… There is more to this Vardy, though, than the 2015-16 version who opposition defenders knew little about until they were embarrassed by him. Now in his sixth season in England’s top flight, this is a more experienced, streetwise, calculated Vardy, one who has more to his game and offers more to his teammates.
The Vardy of four seasons ago thrived on balls over the top, using his pace to pounce on long passes and outsprint defenders as he homed in on goal. Think of the countless times Danny Drinkwater, Leicester’s central midfielder in that title-winning season, picked up the ball soon after the team’s opponents lost possession and almost immediately pinged a long pass to Vardy.
Ahead of the 2018 draft, Allen was considered a big-armed passer without many positive stats to speak of. His progress in his second season may provide a window into modern quarterback development—and Buffalo’s franchise future.
The Beautiful Game continues to refine itself as its demands are increasing the weight on the clubs and players’ shoulders. One aspect in the sport of football that is becoming essential is science. Clubs at the elite level are striving to excel in this department as it enables them to become more ‘educated’ about the health of their own players. Gianluca Lia spoke to Andrew Massey, Head of Medical Services at Liverpool about the transformation of his role not only in football, but also in the world of sports…
Speed of thought, speed of direction, quick transitions and athleticism. These are all elements that have transformed the game of football into a highly dynamic performance. Nowadays, footballers are becoming the prototype of future athletes as the game continues to become very fast and orientated towards technique rather than physicality.
This transformation in the game is only possible thanks to the emergence of science education in sports, in this case in football.
A commons tactic in both amateur and professional sports – and even in competitions as mundane as a casual board game night – is trash talk. But the negative effect of trash talk may have less to do with the skill of the repartee involved, and more with just the fact that it’s happening at all. A new study conducted by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University suggests that even robots spitting out pretty lame pre-programmed insults can have a negative impact on human players.
CMU’s study involved programming one of SoftBank’s Pepper humanoid robots to deliver scorchers like “I have to say you are a terrible player” to a group of 40 participants, who were playing the robot in a game called “Guards and Treasures,” which is a version of a strategy game often used for studying rationality. During the course of the experiment, participants played 35 times against the robot – some getting bolstering, positive comments form the robot, while others were laden with negative criticism.
I’m a big believer in creating a mental toolbox that is filled with tools you can use in training and on race day to fix the inevitable “flat tires” you will experience as a ski racer. Usually when I talk about mental tools, I mean tools such as imagery, routines, breathing, and self-talk. But there’s another mental area that I discuss all the time with the racers with whom I work, yet isn’t really thought of as a mental tool. Moreover, when I ask racers what are the essential mental areas that impact their ski racing, it is one of the most commonly mentioned.
What amazing mental tool am I referring to? Well, fun, of course.
… People think of trainers today, and there are trainers everywhere, right? Every corner, every video, every Instagram post – everyone’s training somebody. This was back in the day when personal training, in terms of basketball development, wasn’t really a thing. There was no basketball development. Most NBA staffs at that time had, I would say, two, three, four assistant coaches, but none of them really focused on development. They were all focused on game prep and coaching the team, and then they had a trainer and a strength coach. Well, nowadays, many of these franchises have at least one coach for every player, if not more, with a huge medical staff, sports science, and the whole development [staff]. So this was back in the day when I was really, really at demand. I actually had contracts with several teams. Once I started working with those guys that I mentioned, I just kept picking up more and more players. And I said, “You know what? I don’t really need to go back to coaching, and nor do I want to, because I really enjoy doing this. I enjoy developing guys and really seeing how far I can push them, and what I could do with their bodies and their game.”
… what makes running different from most other sports is the amount of time it takes to improve this process.
For example, mitochondria play an essential role in how efficiently you can utilize oxygen. Mitochondria are microscopic organelle found in your muscles cells that contribute to the production of ATP (energy). The more mitochondria you have, and the greater their density, the more energy you can generate during exercise, which will enable you to run faster and longer.
The problem with developing mitochondria is that it happens very slowly. Moreover, mitochondria have a half life of one week. Simply speaking, you’re able to gain half of the potential benefits to your mitochondria each week that you train.
Chargers practiced in Colorado all week at elevation, KC stayed home, staff wanted to limit players’ exposure to altitude while getting extra rest & hydration.
University of California-Santa Barbara, The UCSB Current from
… “It’s a very flexible system,” [Sung Soo] Kim said of a network of neurons that fire in synchrony, serving to convert sensory cues into a stable sense of direction we hold in our brains. For example, he said, “When you walk into a really new environment, within a few moments, your sense of direction is already established. Once established, it becomes stable and you’re not confused about the direction you’re facing.
“Even if the lights are turned off,” added Kim, an assistant professor in the Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, “your brain maintains that sense of direction and updates it as you move around.”
This phenomenon represents a balance between the stability of the sense of direction that allows for planning and goal-oriented behavior in animals, and the real-time remapping needed to adapt and have meaningful interactions with the environment.
Fusion Sport have recently developed a direct connection between Performance Data Management platform Smartabase and the Electronic Medical Records (EMR) system AthleteRMS – the league wide EMR for the MLB.
The new connection will ensure that teams within the MLB using the Smartabase Human Performance Platform, including the Tampa Bay Rays and Boston Red Sox, will now be able to automate the pull of injury data from their electronic medical records into their performance platform.
Whether for sports, at work or in the living room – depending on activity and environment, our clothing has to meet different demands. Empa scientists have developed a model that predicts how well a given garment will keep us warm. The crucial factor is the air cushion between our body and the outermost layer of clothing.
In winter, it can look sunny and warm. But as soon as we are exposed to the elements, we start freezing. If our clothing is not adapted to the conditions, we quickly feel uncomfortable. Garment developers, on the other hand, want to adapt their products as closely as possible to the requirements of their customers. To see whether T-shirts, jackets or shoes deliver what they promise, tests with prototypes have been necessary for the longest time.
Hardware, and particularly MEMS sensors, will remain an essential part in end devices, but moving forward, software will be equally important in bringing value to the user. Bosch Sensortec believes sensor software will become increasingly intelligent, turning MEMS sensors into more accurate and personalized systems that can help the user adapt to any situation.
“Software adds new capabilities to classical sensor components,” Markus Ulm, CTO of Bosch Sensortec (a fully owned subsidiary of Robert Bosch GmbH), told EE Times. “I am deeply convinced it is making a big difference to our industry,” fostering MEMS sensors adoption in current and new applications.
Despite ongoing tragedies in sports as well as research from a host of sources – including the American Academy of Pediatrics – which state schools with athletic trainers (ATs) have lower injury rates, 1 a study released today showed that 34% of public and private high schools, have no access to athletic trainers in the United States. Furthermore, the study indicates that lack of appropriate sports medicine care is even greater for private schools (45% with no AT access) where parents are traditionally paying for what they perceive as a better and safer experience.2
The study, Athletic Trainer Services in the Secondary School Setting: The Athletic Training and Locations Services Project (ATLAS), 3 was conducted by the Korey Stringer Institute and published in the Journal of Athletic Training, the National Athletic Trainers’ Association’s (NATA) scientific publication. To date, this is the most comprehensive study to capture the level of athletic trainer services as it included every U.S. public and private high school with an athletics program.
YouTube, Stanford Graduate School of Business from
Ziad Obermeyer, physician and Acting Associate Professor of Health Policy and Management School of Public Health, University of California at Berkeley, discusses his research on how machine learning can improve diagnosis and treatment with an application to knee pain. [video, 24:37]
With NBA national TV ratings struggling again early, the league should consider some radical ideas to better position itself in the marketplace.
One thought that has been broached in league circles, according to sources, would be to move the start of the schedule back to closer to Thanksgiving or, even more drastically, Christmas, in combination with a potential reduction from 82 games and some sort of in-season tournament.
A target date to institute this new thinking could be 2021-22 when the NBA celebrates its 75th season. It would make sense to potentially move to a 75-game season and introduce the still-to-be-determined tournament at that point.