tingilinde

the backpass rule

I don't follow soccer, but this segment on the Backpass Rule from 99 Percent Invisible is fascinating.  Text and supporting material as well as the audio podcast.

 

the summer games

Wondering out loud-- will Trump get upset the games are upstaging him?  How will he react?  

 

 

 

on the decline of youth sports

From about a year ago.  Inequality and wall-building by the upper middle class. (via The Atlantic). The American model of youth sports is very broken going well beyond the lure of athletic scholarships in college.  Among other things the piece describes the much more successful (if motivating activity among the population along with dominating sport is a goal) Norwegian model.  Of course the American model has an enormous sport as a business component. 

a tip of the hat to Ross for mentioning it again

 

 

another bombshell with a whistleblower

But not politics - doping in athletes and the Nike Oregon Project.  An amazing story.

a tip of the hat to Ross

 

 

wearable sensors for athletes

An overview paper in Nature Digital Medicine of the current state of sensors for sports medicine. (pdf)  It's still very early in the game.

 

Wearable sensors for monitoring the internal and external workload of the athlete

Dhruv R. Seshadri¹, Ryan T. Lⁱ², James E. Voos³, James R. Rowbottom⁴, Celeste M. Alfes⁵, Christian A. Zorman⁶ and Colin K. Drummond¹

The convergence of semiconductor technology, physiology, and predictive health analytics from wearable devices has advanced its clinical and translational utility for sports. The detection and subsequent application of metrics pertinent to and indicative of the physical performance, physiological status, biochemical composition, and mental alertness of the athlete has been shown to reduce the risk of injuries and improve performance and has enabled the development of athlete-centered protocols and treatment plans by team physicians and trainers. Our discussions in this review include commercially available devices, as well as those described in scientific literature to provide an understanding of wearable sensors for sports medicine. The primary objective of this paper is to provide a comprehensive review of the applications of wearable technology for assessing the biomechanical and physiological parameters of the athlete. A secondary objective of this paper is to identify collaborative research opportunities among academic research groups, sports medicine health clinics, and sports team performance programs to further the utility of this technology to assist in the return-to-play for athletes across various sporting domains. A companion paper discusses the use of wearables to monitor the biochemical profile and mental acuity of the athlete.

__________

1Department of Biomedical Engineering, Case Western Reserve University, 10900 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44106, USA; 2Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, Cleveland, OH 44106, USA; 3University Hospitals Sports Medicine Institute, Cleveland, OH 44106, USA; 4Department of Cardiothoracic Anesthesiology, The Cleveland Clinic, 9500 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44195, USA; 5Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing, Case Western Reserve University, 9501 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44106, USA and 6Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Case Western Reserve University, 10900 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44106

 

four percent

Women's sports in the US only get four percent of total sports coverage. 

 

yesterday in hawaii

A Canadian friend won the final American women's beach volleyball tournament. 

Sarah Pavan and her teammate Melissa Humana-Paredes took on the best American team (arguably these are the two best teams in the world). If you're interested PrimeVideo has the gold medal match is on its Day 3 part two segment beginning around the 15 minute mark (after intros) and running about 45 minutes.  The men's final follows.

 

 

 

why do athletes in some popular professional sports struggle?

Tickets to beach volleyball events at the Tokyo Olympics sold out in less than a day.  Tickets to the finals in less than an hour.  The beach events consistently rank in the top three or four worldwide based on television viewership. But only the top few players can make a living and only a handful have anything beyond the most modest sponsorships. 

Melissa Humana-Paredes is one of the best beach volleyball players in the world.  Last month she wrote a piece on the subject...  it probably applies to a number of sports.

 

mild head trauma and another issue for kids

This isn't concussive, but it is troubling to follow up on..  even mild head trauma can lead to a disruption of the blood-brain barrier in kids.

snip

...

The findings, Camarillo said, are further evidence that the longstanding model of concussion is likely too simplistic. The current paradigm is that the brain slams into the skull, recoils and slams again on the opposite side. According to this model, most brain damage should occur along the outer surface of the brain. But recent evidence — including the present study — suggests that head trauma’s effects are felt much deeper in the brain.

Going forward, the researchers plan to conduct a similar study in a larger cohort. They’re also interested in determining whether the blood-brain barrier disruptions they observed heal on their own and, if so, how long that takes.

While the findings are still at an early stage, the imaging technique used in this study — perhaps in conjunction with blood biomarkers — could one day be used to figure out how much damage an athlete has sustained, and when he or she can return to play, according to Grant.

“I think we’re ignoring many of these kids who are experiencing these injuries throughout the season but aren’t aware of them, or they have no symptoms,” Grant said. “Maybe this study can help us figure out how to better classify some of these kids and figure out if they are truly safe to go back and play.”

...

a tip of the hat to Sukie

 

 

 

chess grandmasters and weight loss

This will probably be the most unusual thing you'll read today.