A thread:

I have had a few questions about #innovation observed at @Tokyo2020 Olympic games.

Some frontline insight ⬇️on

• 'Super spikes'

• Cooling strategies

• Innovation lessons
Super spikes

A common question: ‘more force is better right?’

• Performance upside is high

• Injury risk also high

A spike in load is still a spike in load

A different distribution of forces may cause problems

Is the risk worth it 1 week from Olympic final?

Also...Not everyone can access the shoes (contracts)

Recommendations:

• Progressive integration into sessions

• Have a strategy to manage expectations

• Prepare for dynamics of those who can access vs those who can’t
Cooling

• In particular ice hats

• On the surface, a great idea

• Well maybe…
• Perceptive cooling is positive

• Until you ‘overcool’ the brain

• This divorces how hot you feel with how hot you are
This can lead to

• Running too fast, because you feel good

• Consequently you overheat too quick

• This can lead to heat exhaustion and uncomfortable scenes. Example ⬇️

Recommendation:

• Consider head cooling as an option in the tool box

But....don’t overdo it!
What are the innovation lessons?

• Asses 2nd/3rd order consequences of an intervention

• Minimize risk

• Decide your comfort with potential investment return
Questions to ask:

• Is the intervention increasing or decreasing risk?

• How can you minimize the risk?

• Does the idea fit the context of the task?
Strive for:

• Well drilled, interventions that minimize risk

• If done right can reduce performance variability in tough environments

Examples ⬇️

• • •

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More from @Gareth_Sandford

8 Sep
What limits maximal muscle power performance?

Lessons from the frontline of Elite Sprint Cycling

Details ⬇️
Most prominent factors:

• Muscle cross-sectional area

• Fiber type composition

But these dynamics shift with specific pedaling rate
At low cycle frequencies:

• Maximal force
• Rate of force development

may be most critical to power production
Read 10 tweets
24 Aug
Great question.

When to use Anaerobic Speed Reserve (ASR), Critical speed (CS) or both?

I’ll tackle this from 2 aspects:

• Training model selection

• Performance estimation

A thread ⬇️
Some sports require athlete strengths along the full speed/power duration relationship (middle distance)

Both CS and ASR model stimulus apply

See training zone example⬇️

Other sports (e.g teams) have more focus on the top part of the speed-duration curve

ASR model stimulus applies more regularly

Read 10 tweets
18 Aug
A thread:

What is the role of a sport scientist at the Olympic Games?

‘Behave like a curling brush’ @mskoehle

Insights from the frontline at @Tokyo2020 ⬇️

Why a curling brush?

Your job is to smooth the ride but not get in the way of the rock (athlete). Image
What does a 24-hour period between two Olympic finals look like for a sport scientist? Image
Read 8 tweets
15 Oct 19
(1/thread) A 2nd (Free) contribution #iaafdoha19 available:
frontiersin.org/articles/10.33…

Tactics that Differentiates Medalists in Elite Men’s #1500m #Championship #Racing

It all started following #rio2016 final chats with @nickwillis @stevewillis_NZ

youtube.com/watch?v=Grf_62… Image
@nickwillis @stevewillis_NZ @TStellingwerff @stevemagness @Scienceofsport @BiomechMax @ALTIS @simonrogersNZ @bendaytoday @FrontSportsAL @sweatscience (2)I shared a race velocity profile to which Nick shared tactics was the key in the end result. He was absolutely right, a velocity profile (which predominates the majority of this work in the area of tactics/pacing) – gives only a very surface characterization of what’s going on
@nickwillis @stevewillis_NZ @TStellingwerff @stevemagness @Scienceofsport @BiomechMax @ALTIS @simonrogersNZ @bendaytoday @FrontSportsAL @sweatscience (3) I felt pretty useless in being able to provide useful insights to support what tactically was going on. We had to evolve our approach… First is what we found...(followed by practical apps, then future researcher discussions).
Read 22 tweets

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