Applied Sports Science newsletter – February 24, 2017

Applied Sports Science news articles, blog posts and research papers for February 24, 2017

 

John Ross Speeds Toward the Draft

The MMQB, Emily Kaplan from

How the University of Washington receiver—and possibly the fastest man in the 2017 draft—got help from DeSean Jackson and Snoop Dogg en route to becoming a likely first-round pick

 

Daniel Murphy had a career season; he’s planning, relentlessly, to have another

The Washington Post, Barry Svrluga from

… Regression, of course, is a governing concept in baseball. Murphy knows this because Murphy is a hitting nerd. This is a compliment.

“Some people would be offended,” first baseman Ryan Zimmerman said. “He embraces it. By no means, obviously, is Murph a nerd. But hitting is for sure a science to him, and he studies it.”

What Murphy studies could overwhelm the impatient and feebleminded. Zimmerman, entering his 13th big league season, believes there are two types of hitters in the majors: guys who keep a clear head and let their natural ability take over, and guys who fill their brains with information. But the amount of information Murphy seeks, the amount he retains, would appear to be an outlier.

“Not a lot of people want all that information,” Rizzo said. “And not a lot them are capable of getting the information and getting it from their brain to their hands.”

 

Play vs. Rest: For many NBA teams, it’s still a real battle

Associated Press, Tim Reynolds from

There are 27 games remaining on Cleveland’s regular-season schedule, and perhaps only one person over that stretch will be able to stop LeBron James.

That would be Cavs coach Tyronn Lue.

He has to protect James from himself.

 

Discover Why More Kids Pushing Harder than Ever in Youth Sports

Dr. Chris Stankovich, The Sports Doc Chalk Talk blog from

… I have written about this issue several times over the last 2 years, but it is an issue worth discussing again. Specifically, the trend of student athletes competing in 2 or more sports concurrently is absolutely growing, to the point where the majority of kids I talked to last week acknowledged that at various points in the year they participate in 2 (or more) sports at the same time. Just a couple years ago when I first began to notice that kids were doing this, only one or two hands would go up when I would ask a room of student athletes how many play 2 sports concurrently? Last week, at least half of the kids responded in the affirmative, and I suspect based on the trend I am witnessing that these numbers will continue to increase in the years ahead.

Is it unhealthy for kids to commit to multiple teams at the same time? I don’t think making a blanket statement to this question is fair, as some kids handle responsibility and commitment much better than others. There are, however, several things to consider for all kids (and their parents) when considering the multi-sport, same season model.

 

Follow That Puck: The Ins and Outs of Available Tracking Technology

SB Nation, Silver Seven blog from

It happened again.

The puck probably went in. It was under the goalie, it was behind the stick, and both of those crossed the goal line. But the video review was inconclusive because they couldn’t actually see the puck across the line itself.

Plenty of sports track whatever their important objects are, and these are often held up as examples of how hockey should be able to do it as well. Fans yell “Put a chip in the puck already!”, but is it really that simple?

 

Cross Industry: How Sports and Technology Are Coalescing

ISPO from

What will the functional shirts, backpacks, or hiking sticks of the future look like? Will they measure body temperature, show us where to go, and warn us when a thunderstorm is headed our way? The participants in the Cross-Industry Walk at ISPO MUNICH 2017 can tell us more.

 

Imaging: 3D-printed camera sees like an eagle

Nature, Research Highlights from

A tiny camera made of four different lenses 3D-printed on a chip can generate images with high resolution in the centre — similarly to the way the eyes of eagles and humans work.

Simon Thiele and his colleagues at the University of Stuttgart, Germany, printed multiple groups of four objective lenses onto a semiconductor image-sensor chip just a few millimetres wide (pictured). Each lens has a different field of view, and so can focus at various distances. A computer combines data from the lenses to form an image that has increasing resolution towards the middle.

 

UP CLOSE: Understaffed, Yale sports medicine struggles with student injuries

Yale Daily News, Sebastian Kupchaunis and Matthew Mister from

… [Rafe] Chapple insisted to the athletic trainers after the Week 2 game against Cornell that he undergo an MRI, which neither the trainers nor the team doctor thought was urgent, according to Chapple. The quarterback was handed a two-week waiting time, prompting him to reach out to his parents, who were able to schedule an MRI three days later after several phone calls.

The MRI confirmed the torn rotator cuff and internal impingement, and Yale doctors immediately recommended surgery. Chapple’s parents, however, sought a second opinion and consulted James Andrews, a renowned sports orthopedist who has treated countless professional athletes. According to Chapple, Andrews strongly advised against surgery due to the counterproductive effect it would have on his arm strength, suggesting instead a Platelet-Rich Plasma injection followed by physical therapy.

Chapple has not been the only member of the football team to miss significant time due to injury. Over the past two seasons, the team has seen an unprecedented number of players miss time; by the athletic department’s own count, 42 of the team’s 110 players were either injured or sick by Week 7 of the 2015 season.

 

Injury prevention is a cornerstone of safe sports, and the body of research is growing. Explore in our latest issue:

Twitter, SportsHealth Journal from

http://journals.sagepub.com/toc/spha/current

 

Nutrition labels are technically accurate, but they leave out crucial information

Quartz, Richard Wrangham and Rachel Carmody from

Food labels seem to provide all the information a thoughtful consumer needs, so counting calories should be simple. But things get tricky because food labels tell only half the story.

A calorie is a measure of usable energy. Food labels say how many calories a food contains. But what they don’t say is that how many calories you actually get out of your food depends on how highly processed it is.

 

Chelsea have built a commanding lead in the Premier League thanks to player fitness

ESPN FC, Phil Lythell from

There are many reasons behind Chelsea establishing an eight-point lead at the top of the Premier League as they enter the final third of the season. Antonio Conte’s tactical acumen, the arrival of N’Golo Kante and David Luiz are all notable, as are individual improvements throughout the team, with the likes of Diego Costa and Eden Hazard regaining their best form. All have been significant factors behind their rise.

Equally telling, however, has been the fact that the squad has remained largely free of injuries throughout the campaign. Since Conte switched to a back three and settled on his first-choice XI following that defeat to Arsenal in September, he has been able to proceed with barely any disruption from external factors.

 

Dallas Cowboys: The stats Cowboys fans should really pay attention to at the NFL combine

Dallas Morning News, SportsDay blog, Bob Sturm from

We will get to some topics about Tony Romo and Jaylon Smith a bit further down the agenda this morning, but I wanted to do something in preparation for the NFL combine, which goes down in about a week and a half in its familiar home of Indianapolis.

Basically, for guys like me (and I am guessing a lot of you) who love examining the NFL draft, it is a chance to get clear the measurements of players. I will be honest, this is far more important to me than what I see in the drills. Yes, I do want to know 40-times, but I also want to repeat what I have said a thousand times in this space: I don’t ever want to get to a point where a player’s 40-time is more important than his football grade. If he runs fast in his college film — relative to his competition — he will run fast on Sundays. It is a proven fact. Speed translates, and while a 4.4 to a 4.6 is everything in the NFL, know that this could be one false step at the combine. If you are watching 200 snaps of a player’s college tape (in full pads and with a football), you will know if he is fast enough in almost every case.

But, the measurements are a bit more insightful. It is good to know a real height and weight as a starting point because there are ranges of “normal” in the NFL for each position, and although you don’t have to fit in that range 100 percent of the time, it is important for us to know what that range actually is.

 

How college coaches evaluate parents on the sideline

USA Today High School Sports, Jason Smith from

If the term “helicopter parent” tells us anything, it’s that parents are involved in the college decision-making process now more than ever—and coaches are taking notice.

“Coaches want to evaluate both the student-athlete and their parents,” says JC Field, a former Division I baseball coach. “We want to know their strengths because a lot of the time we can assume their student-athlete has similar strengths.”

But here’s the dilemma: Parents don’t always know when they’re being evaluated by college coaches and often don’t realize how they can positively impact their child’s recruiting.

 

Why Your Lazy Colleague Gets Under Your Skin

Misbehaving, Syon Bhanot and Jacky Ye from

… Horton and Zeckhauser look at how workers in an online labor market behave differently when working with high-output peers and low-output peers — Ellens and Joshuas. They find that when workers are exposed to high-output peers, they are more productive, and when they’re exposed to low-output peers, they are less productive. That’s perhaps not all that surprising. What is surprising, though, is that workers who were exposed to low-output peers were more likely to punish their low-output peers, even when their peers’ outcomes didn’t influence their own.

To illustrate the significance of this point, let’s go back to our example. You and Joshua are working on a project together and you don’t like it. Joshua isn’t doing his part. In this case, if Joshua slacks off, you will have to work more. Worse, because it’s a group project, you worry that Joshua will end up taking credit for your hard work — what economists call “free-riding.” This bugs you. You’d probably consider talking to your boss about this. But would you feel the same way if you knew that both of you would be evaluated separately? Your intuition might be that you wouldn’t be as eager to complain to your boss, but Horton and Zeckhauser suggest otherwise.

Why? According to Horton and Zeckhauser, your reaction is about equity.

 

How to catch a cheat

Tim Harford from

Should the rules and targets we set up be precise, clear and sophisticated? Or should they be vague, ambiguous and crude? I used to think that the answer was obvious — who would favour ambiguity over clarity? Now I am not so sure.

 

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