A bit of a perspective. So how much more do we travel ?.....

[tyshawkfan]

I thought the coaching staff has shifted practice to happen at 10am pst. I remember pete talking about it in an interview around the time the schedules came out. One would think this would help some as your body is used to the early work but i guess we will see this year how it pans out. I agree the circadian rythmes are key though.

 

[wanderinghawk]

I like the info. I think there is one small error, Arizona does not observe day light savings so sometimes they are in the same time zone. I noticed you always considered them going east 1 time zone

 

[mikeak]

and I chug a 5-hour energy bottle to compensate. .

I think those are on the NFL PED list so that wouldn't be allowed

But they can't test for HGH so that may work as a substitute

 

[SlimHawk80]

Can somebody please submit these numbers to the league? Or to someone that matters lol Wow. Almost sickening

 

[pocketprotector]

San Francisco had five 10 AM starts last season and went to the Super Bowl, including beating Atlanta on the road in the playoffs, something we failed to do.

No excuses.

The SF-Atlanta game was at 3pm ET, or noon on the west coast. It was not a 10 am game. The Seattle-Atlanta game was at 10am on the West Coast.

San Francisco had 3 10 am games last year, against the Jets, Vikings and Rams. Seattle has 5 10 am games this year, against the Panthers, Texans, Colts, Falcons, and Giants. Night and Day

 

[RolandDeschain]

Roland, you're joking right? Are you seriously saying everyones internal clock will operate just like yours? Really? Just how is that? And this goes for highly trained athletes also?

Here's a piece of food to bite on; if jet lag was how it's described around here in the various 10am road woes threads over the past several years, we'd have airplanes crashing every single day in this country from tired pilots.

 

[falcongoggles]

It may seem like a small thing, but simply acclimating yourself to proper sleeping hours can be incredibly difficult.

Noooooooooo! It's not! It just takes a LITTLE foresight.

When I need to get up really early on a particular morning, here's what I do. Two nights BEFORE, I purposely stay up late and get less sleep than I need to feel good and refreshed. This causes me to be tired in the morning, and I chug a 5-hour energy bottle to compensate. That night, I get tired early because I had less sleep the previous night, and I have no problem going to sleep a couple hours earlier than normal. Then I wake up on the morning I need to be up early on feeling nice and refreshed because I got a FULL night's sleep due to being able to fall asleep earlier the night before.

THERE IS NOT A PERSON IN THE WORLD THAT CANNOT DO THAT! IT WORKS! It just takes a TINY bit of foresight! If I were an NFL player, that is EXACTLY what I would do, because I've done this probably 75 times in my life and it works beautifully.

I am so tired of this whole "jet lag is an inescapable beast and you just have to accept the horrible consequences" mindset. Give me a break. Human beings are surprisingly resilient and adaptable.

We get it, you have a plan it works for you. You do not speak for the whole Hawks roster and everyone will react differently. Do you not think you've beat this drum to death?

 

[falcongoggles]

Roland, you're joking right? Are you seriously saying everyones internal clock will operate just like yours? Really? Just how is that? And this goes for highly trained athletes also?

Here's a piece of food to bite on; if jet lag was how it's described around here in the various 10am road woes threads over the past several years, we'd have airplanes crashing every single day in this country from tired pilots.

When we, Air Force fighter pilots, cross the ocean we have to stop in Rota, Spain to acclimate. We spend two days there and then spend another two days in Qatar before pressing on to Iraq or Afghanistan.

On the way back i.e. east-west we only have to stop ONE day in the locations because the military aviation specialists have determined it is not as taxing.

When a jet had an incident awhile back in a war zone the commander decided not to pursue misconduct proceedings against him because based on his time zone travel EAST he had the blood alcohol equivalent of .05 based on fatigue alone.

 

[AbsolutNET]

When I travel east after having been in the west coast and am given a 5:00AM work show the next day, I feel it. Not because of jet lag, but because I can't go to bed at 6PM "my time" to get the rest I need to wake up at 2AM "my time". I struggle with those morning and usually don't feel myself til later in the afternoon.

Isn't that exactly what jet lag is?

 

[samwize77]

Roland, you're joking right? Are you seriously saying everyones internal clock will operate just like yours? Really? Just how is that? And this goes for highly trained athletes also?

Here's a piece of food to bite on; if jet lag was how it's described around here in the various 10am road woes threads over the past several years, we'd have airplanes crashing every single day in this country from tired pilots.

In a way you prove my point about your internal schedule and others. Pilots(and many other occupations) operate on some pretty wacky schedules. Once someone gets accustomed to these types of schedules their internal clock adjusts. I'm right there with you with the idea there shouldn't be any excuses, and a championship team will overcome obstacles, and travel is one of them. But I still have to look at the evidence that seems to pretty clearly state that travel DOES effect a teams performance. Football teams don't appear to work the same hours as some pilots so they don't have the chance to get so acclimated of course
Not to mention that I'm sure pilots are like truckers insomuch that they are tightly regulated on how many hours a day they can work. That might help explain why planes aren't fallin outta the sky

 

[rjdriver]

When I travel east after having been in the west coast and am given a 5:00AM work show the next day, I feel it. Not because of jet lag, but because I can't go to bed at 6PM "my time" to get the rest I need to wake up at 2AM "my time". I struggle with those morning and usually don't feel myself til later in the afternoon.

Isn't that exactly what jet lag is?

Hell, probably. I don't know. As a pilot, I get a lot of people asking me if I am exhausted just from being in the plane all day at altitude. I always thought people associated jet lag with the fatigue of a pressurized (high, dry air) environment along with crossing time zones. In other words, you will probably feel better throughout the day if you woke up in your own bed at 3-4AM as opposed to having flown all day.....you're probably right though IDK.

Funny to mention pilot fatigue. On January of 2014, all commercial pilots will receive new rest rules that are based more closely on circadian rhythm studies. In many incidents and accidents, fatigue is listed as a contributing factor. There was a UPS that crashed last week in Birmingham and the pilots were on duty at 9PM and the crash occurred at 4 something AM. I can almost guarantee you that fatigue will be a factor. Perhaps not the primary cause (like Roland mentioned), but a contributing factor.

Roland,

Great article with that link you provided, thanks for sharing.

 

[onanygivensunday]

Boston is nearly as far north as us...

Not quite.

Roughly speaking, Boston is as far north as the California-Oregon border.

More precisely, Boston's latitude is very close to that of Medford, OR, which is just north of that border.