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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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Fitness for fencers: part 4
“Should fencers run to get fit?”
Is a discussion I have with fencing coaches a lot. Nearly all say “yes”.Running is a basic locomotor activity that we have developed as humans over thousands of years.
6 Comments | Read More | brain circulation, SportsTraining system -
Worst Cool Downs….Ever
Effective cool downs?
You have just finished a tough training session or competition, preparing for the next bout starts immediately. Here are some cool downs to avoid.
6 Comments | Read More | caffeine, GAIN -
3 Tips for Athletes’ Winter Training
“A lifetime of training for just 10 seconds”
Jesse Owens
Winter for track and field athletes is the ideal time to work on conditioning without the focus of peaking for competition.
Here Assistant Coach (and erstwhile sprinter) Matt Durber highlights 3 ways you can improve your winter training.
Improve your off season training
1 Comment | Read More | athletic development, athletics
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The Uncertainty Principle: From the Big Bang to Dark Energy Review
“Physics is uncertain. There is an overall predictability of patterns, but individual prediction is hard”
Hitoshi Murayama, Tokyo University.I took this 5 week course due to having an interest in Astronomy and the big ideas of the Universe.
0 Comments | Read More | cpd -
DARE to be different: Vern Gambetta lecture
“Dissect, Appraise, Reflect, Examine: Evaluate yourself constantly”
Vern Gambetta giving sound advice to the MSc Strength and Conditioning students at the University of East London last night.
Vern gave two lectures, the first on planning training and the second on coaching. It was a small group of students, plus myself, course leader Nick Bourne, and some football coaches.
1 Comment | Read More | periodisation, planning -
Body weight circuits
Some people scorn on these, or fail to find new ways to make them challenging.
I did one this morning: 5 different exercises 20 repetitions of each, then 30 seconds rest. Repeat 5 times. Then do a different 5 exercises, same structure, and finally another 5 exercises.
So you are doing 5 exercises, 20 repetitions, 30 seconds rest, 5 sets, three times. A total of 15 different exercises, at 100 repetitions each.The 30 seconds rest seems quite long at the beginning, but by the 10th set I needed the rest.
0 Comments | Read More | ACL -
Circuit Design
Starting off with circuits is quite easy. Do an exercise for about 10 repetitions, then move on to the next one. Beginners can rest between each exercise and then each set.
0 Comments | Read More | ACL
To make the circuit harder, do more sets round or reduce the amount of rest between sets and then exercises.
Harder still is to do all the reps of an exercise before moving to the next. So instead of doing 5 sets of 10, do 1 set of 50. Good fun until you get to the burpees, tuck jumps and pull ups. -
Benefits of circuit training
Circuit training has been around for a while and used to be popular in schools, the Armed Forces and sports clubs. Recently, this has not been the case for various reasons, one of them being an apparent lack of specificity. It is also due to the fact that certain fitness qualifications or accreditations focus on barbell platform lifts, and so the people who pass those courses tend to do those type of exercises with other people.
0 Comments | Read More | ACL -
Do you want to Run Faster?
Run Faster book now available on Amazon
0 Comments | Read More | detraining, inspiration, talent id, warm ups
My latest book Run Faster is now available here< -
Old words still relevant.
As The Stoic philosopher Epicteus mused some 19 centuries ago:
0 Comments | Read More | motivation
“So you want to conquer in the Olympic Games, my friend. But first mark the conditions and the consequences, and then set to work.
Client Testimonials
Jess Bradley: European Tour Golfer
I first worked with James in Devon Golf’s High Performance Group when I was 16. His attitude and enthusiasm towards training was the main reason I approached him whilst I was studying in the U.S.A to train with him again. He makes our sessions tough but enjoyable. He […]
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