On Thursday, May 30, 2019, Alfonzo McKinnie stepped on to the hardwood floor at Scotiabank Arena. He was preparing to play his first minutes in the NBA Finals as a member of the Golden State Warriors. Just four years prior, he had gone undrafted and was so desperate to play professional basketball that he found himself competing in Luxembourg’s semi-professional second division.
At 26, McKinnie is older than most second-year NBA players. That’s because he had a longer road than most to reach the NBA. From an almost un-recruited high school player in Chicago to the NBA, McKinnie faced all sorts of trials along the way. This is the incredible journey of Alfonzo McKinnie.
The Milwaukee Brewers pulled the plug on the Brett Lawrie experiment Tuesday after insufficient progress was made during 3½ months of the unique project.
The Brewers signed the former major-league infielder to a minor-league deal at the outset of spring training with the understanding that he needed extensive physical rehabilitation after suffering leg and hip injuries with the Chicago White Sox in 2016. He was released by that club the following spring.
The hope was that Lawrie, 29, would eventually get back on the field with a minor-league affiliate but the process never advanced to that point, so it was mutually decided to part ways, according to Brewers president of baseball operations David Stearns.
… Pierce, a rising fourth-year defensive tackle, did not participate in the Ravens’ voluntary offseason practices. He returned for mandatory minicamp, but Harbaugh said it would’ve been unsafe to let Pierce practice considering his physical condition.
A Daphne, Alabama, native, Pierce said Friday on WNSP-FM 105.5’s “The Opening Kickoff” he lifted weights more than he ran during the spring. When Harbaugh told Pierce on Tuesday to leave the practice field, he did so without protest.
… The Matildas captain penned a touching two-page letter to her former coach, thanking him for saving her career four years ago.
“It really affected me that someone who I hold in such high regard can think of me four years later and say thanks,” Holt said.
“It’s crazy. There’s so many coaches, family and friends in her life but she had the presence of mind to say ‘I wouldn’t be here without that guy’. With all the accolades that she’s won, it’s incredible.
Sleep is an important determinant of collegiate athlete health, well-being and performance. However, collegiate athlete social and physical environments are often not conducive to obtaining restorative sleep. Traditionally, sleep has not been a primary focus of collegiate athletic training and is neglected due to competing academic, athletic and social demands. Collegiate athletics departments are well positioned to facilitate better sleep culture for their athletes. Recognising the lack of evidence-based or consensus-based guidelines for sleep management and restorative sleep for collegiate athletes, the National Collegiate Athletic Association hosted a sleep summit in 2017. Members of the Interassociation Task Force on Sleep and Wellness reviewed current data related to collegiate athlete sleep and aimed to develop consensus recommendations on sleep management and restorative sleep using the Delphi method. In this paper, we provide a narrative review of four topics central to collegiate athlete sleep: (1) sleep patterns and disorders among collegiate athletes; (2) sleep and optimal functioning among athletes; (3) screening, tracking and assessment of athlete sleep; and (4) interventions to improve sleep. We also present five consensus recommendations for colleges to improve their athletes’ sleep. [full text]
Wearable fitness trackers have made it all too easy for us to make assumptions about our health. We may look to our heart rate to determine whether we really felt the stress of that presentation at work this morning, or think ourselves healthier based on the number of steps we’ve taken by the end of the day.
But to get a better reading on your overall health and wellness, you’d be better off looking at the strength and structure of your circle of friends, according to a new study in the Public Library of Science journal, PLOS One.
While previous studies have shown how beliefs, opinions and attitudes spread throughout our social networks, researchers at the University of Notre Dame were interested in what the structure of social networks says about the state of health, happiness and stress.
“We were interested in the topology of the social network — what does my position within my social network predict about my health and well-being?” said Nitesh V. Chawla,
… Training and development programs are not necessarily the problem. The problem is that there is often no measure of what’s learned or what behaviors change as a result of such massive investments. A survey of roughly 1,500 executives across industries, regions, and companies of various sizes, shows that one in five organizations do nothing to measure the impact of employee trainings. Of those that do, only 13% calculate quantifiable returns. It’s no wonder that two-thirds of employees think their training programs fail to improve business performance.
What most companies miss is that learning at work isn’t about how many hours you put in, it’s about getting the right information to the right people at the right time.
… in the future, Cuban sees a league where players can use tech to prepare their bodies to handle the rigors of pro basketball.
“There’s new technology, sonogram-type stuff that allows you to analyze tendons,” Cuban said … “But, it’s not advanced enough so we have to do some more research to figure it all out. So hopefully, that in the future, non-contact injuries will happen less.”
Researchers from Hiroshima University collaborated with a Japanese sportswear company Mizuno to test a new type of cooling vest. The cooling vest is filled with ice packs and features a collar that can also cool the neck. The aim of the vest is to cool the athletes’ upper-body skin which can decrease heart rate and temperature of their neck and skin.
Collecting injury data can be frustrating. The injury incidence and distributions look nice and clean in the final form of a journal article, but there are so many factors that can affect these metrics which can make you question, at times, whether they are worth reporting at all. The challenges faced in the process of putting together a reliable and valid injury database are not obvious and often not appreciated by readers who haven’t been involved in collecting this type of data. We would therefore like to take this opportunity to highlight a few factors that could be important to keep in mind when you read and interpret your next injury study.
… Mental health has become a major topic in Utah’s athletic department, partly in an effort to remove any stigma some may feel talking about it. Administrators could have chosen any cause or project to engage donors during the U Giving Day in May. They selected mental health initiatives, aiming to increase staffing and services.
A group of summer students in the Toronto area are using advanced motion capture technology to determine what makes a “perfect runner” and how it can help the more recreational athlete.
Katie Wilkinson and Nathaniel Reid-Smith are two of four students spending the summer working with the Markham, Ont.-based data analytics company Adastra Corporation, where they are tracking the movement of elite and recreational runners to see what, if any, differences in technique they show.
Once they determine differences in form, they hope to coach the slower runners to match the technique of the elites and see if these changes improve their speed and efficiency on the track.
NHL injuries always penetrate most post-playoff conversation. After Friday’s list of the Boston Bruins‘ injuries surfaced, so do questions of NHL player’s safety. NHL injuries are always the big news after the Stanley Cup is raised. The most shocking listed is Jake DeBrusk’s concussion, likely suffered in Game 2 of the First Round one against the Toronto Maple Leafs. In the race for Lord Stanley, players and team staff continue to turn a dangerous blind eye at player safety. This trend isn’t new and it needs to change.
NHL Injuries Hit Alarming Heights
In order to understand how the NHL has arrived in a slippery conversation about injuries, one has to understand its history. Littered with stick violence and lack of protective gear, hockey’s past and present continue to toe the line of acceptable safety.
Kevin Durant suffered a ruptured Achilles tendon that could have career-altering implications. While much of the focus has centered on the events that led to his injury, The Crossover considers what’s next and whether Durant will remain content with the care he received.
