Sports Science
Dave ‘Bear’ Duerson, 22, in action. Credit: PA
By Jordan Gaines Lewis, Penn State College of Medicine
Ah, football. The great American pastime.
The freshly cut grass and crisply-painted yard lines. The sound of helmets clashing in an epic stack of large men vying for a single ball. Stands packed high with thousands upon thousands of crazed, prideful, body-painted fanatics. Dementia, confusion, and depression.
Wait, what? That last bit may not be present on game day, but for many football players, it’s brewing all along – with every clash, tackle, and fall.
Cases of chronic traumatic…
Can hamstring injury be predicted?
Hamstring strains account for most non-contact injuries in Australian rules football, football and rugby union, as well as track events like sprinting, and a team led by Dr. Anthony Shield, from
Queensland University of Technology,
and Dr. David Opar of Australian Catholic University, measured the eccentric hamstring strength of more than 200 AFL players from five professional clubs and may have a new metric for predicting problems.
The in-demand device, the only portable 'machine' in the world capable of measuring strength during the Nordic hamstring…
Phil Mickelson tees off at Gleneagles. Credit: EPA
By Tony Westbury, Edinburgh Napier University
Medinah Country Club, Chicago, Ryder Cup 2012. There were six short feet between Martin Kaymer and the 18th hole. This was the moment. No other player, no spectator, none of the many millions watching on television would have dared breathe. The seconds stretched as the German composed himself for his final shot.
For those who don’t know golf, the Ryder Cup is Europe versus America. It takes place every two years, alternating between continents. There had been some blockbusters down the years,…
Australian Football League. Credit: Deirdre/Flickr
By Steve Ellen, Monash University
It’s Grand Final season – it might seem that nothing else matters about now.
Writing about the psychology of football is like writing about the psychology of love. A fool’s business. Nothing (so far) has quite made sense of how 100,000 people turn up to shout and scream, cry and gasp, and pin their fortunes on a bunch of athletes running around crashing into each other at the limits of human endurance.
It’s just good honest fun. Well, mostly honest.
Fan passion
Collectively, is there anything that rivals our…
A new study by researchers found that the majority of players were able to return to play after having knee surgery to repair an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury.
But age matters. athletes who had ACL surgery when they were in high school or younger were much more likely to suffer repeat ACL reinjuries than athletes who experienced their first ACL injury during collegiate play.
"It's very clear from our data that the younger the elite athlete, the higher risk for reinjury," said Ganesh M.V. Kamath, MD, assistant professor of orthopedics in the
at the University of North Carolina…
The NFL is putting the final touches on a new drug policy.This new policy, which is the first major update since the last policy in 2010, is between the NFL Players Association and the NFL. The significant changes are with regard to HGH (Human Growth Hormone) testing and marijuana use.
Having treated a number of active and former NFL players and worked with the NFL Players Association as well as being the founder and CEO of one of the leading addiction treatment centers in the nation, I feel comfortable making a comment on the subject of substance abuse in the NFL.
The NFL works…
The Department of Psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, WI, recently published a review discussing drug abuse in athletes. Drug abuse occurs in almost all sports and at most levels of teen and adult competition. Doping, defined as use of drugs or other substances for performance enhancement, has become an important topic in sports.
Athletic life may lead to drug abuse for many reasons. Often first experimented with in high school or college for performance enhancement, athletes later continue use to deal with stressors, such as…
In 2010, McGill Redmen receiver Charles-Antoine Sinotte suffered a concussion during his last home game. "It was like nothing I had experienced before," recalls Sinotte. "I felt like I was out of my body."
Although he received medical attention and missed the rest of the game, he admits he downplayed his symptoms in order to play in the next game – his last before leaving McGill.
Two new studies in the Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine co-authored by Dr. J. Scott Delaney, a team physician for the Montreal Alouettes, Montreal Impact, and McGill football and soccer, shed light on the…
Kell Brook and two of the Sheffield Hallam University team. Credit: Sheffield Hallam University.
By Alan Ruddock, Sheffield Hallam University
Amid all the flashing lights, it was a moment of sheer exhilaration when the winner was finally announced: “By a majority decision, the new IBF welterweight champion on the world – Kell Brook.”
Now if you’re not a boxing fan you may not be familiar with Brook, but he’s the first British boxer in 28 years to win a world title in the US from an unbeaten American fighter, Shawn “Showtime” Porter.
Brook’s victory was the culmination of 20 years of hard work…
The world's fastest sprinters have unique gait features that account for some of their ability to achieve fast speeds, according to two new studies which indicate that the secret to elite sprinting speeds lies in the distinct limb dynamics sprinters use to elevate ground forces upon foot-ground impact.
The new findings address a major performance question that has remained unanswered for more than a decade.
Previous studies had established that faster runners attain faster speeds by hitting the ground more forcefully than other runners do in relation to their body weight. However, how faster…