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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James Marshall

1. Butter your own toast

   22nd May 2016 8:32 am

   I saw this quote somewhere recently, it was aimed at young people, but it applies to us all. It is a variation on the give a man a fish he eats for a day, teach a man how to fish, he eats for a lifetime quote.

   I can show someone how to butter their toast, I may even do it 2-3 times, they then have to start buttering it themselves. If they are good, they may then start trying different types of butter, or bread, or even making toasted sandwiches.

   Some people turn up every week, cap in hand and an expectant look please butter my toast again, without progressing.

   0 Comments | Read More | motivation

2. Bad Science

   14th May 2016 2:01 pm

   I was asked on Tuesday by an athlete who is quite new to weight lifting why I would teach cleans which are quite complex, if high pulls also work the triple extension.
   The answer is that I have got a lot of time with this athlete, so can afford to work on his technique without sacrificing his work that will lead to strength and power development. The clean will then enable him to perform the jerks without using a rack.
   

   0 Comments | Read More | sport nutrition, sports science, weightlifting

3. Periodization: beginners guide

   12th May 2016 4:32 pm

   What is Periodisation?

   Most people start off with Tudor Bompa’s Periodization or, in this country, Frank Dick’s sports training principles when learning about periodisation. They cover the basis premise about modulating volume and intensity over a period of time to allow overload and adaptation to take place.
   

   0 Comments | Read More | overtraining, periodisation

4. How to create an outstanding physical education programme

   10th May 2016 3:31 pm

   “If you screw up your kids, nothing else matters”

   Greg Thompson, GAIN 2013.

   Physical education used to be about function: getting fit to help with a full day’s work and then helping with the harvest. Now its about sport.

   7 Comments | Read More | GAIN, physical education

5. Coach like a Jedi, not like a Sith Lord.

   4th May 2016 8:36 am

   Happy Star Wars Day

   “A Jedi gains power through understanding and a Sith gains understanding through power” says Senator Palpatine in Attack of the Clones. 

   If you want to coach like a Jedi, study hard and for long, learn from your experiences.

   I see quite a few young coaches who have graduated from their University courses calling themselves “experts” at 21 years old. 

   6 Comments | Read More | Coaching

6. 13 lessons from Musculo skeletal screenings

   30th April 2016 3:54 pm

   Having conducted over 80 musculo skeletal screenings with athletes from a huge variety of sports in the last year with a physiotherapist it is time to offer some reflections.
   Establishing a rapport is key for the screening to go well, and I would say that in all but 2 of them, we have managed between us to do that.

   0 Comments | Read More | musculo skeletal screening, physiotherapist

7. stuff and nonsense

   27th April 2016 1:35 pm

   …admonitions sound equally trustworthy. Both come from a respected source and are delivered with a solemn earnestness that commands respect and demands obedience. The same goes for propositions about the world, about morality and about human nature. And, very likely, when the child grows up and has children of her own, she will naturally pass the whole lot on to her own children- nonsense as well as sense- using the same infectious gravitas of manner. (Dawkins, The God Delusion).
   

   0 Comments | Read More |

8. Football Speed Training: Frans Bosch

   25th April 2016 10:58 am

   We (the Dutch) lost the World Cup Final against Germany in 1974, our biggest trauma after the war.

   One of the players in the famous ‘74 team, Willem van Hanegem, was interviewed some two decades later by a soccer magazine. One question was, what his reply would be to a wide spread opinion that we lost, because he was very, very slow.

   6 Comments | Read More | football, speed training

9. Is Popeye eating the wrong vegetable?

   16th April 2016 10:01 am

   There is a current debate going on amongst academics (with apparently too much time on their hands!) about a misplaced decimal point in the original research that cited spinach as a great source of iron.

   3 Comments | Read More | sports nutrition

10. Books read in 2016 so far

    11th April 2016 3:22 pm

    A list of books I have read so far in 2016 (Updated April, includes some excellent coaching and leadership books). Hellicona Spring: Brian Aldiss. Classic British SF novel. Leading: Alex Ferguson with Michael Moritz. Patchy book from the Manchester United Manager. Some great insights, but poorly written. Epilogue is excellent. The Dispossessed: Ursula Le Guin. […]

    0 Comments | Read More | book review