Interesting book: Bad Science

 

I recently bought and read a very interesting book written by Dr.Ben Goldacre entitled: “Bad Science” from FSC+HarperCollins (you can buy it on Amazon).

Dr. Goldacre is a doctor working in the NHS in London with a passion for writing. He has won numerous awards, including “Best Freelancer” at the Medical Journalists Awards 2006, the Healthwatch Award in 2006, “Best Feature” at the British Science Writers Awards twice, for 2003 and 2005, and the Royal Statistical Society’s first Award For Statistical Excellence in Journalism.

In this book, Ben dismantles a lot of dodgy science and a lot of dodgy “experts” with mail order degrees. As Sir Ian Chalmers (founder of the Cochrane Library) states in the cover: “Bad Science introduces the basic scientific principles to help everyone to become a more effective bullshit detector”.

Ben also writes an excellent blog which I suggest you to visit as his articles are really well written and give you some incredible insights on a lot of examples of bad science. Finally, you can also download the podcasts of Bad Science. Believe me, they can be a good companion to your travels.

Robotics and rehabilitation

The 25th of November I was invited in Italy in Lucca to lecture on the use of vibration as an exercise modality in a conference on strength training organised by the local USL. Together with me and other speakers, Prof. Marco Bove and Prof. Morasso from the University of Genova were invited to present on co-ordinative aspects of training. I really enjoyed their presentations and learnt a lot about areas that could be investigated with regards to strength training.

Prof. Bove in particular, lectured on aspects of co-ordination and how co-ordination can be affected by short term limb immobilisation. In one of the studies conducted by his research group they found alterations in co-ordination of arm-hand movements after immobilising healthy subjects in a splint for up to 12hours. This aspect is very relevant to everyone that works in sport. We all know that athletes are very often injured and put in splints for days sometimes and most of the assessments are conducted on their ability to produce force. I am convinced that the assessment of inter and intra-muscular co-ordination is a necessary aspect to evaluate before deciding if an athlete is fit to return to normal training. The use of Electromyography and specific tasks can be the way forward to make sure that the athlete is not only able to produce force in simple controlled tasks, but also has recovered the normal co-ordination patterns to avoid the re-occurrence of injury. I suggest the readers to download the article from Prof. Bove’s group and think about the relevance to sport. In one of my next posts I will present some examples of how to use Electromyography and Dynamometry to analyse simple and complex movements and identify useful information for assessing athletes and for planning training interventions. At the Olympic Medical Institute we use a lot the integration of surface EMG and dynamometry to assess and drive the rehabilitation process.

Prof. Morasso discussed the use of robotics to assess and train individuals in specific motor tasks. His work mainly deals with clinical cases, but some applications of robotics can definitively help Sports Scientists. He presented his latest work on a device called “braccio di ferro” a new robotic workstation for neurological rehabilitation. It has been designed by having in mind the range of forces and the frequency bandwidth that characterize the interaction between a patient and a physical therapist, as well as a number of requirements that we think are essential for allowing a natural haptic interaction: back-driveability, very low friction and inertia, mechanical robustness, the possibility to operate in different planes, and an open software environment, which allows the operator to add new functionalities and design personalized rehabilitation protocols. Braccio di Ferro is an open system and, in the spirit of open source design, is intended to foster the dissemination of robot therapy. The article is available here: http://iospress.metapress.com/content/e4mm66hx2pt1a94t/

You can see some videos here:

http://www.laboratorium.dist.unige.it/~piero/movies.htm

This further support my view that we should interact more with other disciplines and  definitively we should look at robotics for the next generation of training and rehabilitation devices.

Sports Science and Elite Athletes: The Ed Coyle/Lance Armstrong controversy

 

Dear readers, I came across this interesting commentary of the never-ending story of the famous Ed Coyle’s paper published on the Journal of Applied Physiology in 1998 entitled “Improved muscular efficiency displayed as Tour de France champion matures”. This paper generated a lot of controversy already as soon as it was published with a lot of discussions at scientific conferences and letters to the editor.

Now it appears that Prof. Coyle has admitted some “minor errors” in his analysis of efficiency.

Jonathan Dugas and Ross Tucker have analysed and discussed very well the issue in their blog “The Science of Sport”. So, I invite all readers to visit their blog and read the story, it’s really interesting.
Then, when you are done with it, you can read the details of the error here:
“ Story 2 "

While I believe at times the authors of the blog took a clear position maybe lacking some objectivity, the process they went through is excellent and the quality of the discussion and presentation of the case is brilliant. I also suggest you read the comments as some are really valuable.

Interesting gadgets

Christmas is fast approaching, so it is time to think about presents. I came across a couple of interesting gadgets which could have some useful applications for sports scientists.

The first one is a GPS tracking device which looks small and portable and can be integrated with Google Earth.

The Trackstick records its own location, time, date, speed, heading and altitude at preset intervals. With over 1Mb of memory, it can store months of travel information. The website for more info is here:

http://www.gearthstore.com/products/gps/trackstick/trackstick2/details.html

I don’t know the reliability and the accuracy of the system nor the sampling frequency, however this is something that could be easily tested and maybe it’s a little project I will undertake in the next few months.

The second gadget is an activity monitor (don’t we all love to know how much we move?).

It’s called FITBIT (http://www.fitbit.com)

You can view calories, steps and distance on the Fitbit Tracker software. Interesting concept with simple small technology and what looks like a user-friendly software. Again, I am not aware of reliability and accuracy and validity data, but, if it works, it is a promising tool at least to determine general energy expenditure and activity patterns, maybe useful in athletes that are injured and cannot train intensively to be able to adjust the diet and avoid gaining some excess weight.

I have no conflict of interest and no relationship with the above mentioned companies/products.

Strength and Power Hour Podcast

I have been enjoying the podcasts produced by Dr. Jose Antonio and Dr. William Kraemer in the last few months.

The podcasts are well packaged and provide the opportunity to hear various experts discuss strength and conditioning techniques, research and nutritional advice. The format is simple and easy to follow and can be a good addition to your IPOD library.
Here is the web address to find out more about the strength and power hour:

http://www.sphour.com/default.aspx

Conference in Cardiff

 

I will be lecturing this Saturday in Cardiff at the Welsh Athletics Coaching Conference.

Details are available here:

http://www.welshathletics.org/coaching-conference/coaching-conference/

It will be a great opportunity to see again my former colleagues form Italy.

47 reasons to be happy

24th of August 2008, the Olympic Games in Beijing are just closed and the celebrations begin! Team GB had the best games since 1908 winning 47 medals and ending fourth in the medal table.

The  Olympic Games in Beijing have been an incredible challenge for myself, my colleagues at the BOA, the fellow sports scientists involved in all sports qualified and all the coaches and athletes competing in China. Hard work always pays, and it was such an amazing feeling to come to the conclusion of the games having accomplished the best result ever for British Sport. 19 Gold medals, 13 silver and 15 bronze and performances that will always be embedded in everyone’s memory.

When the Olympic torch was lit on the 8.08.08 we all knew Team GB was going to be a great surprise, we knew how much work we put into preparing the team for the environmental, travel and cultural challenges and we were convinced we put every athlete in the best possible condition to compete.

The recces conducted in the previous years in China and Macau, the workshops, the research studies, the meetings with various sports experts, the hours spent in finding solutions and convincing practitioners on various procedures have produced the results that we were all dreaming and hoping for.

Fourth in the medal table has a lot of meanings for me. First, it means we are getting closer to the superpowers, secondly it means we improved massively from Athens 2004, third it means we beat the Italians by 19 medals. The fourth one is something I learnt here in the UK, fourth also meant we beat the Australians!

I am delighted and honored I was given the opportunity to lead the Sports Science aspects of the Olympic preparation project for Team GB and would like to thank all the colleagues that worked with me to implement the preparation and competition plans. Listing all it would be impossible, you know who you are and you should be all proud of the fantastic results your athletes obtained. I believe everyone that works in sport in Great Britain should be proud of Team GB’s success at the games as such results are due also to the hard work of the coaches and volunteers who identified and coached the fantastic talented athletes so successful in China.

Last but not least I would like to thank the British Olympic Association and UK Sport for the funding provided to the various operations and the trust and support received since 2005.

Now, it’s time to think about Vancouver 2010 to make few surprises in winter sports and then London 2012 to ignite Great Britain again!

I promise all readers I will try to update the blog more often now with some technical articles. Stay tuned!