… Ovechkin’s longevity and his pursuit of Gretzky’s record are among the topics they discussed in their first joint interview, which airs Monday on NBC Sports Network. It comes with them 3,000 miles away and hockey on hiatus because of the coronavirus pandemic but shines a spotlight on the potential of Ovechkin, who has 706 goals, spending the next few years chasing Gretzky.
Ovechkin has 48 goals this season, tied for the league lead with Boston’s David Pastrnak, and if the regular season were to resume, he could match Gretzky and Mike Bossy with nine 50-goal seasons. If not, the time away and focus on the chase could drive Ovechkin to play long enough to break the record.
“You really feel like this record is meaningful,” NHL chief content officer Steve Mayer said in a video interview with The AP. “I’ve got the feeling that if he’s close, he’s not going to go away so fast.”
Patrick Queen has a routine, one he’s had for years. After every football game, he walks out of the locker room and finds his father, Dwayne. The two lock eyes, hug, and without fail, Dwayne asks his son this every single time:
“Tell me which plays you left on the field?”
And Patrick, whose parents describe him as a quiet, humble sort, graciously nods.
“Yeah I know, dad,” he says, “I know.”
Once they get that out of the way, Dwayne tells Patrick everything he did well. This routine has lasted for a decade. This snippet of their relationship is as good as any to explain why Patrick developed so quickly in 2019, a season when he didn’t become a full-time starter until game No. 4 but was still encouraged to declare for the 2020 NFL draft.
… in the span of one month, Seidel: prepared to run her first marathon, against all odds and expectations became an olympian, and witnessed a historical postponement of the Olympic Games wrought by an unprecedented global pandemic.
“Not gonna lie, it’s been a lot,” says Seidel. “Once the crisis started to get really, really serious and NCAA’s started canceling their seasons, I kind of started mentally preparing for the very real possibility that it was going to be postponed.”
The decision, Seidel says, was initially something of a relief after pressure from nations and athletes built in the days leading up to the IOC’s postponement, with Canada and Australia announcing that they would not be sending their athletes to represent their respective countries.
Work and life overload. Injury or illness. Seemingly endless bad weather. Physical and mental fatigue after reaching a big goal. There are all sorts of reasons for us to go cold turkey under normal circumstances. And on top of all, we are now in the midst of a global pandemic, and coronavirus (COVID-19) is forcing us to stay inside as much as we possible. The fact is: we might not be able to train to our full potential right now.
In these situations, it’s natural to wonder: How long will it take to lose my fitness?
A partial answer is that your heart starts to show significant signs of detraining after just a few weeks of little to no exercise. That’s the key takeaway from a 2018 study on marathoners published in the Journal of Applied Physiology.
Increasing running cadence can bring many advantages, but there is not “magic number” that fits everybody. Each athlete has a cadence which varies with speed, these are the numbers to start from to improve running speed and to lower the risk of injuries. Testing athletes on the treadmill is the best way to obtain solid data to define training program.
University of California-San Diego, UC San Diego UC San Diego News Center from
… scientists at the University of California San Diego studying photosynthetic bacteria called cyanobacteria, or “blue-green algae,” have identified the roots of a behavior that is regulated by the circadian clock.
New research provides a striking example of the importance of keeping the internal biological clock aligned with the external environment so that processes occur at the right time of day.
The findings, led by Division of Biological Sciences Associate Project Scientist Arnaud Taton and senior authors James and Susan Golden, are published in Nature Communications.
“I think this paper demonstrates the importance of having internal biological time coincide with environmental time,” said UC San Diego Distinguished Professor Susan Golden
As people age, they lose muscle mass and the risk of heart disease, dementia, and reduced immune function increases. As the years tick by, it becomes harder for people to bounce back from a workout, injury, or illness.
Consistent exercise can slow down this degenerative process — but a new study suggests we may not have to settle for slowing down. According to new research in mice, aerobic exercise may actually reverse aging’s effect on essential muscle stem cells involved with tissue regeneration.
This post extends a previous one (read here) in which we’ve discussed the risks of concluding that improving one variable (eg hamstring strength) results in improving another one (eg sprint performance) based on the sole observation of parallel average changes within a small sample of athletes.
Thanks to the constructive collaboration of all the co-authors of a recent paper discussing the effects of a hamstring strength intervention on eccentric hamstring strength and sprint performance, (Please Note: the authors of this paper intended to determine if performing Nordics on a regular basis, could be a time-efficient way to tackle both injury risk reduction and performance enhancement.— This post will extend the discussion on the data visualization part. However, this post is not about the narrow “hamstring strength versus sprint performance” focus, it is about a broader topic: how do we/should we display-report the results of studies in which parallel changes in two variables are investigated. Our focus here is about research question and studies design like “does improving A with training result in improving B”. It is about how the association between observed effects of a training intervention on distinct variables is presented and discussed in our own studies and the studies we read and review. And about how the current standards are clearly misleading and why/how they should be improved.
Objective To evaluate the effects of injury prevention programmes on injury incidence in any women’s football code; explore relationships between training components and injury risk; and report injury incidence for women’s football.
Design Systematic review and meta-analysis.
Data sources Nine databases searched in August 2019.
Eligibility criteria Randomised controlled trials evaluating any injury prevention programme (eg, exercise, education, braces) were included. Study inclusion criteria were: ≥20 female football players in each study arm (any age, football code or participation level) and injury incidence reporting.
Results Twelve studies, all in soccer, met inclusion criteria, with nine involving adolescent teams (aged <18 years). All studies (except one) had a high risk of bias. Eleven studies examined exercise-based programmes, with most (9/11) including multiple (≥2) training components (eg, strength, plyometric, balance exercises). Multicomponent exercise programmes reduced overall (any reported) injuries (incidence rate ratio (IRR) 0.73, 95% CI 0.59 to 0.91) and ACL injuries (IRR 0.55, 95% CI 0.32 to 0.92). For exercise-based strategies (single-component and multicomponent), hamstring injuries were also reduced (IRR 0.40, 95% CI 0.17 to 0.95). While exercise-based strategies resulted in less knee, ankle and hip/groin injuries, and the use of multiple training components was associated with greater reductions in overall and knee injuries, further studies would be required to increase the precision of these results. The incidence of overall injuries in women’s football was 3.4 per 1000 exposure hours; with ankle injuries most common.
Conclusion In women’s football, there is low-level evidence that multicomponent, exercise-based programmes reduce overall and ACL injuries by 27% and 45%, respectively.
University of Washington, College of Engineering, News & Events from
… Tell us about your HCDE research. How did you get involved?
HCDE professors Kate Starbird, Sean Munson and David McDonald had begun exploring the use of tracking technology in college athletics before I arrived on campus. But they needed someone to lead it. Kate reached out to me to see if I’d be interested in working with them. Of course I was – I couldn’t believe that an opportunity so aligned with my background and interests could exist!
To build the project, I started by defining research questions. I conducted a literature review, then designed a study and submitted the required paperwork for doing research with human subjects. I set up interviews with coaches and trainers. I also led a directed research group in which HCDE undergraduates and student-athletes worked together to design, conduct and analyze athlete interviews about the use of tracking data. We analyzed and reported on interviews with 11 athletes and 11 staff members from three college athletics programs.
Objectives To summarise recommendations and appraise the quality of international clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) for rehabilitation after ACL reconstruction.
Design Systematic review of CPGs (PROSPERO number: CRD42017020407).
Data sources Pubmed, EMBASE, Cochrane, SPORTDiscus, PEDro and grey literature databases were searched up to 30 September 2018.
Eligibility criteria English-language CPGs on rehabilitation following ACL reconstruction that used systematic search of evidence to formulate recommendations.
Methods We followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines to report the systematic review. Two appraisers used the Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation (AGREE) II instrument to report comprehensiveness, consistency and quality of CPGs. We summarised recommendations for rehabilitation after ACL reconstruction.
Results Six CPGs with an overall median AGREE II total score of 130 points (out of 168) and median overall quality of 63% were included. One CPG had an overall score below the 50% (poor quality score) and two CPGs scored above 80% (higher quality score). The lowest domain score was ‘applicability’ (can clinicians implement this in practice?) (29%) and the highest ‘scope and purpose’ (78%) and ‘clarity of presentation’ (75%). CPGs recommended immediate knee mobilisation and strength/neuromuscular training. Early full weight-bearing exercises, early open and closed kinetic-chain exercises, cryotherapy and neuromuscular electrostimulation may be used according individual circumstances. The CPGs recommend against continuous passive motion and functional bracing.
Conclusion The quality of the CPGs in ACL postoperative rehabilitation was good, but all CPGs showed poor applicability. Immediate knee mobilisation and strength/neuromuscular training should be used. Continuous passive motion and functional bracing should be eschewed. [full text]
… After all, no one is actually worried the NFL or the NBA could end up on shaky ground, or that their players will have problems making ends meet. But in women’s sports, where leagues are typically young and fledging and some athletes are paid very little, the effects of the pandemic will be more acutely felt.
That’s why, from across the spectrum of women’s professional sports, from soccer to softball, basketball to hockey, stakeholders say they are prepared to fight their way through this — even if there’s no denying that it’ll be difficult.
Fifa has confirmed that its promised $1bn (£800m) investment into women’s football between 2019 and 2022 will not be cut into as the organisation explores how it will financially assist football access the globe, as the industry as a whole struggles to cope with the coronavirus pandemic.
“We can confirm that this funding has already been committed by Fifa and will not be impacted by the current Covid-19 crisis,” a Fifa spokesperson told the Guardian. “This funding will be invested into a range of areas in the women’s game including competitions, capacity building, development programmes, governance and leadership, professionalisation and technical programmes.”
Women’s professional hockey, already in upheaval, is facing the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Jayna Hefford, the leader of the Professional Women’s Hockey Players’ Association (PWHPA) remains undaunted in her quest to navigate women to the league they desire.
The roadmap is murkier, however, because of a virus that’s pushing hockey down the list of society’s priorities at a time when women’s hockey is striving to raise its profile.
FIFPro, the global union for professional footballers, says the pandemic presents an “almost existential threat” to the women’s game
The coronavirus pandemic presents an “almost existential threat” to the women’s game, the global union for professional footballers has warned in a groundbreaking report.
FIFPro claims that there is a risk of “mass unemployment and recession” unless stakeholders, policymakers, governing bodies, broadcasting companies and sponsors give “specific considerations to protect the women’s football industry”.