The Recovery Umbrella in the World of Elite Sport: Do Not Forget the Coaching and Performance Staff.

In the field of sports science, the recovery umbrella is a trending topic, and even more so in the world of elite sports. This is evidenced by the significant increase in scientific publications during the last 10 years as teams look to find a competitive edge. Recovery is recognized to be an integral component to assist athlete preparation in the restoration of physical and psychological function, and subsequently, performance in elite team sports athletes. However, the importance of recovery in team staff members (sports coaches and performance staff) in elite sports appears to be a forgotten element. Given the unrelenting intense nature of daily tasks and responsibilities of team staff members, the elite sports environment can predispose coaches to increased susceptibility to psycho-socio physiological fatigue burden, and negatively affect health, wellbeing, and performance. Therefore, the aim of this opinion was to (1) develop an educational recovery resource for team staff members, (2) identify organizational task-specific fatigue indicators and barriers to recovery and self-care in team staff members, and (3) present recovery implementation strategies to assist team staff members in meeting their organizational functions. It is essential that we do not forget the coaching and performance staff in the recovery process.

Prevalence and significance of T-wave inversion in Arab and Black paediatric athletes: Should anterior T-wave inversion interpretation be governed by biological or chronological age?

BACKGROUND: International electrocardiographic (ECG) recommendations regard anterior T-wave inversion (ATWI) in athletes under 16 years to be normal. DESIGN: The aim of this study was to identify the prevalence, distribution and determinants of TWI by ethnicity, chronological and biological age within paediatric athletes. A second aim was to establish the diagnostic accuracy of international ECG recommendations against refinement within athletes who present with ECG variants isolated to ATWI (V1-V4) using receiver operator curve analysis. Clinical context was calculated using Bayesian analysis. METHODS: Four hundred and eighteen Arab and 314 black male athletes (11-18 years) were evaluated by ECG, echocardiogram and biological age (by radiological X-ray) assessment. RESULTS: A total of 116 (15.8%) athletes presented with ATWI (V1-V4), of which 96 (82.8%) were observed in the absence of other ECG findings considered to be abnormal as per international recommendations for ECG interpretation in athletes; 91 (12.4%) athletes presented with ATWI confined to V1-V3, with prevalence predicted by black ethnicity (odds ratio (OR) 2.2, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.3-3.5) and biological age under 16 years (OR 2.0, 95% CI 1.2-3.3). Of the 96 with ATWI (V1-V4) observed in the absence of other ECG findings considered to be abnormal, as per international recommendations for ECG interpretation in athletes, diagnostic accuracy was 'fail' (OR 0.47, 95% CI 0.00-1.00) for international recommendations and 'excellent' (OR 0.97, 95% CI 0.92-1.00) when governed by biological age under 16 years, providing a positive and negative likelihood ratio of 15.8 (95% CI 1.8-28.1) and 0.0 (95% CI 0.0-0.8), respectively. CONCLUSION: Interpretation of ECG variants isolated with ATWI (V1-V4) using international recommendations (chronological age <16 years) warrants caution, but governance by biological age yielded an 'excellent' diagnostic accuracy. In the clinical context, the 'chance' of detecting cardiac pathology within a paediatric male athlete presenting with ATWI in the absence of other ECG findings considered to be abnormal, as per international recommendations for ECG interpretation in athletes (positive likelihood ratio 15.8), was 14.4%, whereas a negative ECG (negative likelihood ratio 0.0) was 0%.

Risk assessment of the potential side effects of long-term creatine supplementation in team sport athletes.

BACKGROUND: Use of creatine has become widespread among sportsmen and women, although there are no conclusive evidences concerning possible health risks of long-term creatine supplementation. THE AIM OF THE STUDY: To investigate long-term effects of creatine monohydrate supplementation on clinical parameters related to health. METHODS: Eighteen professional basketball players of the first Spanish Basketball League participated in the present longitudinal study. The subjects were ingesting 5 g creatine monohydrate daily during three competition seasons. Blood was collected in the morning after an overnight fast, five times during each of the three official competition seasons of the first National Basketball League (September 1999-June 2000, September 2000-June 2001 and September 2001-June 2002) and the European League. Standard clinical examination was performed for 16 blood chemistries. RESULTS: The plasma concentrations of all clinical parameters did not alter significantly during the analyzed time frames of creatine supplementation. All of these parameters were, with the exception of creatinine and creatine kinase, within their respective clinical ranges at all time points. CONCLUSION: Our data shows that low-dose supplementation with creatine monohydrate did not produce laboratory abnormalities for the majority of the parameters tested.