News & Insights: Friday
• Will Leitch tells us that “figuring out which pitchers are least likely to get hurt and helping pitchers keep from getting hurt is the game’s next market inefficiency to be exploited,” but Leitch says little about the people who identify biomechanical risk factors in pitchers and keep them healthy… The Glass Arm (New York Magazine)
• An in-depth look at how pitching velocity is changing baseball. Includes a very cool graphic that breaks down the complex kinematic sequence of pitching… Baseball 2013: Here Come the Flamethrowers (Wall Street Journal)
• High school pitchers in Japan have been throwing hundreds of in-game pitches with little or no recovery during the country’s national baseball tournament. One pitcher threw 232 pitches in a single game. The reason for it is the important place that the tournament has in the nation’s culture… The pitch-count problem: How cultural convictions are ruining Japanese pitchers (Yahoo! Sports)
• Kelly Dwyer, a basketball blogger for Yahoo! sports, looks at the
damning impact of the NBA schedule on player injuries and concludes:
NBA players can’t be expected to play every game, as is
the case in the low contact MLB and or the low-output 16-game NFL season. Teams, and players, are going to have to get used to smartly resting players for occasional games throughout the season so as to avoid the fatigue injuries that are just going to pile up more and more often and with greater intensity to match the frequency…The NBA’s schedule has yet to catch up to a league that is growing bigger, stronger, and faster. It’s now up to the teams that employ these players to match this athletic acceleration with a bit of brainpower, in order to keep these players healthy. As injuries pile up, the NBA’s going to have to address the physical demands it puts on players (Yahoo! Ball Don’t Lie)
• San Antonio Spurs’ head coach, Greg Popovich, understands the importance of rest and recovery and seems to have a great intuitive feel for when to sit guys. And other NBA players and coaches give their perspective on the issue of rest during the season… As season grinds to a close, coaches wrestle with rest issues (NBA.com)
• New York Knicks’ 35-year old rookie point guard, Pablo Prigioni, has never used ice to recover. Instead, he prioritizes eating well and sleeping eight hours a night… On an Aching Roster, a Knick Prefers to Forgo Ice (The New York Times)
• Last month’s Sloan Sports Conference at MIT was written about at length. Another recent conference, the Science + Football Conference held in London, flew under the radar but was probably more technically rigorous, especially when it came to sports science, athlete performance and injury prevention. UK blogger Chris Lilley recaps the conference… thepowerof11 blog
• Cleveland Plain Dealer sportswriter Dennis Manoloff interviews orthopedic surgeon James Andrews, first asking about preventing youth sports injuries and then about his career treating professional athletes… Noted surgeon Dr. James Andrews wants your young athlete to stay healthy by playing less
• Sally Jenkins and Rick Maese interview more than 50 doctors, players, agents, owners and find that the NFL has inconsistent standards in treating players and that some of its doctors depart from best medical practices and safety norms… NFL medical standards, practices are different than almost anywhere else (Washington Post)
• Zlatan Ibrahimovic talks specifically about the close relationships
he’s fostered with team sports medicine professionals, and how they’ve
safeguarded his well-being, sometimes against the wishes of coaches and
team management… Zlatan Ibrahimovic – The passionate football star on physical health and team doctors (BJSM blog, Aspetar Sports Medicine Journal)
• A team of scientists from Swansea University’s Research Centre in Applied Sports, Technology, Exercise and Medicine (A-STEM) has been working with the Premier League’s West Ham football club to help players recover more quickly from matches. Together they’re testing adaptions of neuro-muscular stimulator devices (commonly used to help blood clot patients or to help reduce deep vein thrombosis) to aid recovery… Welsh scientists pioneer Premier League football muscle recovery research (Wales Online)
• Ohio State University received a $13.5 million capital donation to build the nation’s largest sports medicine facility. The new building will house a new human performance laboratory for sports science, joining schools like Stanford, Kansas, Texas, UConn and Florida State, places that have on campus research and support centers for elite athletes… Crane family donates $13.5 million for Ohio State sports-medicine center (Columbus Dispatch)
• UK soccer columnist Sean Ingle calls out poorly informed comments about player injuries by one his country’s leading soccer analysts, Roy Wilkins. Ingle also gives background on the origins of sports science at AC Milan and details on how its currently practiced at Manchester United… Ray Wilkins’ history lesson is eclipsed in the science labs (The Guardian). Bonus: Check out this video, Manchester United Training Session (fitforfutbol.com)
• New studies offer more evidence that static stretching before weightlifting reduces power production. Dynamic warmups are better and are becoming the norm… Reasons Not to Stretch (NYTimes Well blog)
• Interesting look at the needs of and the physical demands placed on formula 1 drivers… The fast and the furious…and physiotherapy: Training for extreme G-force loads on the neck (British Journal of Sport Medicine blog)
• Good summary of PAP – a phenomenon that refers to the enhancement of muscular performance following a near maximal contractions, by Purdue University Athletic Performance Director, Duane Carlisle. Post-activation Potentiation (PAP) and Strength-Power Athletes (DuaneCarlisle.com)
• A recent study looked at injury factors affecting tennis players. Not surprisingly, researchers found that Tennis players who only play tennis have higher injury rates than tennis players that play multiple sports. Not in the study, science-based training programs can correct and offset imbalances and faulty movement mechanics, things that sometimes result from playing just one sport… Young Tennis Players who Play Only One Sport are More Prone to Injuries (Loyola University Chicago)
• The Re-Play project led by Noel O’Connor, an electronical engineering professor at Dublin City University, will use motion capture to record and study the biomechanics and unique skills of Gaelic football, Hurling and Basque Poleta, native European sports that could become extinct as they lose participants… Cutting Edge Research to Preserve Irish, Basque Sporting Skills (The Epoch Times)
• Computer vision and motion analysis accurately determine how far professional athletes run during competition. The data and its analysis are going to help design training and conditioning programs for all sports that are more efficient and specific… How far do you run in different sports? (Gizmodo)
P3 Athlete Insights and Links: Weekend Wrap
P3 pro baseball players are opening the season very strong and P3 pro basketball athletes are finishing even stronger. The following links are highlights from busy and productive weekend for P3 athletes. • As a result of hard work, smart training and self belief, P3 athlete Dylan Axelrod has gone from the 927th overall pick and being released three years ago to becoming the Chicago White Sox fifth starter. On Saturday he out-dueled Cy Young award winner Felix Hernandez in a 4-3 victory… Axelrod makes most of rotation opportunity (ESPNChicago.com) • Barry Zito found P3 two years ago, committed to …
News & Insights: Thursday
• Good description of Catapult Sports’ GPS tracking and heartrate monitoring system which is gaining adoption in professional and collegiate basketball, football and soccer… Sensors Log an Athlete’s Every Move—And Heartbeat (Popular Mechanics) • Gatorade maintains an active Sports Science forum. This article makes the point, very thoroughly, that athletes who consume too much protein during recovery run the risk of compromising their bodies’ ability to intake and absorb other critical nutrients like carbohydrates… SSE #107 Protein Consumption and Resistance Exercise: Maximizing Anabolic Potential (Gatorade Sports Science Institute) • Carnegie Mellon psychology researchers are examining the role background processing, our …
News & Insights: Tuesday
• Ichiro Suzuki’s approach to training and the machines that he uses to increase flexibility and shoulder, hip, and pelvic function are eye-opening. The Secret Gym of Ichiro Suzuki (Wall Street Journal) • Axon Sports asks what the recently announced Brain Activity Map, the BAM project mentioned by President Obama in his State of the Union address, will mean for basketball players. Basketball and The BAM Project (Axon Sports) • The Charles Poliquin blog summarizes a review paper in International Society of Sports Nutrition on post-exercise nutrition. The takeaway: Eat before and after, and make smart choices. Tip561: The Post-Workout …
News & Insights: Monday
• Are football clubs missing out on the potential to train the most important organ of all — the brain? Mind over matter: Soccer’s bid to train the brain (CNN) • Talent evaluators take note. Variables that are difficult to quantify and see — work habits, competitiveness, ambition, determination — often times end up being more important than physical talent in the long run. Stop Judging Talent; Start Nurturing Character (Daniel Coyle) • New measures are being taken by NBA teams to improve performance and player health. More advancements forthcoming. Next big thing in NBA analytics might be moving from …
Enes Kanter’s physical and athletic gains transferring to the court
Last night, Utah Jazz big man Enes Kanter turned in the best game of his young NBA career, scoring 23 points and grabbing 22 boards — both career-bests — in Utah’s win over the Bobcats. This past off-season Enes spent 4-weeks training and testing at P3 – making important strides as an athlete. We posted on our initial observations of Enes in May, and on measured gains in August. From day one we pushed hard on lower body power and acceleration, complexing functional strength movements that forced hip extension with plyometrics and ballistic movements that challenged him to accelerate quickly …
News & Insights: Thursday
• Good luck competing with this guy for a header. How Cristiano Ronaldo scored his incredible headed goal against Manchester United in last week’s champions league showdown at the Bernabeu. How did Cristiano Ronaldo score his incredible header (Telegraph UK) • iPads will neither cause nor cure concussions but the NFL wants to put software on the tablet computers to immediately diagnose cognition after players take big hits. The league regulates what coaches and teams can do with tablets and this opens the door for more injury-prevention and health-related sideline apps. NFL turing to Apple’s iPad to diagnose concussions during …
In-Season Development of Professional Baseball Athletes
Portions of the following post have been adapted from a presentation given by Dr. Marcus Elliott at the American Sports Medicine Institute’s 31st annual injuries in baseball course. The course was chaired by Dr. James Andrews and attended by a number of baseball’s leading athletic trainers, biomechanists, physical therapists, sports physicians, orthopedic surgeons, physiologists, strength and conditioning coaches. This was Dr. Elliott’s second consecutive years presenting at the conference. Last year he presented on “concepts in lower body development of the baseball athlete”, and made the following cases: 1) Lower body development is essential in baseball and comparatively under-trained. 2) …
Performance Enhancing Drugs and the NBA: Part 3
The final installment in an AppliedSportsScience series. In part 1, P3 performance specialist Matt Aronson touched on the potential for PEDs in the NBA, specifically the parallels between the cultures of the MLB in the 1990s and the growing NBA resistance weight-training culture. In part 2, Matt examined the potential risk factors for NBA athletes being drawn to and relying on PEDs. In the following, Matt provides strategies for contending with the advantages that PEDs can provide. By Matt Aronson The P3 approach: Each athlete at P3 is put under the microscopic – we take a medical approach – acquiring …
Performance Enhancing Drugs and the NBA: Part II
The second in an AppliedSportsScience series. In part 1, P3 performance specialist Matt Aronson touched on the potential for PEDs in the NBA, specifically the parallels between the cultures of the MLB in the 1990s and the growing NBA resistance weight-training culture. In part 2, Matt dives deeper into the potential risk factors for NBA athletes being drawn to and relying on PEDs. By Matt Aronson The scarce few athletes in the super-elite realm of the NBA, are truly amazing athletic specimens. Many NBA athletes are born with the most improbable of genetics: some can grow to be nearly 7 …
Performance Enhancing Drugs and the NBA: Part 1
The first in an AppliedSportsScience series, inspired by a recent ESPN truehoop.com post and the director general of the World Anti-Doping Agency stating the NBA’s anti-doping program is insufficient, P3 performance specialist Matt Aronson examines the potential for PED use in the NBA. By Matt Aronson It’s another perfect day in Santa Barbara, California. Though you could never guess from the serene calm of empty streets and yet-to-be-opened store fronts, this is going to be a pivotal day in a young basketball player’s life. For this young man it is the day of his initial physical assessment at the Peak …
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News & Insights: Friday
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P3 Athlete Insights and Links: Weekend Wrap
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News & Insights: Thursday
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News & Insights: Tuesday
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News & Insights: Monday
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Enes Kanter’s physical and athletic gains transferring to the court
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News & Insights: Thursday
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In-Season Development of Professional Baseball Athletes
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Performance Enhancing Drugs and the NBA: Part 3
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Performance Enhancing Drugs and the NBA: Part II
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Performance Enhancing Drugs and the NBA: Part 1
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Hard work and unique movement skills allow DeQuan Jones to beat the odds and earn an NBA roster spot
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P3 Highlight Analysis: Jeremy Evans’ unique combination of length, accleration and elasticity leads to amazing block-dunk sequence
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P3 Pre-Draft: A Scientific Approach to Draft Prep and Career Development
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An Inside Look at the Science and Training Behind the USA Men’s Olympic Water Polo Team
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Preventing Hamstring Injuries on the Gridiron
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Injury Expectations in NBA’s Second Half
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The Development of Power Lies at the Foundation of All Movement, Especially Athletic Performance.
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An Inside Look at P3 Action Sports Athlete’s Yadin Nicol and Sage Erickson
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P3 Athlete and 2011 MLB 1st Round Draft Pick Signs With Dodgers
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News & Insights: Friday
