Earlier this year, two gifted NBA stars, Kevin Love of the Cleveland Cavaliers and DeMar DeRozan of the San Antonio Spurs, each publicly discussed their challenges with mental and emotional well-being. Their honesty started a national conversation about breaking through the stigma and fear of openly discussing mental health issues in professional sports. In this very personal conversation, the superstar athletes share their experiences with anxiety, depression, and loneliness. What they reveal about mental health actually reveals much about their mental strength.
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The former Wasps lock sounds the alarm over the mental wellbeing of top players after intolerable pressure and scrutiny took him to the brink of suicide
Cupping therapy is a therapeutic technique that’s been used for millennia in Eastern medicine and has recently become popular in professional athlete populations with purported benefits of reducing inflammation, reducing pain, and generally expediting healing—essentially every buzzword you hear about any “new” recovery technique.
Cupping therapy came into the public eye when Olympian Michael Phelps was seen with circular bruise-type marks on his scapula (shoulder blade), neck, and shoulder.
The general concept of cupping therapy is to create an instrument-assisted suction effect on the skin. The trademark redness/purple comes from blood vessels expanding due to that effect. The original instruments used were hollowed-out bones that were used to suck out toxins from poisonous animal bites and skin lesions. The instruments evolved from the hollow bones to clay cups to modernized glass cups.
PLOS One; Stefan Altmann, Steffen Ringhof, Rainer Neumann, Alexander Woll, Michael C. Rumpf from
Introduction
Speed is an important prerequisite in soccer. Therefore, a large number of tests have been developed aiming to investigate several speed skills relevant to soccer. This systematic review aimed to examine the validity and reliability of speed tests used in adult soccer players. Methods
A systematic search was performed according to the PRISMA guidelines. Studies were included if they investigated speed tests in adult soccer players and reported validity (construct and criterion) or reliability (intraday and interday) data. The tests were categorized into linear-sprint, repeated-sprint, change-of-direction sprint, agility, and tests incorporating combinations of these skills. Results
In total, 90 studies covering 167 tests were included. Linear-sprint (n = 67) and change-of-direction sprint (n = 60) were studied most often, followed by combinations of the aforementioned (n = 21) and repeated-sprint tests (n = 15). Agility tests were examined fewest (n = 4). Mainly based on construct validity studies, acceptable validity was reported for the majority of the tests in all categories, except for agility tests, where no validity study was identified. Regarding intraday and interday reliability, ICCs>0.75 and CVs<3.0% were evident for most of the tests in all categories. These results applied for total and average times. In contrast, measures representing fatigue such as percent decrement scores indicated inconsistent validity findings. Regarding reliability, ICCs were 0.11–0.49 and CVs were 16.8–51.0%.
Conclusion
Except for agility tests, several tests for all categories with acceptable levels of validity and high levels of reliability for adult soccer players are available. Caution should be given when interpreting fatigue measures, e.g., percent decrement scores. Given the lack of accepted gold-standard tests for each category, researchers and practitioners may base their test selection on the broad database provided in this systematic review. Future research should pay attention to the criterion validity examining the relationship between test results and match parameters as well as to the development and evaluation of soccer-specific agility tests.
The last decade has seen an increase in empirical research associated with the junior-to-senior transition in sport. Previous research has, however, been idiosyncratic in its nature, focused on understanding the process from domain specific perspective. The purpose of the current study, therefore, was to provide a systematic review of literature focused on the junior-to-senior transition. Specifically, this study: (a) provides an overview and critique of methodological and theoretical decisions which underpin current junior-to-senior transition literature; (b) systematically reviews, evaluates, and analyses literature on the junior-to-senior transition in sport regarding key factors that are perceived to impact the transition; and (c) provides a synthesis of findings regarding the factors that influence the junior-to-senior transition in sport. A total of 27 studies were included in this meta-study. Meta-method, meta-theory, meta-data analysis, and meta-synthesis analyses were conducted on data. Data highlighted that the main method used to research the junior-to-senior transition is cross-sectional individual interviews, with two theories (Stambulova, 2003; Wylleman & Lavallee, 2004) used as the main underpinning theories for data collection. Analysis identified 59 factors that were perceived to impact the junior-to-senior transition. These 59 factors fell into one of 13 themes, which were then categorized into 4 overarching themes: individual factors, external factors, cultural factors, and intervention strategies. A model of junior-to-senior transition, which synthesizes current knowledge, is proposed as a way to explain the process. The current study identifies gaps in current knowledge, highlights practical implications, and identifies future research directions (e.g., longitudinal designs).
There are plenty of ways you could get yourself to run faster. You could train, or you could buy special shoes, use an exoskeleton or even strap on a jet pack. But now, Stanford engineers report in the Journal of Experimental Biology, there’s a new way: a rubber band.
Dubbed an “exotendon” by its creators, the device is clipped between a runner’s shoes and links them together, which — perhaps surprisingly — helps address some of the fundamental inefficiencies of running, said Elliot Hawkes, PhD, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara and one of the senior authors on the new paper.
“Every stride, you slow your body down and speed it back up again,” losing energy that could otherwise be conserved or put into running faster, said Hawkes, who was a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford when the research was conducted. “90 percent of the energy you put into running is wasted, in a sense.”
… “There’s a very small amount of glucose naturally present in sweat,” says [John] Rogers. He explains that the concentration of glucose in sweat is about 100 times lower than the glucose concentration in blood. Rogers says that someday scientists might be able to engineer a patch like this one that could be used in place of needles to measure glucose in diabetic patients, but it’s going to require more sophisticated technology.
Diabetic patients are not the only ones who would benefit from needle-free tests.
“Many of the tests for high performance athletics are being done by blood,” says Juan Hinestroza, associate professor of fiber science and director of the textiles nanotechnology laboratory at Cornell University, who wasn’t involved in the study. This might include testing of lactate levels to measure the flow of blood and oxygen in the body.
[Mallika] Bariya says they want to adapt the device to measure other molecules in sweat that are important to health, such as other electrolytes including calcium and chloride. Rogers thinks the patch could also measure heavy metals such as lead, as well as drugs like stimulants or depressants. [audio, 2:24]
Remember when every sports apparel brand needed an app to be cool? Ten years ago, the Nike+Apple partnership was in its ascendency, while Under Armour and Adidas were splurging millions acquiring fitness apps like MyFitnessPal and Runtastic.
Back then, brand owners hoped that by mining our workout data from these apps, they could target us with personalized offers. The big idea was that if you knew how often someone went running, you could tell when they needed new running shoes.
Today, things look very different. Nike removed workout tracking from its website. And Under Armour still can’t figure out how to unlock the potential of its apps. So what went wrong? What happened to the digital fitness revolution?
Patients fitted with an orthopedic prosthetic commonly experience a period of intense pain after surgery. In an effort to control the pain, surgeons inject painkillers into the tissue during the operation. When that wears off a day or two later, the patients are given morphine through a catheter placed near the spine. Yet catheters are not particularly comfortable, and the drugs spread throughout the body, affecting all organs.
Researchers in EPFL’s Microsystems Laboratory at the School of Engineering are now working on a biodegradable implant that would release a local anesthetic on-demand over several days. Not only would this implant reduce patients’ post-op discomfort, but there would be no need for further surgery to remove it. They developed a tiny biodegradable electronic circuit, made from magnesium, that could be heated wirelessly from outside the body.
Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research (MPI-P) led by Dr. Kamal Asadi have solved a four decade long challenge of producing very thin nylon films that can be used for instance in electronic memory components. The thin nylon films are several 100 times thinner than human hair and could thus be attractive for applications in bendable electronic devices or for electronics in clothing.
Beta-alanine has become a “must-have” supplement for many athletes, but does the science support the hype? Its inclusion as one of five performance-enhancing supplements with enough evidence to support its use in the International Olympic Committee’s recent consensus statement suggests it does. But what is beta-alanine, what does it do and in what situations might someone benefit this popular supplement?
At the American Society for Nutrition’s annual meeting, Nutrition 2019, a panel discussion was held to discuss the proposed National Institute of Nutrition. The panel was moderated by ASN President Dr. Catherine Field and panelists included Dr. Joon Young, President and Managing Partner of Palo Alto Investors, Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, Dean of the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, Dr. David Kessler, Former Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and Dr. John Courtney, ASN’s Chief Executive Officer.
… Fansure has identified 10 players who are most likely to be a healthy scratch. At the top of the list is the 34-year-old James, who played a career-low 55 games last season dealing with a significant groin injury that forced him to sit for precautionary reasons. After crunching the schedule that was released on Monday, Fansure expects James to miss 17.9 games this season due to rest.
That might seem like a lot, but James has played over 56,000 minutes in his NBA career (playoffs included), which is more than Stephen Curry and his father Dell Curry combined. With the Lakers vying for a championship and Anthony Davis being able to shoulder the load in his absence, it’s possible James takes a Leonard-like conservative approach in the regular season.
Following James, Leonard, Embiid, Paul George, Curry and Davis were highlighted as likely sitters considering their injury risk, rest history and respective team’s championship contention. Fansure also sees a strong probability that Giannis Antetokounmpo, Kyrie Irving, James Harden and Damian Lillard will miss several games to recover from the 82-game grind.
SB Nation, Stars and Stripes FC, Parker Cleveland from
One question that has hounded the US Men’s National Team since the team began being relevant in soccer again is – When will the US produce a Pele? or Messi? Or Ronaldo? (Notice it’s never a Maradona, our heroes must come uncomplicated and unflawed or at least have a massive PR effort hiding those flaws and multi-billion dollar corporations ignoring them to keep brands like CR7 running). Every now and then we think we have found the answer in players like: Freddy Adu, Jozy Altidore, Bobby Convey, Mix Diskerud, Julian Green, Brek Shea, John O’Brien, Jamar Beasley, Juan Agudelo, Luis Gil, and Gedion Zelalem.
None of these players achieved a world class level, were named as a finalist for the Balon d’Or or lived up to the hype they were supposed to. Christian Pulisic is on his way, he’s got a long way to go, but he is the one player who seems to actually be coming close to living up to that potential. Maybe in the last 20 years, there is one other US player who has been truly relevant in the sport, and that’s Clint Dempsey – a player who only appeared in the US youth set up 13 times. In fact, Dempsey might be a better example of a player who slipped through the cracks and could have achieved more had he been in more competitive situations early in his development, but things turned out pretty well for him in the end. Their success comes amid a never ending string of players who never panned out and yet hype continues among a fanbase that is forever dissatisfied with whatever the current USMNT is, but is forever sure that young players will fix the national team.
Under Sashi Brown, Cleveland stockpiled draft picks by trading down and losing (a lot). John Dorsey turned those assets into a talent-laden roster. The result is an unlikely NFL success story.