Applied Sports Science newsletter – June 29, 2021

Applied Sports Science news articles, blog posts and research papers for June 29, 2021

 

KC Royals plan to use pitcher Danny Duffy in a dual role

The Kansas City Star, Lynn Worthy from

Friday night, Kansas City Royals vetern left-hander Danny Duffy made just his second relief appearance since the end of the 2016 season. However, Duffy pitching out of the bullpen may be a more regular occurrence for the remainder of this summer.

Duffy, who started and pitched two innings on Wednesday night in New York against the Yankees, pitched one inning of no-hit relief, struck out one and threw 15 pitches in Friday night’s loss to the Texas Rangers.

Asked what that means for Duffy’s usage going forward, Royals manager Mike Matheny said, “What that means is probably less of a ramp up in a traditional sense of what you’d normally look for and more of kind of what we saw before, keeping him to a modest pitch count. We’re trying to figure out how we can keep him on the mound as often as possible and keep him healthy. That’s really what it comes down to. We’ve had some talks with Danny, the medical team, sports science, obviously the front office as well.


Ben Simmons withdraws from Australia’s Olympic squad

Associated Press from

Ben Simmons has withdrawn from Australia’s Olympic squad in order to spend time working on his individual skill development following a disappointing NBA post-season for the Philadelphia 76ers.

Basketball Australia issued a statement early Tuesday local time to confirm Simmons’ decision to pull out of selection for the Tokyo Olympics.

“It is a pretty rough time for him right now,” Australia’s head coach Brian Goorjian said. Going to the Olympics “is something that he wanted to do, but the timing just hasn’t worked.


Thomas Tuchel’s concern for N’Golo Kante increases as EURO 2020 knockouts loom

football.london, Sam Inkersole from

Whenever international breaks or tournaments come round, club managers will be keeping a very close eye on how their players are performing and, most importantly, if they pick up any injuries.

Problems picked up during the international breaks throughout the season are of huge concern for managers and head coaches. At least the summer can give the players some time to recover if the issue is not too serious.

With 17 players heading off to the Euros this summer and Thiago Silva away at the Copa America with Brazil, Thomas Tuchel will have more concerns over injuries picked up by his players than most.


Inside Tight End University: George Kittle & Co. are out to ‘learn from the best in the country’

ESPN NFL, Turron Davenport from

San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle’s voice echoed across the turf on a steamy 90-degree day at Lipscomb Academy field in Nashville as a crowd of 49 tight ends began to gather at the 50-yard line. Kittle’s instructions were accented by a passionate “Wooo!” from Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.

The passion was clearly on display for the start of on-field workouts for what Kittle, former NFL tight end Greg Olsen and Kelce dubbed Tight End University (TEU). The three-day event offered a chance for some of the best tight ends in the NFL to come together to share trade secrets both on and off the field.

“If you have the opportunity to be around the best you always take it,” said Jordan Matthews, who’s attempting to change positions from wide receiver to tight end. “Just that energy. These are guys that are all gunning for that top spot. You can feel that.”


Sleep Evolved Before Brains. Hydras Are Living Proof.

Quanta Magazine, Veronique Greenwood from

Studies of sleep are usually neurological. But some of nature’s simplest animals suggest that sleep evolved for metabolic reasons, long before brains even existed.


Evan Neal posts highest split jump number Dr. Rhea ‘has ever seen’

247 Sports, Bama Online, Charlie Potter from

Last summer, Alabama director of sports science Matt Rhea shared a video of offensive tackle Evan Neal doing a split jump onto boxes that went on to be viewed more than 300,000 times.

Nearly a year later, Rhea is still impressed by the 6-foot-7, 360-pound lineman, who hit 5,808 watts on a split jump — “the highest number I’ve ever seen….by far!” Rhea said in a tweet.

“This guy is different,” he said of Neal at the end of the social media post.


How Rapsodo Data Can Help Identify Prominent Pitchers, Hitters In 2021 MLB Draft

Baseball America, Tech in Baseball podcast from

Today’s Tech In Baseball podcast has a draft theme. Baseball America executive editor JJ Cooper talks with Rapsodo’s Analytics Manager Nicholas Rossini. The pair discuss how data can help decipher which pitchers and hitters have traits that will transfer well from high school and college baseball to the pros.

After explaining what Rapsodo tracks and how RapScores work, Rossini dives into the data to explain why some top-rated and some lesser-ranked draft prospects could stand out. [audio, 1:12:45]


Mystery Material Receives $14.5M to Bring ‘Engineering Feat’ to Insulated Garments

GearJunkie, Adam Ruggiero from

OROS today announced a round of series A funding that it will use to ‘usher in a new era’ for insulated outerwear.

With an infusion of more than $14 million, OROS today teased a never-before-seen innovation in technical outerwear it will bring to market in 2022. While details of the new material remain vague, the Portland-based outdoor apparel brand hinted that it aims to reduce bulk in cold-weather garments without sacrificing warmth.

“Since day one, OROS has endeavored to transform insulated apparel, using only the best materials and technologies — some of which have been developed with exclusive access to NASA intellectual property and have been used for their most demanding applications in space,” said OROS chief technology officer and VP of product, Jeff Nash.


AI learns to predict human behavior from videos

Columbia University, Columbia Engineering from

Columbia Engineering researchers develop computer vision algorithm for predicting human interactions and body language in video, a capability that could have applications for assistive technology, autonomous vehicles, and collaborative robots


New Future of Work: Driving innovation via cross-company research with Jaime Teevan and Brent Hecht

Microsoft Research, The New Future of Work Podcast from

For Microsoft researchers, COVID-19 was a call to action. The reimagining of work practices had long been an area of study, but existing and new questions that needed immediate answers surfaced as companies and their employees quickly adjusted to significantly different working conditions. Teams from across the Microsoft organizational chart pooled their unique expertise together under The New Future of Work initiative. The results have informed product features designed to better support remote work and are now being used to help companies, including Microsoft, usher their workforces into a future of hybrid work.

In this episode of The New Future of Work series of the podcast, Chief Scientist Jaime Teevan and Director of Applied Science Brent Hecht of the Experiences and Devices group in Microsoft share how an internal SharePoint document led to what they believe is the largest collection of research on the pandemic’s impact on work. They’ll discuss the role of research during times of disruption, the widening scope of productivity tools, why going back to work two to three days a week is ideal, and what else companies should keep in mind as they decide on new work models.


Orlando rolling, Dallas impresses, The kids are alright, a look at the ATL-RBNY rilvalry, & more

American Soccer Now, Brian Sciaretta from

… The “Play Your Kids” movement in MLS essentially started in 2019. That’s not to say the process wasn’t underway well before then – the academies and homegrown initiatives had been going on for the better part of a decade. The 2019 season, however, is when things finally started to come together in meaningful numbers.


Leeds United pioneer working behind-the-scenes in Italy’s charge to Euro 2020 glory

Leeds Live, Joe Donnohue from

… [Gianni] Vio is revered amongst Italian coaches for his work at Catania, and now with the national team.

The ex-banker has also worked with Brentford on set-pieces, a club renowned for their ‘Moneyball’ approach to recruitment and attempts at exploiting marginal gains on and off the pitch.

“Well, I believe he’s one of the best, as I said, in his job and this is why we brought him here but also it takes time for the players to adapt to a new coach, a new system and also the new set pieces,” said ex-Leeds manager Thomas Christiansen back in 2017.


The Growing Importance of Football Analytics

Soccerment from

Over the past two decades, the influence of data analytics has been growing in every aspect of our lives: in businesses of every kind, but also in healthcare, media and sports. Until a few years ago, football was thought to be immune from this trend. Now, the early adopters in the major football leagues are thriving thanks to the competitive advantage that investments in data analytics are beginning to provide them: Liverpool, AZ Alkmaar and Brentford are just a few in the fast-growing list of successful case studies. In our view, the clubs that aren’t planning to jump on the analytics bandwagon run the risk of being left behind.


The sticky stuff crackdown has produced just an absolutely bonkers reduction in spin rates across the league.

Twitter, Rob Arthur from

We really don’t have a good historical parallel for how low RPM will end up, but this change is going to cut K% and boost runs by a lot.


The Irony of the Mavericks’ Hires

MSN News, Sports Illustrated, Howard Beck from

Every major hire an NBA owner makes reveals something about them. And we just learned a fair amount about the Mavericks’ Mark Cuban.

According to reports, Cuban is set to name Nico Harrison, a longtime Nike executive, as his new general manager, and Jason Kidd, a former Mavericks star, as his new head coach. So, what does this tell us? That Cuban values loyalty, familiarity and expediency. That he’s unafraid to take chances and bold swings. That he wants to build through free agency. That he believes the best way to recruit superstars is with a former superstar (Kidd) and/or a popular, incredibly well-networked power broker (Harrison).

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