🐜 The strongest ant gets crushed by the weakest lion...

• Have you watched Dave Epstein's Ted Talk? "Are athletes really getting faster, better, stronger?",
• Dave clearly illustrated that athletes have changed sizes drastically in sports over the years.
• In sports where height is prized, tall athletes have gotten taller. 1 in 10 players in the NBA are at least 7-feet tall.
• In sports where diminutive stature is prized, small athletes got smaller. The average female gymnast shrunk from 5'3 to 4'9.
• This article here, "Changes in Height, Body Weight, and Body Composition in American Football Players From 1942 to 2011" shows that over nearly a 70-year period there was an initial increase in mass, then mass stalled and muscle continued to rise. The takeaway? Size was initially recruited, but then a shift in that weight class developed muscle. The athletes got stronger pound for pound.
• By using technology, we can even further dissect these movements into areas of Growth Potential. Technology helps us look under the hood and access High Gain vs. Low Gain Potential (i.e. the chances this athlete is a stud if we add a little muscle mass).
• What are scouts and recruiters looking for? As Dave Epstein best said it, "Highly specialized bodies that fit into certain athletic niches. A form of artificial natural selection is taking place." 
• Force plates provide an opportunity to evaluate an athlete's physical ability in a granular and objective way...and with Hawkin in as little as 4-seconds. While force plates don't directly evaluate a sport-task, they do provide valuable insight into physical qualities that underpin sporting tasks. For example, a higher Jump Momentum measured on a force plate correlates to higher Sprint Momentum measured on the field (i.e. the athlete moves their mass well both vertically and horizontally).
• The best speed development? Good parents...😂 Measure it on Hawkin Dynamics force plates.

✍️ 6 Key Phases of the CMJ Force-Time Curve

Read the paper

Key Points:

• The most common test type. The CMJ (Countermovement Jump) is one of the most commonly reported test types in all of jump testing literature, and also on the Hawkin Dynamics force plates.
• In 2021, 80.2% of ALL test types completed on the HD force plates where CMJs
• Why the CMJ? The CMJ is so popular because of its simplicity & repeatability. The CMJ tells a practitioner vital information about 6 phases in a standardized manor. These 6 phases don't only occur in the CMJ, but also in most athletic movements.
• The 6 Key Phases of the CMJ are (using an applied definition)...

1. Weighing - When the athlete is standing still on the force plates.
2. Unweighting - The start of the CMJ, starts with a brief moment of "free fall" and ends as force is rising back to system weight (yellow area)
3. Braking - Starts immediately after Unweighting as force returns to system weight. You can think of this as the deceleration portion of the CMJ (red area).
4. Propulsive - Starts immediately after Braking and Force at Minimum Displacement. This is the "push-away" portion, where the athlete is moving from the lowest position visually and (almost) into the air.
5. Flight - Houston we have takeoff. The toes have left the force plates and the athlete is in the air.
6. Landing - When the athlete comes back into contact with the force plates.

Brought to you by Trent Bassingthewait & Drake Berberet

WHAT'S NEW?

💥Weigh-In Test Type & Athlete Readiness

• Weigh-In Test Type: We recently added in the ability to use the force plates as a weight scale (as Dr. Jason Lake says...they really are fancy scales).
• Bathroom Scales? We did this because we noticed some of our users purchasing expensive high-end scales, when they already owned our force plates. Save money!
• How Do I Run It? This test is exactly how it sounds. Have the athlete step onto the force plates. Select the "Weigh-In" test type (last test option) > and select the desired athlete. Instruct the athlete to remain as still as possible > click play > the test will end after a self-selected time period (we suggest 5-seconds).
• The HD Software will grab the most quiet 1-second period for weight display (in pounds and kilograms) on the tablet after the weigh-in is complete. Just like any other test type, this will save to the HD Web App.

• Refresher: Click the button below to get the HD Mobile App Readiness Playbook - this is easily printable and shareable with your staff.

🗣️ Did You Miss It? The Hawkin Podcast 

Lastest Episode:

• N32: Jose Catano - Building Better Humans in the Weight Room

• Jose Catano is the owner of Catano Performance, a top-tier performance facility in Haverhill, Mass. that focuses on the development and progression of athletes of all ages. Jose also works as a Behavioral Health Specialist. Jose's background in Psychology and Strength & Conditioning gives him a unique coaching style that focuses not only on an athlete's athletic abilities but also on their personal well-being. 

⏰ Timely Events & Random Stuff

• Tom Brady bought a pickleball team, alongside ex-tennis star Kim Clijsters.
• Pickleball has been around for 57-years. It was invented in 1965 on Bainbridge Island, a short ferry ride from Seattle, by three enterprising dads – Joel Pritchard, Bill Bell, and Barney McCallum.
• Recently, the sport's growth has exploded. In 2021, there was 4.8 million players in the US alone according to the 2022 Sports & Fitness Industry Association (SFIA) Single Sport Report on Pickleball. This is nearly a 15% growth from 2020 to 2021, with growth trajectories from 2021 to 2022 expected to be higher.
• The average age of a pickleball player is 38.1 years
• Learn more cool stats about pickleball here.

• Russel Wilson is off to a rough start. After signing a 5-year, $242,588,236 contract with the Denver Broncos the team is off to a 2-4 start after losing to the Los Angeles Chargers on Monday night.
• It's Snoop Dogs's Birthday - today he's 51-years old. His most sold album is Doggystyle which sold over 6,032,000 copies! This ranks 566 of All-Time.
• Don't forget...US Midterm Elections are happening on Tuesday, November, 8th. Get out and vote!

😎 #HawkinFamily of the Week 

Correlation Matrix by Patrick Peterson, PhD Student and Sport Scientist Pittsburgh Football

Find Patrick on LinkedIn

• Pittsburgh Football The University of Pittsburgh Football program does some really great work with the HD Force Plates❗
• A lot of the sport science work and data analysis is ran by Patrick Peterson. Patrick is completing his PhD at Pitt, and also working full time with football focusing his efforts in individual athlete readiness and rehabilitation.
• Our performance team was recently on campus, and saw it firsthand.
• Patrick recently also put together this correlation matrix, showing how closely related force plate metrics really are...what does this tell you?

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