Applied Sports Science newsletter – June 1, 2018

Watching Nationals ace Max Scherzer on the mound Is roughly equal parts incredible and uncomfortable—incredible because he happens to be one of the three or four best pitchers on the planet and makes unspeakably talented hitters look like fools, and uncomfortable because of the unsettling heterochromia in the eyes (which I’m convinced is part of his dominance, being able to mesmerize hitters like a wizard of the Hyborian Age).

Where his fellow 2017 Cy Young winner Corey Kluber is calm bordering on corpse-like, Scherzer is a simmering volcano of fury on the mound. Yet, it works. Now 34 years-old, he’s as good as ever. In fact, he’s doing things that only one man has ever achieved.

I didn’t think Scherzer would last this long. That unconventional delivery just seems purpose-built do destroy arms. There’s too much elbow flying about, but it evidently works. For him, for Chris Sale, and in the recent past to took Randy Johnson all the way to 305 wins and the Hall of Fame. In fact, that is just the man whose path Scherzer is evidently emulating. Here’s what I mean. According to Baseball Reference’s Play Index, only two men have thrown more than 600 innings in their 30’s with a sub-3.00 ERA and a K%-BB% above 20 percent.

… “Do you eat fried food?” he asked a reporter Tuesday after practice.

Occasionally, the reporter replied.

“See, that’s bad,” Adams said. “I don’t do that. I stopped eating fried food. I eat fish, anything that’s grilled, basically. I’m trying new things. I didn’t eat asparagus; now I eat asparagus. … I’m stepping up my game as far as my diet.”

Headspace had the pleasure of hosting NBA legend, Steve Nash, in our Santa Monica office in the spring of 2018. Lindsay Shaffer, Headspace’s Head of Sport & Fitness, took the opportunity to ask him about routines, habits, and his mental game.

… As Steve Kerr is to Stephen Curry, so is Curry to Kerr. It was a revelation that came early in Kerr’s first season as Warriors coach. And so mere months into his tenure in Oakland, Kerr decided the dream culture he desired would embody the star player at the very center of it. They would strive to make one of Curry’s defining traits their cornerstone. It would be a constant, felt in the practice facility (where music thumps) and film sessions (where jokes fly) and far beyond. It would be one of the few qualities that, in the age of analytics, remained difficult to tally: happiness.

“You’ll never be able to quantify that one,” says forward Draymond Green. “I think that drives the numbers. And I think the lack thereof is the force behind bad numbers.”

It would also reflect a culture that Kerr believed might work only in Golden State, with Curry as the star. “If I had tried to do some of what I do now with Michael Jordan,” Kerr says, “Michael might have looked at me like, ‘What the f— are you doing?'”

… LeMond has also earned the reputation of being someone with a strong character, who will speak out against doping and rock the boat where he feels it is necessary. He stood up to Lance Armstrong and endured years of derision for doing so, as well as seeing his bike brand being dropped by the Trek company. Armstrong finally admitted that he had doped for much of his career.

Now 56 years of age, LeMond shares his life lessons with CyclingTips. In this latest edition of our What I’ve Learned series, he talks about his background, his experiences with former teammates Bernard Hinault and Laurent Fignon, the 1987 hunting accident which almost killed him, his anti-doping stance, the importance of compassion and the value of perseverance.

… The 15 minutes between the end of the second quarter and start of the third are a carefully choreographed production, featuring clips of game footage, wardrobe changes and managerial strategies straight out of business school. Coach Steve Kerr, based on interviews with players and coaches, has worked to create an environment of inclusion. This is not a place for Lombardi-esque rah-rah speeches. Rather, the Warriors’ halftime locker room is a high-speed 360-degree team review.

“Everybody is a leader here,” said Pachulia, the veteran center. “At least you have a feeling that you’re a leader.”

The Warriors actually begin preparing for halftime as soon as the game begins. Assistant coaches will identify plays that the team may want to review at halftime by signaling them to Willie Green, an assistant and 11-year N.B.A. veteran who sits one row behind the bench. Green is in charge of keeping track of the time and score for each of the plays in question.

… Just because a notion is popular, however, doesn’t make it true. A recent review of the scientific literature on learning styles found scant evidence to clearly support the idea that outcomes are best when instructional techniques align with individuals’ learning styles. In fact, there are several studies that contradict this belief. It is clear that people have a strong sense of their own learning preferences (e.g., visual, kinesthetic, intuitive), but it is less clear that these preferences matter.

Research by Polly Hussman and Valerie Dean O’Loughlin at Indiana University takes a new look at this important question. Most previous investigations on learning styles focused on classroom learning, and assessed whether instructional style impacted outcomes for different types of learners. But is the classroom really where most of the serious learning occurs? Some might argue that, in this era of flipped classrooms and online course materials, students master more of the information on their own. That might explain why instructional style in the classroom matters little. It also raises the possibility that learning styles do matter—perhaps a match between students’ individual learning styles and their study strategies is the key to optimal outcomes.

… For the most part, parents are right on the money when it comes to the benefits of organized sport participation. An extensive body of research demonstrates that sport involvement can have positive effects on physical and mental health, interpersonal skills and relationships, and overall development. Parents enroll their children in sport with good intentions. The issue is that young athletes are increasingly placed in high-pressure environments that are unfavourable for developing these positive outcomes.

A big part of the problem is the increasingly professionalized nature of youth sport in countries such as Canada, Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Parents are investing significant amounts of money, up to 10% of their annual income, and risking their long-term financial security to provide their children with the “best shot” at success in sport – from training camps and travel teams, to high-end equipment and private coaching. According to the 2016 TD Ameritrade Investor Survey, 60% of respondents were concerned about their ability to save for the future due to cost of youth sports. In light of these concerns, two-thirds of parents hoped their child would earn a college scholarship, and one-third dreamed of a professional sports career. The statistics tell a different story: around 2% of high school athletes will receive a college scholarship, and less than 0.2% will go professional.

Quantified Athlete technologies that augment traditional coach-athlete dynamics will also need to help athletes who are training without a coach. The situation asks a lot of the technology, especially at the interface. There are user interfaces that connect people to tech and programming interfaces that transfer data between machines. There is, simply put, a lot going on.

Paradox of Choice, And The Challenge of Product Design

The path to disruptive athlete training technologies is a balancing act. The reason is the “Paradox of Choice,” from Barry Schwarz’ 2004 book title, “The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less.” The paradox is a factor in human-computer interaction design. It comes into play when user interfaces risk having too few choices, to the point where users don’t get sufficient customization, and also risk having too many choices, to the point where the work exceeds users’ tolerance.

A Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory committee unanimously recommended approval of a new type of implantable glucose monitoring device that can be left in place much longer than previous types. The new sensor is a cylinder measuring about 3/4-inch long and 1/8-inch wide. It’s inserted just under the skin on the upper arm under local anesthesia.

Sensors currently available typically last only 3 to 10 days. The new device can remain in place for up to 90 days, transmitting real-time blood sugar levels to a smartphone app via a tiny transmitter in an adhesive skin patch above the implanted sensor. The device also issues alerts when a person’s blood sugar gets dangerously high or low.

The National Basketball Players Association has hired its first director of mental health and wellness.

Dr. William D. Parham will oversee the union’s new program, designed to help members with mental health issues. The program will be headquartered in Los Angeles.

… In this post, we’ll look at which types of penalty frequencies vary by game minute, compare penalty frequencies in the regular season to postseason play, and suggest whether teams can expect a quicker or slower whistle.

… After the NBA enacted an age requirement in 2006, though, the one-and-done player was born. Instead of moving from high school to the NBA (like LeBron James, Kevin Garnett, and Kobe Bryant), the age requirement required elite players be one year removed from high school before entering the NBA draft. For the vast majority of these elite prospects, that one year is spent on a college campus.

One year of college clearly doesn’t have much (if any) value. But these one-and-done players can be immensely valuable to a college team. To illustrate let’s consider the case of Marvin Bagley III.

If there was a high school draft, Bagley III would have likely been the number one choice of colleges in 2017. According to the Recruiting Services Consensus Index (RSCI), Bagley III was the top high school recruit in 2017. Of course, colleges don’t employ a draft to select talent. For colleges, the process of selecting elite talent seems much more involved.

… If a club is looking for a position from which to extract more value by facing more opposite-handed pitchers, catcher is the untapped positional market.

Of course, the problem is the scarcity of catchers who can hit — the position collectively holds an 87 wRC+ this season — let alone left-handed-hitting catchers. Also, roster flexibility is an issue, as a majority of teams only carry two catchers.

The Astros are carrying three, including Gattis, who has only caught four innings this season but was behind the plate for 413 innings last year.

The Astros are one of nine teams enjoying a platoon advantage at the position.

Find one more like our best: That’s the motto which guides scouting for the United States women’s national team.

In theory, that should be pretty simple. This is, after all, the world’s most storied women’s program – three-time World Cup champion and four-time Olympic champion. This is a country which has long embraced women’s soccer and thus turned over world-class players across several generations. It is home to one of the world’s best professional leagues and it boasts an incredible depth of talent in the professional and collegiate ranks.

The national team is the top of that pyramid – the one percent of the one percent. Every two months or so, a group of 20-some players are called into training camp. Logically, these are the best American players at any given time. But how are those players actually picked? How does the national team program – from the Under-15 level to the senior team – actually select its players?