Blog

Welcome to the Excelsior blog. It is a mix of current research and thoughts on Athlete and Coach Development, Strength and Conditioning and personal reflections.

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Thanks for taking the time to read it.

James Marshall

1. Does sleep affect sporting performance?

   20th June 2017 9:26 am

   A recent BBC article highlighted the variations in sporting performance for individuals at different times of the day (1). These differences are down to biological processes which change throughout the day.

   0 Comments | Read More | sleep

2. What the academics are keeping from the public

   13th June 2017 9:43 am

   “The average number of readers of a scientific paper is…”

   Sir Martin Rees in his book “Before the beginning: our universe and others” discusses science, evidence and why information fails to get through to the public (Answer at the bottom of the page).

   0 Comments | Read More | book review, sports science

3. Getting to grips with infographics and data visualisation.

   10th June 2017 3:07 pm

   After many hours of staring at screens and wrestling with Excel, I have finished my final work on the “Introduction to Infographics and Data Visualization” course.
   What started as interest in infographics turned into an understanding of how data should be presented in order to clarify and educate, rather than to obfuscate.

   4 Comments | Read More | cpd, fitness testing, infographic

4. Coaching book reviews

   29th May 2017 3:40 pm

   Book Reviews Whenever I work with other coaches and discuss how they develop their own practice, reading books is always high as a favourite.  Unfortunately, a lot of them seem to be “sciencey” such as Syed’s bounce, but actually add to misinformation, rather than informing our practice Here are a few that I have read […]

   0 Comments | Read More | book review

5. Fitness training for Field Hockey: Part 2

   24th May 2017 3:11 pm

   When looking to improve speed and agility we first need to look at what areas contribute towards them. Other than technique which is essential we can also work on:

   force production
   movement efficiency
   decision making

   2 Comments | Read More | hockey

6. Fitness training for Field Hockey: Part 1

   23rd May 2017 4:21 pm

   Hockey can be classed as a Transition game sport, it requires efforts of varied intensity that occur randomly with varied rest periods. The game is 70 minutes in duration consisting of two 35 minute halves with 5 minute half time. A squad consists of 16 players, 11 are on the pitch at any one time in a variety of formations.

   11 Comments | Read More | hockey

7. Structural Integrity: Building the Foundation for youth athletes.

   16th May 2017 2:47 pm

   How do I start training?

   In the rush to get results fast and take shortcuts, or to “get to the interesting stuff” young athletes get broken.

   One thing I have been working on over the last two years is improving the structural integrity of the athlete, before moving onto other areas of fitness.

   Structural Integrity is composed of  4 key components:

   10 Comments | Read More | LTAD, physical literacy, structural Integrity

8. Speed Training for Gymnasts

   15th May 2017 1:05 pm

   How to get to the Vault or Double Mini Trampoline quicker

   In order to generate a bigger jump, gymnasts need a faster approach to the Vault or Double Mini Trampoline (DMT).

   This involves them running for about 20-30m and then jumping onto a springboard or the DMT.

   6 Comments | Read More | gymnastics, speed

9. Olympic Weight lifting Tips

   10th May 2017 4:56 pm

   Learning from a WeightLifter

   

   I have been performing the Olympic lifts since the age of 11. My coach at the time kept it simple, didn’t over complicate the movement and allowed for errors early on. 

   10 Comments | Read More | Coaching, weightlifting

10. Why Lego is a symbol of lack of sporting creativity

    25th April 2017 11:35 am

    Lego and sports clubs have become sterile environments Lego sets used to stimulate children’s (and their parent’s) imaginations. In the 1970s the goal of Lego was to use imagination and explore as you can see in the letter on the right. Now, Lego blocks are almost always sold as part of some marketing tie- in […]

    0 Comments | Read More | athletic development, creativity, strength and conditioning qualifications, Transformational Coaching