The game-day caffeine routine that powers the NBA's most frequent flyers
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Don't get me wrong, I love coffee. However, it may be more accurate to say that all of these people (including the athletes) are using caffeine to medicate their chronic sleep deprivation, which may be at least partly caused in the first place by caffeine consumption.
NBA basketball players are in a tough position because they often need to peak between approx. 7-10pm (local time), and they frequently travel between 4 time zones. Most individuals would be naturally winding down alertness during those hours, even with good sleep patterns.
Put another way, you can alert the body and the mind but that doesn't necessarily lead to a high quality performance. Feel better is not the same as scoring more points.
I've done a little research on caffeine, and as far as wakefulness goes (not touching the other effects here), it works by binding to the same protein receptors the body uses to decide if it is tired. Body unable to get signals that should trigger a feeling of tiredness == Body not conscious of being tired.
BUT the body responds by producing more of those receptors, making it more likely that it will start getting signals of fatigue even when the signaling proteins are at a low concentration. Thus, regular caffeine takers will find they need caffeine to feel a "normal" level of tired. It takes roughly 2 weeks without caffeine for a regular caffeine taker to achieve a no-caffeine level of such receptors.
Now, how much of the above is pseudo-science? Great question. FWIW, when I did the research the sources seemed credible enough (naming actual proteins, referring to actual studies, not just giving me animated drawings and hand-waving details) and it at least correlates with my anecdotal data - I don't use caffeinated drinks or supplements as a normal rule but do use them for special events (unusually late night/early morning) and have found the wakefulness effects to be effective unless I slip up and get too lax in my definition of "unusual". I also never thought caffeine was a big deal ( I never knew withdrawal symptoms, for example ) until I stopped using it as a general rule and my sleep improved notably. That said, my sleep quality is generally terrible so it doesn't take much to improve it.
I ask because I tend to feel that less caffeine makes me feel "lighter" (so to speak). But I haven't tracked it closely. It's more a general pattern that I think I'm seeing, but perhaps it's wishful thinking plus some bias?
So if they drink some 30 minutes before a ~2.5 hr game, they've got 3 hours post-game. Which seems reasonable: an hour for interviews / meetings, some travel, settling in, then normal sleep.
At the NBA level, they're definitely not deficient on post-game recovery and nutrients either.
Because that latter effect you can build a huge tolerance for, you had to stay off of caffeine for everything but tournaments.
The U.S. has 6 time zones, but Hawaii/Alaska don't have NBA teams: Relevant time zones are Pacific, Mountain, Central, and Eastern.
I'm mostly amused that anyone thought "people who live and work in Portland frequently drink coffee" was some sort of revelation.
But I can attest to the benefits of straight black coffee with grass fed butter, it takes a while to get used too and you can't overdo it (you'll get the runs) but it provides a noticeable energy boost while also being a bit satiating from the fat.
Up until that point, I had a lot of weeks where I'd be traveling 20-30 hours a week, and drinking garbage coffee. Great coffee makes working so much easier, and an aeropress isn't much larger than a soda can. I basically pack the aeropress, a few filters, and a canister of freshly ground coffee beans. I'm able to make coffee that rivals any good coffee shop, and it takes up nearly no space in my luggage.
I try to plan those cups ahead of time and always receive a very noticeable boost in energy level and concentration from them.
As I get older, my tolerance has lowered. I used to be able to handle a Starbucks 'tall' cup, but now I can only drink two espressos at most, if spaced out by two hours or so. If I go over my limit, it's 7-9 hours of lying still in a dark room with a migraine-like headache.
For more on cortisol and caffeine: https://www.forbes.com/sites/anthonykosner/2014/01/05/why-th...
Chronopharmocology and caffeine: http://neurosciencedc.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-best-time-for...
https://www.kickinghorsecoffee.com/en/blog/caffeine-myths-es...
https://globalassets.starbucks.com/assets/94fbcc2ab1e2435985...
Recommended daily caffeine limit is usually quoted at around 400mg for an adult, although there's not a lot to back that number up.
A 12 ounce tall Starbucks coffee has 193mg and a double espresso shot has 150mg. (a tall Americano has 2 espresso shots, so it too has 150mg of caffeine)
https://globalassets.starbucks.com/assets/94fbcc2ab1e2435985...
(just in case that link doesn't work, it came from this page: https://www.starbucks.ca/menu/nutrition-info)
(Geez I'm not a sports fan but who moved the Sonics to Oklahoma without telling me?)
Anyway yeah look at this map and you can see it: Portland is both near the geographic extent (like Boston, Miami & LA), and relatively far away from its adjacent cities (unlike those 3).
He also collapsed after one of the games from dehydration, had to be taken to the hospital, and was not effective in any games afterwards. Maybe he had a little too much energy?
Not to get too far off topic but couldn't it be possible for the NBA (or any league) to optimize for this?
Along the same lines, I have to wonder if there's a way to incorporate such signals into a betting algorithm. That is, once you get past home team advantage, perhaps stops / miles in the previous week is worth +/- X points.
The league also semi-optimizes for this with divisions/conferences.
That is already done. Vegas accounts for every conceivable variable under the sun.
For instance, the Spurs are forced to go on 22 day road trip because their home arena is busy hosting the annual San Antonio Stock and Rodeo Show.
There is also a lot of data on team win/loss percentages that I'm sure vegas keeps up on. On average - teams on the 2nd game of a back to back road trip win just 32% of their contests. Also, teams that play one game at home and another on the road the following night only win 37.3% of their contests.
Well, ok, but since there is presumably an overall home court advantage, 32% (or 37%) isn't in comparison to a baseline of 50%, but something less. I found a page that suggests the median NBA team wins a little under 40% of its road games. There are teams that do fairly good at home that average around 33% on the road.
[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017%E2%80%9318_Russian_Premie...
But that’s slightly different because it could be seen to change the dynamic form performance over a season to fewer best out of N events.
My sport has similar playing times as NBA players, our games are 2-3/week from 7pm-11pm, and coffee at 6pm is by far not that good as a nap from 3:30 to 5, and drinking a lot of water (1-2 liter) with sugar and electrolytes during the games. Coffee is actually problematic, it causes dehydration. Slightly better than coffee would be beer for pure endurance sports (running, swimming, cycling) which don't need much attention.
One downside is that it's supposed to be stored cold; but it can handle 2 days of room-temperature (considering how it is shipped), so maybe it's not too big of an issue. Another downside is most of the BBoTE offerings are single-origin, so things go out of stock from time to time, but there are some blends available: Death Wish is one, and the proprietor has been known to do custom batches of Dunkin Donuts and other blends.
[1] https://www.freep.com/story/sports/mlb/tigers/2017/05/26/det...
In basketball, lets say you're an east coast team, they'll usually schedule a tour of all 4 LA teams, but you have to play every Western team once, but not all at once.
all 4 LA teams