It’s almost always a bit cooler in Santa Monica than in the rest of Los Angeles. The marine layer lingers above the palm-tree-lined streets near the Pacific Ocean deep into the early afternoon. It’s smart to bring along a sweater for when the sea breezes roll in.
That’s one reason Bobby Kersee has trained his track and field athletes here, on the grassy median of San Vicente Boulevard, since before the 1988 Seoul Summer Olympics. On the hottest days of summer and early fall, they come here for long conditioning runs when they’d be melting on tracks further inland.
“This is my least favorite part,” four-time Olympian Allyson Felix says with a sigh. She’s a sprinter — the most accomplished female track and field athlete in Olympic history, with nine medals, including six gold — so long distances and long waits before competition aren’t her thing. “Normally we’re here in the fall.”
With offensive coordinator Scott Turner bringing in a system that relies heavily on tight ends, the Redskins needed to reinforce a position that did not produce much last year. They needed a primary pass-catcher like Olsen, Rivera told local media earlier this week, and although Thomas still has much to prove, he and the team believes he can have a breakout season in Washington.
“We see some glimpses of that type of athletic ability,” Rivera said. “He’s a tremendous athlete.”
It’s been four years since Thomas decided to switch to tight end while he was bouncing around training camps in 2015 and 2016. Although he was a gifted athlete dating back to his high school career, the former Virginia Tech quarterback admitted during OTAs last year that it took some time for him to adjust.
… Not long after taking over their respective roles in December, [Georg] Heitz, [Raphael] Wicky and technical director Sebastian Pelzer met with the team’s academy staff, including director Cedric Cattenoy and operations head Brian Roberts, to discuss which players showed promise.
“They adapted very quickly to the pace,” Heitz said of the players. “You could literally see on a day-by-day basis how they progressed, and it’s not so easy to go there as a 15-, 16-year-old guy and to play against men. It’s not that easy, but they really adapted quickly and this was the main reason. Technically, you will find many gifted players, young players, gifted players, but it’s a question of adaptation. They did a great job.”
Wicky said he was impressed with the players’ mental strength.
… Although Lakers players were placed into a 14-day, self-isolation period after two unnamed players tested positive for COVID-19 and the team continues to practice social distancing through the government-mandated April 30 time frame, it’s no surprise they’re trying to come together while being physically apart.
“For the guys, we work hard with our strength and conditioning staff to make sure they have fitness bundles delivered to them where we can do Zoom workouts,” Rob Pelinka, the team’s vice president of basketball operations and general manager, said Wednesday on a conference call with reporters. “This is a team that just loved being together, whether it was on the bench, on the bus, in the locker room. These guys just have a great chemistry of being together. So they’ve tried to stay as connected as possible in the ways they can, working out together virtually.”
A isolated ramble on club culture around child and youth development focusing specifically on development vs talent identification. We discuss this focusing specifically on the Netherlands with Bastiaan Riemersma and his move from a larger professional club to a smaller club in Willem II and joining him to discuss his experience covering the contrast of youth development as a journalist for De Correspondent is Michiel de Hoog. [video, 1:04:30]
Taking ice away from NHL players has caused some to resort to desperate measures.
New York Islanders captain Anders Lee bought a Peloton. Anaheim defenseman Josh Manson wants a pair of roller blades. League leading scorer Leon Draisaitl of Edmonton stickhandles around his dog.
Whatever works.
“You’re kind of going back to that ‘Rocky’ mentality where you’re doing push-ups and sit-ups and punching the cow,” Columbus forward Nick Foligno said.
NHL players are running, biking and trying to stay in shape in case the season resumes after being put on pause because of the coronavirus pandemic. While many athletes can replicate the workouts and movement of their sports — NBA players are missing the gym — hockey players have no way to truly replace skating while rinks are closed.
Ryan Russell has added a new job title to his resume this offseason.
The longtime Auburn strength and conditioning coach — officially the associate athletics director of athletic performance — is now also serving as the Tigers’ executive director of football. The role was added as part of Gus Malzahn’s staff restructuring this offseason, which included the hiring of three new position coaches (including offensive coordinator Chad Morris), the naming of linebackers coach Travis Williams as recruiting coordinator and the addition of 10 new support staffers.
With the added title has come additional duties for Russell, who already oversees Auburn’s strength and conditioning program and lately has been tasked with remotely managing workouts for players during the coronavirus pandemic that has halted all in-person organized team activities. Among his new duties is overseeing all incoming freshmen when they arrive on campus to get them acclimated to the program.
Stanford University, Stanford Medicine, News Center from
… researchers explained how they developed genetically targeted chemical assembly and used the new method to build artificial structures on mammalian brain cells and on neurons in the tiny worm called C. elegans. The structures were made using two different biocompatible materials, each with a different electronic property. One material was an insulator, the other a conductor.
Changing neuronal properties
Bao said that while the current experiments focused mainly on brain cells or neurons, genetically targeted chemical assembly should also work with other cell types. “We’ve developed a technology platform that can tap into the biochemical processes of cells throughout the body,” Bao said.
Ifeadi Odenigbo, a defensive end for the Minnesota Vikings, limps into the treatment room following a Sunday night game against the Chicago Bears. He just pulled his hamstring, but he needs to be out on the field, ready to go in less than 48 hours. “You’re just always trying to get on the field as soon as possible,” he said. “So, you’re in an ‘I’m doing whatever I can to feel better’ state of mind.”
Hilary Patzer, the sports acupuncturist for the Vikings, asks Odenigbo to lie down on the padded treatment table. After finding out he hurt his hamstring in the game, Patzer starts inserting 10, two-inch-long, thin needles into the injured area. Odenigbo lies facedown with needles sticking out of his hamstring.
… Health experts warn that a prolonged isolation could take a big mental toll on people whose livelihoods and self esteem are intrinsically linked to competition.
“A lot of athletes are still in an initial shock phase, probably confused and also with some relief after all the chaos,” Caroline Anderson, a psychologist who works with professional and Olympic athletes in Australia, told Reuters.
“Probably their two main coping strategies in life are having that competitive edge and being able to really push themselves physically for six-seven hours a day. They haven’t got that anymore which is very difficult.”
Disordered eating (DE) corresponds to the presence of fasting, food restriction, skipping meals or consuming appetite suppressants, excessive physical exercise, image distortion, dissatisfaction with body weight and shape, fear of weight gain, and desire for thinness. University student athletes are particularly at risk of developing DE because they must adapt simultaneously to the demands of adult life, university life, and competitive high‐level sports. This study aimed to identify which psychological characteristics are most strongly associated with the presence of DE among university student athletes. In September 2018, 95 female participants completed an online survey composed of several questionnaires evaluating DE, psychological characteristics, and sociodemographic information. DE affected 21.1% of the sample. Among the psychological variables evaluated, overcontrol and perceived media pressure were the most strongly associated with the presence of DE. The more university students presented overcontrol and perceived media pressure, the more likely they were to present DE. In sports medicine, it is essential that professionals evaluate psychological vulnerabilities of university student athletes and offer them support in this regard.
Which duo in the Jupiler Pro League have the most impact of all? And which duo scores best per team? The Dutch data intelligence company SciSports conducted research into it and ended up as the absolute royal couple of Antwerp residents Dieumerci Mbokani and Lior Refaelov.
Scouts can be the unseen figures at a football club because they are often far away from the training ground. “You spend the majority of your time travelling,” Burnley’s technical director Mike Rigg tells Sky Sports. “You are getting two planes, a bus, a train and a taxi to go and watch a game in the middle of nowhere. You are out of sight.”
But the coronavirus crisis has put scouting in the spotlight. What is a scout supposed to do when there are no football matches left being played for them to watch? While some clubs have furloughed their staff, others are pressing on – for now at least. Whatever happens next, there is a suspicion that scouting in the Premier League might never be the same again.
Making Sense Of: Turning Research Into Practice
It’s easy to look at young athletes and see training machines. With their untapped reservoirs of ability they make gains by doing hard work. Downside risks are low while the upside potential is high. Generally it’s a good situation for all involved, whether that’s the principals (athletes, coaches, trainers, parents) or the peripherals (doctors, psychologists, nutritionists, maybe an computer-programming data analyst). It’s not necessarily a good situation for scientists, the people trying to figure out what makes a person into a training machine.
Sports science has done a wonderful job of distilling the tiny improvements that athletes make. Marginal gains, they’re called. And in total, they add up to major improvements. Scientists want to prove what works, but with marginal gains the improvement signal is small. The small signal makes it difficult to separate it from the noise coming from all of the other parameters.
What does it mean to take sports scientists’ work and move it into practice? The International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance recently advised readers to put more effort into writing the “Practical Application” section, something the journal expects in paper submissions. The IJSPP editorial author, Aaron Coutts, asked submitters to take advantage of the Practical Application and use it to collaborate with “experienced coaches, athletes and applied scientists.”
There’s hidden danger in giving advice when the recommendation has minimal downside. Sometimes, when the recommendation catches on, sports researchers take credit and the research becomes a target. Alex Hutchison used his Sweat Science column to highlight recent criticisms of acute-to-chronic workload ratio (ACWR). “There is no magic threshold, no perfect sweet spot,” he wrote. But remember the caveats and ACWR “seems like a handy piece of information.”
Competence matters, especially at higher levels of sports competition and with older athletes. They have less of their genetic endowment available. Risks management is a priority and new ideas from research are inherently risky. The extra effort to communicate the risk-benefit tradeoffs of applied sports science research are necessary.
How to build a bridge from research to practice? Communicate clearly. Collaborate. Prioritize competence.
