… “Between January and February I was in the worst shape of my career. Everything looked bleak, in my mind I felt as if I wasn’t good for anything. But thanks to my family and Campillo I managed to recover from that situation;” he has since revealed, referring to the help of sports psychologist Juan Carlos Alvarez Campillo. “Within a few weeks I was completely transformed. I felt it immediately. The coaching helped me realised that I mattered, that I could give much more. It gave me the strength to find a way out of my depression. It was only a mental thing that was blocking me.”
… The key, Ozuna said, in making the leap from being a talented player to a budding star came in the offseason work he did leading into the year. He’s following the same blueprint — one that former Marlins hitting coach Barry Bonds helped craft — this winter.
The only difference this time is that the results will play out in front of a new audience.
P.K. Subban is known for a long list of achievements On the ice, he’s a defenseman for the Nashville Predators. He’s a Norris Trophy winner, an NHL All-Star and a gold medal winner. When he’s not turning breakouts into goals, he’s a philanthropist, a burgeoning style icon, and sometimes, a singer and a dancer.
What he wants to be known as, though, is a creator, someone who comes up with new, fun, outside-the-box exposure for the game that’s already provided him with so much.
“The NHL has given me such an opportunity—and not just me now, also members of my family an opportunity to take care of ourselves and our families,” he says. “My way of giving back is continuing to try to grow the game and we do that. We protect the game, but it’s also our job to grow it as players while we’re here and during this time.”
Gracie Gold has described herself as “kind of a hit-or-miss personality.” That’s how the figure skater explains the wild swings in her performances. Sometimes she looks unbeatable — strong, confident in her jumps, graceful in her spins. Sometimes she looks astonishingly uncomfortable on the ice — fragile, wracked by nerves, unsure of her next move. And both of those personalities sometimes show up in a single competition.
The pressure of performing gets to Gold. That’s not uncommon among top athletes, especially in sports such as figure skating.
But it wasn’t until Oct. 13 that the extent of her struggles became known. That’s when Gold revealed she is “currently in treatment for depression, anxiety, and an eating disorder.” A month later, as she continued seeking treatment, Gold withdrew from the US national championships and gave up any shot at the 2018 Winter Olympics.
Sleep is a crucial behavior for a properly functioning mind and body—just ask anyone who has experienced a sleepless night. But the complex neural mechanisms underlying sleep are only just beginning to be explored. As part of this exploration, neurobiologists like Caltech professor of biology David Prober aim to build up a catalog of genes that regulate sleep.
… When he’s on a roll, Toni’s ability to chop between minutiae and the big picture never ceases to amaze me, “How do you know?”
“Being systematic and progressive has been the under-pinning philosophy of my coaching. And the major reason for that has been about making progress whilst avoiding injury”.
“Is injury really that much of a concern?”
“I believe 95% of injuries are caused by the coach”.
I pull up short. This wasn’t the direction I was anticipating the conversation taking, “That’s not going to be a popular opinion”.
Associated Press, Eddie Pells and John Leicester from
… Another subtle but telltale indicator of climate change’s disruptive impact on winter sports: Many athletes — here 5,000 miles away from the Rockies and 3,500 miles from the Green Mountains of New England — had the letters “USA” emblazoned on their jackets. Americans once had little need to swap continents to guarantee offseason access to snow. But warming is forcing athletes to hunt farther from home for wintry conditions, particularly just months away from an Olympics.
“Without the snow and the cold in the places in the States where it’s normally cold, we have to travel over here and find a place on a glacier to get a couple of jumps off,” said Jon Lillis, world champion in aerials skiing. “Something that terrifies every winter athlete daily is the fact that the conditions are not as good as they used to be. You see videos of people skiing on glaciers back in the ’80s and ’70s, and half of that glacier doesn’t even exist anymore .”
Many individuals lose less weight than expected in response to exercise interventions when considering the increased energy expenditure of exercise (ExEE). This is due to energy compensation in response to ExEE, which may include increases in energy intake (EI) and decreases in non-exercise physical activity (NEPA). We examined the degree of energy compensation in healthy young men and women in response to interval training. Methods
Data were examined from a prior study in which 24 participants (mean age, BMI, & VO2max = 28 yrs, 27.7 kg•m-2, and 32 mL∙kg-1∙min-1) completed either 4 weeks of sprint-interval training or high-intensity interval training. Energy compensation was calculated from changes in body composition (air displacement plethysmography) and exercise energy expenditure was calculated from mean heart rate based on the heart rate-VO2 relationship. Differences between high (≥ 100%) and low (< 100%) levels of energy compensation were assessed. Linear regressions were utilized to determine associations between energy compensation and ΔVO2max, ΔEI, ΔNEPA, and Δresting metabolic rate.
Results
Very large individual differences in energy compensation were noted. In comparison to individuals with low levels of compensation, individuals with high levels of energy compensation gained fat mass, lost fat-free mass, and had lower change scores for VO2max and NEPA. Linear regression results indicated that lower levels of energy compensation were associated with increases in ΔVO2max (p < 0.001) and ΔNEPA (p < 0.001).
Conclusions
Considerable variation exists in response to short-term, low dose interval training. In agreement with prior work, increases in ΔVO2max and ΔNEPA were associated with lower energy compensation. Future studies should focus on identifying if a dose-response relationship for energy compensation exists in response to interval training, and what underlying mechanisms and participant traits contribute to the large variation between individuals.
If you’re a fitness enthusiast who loves a challenge, then listen up. Technogym have announced SKILLRUN, the first treadmill to combine cardio and power training in a single solution, designed to meet the training requirements of elite athletes as well as fitness enthusiasts. The SKILLRUN uses a unique Multidrive technology (patent pending) to allow both cardio training and resistance workouts.
Modern treadmills understand you need to find the balance between entertainment and the interactive UNITY console allows users to access a completely customised workout experience, offering digital personalised training programmes and data tracking. Programmes on offer include high intensity interval training, speed resistance training and neuromuscular training, as well as immersive and entertaining programmes to motivate the user.
Sensio by MediaTek is a biosensor that monitors heart rate, heart rate variability, blood pressure, peripheral oxygen saturation levels, ECG and PPG, from a smartphone, in 60 seconds. This could allow continuous monitoring with out multiple sensors.
LEDs and a light sensitive sensor measure the absorption of red and infrared light from a user’s fingertips. Touching a sensor allows the measurement of ECG and PPG waveforms.
Achievement goal theory provides a framework to help understand how individuals behave in achievement contexts, such as sport. Evidence concerning the role of motivation in the decision to use banned performance enhancing substances (i.e., doping) is equivocal on this issue. The extant literature shows that dispositional goal orientation has been weakly and inconsistently associated with doping intention and use. It is possible that goal involvement, which describes the situational motivational state, is a stronger determinant of doping intention. Accordingly, the current study used an experimental design to examine the effects of goal involvement, manipulated using direct instructions and reflective writing, on doping likelihood in hypothetical situations in college athletes. The ego-involving goal increased doping likelihood compared to no goal and a task-involving goal. The present findings provide the first evidence that ego involvement can sway the decision to use doping to improve athletic performance.
… Blackpool this week advertised a role for £12,000 a year. This came under much scrutiny from a lot of people in our field myself included. At first the feeling of anger and wondering exactly where are industry is going, however in someways this job advert has been a positive for our industry I believe. Firstly we have been so critical of jobs posting adverts without an actual salary listed so this at least is a step forward, so I think its unfair that when a club or organisation does list it that we are so quick to criticise just because we disagree with it.
The UKSCA has faced criticism for positing this advert, Why? They were merely posting the advert in order to give the opportunity for someone (and we have all been that someone) searching for any possibility to get their foot in the door. Ultimately elite sport is a business like any other, we may not agree with it but its a case of supply and demand, if you have ever negotiated a deal on your monthly phone bill, buying a car or even something bigger like a house especially when it was a ‘buyers market’ or if you have in the past applied for internship or low paid roles to get our foot in the door (which I have been guilt of all of) are we any better than the people we are critiquing so heavily? or did we just create a bigger problem? We know through the struggles a HUGE governing body like the Football Association has against the Premier League and the Football league on numerous factors that these clubs hold so much power its difficult to bring about regulations.
… along with excellent organisation, Dyche’s ability to improve talent has been the key to the rise of his team.
Indeed during his time at the club, three players have won England caps while playing for the Clarets – goalkeeper Tom Heaton, defender Michael Keane (now with Everton) and midfielder Cork. Reports suggest England manager Gareth Southgate is currently keeping close tabs on centre-halves Ben Mee and James Tarkowski, too.
Such a record suggests Dyche and his coaching staff, which includes former Nottingham Forest winger Ian Woan, are able to focus on areas of improvement for individuals as well as incorporate them into an effective team structure.
We examine the extent to which participation in high school athletics has beneficial effects on future education, labor market, and health outcomes. Due to the absence of plausible instruments in observational data, we use recently developed methods that relate selection on observables with selection on unobservables to estimate bounds on the causal effect of athletics participation. We analyze these effects in the US separately for men and women using three different nationally representative longitudinal data sets that each link high school athletics participation with later-life outcomes. We do not find consistent evidence of individual benefits reported in many previous studies – once we have accounted for selection, high school athletes are no more likely to attend college, earn higher wages, or participate in the labor force. However, we do find that men (but not women) who participated in high school athletics are more likely to exercise regularly as adults. Nevertheless, athletes are no less likely to be obese.
… As with many supposed meritocracies, however, the semblance of a level playing field in sports turns out to be a farce. Not all countries are equally well positioned to succeed in the Olympics. The more populous and wealthier countries have all sorts of advantages: a larger pool of athletes, high-tech training regimens, and access to the best professional coaches.
In this regard, the principles that underlie athletic competition are in tension with each other: While fair play is essential, sports fundamentally celebrate inequalities and hierarchies. Performance-enhancing drugs have the potential to scramble those hierarchies, turning what has traditionally been a natural ordering into an artificial one.