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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James Marshall

1. Vladimir Issurin: Block Periodisation, UKSCA lecture.

   11th June 2010 1:54 pm

   Vladimir Issurin is a Coach with the Israeli Olympic Committee and Masters swimmer. His lecture compared traditional periodisation with block periodisation.

   He started by comparing training and competition days between 1980-1990 and from 1991-2000 across a variety of sports.

   3 Comments | Read More | overtraining, periodisation

2. UKSCA conference review

   10th June 2010 9:06 am

   Last weekend I attended 2 days of the annual UKSCA conference in Milton Keynes.There were a variety of lectures, breakout sessions and also some poster presentations.

   This was the fourth conference of theirs that I have attended, and I probably took the least away. ( I wasn’t going to go, but my alternative course was postponed).

   1 Comment | Read More | ballet

3. Milk makes you run faster

   2nd June 2010 12:28 pm

   I don’t think it was milk that made Marion Jones run fast.

   Be careful before setting someone up on a pedestal and working with young people.

   Everyone is only human.

   0 Comments | Read More | combat sports, goal setting, Issurin

4. Role Models- Coach versus athlete

   25th May 2010 3:00 pm

   Who would you rather have preparing you for a World Championship Boxing match: Cus D’Amato or Mike Tyson?

   At a recent level 1 S&C coaching course I brought up the idea of athletic development and having an idea of a great athlete to try and model yourself on. We also discussed how much of a role model a Coach should be and what this should entail.

   For me Tyson would provide a visual, psychological and emotional imprint of a boxer.

   2 Comments | Read More | doping, equestrian, hindu press ups, marion jones

5. Channelling the Competitive Streak

   24th May 2010 8:43 am

   I was speaking to a couple of young athletes last week on how they were faring, and how they adjust to learning new skills. Both gave examples of when they were returning from a layoff, or trying to practice a new skill but then being put into competition with other players. The dilemma is trying get better for the long term, but not wanting to lose in the short term.

   0 Comments | Read More | ampk, physiology

6. Rest is rest.

   13th May 2010 1:52 pm

   There is a common theme amongst athletes: They don’t work hard enough when they are supposed to and they don’t rest properly when they are supposed to.

   You get a lot of “slogging”, instead of short, sharp hard, focussed sessions, followed by adequate rest and recovery.  This is a key cause of overtraining:long, slow monotonous training, with insufficient adaptation. Worse still, none of this actually helps improve sporting performance.

   1 Comment | Read More | nfl combine

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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