Wednesday, July 15, 2020

Basketball: How Fatigue Shows Up, from the Lab to the League


A pitcher surrenders a leadoff homer. The home team cannon fires. The next batter homers. The cannon erupts again. A third hitter goes yard. Boom! The pitching coach comes out to talk to the pitcher. "I'm fine." The coach responds, "I know. I'm giving the guy time to reload." 

 Watching video of AAU basketball, I see fatigue manifesting in many ways, especially in the doubleheader game in Sunday summer heat. It's physical and mental. Both can be devastating. Here are some of the ways fatigue limits us-   

 Physical Fatigue
  • Reduced peak performance
  • Reduced average performance
  • Sloppy passes
  • Reduced maneuvering speed
  • Tendency to miss shots short
  • Vulnerability to injury 
  • Reduced grip strength (hand dynamometry)... via Cory Schlesinger

I track my grip strength experimentally looking for physical-mental fatigue correlations. 

SI's Ian MacMahan discussed the interplay between mental and physical fatigue. "Leicester City’s sports science staff uses markers of mental fatigue, along with GPS and heart rate information from each player, as tools to detect situations of overload." Some programs encourage athletes to avoid social media and video games to reduce mental fatigue. Athletes may get exposure to BET - Brain Endurance Training. 

"Exercise is not limited by organ/muscle failure...regulated in anticipation by the brain to avoid failure." 




Mental Fatigue: (Our brains literally hold us back by holding something in reserve...) 
  • Reduced effort (especially transition defense)
  • Reduced alertness (defensive assignments/help) 
  • Slower reaction time (a step slow) 
  • Lollipop passes
  • Poor decision-making 
  • Degraded shot selection 
How do we know? Most athletes, when asked, say "I'm fine" or "good to go." Sport science argues for two major mechanisms, increased perceived effort or decreased perceived reward. I think of this as "less will" or "less thrill." Brain dopamine levels correlate with reward orientation and it would be fascinating to study. 

 Lecturer's concerns about Brain Endurance Training:


Mindfulness training showed "elite" performance on brain scans and self-reported benefits.

 Experiments suggest we can delay time to onset of exhaustion! And don't think that sport scientists, including the NBA don't care. 

Lagniappe: clearing to space via @John_Leonzo with Etorre Messina
"Sprint to breathe" 
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