Performance Stories: Sporting Bubbles

Sport Science Agency discusses the impact of sporting bubbles on the players, staff, performance and marketing content with Professor Barry Drust and Geelong Cats Patrick Hogben

SSA Blog: Sport Science in 2017

With 2017 drawing to a close we look back at three significant stories that shaped the sport science year and will continue to have an impact into 2018, both inside and outside the performance arena. 

Nike Breaking 2
Without doubt the biggest sport science story this year was Nike’s attempt to break the 2 hour marathon barrier. The 2 hour barrier is one of athletics last great challenges. Indeed, it was postulated as long ago as 1991 that a time of 1.57:58 was possible under perfect conditions. Nike’s project was four years in the making and brought together some of the best minds in sport science as well as an interesting group of 3 athletes who had been drawn from an initial 60 strong cohort. 

The combination of Nike’s financial backing, scientific excellence and some of the world’s elite performers lead many to believe a sub 2 hour time would be possible.   
As the project developed, it became clear that this would not be a legitimate world record attempt during one of the major marathon events. From a sport science point of view, this didn’t matter. If anything, it makes it more exciting as it allowed the sport science team to think the unthinkable and take the athletes outside the usual constraints of racing in order to seek the limits of human endurance.

Every aspect of performance was examined with an obvious emphasis on the training and preparation of the athletes.  Areas such as VO2max, Lactate Threshold and Running Economy were all evaluated at the start of the project to identify who the researchers thought were the athletes with the physiology capable of sustaining the training load and having a realistic chance of hitting the sub 2 hour goal.  

But physiology is only part of what makes an athlete great. Other areas the researchers looked at included the course, environmental temperature, humidity, altitude and obviously, being Nike research, the shoes. The researchers also became increasingly interested in the psychology of their runners. Ultimately the effort didn’t manage to produce a sub 2 hour performance - Eliud Kipchoge came within 25 seconds of achieving the goal. That is less than a second per mile.

When evaluating the effort, the main performance benefit seemed to come from the drafting formation, developed using support runners throughout the record attempt. Nike commissioned wind tunnel research to ensure they positioned support runners in the most effective formation to maximise the drafting effect. This finding may have huge potential for distance running in the future. In cycling, drafting and protecting the GC rider is a long-established principle. Running has always been seen as a more individual sport and while runners will often train together, rarely do they compete in such a strict team formation.

Nike’s Breaking 2 didn’t manage to achieve athletics' last great barrier, but with its drafting and team formation research, it has provided a model for how it might be achieved both in a scientific experiment and ultimately in a major city marathon.         

The Rise of the Aging Athlete
As human beings live longer, and medicine and sport science continue to develop, it should be no surprise that athletes have been able to take advantage and extend their careers. Roger Federer, Tom Brady, Zlatan Ibrahimović and Serena Williams have all dazzled fans, media and fellow performers this year despite their relative age, which has left people searching for the secret elixir of these supposed super agers.

As with much in sport at the elite level, an athlete’s ability to maintain performance into their 4th decade is a mix of genetic and lifestyle factors. Generally, the key anabolic hormones associated with muscle growth and maintenance begin to decline in the mid to late 30’s. This can have a particularly profound effect on an athlete’s ability to produce power which inevitably has an effect on performance elements such as sprinting, acceleration, striking force and change of direction speed.

New developments regarding training, diet, injury prevention and recovery strategies have allowed more athletes to maintain their careers into their early to mid 30’s. However, the ability to perform at the highest level needs to be supported by a strong motivational drive to train and also the emotional intelligence to accept limitations and plan in order to peak for specific periods during the year. 

Sport science will continue to elongate athlete’s careers. Better understanding of the genetics, training responses, diet and recovery will combine to support the physiological demands. But the greatest elements in the near future will be development of psychological and intellectual understanding to further help athletes develop the mental skills needed to cope with managing the latter stages of sporting careers.

This generation of athlete, with the support of developing sport science, has proved that age is no longer the barrier it once was. This has altered perceptions as to the impact older athletes can have. It will pave the way to extending athlete contracts and the age profile within which elite sport operates.
       
Welfare and Winning
Athlete welfare hit the back pages this year following a number of allegations made by athletes within the Olympic sport system. The cyclist Jess Varnish lead the wave of criticism directed at National Governing bodies funded by UK Sport and subscribing to the so called ‘no compromise’ strategy focused on Olympic and Paralympic success. 

The treatment and culture within which athletes were expected to perform began to come into question. Had the ‘no compromise’ system that has seen unprecedented Olympic success over the past decade been at the expense of athlete welfare? Or is an elite performance environment just that and not everyone can handle the demands they are faced with?

Athletes and coaches were asked for their opinions and experiences with many defending the systems that had helped them achieve their sporting goals. But the allegations kept coming.  

National governing bodies have employed performance lifestyle experts for a number of years in order to support the wider lifestyle aspects of athletes. The goal was to support athletes in developing world class performance habits while they are away from the track, pool or velodrome. However, for some, when the sport becomes all encompassing it can easily become too much, pressure builds, motivation dips and performance inevitably suffers. 

Across sport, coaches and athletes will have different approaches, views, interests and motivational strategies. This is no different from any workplace. In the major professional sports, players have the ability to move and perhaps find a team that ‘fits’ their outlook and personality. Within the Olympic system in the UK, each sport generally only allows athletes one major training environment within which they have to adhere to the culture and expectations that are often entrenched. 

Performance systems are key to producing success. The continuity that exists across the British system has turned Team GB into a global sporting powerhouse (compare this with the relative reactionary approach seen within football). However, these systems need to continually evolve and develop in order to support athletes from a broader talent pool, often that broader talent pool is a consequence of their own previous success. 

Elite sport is tough. Many with the physical talent, simply don’t have the psychological resilience, drive or desire to sustain the training load and lifestyle sacrifices needed. Pushing athletes mentally as well as physically is part of the selection process. It allows coaches and performance managers to assess how athletes perform under pressure and ultimately evaluate if they are developing the required skills to win on the biggest stage. This will mean athletes taken out of their comfort zone, it will mean pressure to perform in training and it will mean being able to meet high standards across everything they do, with consequences if these challenges cannot be successfully met. 

The challenge of sport science is to recognise the individuality of athletes and create systems that can dial up or down the support and challenges that athletes need in order to progress their careers, be that within the sport or leaving it to focus on other challenges.

As we look forward to an Olympic year in 2018 the trajectory for sport science is only upward. The increase in financial rewards across professional sport, the global attention an Olympic Games brings and the continuous health challenges we face, all look to sport science for support. The development in technology, the increased interest in psychology and advances in genetic medicine will provide new avenues for sport Science to explore in the coming years. Who knows what 2018 will bring, but you can be sure sport science will be at the forefront.      
 

SSA Blog: Is being a Jockey the toughest job in sport?

It's estimated that globally, 600 million people tune in to watch the Grand National. Last year, Channel 4 reported viewing figures of 10 million, 3 million more than the BBC reported for the FA Cup Final. With the glamour and interest the surrounds national fixtures such as The Grand National, The Cheltenham Festival and Royal Ascot, to the casual observer, the sport of kings looks like a fantastic place to ply your trade.

Recently, sport science has focused lots of attention on weight making sports, particularly combat sports. However, for professional jockey’s the need to maintain a low body mass throughout the season creates a challenge unlike any other in sport.

While professional boxers ‘weigh in’ the day before a fight, Jockeys are required to jump on the scales before every race. This puts huge, consistent pressure on riders, consequently many resort to terrible tactics including dehydration, appetite-suppressants, vomiting, laxatives and a chronic low calorie diet that can have health threatening consequences.    

Minimum riding weights in the UK are traditionally low, encouraging Jockeys to push for greater losses in the belief that owners favour lighter riders. The ability to consistently make weight is certainly seen as a sign of professionalism within the industry. But this has led to Jockeys using rapid weight loss techniques. In a study published in 2012, George Wilson and his team showed that Jockeys might lose as much as 4.5kg (around 6.7% of body mass) in under 24 hours in order to secure a ride.

This sort of rapid weight loss can cause a number of issues, from headaches and nausea right through to reported deaths (Centres for Disease Control and Pretension, 1997). Rapid weight loss isn’t the only problem. The transient nature of horse racing and nomadic existence of jockeys means support structures and routines that help other athletes prepare for elite performance are often lacking. It isn’t surprising then that numerous studies report a constant poor quality, low energy diet.

In a follow up study, Wilson et al (2013) investigated a number of biomarkers in professional Jockeys with the belief that their health was at risk because of the lifestyle associated with weight making. Worryingly, their findings supported the hypothesis. A number of riders displayed issues ranging from chronic dehydration, which was described as “not only detrimental to athletics performance but also potentially dangerous to health”, through to vitamin D deficiencies with the potential for “reduced neuromuscular performance”. Perhaps the most sticking finding was reduced bone mass and Calcium levels, well below those recommended for daily health, let alone athletic populations. Osteomalacia was seen in a number of participants which not only increases the risk of fractures but will also inhibit the healing process. Not a great prospect for a professional already at high risk of broken bones due to falls.

Recently it’s been suggested that energy restriction and dehydration can have mental as well as physical consequences. Martin Eubank, part of Wilson et al’s (2013) study, observed higher than average anger, depression and fatigue as well as lower than average levels of vigour. The team have suggested that these negative mood states can be corrected via “dietary intervention” but when weight making is effectively your living, it is a hard balance to find.

Earlier this year John O’Reilly and a team of researchers published ‘in race’ data that found Jockeys were operating at 90% Heart Rate max during races. This demonstrates Jockeys are performing at a level of physicality concurrent with other elite athletes. The team also echoed the results from previous studies regarding reduced bone health, dehydration issues and chronic lack of macronutrients.

O’Reilly‘s research illustrates the incredible challenge that professional jockeys face. They are expected to compete at a physically elite level, often throughout a full day, while enduring sub-optimal nutritional, physiological and psychological states which undoubtedly impact on performance and increase the risk of injury in the short and illness in the long term.

British Horse Racing is taking these finding very seriously and has put together a programme to help educate and support Jockeys in relation to nutrition, training and recovery. They have also raised minimum weights in response to some of the research quoted above. But with constant weight making still at the heart of the profession, the extremes Jockeys are willing to put themselves through, the risks they are willing to accept and the physicality associated with piloting a half ton animal so we can have a flutter surely makes being a Jockey the toughest job in sport.  

SSA Blog: Stick or Twist? When to sack a manager

Leicester City head to Anfield tonight without Claudio Ranieri for their first game since his departure. He becomes this terms fifth Premier League manager to lose his job, following a disappointing defence of last season’s incredible title win.

Ranieri’s departure has divided football. So, should Leicester have stuck by their man or were they right to recognise a performance issue that support and loyalty wasn’t going to fix?

A number of studies have examined the impact of managerial changes across professional sport. Perhaps the most comprehensive in English football was published by Audas et al, in 2002. They examined results and managerial changes from every professional game for almost 20 years. Their model was able to assess the impact of short-term changes, meaning those which occurred within the season, rather than just season to season variations. Interestingly, they found clubs who made changes mid-season actually fair worse than those that don’t.

Last season, 12 premier league managers were sacked, 9 during the season, including 3 managers of 2 eventually relegated clubs, Newcastle and Aston Villa.    

Using last season’s example it can be argued, in conflict with Audas and his team, that a managerial switch will work. Swansea, Chelsea and Sunderland were all threatened with relegation when a change was made. If the objective was to avoid relegation, then these changes have to be seen as successful, if only in the short term.

A University of Warwick analysis by Bridgewater (2009), found that managerial changes do create a short term ‘bounce’ on team results. He attributed this to players attempting to impress a new manager to secure future employment. The paper described a ‘honeymoon period’ that would last between 12 and 18 games before performance regressed to pre-change levels.

However, it’s easy to review performance after the event, drawing conclusions about long vs short term benefits. When a club is facing relegation from the increasingly lucrative Premier League as Leicester City is, is there any research to support the decision-making process?

One study which attempted to develop an evaluation model was published by Chris Hope in 2003. Hope’s study, ‘When should you sack a football manager?’ identifies three key variables a club must consider when making a decision regarding the manager’s future:-

1. Honeymoon – the period during which the club will not consider sacking a manager

2. Trapdoor – average number of points per game that is expected

3. Weighting – importance of recent results versus previous performance

The author presents a mathematical model to be used in real time with the above parameters adjusted according to a club’s performance objectives. Hope acknowledged a number of limitations with his model but it marked a quality step into a multifaceted issue that any empirical evidence base would help support.

Bell et al, (2013) published ‘The performance of football managers: skill or luck?’ Building on Hope’s 2003 work, Bell’s model is a complex equation that takes into consideration performance, while also factoring the increased financial influence of the game. This ensures it doesn’t favour managers presiding over expensive squads. Their model uses the flowing six criteria:-

1. Total player wage bill

2. Total net transfer fund

3. Total number of injured players

4. Total number of suspended players

5. Total number of unavailable players (e.g African Cup of Nations)

6. Total number of non-Premier League games

Leicester City increased their transfer spending and wage bill by 82% and 37% respectively on the previous season and while player availability has been reduced, the correlation (.75) between wages and points would more than compensate for this.

When we examine Leicester City’s performances this season, particularly with the weighting given to the last 5 games (as proposed by Hope, 2003), the numbers show that the decision to sack Ranieri was the correct one. According to Hope (2003), a rating below .74 points per game (when adjusted) should result in the sack. Ranieri’s rating was .66……

Those that believe Leicester City should have stuck by Ranieri are arguing for a season long ‘Honeymoon period’ following the title win. This is a reasonable position to take, particularly for a fan. But in the increasingly commercialised Premier League, the numbers justify the owners decision to let Claudio go.