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. Indian Club Swinging

   14th January 2010 5:48 am

   You may have noticed the 2 new videos here:http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=excelsiorgroupsport#p/a/u/0/EAcOl5boVrc

   and here: http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=excelsiorgroupsport#p/a/u/1/hMkn8NoA-8E
   

   0 Comments | Read More |

2. How do I Use My Heart Rate Monitor?

   13th January 2010 6:12 am

   So, you got a new Heart Rate Monitor for Christmas, well here are some tips on what to do with it:
   
   

   0 Comments | Read More |

3. Preventing shoulder injuries

   11th January 2010 3:03 pm

   0 Comments | Read More |

4. New Year’s Resolutions- Reasons to Avoid

   14th December 2009 7:07 am

   So, we have just over 2 weeks to go this decade. Are you thinking about what you might start in the New Year? If so, I can pretty much guarantee that it won’t last.

   If you really want to change something, or start something new- you would do it today, right now.
   If not, then you are waiting for an external event or influence to do it for you. This may not be obvious at first, but it is an underlying trend.
   

   0 Comments | Read More |

5. Recovery – travelling is not resting

   11th December 2009 1:09 pm

   Working with several different athletes this week, from fencing, modern pentathlon and basketball, who looked very tired.
   When we talk about what is making them tired, it doesn’t appear to be a heavy training load, their nutrition could be improved (whose couldn’t?) but the key factor is the amount of travel that is required to attend their training or competition.

   When you add the stress of work or school and study on there, you can see why they become ill or get injured.
   

   0 Comments | Read More |

6. S.A. I. D.- training principle

   30th November 2009 1:03 am

   Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demand.

   This is a very basic training principle, but can be overlooked. Screening a young footballer for the first time yesterday, I asked what his fitness regime was- 90 minutes of fitness work once a week with his football coach which consisted of boxing and core stability.

   The boxing was minute intervals of hitting stationary pads, the core stability was different versions of the plank.

   If that was 10-15 minutes of the session I wouldn’t be too worried, but that was the sum of it.

   0 Comments | Read More |

7. Garnet Mackinder- England under-20s

   18th November 2009 3:28 am

   Garnet has been selected as part of this year’s RFUW under-20s squad. I have worked more on speed training with Garnet than with any other athlete.
   

   0 Comments | Read More |

8. Louise Helyer wins Swiss Open

   13th November 2009 7:52 am

   

   1 Comment | Read More |

9. Fencing Champions

   11th November 2009 2:00 am

   

   0 Comments | Read More |

10. Free Coaching HandBook for Youth Coaches

    9th November 2009 5:35 am

    Hi,
    it may be teaching some of you to suck eggs, but there are some useful points, especially on running parent orientation meetings. There are also some useful templates in the appendices for handouts to players and parents.

    You can download it here:
    http://www.americancoachingacademy.com/manifesto.pdf
    

    0 Comments | Read More |