Tag Archive: garage

1. World Class Performances: Excelsior female athletes

   19th November 2012 3:25 pm 1 Comment

   Competing on the World Stage

   Over the summer we have had some great results from all of our athletes, but 3 of the female athletes we work with were competing in World Class events.

   Jazmin Sawyers: Heptathlete

   Jazmin came 9th in the World Youth Games in July with a P.B. of 5296 points.

   I work with Jazmin at Millfield School, and we are preparing her for the Commonwealth Youth games in September.

     

   Judith Hamer: Wheelchair basketball

   Judith was part of the team who came 3rd in the Under-25s World Cup tournament in Canada in July.

   I have worked with Judith for 3 years as part of the TASS scheme, training her at Exeter University. We have just finished quite a heavy loading phase, and she is now training for the European Championships in September.

    

   Jenny McGeever: Epee

   Jenny got to the last 64 of the World University Games in August.

   Jenny is part of the South West Talent (SWT) programme. A tough draw for Jenny in only her 2nd Senior competition. We are looking to restructure her training after her latest camp away.

    

   Hannah Gaunt: Biathlon

   Honourable mention to Hannah Gaunt (SWT) who came 2nd in the National Biathlon Championships and has been selected for the World Championships in Bulgaria. Unfortunately due to her young age she has to take a chaperone, and it is all self funded, she can’t go.

    Well done to all of these athletes and their Coaches and parents, without whom it wouldn’t be possible.

    For training tips download our free ebook for female athletes here

    

2. Bridging the Gap: Coaching Theory to Practice

   21st July 2011 5:14 pm 1 Comment

   Bridging The Gap

   Will Roberts: Senior Lecturer in Sport, Coaching and Physical Education

   There is an increasing amount of research in the fields of strength and conditioning and sports coaching, and with an increasing interest in the profession of coaching there are more and more practitioners in both of these fields.

    The problem

   It is quite common that researchers rarely ‘do’, and practioners rarely have the time to ‘research and reflect’.

   What happens? Well, there is a gap between the theories of coaching, and the actual every day practice of coaching. Unfortunately, what has not been dealt with is what sits in this gap. Recently, what this gap has referred to is the lack of knowledge of either the coach or the researcher (which is never the same person) which impacts on the level of ‘good’ or ‘effective’ coaching that can take place.

   As I reflect more on this ‘gap’, and having witnessed James Marshall and his colleagues deliver a coaching day in Exeter recently, is that this ‘gap’ (and those that are in the gap) is young people’s athletic development. If researchers and practitioners don’t start collaborating then these young people that we are charged with coaching will continue to be physically, technically, tactically, socially and psychologically underdeveloped.

   The solution?

   James Marshall and his colleagues are starting to build a bridge across the gap of academic and practitioner. Thorough reflection, mentoring, challenging the traditional, reading, writing and thinking coaching, James is questioning long held beliefs about the ways in which we should coach young people, and the types of things we should be coaching young people.

   From nutritional workshops, to free play, to technical skill development for running, (one young man couldn’t run at the start of the day – his technique was a little closer to athletic by the end of it, a genuinely impressive improvement) James and his colleagues followed up a series of coaching sessions with the day long workshop.

   You might think that this is not unique, but done well it certainly is. You don’t have to be an ex-athlete, a household name, in possession of a PhD, or a consultant in coaching to be effective.

   James and his team are a great of example of what coaching should be. In order to bridge the gap between those researching and those doing, we need to become both.

   It is vital that coaches in future are innovative, thoughtful, thought provoking, challenging, researching and DOING. Only when this happens, will we really bridge the gap and service those that are looking for support and guidance so that we have competitive, healthy, fit young people that are the athletes, participants and future coaches and teachers.

   Further Research

   For some further thoughts on sports coaching, it may be worth reading the following:

   Robyn Jones (2006) The sports coach as educator: re-conceptualising sports coaching published by Routledge: London

   Robyn Jones and Mike Wallace (2007) An Introduction to sports coaching: From science and theory to practice published by Routledge: London

3. How to get faster: working with young athletes

   3rd June 2011 1:11 pm 4 Comments

   How can I get faster?

   One of the questions I get asked most. There are two main parts to the answer:

   1. Practice running fast.
   2. Do things that help you do the above.

   Yesterday I was working with a group of young athletes from different sports as part of the South West Talent programme.

   The day consisted of several different parts.

   Part 1: Planning.

   A lot of the athletes have a big competition at the end of this month. We looked at how to set a priority for the next 4 weeks, put that into a meaningful goal and then see what training we needed to do to achieve that. I spent some time looking at how different training sessions have an impact on what is to follow. Worryingly, a lot of the plans consisted of 4 weeks solid training with no rest days.

   You will not get faster unless you schedule the training correctly.

   Part 2: Running.

   I split the group into 2 for the next 90 minutes. Those who we do not see regularly worked with Matt and Jason on their 5×5 exercises. These are designed to assist them in becoming more balanced, controlled, flexible and strong. They are the foundation upon which more intense and specific training can be built. You can not run fast if your body is either broken, or inefficient.

   The regular group worked with me outside focussing on ankles and hips when running. I interspersed drills to develop rhythm and control, with running. The idea was to get the drill directly impacting on what was to follow, rather than just drilling. I also wanted the athletes to “feel” what was going on with their technique, rather than just “doing”.

   The body is an amazing self organising system, by concentrating on only 2 aspects, the knee has to sort itself out, and the upper bodies of the runners also improved.

   (Will Roberts was also there observing me Coach all day- pictured filming the athletes)

   Part 3 – Hydration

   It was getting warm yesterday, so a timely intervention with an interactive workshop and quiz was next. Presented by Matt and Jason,they looked at what constitutes a useful sports drink.

   This was a chance for the athletes to ask questions they had after reading Matt’s Blogs this week on Lucozade versus water and How to make your own sports drinks.

   A useful benchmark on coaching is how many questions, and what type the athletes are asking? In both seminars, the questions, and thoughts behind them, showed a real level of excitement and engagement.

   Part 4- Fun Time

   All that learning can’t be good for you, so we finished the day with a Superstars style competition between 4 teams. The events worked on skill\ co ordination, teamwork, strength,  and speed with skill. We finished with small sided football which was probably best described as “enthusiastic.”

   Again, we wanted to get the athletes doing things they are not used to, so as to challenge these systems in a competitive, but fun environment.

   Thanks to everyone concerned who participated. We will be supporting the planning and hydration aspects over the next 2 weeks with these athletes to continue to reinforce the message.

    You can learn to run faster with our Run Faster programme here. My latest book Run Faster is now available here

4. South West Talent project reaches National Lottery Semi Finals

   2nd June 2011 10:16 pm Leave a Comment

   One of our major clients has reached the semi finals of the National Lottery awards.

   The SWT athletes and the work surrounding it has been a very rewarding, productive and successful project over the last 2 years.

   This has been recognised by the National Lottery.

   For more information and a chance to vote, please see here.

    

    

    

    

5. Athletes in action

   31st March 2011 11:11 am 1 Comment

   Just some random pictures this week of Excelsior athletes in action.

   

6. Developing the young athlete

   8th February 2011 10:13 am 4 Comments

   One of the best projects I have been associated with is the South West Talent group. The idea is to look at developing athlete’s backgrounds, pick the ones with a varied sporting background who are later maturers, and then support them with training and measurement over a few years.

   
   

   The athletes come from many different sports in the South West. Whilst some have fallen by the wayside- mainly from thinking it was another free t-shirt without realising the commitment required- the ones who have been training regularly have progressed immensely.

   
   

   An example of the results in action can be seen here with Dom Hinchcliffe (#12) playing with Taunton Tigers under 16s.