Applied Sports Science newsletter – May 27, 2016

Applied Sports Science news articles, blog posts and research papers for May 27, 2016

 

Eddie Lacy at Packers practice: ‘I think I look good’

NFL.com, Chris Wesseling from May 24, 2016

Eddie Lacy’s streamlined body was on open display Tuesday for the first time this offseason.

After the Green Bay Packers’ first public practice of the new league year, Lacy said, via ESPN.com, “I think I look good.”

Although Lacy’s listed weight is 234 pounds, multiple reports suggested he played last season in the 260 range. Coach Mike McCarthy called the power back out in January, making it clear that Lacy “cannot play at the weight he played at” in 2015.

“At the end of the day, we’re all grown men,” Lacy added. “Whether he calls me out, I just have to take care of that responsibility. You don’t get mad or (lash) out or anything like that. You just take it as it is what it is and make it go away.

 

Tony Romo’s health difference in wins for Dallas Cowboys – NFC East- ESPN

ESPN NFL, Todd Archer from May 26, 2016

There is no getting around that the Dallas Cowboys are a different team when Tony Romo doesn’t play. It’s simple math.

Since 2013, the Cowboys are 23-11 with Romo as their starter. They are 1-13 without Romo, including a 1-11 mark last season.

 

Which Fatigues First, Your Brain or Your Legs? | Runner’s World

Runner's World, Sweat Science blog from May 26, 2016

We all know what it feels like to reach our limits—to be unable to maintain pace for even one more step. But what defines those limits? Turns out there are lots of different factors that kick in depending on the situation, as I explored in a feature on fatigue earlier this year.

Researchers are still trying to sort out all these different factors, and a recent study in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise offers some interesting new insights. The study, from Kevin Thomas and his colleagues at Northumbria University in Britain, explores the relative contribution of the central nervous system compared to the muscles after different durations of all-out cycling.

 

Being on Time Means Being Early

Jessica Lahey from May 26, 2016

… When your child bursts through the school entrance as the minute hand hits the twelve, that’s not on time.

Let me fill you in a middle school student’s morning needs – and keep in mind, I have left out the superfluous stuff in favor of the essentials.

 

Steve Kerr, Pete Carroll credit tennis book for success

SI.com, Chris Ballard from May 26, 2016

The book’s not much to look at.

Roughly the size of a Reader’s Digest. Only 134 pages long. You’ve likely never heard of the author, Timothy Gallwey, even though the title’s been in print for 40-plus years. The opening quote is from Maharaji; the back cover promises the ability to “Master Your Game from the Inside Out!”

And yet this is it, the book Warriors coach Steve Kerr swears by, the one he re-reads every off-season. It’s a book he distributes frequently (“I have like 10 copies because I’m always giving them out,” he says); one he says informed both his playing career and his coaching approach; a book that bonded him with Seahawks coach Pete Carroll and provides an unexpected link to his current opponent, the Oklahoma City Thunder; a book some view as akin to a cheat code not just for athletics, but life.

A book about tennis.

 

Let Sleeping Tennis Players Lie – WSJ

Wall Street Journal from May 25, 2016

Kei Nishikori, the best tennis player in the history of Japan, has many enviable talents. He can clobber forehands. His backhand is a textbook stroke, both compact and powerful. There’s one vital skill, though, that Nishikori has mastered more than any of his peers in tennis: He’s a champion sleeper.

Nishikori, who advanced to the third round of the French Open on Wednesday, sleeps nine to 10 hours a day and usually takes naps. He can sleep in cars, on planes, on couches, in chairs—“Everywhere,” he said. He usually falls asleep in 10 minutes or less. He said he has been this way since childhood.

“I always loved to sleep,” Nishikori said. “If I don’t sleep, I don’t feel energy.”

 

Effects of a strength training session after an exercise inducing muscle damage on recovery kinetics.

Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research from May 23, 2016

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects an upper-limb strength training session the day after an exercise inducing muscle damage, on recovery of performance. In a randomized crossover design, subjects performed the day after the exercise, on two separate occasions (passive versus active recovery conditions) a single-leg exercise (dominant in one condition and non-dominant in the other condition) consisting of 5 sets of 15 eccentric contractions of the knee flexors. Active recovery consisted of performing an upper-body strength training session the day after the exercise. Creatine kinase, hamstring strength and muscle soreness were assessed immediately, 20h, 24h and 48h after exercise-induced muscle damage. The upper-body strength session, following muscle damaging exercise accelerated the recovery of slow concentric force (ES = 0.65; 90% CI = -0.06 to 1.32), but did not affect the recovery kinetics for the other outcomes. The addition of an upper body strength training session the day following muscle damaging activity does not negatively affect the recovery kinetics. Upper body strength training may be programmed the day after a competition.

 

Energy Expenditure Derived From Micro-Technology is Not Suitable for Assessing Internal Load in Collision-Based Activities

International Journal of Sports Physiology & Performance from May 18, 2016

This aim of this study was to examine the validity of energy expenditure derived from micro-technology when measured during a repeated effort rugby protocol. Sixteen male rugby players completed a repeated effort protocol comprising 3 sets of 6 collisions during which movement activity and energy expenditure (EEGPS) were measured using micro-technology. In addition, energy expenditure was also estimated from open circuit spirometry (EEVO2). Whilst related (r = 0.63, 90%CI 0.08-0.89), there was a systematic underestimation of energy expenditure during the protocol (-5.94 ± 0.67 kcal×min-1) for EEGPS (7.2 ± 1.0 kcal×min-1) compared to EEVO2 (13.2 ± 2.3 kcal×min-1). High-speed running distance (r = 0.50, 95%CI -0.66-0.84) was related to EEVO2, while Player Load was not (r = 0.37, 95%CI -0.81-0.68). Whilst metabolic power might provide a different measure of external load than other typically used micro-technology metrics (e.g. high-speed running, Player Load), it underestimates energy expenditure during intermittent team sports that involve collisions.

 

New app targets mental fitness in sports

CBC News from May 25, 2016

A P.E.I. mental performance consultant is officially launching a new app Wednesday night, targeted at the sports community.

Athletes need to train for mental fitness just like they train for physical fitness, said Tara Costello, president of Ahead In The Game, the app developers.

It features a mental skills tool box that uses video, audio and text to help athletes work on skills such as controlling breathing and minimizing negative thinking.

 

Tackling Tech: Can Tech Save NFL Training Camps? | New England Patriots

New England Patriots, Bob Wallace from May 26, 2016

Two-a-days are history, but injury woes are climbing, and some key players are going down in OTAs. Training camps are evolving from full-contact full-time to more shorts-and-shorts annual prep periods.

<
Welcome to NFL 2016.

The question facing the league and its teams is whether technology can take up enough of the slack between the past and the present. What might training camp 2.0 look like?

 

Hamstring Injury Recovery and Return To Sports

Howard J. Luks, MD from May 25, 2016

Hamstring injuries are quite common in sports involving sprinting and jumping. A major problem associated with hamstring injury is the risk of reinjury. The precise time to return an athlete to sports after a posterior chain injury is unknown. Hamstring injury recovery varies dramatically based on the nature of the injury and the athlete. Determining when an athlete can return to sports is not always easy to determine. With our current treatment “protocols” it appears that we might not be allowing athletes to recover long enough. Recent literature shows that there is a significant risk of reinjury when current return to sports criteria are utilized.

One of our major concerns following any significant hamstring injury is the risk of reinjury. A reinjury puts the patient at risk for a longer hamstring recovery and an even higher risk of another injury in his/her career. Following multiple hamstring injuries the risk of developing permanent weakness or pain is also much higher. It becomes harder and harder to rehabilitate a hamstring that has been injured on multiple occasions.

 

How U.S. officials plan to protect Olympic athletes from Zika

The Washington Post from May 25, 2016

U.S. officials are starting a massive effort to protect American athletes from Zika, even as they are learning more about the mysterious disease in real time. Some members of the U.S. Summer Olympics delegation are already being monitored for the virus as they begin to go to Brazil, the epicenter of the rapidly evolving outbreak.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is also assessing the threat that athletes and other travelers to the Games may increase the global spread of the mosquito-borne virus when they return to their home countries.

 

ACL repair: The first patient tells his story – Thriving blog

Boston Children's Hospital, Thriving blog from May 23, 2016

… The first two weeks after surgery were the hardest. All ACL patients have to wear a restrictive hip-to-ankle, post-operative brace for about six weeks. On the positive side, I was encouraged to see progress every day. I celebrated small victories, like bending my knee enough to sit on a chair and walking without crutches along the Charles River.

After checking my progress daily during the first two weeks after surgery, I continued to reach new milestones but on a weekly schedule.

A key milestone occurred six weeks after the surgery when I transitioned into a sports brace. It’s a pretty impressive piece of engineering: a carbon-fiber brace that was custom made based on a 3-D printed model of my leg.

 

2016 Consensus statement on return to sport from the First World Congress in Sports Physical Therapy, Bern — Ardern et al.

British Journal of Sports Medicine from May 25, 2016

Deciding when to return to sport after injury is complex and multifactorial—an exercise in risk management. Return to sport decisions are made every day by clinicians, athletes and coaches, ideally in a collaborative way. The purpose of this consensus statement was to present and synthesise current evidence to make recommendations for return to sport decision-making, clinical practice and future research directions related to returning athletes to sport. A half day meeting was held in Bern, Switzerland, after the First World Congress in Sports Physical Therapy. 17 expert clinicians participated. 4 main sections were initially agreed upon, then participants elected to join 1 of the 4 groups—each group focused on 1 section of the consensus statement. Participants in each group discussed and summarised the key issues for their section before the 17-member group met again for discussion to reach consensus on the content of the 4 sections. Return to sport is not a decision taken in isolation at the end of the recovery and rehabilitation process. Instead, return to sport should be viewed as a continuum, paralleled with recovery and rehabilitation. Biopsychosocial models may help the clinician make sense of individual factors that may influence the athlete’s return to sport, and the Strategic Assessment of Risk and Risk Tolerance framework may help decision-makers synthesise information to make an optimal return to sport decision. Research evidence to support return to sport decisions in clinical practice is scarce. Future research should focus on a standardised approach to defining, measuring and reporting return to sport outcomes, and identifying valuable prognostic factors for returning to sport.

 

Athletic Performance at the National Basketball Association Combine After Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction

Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine from May 25, 2016

Background: Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries are significant injuries in elite-level basketball players. In-game statistical performance after ACL reconstruction has been demonstrated; however, few studies have reviewed functional performance in National Basketball Association (NBA)–caliber athletes after ACL reconstruction.

Purpose: To compare NBA Combine performance of athletes after ACL reconstruction with an age-, size-, and position-matched control group of players with no previous reported knee injury requiring surgery. We hypothesized that there is no difference between the 2 groups in functional performance.

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

Methods: A total of 1092 NBA-caliber players who participated in the NBA Combine between 2000 and 2015 were reviewed. Twenty-one athletes were identified as having primary ACL reconstruction prior to participation in the combine. This study group was compared with an age-, size-, and position-matched control group in objective functional performance testing, including the shuttle run test, lane agility test, three-quarter court sprint, vertical jump (no step), and maximum vertical jump (running start).

Results: With regard to quickness and agility, both ACL-reconstructed athletes and controls scored an average of 11.5 seconds in the lane agility test and 3.1 seconds in the shuttle run test (P = .745 and .346, respectively). Speed and acceleration was measured by the three-quarter court sprint, in which both the study group and the control group averaged 3.3 seconds (P = .516). In the maximum vertical jump, which demonstrates an athlete’s jumping ability with a running start, the ACL reconstruction group had an average height of 33.6 inches while the controls averaged 33.9 inches (P = .548). In the standing vertical jump, the ACL reconstruction group averaged 28.2 inches while the control group averaged 29.2 inches (P = .067).

Conclusion: In athletes who are able to return to sport and compete at a high level such as the NBA Combine, there is no significant difference in any combine performance test between players who have had primary ACL reconstruction compared with an age-, size-, and position-matched control group.

Clinical Relevance: Athletes with previous ACL reconstruction who are able to return to high-level professional basketball have equivalent performance measures with regard to speed, quickness, and jumping ability as those athletes who have not undergone knee surgery.

 

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