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Editor’s Letter
Letter From The Editor Welcome to this issue of baseball hitters and William Sands investigates the use Sports Performance & Tech. We are proud to bring you of sprung floors in gymnasan issue that focusses on the tics. spread of analytics within sports.
The use of information within sport has always been important, but as we are seeing an increase in it’s use across a variety of sports, we wanted to give an insight into how it is being used.
These are all joined by several other exciting articles and reviews. As always, if you like the magazine please share it. It was created to spread ideas and if you think there is something in here that somebody else would find interesting please send it along to them.
We discuss the ways in which FC Barcelona are integrating more data into their ap- If you have any questions or proach whilst continuing to feedback please contact me promote the culture that has at ghill@theiegroup.com seen them become one of the most successful football clubs in history. Marco Cardinale tells us about how The ASPIRE Academy are adopting analytics to improve the prospects of young Qatari athletes. Bloomberg sports is taking a new approach to sports analytics, we talk to their President, Bill Squadron, about it’s history and how it is being used to migrate across disciplines. In addition to this we talk to Peter Vint from the US Olympic team, Dan Petersen looks at the mental attributes of
George Hill Managing Editor
Are you are looking to put your products in front of key decision makers? For Advertising contact Hannah at hsturgess@ theiegroup.com
Managing Editor: George Hill Assistant Editors Simon Barton David Barton Richard Angus Art Director: Gavin Bailey Advertising: Hannah Sturgess hsturgess@sportsperformancetech.com
Contributors: William Tubbs Nathan Meyer Dan Peterson William Sands Heather James General Enquiries: Editor@sportsperformancetech.com
Contents
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Contents
How are Barcelona integrating analytics and culture to breed success on the pitch?
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We look at how the LTA is utilising analytics to improve the performances of British tennis hopefuls
Pitcher vs Batter, Dan Peterson looks at how mental training is as important as physical preperation in baseball Simon Barton looks at how sports analytics are being used in the Aspire academy in Qatar
We take a look at the Sony NWZ-W274B, the new waterproof, bluetooth headphones and MP3 player from Sony
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Richard Angus looks at the work of Peter Vint, Senior Director, Competitive Analysis at the US Olympic Committee We discuss the work being done at Bloomberg Sports with President Bill Squadron
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William Sands give us his insights around his extensive research in the interaction of gymnasts with spring floors
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As concussion is once again on the agenda, Nathan Meyer looks at Brain Sentry, is it the best technology to prevent brain injury?
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Sports Analytics
Sports Analytics In this issue we are concentrating on the increasing use of analytics throughout sports at all levels.
we wanted to discuss how sports teams and organisations are leveraging data to improve results.
From the spread of wearable technolgies with offerings from companies like Nike and Fitbit, to the use of GPRS recording of players in professional matches, analytics are permeating all elements of sports.
We discuss some of the teachings from the LTA, the US Olympic Team and FC Barcelona as well as many more.
After the Sports Analytics Innovation Summit in London,
Analytics at Barcelona
FC Barcelona: More Than A Club? Simon Barton Assistant Editor
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Analytics at Barcelona
If you have ever been to a game at the Camp Nou you couldn’t have failed to notice the message ‘mes que un club’ that is penned across the 98,787-seater stadium. ‘Mes que un club’ or ‘More than a club’ in English, is meant to embody the club as a whole and transmit its collective spirit, which throughout the 20th century was essential in sustaining Catalan sentiments, culture and language.
straight forward, namely success. After taking over the reigns of Frank Rijkaard in 2008, Pep Guardiola oversaw an unprecedented four-year period in which he won every major honour within his grasp. Famed for their ‘tiki-taka’ passing style of play and their ever-present superstar Lionel Messi, at the height of their dominance in 2012, they were widely deemed to be the best side in the world.
For many of us outside the boundaries of Spain and Catalonia, FC Barcelona, the organisations most famous team, has come to represent something far more
FC Barcelona however, is merely a cog in the Barcelona engine, there are teams present across a number of disciplines, including; Basketball, Futsal and arguably the world’s best Handball team. Far from operating in completely different spaces, Raúl Peláez, Head of Knowledge Management at Barcelona, told the audience at the recent Sports Analytics Innovation Summit in London, that when FC Barcelona are using new tactics to press a team and pass it around their box, this tactic is equal to their handball team, an outcome of their ‘socialisation’ approach that see’s all of their departments working in unison. One of the first things Peláez asserts is that Barcelona doesn’t have a rich owner, like that of Chelsea, Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain or the sponsors to match clubs like Bayern Munich, which makes competing financially with these
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Analytics at Barcelona
clubs difficult for them. Although it is difficult to take this statement at face value, he goes on to say that “Barcelona is one of the richest clubs in terms of value, knowledge and talent” and that if they want to continue to compete with the biggest clubs in the world they have to “improve the dimension of knowledge because we can’t improve the dimension of the money”.
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For the football team, their socialisation approach has been incredibly successful for their training academy, ‘La Masia’. This is down to the ease in which younger players can learn ‘how’ to play from established stars who preach the importance of relying on intuition rather than purely data driven commands.
Peláez states that this open sharing of knowledge For Peláez and the people at Bar- has meant that players celona, knowledge management express themselves more is not a technological change but freely and as a result are a cultural one. If individual talent far more adaptable. can be turned into collective intel- Quite rightly, he ligence then Barcelona’s cham- points to Lionel and pioning of knowledge over data Messi and is certainly a justifiable one. In an example, Peláez presented a case study where a race was set-up between someone with a GPS system and taxi-driver. Without the GPS system, the taxi driver reached the required destination around twenty minutes faster, purely because he had tacit knowledge of how the roads would be operating. In a short, this represents Barcelona’s views on how Knowledge should be prioritised over data. This desire to spread knowledge has created a holistic approach that promotes socialisation. Peláez informed us that their entire operation is open-plan; meaning that communication, regardless of power or position is straightforward.
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Analytics at Barcelona
reliant on knowledge transfer to breed a new crop of superstars at La Masia, and create an environment where the younger players can learn from the players in the first team, so that they It could be argued that there too, can be given an opportunihas never been a more impor- ty to showcase their talents on tant time for Barcelona to keep the worlds biggest stage. The to their principles and culture openness that Barcelona opand not panic in the face of ad- erates with will be imperative versity. This month, the club was when insuring the success of shocked to its core when it was their younger players, especialrevealed that FIFA, the leading ly whilst they’re restricted by the football international governing transfer ban. body, had placed a 14-month Throughout a number of distransfer ban on its shoulders. ciplines, data and sport are a This equates to two transfer match made in heaven. But for windows without action, an im- football, a game in which intuplication that will affect Barcelo- ition plays such an important na greatly, especially when they role, its use, according to Peláez are deemed to be lacking quality and the people at Barcelona, in a number of areas around the cannot be so widespread. For pitch. As if the lack of new sign- Barcelona, a club who have beings wasn’t enough, Barcelona’s come synonymous with success, ‘whiter than white’ image across the assertion that knowledge the globe is in the process of not data is the key to player being tarnished, a process that development and operationhas been accelerated with the al success is certainly an interNeymar debacle and the Lionel esting one. With troublesome times ahead, knowledge transMessi tax evasion case. Despite these undesirable devel- fer could be the key to Barceloopments, their culture of knowl- na living up to their motto ‘mes edge transfer could act as a way que un club’ in both the near and out for Barcelona and an oppor- distant future. Andres Iniesta as examples of players who make a vast array of split second decisions whilst playing, whose ability would perhaps be hindered by excessive analysis through data.
tunity to resurrect their faltering image. No other club in Europe can boast an academy with the success rate of La Masia, which has seemingly produced superstar after superstar. Peláez and his team at Barcelona, will be
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Analytics in the Olympics
Documenting US Olympic Success Through Data Richard Angus Sports Analytics Leader
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Analytics in the Olympics
After China’s dominance in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, you could have forgiven the US Olympic committee for fearing a prolonged period of Chinese dominance. Standout events like the 100m and the 200m, which were once deemed easy pickings for the U.S, have been snatched away by an outstanding Jamaican sprint team. On top of this, the Chinese team picked up impressive 51 gold medals compared to the US’s still impressive 36.
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At the 2012 Olympics in London, the Chinese were clear favourites to top the medal table again. They were however eclipsed by Team USA who managed an improved medal count of 46 gold medals. Dr. Peter Vint, Senior Director of Competitive Analysis with the United States Olympic Committee that supported the Five National Governing Bodies at the London Olympic games, presented at the recent Sports Analytics Summit in London. He gave us a broad picture of how sports analytics has been of use to their team at London 2012 and more importantly how it can be imperative going forward. Peter started off his presentation by stating that analytics helped them decipher how good they actually are, and what they can expect from their current athletes in the future. Peter affirmed that “It may seem like these are no brainers – but they’re not” and that these questions are pivotal to Team USA’s success at forthcoming competitions. In sports that are pretty unambiguous in terms of their potential outcomes, Vint showed us a Performance Trajectory analysis that demonstrated the projected develop-
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Analytics in the Olympics
ment of an athlete by mapping and predicting based on their best annual performances. The analysis highlights the standard needed to be at the three medal levels, and where a particular athlete is in regard to the necessary levels. In an example shown to us, the athlete was performing below the required level but through data analysis they predicted that he could be a future star. For Team USA, these insights are incredibly valuable and allow them to make more informed decisions about how to allocate their limited resources. Vint clearly has a passion for analytics. He presents an infographic detailing the probability of one player beating another at last years Wimbledon. By using the Elo method, it showed that Andy Murray, despite his victory, was a clear underdog against the runner-up Novak Djokovic, who at the time of the final had an 11-7 head to head win record. The Elo system was originally created for chess but is still widely regarded as the best method for determining how well a player is going to perform against a certain opponent. The method calculates the relative skill of a
player when c o m pared to a competitor. Unlike some other systems, the distribution of ratings allows for natural variation of performance, where the underdog is awarded more generously for a victory when compared to the favourite. Vint developed this further by looking at Rugby 7’s, and the progress of three sides, New Zealand, England and the USA. By using the Elo system, Vint was able to demonstrate exactly how the USA team were performing in relation to the two other superior sides. He shared with us that England had a 27% chance of beating New Zealand, meaning that more often than not, New Zealand would beat England, but occasionally the underdog would emerge victorious. He also stipulates that the system was relatively accurate with a 75-77% success rate. There are relatively unpredictable aspects of the system though, some of which fall at the feet of tournament development. If the Football World Cup were to
Analytics in the Olympics
go down to the four strongest teams, say; Spain, Brazil, Germany and Argentina the Elo system would become less insightful, as those percentages would become far narrower as all participating team would be of a similar ability level and pedigree. Additionally, the system would fail to take on-board fatigue and weather conditions.
a difference and the Elo system would not pick this up. Other issues such as form are also not considered.
There are quite a few useful data systems in circulation that offer an alternative to Elo. Vint states that the Stephenson system rewards for individual and collective frequency of play, generally rewarded for more matches If, speaking hypothetically, Bra- played. zil and Germany met in the fi- Peter Vint’s presentation gave nal, even if the Germans had an us an excellent grounding in the excellent head to head record use of Elo, whilst also highlightagainst the Brazilians and were ing its pitfalls. As an analyst, considered favourites accord- Vint sees data being of use to ing to the Elo system, many oth- his nation’s hopes at the next er external factors damaging Olympic Games, giving them the German’s prospect would the opportunity to invest more be marginalised. First and fore- wisely in potential champions. If most, the weather conditions implemented correctly, it is hard would be incredibly alien to the to see Team USA not taking the European side and the Brazil- spoils in Rio. ians would have the backing from the majority of the crowd. And what if Germany had experienced a number of injuries during the campaign or had had a player sent off, fatigue in this scenario would certainly make
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Analytics in Tennis
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British Tennis: Stemming The Tide With Data Heather James Sports Analytics Leader
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Analytics in Tennis
Up until 2012, British Tennis had consistently underachieved. Barring Andy Murray, who can be deemed somewhat of an anomaly when compared to his fellow compatriots, not one male player comes to close to breaking into the Top 100, the all important milestone for Grand Slam participation. Accordingly, James Ward, Murray’s understudy against Team USA in their recent Davis Cup match, ranks a lowly 161, with a career high of 137.
smaller nations like Croatia who currently boast three. On the face of it, it is hard to determine why exactly Team GB is represented so poorly, and why other nations, who are not renowned for their ‘Tennis Culture’ or their prestigious tennis tournaments are so far ahead.
The Lawn Tennis Association is in a period of change. Andy Murray’s success throughout 2012 and at Wimbledon 2013 has certainly gone some way to masking the problems that are facing British tennis and the LTA. But if Compare that to Spain continued success is to be guarand France, who both anteed, then the way in which the c u r r e n t l y LTA goes about developing young have nine players at the grass roots level p l a y e r s has to be changed. in the top The change that the British public 50 or want, however, is seemingly just
over the horizon. Since the publication of the Blueprint for British Tennis, high performance training has gone through a major transition, with data and improvement at its heart. By putting an emphasis on athlete development and training specificity, the LTA hope to better understand the trials and tribulations of winning Grand Slam tournaments on a consistent basis. As an organisation in transition, it was very interesting to hear what Max De Vylder, Research and Development manager at
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Analytics in Tennis
the LTA, had to say on how they are dealing with these issues. At the recent Sports Analytics conference in London he spoke about the progress that the LTA is making in regard to youth development and getting youngsters on the courts at an early age.
competitive structure. Instead of having a yearly structure, wherein the youngest players would be up against older players throughout the year, the season was split in half. One half of the season, the player would be one of the younger players and in the second half, one of the oldest.
You don’t have to follow tennis extensively to understand how far the game has developed in the last thirty years. A number of issues have given rise to this, but more importantly it shows how much the discipline can develop in a relatively short period, a notion that the LTA holds dear.
By having this analysis in place, this negative trend was negated in two years, a relatively short period of time considering how entrenched these problems had become.
Max was keen to emphasis the importance of data not becoming an all-encompassing philosophy in itself, and that data is not a tool to prove coaches wrong, but instead help them to make decisions. As well as coaches, the use of data is vitally important for the upper echelons of the LTA, who are key in designing development pathways for the games future stars. When they first started to incorporate data into their operations they discovered that there was a significant drop off in terms of development and performance with younger players who were born in the last quarter of any year. Known as the ‘Relative Age Effect’, by using competitive analysis, Max was able to use this information to change the LTA’s Neale Cousland / Shutterstock.com
Central to Max’s job at the LTA is the Talent ID scheme. The scheme is primarily based on working with talented players from a younger age. The scheme looks to take a more scientific approach to player development, using data to aid the work of the coaches who work with the players on a regular basis.
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Analytics in Tennis
The identification programme is segregated into three different areas; physical, technical and competitive results. By aggregating this data and working closely with coaches, the LTA can accurately put their young players into two band, A and B, which will determine the training they get and the amount of funding they receive. Max was keen to emphasise that this system still can’t guarantee the development of a young player, as there are magnitudes of external factors that can have a bearing. Will this system bear fruits and give British tennis a far more consistent levelling across the Top 100? Their recent performance in the Davis Cup would certainly indicate so. With initiatives such as Talent ID still early on in their implementation, only time will tell if the LTA have finally reached a stage where their players can compete with the European power houses of Spain and France.
Bloomberg’s Sports Analytics
Bloomberg Sports: Data in Sports Predictions George Hill Managing Editor
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Bloomberg’s Sports Analytics
At the start of the 2013/2014 English Premier League campaign, Bloomberg’s Premier League Projector foresaw Chelsea as champions. We now lie thirty-four matches into the season and Chelsea sit in second, two points behind their nearest rival Liverpool, with a chance of lifting the trophy at the end of the season. This is hardly a revelation. It is fair to assume that the average football fan could have come to this conclusion. Whereas that prediction would have likely been based upon hunches, sometimes solely influenced by personal preferences, Bloomberg’s Analytics tool uses in-depth algorithms and mathematical models to make projections.
The avenues for statistical comparison really are endless. Whether you want to determine whether a player is out of contract or decipher how a specific pitcher does against a right-handed batsman, data can always make more informed decisions. Baseball data has been collected and is available from 1890 and allows for the best data analysis. What this equates to is that sports analytics systems are now far more than a platform for helping gamblers, it can play an important function in match preparation. Bill clearly demonstrated this to me by showing data for Jim Lester, pitcher for the Red Sox, facing a range of differing situations and how he in turn adapted to them.
I spoke with Bill Squadron, President of Bloomberg Sport at the He also demonstrated the abilitheir office in London. Clearly ty to filter information so that it passionate about analytics’ capacity to affect sports, he gives us an expert insight into some of the field’s major developments. Historically, baseball was deemed the natural partner to analytics due to the sheer amount of data created and the relatively static nature of the sport (when compared to more fluid sports that involve a wider array of movements). The baseball system Bloomberg has created is extensive and currently their largest and most impressive analytics sytem.
Bloomberg’s Sports Analytics
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algorithms and mathematical models. They have since created a number of different forms of analysis and a league predictor that is updated after match In the previous edition of days. Sports Tech and Performance, Bill showed me a match engine we touched on how Harala- that analysed a match between bos Voulgaris, one of the most Stoke and Arsenal, which ended prolific basketball gamblers up being a 1-0 win for Stoke. It ever, used sports analytics to clearly demonstrates how premake projections that in effect, dictability in relation to a number out-performed the bookmak- of parameters is updated in real ers. Despite being an effective time. At the start of the match, tool within this area, Bill is cer- there was a 46.4% chance of tain that the sporting elite will an Arsenal victory, after Stoke soon widely implement analytics scored late on, this percentage systems as the insights will save went down and Stoke’s percentclub officials time whilst increas- age win probability grew as the time left in the match decreased, ing accuracy. Not resting on their laurels, providing an example of the adBloomberg are keen to expand aptability of the mathematical into other disciplines. They have models they have in place. becomes very specific, allowing coaches to access sophisticated data and videos that could be the difference between success and failure.
recently teamed up with Opta to bring sports analytics to soccer. Opta supplies Bloomberg with the data they need, which they then analyse by applying their specialised
The variability in football, when compared to baseball, certainly poses a real challenge for Bloomberg, but one they are seemingly dealing with comfortably. Bill states that certain sports do lend themselves better to Sports analytics, but he is unequivocal in his assertion that technology will eventually catch up with everything. In 2006, Italian football was rocked, six days after winning the World Cup, three
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Bloomberg’s Sports Analytics
of their most followed clubs, Fiorentina, Lazio and Juventus. Fiorentina and Lazio received expulsions from European football as well as point deductions whilst Juventus were relegated to Serie B. Sports Analytics could have been of real help to Italian officials who would have been able to identify abnormal trends that could have allowed for earlier interception and stopped the networks of corrupt individuals who brought the Italian game into disrepute. Bill Squadron states “the more you shine the spotlight, the more difficult it is to deviate”, an unquestionable truth and
a sentiment that will hopeful- data readable so that they ly be echoed by other major can use it effectively. sporting bodies. There is no doubt that sport Bill Squadron sees the plat- analytics will be an imperaform developing a lot in a rel- tive cog in match preparaatively short period of time. tion and fan involvement in Volumes of data will only be the near future and online on the increase, which will platforms like Bloomberg’s make it even more difficult will soon be seen as an invalto gauge and pinpoint data uable partner for managers sets that are of actual im- and fans. portance. Unfortunately, Bill Squadron feels that sports organisations will struggle to implement effective data systems themselves, because it involves a skill set that is outside of their core competencies. Instead, he believes they will rely on external parties to make the
Pitcher vs Batter
Pitcher Vs. Batter Dan Peterson Owner, Sports are 80 Percent Mental
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Pitcher vs Batter
The pitcher versus the batter is one of the classic yet most common showdowns in sport. The strategy seems simple enough; “Hitting is timing. Pitching is upsetting timing,” explains Hall of Fame pitcher Warren Spahn. “A pitcher needs two pitches, one they’re looking for and one to cross them up.” Even the greatest hitters knew the odds were stacked against them. Ted Williams, the last player with a season batting average of .400, back in 1941, famously quipped, “I think without question the hardest single thing to do in sport is to hit a baseball.” With thousands of at-bats from hundreds of games every summer, we underestimate the complexity of the skills involved. Despite the simple sequence of a pitch followed by a possible hit, the cognitive neuroscience used by the pitcher and the batter should not be taken for granted. At each level - youth, high school, college and pro - the brain-body interface gets a little more sophisticated with a few extra nuances added through each repetition. So, let’s take a look at what the trained baseball brain needs to accomplish to complete a rather routine encounter and what ballplayers of all ages can do to raise their game.
a fastball strike, when to paint the corners, or when to try some off-speed stuff. But, executing that throw comes down to motor control in two dimensions, vertical and horizontal. To get the ball at just the right height in the strike zone, a pitcher’s brain needs to combine the distance of the throw with the desired angle when it crosses the plate. The pull of gravity on the ball will affect this vertical dimension; too much velocity and the pitch goes high, too little and it’s in the dirt. Fastballs need speed to get their flat trajectory, while curveballs require just the right flick to get the desired angle of vertical drop. According to Mike Stadler Ph.D., author of The Psychology of Baseball, cognitive skill in this vertical dimension is primarily genetic, pointing to research that shows athletes who excel at spatial relations tests are also accurate throwers. Being able to innately interpret time, distance and motion in a 3D world is vital in a constantly changing field of play.
The good news is that skill in the horizontal dimension, or leftright accuracy, can be improved with practice. Coordinating fingers, hand, arm and shoulder movements just a fraction For pitchers, there are tactical differently can have dramatic rules of thumb for what pitch effects on the final location of makes the most sense in certain the pitch. Most important of game situations; when to throw these is the release point where
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but then a curveball is thrown, the hitter starts a swing meant to meet an earlier, flat ball trajectory. But then, the bottom However, the entire real-time throwing motion happens so drops out of the breaking ball, fast, there’s no way a pitcher changing its speed and vertical can consciously think and adjust angle, causing an embarrassing on the fly. Stadler believes this whiff. is where thousands of practice Three biomedical engineers from pitches help our brain to develop the Laboratory for Intelligent the stored motor programs that Imaging and Neural Computing automate the entire pitching se- at Columbia University have quence. After hours of trial and now found a way to not only error, these detailed programs pinpoint the exact second when can be called up by just a pitch the brain recognizes the type call and a location, i.e. “throw a of pitch thrown but also where in the brain this happens. In a slider low and away.” Then there’s our fearless bat- 2012 experiment, researchers Sherwin, Jordan ter, standing in the box trying Jason to remember the scouting re- Muraskin and Paul Sajda asked port on the pitcher who’s star- a group of volunteers to wear ing him down. By priming his electroencephalography (EEG) brain with the best estimate of skullcaps while they watched what pitch he’s about to see, he 12 sets of 50 different pitches, preps his visual cortex to look for a fastball, curve or slider, on clues. For example, after see- a video monitor. As soon as ing two fastball strikes, odds are they identified the pitch type, the next pitch will be a change- they pressed a corresponding up or breaking ball just outside computer key. the fingertips apply just the right pressure and angle of direction to the ball.
the strike zone. If ahead in the By matching the exact moment count, maybe look for the fast- that the brain “lit up” on the EEG display with the accuracy of the ball strike. Just like the pitcher, the vertical guess, they found that fastballs and horizontal dimensions of a were recognized the quickest but swing will determine if there will had the lowest accuracy rate at be bat-ball contact. The length 72%. Sliders took a bit longer to of the bat can compensate for reveal themselves but the test the left-right horizontal move- group was correct an impressive ment of the ball but the narrow 91% of the time. Overall, pitch width of the barrel forces an ex- recognition usually happened in act vertical estimate of where to the middle third of the ball flight. swing. If a fastball was expected
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Pitcher vs Batter
best known for conflict resolution and higher-level decision making. It seems when there is To dig deeper into the mind of uncertainty; other areas of the the hitter, the Columbia team brain are consulted for more insought the exact location in the formation or past experiences. brain where this thought pro- This construction of neural process occurred. They showed col- grams to code a sports motor lege baseball players the same memory is what happens durcombination of hundreds of ing all of those swings in batting fastballs, curveballs and sliders practice and the hundreds of but this time from the friendly at-bats during a season. Being confines of a functional mag- able to pick-up cues from the netic resonance imaging (fMRI) pitcher’s release of the ball and machine to watch the brain’s the ball’s initial path fine tunes blood flow, an indicator of which the brain’s response when seeing future pitches. area is doing the most work. Their research appeared in Frontiers in Decision Neuroscience.
Looking at accuracy, timing and now a brain activity map, the results showed that correct answers are computed in the visual and motor cortices, as predicted. However, for incorrect pitch recognition guesses, the prefrontal cortex lit up with activity. This is the area of the b ra i n
This second study was presented last year at the Sloan Sports Analytics Conference. “Knowing the neural circuits involved in the rapid decision-making that occurs in baseball opens up the possibility for players to train themselves using their own neural signatures,” concluded Sajda. So, at this point, the batter has logically guessed the pitch type and seen the first glimpse of the ball coming out of the pitcher’s hand. While young hitters are told to “keep your eye on the ball”, when pitch speeds get above 70 mph there is less than half a second from the pitcher’s release to the ball crossing the plate, making it virtually impossible to hold that focus. Think of standing on the side of a road with a car approaching at
Pitcher vs Batter
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the forces of the body in motion can’t stop for a checked swing. Dave Fortenbaugh PhD, a biomechanical engineer, found evidence of this in his research with pro ball players.
step of the front foot and the weight shift to it started too early when the batter faced a change-up. Expecting the ball to arrive sooner, the brain sent the start signal to the feet, legs and hips too soon.
From Newton’s Third Law of Motion, as you stand in the batter’s box, your feet exert a force on the ground equal to your weight. The ground, in turn, creates an equal and opposite force on your feet, To compensate, research known as the Ground Reacshows that a hitter’s eyes tion Force (GRF). pick-up the flight of the ball Fortenbaugh knew that hitin the first 10 feet or 100-200 ting coaches emphasize milliseconds, confirm or deny weight shift during a swing their pre-swing pitch type es- from the back foot to the front timate, then decide if they will foot. They also are told to exinitiate a swing. The eyes then pect a fastball, then react to perform a quick saccade to something slower. If a batter the new anticipated location is fooled by a pitch’s speed, he where the ball will cross the would start his swing, and this plate while the body mechan- weight shift, either too early or ics of the swing are initiated. too late. To test this, he asked
“This may be an indication that the batter is fooled a little when successfully recognizing a changeup in adequate time and fooled quite a bit more on unsuccessful swings when this recognition occurs too late,” wrote Fortenbaugh.
75 mph. Off in the distance, you can fixate on the car but as it gets closer, especially after it crosses a 45-degree angle with your position, it seems to speed up dramatically. Known as angular velocity, this perceived change in speed turns the car into just a blur as it zooms past. In the same way, moving eyes, head and neck fast enough to track the full flight of a pitch is a very rare skill.
His research is published in the journal Sports Biomechanics.
“This study provides biomechanical evidence that an effective off-speed pitch, as postulated, upsets a hitter’s timing,” states Fortenbaugh. “The data in this study also support the claim of the difficulty of hitting a baseball well, as literally just tiny fractions of a second separated the Taking only 150 milliseconds 29 minor league players to successful and unsuccessful to complete a swing, the hitter stand on a force plate that swings.” reaches a point of no return at measured their GRF changes 100 milliseconds. After that, as they attempted to hit ei- In other words, Warren Spahn ther fastballs or and Ted Williams were right. change-ups. As expected, the back foot GRF stayed the same for either pitch as this is where a batter “loads” his weight at the start of his swing. However, the
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Gymnast Interaction
Interactions of the Gymnast and Spring Floor William Sands Professor East Tennessee State University
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Gymnast Interaction
Fig. 1
The exciting gymnastics you see on television is formally known as artistic gymnastics. Artistic gymnastics involves competition for men and women on several apparatuses, six for men and four for women. Men and women share vaulting and floor exercise apparatuses. Vaulting involves a single skill performed over a ‘tongue-shaped’ raised surface called a table. Floor exercise is contested on a large 12m square matted and carpeted area that is raised by fiberglass-laminate panels on springs (Figure 1). Gymnasts use the springs to fly higher and farther while reducing the harshness of take-offs and landings. Impact forces in gymnastics tumbling can exceed the published limits for bone, ligament, and tendon in the associated lower leg structures (1, 2), and exceed 14 times body
weight – per foot (8). The floor exercise apparatus also results in a large proportion of gymnastics injuries (3). One of the most devastating injuries in floor exercise tumbling is a ruptured Achilles tendon. Tendon ruptures occur most frequently during tumbling takeoffs and somewhat less so during landings. Figure 2 shows the acute angle of ankle dorsiflexion
Fig. 2
Gymnast Interaction
captured from high-speed video at 1000 fps. This ankle position occurs in less than 60ms of total take-off duration that is less than about 150ms. Concentrating ground reaction forces of a dozen or more times body weight in less than a tenth of a second requires skill, strength, power, and coordination. Moreover, this circumstance also requires a predictable elastic response of the floor exercise apparatus. Unfortunately, the musculoskeletal actions of the gymnast do not always synchronize with the elastic deflection and recoil properties of the spring floor (10). Jumping activities, like a gymnastics take-off, exhibit an initial knee flexion action as the lower extremity contacts the floor absorbing the impact. The flexion continues smoothly until the downward portion of the jump is complete. The knee position angle may hesitate for a very brief period prior to extension actions that raise the gymnast into the following take-off. Although the actions described above are normal and common, however, observations show that many gymnasts flex and extend their knees twice during the tumbling take-off impact (Figure 3). I believe that the cause of this odd phenomenon is the asynchronous motion interactions of the spring floor and the gymnast. If the gymnast’s take-off jumping actions do not match the natu-
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ral frequency of the elastic stiffness of the tumbling surface, then the mismatch will result in wasted energy and poor transfer of muscle and connective tissue tensions to the supporting surface. Of course, the gymnast also suffers from the asynchrony with altered force and torque distributions throughout the lower extremity. Although breaking the tumbling surface panels is not unknown; the usual ‘losers’ in the battle to maintain the coupling of coordinated stiffness between gymnast and spring floor are the gymnast’s legs. In short, the disparity may result in a ruptured Achilles tendon. Videos of gymnastics take-offs were analyzed with the ProAnalyst(R) motion analysis software for biomechanics and sports analysis. The software provides easy determination of positions, velocities, accelerations and angles of the stressed body parts. Figure 3 shows a common pattern of motion from 500 frame per second video (Quantum
Fig. 3
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Gymnast Interaction
Technologies), and screen images of the knee of a highly trained gymnast performing at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, CO, using ProAnalyst(R) motion analysis software from Xcitex Inc. (Woburn, MA). Following the examination of kinematic records of gymnasts’ knee angles, many of the gymnasts showed a knee motion direction reversal. Instead of the knee of the gymnast continuing in the horizontal direction of the tumbling pass, the knee flexes forward relative to the gymnast (who is traveling backward). The knee reversal motion is indicative of a ‘collapse’ of the knees, likely due to impact forces and poorly applied muscle torques. However, the genesis of this collapse may lie in the stiffness characteristics of the spring floor. Our reasoning lies with the fact that even Olympic champions can show this odd jumping behavior making strength and skill not the only, or perhaps even the dominant factors.
floor vibrations during the gymnast’s take-off actions along with electromyographic variations reflective of twisting versus non-twisting somersaults (Figure 4). Extraneous vibrations or asynchronous responses of a jumping surface, particularly when unexpected and unlearned, may spell disaster for a weakened Achilles tendon.
Unfortunately, the analysis of the potential contributions of the spring floor to Achilles tendon and other lower extremity injuries is staggeringly complex. The spring floor is not only influenced by the immediate takeoff actions of the gymnast, but the entire floor is subject to vibrations induced by a series of impacts from the run-up and other preceding tumbling skills. Most frequently, the rearward tumbling take-off follows a run of several steps, a skill called a round-off, and a back handspring. Gymnasts come in all different sizes, shapes, and abilities. Moreover, the role of How does the spring floor con- strength and power in tumbling tribute to the incidence of two cannot be overestimated and knee flexions? Work by Paine may be the most accessible at the University of Utah on an countermeasure in the shortearlier version of the spring floor term. It is my hope that conshowed that the spring floor’s tinued work will enlighten the natural frequency response gymnastics community on the was about twice that of the potential contributions of the gymnast’s take-off actions (6, floor exercise apparatus to low7). Moreover, work by McNeal er extremity injury. and colleagues (4, 5), again at Gymnastics has recognized that the University of Utah, found a the elastic properties of the number of extraneous spring
Gymnast Interaction
apparatuses may influence performance and safety (1, 2, 9, 11). The gymnastics vault board that is used for jumping following a run to the vault table, and modification of the vault board by adding and removing coil springs has been a coaching tactic for some time. Unlike the adjustable fulcrum in springboard diving, gymnastics has no corresponding technology to modify the stiffness of the spring floor. Gymnasts must adjust their neuromuscular system during a brief opportunity at the warm-up on the floor exercise apparatus. Gymnasts must essentially relearn their take-off actions in a matter of minutes, often prior to performing complex and potentially dangerous airborne skills. If
the gymnast’s neuromuscular system cannot adapt to the stiffness characteristics of the spring floor as presented, the gymnast’s performance suffers and the route to injury is enhanced – particularly with the space-age skills that modern gymnasts perform. In competition, floor exercise apparatuses may be placed on undersurfaces such as a flexible platform (Olympic Games), floating wood floor (basketball gyms), carpet (hotel ballrooms), and concrete (conference/meeting facilities). Given the potential serious nature of injuries to gymnasts, who are often upside-down during a fall, gymnastics apparatus behaviors should be maintained within a small
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range of performance properties. That youngsters are the most common participants in gymnastics should raise our concern and encourage continued research to understand spring floor and gymnast interaction properties.
References for this article can be found at http://bit.ly/P0GG3L
Fig. 4
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Email dwatts@theiegroup.com for more information
Aspire Academy
ASPIRE: Developing Qatar’s Sporting Infrastructure Simon Barton Assistant Editor
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Aspire Academy
At the 2014 World Indoor Championships, Mutaz Essa Barshim became Aspire’s first gold medal graduate. Jumping at 2.38 meters in the high jump, he broke the Asian Record and became one of Qatar’s most established athletes’. Since medalling at the 2012 Olympic Games in London, Barshim has gradually improved his podium position. Taking Bronze in London, silver in the World Championships in Moscow, Russia and then finally the Gold in Sopot, Poland.
cate consistently going forward. The ASPIRE academy sits in the heart of Doha, a globally recognised sports academy, it trains and develops Qatar’s athletically talented boys. With the World Cup on the horizon in 2020, Qatar is focused on being a sporting powerhouse. With a population of 200,000 people, a limited talent pool remains the largest stumbling block for the people at ASPIRE.
For the coaches and data analysts at ASPIRE, the talent pool is an issue that has to be adBarshim started his journey in dressed. Dr. Marco Cardinale, Doha, where he joined the same Head of Sports Physiology at athletics club as his dad (who ASPIRE began his presentation represented the national team at the Sports Analytics Summit in 20km walk and 10km running), in London, with ‘we [sports sciinspired by his achievements entists] haven’t got a clue about he joined the ASPIRE Academy what to do with young athletes’ for Sports Excellence where he and that ‘very small amounts blossomed, graduating from the of research has been done with academy in April 2009. Barshim young athletes measuring their represents a success story for development over a number of years in relation to the ASPIRE, a success story training they do’. t h e y hope to repli-
Aspire Academy
Its importance is derived from understanding what is required to make; for example, a twelveyear old develop to the best of his ability. At this age it is not about winning, it’s about making sure that the athlete will have the required skills to be winning when he is twenty. A trajectory can be constructed where all the attributes affecting a young athlete are aggregated and shown in a clear and consummate manner. In short, data can show the people at ASPIRE, where the athlete should be in the future and how they should be getting there. Cardinale, as physiologist, also spends a lot of time researching through relevant literature, but states that gathering data on the field is what makes the difference combined with good knowledge of the science.
He discussed an example with one of the hot topics of exercise physiology at the moment. Vitamin D is essential to the development of young athletes, due to its influence on many structures and in particular with skeletal development. Primarily garnered from sunlight, British people are commonly low in Vitamin D, due to our lack of sun exposure. By the same token, you would have expected Qatari’s to be in high in Vitamin D, due to the sweltering heats they are often subjected to. In actuality, due to various biological and lifestyle reasons, the most of the Qatari youngathletic population was classed Vitamin D deficient following repeated analysis of Vitamin D status.
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Aspire Academy
This provided better information and it is being used to improve the understanding of what are the implications of low Vitamin D levels on trainability and what interventions can be put in place.. Dr. Cardinale’s example was aimed at supporting the view that a scientific analysis and gathering of data can help in developing better strategies. For Dr. Cardinale and the people at ASPIRE, data acts as a significant cog in their coaching scheme. This is why they are investing time and effort in developing a holistic database which allows them to measure coaching and training patterns and respond to the differing ways in which separate athletes respond to training methods. Dr. Cardinale was eager to point out that sports scientists have to make their own findings through the use of data and through the analysis of coaching patterns to really be able to influence the correct development of young athletes. He also indicated that the answer comes from integration of knowledge from many “ologies” and Physiology is just one of the sources of information and not the sole resource at Aspire. The people at ASPIRE are aiming to become a globally recognised sporting academy by 2020. With their adaptable system in place they are well
on their way to developing some of Qatar’s most exciting new athletes, and the success of Mutaz Essa Barshim will certainly go some way to showing the rest of the world that their techniques are valid and sustainable.
Brain Sentry
Brain Sentry: Putting a Stop To Brain Trauma Nathan Meyer Sports Technology Leader
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Brain Sentry
Rising rates of concussion continue to threaten the future of the NFL. Despite it being America’s national sport, with viewing figures for the Superbowl continuing to be in the hundreds of millions, the fear that participation will decrease is a real one. It could certainly affect the sports sustainability, particularly at the grass roots level. There has been a lot of coverage and studies surfacing about the damaging effects that playing American Football can bring. The health risks are primarily long-term and are born out of poor diagnosis decisions made by leading medical practitioners that are threatening to dissuade would-be-athletes’ and their parents.
ways in which they can go about treating any traumas effectively and quickly. Determined to go a step further, American start-up ‘Brain Sentry’ have brought their new helmet system to the market. Their desire is for every player and every helmet to be equipped with their concussion sensor. According to their CEO, Greg Merill, their objective is ‘to identify players that are injured, get them off the playing field, so they can avoid further injury or even death’
Merill, prior to his work at Brain Sentry, was deeply involved with the US Military, where he worked with a company that developed technology that identified when soldiers could continue to fight and when they needed The severity of a brain trau- to be evacuated ma injury cannot be understat- after they were ed and can significantly affect exposed to an individual’s ability to func- a large extion and operate. A study by plosion. the Centre of Disease Control After bedemonstrated that a number of ing inNFL players sustained various v o l v e d long-lasting brain related inju- in such ries, that included the damage a fasciof simple brain functions, mem- n a t i n g ory loss and a deterioration of project, the five senses. Merill In the face of these dangers, there are now a whole host of smartphone apps, around 40,000 in total, on the market that can aid parents, coaches and athletes’ decipher when a player has concussion and the
became interested in American Football and the ways in which he could
Brain Sentry
help marginalise brain trauma. He puts emphasis on the safety of youth. Not only because of their increased vulnerability, but because there are more youngsters playing American football than any other group.
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hardest hits, meaning that it won’t precipitate a stop, start game.
As the Wall Street Journal’s start-up of the year, Brain Sentry will hopefully be the key to stemming the increasing angst At its core, the product is re- surrounding the NFL. Like othmarkably simple. Once activat- er impact sports, Boxing being ed at the start of the season, it perhaps the most prominent works by itself, with no need for example, it is always difficult to battery charging, or even to re- bear witness to the downfall of member to turn it on or off. It de- some of sports most iconic stars, tects motion, so once it becomes even Joe Namath blames coninactive it will turn off and wait cussion for brain damage that for you to start running around has recently been identified. The the football field, again. When impact of Brain Sentry and othactivated, the LED light will be- er similar technology start-ups will certainly go some way to come green and blink. In the unfortunate event that a ending these damaging trends, clash of heads occurs, the sen- and with its capacity only likesor will turn red, a function that is ly to become more sophisticatprimarily based on the increased ed, the future is perhaps not all acceleration of the head. For the doom and gloom for the NFL. sake of the game, the sensor will only pick up the top 2% o f
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Sony Walkman NWZ-W274B
Review: Sony Walkman NWZ-W274B Simon Barton Assistant Editor
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Sony Walkman NWZ-W274B
Mark Foster, one of Britain’s most successful swimmers, recently stated that he felt the Sony NWZ-W274B is the best underwater headphone on the market, beating out competition from Speedo and the Finis Neptune, two of the products most fierce rivals. The NWZ-W274B marks Sony’s latest instalment in their line of active headphones. Its unique selling point is that they’re waterproof and can be used whilst swimming, a feature that isn’t available throughout their current product range. Having said that, after using the NWZ-W274B headphones, they
are equally suited to runners and gym-goers that want a reliable pair of headphones that remain unchecked when sweating or showering. The NWZ-W274B was incredibly easy to set-up and was ready for use in about 5 minutes. There is a small USB station that comes with the product, which when connected to your computer, both charges the product and allows you to transfer MP3 files across. Again, this was incredibly straightforward and just a matter of dragging tracks to the specialised folder and waiting for it to sync. It has the capacity to hold around 900 songs, all of which can be separated into designated folders, which is a nice feature that makes navigation all the easier. Sound quality is obviously of real importance and I was impressed with this side of things above the water. When in the gym, the sound quality remained constant and certainly wasn’t affected by any cardiovascular workouts. In the water however, problems persisted, the sound quality became muffled and by no means drowned out the splashing from bypassing swimmers. This meant that it was difficult to become immersed in the music and ultimately your swim. However, in terms of ease of use, they are straightforward, with both the volume and track skipping functions being very
Sony Walkman NWZ-W274B
easy to use. The buttons are divided between the two separate earpieces. On the right-hand side there are the buttons to play and skip tracks and on the left-hand side you will find the volume rocker and the shuffle button. Once you acclimatise to the positioning of the buttons they become second nature and they are well positioned for ease of access. One drawback, however, was that the on/off button was sometimes a little difficult to press, and often required far more force than a simple touch. Sony claims that the battery can take 8 hours of non-stop playback. In reality this comes up a little short, but not by much, and the battery was more than sufficient for regular workout needs. On the headpiece itself there is a LED light that flashes red when the battery is low and green when it’s normal.
lasted for more than 60 minutes, in actuality, the battery life was probably closer to 80 minutes.
Comfort and practicality are certainly pluses that can be associated with the NWZ-W274B. The wire that runs around the A really nice feature with the back of your head allows the NWZ-W274B, however, is that ear piece to remain in the same you can do a quick-charge of 3 place, which is a real advantage minutes that gives you 60 min- when you consider that even for utes of battery life. This is great high-end products this can be when you’re in a rush or have a real annoyance in the gym. At forgotten to charge up your 29g, you really forget that your MP3 player. I tested this when wearing them and this is also the battery was completely de- the case whilst swimming. pleted and found that it actually
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Sony Walkman NWZ-W274B
The NWZ-W274B is self contained, which is useful given that when people are running, working or swimming they do not want to have a variety of gadgets that need to also be secured to them. This means that without the need for an additional gadget for music, these achieve the purpose of convenience. In reality, the waterproof aspect of the NWZ-W274B is something that only allows you to continue listening to music in the shower and run without fear of being hit by a rainstorm. If it’s the waterproof aspect that you’re drawn to with this product I would be tempted to look at Bluetooth headphones that allow you to listen to music on your MP3 player. You might want to have a look at another Sony product, Sony’s XBA-S65, which has been met with considerable critical praise. Overall though, they are a nice workout partner and the lack of wires is certainly a real advantage.
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