Baseball players are often late risers, working second-shift hours. As such, Eric Thames typically began his days in Changwon, South Korea, around 11 a.m. local time. He went through a series of stretching exercises in his apartment and then departed for lunch.
His home was about a mile from the ballpark in Changwon, a southeastern port city positioned on an inlet that flows to the East China Sea. For lunch, there were five of six American-style style restaurants nearby. There was a burger joint, Italian and Mexican restaurants. Web sites created by American expats documented all the options. He would eat alone, reading his Kindle or iPhone, skimming through articles. He would then walk, or travel by Onewheel skateboard, to Massan Stadium, the home of the NC Dinos. He would arrive early, and hit early, alone, for 30 or 40 minutes. Afterward, he would read more in the clubhouse as he tried to fill in the hours before first pitch.
During most of his time with the Dinos — owned by NCSoft, a South Korean video-game developer — Thames had only two American teammates and both had brought their families along with them. After home games, or on the road, Thames would often retire to his apartment or hotel room. For three years of his life, and of his professional career, Thames was often alone.
… here we are in May, with Nadal top of the ATP’s Race to London rankings for 2017, having racked up a 15-0 record on clay this season after winning his 72nd career title by beating Dominic Thiem in a gutsy final in Madrid on Sunday. Roger Federer, at 35, is in second having won 19 of his 20 matches this year. The rest – including Djokovic and Andy Murray – are flailing far behind.
Yet an intriguing question remains. How much of this is down to Nadal and Federer rediscovering their mojo – and how much to Murray’s and Djokovic’s careers hitting unexpected turbulence? Clearly both factors are at play but according to Dan Weston, a tennis analyst and professional gambler, the answer is more nuanced than some might think.
… “It was a hard life; it’s too hot, but what choice was there?” Zeinha says. “The kids were young so (they) never worked there.”
When it came to his boys, Zeinha had a different path in mind. Diego Costa is named after Diego Maradona. His older brother Jair is named after Jairzinho, the legendary Brazil winger who was part of the 1970 World Cup team. Therein lies the ambition of their father. “I was always betting one of my sons would make it,” he says. “Jair used to play better than Diego but he didn’t follow through. But I used to get down and pray to God to give me a son that was a footballer.”
Tellingly, Costa’s parents never left the tougher part of town, but instead bought the house next door, knocked it through and made more room. As I approach for the first time, his mother Josileide is outside with a bucket, talking to neighbours as she washes the remnants of recent building work off of the walls.
… When Mark Sampson took charge of the England women’s team back in December 2013, the Lionesses were ranked 12th in the world. They enter into this summer’s European Championship in Holland as the fourth best female team in the game.
The rate of change on the rankings list is equally reflected by Sampson’s own development as a coach.
“How I work with this England team is very different to how I worked with my Bristol team and teams that I’ve worked with in the past – because the people are different. Always as a coach you adapt for certain circumstances, you adapt for the resources and the environment and the people you’re working with,” explains the 34 year-old.
Count Alabama coach Nick Saban as one of the supporters of a proposed rule that would give players and coaches more freedom when it comes to using redshirts.
The American Football Coaches Association is sending a proposal to the NCAA that would allow players to play in up to four games in a season without losing their redshirt status for that year. Saban said on Monday that he “absolutely would be in favor” of such a rule.
“It would actually enhance their development to some degree,” Saban said during the SEC coaches’ postspring teleconference. “With the numbers that we have right now and the number of games that we’re playing, you might be able to play a few more players in some of those games, and that would help some of the other players on your team, as well.
… Barca will take advantage of their stop in Washington in July — where they will play an International Champions Cup game against Manchester United — to carry out a cycle of lectures on subjects such as innovation in sport, analytics in sport and women’s football as the first part of their agreement with Georgetown University.
A statement from the Catalan club explains that they seek to “enter in the development of mutual programmes regarding football and leadership, professional education and research in the field of sports management, among others areas” with Georgetown.
This study investigated the effects of successive matches on match-running in elite under-23 soccer players during an international tournament. Match-running data was collected using a semi-automated multi-camera tracking system during an international under-23 tournament from all participating outfield players. Players who played 100% of all group stage matches were included (3 matches separated by 72 h, n = 44). Differences in match-running performance between matches were identified using a generalised linear mixed model. There were no clear effects for total, walking, jogging, running, high-speed running and sprinting distance between matches 1 and 3 (effect size (ES); -0.32 to 0.05). Positional analysis found that sprint distance was largely maintained from matches 1 to 3 across all positions. Attackers had a moderate decrease in total, jogging and running distance between matches 1 and 3 (ES; -0.72 to -0.66). Classifying players as increasers or decreasers in match-running revealed that match-running changes are susceptible to individual differences. Sprint performance appears to be maintained over successive matches regardless of playing position. However, reductions in other match-running categories vary between positions. Changes in match-running over successive matches affect individuals differently; thus, players should be monitored on an individual basis.
Low back pain (LBP) and lower limb injuries are common among Australian Football League (AFL) players. Smaller size of 1 key trunk muscle, the lumbar multifidus (MF), has been associated with LBP and injuries in footballers. The size of the MF muscle has been shown to be modifiable with supervised motor-control training programs. Among AFL players, supervised motor-control training has also been shown to reduce the incidence of lower limb injuries and was associated with increased player availability for games. However, the effectiveness of a self-managed MF exercise program is unknown. OBJECTIVE:
To investigate the effect of self-managed exercises and strength and fitness training on MF muscle size in AFL players with or without current LBP. DESIGN:
Cross-sectional study. SETTING:
Professional AFL context. PATIENTS OR OTHER PARTICIPANTS:
Complete data were available for 242 players from 6 elite AFL clubs. INTERVENTION(S):
Information related to the presence of LBP and history of injury was collected at the start of the preseason. At the end of the preseason, data were collected regarding performance of MF exercises as well as strength and fitness training. Ultrasound imaging of the MF muscle was conducted at the start and end of the preseason. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S):
Size of the MF muscles. RESULTS:
An interaction effect was found between performance of MF exercises and time (F = 13.89, P ≤ .001). Retention of MF muscle size was greatest in players who practiced the MF exercises during the preseason (F = 4.77, P = .03). Increased adherence to strength and fitness training was associated with retained MF muscle size over the preseason (F = 5.35, P = .02). CONCLUSIONS:
Increased adherence to a self-administered MF exercise program and to strength and fitness training was effective in maintaining the size of the MF muscle in the preseason.
… [Garrison] Draper says the all the information is monitored with a unique software program designed specifically for the Union.
“We have data points on everyone along the way,” said Draper.
The system monitors things like speed, agility, how the body reacts, so trainers and coaches know when players can be pushed a little harder, or if they need to back off.
“It’s been a really nice way to kinda learn about what sports science is about and how it affects your performance as a player,” said Union player Josh Yaro.
When trying to lose weight or gain muscle, most people try to target certain areas like the stomach, biceps, or legs. A new scale called ShapeScale recently hit the market, and it tells you exactly where and how your body is losing and gaining weight.
ShapeScale is a round disc with a scanner protruding from its side. It kind of looks like some sort of teleportation device when it’s in action.
While this high-tech scale won’t let you travel through thin air, it does transport a 3D image of you onto your smartphone.
An Australian study of elite walkers, including Olympic gold medallist Jarred Talent, has found low carb, high fat diets can impair performance.
Fitness fanatics may swear by it but new research shows a low carbohydrate, high fat diet (LCHF) can impair the performance of elite athletes, a leading Australian sports nutritionist says.
A study led by Professor Louise Burke, Head of Sports Nutrition at the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) found athletes actually excelled when consuming carbohydrates as opposed to those on a LCHF diet.
… In three years since the NCAA approved a rule allowing Division I student-athletes to receive unlimited meals and snacks — in addition to the meal plans they still qualify for and receive under scholarship or financial aid — Iowa’s three principal football programs have altered their approaches to food as a competitive edge.
Records requests at Iowa and Iowa State show spending has soared for Football Bowl Subdivision teams trying to develop players with the healthy dining options they can provide.
“If we’re going to be a developmental program that really, really relies on strength and conditioning, then we need to be a developmental program that meets the nutrient needs and recovery needs of our athletes,” longtime Iowa strength and conditioning coach Chris Doyle told the Register late last season. “I felt almost like we were negligent for a long period of time.
Beginning R users often come to the false impression that the popular packages dplyr and tidyr are both all of R and sui generis inventions (in that they might be unprecedented and there might no other reasonable way to get the same effects in R). These packages and their conventions are high-value, but they are results of evolution and implement a style of programming that has been available in R for some time. They evolved in a context, and did not burst on the scene fully armored with spear in hand.
This guide is meant to prepare you mentally as well as give you some fruitful directions to pursue. There is a lot to learn besides the d3.js API, both technical knowledge around web standards like HTML, SVG, CSS and JavaScript as well as communication concepts and data visualization principles. Chances are you know something about some of those things, so this guide will attempt to give you good starting points for the things you want to learn more about.
Who has time to read every article they see shared on Twitter or Facebook, or every document that’s relevant to their job? As information overload grows ever worse, computers may become our only hope for handling a growing deluge of documents. And it may become routine to rely on a machine to analyze and paraphrase articles, research papers, and other text for you.
An algorithm developed by researchers at Salesforce shows how computers may eventually take on the job of summarizing documents. It uses several machine-learning tricks to produce surprisingly coherent and accurate snippets of text from longer pieces. And while it isn’t yet as good as a person, it hints at how condensing text could eventually become automated.