A recent interview with Mark Madsen found him spontaneously complaining about ACC BB travel which he labeled as more debilitating than NBA travel. He joins a chorus of Stanford and Cal BB players, men and women, who comment on travel's effects.
Lynn Peeples' The Inner Clock about human circadian rhythms is a terrific book about sports in general and baseball and basketball in particular. Pebbles is a Seattle Mariners fan who has surveyed the literature about why northwest sports teams -- Mariners, Seahawks, Blazers -- rarely succeed. One reason, she concludes, is they travel too much.
Pebbles discusses how travel has an obvious physiological effect. Even in the very best airplanes, such as 787's or 350's, travel is tiring. The disruption of usual routines, the pressurization changes, the vibration, noise, and food would tire us even if we did not have circadian rhythms.
Pebbles' focus. of course, in on the physiology of circadian rhythms. She collects the enormous amount of data that shows if you or your team crosses time zones. especially from east to west, your performance declines markedly. One of her most interesting points is that in sports where brute strength -- wrestling, swimming, running -- is paramount, athletes overcome circadian change much better than in delicate skill sports -- baseball, basketball, as great examples -- where timing and touch are critical.
You might say you don't have to read the book, You just have to look at Stanford and Cal basketball stats to see how cross country college athletics affect results when teams travel long distances. Home teams have numerous advantages, but home teams facing visitors who have traveled 2500-3000 miles have a tremendous additional circadian advantage.
Peeples' book is loaded with interesting data. One study shows on average basketball teams crossing two time zones make 2% less of their shots. A baseball study of 5,000 games that one team with a three hour circadian advantage has winning percentage advantage of 61%.
I am not suggesting that Stanford FB, MBB, and WBB teams would be winners 2024-25 if they were in the old PAC 12 time zone alignment. Of course not. I am positing we should not expect success when our teams have disrupted their circadian sleep times, blood pressure, blood flow, body temp, epi and nor epi, stats with strange circadian start times after two time-zone travels.
The PAC 12 with all teams in one time zone was -- biologically -- a beautiful conference. The ACC for Stanford and Cal sucks.
Lynn Peeples' The Inner Clock about human circadian rhythms is a terrific book about sports in general and baseball and basketball in particular. Pebbles is a Seattle Mariners fan who has surveyed the literature about why northwest sports teams -- Mariners, Seahawks, Blazers -- rarely succeed. One reason, she concludes, is they travel too much.
Pebbles discusses how travel has an obvious physiological effect. Even in the very best airplanes, such as 787's or 350's, travel is tiring. The disruption of usual routines, the pressurization changes, the vibration, noise, and food would tire us even if we did not have circadian rhythms.
Pebbles' focus. of course, in on the physiology of circadian rhythms. She collects the enormous amount of data that shows if you or your team crosses time zones. especially from east to west, your performance declines markedly. One of her most interesting points is that in sports where brute strength -- wrestling, swimming, running -- is paramount, athletes overcome circadian change much better than in delicate skill sports -- baseball, basketball, as great examples -- where timing and touch are critical.
You might say you don't have to read the book, You just have to look at Stanford and Cal basketball stats to see how cross country college athletics affect results when teams travel long distances. Home teams have numerous advantages, but home teams facing visitors who have traveled 2500-3000 miles have a tremendous additional circadian advantage.
Peeples' book is loaded with interesting data. One study shows on average basketball teams crossing two time zones make 2% less of their shots. A baseball study of 5,000 games that one team with a three hour circadian advantage has winning percentage advantage of 61%.
I am not suggesting that Stanford FB, MBB, and WBB teams would be winners 2024-25 if they were in the old PAC 12 time zone alignment. Of course not. I am positing we should not expect success when our teams have disrupted their circadian sleep times, blood pressure, blood flow, body temp, epi and nor epi, stats with strange circadian start times after two time-zone travels.
The PAC 12 with all teams in one time zone was -- biologically -- a beautiful conference. The ACC for Stanford and Cal sucks.
