Prediction Not checkable as stated
McClusky predicts NFL popularity will decline over next decade due to concussions
“I think in 10 years, like, I'd be short NFL right now if I were a betting man, because I think we're gonna start taking a harder and harder look at the consequences of playing American football.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
McClusky: Madden Gamers See More Plays Than 1960s NFL Hall of Famers
“The average twelve-year-old Madden fanatic has seen more professional football plays develop visually than probably a pro football Hall of Famer in the sixties did.”
Assertion Contradicted
80% of elite athletes would take a fatal drug for Olympic gold
“If you could take a drug that would guarantee you an Olympic gold medal, but you would die in five years, would you take it? And crazy percentages said yes. Like, 80, 90% said yes.”
Assertion Supported
McClusky: Early youth sports specialization correlates with injuries and lower elite success
“Negative, high correlation with injury and negative correlation with elite success later in life, is the short answer.”
Insight
Superior genetics beat superior training in elite sports
“I think it's probably easier to be, A world-class athlete with great genetics and bad training than it is to be a world-class athlete with bad genetics and great training, if that makes sense.”
Assertion Supported
McClusky: Athletes have won high jump world titles within three years of starting
“There are people who have won world championships in the high jump three years after they high jumped for the first time.”
Assertion Contradicted
McClusky: Athletes have won Olympic rowing gold two years after starting
“There are people who won Olympic rowing gold medals two years after sitting in a boat for the first time.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Decathlete Ashton Eaton hadn't run two miles in five years
“I got a chance to meet Ashton Eaton, who's the world record holder in the decathlon for this book, and we actually went for a run, and we ran like two miles. And it's the longest run he'd done in five years.”
Opinion
McClusky: Most sports franchises have no idea how to handle big data
“To crunch those numbers, you need a data scientist. You need people who are used to, like, crazy big data sets, and most franchises, frankly, have no idea what to do with this.”
Insight
McClusky: Anti-doping rules exist to protect clean athletes, not just catch cheats
“You're not trying, it's not about catching the cheat. It's about protecting the ability of the clean athlete to be competitive.”
Assertion Contradicted
McClusky: US pro sports unions block real-time tracking during games
“So, none of the US team sports has allowed any of that yet. Some of the biggest pushback is from the players' unions.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
McClusky: Elite athletic performance gains curve is starting to flatten
“What's interesting is that curve's starting to flatten out a little bit.”
Insight
McClusky: Genetics matter most in pure physiological sports over skill sports
“Genetics seem to make the most difference in sports that are really physiologically determined, so, so running, cycling, rowing, things that really There are tactics and there is training, but a lot of it comes down to sort of how much oxygen you can process a…”
Insight
McClusky: Athletic gains now rely on aggregating marginal improvements, not breakthroughs
“There aren't any magic bullets anymore. That we've made all the big leaps in performance that we're going to make physically. And that the only way to really find a competitive advantage now is to find lots and lots of little tiny improvements over dozens of t…”
Insight
McClusky: Sports Simulations Now Directly Feed Back into Real-World Tactics
“This simulation of the sport has fed back into the sport itself.”
Assertion Supported
Stanford study: Sleep extension improved performance across all basketball metrics
“Every member of the team ran faster. Every member of the team shot free throws better. Every member of the team shot three-pointers better.”
Assertion Supported
San Francisco Giants improved plate discipline throughout the 2012 season
“Most teams over the course of the season, their plate discipline decreases. Teams will swing at worst pitches over the course of the year. The Giants, so I don't have data for 2014. In 2012, the Giants plate discipline got better over the course of the season.”
Assertion Contradicted
Only 40% of muscle fibers fire at the point of exhaustion
“The latest research is that that's probably not true, because at that moment that I can't do that last rep, only 40% of the muscle fibers in that muscle are firing.”
Insight
Sports analytics remains early because continuous-motion sports are harder to analyze
“We're so at the infancy of this movement, because, you know, baseball, Again, that's where the start is. Baseball is easy because it's state-based. It's very discreet moments. Basketball is continually moving in fluid. Soccer, football, hockey. I mean, those t…”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
McClusky: US sports leagues will see major changes adopting overseas performance tech
“We're actually really far behind in the U.S. On a lot of this, and so seeing some of the things that have happened in Australia and the U.K. Make their way into major U.S. Team sports, I think we're going to see a lot of changes in NBA, NFL.”
Assertion Supported
McClusky: Elite Athletes Generally Outlive the General Population
“But generally, as a population, elite athletes do live longer than the rest of us, even with what their bodies have been put through.”
Assertion Supported
Seven-foot American males have a 25% chance of playing in the NBA
“If you're a seven foot tall American male, you have roughly a 25% chance of playing in the National Basketball Association. If you are a six-six, which again, is really tall, you have like a .2% chance of playing in the NBA.”
Assertion Contradicted
McClusky: 100m freestyle swimming times improved 49% over a century
“Over the past hundred years, our performance, if you look at things like the hundred meter freestyle were 49% faster than we were in 19 oh nine.”
Assertion Supported
McClusky: Some women's field events show over 100% performance improvement
“Some women's field events are actually, we've had more than a hundred percent performance improvement in those events.”
