Applied Sports Science newsletter – May 12, 2017

… One thing McAdoo didn’t get enough credit for in his first season with the Giants was the improvement the team made from a health standpoint. After finishing as the most injured team in the NFL for consecutive seasons, the Giants flipped that narrative by turning the page on their archaic weight training program. McAdoo brought in Aaron Wellman to run the training program, he instituted new diets and resting habits, and he made all of this a point of emphasis for his team.

McAdoo has also altered the Giants schedule to best fit the nutrition, preparation, and training for his team. Marshall has only just started with the Giants’ offseason program, but he already sees the difference.

“I’ve only been in the building a couple of weeks, but the only thing I can say about the eating is the food is amazing,” Marshall said, echoing old teammate Martellus Bennett. “The chefs are good. When it comes to nutrition, it’s one of the best (programs) I’ve been around. Mental fitness is almost nonexistent in the NFL, and this is a big discussion with coach McAdoo. Our strength and conditioning coaches are awesome, the locker room is great.”

… “Oh, this is my area,” crows Draymond Green, Golden State’s outspoken and indefatigable power forward, “because this is about energy. You can get an assist without expending energy. You can score a point without expending energy. Sometimes you can even get a rebound without expending energy. But you don’t set screens without expending energy. You don’t contest shots without expending energy. You don’t get deflections—unless you walk into one every now and then—without expending energy. These are the things in basketball you have to really want to do.”

Warriors practices are closed to the public, but players acknowledge that their scrimmages can feel flat. The regulars pace themselves and the reserves, well aware of the roster hierarchy, know they aren’t taking minutes from Kevin Durant. But something changes when they’re under the big top. The four-star juggernaut that won 67 games this season, that led the NBA in field goal percentage and field goal percentage defense, that posted a higher net rating and point differential even than last year, outworked everybody too. The Dubs created the most deflections (18.7) and corralled the most loose balls (7.7), while racking up the second-most contested shots (68.4) and screen assists (12.7). After their opening-round sweep of the Blazers, they led three of the five major hustle categories in the playoffs.

… Kevin Durant, who 10 years ago failed to bench-press 185 pounds even once but still was drafted No. 2 overall by the Seattle SuperSonics, isn’t discouraged by this recent trend.

In fact, with the benefit of hindsight, Durant said he wished it had started before he embarked on his professional career.

“Stay your ass home, work out and get better on your own time,” Durant suggested to potential top prospects.

… [Gregory] Ashby’s research takes a three-pronged approach: empirical data collection, cognitive neuroscience and mathematical modeling. Indeed, the award recognizes his “innovative and foundational theoretical and empirical work linking mind and brain in computational and mathematical models of learning and categorization.”

Thanks to his work on general recognition theory in the 1980s and 1990s, which provided a framework for studying the complex cognition required for categorizing multidimensional spaces and tasks, Ashby’s research has helped illuminate how people classify objects in their environment. For example, he was a leader in showing that muscle memory (i.e., procedural learning) is likely required to become proficient in a wide variety of difficult classification tasks, such as deciding whether an x-ray shows a tumor, whether a wine is a Merlot or a Cabernet Sauvignon or whether an incoming swell will produce a surfable wave.

One day, our brains will not work the way they used to, we won’t be as “sharp” as we once were, we won’t be able to remember things as easily.

This is what’s been engrained in us. We’re even led to believe that we can’t learn new skills, or take in certain information such as language, past a certain age.

But, a new theory holds that it doesn’t have to be that way. In fact, as adults, if we continue to learn the way we did as children, UCR psychology professor Rachel Wu asserts, we can redefine what it means to be an “aging” adult.

Purpose:

Successful elite sprint to long-distance runners are known to have shorter ground contact times (GCT) than their less successful counterparts. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether augmented feedback (aF) about GCT can reduce the time on ground (TOG) per minute in long-distance runners and if so, whether this reduction improves running performance.
Methods:

Thirty well-trained runners were allocated to three groups. The intervention group (IG) received visual aF about their GCT during eight high-intensity interval sessions in the 4-week training period and were instructed to minimize GCT. The 1st control group (CG1) trained with the IG but was not given any feedback. The 2nd control group (CG2) followed their own training routine. Data were obtained at pre- and post-intervention for all three groups. The dependent variable was TOG per minute, computed of step frequency and GCT.
Results:

The IG significantly reduced TOG (p = .043, -1.7%, with 90%CL -3.1; -0.3) and improved their mean 10 x 400 m performance time (p < .001, -1.5%, with 90%CL - 1.9; -1.1). In contrast, the two control groups revealed unchanged values indicating that normal high-intensity training and an individualized routine without aF were not able to reduce TOG. The fact that CG1 received the same instructions and participated in the same training sessions as the IG underlined that aF was crucial to reduce TOG. Conclusions:

The provision of aF about GCT seems to be a promising approach that should be considered during training practice of well-trained runners.

PURPOSE:

To determine if muscle growth is important for increasing muscle strength or if changes in strength can be entirely explained from practicing the strength test.
METHODS:

Thirty-eight untrained individuals performed knee extension and chest press exercise for 8 weeks. Individuals were randomly assigned to either a high-volume training group (HYPER) or a group just performing the one repetition maximum (1RM) strength test (TEST). The HYPER group performed 4 sets to volitional failure (~8-12RM) while the TEST group performed up to 5 attempts to lift as much weight as possible one time each visit.
RESULTS:

Data are presented as mean (90% CI). The change in muscle size was greater in the HYPER group for both the upper and lower body at most but not all sites. The change in 1RM strength for both the upper [difference of -1.1 (-4.8, 2.4) kg] and lower body [difference of 1.0 (-0.7, 2.8) kg for dominant leg] was not different between groups (similar for non-dominant). Changes in isometric and isokinetic torque were not different between groups. The HYPER group observed a greater change in muscular endurance [difference of 2 (1, 4) repetitions] only in the dominant leg. There were no differences in the change between groups in upper body endurance. There were between group differences for exercise volume [mean (95% CI)] of the dominant [difference of 11049.3 (9254.6, 12844.0) kg] leg (similar for non-dominant) and chest press with the HYPER group completing significantly more total volume [difference of 13259.9 (9632.0, 16887.8) kg].
CONCLUSION:

These findings suggests that exercise volume nor the change in muscle size from training contributed to greater strength gains compared to just practicing the test.

… “I think this season we worked very hard, but we are also very good and we are also very lucky.”

Conte brought fitness coaches Julio Tous, Paolo Bertelli and Constantino Coratti as well as nutritionist Tiberio Ancora with him to Chelsea in July and implemented a gruelling preseason programme of double training sessions on arrival, as well as making sweeping changes to the nutritional regime of his squad.

The aim of the present study was to compare the effect of an increasing-distance, interval-training programme and a decreasing-distance, interval-training programme, matched for total distance, on aerobic and anaerobic physiological indices. Forty physical education students were randomly assigned to either the increasing- or decreasing-distance, interval-training group (ITG and DTG), and completed two similar relevant sets of tests before and after six weeks of training. One training programme consisted of increasing-distance interval-training (100–200–300–400–500 m) and the other decreasing-distance interval training (500–400–300–200–100 m). While both training programmes led to a significant improvement in VO2 max (ES = 0.83–1.25), the improvement in the DTG was significantly greater than in the ITG (14.5 ± 3.6 vs. 7.8 ± 3.2%, p < .05). In addition, while both training programmes led to a significant improvement in all anaerobic indices (ES = 0.83–1.63), the improvements in peak power (15.7 ± 7.8 vs. 8.9 ± 4.7), mean power (10.6 ± 5.4 vs. 6.8 ± 4.4), and fatigue index (18.2 ± 10.9 vs. 7.0 ± 14.2) were significantly greater in the DTG compared to the ITG (p < .05). The main finding of the present study was that beyond the significant positive effects of both training programmes on aerobic and anaerobic fitness, the DTG showed significant superiority over the ITG in improving aerobic and anaerobic performance capabilities. Coaches and athletes should therefore be aware that, in spite of identical total work, an interval-training programme might induce different physiological impacts if the order of intervals is not identical.

… The device — which won top honors during the Qualcomm Tricorder XPRIZE competition — still needs to undergo more testing and receive regulatory approval before it’s available to consumers. But Harris said that may happen in just a few years and he’s aiming to keep the price around $200.

“It’s doing exactly what I do in the ER,” Harris explains. It starts by continuously monitoring a patient’s vital signs and then asks questions through its smartphone or tablet app to better understand the symptoms. “It uses all of that objective information together in the way your doctor would to come up with a diagnosis.”

Out of the box, DxtER looks like a medical kit with an orb-shaped digital stethoscope, an EKG sensor that sticks to your chest, a spirometer to measure lung function, and a finger probe that non-invasively measures glucose, white blood cell count, and other blood tests.

Apple has acquired Beddit, a Finnish company that makes sleep-tracking devices that work with apps for iOS and the Apple Watch. As first reported by CNBC, Beddit has updated the privacy section of its website to note the acquisition and confirm that consumer data is now subject to Apple’s own privacy policy.

Beddit’s latest product is the $149 Beddit 3 Sleep Monitor, which is sold in the Apple Store. It’s a sensor-equipped strip that slides under a bedsheet and tracks nocturnal movements through a technique called ballistocardiography; the main advantage is that you don’t need to wear an activity tracker or remember to use it at all.

With managing a whole team, 12-14 hour days and a limit on time, many coaches don’t take the time to work on nutrition with their athletes. It’s easy to just hand out a meal plan and to say, “eat this, not that.” If coaches took the time to understand behavior change, helped athletes understand their goals, and created an environment for them to succeed, they would not only see positive results, but they would also build a stronger team.

Strength and conditioning coach Adam Feit, was recently invited to the NSCA Coaches Conference to speak about an athlete-centered approach to nutrition coaching. The entire session is available to watch directly on their website.

Adam compares the awfulness versus awesomeness-based coaching models and provides a scalable method to approach changing athlete habits for the better. Nutrition change isn’t about how many reps, it’s about helping athletes develop good habits to achieve the goals they set for themselves.

You probably know Gatorade as a sports drink maker. But the 51-year-old company also has a robust research and innovation arm that is developing some high-tech data-driven methods for helping athletes maintain peak performance.

The Gatorade Sports Science Institute (GSSI) has been around for more than three decades, but some of the group’s recent work has caught the attention of professional teams across the world that are testing new ways to hydrate their players more efficiently beyond just new flavors.

“Traditionally, Gatorade hasn’t been a tech company,” Dr. James Carter, GSSI director, told GeekWire. “But with the emergence of our Gx platform and the ability to track and monitor hydration phases, the technology is becoming more interesting to us.”

The Washington Capitals have hired a hockey analytics company to do statistical analysis for them.

Washington Capitals majority owner Ted Leonsis has always been an advocate of analytics. He’s a man who made his money around business and embraces analytical data. It should come as no surprise Leonsis’ teams do as well.

The Capitals already employ some data analysts, but they’re taking their game to the next level. They have reportedly hired Hockey Data Inc., a hockey analytics company, to do statistical analysis for them.

… Basketball, perhaps more than any of the other major sports, is about trade-offs — there are tensions inherent to the game, and they pop up in a variety of coaching and roster decisions. I covered one of the more overlooked trade-offs, between turnovers and shot selection, in “Do the Bucks Stop Here?”. The trade-off between offense and defense is a little more apparent, but still often goes underemphasized. Whether in coaching schemes or in personnel decisions, to get what you want on one end of the floor almost always forces you to give up something on the other.

This, I believe, is what’s going on with the Rockets and Spurs — they are attempting to optimize different sides of the ball. For the Rockets the question is: how can we play the best defense possible given the style of offense we want to play? And for the Spurs it’s just the opposite: they are a culture of defense, and start their decision-making from that perspective.