… “If I go to war, I want Vidal alongside me,” Pep Guardiola once said. He had not signed Vidal for Bayern and he is a purist, people argue, but those are qualities he appreciates. When Barcelona signed him, part of the argument was that he’d joined simply for games like this one: when fight was more important than football, when physicality came to the fore. “He gives us character,” said Barcelona’s sporting director Eric Abidal at the time. “He gives us qualities that no one else does,” Valverde has said of the Chilean — qualities that he needed against Liverpool.
Manny Wilkins never has been one to ask, “Why me?” But he sure came close on Dec. 15, 2018.
In what would be the 1,114th and final pass of his college career, Wilkins took a nasty shot to the side of his right knee in the final minutes of Arizona State’s 31-20 loss to Fresno State in the Las Vegas Bowl.
Replays showed the knee hyperextend in scary fashion. Players on both sides knelt, as trainers tended to the Sun Devils’ three-year starting quarterback in pin-dropping silence.
Wilkins has overcome a lot in his life – the loss of his father when he was 10, a move to Texas while he was entering high school and a coaching change during his final year at ASU.
… Siakam’s game is impossible to define in any common basketball way. He’s not the first or maybe even second name on any Raptors scouting reports, yet he’s the one player the team cannot live without. Given all their personnel changes, injuries, and years of playoff baggage, Siakam’s ability to be a total wild card on any given night has been the Raptors’ one constant.
Heavy eccentric calf training is a common treatment for mid-portion Achilles tendinopathy, however this systematic review and meta-analysis suggests the evidence supporting this is low and the true beneficial effect has not been well established. Strengthening programmes appear useful but other regimes may be at least as effective1.
Can we accurately evaluate an organization’s ability to acquire and develop players relative to their competitors? In part one of our mini-series looking at the overall state of minor league player acquisition and development, we attempted to answer that question by building a database of over 8,000 minor league players in order to assess each organization’s ability to generate value. With dollar estimates of surplus value that controlled for player expenditure and expected talent levels for incoming players, we were able to identify industry leaders and laggards in player development. We were also able to quantify a preliminary estimate of monetary value realized by more progressive teams via a first mover’s advantage.
In this post, we build on our preliminary methods and analyses to examine how data-driven player acquisition and development contributes to a sustainable model of success at the major league level. Using our baseline estimates to generate more specific and reliable results, we evaluate the merits of unique team-building strategies and provide more realistic estimates of the surplus generated by each respective farm system in baseball.
The aim of this novel study was to analyze the effect of deliberate practice (DP) and easy continuous runs completed by elite-standard and world-class long-distance runners on competitive performances during the first 7 years of their sport careers. Eighty-five male runners reported their best times in different running events and the amounts of different DP activities (tempo runs and short- and long-interval sessions) and 1 non-DP activity (easy runs) after 3, 5, and 7 years of systematic training. Pearson’s correlations were calculated between performances (calculated using the International Association of Athletics Federations’ scoring tables) and the distances run for the different activities (and overall total). Simple and multiple linear regression analysis calculated how well these activities predicted performance. Pearson’s correlations showed consistently large effects on performance of total distance (r ≥ 0.75, p < 0.001), easy runs (r ≥ 0.68, p < 0.001), tempo runs (r ≥ 0.50, p < 0.001), and short-interval training (r ≥ 0.53, p < 0.001). Long-interval training was not strongly correlated (r ≥ 0.22). Total distance accounted for significant variance in performance (R ≥ 0.57, p < 0.001). Of the training modes, hierarchical regression analysis showed that easy runs and tempo runs were the activities that accounted for significant variance in performance (p < 0.01). Although DP activities, particularly tempo runs and short-interval training, are important for improving performance, coaches should note that the non-DP activity of easy running was crucial in better performances, partly because of its contribution to total distance run.
Nutrition and chronic condition management focused health tech startup Noom landed a whooping $58 million in new financing this morning. Sequoia Capital led the round with participation from Aglae Ventures, Samsung Ventures, and a number of individual investors including Whats App cofounder Jan Koum, DoorDash cofounder Tony Xu, and Oscar Health cofounder Scooter Braun.
WHAT THEY DO
Noom’s platform is focused on creating behavioral health changes related to weight loss, fitness and diet management. Its signature product is called the Noom Weight Loss Coach. Noom users are paired with a dedicated human health coach based on their lifestyle and preferences. The startup is also employing AI to help personalized the experience for its users.
Electronic contact lenses have been in development for over a decade by a number of labs around the world. Having electronics integrated into a contact lens may provide medical capabilities, such as measuring intraoccular pressure, analyzing tears for glucose levels, and aiding people with poor vision. While the science of making smart contact lenses has progressed quite a bit, there’s still a major challenge of how to power these devices so they can do impressive feats and do so for long periods of time.
Researchers at IMT Atlantique, a French engineering university, working with folks from LCS, a contact lens manufacturer based in Caen, have now developed a way to integrate a flexible battery into a contact lens.
On February 25, 1998, STATS became the first company in history to digitally track players in a FIFA friendly between France and Norway. The technology has come a long way, and with SportVU 2.0, STATS is taking it to new levels thanks to computer vision. SportVU 2.0’s upgrades include an active-learning framework for continuous improvement, increased frequency, and 4K cameras for significantly enhanced resolution. Going forward, SportVU 2.0 will include predictive elements, building on the vast amounts of existing tracking data STATS has accumulated over the past 20 years. Watch as STATS’ Sujoy Ganguly and Sateesh Pedagadi discuss. [video, 3:32]
The study examined if three feasible strategies involving additional in-play cooling periods attenuate the core (rectal) temperature rise during simulated football matches. Design
Four counterbalanced experimental trials in an environmental chamber set to 35 °C ambient temperature, 55% relative humidity, and 30 °C WBGT. Methods
Twelve healthy well-trained football players completed a regular simulated match (REG), regular simulated match with additional 3-min cooling periods at the 30-min mark of each half inclusive of chilled water consumption (COOLwater), regular simulated match with additional 3-min cooling periods at the 30-min mark of each half inclusive of chilled water consumption and the application of an ice towel around the neck (COOLtowel), regular simulated match with an extended (+5 min; total of 20-min) half-time break (HTextended). Results
The difference in rectal temperature change was significantly lower in the COOLwater (−0.25 °C), COOLtowel (-0.28°C), and HTextended (−0.21 °C) trials in comparison to the REG (all p < 0.05). Exercising heart rate and session rating of perceived exertion was lower in the COOLwater (−13 bpm; −1.4 au), COOLtowel (−10 bpm; −1.3 au), and HTextended (−8 bpm; −0.9 au) trials in comparison to the REG trial (all p < 0.05). The cooling interventions did not significantly change skin temperature or thermal sensation in comparison to the REG (all p > 0.05). Conclusion
All three cooling interventions attenuated core body thermal strain during simulated matches. The laboratory-based study supports the use of brief in-play cooling periods as a means to attenuate the rise in core temperature during matches in hot and humid conditions.
Gatorade Sports Science Institute; Yasuki Sekiguchi; Luke N. Belval; Rebecca L. Stearns; Douglas J. Casa; Yuri Hosokawa from
Accurately, conveniently, and quickly being able to monitor internal body temperature is an essential component of many research endeavors in exercise science and is a critical diagnostic tool for determining exertional heat stroke and ruling out other potentially catastrophic medical conditions.
Rectal, gastrointestinal, and esophageal temperatures are the validated internal body temperature assessment methods that have application in research and/or sports medicine.
Oral, aural, tympanic, skin, axillary, and temporal temperature measurements should not be used to evaluate internal body temperature of an
exercising individual.
The dual-heat-flux method (DHFM) and the zero-heat-flux (ZHF) method may prove useful to assess internal body temperature in real time during
exercise in the future.
Prediction modeling of internal body temperature during exercise remains an approach which may increase performance and safety in the
physically active even though many technological and physiological problems must be overcome.
A small number of randomized controlled trials have found ultrasound-guided injection of platelet-rich plasma (PRP) to be no more effective than saline for several tendinopathies; limited information exists for patellar tendinopathy. In addition, different PRP formulations that produce varying concentrations of leukocytes have not been directly compared for patellar tendinopathy. Purpose/Hypothesis:
To determine if a single ultrasound-guided PRP injection, either leukocyte-rich PRP (LR-PRP) or leukocyte-poor PRP (LP-PRP), was superior to saline injection for the treatment of patellar tendinopathy. The null hypothesis was that no treatment would be superior to another for the treatment of patellar tendinopathy. Study Design:
Randomized controlled trial; Level of evidence, 1. Methods:
Athletes with patellar tendinopathy for ≥6 months (Blazina stage IIIB) were assessed for eligibility in a multisite single-blind controlled trial. There were 3 injection arms: LR-PRP, LP-PRP, and saline. Patients received a single ultrasound-guided injection, followed by 6 weeks of supervised rehabilitation (heavy slow resistance training, concentric and eccentric, 3 times per week). Outcome measures—Victorian Institute of Sport Assessment (patellar; VISA-P), pain during activity, and global rating of change—were assessed at 6 and 12 weeks and 6 and 12 months. VISA-P score at 12 weeks was the primary outcome. Fifty-seven patients (19 in each group) were included in an intention-to-treat analysis. Secondary outcome measures included pain during activity and patients’ global rating of change. Results:
Study retention was 93% at 12 weeks and 79% after 1 year. There was no significant difference in mean change in VISA-P score, pain, or global rating of change among the 3 treatment groups at 12 weeks or any other time point. After 1 year, the mean (SD) outcomes for the LR-PRP, LP-PRP, and saline groups were as follows, respectively: VISA-P—58 (29), 71 (20), and 80 (18); pain—4.0 (2.4), 2.4 (2.3), and 2.0 (1.9); global rating of change—4.7 (1.6), 5.6 (1.0), and 5.7 (1.2) (P > .05 for all outcomes).
Conclusion:
Combined with an exercise-based rehabilitation program, a single injection of LR-PRP or LP-PRP was no more effective than saline for the improvement of patellar tendinopathy symptoms.
… For the past decade, the Wizards have not always held players accountable, a problem the next president of basketball operations might find difficult to uproot.
“When I was there, the culture really wasn’t set,” said Brendan Haywood, who played the first 8½ years of his NBA career in Washington, from 2001 to 2010. “There was never a set place [or] plan of: ‘Listen, this is what we do here. This is how we go about things here,’ that you sometimes see in other organizations.”
Over several months, The Washington Post conducted interviews with 23 people closely associated with the Wizards: current and former players, team staffers who have spent years in Washington and high-level executives across the NBA. They were asked for their interpretation of the Wizards’ team culture, and in those interviews, a revealing portrait came into focus, offering insight into Washington’s struggles to build a contender.
… “You don’t have to look very far this season for clubs that have spent heavily in Europe and they’ve gone down,” [Sean] Dyche told Reuters in an interview at Burnley’s training centre.
Fulham invested over 100 million pounds in multinational players while Huddersfield Town’s more modest outlay was also focussed mainly on European players.
“There’s a bit of a myth that you pre-suppose every European player is better than every English player. And it’s dying a little bit now because there’s obviously a resurgence in the (England) national side, the under-19s, the under-20s and so on,” he added.
… is there really any link between good results at the end of one season and a promising start to the next?
Teams that finish with a burst of good form have actually tended to return to type at the beginning of the next season. Millwall, for example, picked up 2 points per game in their last ten fixtures of 2017/18, finishing in 8th place on their return to the Championship, and almost making the play-offs. But at the beginning of the 2018/19 season, they fell back to just 0.6 points per game in their opening ten fixtures.
There is therefore good news for teams that end the season badly: sides that suffer a downturn towards the end of the fixture list don’t tend to carry the slump into the next season.