Purpose

At the most elite level, even an increase of 1% improvement can make the difference between winning and losing. Sports scientists can help athletes gain insights that can be the differentiating factor. The purpose of this protocol is to delineate the process from the identification of key performance indicators to the presentation of the findings for sports scientists. It is designed to provide chronological steps in efforts to mitigate barriers of collecting data and tracking players as well as to help gain athlete buy-in to sports science by helping them maximize their performance.

Study Design

The competitive nature of professional sports leads to players, their agents, and teams to seek the expertise in sports performance areas such as those from athletic trainers, strength and conditioning coaches, physical therapists, nutritionists, and sports psychologists. However, much of the knowledge provided by these entities typically remain in silos. Thus, the whole picture of the athlete’s performance enhancement mechanism is not elucidated. This is where the significance of a sports scientist ensues, with the ability to integrate the data from each of the sports performance areas with the objective of obtaining a complete and comprehensive picture of the athlete.

Data Collection

This area of collecting data and monitoring athletes is becoming mainstream. As such professional sports leagues have started to implement privacy rules and regulations on the protection of athlete biometric data. It is important to be aware of the rules related to wearable technology and athlete biometric data as well as how to go about the process of collecting data from professional athletes. That is why it is important that care be taken and a protocol be followed to ensure the integrity of data collection in the field of sports science.

Data Processing and Analyses

Data mining is the extraction of data for the purpose of discovering meaningful patterns, normalization, and the choosing of statistical models that can help in making data driven decisions. The interpretation and presentation of the data can have a large impact on the decisions. As such, a protocol should be adhered to.

Conclusion

The following protocol will serve as a guide on how to collect data efficiently and successfully.

Keywords

Sports science; Data protocol; Sports performance; Sports scientists; Load; Professional athletes; Sports teams.

Aim

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between pre-season testing performance and playing time within a Division II men’s soccer team over a competitive season.

Methods

Data was collected from pre-season athletic performance testing data for 13 male National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division II men’s soccer players (age=20±1.5-years; height=180±6 cm; weight=75±7 kg), and was analyzed to determine if relationships existed between physical performance tests (countermovement jump height, peak anaerobic power in watts derived from jump height], change-of-direction performance (505-agility, modified T-test), linear speed (10 m and 30 m sprint intervals), and aerobic fitness (20 m multi-stage fitness test), and playing time over a collegiate season were provided by the University’s coaching staff and retrospectively analyzed.

Results

A Pearson’s moment correlations correlation revealed significant (p<0.05) moderate relationships between playing time and 10 m speed (r=-0.569) only.

Discussion

These results suggest that linear speed, in particular acceleration over short distance, could be a key characteristic that has some influence on playing time for Division II men’s soccer players.

Conclusion

Pre-season testing of soccer players is commonly used to assess athletic potential. Minimal research has investigated the associations between these tests and playing time over the course of a collegiate season.

Keywords

Aerobic capacity; Power; Speed; Agility; National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).

Purpose
To investigate the additional beneficial effects of combined oat bran consumption and brisk walking exercise compared to oat bran consumption alone on bone metabolism markers in 40 to 50 years-old hypercholesterolemic women.

Methods
Thirty-three hypercholesterolemic women participants aged 40 to 50-years-old were recruited and were assigned into three groups, with eleven participants per group (n=11): sedentary without oat bran consumption control (C), oat bran consumption alone (Ob), and combined oat bran consumption and brisk walking exercise (ObEx) groups. Participants in the ObEx group performed brisk walking exercise sessions 30 minutes per session, 3 sessions per week for 6 weeks. Participants in the Ob group and ObEx group consumed 18 g of oat bran powder, 7 days per week for 6 weeks. Participants’ anthropometry and blood bone metabolism markers were measured at pre- and post-tests.

Results
There were no significant main effects of time (p>0.05) in serum total calcium, serum phosphorus and serum C-terminal telopeptide of type 1 collagen (1CTP) (bone resorption marker) concentrations in all the groups. However, significantly (p<0.05) increase in serum alkaline phosphatase (bone formation marker) concentration was observed in Ob group and ObEx group respectively.

Conclusion
The present observations did not show large difference in the beneficial effects of combined oat bran consumption and brisk walking compared to oat bran consumption alone on bone metabolism markers. Future studies with longer duration may be needed to elicit greater effects of combined oat bran consumption and brisk walking than oat bran consumption alone on bone metabolism markers in middle age hypercholesterolemic women.

Keywords
Bone metabolism; Brisk walking; Hypercholesterolemic; Oat bran consumption; Middle age women.

Athletic training education is undergoing many changes since the decision was made to move from the bachelor’s degree to the master’s degree for entry into the profession. Small colleges and universities are reviewing if they choose to transition from an existing undergraduate degree in athletic training to an entry-level Master’s degree; or starting a Master’s program from the ground up. This article will discuss some of the concerns such as student enrollment, CAATE Standards 11 and 41, and institutional resources including hiring of new faculty that need to be reviewed before taking the next step to transitioning or starting a new entry-level Master’s athletic training program. In addition, there will be discussion of the current status of master’s programs and their future.