The Content Directory Free articles for your ezine, newsletter and blog.

In this month’s edition of Ask The Doctor, Sports Activated profiles Dr. Marco Cardinale, Head of Sports Science and Research of the British Olympic Association, and his thoughts on technology in sport.

————-

SA: What are some recent projects conducted by the Sports Science and Research of the British Olympic Association?

MC: We have recently completed few studies in different areas. In one study we looked at the effectiveness of spinal manipulation on muscle function and found some encouraging acute effects of lumbar spinal manipulation on hamstrings flexibility as well as neural activity and control of calf muscles. We have also completed a study on muscle oxygenation in-vivo during short track speed skating to look at physiological demands of short track as well as differences between the lower limbs on metabolic demands with implications for training. Another study almost completed is looking at various techniques to measure Testosterone and Cortisol minimizing the amount of biological sample collection and looking at techniques which are not too invasive such as saliva collection and blood spots. Finally we have completed data collection for a couple of studies on vibration and warm-up strategies.

SA: What are some trends that you have identified in sports technology with regards to athlete performance?

MC: There are a lot of tools out there developed to monitor training in sport. I have to say that many of them have not been validated and don’t have clear evidence of their validity, precision and reliability, so most of the times they produce data of dubious quality. However, overall technology is improving and allowing coaches and sports scientists to measure more things more frequently. There is definitively a need of monitoring athletes, but this needs to take an holistic approach requiring many different techniques and technologies to be used. So there is still a lot of work to do on developing software and hardware solutions to be able to display and analyze data coming from various platforms in real time. Data mining is also another important aspect that needs to be developed. In equipment-based sports of course the development of light,” intelligent” materials coupled with access to aerodynamics and hydrodynamics expertise is of course producing better competition gear which is really making a difference. There is still a lot to do, but the future of sports science is definitively towards moving the lab to the field.

SA: Much has been documented about evaluating athlete performance in real time. Through the use of heart rate monitors, the data collected can provide valuable insight to the athlete’s state during exercise. Although much data can be extracted, how much room is there for inference? What technologies can be employed, then, to further analyze the data collected through the HRMs or any other ‘real-time’ data collection method?

MC: This is one of the biggest issues. There are not some tools to collect some data in real time. Also there are too many proprietary hardware and software solutions. So the difficulty for a practitioner is the fact that in order to analyzed what happened in training you have to use 3-4 different software for each data capture system you are using. The ability to integrate data sources is crucial to be able to make inferences. Also, not all the data needed can be collected, in particular biochemical information. I can say that it is still very time consuming to collect all data, then add them to spreadsheets or dedicated statistical software and run some meaningful analysis. So practitioners end up using various software solutions, spreadsheets and stats and visualization software to get to understand what is happening. This of course is a very time consuming activity and most of the times people just give up because of time pressures.

I think there is a need to develop software to grab and visualize various data formats to analyze them concurrently. Of course some ability to run simulations and/or specific algorithms for prediction or decision making are needed to help coaches and sports scientists.

SA: In your most recent book, “Strength and Conditioning: Biological Principles and Practical Applications”, you focus on the latest scientific and practical information in the field of strength and conditioning. How can technology be best applied to effective monitoring strategies and can it be applied to evaluating an existing training program?

MC: In strength and conditioning a lot has changed. Now it is possible to attach accelerometers, linear transducers and strain gauges to barbells/dumbbells isoinertial training devices and collect data on force, velocity and power as well as the amount of work done. However more needs to be done on the portability and software capabilities of such devices. Now some iPhone apps also use the iPhone accelerometer to collect data, so it is definitively easier than it was when I started my career. Lots of things can now be measured in the weight room. On the conditioning front, few sensors have been developed to get better quality data on Heart Rate, but still more work needs to be done to acquire high quality movement pattern data as well as other physiological indicators using non invasive or minimally invasive techniques.

SA: There are many technologies available today that focus on how a particular athlete’s body is reacting at a given moment in time and under particular conditions. How can technology be applied to determine an athlete’s physiological disposition from which a basis for improvement can be made for future performance under similar conditions?

MC: Few recent technologies have definitively changed the way we train athletes. Heart Rate monitors were introduced more than 20 years ago and are now standard practice and have allowed more precise prescription and quantification of training workloads. Novel developments and improved accuracy now allow us to conduct analysis of heart rate variability parameter in real time providing indications of how the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems respond to training stimulation. The development of portable small lactate and glucose analyzers allows us to have more precise indications on the effects of training on metabolism together with breath by breath calorimeters. I think there is still need for a lot of developments to produce more point of care type of testing for multiple biomarkers as well as having wearable sensors able to measure biomarkers able to inform how the athlete is coping with the training demands in each session. One of the biggest innovations has been the development of wearable near infrared spectroscopy devices able to measure muscle oxygenation in-vivo. We have funded a PhD studentship to further develop the application of this technique in the sport setting and our results suggest to explore even further the use of such tool and possibly extend them to brain NIRS. Technology needs to be small, portable, with long battery life, wireless and most of all, data streams need to represent a valid and reliable information, otherwise they are of no use for the coach or the sports scientist. Nowadays exercise prescription can be based on specific heart rate zones or % of VO2 max and monitored in real time with telemetry systems, can be based on specific running speeds thanks to accelerometers and GPS systems, can be based on specific power output with instrumented cranks on bike and/or sensors applied to barbells. There are definitively a lot of capabilities in many sports to adapt training to specific physiological responses. Team sports are the most difficult ones as due to the complexity of their activities, possibilities are still limited there.

SA: In a recent documentary that followed a successful hockey team throughout their season, I had observed that while they travelled, the players relaxed by playing violent video games. In your recent blog, “Playing videogames and social networking….good news or bad news for sports people?” you wrote about how to control the use of technology to ensure that that it does not impair athlete performance. In your opinion, do you think there is a connection between in the effects of violent video games and aggressive behavior in athletes? What does this mean for hockey players, who are active participants in an aggressive sport?

MC: I am not sure athletes can relax by playing violent video games as it has been shown few times in young adolescents that Heart Rate increases during video games and some of the alterations in HR variability last for some time. So definitively a violent video game is not a good idea to relax.

As for the behavioral changes, playing a violent video game is a form of competition. Research has suggested that competition affects male testosterone in two ways: an anticipatory testosterone rise prior to the challenge; and that testosterone increases in winners and declines in losers (Booth et al. 1989). Indeed, winners of a non-physical, face-to-face competition have been shown to increase relative to losers (Mazur et al. 1992).

Testosterone is linked to aggressive behavior as well as explosive performance in sport. So probably being a “loser” in a violent video game before a competition is probably not a good idea, but being a “winner” might increase aggressiveness. Repeated exposure to violent video gaming is a different story. A recent Meta-Analysis from Anderson et al. (2010) strongly suggests that exposure to violent video games is a causal risk factor for increased aggressive behavior, aggressive cognition, and aggressive affect and for decreased empathy and pro-social behavior. But there are no studies on athletes to really understand what can be done in that area.

SA: What speaking engagements, projects and other exciting news do you have planned for 2011 and beyond?

MC: The biggest project is the preparation of all the activities for Team GB at the London games. We are likely to have the largest ever team Great Britain took at an Olympic Game and there is a lot of work to do to maximize the opportunities to competing on home soil as well as improving the level of support we give to athletes, coaches and support staff in preparation for and during the Olympic Games. I am giving a talk at the Royal Academy of Engineering on the importance of technology in Sport in March in the UK, all other plans are related to projects aimed at helping Team GB in the quest for success in London as well as winter sports projects to be ready for Sochi in 2014.