Applied Sports Science newsletter – March 28, 2016

Applied Sports Science news articles, blog posts and research papers for March 28, 2016

 

How a slight shooting adjustment unlocked Kemba Walker’s potential

USA TODAY Sports from March 25, 2016

Charlotte Hornets point guard Kemba Walker made a slight adjustment to his jump shot. As he brought the basketball up to shoot, he moved the ball just a few inches to his right, away from his face.

Sounds like a simple change. But it’s not, not when a player has been shooting that way for years.

“It was tough especially early on when I wasn’t making shots during the summer,” Walker said. “I said, ‘I can’t do it. I’m going back to my old shot.’ I was having doubts.”

 

Warriors Will Rest, but Not Until the Playoffs – The New York Times

The New York Times from March 25, 2016

… “The fact is, once the first round gets under way, it’s like days of rest,” he said.

Consider that during their championship run last season, the Warriors played their 21 playoff games over the course of 59 days. It obviously helped that they swept the New Orleans Pelicans in their first-round series, which gave them extra time off. But the Warriors would have had ample opportunity to recover regardless.

Now, compare that two-month marathon with what the team has endured in recent weeks. By the end of the regular season, they will have played their final 21 games in just 37 days.

 

What’s More Important For Success: Health Or Education?

Fast Company, Co.Exist from March 25, 2016

When we asked Americans which five-year-old child is more likely to be successful—one with access to a good education but no healthcare or one who had access to a great doctor but poor schools—people overwhelming choose education by a margin of 4 to 1.

On face value this makes sense. We know more successful people who are educated, but unhealthy, and fewer who are uneducated but healthy.

Dig a little deeper though and you quickly realize how interwoven these two aspects of our development are. Better health makes learning easier.

 

Helpful ghost hands teach beginners how to build new things

New Scientist from March 22, 2016

FIRST day on the assembly line? Keep your eyes on the ghost hands and you’ll do just fine. A device developed at Fujitsu Laboratories in Kanagawa, Japan, can train beginners by projecting the hands of experts in front of their own.

A video of hands doing a particular task is displayed by an overhead projector, with explanatory text and outlines of important objects or schematics shown alongside. Virtual buttons projected on the work surface let the user pause and rewind the video if they want to go back over something they missed.

 

A Manager’s Job Is Making Sure Employees Have a Life Outside Work

Harvard Busines Review, Arjun Dev Arora and Raman Frey from March 25, 2016

… We have both found that encouraging employees to be creative and independent — not obedient soldiers taking orders down the chain of command — makes everyone feel like they have a stake in a positive outcome. Recent research backs this up.

 

Warriors embrace modern science, but where will it lead them?

San Francisco Chronicle from March 27, 2016

Warriors center Andrew Bogut grew up in Australia, where sports science long has been part of the daily routine for elite athletes. So he mostly embraces his NBA team’s efforts to gather data about the physical condition of its players.

Bogut also is skeptical about how this could affect the games unfolding on the basketball court.

That’s the challenge for the Warriors as they travel down a scientific path. They’re putting cameras in the rafters at Oracle Arena and wearable technology on players at practice. They’re leaning on a reshaped training staff led by Lachlan Penfold, who brings experience working with athletes in, yes, Australia.

The Warriors are learning more than ever about which players are fatigued and might be susceptible to injury. Now comes the real quandary: What to do with all this new information?

 

Could Cincinnati sweat-tech firm’s sensor have helped former XU coach Miller keep his cool?

Cincinnati Business Courier from March 18, 2016

Cincinnati sweat-tech firm Eccrine Systems Inc. is working on an electronic sensor to monitor the performance and health of athletes.

But it also could have applications for the likes of former Xavier University basketball Coach Sean Miller, whose perspiration-soaked dress shirt became a social media sensation during a Thursday NCAA tournament game.
Eccrine Systems produces a small electronic patch that can monitor the contents of sweat.

Eccrine Systems, a CincyTech portfolio company, is teaming with Virginia-based CoreSyte on the development and design of a battery-powered sweat sensor that will be worn on the body. CoreSyte is overseeing the manufacture of the device, which will be tested on professional athletes this summer in partnership with Gatorade sports drink.

 

DNA devices perform bio-analytical chemistry inside live cells

UChicago News from March 24, 2016

… “Yamuna Krishnan is one of the leading practitioners of biologically oriented DNA nanotechnology,” said Nadrian Seeman, the father of the field and the Margaret and Herman Sokol Professor of Chemistry at New York University. “These types of intracellular sensors are unique to my knowledge, and represent a major advance for the field of DNA nanotechnology.”

 

Behind The Scenes With The Maryland Basketball Sports Science Team – SportTechie

[Kevin Dawidowicz, MustHave] [Kevin Dawidowicz, MustHave] SportTechie from March 24, 2016

… In this constant quest for an edge, Maryland Basketball, and the Athletics Department as a whole, has been utilizing technology to assist in better understanding their players so they can develop their optimum shape to not only succeed on the court, but to play to the maximum of their abilities in the best possible health.

Last month I was able to observe the Maryland Basketball training and sports science team in person, before their game against fellow Sweet 16 participant Wisconsin Badgers. During this experience I saw a program that has become fully devoted to integrating their day-to-day efforts with technology.

A major impetus for this immersion into technology was Maryland’s hire of David Klossner in September of 2013, after he spent 10 years as the Director of the NCAA Sport Science Institute. His hire came two years after the Terrapins hired Mark Turgeon away from Texas A&M to be their head coach. The two have combined to bring Maryland to the cutting edge of technological benefits in player performance.

 

Psychological Factors Associated With Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction Recovery

[Kevin Dawidowicz, MustHave] [Kevin Dawidowicz, MustHave] Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine from March 23, 2016

Background: Psychological factors may have underappreciated effects on surgical outcomes after anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction; however, few studies have investigated the relationship between specific psychological factors, objective clinical data, and patient-oriented outcomes.

Purpose: Psychological factors are significantly associated with patient perceptions and functional outcomes after ACL reconstruction. The purpose of this study was to demonstrate relationships between self-esteem, health locus of control, and psychological distress with objective clinical outcomes, patient-oriented outcomes, and return to sport.

Study Design: Cross-sectional study; Level of evidence, 3.

Methods: Twenty-seven patients who were 6 to 24 months post–computer-assisted ACL reconstruction by a single surgeon consented to participate in the study (52% response rate). Participants had a 1-time visit with a physician consisting of: a physical examination, a single-leg hop test, KT-1000 arthrometer measurements, and survey completion. Psychological measures included the Multidimensional Health Locus of Control Scale, Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, and Brief Profile of Mood States. Outcome measures included the Tegner activity scale, International Knee Documentation Committee (IKDC) Subjective Knee Score, Knee injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score–Quality of Life subscale (KOOS-QOL), and Short Form–36 (SF-36). Patient charts were also reviewed for pertinent operative details.

Results: The mean age of patients (±SD) was 25.7 ± 8.4 years, and the mean duration of time since surgery was 16.5 ± 5.9 months. The majority (89%) of the patients identified themselves as athletes, and of these, 65% reported returning to sports at a competitive level. Sport returners were found to have higher levels of self-esteem (P = .002) and higher reported KOOS-QOL scores (P = .02). Self-esteem was significantly associated with IKDC scores (r = 0.46, P < .05), KOOS-QOL scores (r = 0.45, P < .05), and SF-36 subscales of general health (r = 0.45, P < .05) and physical functioning (r = 0.42, P < .05). Internal locus of control was significantly correlated with performance on single-leg hop test (r = 0.4, P < .05). Objective knee stability measurements did not correlate with subjective outcomes.

Conclusion: Self-esteem levels and locus of control had significant relationships with functional test performance and validated outcome measures after ACL reconstruction. Sport returners had significantly higher self-esteem levels than those who did not return to sports, without observable differences in knee stability or time since surgery.

 

Why Supplements Aren’t the Same as Foods | Runner’s World

Runner's World, Sweat Science blog from March 25, 2016

… A new study in the journal Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism, from researchers at several institutions in Switzerland, takes this question on. The researchers put 12 “well-trained’ volunteers through a series of tests with three different doses of nitrate (3, 6, and 12 mmol), obtained either from beet juice or from straight sodium nitrate dissolved in water.

The big benefit of beet juice, from the perspective of endurance athletes, is that it makes exercise more “economical”—that is, it costs less oxygen to sustain the same pace. Sure enough, the results showed that the middle dose of beet juice reduced the oxygen cost of cycling at 80 percent of VO2max by about 4 percent. (There were similar results at the higher dose and at moderate intensity, but they didn’t reach statistical significance.)

In contrast, the sodium nitrate didn’t produce a significant improvement in cycling economy. Similarly, beet juice reduced blood pressure more than sodium nitrate.

 

Villanova’s Meticulous Approach to Nutrition and Recovery Has the Wildcats in the Elite 8 | STACK

[Kevin Dawidowicz, MustHave] [Kevin Dawidowicz, MustHave] STACK from March 25, 2016

… We spoke to head coach Jay Wright about how the Wildcats fuel their performance for every practice and game.

“What we do, we have a short film session, a heart rate session to get their heart rate to a certain spot, a stretch session, a cold tub session, and we have a leg movement session,” Wright said. “And we do it the same way every day after a game. We have nutrition drinks and all of our meals are done by our strength coaches and nutritionist. It’s big to us.”

 

Examining Major League Baseball’s obsession with the fastball | NBC SportsWorld

NBC SportsWorld, Joe Posnaski from March 24, 2016

… There’s a theory out there that people are throwing the ball harder than at any point in baseball history. This is because 100-mph fastballs used to be a bit like shooting stars and now they light up radar guns in every stadium practically every night. Aroldis Chapman is the king of the 100-mph fastball — Statcast had him throwing the 62 fastest pitches in 2015 — but THIRTY-SIX pitchers broke 100 last year (thank you MLB.com)*. Every team seems to have at least one bullpen guy who, on the right night, can light up triple digits.

 

This chart shows which college football teams have the most success per dollar

SB Nation, Ross Benes from March 24, 2016

 

NFL Pulls Back Curtain on Year 1 of Player Tracking, Next-Gen Stats

Sports Video Group from March 25, 2016

The NBA, NFL, NHL, and Major League Baseball have embraced player-tracking solutions over the past three years and have begun integrating graphic visualizations of the data into broadcasts and streaming content. The four major U.S. sports leagues join a rapidly growing global bandwagon of leagues, teams, and broadcasters beefing up data-analytics teams and investing in tracking/visualization. Despite the treasure trove of data available, however, the key remains adding context to make it digestible for both fans and professionals alike.

“You have to be very, very careful to provide context, because data in and of itself is just an overwhelming amount of zeros and ones that don’t mean anything,” cautioned Perkins Miller, chief digital officer/head of media operations, NFL, at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference this month in Boston. “That is where people will confuse data with insight. We spend a lot of time taking this data and making sure we provide the right context so you can develop the right insight. As Mark Twain said, ‘There are lies, damn lies, and statistics.’ You have to be very careful about how you provide that context and insight.”

 

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