Applied Sports Science newsletter – May 26, 2016

With the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference Finals for the second straight season, it’s worth taking a moment to review LeBron James’s post-season résumé. This is the King’s 11th straight playoff appearance and his eighth appearance in the Eastern Conference Finals. If the Cavs defeat the Toronto Raptors in a series that is now surprisingly deadlocked at two games apiece, James will reach the NBA Finals for the sixth straight time, the seventh in his career.

That adds up to a lot of mileage on his 31-year-old body, though LeBron looks as fresh as ever. He’s even told reporters that his body feels as good as it ever has during this 2016 NBA Playoff run. Much of this is because of the attention LeBron pays to his body. The two-time NBA champion is firmly in tune with what his body needs and when it needs it.

… “Since I started with the pros in January, everything has moved so fast,” he said. “The only thing I can say to fans and people out there who have such high expectations for me is just give me time and let me be a human being. I don’t want to be just some 17-year-old kid who is only known for being some prodigy at soccer. It’s too much. I’m just like anyone else. I want to live a normal life. I want to be respected as a nice kid who people know and not just because of soccer. I’m doing the best I can and I’m working towards my dream, but people just have to be patient.”

Like most American youngsters, Pulisic juggled a handful of sports and even dabbled in “sort-of-competitive” basketball for a year before it became clear that soccer was his true calling.

Kyle Korver appreciated Day 1 of the 2016 offseason a whole lot more than he did the same day a year earlier.

“I’m actually going to work out,” he said with a laugh. “I’m excited to be on my feet today.”

For Korver, the offseason is supposed to bring the opportunity to train, strengthen and refine his skills. No one loves routine more than Korver, and no part of the NBA calendar year serves as a better opportunity to jump into a developmental regimen than the summer does.

But last summer, hindered by a pair of surgery rehabilitations, Korver did not get the chance to work through his preferred prep work. This summer, he will.

Organisational stressors are associated with positive and negative outcomes in extant literature; however, little is known about which demands predict which outcomes. Extant theory and literature also suggests that coping style may influence an individual’s resilience or vulnerability to stressors and, subsequently, their psychological responses and outcomes. The purpose of this study was, therefore, to examine the main effects of organisational stressors and coping styles on various outcomes (e.g., positive and negative affect, performance satisfaction). Sport performers (n = 414) completed measures of organisational stressors, coping styles, positive and negative affect, and performance satisfaction. Multiple regression analyses revealed positive relationships of both goals and development stressors (duration and intensity) and team and culture stressors (frequency and intensity) on negative affect. Furthermore, problem-focused coping was positively related to positive affect, and emotion-focused coping was positively related to negative affect. This study furthers theoretical knowledge regarding the associations that both organisational stressors (and their dimensions) and coping styles can have with various outcomes, and practical understanding regarding the optimal design of stress management interventions.

It is well established that many physiological functions are time-of-day (TOD) dependant and their circadian rhythms are well documented in healthy populations at resting state. In fact, greater rate of oxidative stress, white blood cell, homocystein and muscle damage markers were shown in the early evening (? 18:00 h) and more efficient antioxidant activity was observed in the early morning (? 06:00 h). During physical tasks, the majorities of the above-mentioned physiological functions increase from pre to post physical exercise with different rates of increases from the morning to the evening. These different rates of increases are suggested to alter the physiological resting-diurnal-variation. In this context, given the possible significant interaction “TOD × Physical exercise”, circadian rhythms of the physiological responses during physical activity are still not well established in trained subjects. Otherwise, it was suggested that the diurnal variation of these biochemical parameters could, in part, explain the typical diurnal fluctuation of physical performance. Therefore, the aim of this review is to summarize the currently available studies investigating the circadian rhythms of physiological functions at rest and following physical exercise and to establish their possible effect on the diurnal variation of sport performance. Although studies in this field are limited, the available information shows that compared to sedentary subjects, trained population maintained similar diurnal variations of hematological parameters, homocystein and some biochemical markers at rest and even after physical exercise. However, after strength exercises the circadian rhythms for the majority of oxidative stress and muscle damage markers were altered due to the higher rate of increase pre-post exercises registered in the morning compared to the afternoon and to the evening. The available studies reveal that the significant circadian variation observed for sport performances could be more likely explained by the alteration of ionic movement and the diurnal fluctuation of homocystein, lactate, muscle damage and antioxidant markers.

Take a look around you and you’ll see an endless range of body types: scrawny, lithe, pudgy, toned — even Hulklike upper bodies paired with skinny chicken legs. We might tell ourselves we’re fitter than one person because we’re more dedicated or that we’re scrawnier than someone else because of genetics. But how much of one’s body shape is predetermined, and how much can we control?

“It’s a bit of both,” says Elizabeth Brooks, D.C. personal trainer. “I’ve seen the most ectomorph person change their shape into a bodybuilder type.” (An ectomorph body is generally lean, while endomorph is usually stockier. Mesomorph is muscular and athletic.)

Brooks continues: “Genetics gives us a certain base, but nurture is a huge part of how we look.”

Phil Coles is the leader of the performance and medical staff at the San Antonio Spurs, and in this essay for ‘Performance’ he outlines what a High Performance Unit is, and how it should be structured to maximise success.

The HPU of an elite professional team is responsible for maximising the physical performance capabilities of that team. It ensures that the athletic development, sports science and sports medicine disciplines work closely together to achieve the overall aim of improved physical performance.

So far, 2016 has been a lame year for wearable tech. The best watches and fitness bands you can buy right now were, for the most part, released in 2015. That’s because you can practically count the number of new and notable wearable things that debuted in the first five months of this year on one hand: The Fitbit Blaze, Fitbit Alta and — for hardcore runners — several new GPS watches from Garmin. Maybe interesting to some, but hardly to everyone.

But that’s going to change. And all indications point to a flood of stuff coming — this fall.

PURPOSE:

The aim of this study is to report the effects of autologous PRP injections on time to return to play and recurrence rate after acute grade 2 muscle injuries in recreational and competitive athletes.
METHODS:

Seventy-five patients diagnosed with acute muscle injuries were randomly allocated to autologous PRP therapy combined with a rehabilitation programme or a rehabilitation programme only. The primary outcome of this study was time to return to play. In addition, changes in pain severity and recurrence rates were evaluated.
RESULTS:

Patients in the PRP group achieved full recovery significantly earlier than controls (P = 0.001). The mean time to return to play was 21.1 ± 3.1 days and 25 ± 2.8 days for the PRP and control groups, respectively (P = 0.001). Significantly lower pain severity scores were observed in the PRP group throughout the study. The difference in the recurrence rate after 2-year-follow-up was not statistically significant between groups.
CONCLUSIONS:

A single PRP injection combined with a rehabilitation programme significantly shortened time to return to sports compared to a rehabilitation programme only. Recurrence rate was not significantly different between groups.

Background: No study has attempted to associate the levels of preinjury serum biomarkers of collagen turnover with the subsequent risk of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury.

Hypothesis: Preinjury serum biomarkers of collagen turnover would be associated with the subsequent risk of ACL injury.

Study Design: Case-control study; Level of evidence, 3.

Methods: We conducted a case-control study with 45 ACL-injured cases and 45 controls matched for sex, age, height, and weight. In addition to the matching criteria, controls had no history of major joint injury. Baseline preinjury serum samples were obtained from the Department of Defense Serum Repository for all subjects. Samples were assessed for 2 serum biomarkers of collagen synthesis (CPII and CS846) and 2 markers of collagen degradation (C1,2C and C2C) through commercially available enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kits. All ELISAs were performed in triplicate. Conditional logistic regression models were used to analyze the data.

Results: Univariate results suggested that both biomarkers for collagen degradation (C1,2C and C2C) were significantly associated with the subsequent likelihood of ACL injury. Serum C2C and C1,2C concentration at baseline were associated with odds ratios (ORs) of 2.05 (95% CI, 1.30-3.23; P = .001) and 3.02 (95% CI, 1.60-5.71; P = .002), respectively. Baseline serum CPII concentrations were also associated with subsequent ACL injury. Serum CPII concentration at baseline was associated with an OR of 4.41 (95% CI, 1.87-10.38; P = .001). Baseline serum CS846 levels approached significance (OR = 0.77; 95% CI, 0.57-1.03; P = .080). Multivariable models suggested that preinjury CPII and C2C concentrations at baseline are important indicators of subsequent ACL injury risk.

Conclusion: Preinjury differences in serum biomarker levels of collagen turnover suggest that collagen metabolism in individuals who go on to tear an ACL may be different when compared with a matched control group with no history of major joint injury. These differences may be reflective of different preinjury biochemical and/or biomechanical risk profiles or genetic factors that subsequently affect both collagen metabolism and ACL injury risk.

Even though the theme of the conference is bridging the gap between data science and data engineering, it was clear right from the first keynote that we wouldn’t solve that problem completely in just two days. Josh Wills from Slack got a lot of head nods when he introduced the “Infinite Loop of Sadness” to describe the interplay between data engineering, data science, ops and business.

… A coach recently told me: “I don’t believe that there is such a thing as luck in hockey.”

I found that statement highly alarming.

A reasonable amount of self-determination and self-belief is a necessity for success in most fields, but recall the 2013 Maple Leafs, the 2014 Avalanche and the 2015 Flames – teams whose coaches and managers believed that what their results were entirely driven by what they did and did not do. The story generally doesn’t end well.

How much of Leicester City’s run to the Premier League championship was just luck? I was curious to get a better gut feel for how random it might have been, so I wrote a simulation.

Specifics of the simulation are in small font below. The most important shortcoming, I think, was that I kept teams symmetrical, instead of creating a few high-spending “superteams” like actually exist in the Premier League (Chelsea, Manchester United, Arsenal, etc.). Maybe I’ll revisit that in a future post, but I’ll just go with it as is for now.

On April 19, 1966, Roberta Gibb became the first woman to (unofficially) finish the Boston marathon. Women were officially allowed to enter the race in 1971, and Boston medaled its first female winner in 1972 — the year that also saw the passage of Title IX — the amendment that prohibits discrimination based on sex in education programs or any program receiving federal funding. This year, 13,751 women crossed the Boston marathon finish line, making the finisher list 45 percent female. In the last 50 years, other sports have also welcomed in women, from weightlifting to rugby to wrestling. And of course, women exercise noncompetitively, lifting weights, holding yoga poses and putting in hours on the track and in the gym.

Women are making up for a historical bias against them in sports. Not surprisingly, there’s also historically been a bias in sports science. “If you went all the way back to the 1950s, a lot of exercise physiology studies about metabolism talk about the 150-pound-man,” says Bruce Gladden, an exercise physiologist at Auburn University in Alabama and the editor in chief of the journal Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise. “That was the average medical student.” It was a matter of convenience, studying the people nearest at hand, he explains.

… “As an organization, one of our goals is to be consistently good over a long period of time, similar to what the Spurs and [New England] Patriots have accomplished. Those organizations have been synonymous with success for decades and have set the bar incredibly high for the rest of us, both on the business and team performance sides. We have a ton of work to do and have a long way to go before we reach that level. Joe understands this better than anyone and knows that we have our work cut out for us, if we are to maintain a level of excellence for years to come.”

At some point, the Warriors’ tide will recede, or perhaps they’ll endure a sequence of bad luck — an injury to a key player or a no-brainer of an acquisition who somehow disrupts the magic. There’s a good chance the Warriors bow out of the most successful season in NBA history with a loss in a conference finals. Only when events such as that occur will the Warriors’ culture be tested.