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.

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

1. Coaching vs administration: Productive vs unproductive labour?

   12th May 2010 8:41 am

   Prompted by a discussion with Simon Worsnop, mainly on the state of the economy, the thoughts of Karl Marx on productive vs unproductive labour can be applied to coaching and indeed training.

   0 Comments | Read More | cus d'amato

2. Do or Do Not- There is no try

   4th May 2010 4:10 pm

   Yoda, in his infinite wisdom after training Jedi for 800 years does come up with some good stuff.

   Luke: “I can’t believe it.”

   Yoda: “That is why you fail.”

    

   Happy Star Wars Day!

   1 Comment | Read More | workout of the day

3. Mid Devon District Council Crushes Boys’ Olympic Dreams

   30th April 2010 2:12 pm

   Culm Valley Boxing Club is shutting down today due to MDDC deciding to charge it business rates.

   11 Comments | Read More | hindu press ups, karl marx productive labour, strength and conditioning qualification

4. Jack Dempsey book

   14th April 2010 2:14 pm

   Jack Dempsey’s guide to championship fighting

   Is a great book for boxers and coaches

   The book is written in a colloquial 1950s fashion, and is more entertaining as a result- palooka is a phrase not often used.

   The book is a good guide to training for boxers, but also for other athletes and coaches. I especially like the way Dempsey has stated that fighters are made not born, and that he has analysed his sport and written a guide on how to get better at it.

   0 Comments | Read More | book review, boxing

5. Tradition is the scourge of endeavour

   7th April 2010 9:33 am

   A quote taken from Terry Pratchett’s “Unseen Academicals”.

   Think about that.

   Having been in a few environments where tradition has been deemed important, I can empathise with this quote. In fact, the hierachy of “people in charge” who have wanted to remain traditional have stamped on any signs of endeavour.

   This could be in Karate- where bastardised forms of fighting have been put in sequences and ritualised beyond all recognition oif actual fighting.

   0 Comments | Read More | boxing, jack Dempsey, nfl draft

6. Using RPE to predict 1RMs- Harrison Evans

   1st April 2010 8:44 am

   How to use RPE to predict your strength

   Much of the strength related exercise prescription advice delivered by the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) prescribe intensity relative to an individual’s maximal strength (1-RM)

   1 Comment | Read More | agility, learning, tommy baker

7. Flexible Non Linear Periodization- “Brand new concept” – Not.

   29th March 2010 11:07 am

   Flexible Non Linear Periodization is a new concept according to research published here. The concept is that if your athlete turns up to the gym fatigued, not having slept, or feeling ill or stressed, you adapt the workout to that situation.  You don’t inflict the prescribed periodized workout onto the athlete.

   1 Comment | Read More | equestrian, overtraining

8. Sports Nutrition- Grow your own veg

   25th March 2010 9:58 am

   As Andrew Hamilton remarked a couple of weeks ago on the blog festival with regards to sports nutrition: Walk before you run. It constantly amazes me how clueless young athletes are about simpel eating facts. One of the reasons is that society has beome distant from food in its natural state. Do youngsters go scrumping anymore? (that would combine the tree climbing for pulling strength and healthy eating!).

   0 Comments | Read More | periodisation, qualification, strength and conditioning course

9. Warm Ups for strength training- Istvan Javorek

   12th March 2010 4:36 pm

   On a daily basis I hear from students that they heard that some exercises are dangerous. So my first basic weight training class I start with this short introduction: There aren’t dangerous exercises, just dangerous techniques.

   I devote a great deal of time to warming-up exercises.  I consider a good warm-up to be the first step in preventing injuries, as well as providing very good mental and physical preparation.

   2 Comments | Read More | warm ups

10. Pull ups- How good are you?

    11th March 2010 2:59 pm

    Thanks to Simon Worsnop for this link to a page dedicated to feats of strength on pull ups. This followed our conversation on the need for finger, forearm, grip and pulling strength for rock climbing.  Young athletes from all sports are notoriously weak in their upper body (more tree climbing needed), but then spend time on bicep curls in the gym.

    2 Comments | Read More | equipment, volume, world record