Sport Science Department?

[hondo in seattle]

At his presser, McDermott mentioned flying out the day before the game when I guess someone asked if it might be better to spend more time in Denver to acclimate to the altitude.  

 

McD's reply was, "We do our research and I really rely on our sports science department - Joe Collins, Jo Clubb - that we have."

 

So I'm wondering: What does the sports science department do, precisely?  

 

Incidentally, I once visited Bogota, Colombia (elevation 8675 feet) and really didn't notice the difference in elevation until I went for a run.  Then it knocked me on my butt.   Denver's elevation, at 5280 feet, is somewhat less challenging but you definitely still feel it when exerting yourself if you've been living at a lower elevation.   

 

Five takeaways from Monday's Bills press conferences | Buffalo Bills News | NFL | buffalonews.com

 

 

Edited December 15, 2020 by hondo in seattle

[El Guapo]

I live at 750 feet in Alabama. My son lives at 6800 feet in New Mexico. Hanging out, no problem. Any exertion and I’m out of breath in five minutes. Also, I tend to be tired up there all the time. Of course, I’m an old f*cker, but elevation does make a difference. 

[Big Turk]

I am sure they will have plenty of Oxygen tanks ready to go on the sidelines.

[The Wiz]

8 minutes ago, hondo in seattle said:

At his presser, McDermott mentioned flying out the day before the game when I guess someone asked if it might be better to spend more time in Denver to acclimate to the altitude.  

 

McD's reply was, "We do our research and I really rely on our sports science department - Joe Collins, Jo Clubb - that we have."

 

So I'm wondering: What does the sports science department do, precisely?  

 

Incidentally, I once visited Bogota, Colombia (elevation 8675 feet) and really didn't notice the difference in elevation until I went for a run.  Then it knocked me on my butt.   Denver's elevation, at 5280 feet, is somewhat less challenging but you definitely still feel it when exerting yourself if you've been living at a lower elevation.   

 

Five takeaways from Monday's Bills press conferences | Buffalo Bills News | NFL | buffalonews.com

 

 

From what I understand.  A sport science (performance science is another name for it) dept basically takes a persons training, athletic ability and general overall health and applies it to determining how a person should train in a given situation.

 

So basically since they are playing Denver, they are going to factor in the altitude of the location and apply that to how they should be training/preparing for that situation.  

 

At least that's how I read it from a quick google search.

Edited December 15, 2020 by The Wiz

[Over 29 years of fanhood]

Skiing Breckinridge caused a bunch of altitude sickness for some of our family. 9000ft base and 13000ft peak or do... 

 

But I thought for most people 8000ft is where they start to get impacted? 

Edited December 15, 2020 by Over 29 years of fanhood

[Mango]

He is absolutely right. In general you want to either give enough to time travel and recover or you want to travel and hit the ground running. Getting stuck in a grey area is not good. It takes a couple of weeks to adapt to elevation change. And it isn’t just actual work. It will effect sleep and recovery. Even an extra walk through will be more taxing than normal So do everything you can to maximize rest and recovery at home. Show up as fresh as you can be. 

 

They probably have a hand full of physiologists who worst with their S&C coaches to work on scheduling, periodization, movement training, traveling, etc. 

[buffalostu2]

Living in Denver we know it is the biggest advantage in sports.   Last time I looked Denver had the second best home winning percentage in the Super Bowl era to the Steelers.

 

 

[Don Otreply]

The Bills have 53 hyperbaric chambers up there at OBD, at least that’s my take...

 

Go Bills!!!!

[ColoradoBills]

The Springs is higher than Denver.  I've lived here for decades and the altitude is weird.  It affects different people in different ways.

Young people (kids) it can hit real bad.  Some older people (my parents visiting) it didn't effect at all.  Bad headaches are common.

 

As for athletes, what we hear is even a drop of a few percent of competitiveness can give a team like Denver an overall advantage.

All sports teams are aware of this and I'm sure the Bills have a plan in place.  I wish I could go to the game.........that hurts!

 

One of the funniest things is alcohol consumption!  Come up here from sea level and you get hammered real quick.

When I go back to sea level for the first few days I can hardly get a buzz!

[Mr. WEO]

Joe Collins is also "High Performance Manager" of the Sabres, so......

[ColoradoBills]

1 minute ago, Mr. WEO said:

Joe Collins is also "High Performance Manager" of the Sabres, so......

 

.........they must not be listening to him over there!

[Mr. WEO]

Just now, ColoradoBills said:

 

.........they must not be listening to him over there!

 

 

....or they are.

 

He's from London, where "football" is kicking a ball and falling down on the ground a lot during games.

[JGMcD2]

1 hour ago, The Wiz said:

From what I understand.  A sport science (performance science is another name for it) dept basically takes a persons training, athletic ability and general overall health and applies it to determining how a person should train in a given situation.

 

So basically since they are playing Denver, they are going to factor in the altitude of the location and apply that to how they should be training/preparing for that situation.  

 

At least that's how I read it from a quick google search.

You’re 100% spot on. This is fairly new, at least in the scale it’s being used. 
 

The Los Angeles Dodgers were one of the earliest movers in this field. A quick funny story, we acquired a few former Dodgers players and when they first came over in the trade, they asked staff “hey, where is your guys nap room?” That type of thing did not exist outside of LA haha. 

 

Some organizations take it to certain extremes and some do not. 

Edited December 16, 2020 by JGMcD2

[The Wiz]

2 minutes ago, JGMcD2 said:

You’re 100% spot on. This is fairly new, at least in the scale it’s being used. 
 

The Los Angeles Dodgers were one of the earliest movers in this field. A quick funny story, we acquired a few former Dodgers players and when they first came over in the trade, they asked staff “hey, where is your guys nap room?” That type of thing did not exist haha. 

 

Some organizations take it to certain extremes and some do not. 

 

[TroutDog]

All I can tell you is from experience: went to Denver for business and the first thing that hit me was that their airport was gorgeous. Next was that I was exhausted almost immediately.

 

At the bar on my second night it hit me: I can’t stay awake. I went to my room and slept for twelve hours. Totally crazy. Until I had cancer I was a six to seven hour a night guy. 
 

I trust the current Bills organization has this factored in to their equation. 
 

PS: Still doesn’t hold a candle to Nevada where my lips cracked wide open when I got off the aircraft. 😃 Not a desert guy evidently. 

[The Jokeman]

I wonder how far Bass can kick a FG in the Denver altitude. You think we let him show off his leg?

[Hapless Bills Fan]

1 hour ago, TroutDog said:

All I can tell you is from experience: went to Denver for business and the first thing that hit me was that their airport was gorgeous. Next was that I was exhausted almost immediately.

 

At the bar on my second night it hit me: I can’t stay awake. I went to my room and slept for twelve hours. Totally crazy. Until I had cancer I was a six to seven hour a night guy. 
 

I trust the current Bills organization has this factored in to their equation.

 

Hope so too.  I think this is part of the work their sports science guys do - advise the coaches on setting a schedule that allows the players extra sleep, advise the players on what to eat and drink (or avoid), maybe how to help get that extra sleep with extra melatonin and and so forth.

[QLBillsFan]

1 hour ago, TroutDog said:

All I can tell you is from experience: went to Denver for business and the first thing that hit me was that their airport was gorgeous. Next was that I was exhausted almost immediately.

 

At the bar on my second night it hit me: I can’t stay awake. I went to my room and slept for twelve hours. Totally crazy. Until I had cancer I was a six to seven hour a night guy. 
 

I trust the current Bills organization has this factored in to their equation. 
 

PS: Still doesn’t hold a candle to Nevada where my lips cracked wide open when I got off the aircraft. 😃 Not a desert guy evidently. 

Great airport I agree. It’s just 45 mins from civilization 😂 

[LeviF]

1 hour ago, TroutDog said:

All I can tell you is from experience: went to Denver for business and the first thing that hit me was that their airport was gorgeous. 

Except for demon horse

[Augie]

4 hours ago, Over 29 years of fanhood said:

Skiing Breckinridge caused a bunch of altitude sickness for some of our family. 9000ft base and 13000ft peak or do... 

 

But I thought for most people 8000ft is where they start to get impacted? 

 

AMEN!

 

Flew in from Florida and about 14’ elevation. Breckinridge was like 9,300 feet where we were near the base. Our son was doing traveling soccer then, running HARD all weekend, game after game. He bent over to grab snow for his first ever snowball.....and passed out as he stood up. I grabbed his hood to avoid a full face plant on the side walk! 

 

We spent the first couple days in the condo, and later got a $400 bill from Main Street Oxygen which we were all hooked up to. Yay! Great vacation!

 

We later learned if you spend one night in Denver at one mile high, you will probably be fine if you go the rest of the way up the next day.  We went to Park City on the next trip. Not as high, no problems.  

 

[billsfanmiamioh]

34 minutes ago, Augie said:

 

AMEN!

 

Flew in from Florida and about 14’ elevation. Breckinridge was like 9,300 feet where we were near the base. Our son was doing traveling soccer then, running HARD all weekend, game after game. He bent over to grab snow for his first ever snowball.....and passed out as he stood up. I grabbed his hood to avoid a full face plant on the side walk! 

 

We spent the first couple days in the condo, and later got a $400 bill from Main Street Oxygen which we were all hooked up to. Yay! Great vacation!

 

We later learned if you spend one night in Denver at one mile high, you will probably be fine if you go the rest of the way up the next day.  We went to Park City on the next trip. Not as high, no problems.  

 

Luckily it doesn’t seem to affect me much, if at all. We’ve flown into Denver in the morning and been on the slopes early afternoon. Wife seems to be mildly affected so we’ve been doing the stay in Denver thing for arrival night last couple times. I will say though we have made a concerted effort to hydrate leading up to the trips and we tend to take it easy on the booze while on the slopes (relatively speaking 😈)

[Augie]

3 minutes ago, billsfanmiamioh said:

Luckily it doesn’t seem to affect me much, if at all. We’ve flown into Denver in the morning and been on the slopes early afternoon. Wife seems to be mildly affected so we’ve been doing the stay in Denver thing for arrival night last couple times. I will say though we have made a concerted effort to hydrate leading up to the trips and we tend to take it easy on the booze while on the slopes (relatively speaking 😈)

 

Looks like you were coming from around 1,100 ft elevation. Roughly 1,100 feet higher than us!  We could hear (not SEE because that would cost an extra million we never had) boats in the Bay/Gulf of Mexico. 

 

I was talking to a bartender (maybe because I spent some time at the bar?) and he said he was in OK shape, but when he went to Florida he felt like Superman running on the beach. 

[Over 29 years of fanhood]

42 minutes ago, Augie said:

 

Looks like you were coming from around 1,100 ft elevation. Roughly 1,100 feet higher than us!  We could hear (not SEE because that would cost an extra million we never had) boats in the Bay/Gulf of Mexico. 

 

I was talking to a bartender (maybe because I spent some time at the bar?) and he said he was in OK shape, but when he went to Florida he felt like Superman running on the beach. 

why would Superman run? 😉 

[MJS]

I used to live in Colorado, through my middle school and much of my high school years. Right next to the Olympic training center. I moved to California close to sea level and I was able to just run... forever. I could have just run till my body gave out, I guess. It was very strange, but I figured out it was the elevation change.

 

These days I play a lot of disc golf and I also travel a couple times a year for work conferences and stuff. I usually try to play a course when I go. The disc flies very differently at lower elevation vs higher elevation. You get more turn and less fade at lower elevations.

 

So yeah, elevation makes a difference. I wonder if they might have John Brown sit this game because it also can affect those with sickle cell trait.

2 hours ago, QLBillsFan said:

Great airport I agree. It’s just 45 mins from civilization 😂 

Ugh, that's why I hate it. Takes so long to get into town.

[eball]

I can’t believe we are engaged in a thread about how to play Denver on the road.  This has been done, folks.  For a very long time.  Yes, they have an advantage because they are used to the elevation but this is nothing novel and for a guy as focused on preparation as McD what exactly are we worried about?

[sherpa]

I used to fly all over South America.

Bogota never bothered me.

Quito, Ecuador is higher and it did have an effect.

Standard recommendation was to take an aspirin before sleep, and that did have a positive effect. I tried not taking one and had a headache.

 

LaPaz, Bolivia is an entirely different animal. That airport is at 13,300' MSL.

 

We were never scheduled to lay over there. Used to spend about an hour and fifteen mins on the ground.

If the airplane broke and we had to spend the night, we had guaranteed supplemental oxygen in the hotel room.

Never happened to me.

At 18000' in the descent, we had to depressurize the cabin, which is usually around 6500-7500', and wear our cockpit O2 masks from 18000' through the landing and taxi in, then during taxi out and takeoff until 10,000, then run the pressurization on it's normal schedule.

The hour and fifteen on the ground would effect some flight attendants. 

 

Very few unknowns about Denver home games in the NFL. Lets not go to overtime though.

 

[Ridgewaycynic2013]

Alter the mix ratio of the Gatorade.

[Call_Of_Ktulu]

12 hours ago, ColoradoBills said:

The Springs is higher than Denver.  I've lived here for decades and the altitude is weird.  It affects different people in different ways.

Young people (kids) it can hit real bad.  Some older people (my parents visiting) it didn't effect at all.  Bad headaches are common.

 

As for athletes, what we hear is even a drop of a few percent of competitiveness can give a team like Denver an overall advantage.

All sports teams are aware of this and I'm sure the Bills have a plan in place.  I wish I could go to the game.........that hurts!

 

One of the funniest things is alcohol consumption!  Come up here from sea level and you get hammered real quick.

When I go back to sea level for the first few days I can hardly get a buzz!

I might get a 2nd home in Colorado then because I have to drink a incredible amount of alcohol to even get a buzz now. 

[Chicharito]

I’m sure we will see high altitude training masks on the players in practice. I’m sure that’s part of it!

[ILBillsfan]

Love the Denver area been there many times on business.  First time there I visited Red rocks ampitheatre and was just in awe watching all the HS sports teams that were there in the afternoon doing cardio running those stairs and doing hops up the seating levels.  Was pretty awesome to see

 

I know I went for what I thought was a "casual" 2mi hike and not sure I have ever slept as sound as i did after that work out.  Could of been more exhausted watching folks run those hikes or the guy on the unicycle riding up to Buffalo Bills grave in Golden 

 

Think I have read the Pats have taken the team to the Denver area when they were preparing for games in Mexico City to prep for the altitude issues and get the team acclimated to it.

[ProcessAccepted]

I'm just wondering just how far Bass and Bojo will be able to kick the ball in that air 

[buffaloboyinATL]

18 hours ago, hondo in seattle said:

 

 

Incidentally, I once visited Bogota, Colombia (elevation 8675 feet) and really didn't notice the difference in elevation until I went for a run.  Then it knocked me on my butt.   Denver's elevation, at 5280 feet, is somewhat less challenging but you definitely still feel it when exerting yourself if you've been living at a lower elevation.   

 

 

 

 

I hear they have been preparing for the oxygen deprivation since March, by wearing cloth masks everywhere they go...