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. Preparing to win: athlete support day review

   24th April 2014 8:24 am

   “If you’re getting into the ring with Mike Tyson, your warm up better be good”.

   Was the message of my first section of the most recent athlete support day in Exeter. We had 21 players from 8 different sports take part.

   The lack of preparation immediately before a match from young sports people constantly needs addressing.

   1 Comment | Read More | athletic development

2. Skeletal Muscle Hypertrophy: an overview. Mike Stone

   14th April 2014 11:33 am

   Mike Stone’s lecture about endocrin influences on hypertrophy training.

   A review of a lecture I attended at the UKSCA conference a few years ago. T

   he lecture was quite technical at a cellular level and offered an overview of different factors affecting the body’s ability to adapt to hypertrophy training.

   3 Comments | Read More | hypertrophy

3. Strength and conditioning coaching

   10th April 2014 10:34 am

   “Lost in Transition”

   was the motto of the recent Level 2 strength and conditioning course I ran at Oxford Brookes University (The coaches were kept busy going from venue to venue and task to task, we lost a few on the way sometimes!).

   3 Comments | Read More | recovery, strength and conditioning qualifications

4. How to practice: should we teach this first?

   7th April 2014 8:17 pm

   “Rather than teach what to practice, I should start with how to practice”

   This was the lesson I learnt from working with golf coach John Jacobs on a recent training day.

   John had set up a simple pitching task for the 10 golfers: they had to try and pitch 10 balls into some different spaces he had marked out with cones.

   1 Comment | Read More | beetroot supplements, cricket, shoulder

5. Beware the Volume Trap

   17th March 2014 4:39 pm

   How to improve performance

   If you are a beginner exerciser then one of the best ways to improve performance is to increase volume.

   If you are training for 20 minutes every day a week, or for 45 minutes twice a week, then increasing to 45 minutes 6 times a week will lead to performance improvements.

   0 Comments | Read More | balance, planning

6. 4 reasons why conditioning coaches hamper athletic development.

   15th March 2014 8:29 am

   Brian Ashton has written an interesting piece on his blog about conditioning coaches working with athletes. In it he quotes Simon Shaw who worried that young rugby players were becoming “gym monkeys” and losing their playing instincts.

   6 Comments | Read More | athletic development

7. Walk before you run, sports nutrition guide: Andrew Hamilton

   4th March 2014 1:54 pm

   A good way to develop a successful nutrition strategy is to think in terms of a ‘hierarchy of nutritional needs’. You can think of this as a pyramid, with the widest layer at the base representing the most fundamental dietary needs and successive layers above representing progressively more specialised needs.

   2 Comments | Read More | goal setting, Linchpin, pull ups

8. How to acquire skill in strength and conditioning

   28th February 2014 1:08 pm

   “Skill learning isn’t just skill learning, it’s preparation” 

   John Brierley in his skill acquisition lecture on our level 3 coaching strength and conditioning for sport course.

   Ever see the 5 sets of 5 programme for squats, power cleans and bench press? Dull as dishwater!

   8 Comments | Read More | Coaching, coaching courses, cpd

9. How to get fit for handball pt 2

   27th February 2014 1:58 pm

   When planning the ideal training schedule of a Handball team, I would probably include 2 or 3 team technical/tactical sessions, a couple of gym based strength sessions and a court based agility or speed session.

   0 Comments | Read More | handball

10. The ultimate guide to warm ups

    22nd February 2014 9:20 am

    Why do you Warm up?

    To prepare your body and mind for the activity to follow.

    If you have a “routine” that you follow day in day out, it bcomes just that…routine.  Your mind switches off, your body has adapted too well, and any benefits are lost.

    49 Comments | Read More | warm ups