studies.

Data sources Studies were identified by systematic literature search in the databases PubMed and Web of Science (1985–2015). Weighted mean standardised mean differences (SMDwm) were calculated using random-effects models.

Eligibility criteria for selecting studies Only studies with an active control group were included if these investigated the effects of resistance training in youth athletes (6–18?years) and tested at least one physical performance measure.

Results 43 studies met the inclusion criteria. Our analyses revealed moderate effects of resistance training on muscle strength and vertical jump performance (SMDwm 0.8–1.09), and small effects on linear sprint, agility and sport-specific performance (SMDwm 0.58–0.75). Effects were moderated by sex and resistance training type. Independently computed dose–response relationships for resistance training parameters revealed that a training period of >23?weeks, 5 sets/exercise, 6–8 repetitions/set, a training intensity of 80–89% of 1 repetition maximum (RM), and 3–4?min rest between sets were most effective to improve muscle strength (SMDwm 2.09–3.40).

Summary/conclusions Resistance training is an effective method to enhance muscle strength and jump performance in youth athletes, moderated by sex and resistance training type. Dose–response relationships for key training parameters indicate that youth coaches should primarily implement resistance training programmes with fewer repetitions and higher intensities to improve physical performance measures of youth athletes.

… A few weeks ago, the weekend before my blood test, my ankles, knees and hip joints flared with inflammation. I was sleeping poorly and ramming myself through work days using coffee. Grabbing a muffin in the morning, maybe skipping lunch. I work at a place called Workbar, a co-working space in the Boston area. Every day at 2pm they put out snacks. I’d seize upon them, downing more coffee to prop up my flagging abilities to get work done. Sleep was intermittent at best. I’d wake up exhausted. The day would repeat itself.

Blood doesn’t lie. The InsideTracker results showed that I had low testosterone levels, a key measure in their “InnerAge” analysis that showed that—-according to my blood and their metrics—my biological age was 13.8 years older than my chronological age.

“It’s time for a change,” the Inside Tracker program told me. That’s one way to put it, I thought. I would have argued against the number but in the preceding weeks I’d have to say that’s how I felt.

We started thinking about this study something like 5 years ago, and undertook the heavy protocol 3 years ago. It is, in my opinion, the best teamwork I’ve had the chance to lead so far. We needed this to tackle a hot topic (sprint acceleration performance and the role of hamstring muscles) from various and complementary standpoints.

When the owners of the Los Angeles Football Club gave John Thorrington the keys to their soccer team three months ago, he had little more than an idea and his own enthusiasm with which to work.

“There’s an excitement to that,” said Thorrington, an executive vice president for Major League Soccer’s expansion club, which joins the league in 2018. “I just see endless possibilities with a blank slate. It’s much better to do that than reboot a system that might not be exactly what you want.”

A few extra thoughts from EXOS strength and conditioning coach Eric Dannenberg in Arizona, where Bills free agent guard Richie Incognito trains. …
On what makes Incognito different: “His attitude and intensity every day. Even early on, this early in the offseason, you can see him on the sled like ‘Hoo-ahh!’ That’s just him. When we go in the pool, some guys go through the motions. He brings intensity in every rep.

For many athletes, passion is the driving force behind their relentless pursuit of excellence. Michael Gervais, PhD, sport psychologist and counselor to some of the world’s best athletes, puts it simply: “Sustained passion is a hallmark of mastery.” Many groundbreaking athletes (as well artists and intellects) describe the feeling as an eternal hunger. Irrespective of what they’ve accomplished, or of what they’ve lost and given up, great performers struggle mightily to be satiated, to be content. But what is the source of passion? And why does it persist? We talked to three lifelong athletes to find out what drives them to continue pushing the boundaries of their physical and mental capabilities.

This study aimed to investigate the impact of mental fatigue on soccer-specific decision-making. Twelve well-trained male soccer players performed a soccer-specific decision-making task on two occasions, separated by at least 72 h. The decision-making task was preceded in a randomised order by 30 min of the Stroop task (mental fatigue) or 30 min of reading from magazines (control). Subjective ratings of mental fatigue were measured before and after treatment, and mental effort (referring to treatment) and motivation (referring to the decision-making task) were measured after treatment. Performance on the soccer-specific decision-making task was assessed using response accuracy and time. Visual search behaviour was also assessed throughout the decision-making task. Subjective ratings of mental fatigue and effort were almost certainly higher following the Stroop task compared to the magazines. Motivation for the upcoming decision-making task was possibly higher following the Stroop task. Decision-making accuracy was very likely lower and response time likely higher in the mental fatigue condition. Mental fatigue had unclear effects on most visual search behaviour variables. The results suggest that mental fatigue impairs accuracy and speed of soccer-specific decision-making. These impairments are not likely related to changes in visual search behaviour.

… If a team could keep all its players on the field for a full season, it would hold a significant advantage over teams with similar resources but without the blessing of good health. So Minnesota has decided to not rely on luck to dictate the number of days spent on the disabled list; the Twins are trying to prevent injuries before they happen.

“The biggest low-hanging fruit in professional baseball is starting pitching,” said Ben Peterson, a lead researcher with Catapult who works with the Twins. “You just count up the number of Tommy John [surgeries] over the last five years is ridiculous. If you can even improve that rate by 20 percent you’ve almost redefined your organization in terms of development.”

Before I get into how BioAnalytics will almost certainly change the landscape of the NHL I want to make something very clear. No amount of analytical data will supersede the raw talent and skill development of an elite level hockey player. The best teams in the NHL got to where they are because their general managers put together a roster of highly talented players who work well as a unit. However, BioAnalytics can undoubtably keep those players injury-free and performing at a high level. This is why BioAnalytics is so important and why collecting this type of data has exploded in the NFL. The NHL will certainly follow suit in the coming years.

BioAnalytics is meant to determine a human organism’s exposure to stress through the collection of external markers, internal markers, and anecdotal surveys. External markers are measured by a player performing a specific assessment (e.g., Force Plate, Catapult). Internal markers are measured by a player being monitored passively (e.g., Heart Rate Variability, OmegaWave, MuscleSound). Lastly, anecdotal surveys can be utilized by having players fill out a short questionnaire each day that will reveal how the player perceives his or her own levels of stress. Integrating a BioAnalytical collection system is difficult to do; however, the upside is extremely high as it has been directly linked to an increase in performance and more importantly preventing injuries.

Sports is getting a big injection of technology this year from chip-making giant Intel.

The Santa Clara company, better known for the chips that power PCs and data centers, is charging into the sports world by providing the engineering for some revolutionary gadgets.

It’s part of a trend that began with step-counting smart bracelets and has exploded into innovative technology that is expected to make a difference in how people view or take part in sports. Some of it will find its way into the homes of sports fans this year, while others innovations are still being prototyped.

A technology under development for five years by Xerox is making its way into healthcare and could change the way sensors to support connected health are designed.

Xerox developed a way to produce printed microcircuits using 3D printing and ink and thin circuitry printed to a Polyethylene terephthalate or PET substrate. The sensors are cheap to produce — costing roughly 10 cents to 15 cents — and can retain data for 10 years. Xerox calls its technology Printed Memory and it is currently in production.

… This spring, the Cardinals established the new Performance Department, a companion to the team’s medical and training staff. The Cardinals hired Dr. Robert Butler from Duke University to oversee the department, bring some data-driven know-how to it, and work in conjunction with head athletic trainer Adam Olsen, who was promoted this past winter. Mozeliak repeatedly used the word “collaborative” to describe the new approach.

It is also about being competitive.

As Major League Baseball clubs discover more ways to be proactive instead of reactive to injuries — prehab vs. rehab — they have found a new way to gain a competitive edge. The training table is this year’s draft board. More than a decade after a numbers-fueled sabermetrics revolution changed how baseball evaluates talent, teams are looking into data for ways to better treat, predict, and, ideally, avoid injuries. This past winter, the Washington Nationals announced an overhaul of their complete medical staff to include “analytic input,” just as the Cardinals have been doing.

Hydration remains a nutritional cornerstone. We are bombarded with several different messages, but what should we actually be drinking? Media and mass marketing will tell us one story, however evidence suggests that as exercise exposure remains under an hour, the most important nutritional ergogenic aid for athletes is water. Flavoured drinks may be swished in the mouth as a stimulus of reward for the brain to continue to work hard.

After exercise, an athlete needs to drink at least 450 to 675 mL fluid per 0.5 kg of body weight lost during exercise (Driskell, 2009). Ideally no body weight is lost and adequate hydration takes place during training or your game. As little as 2% lost bodyweight can affect cognitive function and performance. Dehydration and severe observable effects occurs at around 4% of bodyweight lost. Within 30 minutes following intense exercise, 1 g/kg of carbohydrate and 0.5 g/kg of protein should be consumed as well as consume a high carbohydrate meal within two hours following exercise (Leutholtz and Kreider, 2001; Kreider, 1999; Kerksick et al., 2008). This nutritional strategy has been found to accelerate glycogen synthesis whilst promoting a more anabolic hormonal profile to accelerate recovery (Zawadzki et al., 1992; Sherman et al., 2008).

It seems as if NHL teams are trying harder and harder to strike a balance with respect to the handedness of their defensemen. This idea is substantiated when looking at the falling percentage of available icetime played by D-pairings consisting of a defenseman playing his off-side…

Football Outsiders have now published the results for Adjusted Games Lost splits by unit. This gives us another chance to see if there’s any truth to the idea that Kelly’s teams suffer more injuries as a result of his quick pace and especially whether or not it hurts his defenses as they get tired.

As mentioned below, the overall trend has been good for the Eagles under Kelly’s sport science approach with the fewest games lost in 2013, the fifth least in 2014 and ranked sixth last year.