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. How to become a Strength and Conditioning Coach? – Diary of an Intern

   8th July 2011 3:11 pm

   We are now counting down to the end of our internship with James at Excelsior, and this is a good point to reflect on what I have experienced!

   But before that I just want to mention the events from the last few weeks at Millfiled School.

   3 Comments | Read More | book review, cns, equestrian, female athletes, kwaku danso

2. Time for reflection: GAIN 2011 in Houston Texas

   27th June 2011 9:43 pm

   As most of you know, I was away last week in Houston Texas with Vern Gambetta et al as part of the GAIN 2011 apprentorship course.  The 5 day course involved 14 hour days, 34C heat and humidty, some lively debate, great people and even better food.

   It is a bit too soon still to properly analyse what I have learnt. I will be writing some posts next month after I have had time to reflect upon the while experience.

   0 Comments | Read More |

3. How to get faster: working with young athletes

   3rd June 2011 1:11 pm

   How can I get faster?

   One of the questions I get asked most. There are two main parts to the answer:

   4 Comments | Read More | garage, talent id

4. South West Talent project reaches National Lottery Semi Finals

   2nd June 2011 10:16 pm

   One of our major clients has reached the semi finals of the National Lottery awards.

   The SWT athletes and the work surrounding it has been a very rewarding, productive and successful project over the last 2 years.

   This has been recognised by the National Lottery.

   For more information and a chance to vote, please see here.

    

    

    

    

   0 Comments | Read More | garage

5. Are sports coaches restricting the thinking of their female athletes?

   20th May 2011 9:01 am

   Are sports coaches restricting the thinking of their female athletes?

   From observing young female athletes doing certain practices, I would say yes.

   One warm up I have done is to get 2 athletes to shadow each other mimicking movement patterns. That is all the advice and instruction I give, then say go. Doing this with 13 year olds and you see a massive variety of different things being done. It looks like free play and creativity.

   5 Comments | Read More | equestrian, muay thai

6. Coach Development Workshop: John Brierley

   11th May 2011 8:11 pm

   Last week I was lucky enough to attend a workshop at Exeter University led by John Brierley . This was part of the Transformational Coaching programme organised by Paula Jardine and led by Wayne Roberts.

   John has a massive range of experience, including being the Team Leader of Athletics at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi, and fitness consultant to Birmingham City FC for 4 years.

   0 Comments | Read More | athletics, coaching courses, cpd

7. Happy Star Wars Day- Lessons from Darth Vader

   4th May 2011 8:57 am

   Happy Star Wars Day.

   Last year we mentioned that very experienced coach Yoda.  But what can we learn from Darth Vader?

   The three main lessons are:

   3 Comments | Read More | cycling, equestrian, pbesity

8. Athletes in action

   31st March 2011 11:11 am

   Just some random pictures this week of Excelsior athletes in action.

   1 Comment | Read More | athletic development, female athletes, garage

9. How to get more agile- use your head

   30th March 2011 10:34 am

   

   I used this theme when presenting at the Active Devon Coaching Conference last weekend.

   Do you do endless footwork drills in order to get more agile? Bruce Lee called this organised despair- it looks really productive and efficient, but it has very little transference to open, fast moving situations in a game.

   0 Comments | Read More | equestrian, jack Dempsey

10. March Training Plan- How to run a sub 40 minute 10k

    23rd March 2011 2:10 pm

    March training plan

    Now the sun is out and the evenings are longer, March and April are time for me to work on my endurance, dust off the tennis racket and lose some body fat.

    Strength, power and speed have been developed over the last 3 months (came in useful when the handbrake on my car failed and I saw my son rolling backwards down a hill in the car. Had to sprint and jump in. Stuntman is still a career option I think).

    I am aiming to do a sub 40min 10k in 6 weeks, and to lose 2kg of bodyfat.

    0 Comments | Read More | heart rates, Intern Diary, shoulder, star trek