Applied Sports Science newsletter – September 21, 2021

Applied Sports Science news articles, blog posts and research papers for September 21, 2021

 

Rose Lavelle talks TQL Stadium, returning to Cincinnati for friendly match

Cincinnati Enquirer, Pat Brennan from

… Speaking Saturday ahead of the USWNT’s Tuesday match at FC Cincinnati’s TQL Stadium in the second of back-to-back games against Paraguay, Lavelle said she’s never considered herself as playing a starring role in the growth of local soccer.

“I’ve always said I think that Cincinnati is such an underrated soccer city and I’m so glad that now, having a team here, people are seeing it and I feel like the city is getting to showcase that,” Lavelle said. “I think it’s such a great city with a lot of young talent and hopefully girls, boys from Cincinnati can see themselves in me and see that it’s possible for a Midwest person to get to this level.


Deconstructing one aspect of LeBron James’ off-season training

SB Nation, Silver Screen and Roll blog, 3cbPerformance from

LeBron loves to share his off-season training video. Let’s break down the latest and why it’s effective.


‘One of our MVPs’: Blue Jays reliever Tim Mayza thriving after long rehab

Sportsnet.ca, Kristina Rutherford from

Tim Mayza
is leaned up against the soft blue railing of the Blue Jays dugout, about two hours before the first pitch of what will be an 8-1 thrashing of the Tampa Bay Rays.

The 29-year-old lefty doesn’t know how the game will go just yet, obviously, but he posted up on this railing with a big smile on his face. “It’s so fun to be part of a late-season push,” Mayza says. “We’re a resilient group. We’re a team that continues to claw back and to never give up.”

That last bit sure sounds a heck of a lot like Mayza himself. On Sept. 13, 2019, the reliever that manager Charlie Montoyo calls “one of our MVPs” endured the most awful moment of his career. He threw a pitch against the New York Yankees and then crumbled to the ground with a burning sensation in his arm. It turned out to be not just a torn tendon that required Tommy John surgery, but also a complete flexor tendon tear that added five months to his recovery.


Implementing ACL Injury Prevention in Daily Sports Practice—It’s Not Just the Program: Let’s Build Together, Involve the Context, and Improve the Content

Sports Medicine journal from

Although the benefits of current anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury prevention programmes have been demonstrated in efficacy studies, they, unfortunately, have had limited public health impact to date. For example, the incidence of ACL injuries continues to rise in adolescent athletes. Raising awareness and educating coaches and athletes is not enough to facilitate the widespread, sustained use of these programmes in the real-world setting. Considering the profound burden of ACL injuries, it is necessary to continue to improve the current ACL injury prevention programmes through co-creation. First, the uptake of the programmes should be optimized by a better appreciation and understanding of the individual, socio-cultural and environmental context (i.e., community). Second, the content of the programmes should be optimized to better reflect the demands of the sport by creating more ownership and increasing motivation (incorporating challenging, sport-specific and fun elements) with the end-users. In addition, implicit motor learning, random practice and differential learning are concepts that should be integrated when practising to obtain the most optimal results when learning or finetuning skills. [full text]


Moving Beyond One-Size-Fits-All Approaches to Injury Prevention: Evaluating How Tailored Injury Prevention Programs Are Developed and Implemented in Academy Soccer

Journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy from

Objective

To evaluate the real-world development and implementation of tailored injury prevention exercise programs (IPEPs) in academy soccer players.
Design

A mixed-methods process evaluation employing the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research.
Methods

The participants were 38 players and staff members (eg, coaches, physical therapists) from 4 male teams in 1 European soccer academy. The content and nature of the 4 teams’ IPEPs and the degree of implementation across 1 playing season were evaluated. Additionally, participants took part in semi-structured interviews and focus groups, focusing on the development of tailored IPEPs and implementation barriers and facilitators.
Results

Teams employed multiple IPEPs, developed by the team physical therapists and strength and conditioning coaches. A range of sources, including scientific literature, guidelines, individual player screening data, and previous experience, influenced IPEP development. Across all teams, 76% of IPEP sessions were completed as originally planned and a further 11% were completed in modified form. The key barriers to implementation during the season were related to scheduling changes and managing player workload. Thematic coding of interviews and focus groups identified 25 IPEP implementation barriers (eg, time and scheduling, player workload) and 41 facilitators (eg, program adaptability, facilities and equipment).
Conclusion

In a male soccer academy setting, physical therapists and strength and conditioning coaches played the key role in IPEP development. Teams employed a range of different, internally developed programs. The key implementation factors were related to time and scheduling and managing player workload.


How Sports Performance Lab catapulted Penn State men’s hockey’s Jimmy Dowd Jr.’s career | Penn State Men’s Hockey News

Penn State University, The Daily Collegian student newspaper, Andrew Destin from

… “When I heard about it first opening, I was like, ‘Hell yeah, I love this.’ Why not be one of the first guys?” Dowd Jr. told The Daily Collegian. “My No. 1 priority over the summer is strength training and conditioning, and to be able to have that there is unbelievable.”

The Sports Performance Lab uses data-driven science, and an individualized approach, to “help athletes get to the next level.” That’s exactly what director of strength and conditioning Andrew Watkins and company have provided Dowd Jr. with.

The goal with Dowd Jr. was to make him more well-rounded and to increase his ability to skate longer, harder and more efficiently on the ice. To do so, in part, required dedicating a short amount of time to what were once some weaknesses for Dowd Jr.


Washington Capitals hire Dr. Aimee Kimball to development staff

Fansided, Stars and Sticks blog, Michael Marzzacco from

…. Kimball has 15 years of NHL experience on her resume, spending her first 10 seasons with the Pittsburgh Penguins and last five seasons with the New Jersey Devils. In her new role with the team, Kimball will provide “skilled direction and support” in the player development areas outside of strength training and on ice training.


The genetics of human performance

Nature Reviews Genetics journal from

Human physiology is likely to have been selected for endurance physical activity. However, modern humans have become largely sedentary, with physical activity becoming a leisure-time pursuit for most. Whereas inactivity is a strong risk factor for disease, regular physical activity reduces the risk of chronic disease and mortality. Although substantial epidemiological evidence supports the beneficial effects of exercise, comparatively little is known about the molecular mechanisms through which these effects operate. Genetic and genomic analyses have identified genetic variation associated with human performance and, together with recent proteomic, metabolomic and multi-omic analyses, are beginning to elucidate the molecular genetic mechanisms underlying the beneficial effects of physical activity on human health.


Your own skin as a running coach

Innovation Origins, Aafke Eppinga from

Exercising is healthy, but it can also lead to injuries. The Amsterdam University Medical Center and the TU/e are doing research on interactive stickers that tell you how healthy you really are.


Innovation, the Great Urgency of Contemporary Sport

Barca Innovation Hub, Alvaro Gonzalez from

… Anne Tjønndal, from the Nord University in Norway, distinguishes five types of sport innovation: social, technological, commercial, community-based, and organizational. In the first type, the social one, innovations occur when facing social problems. On many occasions, sports have been implemented to promote integration, fight gender inequality or in peace missions. Technological innovation in sports refers both to the upgrade of the sports equipment and the broadcasting of events and participation in sports, as in the case of esports. Commercial innovation is related to products and services offered by sports organizations, as well as sponsorships and strategies that help boost revenues. Community-based innovation is focus on the proximity effect that a club has, and the activities performed by its foundations or corporate social responsibility. Finally, regarding the organizational type, innovation happens when the institutions that organize sports practice, such as federations or tournaments, are reformed; this occurs constantly, for example, due to the inclusion of new disciplines in the Olympic Games.


This implanted microchip may one day control your sleepyoutubeinstagramyoutubeinstagram

Freethink, Amanda Winkler from

We may one day be able to press a button to control our sleep. A wireless device, implanted in the arm, could be a rapid, simple way to control our body’s circadian clock — and that could radically alter how we treat sleeplessness.

Living pharmacy: The device, designed to be an implantable chip, is called a “living pharmacy” because it would make everything within the body, on demand — no trip to the CVS required. Using specially engineered cells, which can be triggered by an LED light, the chip would make and release a stream of molecules that control your circadian rhythm.

This living pharmacy doesn’t actually exist yet, it’s still in early development. However,Northwestern University and DARPA have recently partnered together on a 4.5 year project to bring the blueprint to life.


Several NFL players are trying to get fake vaccine cards

New York Post, Mark W. Sanchez from

It is possible that a number of NFL players are successfully pulling off a play-action fake against a league that wants them vaccinated.

Entering Week One, the league said 93.5 percent of its players had received the jabs that shield them from the coronavirus, commissioner Roger Goodell becoming an unlikely leader in the country’s push to keep its people safe from the pandemic.

Yet, that number may have been boosted by fake vaccination cards.


Tendon Blood Flow, Angiogenesis and Tendinopathy Pathogenesis – Merkel

Translational Sports Medicine journal from

Physical exercise results in a duration and intensity dependent vascular response in healthy human tendon. In overused (tendinopathy) and damaged tendon, angiogenic pathways are activated and neovascularization is observed. Whereas no direct relationship exists between the amount of neo-vessels and degree of tendinopathy symptoms, almost all tendinopathic patients have elevated neovascularization and tendon blood flow, as assessed by Doppler ultrasound methodology. The enhanced flow in tendinopathy can be successfully abolished by heavy resistance training. Already in the early time-phase of tendinopathy (<3mths), neovascularization in the tendon exists but the causal sequence of vascular, metabolic, nociceptive, and matrix tissue changes in tendon pathology is not fully understood. Nevertheless, existing evidence point at neovascularization being an important component of pathogenesis and may occur already before the development of clinical symptoms in tendinopathy.


Measuring workload, a learning experience

Twitter, Kyle Lindley from

Accurate workload feedback for a pitcher should be more of an exploration exercise than a universal guideline for how much to throw. It’s an opportunity to experiment more effectively, find the throwing routine that works best for them [thread]


Playing through pain is hurting the Braves

SB Nation, Talking Chop blog, Demetrius Bell from

… The Giants currently have the best record in baseball and it certainly isn’t because they’re trotting out the same lineup with the same guys day in and day out. Instead, they’re able to get their core players as much rest as they need to stay fresh while also slotting in players that are capable backups. While this has coincided with a lot of their players having the season of their respective lives at approximately the same time, a lot of this is just good roster management and roster building on the part of San Francisco. They have a veteran-laden team and they aren’t being ground into dust by the rigors of the regular season.

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