Applied Sports Science newsletter – May 24, 2016

Cameron Wake has “done everything [the Dolphins have] asked” since tearing his Achilles tendon last fall, and his rehab is ahead of schedule, Dolphins football czar Mike Tannenbaum said Friday.

“He’s really exceeded expectations, in terms of where he is and where our doctors thought he would be when he got hurt,” Tannebaum said before participating in the Fins Weekend golf tournament. “Cam is the consummate pro, the consummate Dolphin, and we’re lucky he’s here.”

The Dolphins remain cautiously optimistic that Wake will be ready for the first game of the season. They were encouraged enough by his recovery to award him a two-year, $15 million contract extension earlier this month.

hroughout the offseason, it’s seemed a foregone conclusion Cardinals defensive back Tyrann Mathieu would play in the season opener against the Patriots on Sept. 11.

That’s how glowing the reports are of Mathieu’s rehabilitation from a second torn ACL injury in three seasons.

Not so fast.

While Mathieu’s rehabilitation is progressing normally, there is a possibility he won’t be ready for the season opener in primetime on that Sunday night.

The inquest over how Tottenham Hotspur contrived to surrender the Premier League title, second place and the chance to finish above rivals Arsenal is unlikely to focus on the workload manager Mauricio Pochettino put on his players.

The lifestyle of NFL officials is not as glamorous as the players they monitor on the field. But to be a successful caretaker of football, it takes an incredible amount of discipline, especially during the offseason when the temptation to challenge their fitness and health is critical.

For decades, the NFL Caretakers had to audit their own fitness and health with no supervision. Three years ago, sole preparation for an upcoming season changed with the NFL Football Officiating Mini-Clinic.

“We never had anything like this,” said NFL Regional Supervisor for officials Neely Dunn.

The purpose of this study was to examine whether a video-based warm up could provide an acute performance benefit to response time for athletes within a sport specific agility task. Additionally, two learning strategies, explicit and implicit, were compared for their effectiveness in facilitating an improvement in sport-specific agility. Thirty male junior representative rugby union players (age range 14-16 years; mean age = 14.6 ± 1.09 years) were placed in three experimental groups (explicit, implicit and control) and completed two intervention sessions. Testing sessions included ‘pre’ intervention testing, completion of the video-based warm up intervention, and ‘post’ intervention testing. A 3D motion analysis system was used to assess response time within the testing battery. The athletes’ response times of the pre- to post-intervention tests were compared to determine the effectiveness of the video-based warm up. Two-way general linear model with repeated measures analysis indicated that both the explicit (P = 0.030, d = 0.28) and implicit (P = 0.049, d = 0.33) groups significantly improved their response time by the intervention, compared to the control group (P = 0.367, d = 0.08). The mean post-intervention response time for the explicit group improved by 19.1% (from 0.246 s pre to 0.199 s post) and implicit group improved by 15.7% (from 0.268 s to 0.226 s). Findings suggest that a video-based warm up may provide an acute benefit to sport-specific agility performance for junior athletes.

I’ve been writing a lot of “10 seconds in…” posts lately. The idea is to watch just ten seconds of a teacher in action (like here and here). Close study of just a few seconds in a top classroom can yield a bunch of useful takeaways. I kind of stumbled on to the idea, but it’s quite powerful. You really can learn a lot from watching that little of an elite teacher at work.

So I decided to apply the idea to coaching and I am going to start with ten seconds of footage from a session by the legendary FA and Cardiff City coach Dick Bate.

Siggi Eyolfsson had only modest success as a professional footballer abroad, but he worked wonders when he returned home to launch a coaching revolution that many credit for Iceland making their European Chammpionship debut this year.

Periodisation is probably the most important and fundamental concept in sports training. Typically, it consists of a ‘training cycle’ divided into different training phases (Figure 1) – with distinct physical and physiological objectives – to enable the best performance from athletes in a competition (i.e. peak performance). Theoretically, using the periodisation concept, peak performance occurs in a controlled way, as a result of the summation of the particular adaptations provided by each training phase (mesocycles). In fact, several studies have reported that different periodisation regimens are superior to non-periodised models for improving performance in elite athletes. However, from a practical point of view, this research is limited by the fact that the authors – throughout the experimental period – only investigated the changes in physical capacities (i.e. muscle strength and power), but not in actual sports performance (competition results). Therefore, it is accepted that programmed training interventions produce greater enhancements in athletes’ fitness scores than unplanned (non-periodised) exercise regimens. However, when examining the role of the periodisation concept in achieving the maximum specific performance in selected sports events (season’s best result), an important drawback emerges: very low rates of effectiveness.

AIM:

To describe the epidemiology of National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) men’s and women’s soccer injuries during the 2009/2010-2014/2015 academic years.
METHODS:

This descriptive epidemiology study used NCAA Injury Surveillance Program (NCAA-ISP) data during the 2009/2010-2014/2015 academic years, from 44 men’s and 64 women’s soccer programmes (104 and 167 team seasons of data, respectively). Non-time-loss injuries were defined as resulting in <24?h lost from sport. Injury counts, percentages and rates were calculated. Injury rate ratios (RRs) and injury proportion ratios (IPRs) with 95% CIs compared rates and distributions by sex.
RESULTS:

There were 1554 men’s soccer and 2271 women’s soccer injuries with injury rates of 8.07/1000 athlete exposures (AE) and 8.44/1000AE, respectively. Injury rates for men and women did not differ in competitions (17.53 vs 17.04/1000AE; RR=1.03; 95% CI 0.94 to 1.13) or practices (5.47 vs 5.69/1000AE; RR=0.96; 95% CI 0.88 to 1.05). In total, 47.2% (n=733) of men’s soccer injuries and 47.5% (n=1079) of women’s were non-time loss. Most injuries occurred to the lower extremity and were diagnosed as sprains. Women had higher concussion rates (0.59 vs 0.34/1000AE; RR=1.76; 95% CI 1.32 to 2.35) than men.
CONCLUSIONS:

Non-time-loss injuries accounted for nearly half of the injuries in men’s and women’s soccer. Sex differences were found in competition injuries, specifically for concussion. Further study into the incidence, treatment and outcome of non-time-loss injuries may identify a more accurate burden of these injuries.

About a quarter of major league pitchers have had Tommy John surgery, and the reason for the epidemic has been unclear.

Various studies have suggested that pitching mechanics, the anatomy of a pitcher’s arm, curveballs, pitching fatigue, pitch velocity or just pitching too many innings could be the problem. But according to research by doctors at the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, the explanation is none of the above. Instead, it is throwing fastballs, and throwing lots of them.

When the N.F.L. agreed in 2012 to donate tens of millions of dollars to concussion research overseen by the National Institutes of Health, it was widely seen as a positive turning point in football’s long history of playing down the long-term effects of brain injuries on players. At the time, the league said that it would have no influence over how the money was used.

But the league and its head, neck and spine committee worked to improperly influence the government research, trying to steer the study toward a doctor with ties to the league, according to a study conducted by a congressional committee and released on Monday.

“Our investigation has shown that while the N.F.L. had been publicly proclaiming its role as funder and accelerator of important research, it was privately attempting to influence that research,” the study concluded. “The N.F.L. attempted to use its ‘unrestricted gift’ as leverage to steer funding away from one of its critics.”

During my pediatrics rotation, the thing that many students grew tired of was performing well checks. It’s a short visit during which we measure height and weight, inquire about any past illnesses or active symptoms, assess milestones and healthy development, and provide guidance on measures for safety — like wearing seatbelts, drinking milk, or locking away guns at home.

Intellectually, the well check was a quick exercise. Once we got a sense for the range of normal childhood growth, the expected markers of verbal, social, and motor development, and the signs and symptoms of puberty, the rest was a process in applying common knowledge. Here there were no diagnostic mysteries, no evidence-based prognosticating, no clinical exams where the purpose was to unearth a subtle finding. The goal was to be thorough, quick, and uniform. However, the stellar clinicians who mentored me quickly proved that the well check was a prime opportunity for connection, counseling, and change.

Artificial sweeteners raise eyebrows amongst even the most accomplished food experts. But while their worth is highly debated, their popularity is undeniable — in 2012 alone, consumers spent nearly $290 million on Splenda. But why are Americans so drawn to these chemicals? Read on.

Our society is deeply conflicted about the source of excellence. On one hand, we are fascinated with child prodigies, portraying them as wonders of nature. On the other hand, we love a good “overcoming adversity” story, as it inspires us all to greatness.

But when it comes down to actually making judgments about individual performance, what influences our evaluations? Previous research has found that the potential to be good at something often carries more weight than actually being good at it. But why is this so?

There were a number of factors that led to the Thunder’s surprising Game 1 road victory over the Warriors on Monday night, not the least of which was head coach Billy Donovan’s decision to stick with playing two traditional bigs together. In an age of “small-ball” against the ultimate “small-ball” team, Serge Ibaka, Enes Kanter, and Steven Adams helped defeat Golden State by attacking the boards and garnering second chance opportunities for the Thunder.

But rather than focus how Donovan rolled with the same jumbo lineups which crushed San Antonio let’s focus on how general manager Sam Presti has revamped this roster to allow such an occurrence. It’s easy to fall victim to the fallacy that because the trio of Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and Serge Ibaka have been intact since 2009, the Thunder are aging. Those three have been the core of a franchise that has made the playoffs during 6 of the last 7 seasons, four of which saw them reaching at least the Western Conference Finals.

But this core three have more matured into their respective primes rather than aged.