Posts by Team
Why most hamstring exercises don’t work for running.
The Great Hamstring Saver?
A recent article in the New York Times hailed the Nordic Hamstring Exercise as the saviour of all athletes involved in explosive sports. Citing several published papers, the NYT suggests that this single exercise could put an end to the dreaded hamstring tear.
Strength and conditioning coaching course reflections
“Plyometricky: an exercise that purports to be elastic, but is performed slowly”
a new phrase coined last week on the level 2 Coaching Strength and Conditioning for Sport at Oxford Brookes University.
The candidates came up with that term when we were discussing the myriad of “power” exercises that are just slow jumps.
Read MoreThe fundamentals of acceleration mechanics
Coach Anderson was talking about his 100m speed training programme. His belief is that coaches only need to teach 1 model of sprint mechanics, get damn good at it, then add “subtle variations”when required, for example, in the 200 meters acceleration pattern or the 110 meter hurdles acceleration pattern
Read MoreTrue Grit
“Pentathlete Jenny McGeever overcomes adversity at French Open”
One of the most satisfying moments of my coaching career came 2 weekends ago, when one of our Excelsior athletes came 13th overall in Paris.
Jenny had been on a training camp with Pentathlon Ireland in Italy. She caught budget airline Vueling to Paris, who kindly lost her bag.
Now, here is what was in that bag:
Read More360° learning at GAIN in Houston
“You have to be comfortable being uncomfortable all the time”
Vern Gambetta from the GAIN Athletic Development Manual.
I have just returned from spending a week at my 4th GAIN conference, at Rice University, Houston, Texas.
My mind and body were pushed, pulled and stretched in many different directions.
Read More3 keys to Knee health
There are 3 key things to help keep your knees healthy:
To look after your knees, you need to
- Strengthen
- Stabilise
- Stretch
This week’s module of the Sports Training System includes more details on how to prevent knee injuries.
Read MoreWorld Cup Fever: Top 5 football fitness blog posts
World Cup Fever is upon us
Love it or hate it, there is no getting around it (although I am going to Houston for GAIN next week and that is probably a football desert!).
I thought this would be a good time to highlight the top 5 football related blog posts since the last World Cup:
Read MoreMartial Arts- enhance or inhibit natural movement?
I was recently asked about using Martial Arts training to help a sports academy with their movement patterns. This is ironic because a lot of M.A. training actually inhibits natural movement patterns.
In fact, these artificial movements become more and more exaggerated, and then become the object of the training, rather than an aid to being a better fighter.
Read MoreHow to get faster for football
How to get faster for football
With the football season finally over (for barely a few weeks!), we take a look at how you can use the off season to give you or your team the best preparation for the season to come.
Football is an increasingly high intensity and high tempo game, often decided by the smallest of margins. Having the fastest players then gives your team the best chance of success.
Read MoreGet the dumbbells moving
“Move the dumbbells as far away from your body as possible”
when doing reverse flyes. Or “lower and retract shoulder blades whilst body is at a 30 degree angle and work in the transverse and horizontal planes with maximal extension“.
Which is better for motor learning?
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