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. 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

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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