Applied Sports Science newsletter – September 22, 2018

… Her training, which included a 25-mile run within the past week, was going well, until she felt pain in the same spot. A scan revealed a second fracture, forcing her to withdraw from Chicago.

Hasay, who turns 27 on September 21, spoke to Runner’s World about the seriousness of the latest injury, the cross-training regimen that keeps her fit, and how she has been coping with the psychological effects of the first injuries of her long career.

… “He’s one of the fastest human beings I’ve ever seen line up in a pair of cleats,” said Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy, a former NFL player and longtime assistant coach. “There’s only been a few of them that I’ve looked back and said, ‘Wow,’ one being Deion Sanders. Rocket Ismail.

“When you have a player that has that unique gift to take the top off everything, yes, it does lighten the load for a lot of different people.”

Lynden Gooch has been through a lot the past two seasons playing for a club that was in turmoil. But new ownership and a new manager have brough optimism for both Gooch and Sunderland supporters. Now the Santa Cruz native is hoping for promotion and a return to the USMNT

… 4) Do you have a particular area of interest and how do you think this particular area applies to youth athletes?

I have a great interest in movement and especially during the pubertal growth spurt. I think this is an under researched area due to the complexities of measuring movement. It is something we are putting a lot of time and resources into as I feel focusing on that early can help further development latter in the players career. We published our initial work on the Sport Performance & Science Reports website. We showed signs of arrested development for movement during the youth players development and linear development for speed and power during the young players development. I think this gives us a big clue for our programming. Please see the link to the paper: “The influence of maturity status on movement quality among English Premier League academy soccer players.”

IN 1999 at the age of 13, Olympic sprint kayaker Jesse Phillips was plucked from the schoolyard at Aranmore Catholic College and identified as a future champion.

This month, he will be putting possible future Olympians through their paces to help identify athletes of the future at the WA Institute of Sport (WAIS) Talent ID (TID) weekend.

WAIS staff, including Phillips, Performance Team Pathway director Jo Richards and physiologist Martyn Binnie, will work with the state bodies for rowing, canoeing and cycling to identify teenagers aged between 13 and 17 who have the physical aptitude for the sporting disciplines.

The purpose of this study was to present a fitness profile of Division I male lacrosse players and compare the fitness attributes across different positions and starting status. Forty-one Division I men’s lacrosse players (19.6 ± 1.6 years, 82.5 ± 9.5 kg, 182.0 ± 5.4 cm) volunteered to participate in the study. Fitness attributes assessed included aerobic fitness (1.5-mile run), muscular strength (1 repetition maximum bench press, squat, and hang clean), grip strength (hand dynamometer), explosive power (vertical jump), agility (3-cone drill, pro-agility), body composition (7-site skinfold), and speed (20- and 40-yard sprint). All testing was conducted by a certified strength and conditioning coach and occurred at the conclusion of pre-season training. The only significant difference across positions was for body mass, whereby defensemen were significantly heavier than attacking players (p < 0.05). Starters were significantly faster on the 3-cone drill, 20- and 40-yard sprint, and jumped significantly higher on the vertical jump compared with nonstarters (p < 0.05). Attributes pertaining to anaerobic fitness (speed, agility, and explosive power) may be better predictors of starting status than aerobic fitness in men's NCAA Division I lacrosse players. This differs from previous research on men's club lacrosse players where a difference in aerobic fitness and body composition was shown between starters and nonstarters. The normative data presented in this study may assist strength and conditioning coaches in the development of sport-specific training programs and motivate athletes toward achieving sport-specific fitness goals by helping identify areas of weakness before the start of the season.

Cortico-basal-ganglia-thalamic (CBGT) networks are critical for adaptive decision-making, yet how changes to circuit-level properties impact cognitive algorithms remains unclear. Here we explore how dopaminergic plasticity at corticostriatal synapses alters competition between striatal pathways, impacting the evidence accumulation process during decision-making. Spike-timing dependent plasticity simulations showed that dopaminergic feedback based on rewards modified the ratio of direct and indirect corticostriatal weights within opposing action channels. Using the learned weight ratios in a full spiking CBGT network model, we simulated neural dynamics and decision outcomes in a reward-driven decision task and fit them with a drift-diffusion model. Fits revealed that the rate of evidence accumulation varied with inter-channel differences in direct pathway activity while boundary height varied with overall indirect pathway activity. This multi-level modeling approach demonstrates how complementary learning and decision computations emerge from corticostriatal plasticity.

… Alisal High, nicknamed “el nido de fútbol” (the nest of soccer), is a prime example of U.S. soccer’s ongoing struggle over how and where to recruit and develop talent. While youngsters in nearby Silicon Valley and Monterey train with elite development teams, players on Alisal’s all-Mexican American team become state title contenders after learning to play from dads, uncles and cousins who work in the fields.

“Every kid plays,” said Mark Cisneros, a teacher who has coached Alisal’s varsity soccer team for the last 10 years. “There are two ways to prove you’re a man: soccer or gangbanging.”

That Salinas is among the murder capitals of California can be easy to forget in the hallways at Alisal.

A three-dimensional framework of perceived fatigability emphasises the need to differentiate between the qualitatively distinct inputs of sensory-discriminatory, affective-motivational and cognitive-evaluative processes that shape the perceptual milieu during prolonged endurance exercise. This article reviews the framework’s utility to better understand how cause–effect relationships come to be and how perception–action coupling underpins pacing behaviour and performance fatigability. Preliminary evidence supports the hypotheses that perceived strain plays a primary role in trajectory regulation of pacing behaviour, core affect plays a primary and mediatory role in behavioural performance regulation, and the mindset shift associated with an action crisis plays a primary role in the intensity dependent volitional self-regulatory control of conflicting motivational drives. The constructs hypothesised to underpin perceived fatigability are systematically linked, context-dependent, constraint-based, distinguishable and show proportional continuous interdependency. They are further interrelated with dynamic changes in pacing behaviour, performance fatigability and physiological disturbance. Appropriate measurement selections for the subordinate constructs perceived physical strain, perceived mental strain, valence, arousal, action crisis and flow state are discussed. To better understand the non-proportional discontinuous effects of fatigue on discrete shifts in thought states and mindsets, non-linear dynamical systems theory is introduced as an unbiased overarching theory of governing principles in the temporal evolution of complex systems. This provides the opportunity to discuss the bio-psycho-social fatigue phenomenon from a dynamical and holistic perspective. The proposed framework offers a sophisticated alternative to the Gestalt concept of perceived exertion and comprehensively accounts for the psychophysiological processes that determine pacing behaviour and performance. It has the potential to enrich theory development and facilitate a deeper understanding of the psychophysiological regulation of goal-directed exercise behaviour.

… “It was literally one line saying, ‘Based on the business model that you have created, it is permissible for student-athletes to make money using your service,’” Sirlin said.

Yes, you read that correctly.

Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment and Ryerson University are launching a new research and innovation lab dedicated to sports tech.

The Future of Sport Lab hopes to be a hub connecting Canadian sport properties and industry partners to entrepreneurs, faculty, and students. The FSL will be focused on fostering research and innovation partnerships; applied research and needs assessments to identify emerging opportunities; startup support, including the opportunity to have MLSE pilot testing of products; and research forums to identify emerging trends.

Oxxiom, the world’s first wireless, continuous, fully disposable, single-use pulse oximeter is now available for Sports and Aviation with immediate delivery. By utilizing Oxxiom, fitness and wellness enthusiasts can improve their performance, expand their limits, and aim higher. Oxxiom measures SpO2 (oxygen saturation), PR (pulse rate) and PI (perfusion index), and athletes and aviators can benefit by having immediate and continuous access to their Oxygen levels and heart rate. Oxxiom is small, lightweight, and easy to operate, allowing users to perform their best without being inconvenienced by old-fashioned, bulky devices. Oxxiom also offers the flexibility of measurement sites: finger, forehead, and behind the ear (posterior auricle).

As part of its recently launched New Business and Innovation Division, ASICS has announced five innovative businesses to benefit from TENKAN-TEN, a unique growth catalyst programme for start-ups disrupting the sports and wellbeing sector.

The five ambitious start-ups – varying from smart fabrics to artificial intelligence and motion capturing apps – were selected from around the world based on their innovative products and services and commitment to inspiring movement in line with ASICS’ founding philosophy of Anima Sana In Corpore Sano – A Sound Mind in a Sound Body.

… When human beings see something unexpected, we do a double take. It’s a common phrase with real cognitive implications — and it explains why neural networks fail when scenes get weird.

Today’s best neural networks for object detection work in a “feed forward” manner. This means that information flows through them in only one direction. They start with an input of fine-grained pixels, then move to curves, shapes, and scenes, with the network making its best guess about what it’s seeing at each step along the way. As a consequence, errant observations early in the process end up contaminating the end of the process, when the neural network pools together everything it thinks it knows in order to make a guess about what it’s looking at.

OBJECTIVE:

To identify the prevalence, frequency of use, and effects of analgesic pain management strategies used in elite athletes.
DESIGN:

Systematic literature review.
DATA SOURCES:

Six databases: Ovid/Medline, SPORTDiscus, CINAHL, Embase, Cochrane Library, and Scopus.
ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA FOR SELECTING STUDIES:

Empirical studies involving elite athletes and focused on the use or effects of medications used for pain or painful injury. Studies involving recreational sportspeople or those that undertake general exercise were excluded.
MAIN RESULTS:

Of 70 articles found, the majority examined the frequency with which elite athletes use pain medications, including nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), corticosteroids, anesthetics, and opioids. A smaller set of studies assessed the effect of medications on outcomes such as pain, function, and adverse effects. Oral NSAIDs are reported to be the most common medication, being used in some international sporting events by over 50% of athletes. Studies examining the effects of pain medications on elite athletes typically involved small samples and lacked control groups against which treated athletes were compared.
CONCLUSIONS:

Existing empirical research does not provide a sufficient body of evidence to guide athletes and healthcare professionals in making analgesic medication treatment decisions. Based on the relatively robust evidence regarding the widespread use of NSAIDs, clinicians and policymakers should carefully assess their current recommendations for NSAID use and adhere to a more unified consensus-based strategy for multidisciplinary pain management in elite athletes. In the future, we hope to see more rigorous, prospective studies of various pain management strategies in elite athletes, thus enabling a shift from consensus-based recommendations to evidence-based recommendations.

The Oklahoma City Thunder and OU Medicine today announced a unique and innovative 10-year partnership in which OU Medicine becomes the official healthcare partner of the Thunder. Under the agreement, OU Medicine will join with the team on a number of organizational, medical and community initiatives. Thunder Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer Danny Barth and OU Medicine President and CEO Chuck Spicer made the announcement.

“This is a dynamic and significant fusion of two of our state’s leaders in innovation and excellence. Going beyond the traditional and transactional sports partnerships, it’s a collaboration centered on research, technology, cross-learning and creative thinking,” Barth said. “It’s one of only a small handful of NBA healthcare partnerships forged within a university environment. Our two organizations share a focus on creating the optimal conditions for exceptional talent at all levels. We are excited to see what the next decade offers.”

… Total intake of two or more servings of full-fat dairy food was associated with a 22 percent lower risk of heart disease, a 34 percent lower risk of stroke, and a 23 percent lower risk of death from cardiovascular disease. (A serving was eight ounces of milk or yogurt, a teaspoon of butter or a half-ounce slice of cheese.) There was no association with butter consumption alone, possibly because the population studied ate so little of it.

… The numbers are very clear. We need more men and women of color to represent US national teams. So few players of color representing the USWNT means there are great athletes across the country we are ignoring. We need to open up the game to the whole nation – women and men. Imagine if the next LeBron James played soccer. But I don’t think we’re even looking for players in places like Akron, Ohio. That needs to change.

… It’s been almost 50 years since legendary scout Epy Guerrero started the first baseball training camp on a dirt field in Villa Mella, Dominican Republic, and changed the landscape of international scouting. In the decades that followed, growth promoted change. Errors forced corrections. Now there’s another transformation in the international scouting world and in the system that governs it.

“Countries outside of the United States remain an important source of Major League players, and we want to do all we can to promote the health of the game in those countries,” said Morgan Sword, who oversees all international signings as part of his duties as senior vice president of league economics and operations for Major League Baseball. “We hope to improve our system of player acquisition and create a better working relationship with the trainer community of Latin America.”

Collaborations are an integral part of scientific research and publishing. In the past, access to large-scale corpora has limited the ways in which questions about collaborations could be investigated. However, with improvements in data/metadata quality and access, it is possible to explore the idea of research collaboration in ways beyond the traditional definition of multiple authorship. In this paper, we examine scientific works through three different lenses of collaboration: across multiple authors, multiple institutions, and multiple departments. We believe this to be a first look at multiple departmental collaborations as we employ extensive data curation to disambiguate authors’ departmental affiliations for nearly 70,000 scientific papers. We then compare citation metrics across the different definitions of collaboration and find that papers defined as being collaborative were more frequently cited than their non-collaborative counterparts, regardless of the definition of collaboration used. We also share preliminary results from examining the relationship between co-citation and co-authorship by analyzing the extent to which similar fields (as determined by co-citation) are collaborating on works (as determined by co-authorship). These preliminary results reveal trends of compartmentalization with respect to intra-institutional collaboration and show promise in being expanded.

… One important insight that has emerged from this research is the importance of generating alternatives to any course of action you are considering. In the early 1980s, a business school professor named Paul Nutt set out to catalog real-world decisions the way a botanist might catalog the various types of vegetation growing in a rain forest. In his initial study, published in 1984, he analyzed 78 decisions made by senior managers at a range of public and private organizations in the United States and Canada: insurance companies, government agencies, hospitals, consulting firms.

The most striking finding in Professor Nutt’s research was this: Only 15 percent of the decisions he studied involved a stage where the decision makers actively sought out a new option beyond the initial choices on the table. In a later study, he found that only 29 percent of organizational decision makers contemplated more than one alternative.

This turns out to be a bad strategy. Over the years, Professor Nutt and other researchers have demonstrated a strong correlation between the number of alternatives deliberated and the ultimate success of the decision itself. In one of his studies, Professor Nutt found that participants who considered only one alternative ultimately judged their decision a failure more than 50 percent of the time, while decisions that involved contemplating at least two alternatives were felt to be successes two-thirds of the time.

… Asked about the basis for going for it on fourth down during his weekly news conference Monday, coach John Harbaugh began by emphasizing that the analytics for the attempts had been processed before the two scenarios had unfolded.

“The math is already done,” he said. “We study all of that. We have all those numbers. That’s given to me during the game. The math in both of those was pretty overwhelming to go for them. While I’m not Copernicus, I passed math all the times I took it.”

A mathematics and business major at Skidmore College in New York told Inside Science in Feb. 2017, “On average, teams that went for it had a change in win probability 2.6 percent greater than teams that did not go for it.”

Le’Veon Bell turned 26 years old in February, which means — if he winds up playing much in 2018 — he might be halfway done with his career by the end of this season.

Does that feel like an exaggeration to you? I looked at all players who had at least one season with 750+ rushing yards, had at least 5,500 career rushing yards, and were retired. And about half of those players had rushed for at least half of their career rushing yards by the end of their age 26 season. That season was by far the most common mid-point, with 34 out 94 players hitting their 50% career mark during their age 26 season. This includes Walter Payton, Barry Sanders, LaDainian Tomlinson, Jerome Bettis, Eric Dickerson, and Marshall Faulk; it’s also where Adrian Peterson and Marshawn Lynch would be had they retired after 2017.

Machine learning uses patterns in data to label things. Sounds magical? The core concepts are actually embarrassingly simple. I say “embarrassingly” because if someone made you think it’s mystical, they should be embarrassed. Here, let me fix that for you.

Noshir Contractor, a professor of behavioral sciences at the McCormick School of Engineering, as well as a professor of management and organizations at the Kellogg School and communication studies in the School of Communication at Northwestern, recently sat down with Duncan Watts, principal researcher at Microsoft and an expert in how social influence spreads on networks. They discussed whether social scientists are doing enough to solve problems in the world around us—and what researchers and businesses can do to push the field forward.