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Turn Up, Try Hard, Stand Tall
Excelsior Rules
Excelsior athlete
The south west talent crew
These are the 3 rules that I set out for every aspiring Excelsior athlete who wants to be a member of our Athletic Development Club in Devon.
Have you thought of using gymnastics as part of your warm up?
How can gymnastics help prepare me for a collision sport?
Gymnastics: a sport based on perfecting skills and techniques. What you practice at training is exactly what you will perform at competition.
Field sports: sports based on quick decision making, tactics and game play. No game or match is ever the same.
Read MoreHow a good coach can help you become a winner
Why hiring an expert coach will save you time and money
Young athletes (and their parents) are overwhelmed with information from varying sources that is often conflicting. It is my job to help them navigate the maelstrom.
Originally designed as a concept to deal with organising and displaying online information and layouts, information architecture could as easily be applied to coaching.
Read MoreSocrates the Coach
The following quote comes from The Consolations of Philosophy by Alain de Botton
and is a discourse between Socrates and his friend Crito.
Socrates: When a man is taking (his training) seriously, does he pay attention to all praise and criticism and opinion indiscriminately, or only when it comes from the one qualified person, the actual doctor or trainer?
Read MoreSwimming dryland training: Nick Folker seminar
Nick Folker presenting at GAIN in June this year. I learnt more in this seminar about so called “dryland” training than I have done speaking to swim coaches over the last 10 years.
Read MoreExcelsior ADC Summer Update
Summer Training and the Olympics Here is an overview of what is happening at Excelsior Athletic Development Club over the next 2 months, including news of 4 athletes I have coached who are competing in the Olympics. I have included links to timetables to when to watch our 3 main sports on TV. Athletics Training continues every…
Read MoreSummer reading 2016
Book recommendations for reading this summer I hope you get time for some summer reading (if we get a summer). I try to read more fiction or biographies of non work related people whilst on holiday, rather than technical manuals. Here are my Top 5 summer reading books for coaches I have read so far this year…
Read MoreDistrict 13- Parkour, Gymnastics
I watched the French film District 13 a couple of weeks ago. There is some truly impressive athletic movement in this film. The freestyle attitude of Parkour, making use of the local environment, looking at everyday objects in a different light, is in total contrast to some sports environments where free expression is constrained.
I wonder whether young children especially would be better off developing this type of movement and awareness, rather than being taken to a class and put through highly disciplined and structured movement patterns.
How can I stop my child getting injured?
The evidence is quite stark if your child is spending too much time in organised activity rather than free play, if they have specialised in one sport and if they have gone through their growth spurt, then they are more likely to get injured (1).
Read MoreMiddle distance running: science, myths & practice
“Why get obsessed with details if they don’t matter yet?” Steve Magness, at GAIN 2016 presenting on “Current concepts of endurance training“. I have been privileged to meet up with Steve for 3 GAIN conferences, and his thoughts have greatly shaped the work I do with our Middle Distance Running group. Here are some of…
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