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. IFAC reflections Part 1

   16th January 2019 12:28 pm

   A review of the middle day of the IFAC conference in Loughborough. I spent the first Saturday of 2019 at the EAAC event held at Loughborough University. Finding good conferences in the UK is hard, so I wanted to make the most of this opportunity. I shall give an overview of what I learnt, plus […]

   0 Comments | Read More | athletics, Coaching, cpd

2. How to Create Excellence In Coaching

   15th January 2019 11:23 am

   For a start, I am not sure I have achieved this, but there are a few things that you can do to help make yourself and your coaching better.

   0 Comments | Read More | Coaching, cpd, reflective practice

3. 12 coaching lessons learnt in 2018

   18th December 2018 6:12 pm

   Things I think I have learnt this year 1.Athletes, especially young ones, have so much happening in their lives that our influence is minimal. Coaches need to realise this. 2. Periodisation planning is flawed in group settings in all but the most controlled environments (see #1). Every athlete doing your sessions has eaten, slept, socialised, […]

   1 Comment | Read More | Coaching, reflective practice, Transformational Coaching

4. Why Parkour should stay out of the Olympics

   12th December 2018 11:36 am

   Parkour as an Olympic Sport? The International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) has included Parkour as a new gymnastics discipline to be included in the Olympics. This is a concern for all those who enjoy the freedom of expression and creativity that is at the heart of Parkour. Young men running and jumping through the woods is […]

   2 Comments | Read More | olympics

5. Creativity in Coaching

   6th December 2018 11:00 am

   So how do we become creative in our coaching? For those of you studying at University, you may be under the impression that there is only one way of doing things. Try to look outside of the parameters of the people who are marking your assignments.

   Here are some useful tips to get the ball rolling:

   Get some space between you and the daily grind- 15 minutes of non electronic communication\ noise time. It is difficult to be creative with your mind being full of bills\ work\ relationships.

   0 Comments | Read More | Coaching, cpd

6. How to develop speed: Gary Winckler

   2nd October 2018 1:46 pm

   “The hamstrings transfer force from the motor of the butt to the wheels of the foot.”

   Tenets of speed development

   Athletics coach  Gary Winckler  delivered an excellent overview on what he thinks is important on developing speed. A lot of the work is similar to what Frans Bosch did a couple of years ago, and he mentioned Bosch’s work a lot.

   5 Comments | Read More | plyometrics, speed, speed training

7. An A-Level PE strength guide

   27th September 2018 9:21 am

   Working with young athletes, many of whom are P.E. students we are asked the same questions a lot. Here are some answers to a few common ones on strength training.

   1 Comment | Read More | strength

8. The Daily Mile: Teachers “Must Try Harder”

   13th September 2018 11:29 am

   Why the Daily Mile should not be mandatory for pupils Two Primary School head teachers have mentioned the “Daily Mile” to me in the last 6 months. The first said he was going to introduce it in his school. The second asked me about it and had concerns because she didn’t want any of the […]

   0 Comments | Read More | physical education

9. Improving coaching communication through writing

   16th August 2018 11:52 am

   Coach communication: writing On every coaching course I have attended, the tutor has pointed out the section in the workbook entitled “communication”.  There follows a group nodding of heads where every budding coach agrees that “communication is a good thing”.  If we are lucky, the tutor might divide communication further into “verbal” and “non-verbal”.  We […]

   0 Comments | Read More | book review, Coaching, communication.

10. 5 Tenets of Sports Injury Rehabilitation

    7th August 2018 1:43 pm

    Movement is the foundation of sports injury rehabilitation Dr Grace Golden gave an insightful presentation on returning to sporting activity at GAIN 2018. I liked her systematic approach which was well illustrated with video examples. She also had a large amount of creativity and fun involved in her rehabilitation sessions. Coaching the injured athlete Grace […]

    0 Comments | Read More | GAIN2018, rehab, sports injury