This summer saw a key moment in the development of the soccer career of Josh Sargent. It didn’t necessarily seem that way at the time.
Sargent, the 19-year-old U.S. national team striker from O’Fallon, Missouri, who had been the best player at every level he’d played at for most of his young life, all of a sudden wasn’t. When U.S. coach Gregg Berhalter had to select his team for this summer’s Gold Cup, the regional championship, he left Sargent off the roster. It was, Sargent thinks, the first time in his soccer career he hadn’t made a team.
“I’d say (I felt) disappointment, anger of course,” he said Sunday. “Not anger at (Berhalter) but anger with myself in general. I wanted it so bad. I’m a very competitive person, so I was really upset about it. I had some time to think about it and it was OK. I’m still young.”
… This might be the autumn of Nadal’s career, but it has all the earmarks of a season of revival. Nadal was the picture of confidence and energy at this tournament, his muscular legs fresh. He even went back to wearing sleeveless shirts at the start of the year, telling ESPN analyst John McEnroe, “It makes me feel younger again.” He won two of the four majors, equaling Djokovic. The Serbian star is still ranked No. 1, but Nadal is in the running to replace him.
During the trophy presentation ceremony, the USTA played a video on the giant screens in Arthur Ashe Stadium. It was a slam-by-slam tribute to and review of Nadal’s accomplishments. He watched with unabashed emotion, the end as well as the beginning of his career on his mind.
“Well, we are getting old,” Nadal said. “In some way, that’s good.”
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences; Louis Deslauriers, Logan S. McCarty, Kelly Miller, Kristina Callaghan, and Greg Kestin from
Despite active learning being recognized as a superior method of instruction in the classroom, a major recent survey found that most college STEM instructors still choose traditional teaching methods. This article addresses the long-standing question of why students and faculty remain resistant to active learning. Comparing passive lectures with active learning using a randomized experimental approach and identical course materials, we find that students in the active classroom learn more, but they feel like they learn less. We show that this negative correlation is caused in part by the increased cognitive effort required during active learning. Faculty who adopt active learning are encouraged to intervene and address this misperception, and we describe a successful example of such an intervention.
It’s not enough to merely know your value to advance in your career. You must also be able to show value. Yet recent research shows that seven in 10 women would rather minimize their successes than share them with others.
Even the words “self-promotion” make many women uncomfortable, and it’s easy to see why. From a young age, women have been conditioned to be “good girls” who keep their heads down, finish their work on time and pay attention to detail.
But the same silent work ethic that won us A’s in school won’t get us to the C-suite at work. To be recognized as leaders, we need to sing like a canary, not hide in the bushes.
Actions not only speak louder than words, they also happen first and faster, Stanford psychologist Barbara Tversky says. Catching a falling cup, rolling one’s eyes at a bad joke – responses like these happen before people find the words to describe their actions and emotions.
illustration depicting power of mind
That’s why to understand how people think, Tversky argues that one must understand how people act and come to understand the world through their spatial reasoning. Spatial thinking is the foundation of thought and evolved long before language, she says.
Practitioners’ perceptions regarding the use and effectiveness of research evidence in sport is not well understood. The purpose of the present study was to examine practitioners’ perceptions around the use, implementation, and barriers to evidence-based practice (EBP) in sport science in the United States of America (USA). A survey (28 items) was completed by 67 full-time staff who were a physical performance team member employed by universities or professional sporting organizations in the USA. Questions included the use of research, contribution of research areas, barriers to accessing and implementing EBP, and methods of feedback to the coach and players. All respondents (100%) stated they used research evidence in their performance/training program, ranking research as contributing most (largest contribution = 1 to smallest contribution = 4) to individualized preparation or recovery recommendations (1.98 ± 1.02). The top 3 preferred sources of information were “peer-reviewed research” (100% of respondents), “conferences/seminars” (76%), and “practitioners within your sport” (63%). Commonly reported perceived barriers between accessing and implementing research were “lack of staff” (accessing = 33%, implementing = 46%) “time” (accessing = 38%, implementing = 48%) and nonapplicable research (accessing = 33%, implementing = 37%), whereas “poor player compliance” was a clear barrier to implementing EBP (56%). Practitioners most preferred, and actual, method of feedback for coaching staff (87% for both) and players (94 and 95%, respectively) was “informal conversations/speaking.” Improved access to educational and financial resources, increased integration of staff in coach settings and understanding of player/coach contexts may help to alleviate barriers to EBP.
… AFC Wimbledon’s Academy players held an impromptu match in the back garden of his London home on a cold afternoon in December 2018.
Every player was wearing two sensors, one on each boot, which sent a wealth of technical and physical data to a connected iPad. The 69-year-old was so impressed with what he saw that afternoon that he decided to invest in Playermaker, the Israeli start-up behind the technology.
“I was convinced when I saw that first demonstration with the players,” Wenger remembered. “And luckily it didn’t destroy my garden.”
… Last year the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology revealed China will use genetic testing on its athletes ahead of the 2022 Winter Olympics, incorporating it into the official athlete selection process.
Concerns are mounting as the falling cost of genetic testing lead to worldwide interest in commercialising it. This is resulting in more direct-to-consumer tests being offered, without input from medical practitioners or genetic counselling.
Critics of these services worry about the quality controls of the genetic analyses and interpretation of results. They argue the services could lead to significant misinformation which could negatively impact an athlete’s sporting future.
Keeping Athletes healthy can sometimes be a challenge. Injuries and unforeseen circumstances are almost a given in the daily life of these competitors. But it’s not a one size fits all proposition, particularly for women athletes. This week on Dr. Greg Davis On Medicine, we are taking a closer look at the Kentucky Active Women’s Health Initiative, a specialized program at the University of Kentucky specifically tasked with keeping women and girls in sports engaged and healthy. [audio, 8:44]
… Researchers at the Salk Institute recently published their investigation of how to prevent obesity in mice with dysfunctional clocks. Mice in their experiment were given an unhealthy diet, with food available either throughout the day or just in a nine-to-ten-hour-long window. The overall caloric intakes of the two groups of mice were kept the same. The researchers then measured several markers of metabolism function. They found that the restricted feeding time kept mice metabolically healthy and lean, even when they lacked a regular circadian rhythm. So, rather than regulating metabolism the clock’s main function may be to control the behavioral rhythms of feeding and fasting.
This is exciting in that it lays the foundation for human studies regarding how timed eating can override the consequences of clock disturbances.
Question Does higher-dose vitamin D supplementation improve bone mineral density (BMD, measured using high-resolution peripheral quantitative computed tomography) and bone strength (measured as failure load)?
Findings In this randomized clinical trial that included 311 healthy adults, treatment with vitamin D for 3 years at a dose of 4000 IU per day or 10 000 IU per day, compared with 400 IU per day, resulted in statistically significant lower radial BMD (calcium hydroxyapatite; −3.9 mg HA/cm3 and −7.5 mg HA/cm3, respectively); tibial BMD was significantly lower only with the daily dose of 10 000 IU. There were no significant differences in bone strength at either the radius or tibia.
Meaning Among healthy adults, supplementation with higher doses of vitamin D did not result in improved bone health; further research would be needed to determine whether it is harmful.
Statistics and analytics are two branches of data science that share many of their early heroes, so the occasional beer is still dedicated to a lively debate about where to draw the boundary between them. Practically, however, modern training programs bearing those names emphasize completely different pursuits. While analysts specialize in exploring what’s in your data, statisticians focus more on inferring what’s beyond it.
We know that the league table at the start of the season is skewed by the quality of opponents that we have faced, and we often accordingly urge caution. But rather than ignore the table altogether, the use of predictive models can help us better assess results to date and, crucially, potential results to come.
… While hope is all but lost for the generation of male players born in the early 1990s to take a slam title away from the Big 3, the US Open has given us the first strong signs that the players of the generation just behind them—the post-Millenials of the mid to late 1990s— aren’t going to let the dry spell continue. Both Matteo Berrettini and Daniil Medvedev are two matches away from a US Open title, which would be the first time in 11 majors that the champion was a man other than Nadal, Djokovic or Federer and the first time since Djokovic’s Australian Open win in 2011 that someone age 23 or younger would take a major title.