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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.
Comments are welcome (please leave your name) and you can subscribe by clicking on the RSS feed.
Thanks for taking the time to read it.
James Marshall
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Coaching Philosophy: Book Reviews
When delivering strength and conditioning coaching courses, we always discuss coaching philosophy and how to develop a club culture. Two books I have read this year have helped with this process, both by NFL coaches. Here is a brief review of both. Win Forever by Pete Carroll (recommended by Mike Bahn) A frank and revealing […]
0 Comments | Read More | book review, Coaching, reflective practice -
Scottish Athletics Conference 2016: Review
Scottish Athletics Conference: Coach Development I was lucky enough to be invited to present some workshops with Vern Gambetta and deliver one of my own this weekend in Glasgow. The Scottish Athletics Conference was organised by Darren Ritchie who did a great job. Here are some of my reflections and lessons learnt. The State of […]
0 Comments | Read More | athletics -
Athletic Development Workshop at Christ’s Hospital
Athletic Development in action at Christ’s Hospital Last week I ran 2 workshops for some of the Sports Scholars at Christ’s Hospital School in Horsham, West Sussex. Whilst the title was Athletic Development, the content was all about teaching the pupils about movement. Movement is the foundation of physical education (p.e.). So you could just […]
0 Comments | Read More | athletic development, physical education, strength and conditioning course -
Turn Up, Try Hard, Stand Tall
Excelsior Rules
Excelsior athlete
1 Comment | Read More | excelsior adc
The south west talent crew
These are the 3 rules that I set out for every aspiring Excelsior athlete who wants to be a member of our Athletic Development Club in Devon. -
Have you thought of using gymnastics as part of your warm up?
How can gymnastics help prepare me for a collision sport?
Gymnastics: a sport based on perfecting skills and techniques. What you practice at training is exactly what you will perform at competition.
Field sports: sports based on quick decision making, tactics and game play. No game or match is ever the same.
25 Comments | Read More | gymnastics, warm up -
How a good coach can help you become a winner
Why hiring an expert coach will save you time and money
Young athletes (and their parents) are overwhelmed with information from varying sources that is often conflicting. It is my job to help them navigate the maelstrom.
Originally designed as a concept to deal with organising and displaying online information and layouts, information architecture could as easily be applied to coaching.
0 Comments | Read More | athletic development, Coaching, LTAD -
Socrates the Coach
The following quote comes from The Consolations of Philosophy by Alain de Botton
and is a discourse between Socrates and his friend Crito.
Socrates: When a man is taking (his training) seriously, does he pay attention to all praise and criticism and opinion indiscriminately, or only when it comes from the one qualified person, the actual doctor or trainer?
0 Comments | Read More | reflective practice -
Swimming dryland training: Nick Folker seminar
Nick Folker presenting at GAIN in June this year. I learnt more in this seminar about so called “dryland” training than I have done speaking to swim coaches over the last 10 years.
4 Comments | Read More | Dryland, GAIN, swimming -
Excelsior ADC Summer Update
Summer Training and the Olympics Here is an overview of what is happening at Excelsior Athletic Development Club over the next 2 months, including news of 4 athletes I have coached who are competing in the Olympics. I have included links to timetables to when to watch our 3 main sports on TV. Athletics Training continues every […]
2 Comments | Read More | excelsior adc, olympics -
Summer reading 2016
Book recommendations for reading this summer I hope you get time for some summer reading (if we get a summer). I try to read more fiction or biographies of non work related people whilst on holiday, rather than technical manuals. Here are my Top 5 summer reading books for coaches I have read so far this year […]
3 Comments | Read More | book review, reading
Client Testimonials
David Lloyd Tennis Academy
James is much liked and respected by all the players both because of his wide knowledge of tennis specific fitness and his ability to communicate the content.
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