Applied Sports Science newsletter – March 6, 2019

Applied Sports Science news articles, blog posts and research papers for March 6, 2019

 

Will Nick Bosa Be the First Non-QB Taken in the NFL Draft?

SI.com, NFL, Jenny Vrentas from

Nick Bosa is widely considered to be one of the best prospects in the 2019 NFL Draft. The MMQB’s Jenny Vrentas shares whether Bosa’s performance at the 2019 NFL Combine helped distance the former Ohio State defensive end from the other non-quarterback prospects in the draft.

 

The Village Bringing Victor Oladipo Back to Life

Bleacher Report, BR Mag, Jonathan Abrams from

After suffering a season-ending injury, the Pacers All-Star is on the mend. Healing is hard work, though, so he’ll need to rely on the people who have picked him up his entire life.

 

Athletic trainers build athletes up with strength training, empathy

Kansas State University, The Collegian student newspaper, Margaret Kohlrus from

Senior guard Kayla Goth, sophomore guard Rachel Ranke and junior forward Peyton Williams are three recognizable names from Kansas State’s women’s basketball team. A name that many may not be as familiar with is women’s basketball athletic trainer, Becca Fitzgerald.

Fitzgerald received her undergraduate degree at Kansas University. Before coming to K-State, she was a trainer for the track, football and basketball programs at Ball State University and KU.

Now, Fitzgerald works side by side with the women’s strength coach, AJ Kloss. Together they decide what treatments and warmups are needed before each day of practice based on the team’s improvements and injuries. Kloss works to build up strength and muscles while Fitzgerald focuses on rehab.

 

Maximizing Human Performance with Michael Johnson and Trevor Moawad | Upfront Summit 2019

YouTube, Upfront Ventures from

Michael Johnson (Olympic gold medalist) and Trevor Moawad (Mental conditioning consultant) sit down with Kobie Fuller (Upfront Ventures) to discuss leveraging the athlete’s mindset; the danger of negative and positive thinking; Michael’s recovery from a stroke; and the thinking behind those gold shoes.

 

Women’s basketball at Notre Dame goes all-in on biomechanical data

Indianapolis Star, Mike Berardino from

As March arrived and the stretch drive began for college basketball teams, Mike Szemborski found himself checking and re-checking the numbers on his laptop.

With just a few clicks of his mouse, Notre Dame’s director of strength and conditioning for Olympic sports is able to scan reams of real-time data on how the nation’s fourth-ranked women’s basketball team is holding up. Thanks to wearable technology and an Australian-designed program called Catapult, the defending national champions hope to hit their biomechanical stride just in time for a repeat performance.

“We’ve seen a big impact,” says Szemborski, hired in 2017 after 12 years at the University of Maryland. “We want to measure in-game performance in terms of how far they’re running, how fast they’re running, but it’s also measuring fatigue within a game. How many minutes can they play before we start to see some of those factors decreasing?”

 

Asics Launches New Technology In Efficiency-Focused Running Sneaker

Forbes, Tim Newcomb from

Asics aims to make long-distance running more efficient with the debut of MetaRide, a new running shoe designed with a mixture of original technologies geared toward engineering the running gait.

Created over two years in the Asics Sports Science Institute in Kobe, Japan, the design of MetaRide puts a focus on reducing energy loss at the ankle joint. To make it happen, the sneaker introduces a fresh approach sole technology, cushioning and construction.

 

MWC 2019: La Liga Hopes Technical Innovations Will Establish Soccer Leadership

Forbes, Steve McCaskill from

… One way La Liga is working to improve attendances is through Artificial Intelligence (AI). It’s “Calendar Selector” software applies machine learning algorithms to suggest optimal map schedules. This algorithm uses more than 70 different variables, including historical television audience figures and attendances in the stadium.

On top of this, La Liga also uses “Sunlight” software to predict the natural light conditions for a match and indicate the areas of sun and shade in the stadium. This is crucial for delivering the best possible television image as unsightly shadows or glare can impact the viewing experience back home. Again, these findings are taken into account when deciding match schedules.

“At a time when there is much talk about artificial intelligence and machine learning, LaLiga is demonstrating its leadership as we start to use these technologies to optimize scheduling of our matches.”

 

Return to play following anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction: incorporating fatigue into a return to play functional battery. Part A: treadmill running

BMJ Open Sport & Exercise Medicine from

Background The risk of reinjury and other sequelae following anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR) remains high. Lack of knowledge regarding factors contributing to these risks limits our ability to develop sensitive return to play (RTP) tests. Using a running task, we evaluate whether fatigue induces alterations in foot progression angle (FPA), a proposed biomechanical risk factor and could be used to enhance RTP test sensitivity.

Method Transverse plane foot kinematics (FPA) were assessed for 18 post-ACLR subjects during a treadmill running task, before and after a generalised lower limb fatigue protocol. Subject’s contralateral limbs were used as a control group.

Results A small but significant difference between FPA for ACLR and contralateral limbs was observed before but not after fatigue. When confounding variables were considered, there was a significant difference in FPA change between ACLR and contralateral limbs from the prefatigue to postfatigue state.

Conclusions Following ACLR athletes may develop a knee-protective movement strategy that delays the progression of osteoarthritis in the ACL-injured knee. This may, however, increase the risk of ACL reinjury. Following the onset of fatigue this proposed movement strategy, and thus osteoarthritis protection, is lost.

 

Why So Many LA Dodgers Are Now Dairy-Free

Live Kindly blog, Kat Smith from

At least seven members of the LA Dodgers baseball team are now following a dairy-free diet. And, according to the athletes, the lifestyle switch has led to some major health improvements.

According to The Athletic, Corey Seager, Max Muncy, Kiké Hernandez, Ross Stripling, David Freese, and Kenley Jansen have all cut dairy out of their diets. The teammates followed in the footsteps of former Dodgers second baseman, Chase Utley.

Utley initially went dairy-free as he was approaching 40 in order to slow the aging process. The now-retired southpaw soon found that it came with other health improvements; cutting out dairy also alleviated chronic pain and inflammation.

 

Bills add Dennis Lock from Dolphins front office

USA Today Sports, Bills Wire blog, Nick Wojton from

… Per the report via the Miami Herald, Lock was most recently Miami’s Director of Analytics. His new title with the Bills appears to be an increase in title, which is likely how Buffalo was able to hire him. Lock will be the Bills’ Director of Football Research and Strategy.

 

2019 Big Data Bowl Winners Announced 4 days ago

NFL Football Operations from

The NFL has announced the two grand prize winners of the inaugural Big Data Bowl: Matthew Reyers, Dani Chu, Lucas Wu and James Thomson from Simon Fraser University (college entry), and Nathan Sterken (open entry).

The Big Data Bowl marked the first time that Next Gen Stats NFL player-tracking data from entire games has been accessible to non-league personnel. Eight finalists presented their findings to league and team personnel at an event held in Indianapolis before the 2019 NFL Scouting Combine.

 

There’s no such thing as resale value

21st Club Limited, Omar Chaudhuri from

… In financial markets, information is typically ‘priced in’. For example, the value of the pound sterling reacts not just to key Brexit votes and events, but in anticipation of these. If everyone thinks the pound will fall in the event of a no-deal Brexit, and the probability of a no-deal rises, then the pound falls accordingly in advance of no deal.

The same applies to player valuations in football. If everyone thinks that a player’s value will rise – in other words, if everyone thinks that the player has ‘resale value’ – then his market value should rise to a point where there is essentially a 50/50 chance of the buying club actually realising a profit on the deal. Buyback clauses and sell-on fees distort this picture slightly, but the underlying picture remains.

 

Why The Lakers Imploded

FiveThirtyEight, Chris Herring from

… How did things go off the rails so quickly and disastrously in James’s first season out West?

James’s injury — a possibility that should’ve been taken more seriously all along, given his age and the mileage on his tires — obviously was a killer. The Lakers were tied for fourth place at 19-14 on Christmas (when James was sidelined with the groin strain), then went just 6-11 without him.

Many other factors came into play, though.

The once-solid defense vanished.

 

How many high school stars make it in the NBA?

The Pudding, Russell Goldenberg & Amber Thomas from

Remember NBA great Donnell Harvey? Neither do we. Despite being the #1 high school recruit in 2000—something that you think would indicate future NBA stardom—he put together a meager career in the league, averaging around 5 points per game over 5 years. On the flip side is LeBron James—the #1 high school recruit just a few years later—and we all know what he’s been up to.

This disparity got us thinking, are these top 100 recruit lists any indication of making it to the NBA, let alone becoming a star?

 

Mets Hire ESPN’s Jessica Mendoza in Front-Office Role

The New York Times, Kevin Draper and Kevin Armstrong from

When the Mets hired Brodie Van Wagenen as their new general manager last October, they wholly embraced, even promoted, his status as an unconventional outsider — a converted player agent. The team made a similarly unorthodox addition on Tuesday, announcing that Jessica Mendoza, a baseball analyst for ESPN, would join the team’s front office as a baseball operations adviser to Van Wagenen.

The Mets said Mendoza, a softball gold medalist in the 2004 Olympic Games who joined ESPN in 2007, would focus on player evaluation, roster construction, and health and performance.

 

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