As a football analyst in the J2 League, it is not often that I find news from my division crossing over sea and shore to reach mainstream UK sports news outlets. But when Shunsuke Nakamura’s move from Jubilo Iwata to Yokohama FC was confirmed, I found myself not having to hit Google translate on the Japanese sports pages to find this out; this deal was big enough that I could stumble upon it while doing my morning sports perusal.
I think there are two reasons why this story captured the imagination, and when I say captured the imagination, I mean a few quick sentences in the less-visited Asian football tab on the BBC.
From the outside looking in it was a baptism of fire, surely a little daunting – a Chelsea debut at Manchester United on the opening day of the Premier League season and Mason Mount was in from the start.
The 20-year-old midfielder savoured the fulfilment of a dream that went back to his arrival at the club’s academy at the age of six and, yes, he says it was a beautiful moment for him and his family. But the way he puts it, it was merely a staging post on his football journey, something to be taken in his easy stride.
“I don’t really look at that pressure, I don’t really look at any other thing but focusing on how I perform, what I can do in the game,” he says. “My family have always said: ‘Don’t worry about the pressure side.’ I’ve always stuck to that.”
The Carolina Hurricanes once again are looking for leadership — and maybe another captain.
Veteran forward Justin Williams’ decision to step away from the sport leaves them with questions about their captaincy heading into a season in which they will try to build upon their run to the Eastern Conference final.
That means an organization that has gone without a captain — and, for one season, used two of them — must again figure out what it will do with the “C″ this year.
Beneath their practice jerseys and shoulder pads, all Bucs players have worn a device the front office hopes will help players get the most out of practices while avoiding injury.
They look like black sports bras. Made by an Australian sports technology company Catapult, they come with a small device embedded in the back that can track hundreds of data points through GPS technology.
The Catapault equipment represents one of the several innovations the Bucs implemented this season after general manager Jason Licht and new coach Bruce Arians created a sports science department. They hired Greg Skaggs to a newly created position, director of athlete performance, to oversee the use of data in partnership with the trainers, strength and conditioning staff and nutritionist to find better ways to optimize practices.
… For the previous two years, p1440 has steadily been building its Developmental Program, a support system for athletes looking to make the same jump that Metzger did, complete with coaching, physical training, physical therapy, and intrasquad tournaments throughout each session. Now Metzger is the one overseeing that system, taking over for Marcio Sicoli as the Director of Player and Business Development.
Like another UCLA coach, John Speraw, who coaches not only the Bruins men’s team but also the USA national team, Metzger will handle both jobs.
“Getting an opportunity to join a team that has dedicated resources and time and effort to athletes that are coming out of college to help them and assist them make the job I think is incredible,” Metzger said. “And I’m super excited and passionate about helping these athletes. I’m excited to bring a brand of volleyball that I’ve learned over the course of a 15-year professional career.
A new study could hold the key to learning languages, teaching children colors or even studying complex theories.
The research, published in Cognitive Science, adds to the existing evidence that adults, children and students of all ages learn better when seeing an object before hearing its description. The study builds on past research by focusing on learning in “inconsistent” environments featuring different teaching styles or distracting noises.
“Understanding how the learning process occurs, and what factors affect it, may help instructors improve methodologies of education,” said Timmy Ma, a research associate at Dartmouth.
University of Washington, UW Medicine Newsroom from
What happens when we give up?
Inside the brain, a group of cells known as nociceptin neurons get very active before a mouse’s breakpoint. They emit nociceptin, a complex molecule that suppresses dopamine, a chemical largely associated with motivation.
The findings, reported July 25 in Cell, offer new insight into the complex world of motivation and reward.
The nociceptin neurons are located near an area of the brain known as the ventral tegmental area. The VTA contains neurons that release dopamine during pleasurable activities. Although scientists have previously studied the effects of fast, simple neurotransmitters on dopamine neurons, this study is among the first to describe the effects of this complex nociception modulatory system.
This study investigated the effects of complete and partial sleep deprivation on multiple aspects of athletic performance. Ten males completed a cognitive function test, maximal handgrip strength, countermovement jump (CMJ) and a 15 min all out cycling test to assess aerobic performance. These tests were performed following 3 different sleep conditions; normal sleep (CON), a 4 hr sleep opportunity (PART) and complete sleep deprivation (DEP). Data were analysed using a Bayesian multi-level regression model to provide probabilities of impairment (p = %). Aerobic performance, CMJ and handgrip strength were impaired by 11.4% (p = 100%), 10.9% (p = 100%) and 6% (p = 97%) following DEP, while aerobic performance and CMJ were highly likely impaired by 4.1% (p = 90%) and 5.2% (p = 94%) following PART. Cognitive reaction time was not impacted by PART or DEP. In contrast the accuracy of responses was highly likely impaired by 2% (91) following DEP, while there was less certainty of impaired accuracy following PART (−1%, p = 73). Multiple aspects of physical and cognitive performance were impacted by sleep deprivation. The greatest detrimental effects were seen for aerobic performance and CMJ. Partial sleep deprivation equating to 4 hrs of sleep causes subtle, but potentially important negative impairments on athletic performance.
The NHL has dropped Jogmo World Corp. as a primary technology partner in its player and puck tracking plans, but vows to have the highly anticipated data collection system up and running by the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
“We’re in the process of making a switch,” NHL commissioner Gary Bettman told ESPN on Thursday. “Jogmo had some organizational and financial challenges which we were concerned about at the offset, but actually came to fruition. We have a new partner who can do it and we’re very confident that that hasn’t slowed us down.”
A league source said that technology company SMT is the league’s new partner.
Biomechanics principally stems from two disciplines, mechanics and biology. However, both the application and language of the mechanical constructs are not always adhered to when applied to biological systems, which can lead to errors and misunderstandings within the scientific literature. Here we address three topics that seem to be common points of confusion and misconception, with a specific focus on sports biomechanics applications: (1) joint reaction forces as they pertain to loads actually experienced by biological joints; (2) the partitioning of scalar quantities into directional components; and (3) weight and gravity alteration. For each topic, we discuss how mechanical concepts have been commonly misapplied in peer-reviewed publications, the consequences of those misapplications, and how biomechanics, exercise science, and other related disciplines can collectively benefit by more carefully adhering to and applying concepts of classical mechanics.
Humans are able to “read” others’ body language for cues on their emotional state. For instance, noticing that a friend is nervous by their tapping foot, or that a loved one who is standing tall feels confident. Now, a team of researchers at Penn State are exploring if computers can be trained to do the same.
The team is investigating whether modern computer vision techniques could match the cognitive ability of humans in recognizing bodily expressions in real-world, unconstrained situations. If so, these capabilities might allow for a large number of innovative applications in areas including information management and retrieval, public safety, patient care and social media, the researchers said.
“Computers and robots in the future will be interacting with more people,” said James Wang, professor in the College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST) and a member of the research team. “Today’s computers, to a large extent, merely follow orders. In the future, robots and computers will act more like partners to humans and work together. And to do so, they’ll need to understand their emotions.”
… “We had a committee,” [Brandon] Beane said. “Obviously we don’t know the newest technologies, so the trainers, the strength staff, some of them flew around and checked out various things and researched some different sports, and they came back and presented us ideas and pictures, and through all that, we met with the developers.”
“This is where it wasn’t just Brandon and I,” [Sean] McDermott explained. “It wasn’t just myself, it was just all of us. After really just, probably the acknowledgement of ‘we weren’t where we needed to be’ in that area. All the different ideas that were organized and brought together. (Chief Administrative Officer) Dave Wheat did a great job with communication, collaboration, and getting everyone on the same page. And then we were lucky that Nate (Breske), our trainer, had been a part of Chicago’s plan. They just unveiled a new building I think, an entire new building. So they just came fresh off that a few years ago. Our sports science department. There was great, what I would call, collaboration with that effort. And then, as you know, Kim is very dynamic in her thought process in wanting the cutting edge, the pieces, the innovative pieces that were out there. The last thing that we wanted to do was to build a new weight room that was outdated. Right? And so, much like computers anymore, there are challenges no matter how far in front of you that you get. In however many months or years, it’s going to get outdated. With the investment that was spent it was important that we get out in front of it as far as we could.”
Beane said it was about a seven-month process for all of that to happen.
A small clinical study in California has suggested for the first time that it might be possible to reverse the body’s epigenetic clock, which measures a person’s biological age.
For one year, nine healthy volunteers took a cocktail of three common drugs — growth hormone and two diabetes medications — and on average shed 2.5 years of their biological ages, measured by analysing marks on a person’s genomes. The participants’ immune systems also showed signs of rejuvenation.
The results were a surprise even to the trial organizers — but researchers caution that the findings are preliminary because the trial was small and did not include a control arm.
… Using a face recognition and machine learning approach, a multidisciplinary team of WVU researchers found that head coaches with a more aggressive appearance earned a salary premium. More attractive football coaches, on the other hand, faced a salary discount.
And for WVU fans, just because you’re probably already wondering, Neal Brown ranked among the top quarter of attractive coaches.
Former WVU football coach Dana Holgorsen was ranked “substantially less attractive.”
Scientific American, Ryan P. Dalton and Tom Roseberry from
At Ernest Hemingway’s old home in Key West, Fla., you’ll find bromeliads and date palms, a hand-crafted wooden yacht and an in-ground pool—the only one within 100 miles at the time of its construction. You’ll also find roughly 50 cats, most of which have six toes on their front feet instead of five. As legend has it, after a booze-soaked evening at a local bar, Hemingway was given their six-toed ancestor, “Snow White,” by a waylaid ship captain. On the high seas, these so-called polydactyl cats were cherished for their superior balance and unmatched mousing abilities. Snow White and cats like her also highlight an important concept in neuroscience: the developing brain is flexible enough to wire up to whatever body it finds itself attached to—even if that body is more complex than a “typical” one.
This awe-inspiring flexibility helps the brain translate the extraordinary physical variability among animals—in terms of body size, shape and form—to variability in their behaviors and capabilities. Without it, an animal would not be able to realize the adaptive advantages that come with variability.