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. Hepburn’s laws- training manual

   17th December 2014 9:37 am

   “The journey to becoming a champion of super strength begins with obtaining the right kind of knowledge.”

   Doug Hepburn’s book on strength training is an excellent text about strongman training from 1980.

   In it, he lists a few rules which he found to be essential when learning how to get strong.

   You may be thinking “what can I learn about strength training from that old geezer? He doesn’t even have a twitter account!”

   1 Comment | Read More | millfield, tommy baker

2. Roughty Toughty Athletes

   12th December 2014 9:30 am

   Why athletes get niggles

   • Working with a decathlete last week, I said that I was going to make him into a “roughty toughty track and field athlete“.

   He said that “There is no such thing as a roughty toughty track and field athlete.” He has a point.  A lot of athletes are continually coming down with injuries or “niggles”.

   3 Comments | Read More | weight loss

3. Do Warm Ups Affect Performance?

   11th December 2014 9:57 am

   The goal of the warm up is to prepare the body mentally and physically for exercise or competition.

   We would therefore look for the following positive effects:

   • Faster muscle contraction and relaxation.
   • Improved rate of force development and reaction time.
   • Improvements in muscle strength and power.
   • Skill preparation and mental focus.

   Methods that are used include;

   3 Comments | Read More | warm ups

4. Grantham Sabre Camp

   10th December 2014 5:05 pm

   Sabreurs’ fitness 

   Last week I had the pleasure of working at James and Ian Williams’ summer sabre camp in Grantham.  There were about 30 fencers there, from aspiring juniors to top ranked seniors. My role was to support the coaches by delivering group and individual fitness sessions. 

   0 Comments | Read More | brain circulation, coaches, GAIN VII

5. NFL Draft and the combine

   9:18 am

   Does the NFL combine predict future playing performance?

   The NFL draft happens later this month- for geeks like me it is quite exciting to see who the Green Bay Packers recruit.

   As a coach it is amazing to see how much emphasis is put on the combine results and the fitness scores that happen there.

   0 Comments | Read More | fitness testing, injury prevention, nfl combine

6. Front Squat vs Back Squat: which is better?

   8th December 2014 2:31 pm

   Squatting is essential for female athletes

   Assistant coach Fran Low was an experienced hockey player when she started working with Excelsior.

   However, she had never done squats. Part of her role was to research the difference between front and back squats. Here are the results:

   14 Comments | Read More | strength, strength training

7. What does Jack Wilshere have in common with a Dinosaur?

   4th December 2014 3:13 pm

   They both suffer from stress fractures!

   Poor old Jack Wilshere will be watching the Champion’s League Final from the comfort of his own home this week.

   Could he have helped Arsenal get to the final if he hadn’t suffered from a stress fracture in training?

   4 Comments | Read More | basketball, core training, nfl combine, Tennis injuries

8. Reverse engineering the Olympic Lifts

   3:01 pm

   Beware of the “research” about Weight Lifting

   If you have invested heavily in researching the Olympic lifts and read research conducted on mediocre athletes or sports science students over a 6 week period, then you may have to justify their use at all times.

   0 Comments | Read More | Coaching, weigthlifting

9. A different perspective on warm ups – Diversity and Variety.

   28th November 2014 1:36 pm

   “The purpose of the warm up is to prepare the body and mind for the activity to follow”.

   That is my general explanation on what we are trying to achieve in a warm up.

   Currently you might conduct our warm ups on physiological terms-

   1 Comment | Read More | warm ups

10. Flexibility Training

    11:52 am

    As part of the Excelsior Sports Training Programme, I did a joint workshop with Sarah Marshallyesterday on flexibility training. We had 30 young athletes doing 90 minutes of flexibility training.

    The format was:

    9 Comments | Read More | flexibility