Applied Sports Science newsletter – January 21, 2017

Applied Sports Science news articles, blog posts and research papers for January 21, 2017

 

Oram: D’Angelo Russell’s inconsistency frustrating for Lakers

The Orange County Register, Bill Oram from

… t’s been this way all season for Russell who, like the Lakers other stars-to-be, has been inconsistent

“He’s still young,” said Russell’s backcourt mate, Nick Young. “There’s going to be ups and downs.”

The downs never seem quite as low for the other youngsters as they do for Russell. He is closely scrutinized and picked at. While most evolving players experience an ebb and flow in perception, the waves of Russell’s season are treated as big surf. When he’s good, he’s a star; when he’s bad, he’s untradeable and a drain on the Lakers group effort to be great.

 

Creighton’s Justin Patton blossoming into NBA prospect

SI.com, Seth Davis from

In June 2015, Creighton coach Greg McDermott invited Justin Patton to take a tour of the campus and meet in the coach’s office. Patton had just completed his junior season at Omaha North High School, which is located four miles from Creighton’s campus, so he had been to the university countless times. He had no reason to believe this visit would be different—that is, until McDermott surprised him by offering a scholarship. “I accepted instantly. He couldn’t even get the sentence out before I said yes,” Patton recalls. “I didn’t have any other offers. I was just sitting there hoping that I could play at this school.”

Last week, Patton returned to McDermott’s office for a much different kind of meeting. McDermott had invited Patton, his family and his AAU coach to discuss how they should handle the quickly escalating speculation over whether Patton, now a 7-foot redshirt freshman center for the seventh-ranked Bluejays, will enter the NBA draft this spring. McDermott has long sensed that Patton had that kind of potential, but he could never have imagined it would be realized so quickly. “When he first got here, he was so far away from being able to play in a college game,” McDermott says. “I’ve never coached anybody who has come as far and as fast as he has done it.”

 

Edmonton Oilers superstar Connor McDavid closing in on having played all 29 teams in the league

ESPN NHL, Joe McDonald from

… “I think he’s still adjusting,” Oilers GM Peter Chiarelli said. “Teams are playing him a certain way and he is adapting and changing. He has excellent hockey sense and this is reflective of that.”

What adjustments are teams making when facing McDavid?

“You know going in that he’s going to get his points, so you just try to limit what he does best — and that is beat you off the rush,” said an Eastern Conference GM. “Make him play in his own zone, so he has no energy offensively.”

 

Is Andy Murray destined never to win the Australian Open? Here’s what sport psychologists think…

Irish Examiner from

Andy Murray is one of the best players in tennis right now, but ahead of the 2017 Australian Open, it’s hard to ignore the fact he is a five-time defeated finalist in Melbourne.

 

No trick shot: Markelle Fultz rises from JV team to national star

USA Today Sports, Nicole Auerbach from

… Fultz’s rise to stardom happened so fast he hasn’t had time to become anyone other than who he is. Which is a goofy, fun-loving kid who works hard to be the best at everything he puts his mind to, including those jaw-dropping trick shots.

“He’s not gone through that thing where everybody’s putting you on this high pedestal and kissing your feet,” Romar said. “He’s had to work, and he’s been motivated for so long. Now, it’s just ingrained in him to be that way.”

 

Pittsburgh Steelers back Le’Veon Bell’s long journey from suspension to the AFC Championship game

ESPN NFL, Jeremy Fowler from

… “I think more running backs will definitely start to run [like Bell],” Gordon says. “You could see it in that Dallas game a little bit. … It’s not really that the players don’t want to do it, it’s more the coaches being comfortable with it. And maybe the coaches will change their mindset as they see [Bell] have more and more success.”

The seeds for Bell’s style were planted way back in youth football in Columbus, Ohio, when Bell’s uncle, Clarence, told him to stop running over the guys who blocked for him. Once Bell started to learn blocking schemes, he couldn’t get enough. “He always wanted to go over to Clarence’s house to watch college football,” Lisa Bell says. The determination followed. The two-star high school recruit wasn’t invited to participate in a Nike camp at Penn State, so he begged his mom to call organizers and persuade them to reconsider. She did, and they did, and he balled.

 

David Shaw explains why he hasn’t left for the NFL

CoachingSearch.com, Chris Vannini from

… Shaw recently joined The MMQB’s podcast with Peter King for a wide-ranging interview and talked jobs.

“The thing I stress to our guys who want to play in the NFL, college football and the NFL are two different sports,” Shaw said. “The NFL is not an extension of college. The NFL is its own monster. For me, going from college football to the NFL is essentially changing jobs. You can’t even do them the same way. The people who have been successful at both understand that. What it takes to be successful in college is not what it takes to be successful in the NFL. You have to draw a big line.”

 

Building Your Team’s In-Season Training Plan – Part I

Driveline Baseball from

The competitive high school baseball season is nearly upon us. As 2017 has finally arrived, many southern states are merely a handful of weeks away from tryouts, leaving very little time left for planning. Even the northern states who observe a true winter will see their first pitches thrown sooner rather than later.

With whatever time your school has remaining prior to baseball season, it is vital that the high school baseball coach thoughtfully plan out not just their practice plan, but also their training plan, should they want to incorporate strength-training into the competition season.

 

Added Emphasis Placed on U-23s as WNT Player Pool Expands

U.S. Soccer from

… “The U-23 camp gives us the opportunity to bring together the best college players and the best players that have done well in the youth teams to give us a chance to take a hard look,” Ellis said.

As the final day of training for the U-23s coincides with the first day of training for the senior squad, Ellis may hold over several players for a few days of training with the full squad. She will continue to evaluate the U-23 WNT, and all the USA’s youth teams, as the year progresses to see if there are any other players that have earned a possible call up to a senior camp in the near future.

“[This camp] is perfect because it’s right before the senior camp so we get to evaluate them up close and personal,” said Ellis. “It fits our theme right now which is to expand our pool and evaluate players.”

 

How to Fight Through Intellectual Discomfort

99u, Carson Tate from

… So why do we avoid intellectual discomfort? Because it requires our deepest level of thought, attention, and presence – much of which we’ve lost touch with as a result of full inboxes, the growing number of social media platforms, and media content that updates constantly. Deeply intellectual work is soul work that takes more time and energy. And it goes against the ways we’ve conditioned ourselves to work – on autopilot. We observe life versus engaging in it, whether we mechanically scroll through our social media feed to distract ourselves or use apps to make every step of our day more mindless.

But rarely do we improve when the task is easy. As a cross country runner in college, I detested the mile repeat workout that consisted of running four to six one-mile sets. You had to run each set, which was four laps around the track, as fast as you could with only one lap to recover between sets. It was a grueling and uncomfortable challenge for me every time. However, the speed and endurance that I developed through this type of workout prepared me for the challenge and pain of actual races. It was because I had experienced pain during these workouts that I knew in my gut that I could push through the pain when it truly counted. It was only after I chose to incorporate mile repeats into my workouts consistently that I started breaking my previous personal records.

Whereas runners can physically push through the pain, you need to mentally fight through intellectual discomfort. How? By concentrating solely on what is essential to complete the task at hand. Here are some go-to strategies to hone your focus.

 

The hidden psychology of failure

BBC – Capital, Sarah Cruddas from

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Words of wisdom heralded throughout our upbringing, to be sure. But is there any scientific proof that successive failure is positive and propels innovation forwards?

Tom Pohlmann, head of strategy and value at Mu Sigma, a decision science and data analytics firm, says there is, having studied in depth the idea of successive failure. “The rapid change of pace in business puts companies under pressure to innovate constantly, new technologies are making it possible to meet this challenge through on-going experimentation,” he said. Mu Sigma’s report shows failing fast and often is the best approach and the key to success in many areas of business.

 

Elite athletic performance at youth level is no guarantee of ultimate success

Metrifit, Eunan Whyte from

In previous blogs we have looked at the ideas surrounding the area of early specialization and how this can have negative effects in terms of an athlete’s hopes of making it at the top level in their chosen sport. Among the drawbacks that have been identified are over-use injuries, burn-out and the reduced possibility of pursuing exercise in adulthood. Another reason to avoid early specialization has been put forward at a recent sports conference which suggests that those who are identified as elite at a young age are not guaranteed to make it at senior level. One of the reasons is that this prevents them from developing the range of skills often needed to make it to the top. Professor Dr Arne Güllich, Head of Department of Sport Science and Director of the Institute of Applied Sport Science, Kaiserslautern University of Technology, argues that being an elite youth does not guarantee success and points out that there is no correlation between success at a young age and success at senior level. Most of us are aware of athletes who went on to become stars in their sport despite not being identified as elite at a young age.

 

Who Is Sleeping? – The short answer: not many of us, neither student nor student-athlete

NCAA, Champion Magazine from

 

The ethics of tracking athletes’ biometric data

Medical Xpress from

Whether it is a FitBit or a heart rate monitor, biometric technologies have become household devices. Professional sports leagues use some of the most technologically advanced biodata tracking systems to monitor athlete performance as well as prevent potential injuries. Many of these tracking devices involve around the clock surveillance of athletes’ bio signs raising several bioethical questions that apply to everyday users as well.

A recent target article in the American Journal of Bioethics looks at the ethics of tracking athlete biodata. Questions of privacy, autonomy, confidentiality, and conflicts of interest are just a few of the bioethical issues raised by new biodata tracking technologies. While specific to professional sports, this article has implications for anyone whose physical and physiological data is tracked using fitness devices.

Athletes have always given up some privacy rights, whether it is sharing medical information, on- and off-season testing for performance enhancers, or obtaining permission for off-season activities. Katrina Karkazis of Stanford University and Jennifer R. Fishman of McGill University contend that new biometric tracking technologies are different from previous monitoring methods in both their breadth and depth.

 

Being tired isn’t a badge of honor

LinkedIn, Jason Fried from

Whenever I speak at a conference, I try to catch a few of the other presentations. I tend to stand in the back and listen, observe, and get a general sense of the room.

Lately, I’ve been hearing something that disturbs me. A lot of entrepreneursonstage have been bragging about not sleeping, telling their audiences about their 16-hour days, and making it sound like hustle-at-all-costs is the way ahead. Rest be damned, they say — there’s an endless amount of work to do.

I think this message is one of the most harmful in all of business. Sustained exhaustion is not a rite of passage. It’s a mark of stupidity. Literally. Scientists have suggested that scores on IQ tests decline on each successive day you sleep less than you naturally would. It doesn’t take long before the difference is telling.

 

Tom Herman explains why he told players’ parents not to speak to the media

FootballScoop, Zach Barnett from

… Part of that vision, Herman said, is keeping the team’s laundry out of the media.

“Our business is our business. If your son tells you something, it’s expected to stay within the family because that’s family business. And we need your support. We need positivity,” he said. “Your sons are going to be better husbands, better fathers, better employees having been through our program and the love that we will share with them. And they will also win a whole lot of games by doing it our way.”

 

Top 5 communication tips for coaches working with 15 and 16 year old players

The FA from

Dr. Perry Walters, psychology consultant at The FA, offers some useful tips for communicating with teenage footballers.

 

College Football Isn’t As Safe As It Could Be

The Ringer, Rodger Sherman from

… NCAA rules prevent most coaches from having legitimate practices in the offseason. The exception is the strength-and-conditioning staff, which can hold up to eight hours of required conditioning activities per week. Games on fall Saturdays are won on weekdays in the winter, spring, and summer, and on many of those days, the players are entirely at the whim of the strength coach.

These offseason workouts can be dangerous, and not just because of rhabdomyolysis. Last March, Buffalo defensive end Solomon Jackson died after “a medical emergency” at practice. In 2014, Cal defensive lineman Ted Agu died after collapsing during a new drill in which players had to sprint up and down a hill with a heavy rope; the school admitted liability and paid his family nearly $5 million. In 2008, UCF’s Ereck Plancher died following a May conditioning drill overseen by head coach George O’Leary, who reportedly denied players water during the drill. In 2004, Bowling Green freshman Aaron Richardson died on his first day of practice after running sprints across the practice field; the team finished their practice as scheduled and found out about his death as it left the field. In 2001, Northwestern safety Rashidi Wheeler died after an August conditioning drill; the school’s doctor shredded and burned the records from a physical he had given Wheeler before his death. In 2001, Florida State linebacker Devaughn Darling died during an offseason conditioning workout; at a memorial service, coach Bobby Bowden apologized and then said, “I didn’t recognize that he’ll never complain and he’ll never quit.”

 

Smart body armour could soon detect soldiers’ brain injuries

Wareable, UK from

While you’re probably not experiencing many explosions in your day-to-day life, medics working within the military may soon be able to detect whether shockwaves have caused serious brain injury to soldiers.

The US Navy’s Office of Naval Research is developing the Blast Load Assessment Sense and Test (BLAST), a sensor system that also doubles up as forced acronym.

The sensors are located in both the helmet and body armour, with shock pressure measured and shared with a scanner. When this portable system is combined with a neurological tool, medical staff will then be able to decide if a soldier is able to remain in the field — something that’s vital when considering US military guidelines.

 

A Guide on Investing in Technology for Coaches

SimpliFaster Blog, Carl Valle from

Every year, I get nearly 100 requests from sports performance coaches asking about technology purchases and some guidance for making smarter investments with their budgets. I have spent my whole life as a technology geek and have learned through a lot of trial and error when integrating tools into sport.

Technology isn’t a fad, and its use is only going to increase over the next few years, so get used to it. Technology doesn’t replace good coaching, and it has the potential to make a program worse if used incorrectly. Data from technology is growing and becoming more and more important. This article will survey the simple needs of coaches and offer a little relief for those that don’t have massive budgets.

 

How Yale Basketball is Innovating with Dr. Dish

Dr. Dish from

When Yale University purchased a basketball shooting machine from Dr. Dish Basketball, the features they were most excited about were the analytical capabilities. We recently sat down with the Men’s Head Basketball Coach, James Jones, and talked about how he uses their Dr. Dish All-Star to take those analytics and innovate how they train on the hardwood.

 

The SportScientia 3P Pro Sole Is A Smart Insole That Uses Real-Time Data To Gather Predictive Analytics

SportTechie from

… The idea of capturing data during a sporting event is not new but the richness of the data now available and the speed at which it is gathered certainly is. SportScientia is layering these different technologies together by changing coaching, scouting, the way fans view sports and even how sports clubs are run. It now means we can see not just how a team performed but which players were most influential in the game.

Our Smart Insole, is new technology that uses highly advanced sensor and motion arrays encapsulated within the sport boot with proven algorithms for performance/injury management.

 

Science now Gives you the Opportunity to Become a Cyborg

Edgy Labs, William McKinney from

… The first thing you’ll notice when looking at Liviu Babitz‘s chest is a small silicone gadget. The device is held in place with two titanium bars under the skin, and it gives a slight vibration whenever Babitz faces north.

Cyborg Nest made the device with the intention of giving people a sense that they did not have before. According to Scott Cohen, co-founder of Cyborg Nest, there is an entire universe worth of senses we do not have. The company is in the business of modifying bodies, but not for medical purposes as you might expect. They just want to expand what it is to be human.

 

The challenges of making Smart Sports Garments

SABEL's Sports Technology Blog from

Smart sports garments or smart performance garments is a relatively new product segment in the consumer sports tech market. There are probably different views of what the definition should be, but for the purpose of this post, it is a sports garment with embedded sensors/electronics. The main functions of sports garments include providing covering, protection, comfort, ease of movement and some might say making the athlete more aesthetically pleasing. Then with the added sensors and electronics, there generally are two different types of secondary functions.

The more common one is the passive function where sensors monitor stuff on an athlete, either physiological measurements or physical movements. It can make smart evaluations based on the data and give real-time feedback suggesting to the athlete that they should push harder or rest or correct their technique etc. But the decision to act on that suggestion still lies with the athlete or coach. There is also the not-so-common active function where the garment does something to the user. For example giving electrical muscle stimulations or possibly electric shocks. But so far the “electric shock” feature is only found on a wristband and hasn’t extended to any other wearables yet. I am not sure why that is the case. For EMS, it has been said that it helps with muscle strengthening which is good for rehab or as a complementary training tool. But I will not go into it since it’s beyond my area of expertise.

 

This MIT Startup’s 3D Cameras Analyze the Performance & Health of Athletes

BostInno, Olivia Vanni from

Even the strongest of people can tweak their backs mid-lift or leave the gym with a newfound limp if they aren’t correctly doing their workout routine. Enter Perch, an MIT startup that’s developing a system of 3D cameras that tracks workouts and gives athletes critical data on their performance and health.

Perch is led by Bowen Baker, Jacob Rothman, Nate Rodman, Jordan Lucier and Zach Churukian. The co-founders initially came up with the idea for Perch because of their personal experiences as varsity athletes at the Institute and they recently completed the MIT Delta V accelerator program, an educational accelerator for MIT student entrepreneurs.

In a world where wearables and fitness trackers are now the norm, the Perch team wanted to cater to athletes who need more specific metrics to guide their training. They have a small amount of funding and a prototype device, which is now in testing with gyms and coaches.

 

Why Sports Medicine and Strength and Conditioning Need to Align

SpartaPoint blog from

… Historically, strength coaches and athletic trainers have often butted heads, with the former accused of being too aggressive and unscientific and the later accused of being too conservative. However, if the ultimate goal for all parties involved is to help the athlete, these personal biases and feuds are selfish and childish.

Building relationships and communication between these two departments can only have a positive effect of improving the care for the athlete. Whether from a preventative standpoint or a return to play standpoint, by building an alliance Medical and Performance staffs can increase their decision-making power to improve the overall experience for the athlete.

 

Options for nonoperative treatment of ACL injuries exist, but remain controversial

Healio, Orthopedics Today from

Each year, there are an estimated 200,000 ACL injuries in the United States. Proper management of these injuries is crucial for future function. The gold standard treatment is reconstruction, especially if the patient is young and active. Often these athletes are assured they will return to their pre-injury activity levels. However, the evidence may not validate that thinking.

“There are a lot of scientific articles, [and] there are a lot of talks on the topic and experts’ opinions saying that if you want to return to sports, you need an ACL reconstruction,” Richard B. Frobell, PhD, of the Department of Orthopaedics at Lund University in Lund, Sweden, told Orthopedics Today. “The problem is that there is little evidence to support that.”

Patients have come to believe this idea: 98% of athletes think a return to pre-injury activity level is possible, according to Lynn Synder-Mackler, PT, ATC, ScD, SCS, FAPTA, professor in the Department of Physical Therapy at the University of Delaware. However, the literature shows 55% to 65% of athletes with ACL injuries return to sports, she said.

 

NFL Players’ Concussion PSA: Be Man Enough to Admit When You’re Hurt – GQ Videos- The Scene

GQ Videos, The Scene from

 

An Old Problem: Aging and Skeletal Muscle Strain Injury. – PubMed – NCBI

Journal of Sport Rehabilitation from

Clinical Scenario: Even though chronological aging is an inevitable phenomenological consequence occurring in every living organism, it is biological aging that may be the most significant factor challenging our quality of life. Development of functional limitations, resulting from improper maintenance and restoration of various organ systems, ultimately leads to reduced health and independence. Skeletal muscle is an organ system, that when challenged, is often injured in response to varying stimuli. Overt muscle strain injury can be traumatic, clinically diagnosable, properly managed, and a remarkably common event. Yet, our contemporary understanding of how age and environmental stressors impact the initial and subsequent induction of injury, and how the biological processes resulting from this event are modifiable; and, eventually lead to functional restoration and healing of skeletal muscle and adjacent tissues is presently unclear. Even though the secondary injury response, and recovery, from “contraction-induced” skeletal muscle injury is impaired with aging, there is no scientific consensus as to the exact mechanism(s) responsible for this event. Given the multitude of investigative approaches, particular consideration given to the appropriateness of the muscle injury model, or research paradigm, is critical; so that, outcomes may be physiologically relevant and translational. In this case, methods implementing stretch-shortening contractions (SSCs), the most common form of muscular movements utilized by all mammals during physical movement, work, and activity are highlighted.
CLINICAL RELEVANCE:

Understanding the fundamental evidence regarding how aging influences the responsivity of skeletal muscle to strain injury is vital for informing how clinicians approach and implement preventative strategies as well as therapeutic interventions. From a practical perspective maintaining, or improving, the overall health and tissue quality of skeletal muscle as one ages will positively impact skeletal muscle’s safety threshold, and responsivity, which may reduce induction of injury, improve recovery-time, and lessen overall fiscal burdens.

 

Primary Repair Surgery – Returning Pitchers to the Field Faster

FanGraphs, RotoGraphs, Mike Sonne from

When pitchers injure their ulnar collateral ligament (UCL), there are very few things to be happy about. If you’re cheering for your favourite player, or your favourite team, you don’t get to see the best players compete. If you ARE the pitcher injuring your UCL, it means you don’t get to play your sport for at least a year, and you have a painstaking rehabilitation process ahead of you. Go ahead and read “The Arm” by Jeff Passan – and tell me you’d want to wish the process described by Todd Coffey and Daniel Hudson on anyone.

 

Kellogg’s Venture Capital Fund Invests $4.25 Million in Superfood Startup Kuli Kuli

The Daily Meal from

On Wednesday, the Kellogg Company’s venture capital fund, eighteen94 capital, announced that it raised $4.25 million in the first round of funding for the superfood startup Kuli Kuli. This is eighteen94 capital’s first investment since it initially launched last year.

Kuli Kuli is an Oakland, California-based company that focuses on providing high-quality snack bars, powder, energy shots, and teas made from moringa, a nutrient-rich superfood plant native to parts of Africa and Asia.

 

EUROPP – Doping in world sport: The real issue is that we still don’t know who to blame for anti-doping failures

London School of Economics, EUROPP blog from

The recent scandal surrounding Russian state-sponsored doping highlighted deep rooted issues affecting international anti-doping procedures in sport. Slobodan Tomic argues that the key problem lies in the failure of the current anti-doping regime’s institutional design to specify hierarchies of accountability. To match powers with responsibilities, he suggests that we should avoid framing the reform as a debate over the role of one stakeholder – the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) – and instead consider the wider picture, while clearly defining the role played by individual states.

 

Nets, 76ers & The Rebuilding Roads Less Traveled

RealGM Analysis, Keith P Smith from

The Brooklyn Nets and Philadelphia 76ers recently met in a matinee matchup that gave rise and context to their divergent paths as both try to rebuild. The game itself was almost a microcosm of the philosophy each side has employed to get back to the contender status. Brooklyn led early, but Philadelphia’s young talent rose to the occasion and took home a largely meaningless win, outside of draft position trackers.

 

2016 Platoon Advantage

Jim Albert, Exploring Baseball Data with R from

One general topic that I’ve explored over the years is situational effects in hitting. In Curve Ball, for example, I looked at the home/away, opposite side/same side, ahead in the count/behind in the count effects and looked for interesting patterns. The big quest was to find situations where players really showed different talents for doing better in particular situations. For example, we’d love to find players with clutch talents, not players who have occasional clutch performances.

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Anyway, I recently revisited the so-called platoon effects — how players hit better against pitchers of the opposite arm. For example, you could look at players in the 2016 season who had at least 100 PA against pitchers of both arms and look at the situational effect

Effect = wOBA (opposite arm) – wOBA (same arm)

But this analysis has a hidden bias. By only considering players who have at least 100 PA against each pitcher side, we are censoring hitters like Ryan Howard who really did not get the opportunity to bat much against left-handers.

 

Shopping With Stats In the Transfer Market

StatsBomb, Dustin Ward from

… We want players we don’t have to break the bank for and prefer those who are under-the-radar, so while Willian, Nasri, Coutinho, and Banega stand out they will not be purchasable for most teams. A few other filters: outside the PL (to save money), sub 30 years old, and under 8m on transfermarkt. I will be role-playing as the stat-crazy agent trying to sell a team on my guy and then as a skeptical transfer guy raising some questions. Well, here we go.

 

Getting smarter: NCAA Tournament selection committee to talk analytics, process – CBSSports.com

CBSSports.com, Matt Norlander from

The NCAA Tournament selection committee, a 10-person panel of esteemed college administrators that doubles as a cathartic torture carcass for college basketball fans and media every March, has been short-changed in the past decade for its well-intentioned evolution when it comes to improving the NCAA Tournament bracket. And now, in its most tangible and transparent move yet, the committee is showing it is again committed to getting smarter about selecting and seeding teams.

On Friday the NCAA announced some optimistic and progressive news. On Jan. 20 the NCAA will bring in a posse of perceptive statistical minds in an effort to help the selection committee’s process when it comes to building the tournament bracket. Who’s going? Our own RPI expert Jerry Palm will be there, as will Ken Pomeroy (proprietor, KenPom.com), Jeff Sagarin (the long-famous Sagarin ratings) and Kevin Pauga (the fledgling KPI), among a few others. They’ll convene to break bread and hold court on a common goal: Making the field of 68 as good as it can possibly be.

This has always been the NCAA’s objective, but never before has the organization been so forward-thinking and openly willing to outsource part of its operation. These are smart people who deeply care about the game and are constantly trying to make it better. The NCAA should be commended for continuing to be reflective rather than haughty.

 

Are We Calculating Possession All Wrong?

Chance Analytics, Ed Shorthouse from

… West Brom have wasted 69.2% of time despite only being in control of the ball for 30.8% of the time. This is a massively underrated tactic in football.

 

RB Leipzig use Salzburg as feeder club, but not everyone happy

WorldSoccer, Nick Bidwell from

Increasingly thought of as a European hot-spot for young talent, RB Leipzig had every reason to feel good on completing the signing of French central defensive wunderkind Dayot Upamecano from affiliate club, Red Bull Salzburg.

Although the 18-year-old very much is a stripling – having only played 23 competitive games for the Salzburger – he already is a beast of a player, someone with the same build and power of a Yaya Toure or a Patrick Vieira.

 

Troubling Evidence of Implicit Racial Bias in MLS Refereeing

Past Magazine, Bill Tolany from

People of different races receive varying treatment, whether conscious or subconscious, in areas as diverse as prison sentencing, school discipline, and tipping. It appears this varying treatment also extends to the on-field actions of MLS players. This conclusion of varying player treatment by race comes from a review of 2016 regular season fouls and disciplinary data from the MLS website. The MLS 2016 regular season data shows black players were 14% more likely to be called for fouls than their non-black counterparts. The higher incidence of fouls conceded takes into account minutes played and was consistent for defenders, midfielders, and forwards.

Black players were also more than twice as likely as their non-black counterparts to receive a red card ejection. An ongoing imbalance like this would put black players at a competitive disadvantage in MLS solely on the basis of their race.

 

Deloitte’s Sports industry starting lineup 2017

Deloitte US from

Upping the game of sports industry organizations requires commitment—not just to fans and players, but also to principles like integrity and innovation. Deloitte’s Sports practice takes aim at the topics sports industry executives should highlight in their playbooks in 2017.

 

Are Athletic Directors Angling For A Washington Bailout of NCAA Amateurism?

VICE Sports, Patrick Hruby from

… it sure as heck seems like LEAD1 fits into a larger push by the NCAA and its allies to kneecap college sports pay-for-play via a Washington bailout. Only McMillen insists that’s not the case.

“We have zero agenda right now,” says McMillen, a former University of Maryland basketball player and three-term Congressman. “We’ve not spoken to one member of Congress about any issue in college sports. We’ve never talked about pay for play as a group. What we are trying to do is build relationships, so when the time comes, we can be helpful.

“Down the road, [Donald] Trump may come in and try tax reform, changing the rules for tax deductibility on athletic scholarships. Or maybe there are Title IX issues. Who knows? If an issue comes up where the athletic directors or the school presidents need to come to Washington and walk the halls [of Congress], we’ll be ready for it.”

 

Kahneman: Your Cognitive Biases Act Like Optical Illusions

New York Magazine, Science of Us blog, Drake Baer from

… “When we reach interpretations, many of the characteristics of visual perception are retained, like a search for coherence, things that make sense together,” he said. “You’re very likely to perceive things that aren’t there in perception. All of us do that.”

Take, for instance, the notorious stickiness of first impressions. “There is some accuracy with a first impression, but if you’re going to be with a person for a long time, I’m not sure those early impressions are very useful to you,” he says. (Consider that the next time you want to ghost someone after one date.) Because of this, he says, first impressions tend to be self-fulfilling: If you take someone to be hostile toward you, you’ll act hostile toward them, prompting their hostility — and you thinking you had the impression right the whole time.

 

TrueHoop Presents: How the NBA standings never change after Jan. 20

ESPN TrueHoop, Tom Haberstroh and Luke Knox from

Now that we’re at the midpoint of the season, are you hoping your struggling team can play its way into the playoffs? Well, we have some bad news: Set your alarm for mid-April, because the standings rarely change after Jan. 20. Sorry, Knicks fans!

 

Look at the breakdown of rest situations for those teams. Boston is playing an insane amount of 3 in 4 nights and 4 in 6 nights.

Twitter, Rob Pizzola from

 

Expected Primary Points are a better predictor of future scoring than Shots, Points

Hockey Graphs, Ryan Stimson from

While I have spent a lot of time over the last several months digging into how we can quantify passages of play and inform better tactical decisions, it’s time to revisit how passing impacts scoring at the player level. We have only been using half of the picture in terms of individual shots and goals for player evaluation. Sure, we have primary and total points, but primary assists aren’t a very useful metric. The rate at which players create shot assists also appeared to have significantly more value than a player’s own shots in some analysis I did last year.

This piece will release individual passing data for the 2014 – 2015, 2015 – 2016, and 2016 – 2017 seasons, the latter of which tracked by Corey Sznajder, the former tracked by myself and many others. However, it is important to provide context and meaning to the numbers rather than simply inundate you with data.

 

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