What do you want to see more of here?

A blog is only as good as its content, and how appropriate it is to the readers - so what would you like to see here? Please vote on the poll (on the right side of the page) and/or comment here or email me: sportscienceed@gmail.com

The Center of Excellence has hit a busy spot so blogs may not be all that regular, but hopefully will be (with your help) of decent quality when they come.

The responsibilities of the elite coach: embracing the science of coaching (part III)

This is the third and final part of this published journal article. Here is Part I and Part II.

Part III:

Tactical Development

Although perhaps less strictly defined, there are scientific aspects to tactical development. The process of tactical development involves preparing for the event, the game plan, and a season strategy. Within the game setting, perception, concentration, and decision-making become important aspects. Perception is a person’s ability to recognize and interpret sensory stimuli. Concentration is the ability to sustain one’s attention on the relevant cues and not to be distracted by outside thoughts or other irrelevant stimuli. Decision-making is reading the stimuli, knowing what the stimuli mean, weighing the evidence based on experience, and making an action based on this analysis.

The responsibilities of the elite coach: embracing the science of coaching (part II)

This is Part II of a three part series, here is part I and part III

Part II:

Areas of Sport Science Critical to Development of Sport Performance

There are various areas of science that underpin what coaches can do to serve their athletes, and as discussed, having a greater understanding of these fields of study can only help provide better programs and coaching practice. The following are some of the areas identified as sport science and surely must be within the coach’s body of knowledge.

The responsibilities of the elite coach: embracing the science of coaching (part I)

One of my first jobs as coaching manager at the Center of Excellence for Sport Science and Coach Education was to work with Meg (Ritchie) Stone on a coach education article. I am happy to say that this article was recently published in the August edition of the Journal of Coaching Education (from the National Association for Sport and Physical Education). It is not the most scholarly publication, but is an effort to break down the barriers between sport science and coaching.

As I am having a busy time of things at the moment, I thought I would help fill the void on this blog by posting this article in three parts (here is part II & part III).

Part I:

The Responsibilities of the Elite Coach: Embracing the Science of Coaching

Meg Stone East Tennessee State University

Howard Gray East Tennessee State University

Beware of strength and conditioning marketing BS

Spontaneous, angry post warning...

I just got home from a 16 hour day (preseason and work in the lab - going great btw), and yet I still feel that I must try to get this message across. I apologize to those people out there who I owe a post - but being fired up about this is the only way I can do anything but sleep right now!

I got an email today from Perform Better about a new product "on sale":

"I'm emailing you today to let you know about a breakthrough football training program that was *just* released, called Total Football Training.

Jon Goodwin interviewed by Patrick Ward

I wrote some notes on the UKSCA Conference a couple of months ago (parts I & II), and these have created quite some interest, especially the points brought up by Jon Goodwin in his presentation on sprint biomechanics.

Patrick Ward spent some time with Jon recently and has posted an excellent interview on his blog - check it out:
Jon Goodwin - Increasing Speed

Running fast is important!

Strength and sprinting speed

Below is my response to a post on a strength and conditioning message board about sprinters and strength training. Essentially the thread questioned the role of strength, and strength training, in sprinting.

There seems to be some confusion here because "heavy strength training" seems to be a term that is thrown around without people actually clarifying what they mean.
 Heavy training (high intensity) will be low in volume and will bring about mostly neural adaptation and will provide little stimulus for hypertrophy, so the "bulking up problem with heavy weights" should not be an issue (if correct nutrition is practiced and the athlete is not eating everything in sight).
 High volume, moderate intensity weight training is what will bring about the bulk.

There are other elements to the equation of course, such as individuality and the nutrition point I mention above, but we HAVE to understand that weight training is not just weight training. Sometimes sprinters may need to gain bulk (as Jon Goodwin also pointed out in his presentation - more muscle in relation to organ, bone tissue, etc.), whilst with others, neural adaptation may be the number 1 goal.

I noticed above McGill being mentioned saying for some athletes, more strength will cause some athletes to jump lower (or run slower? I have not seen this source directly). I have to strongly disagree - if the strength training is the right kind (NOT slow and controlled, and NOT high in volume - eg. not bodybuilding style) then it will have a positive influence on the force velocity curve (and the P = F*V equation).

Bad strength training will make athletes slower, injured, etc. etc. But good strength training - appropriate loads at the right time of year for the right goals will improve the athlete. Is this not what we are all about? I can tell you the majority of elite sprinters out there are VERY VERY strong in the range of motion of their event - some will have gained this through strength training, whilst others are incredibly gifted (or a combination of both).

Lets not forget that the majority of us are working with the not so gifted. Even higher level of NCAA athletes on the whole scheme of things are far from elite - we need to get them strong!

Related to this topic are my recent posts on Dr. Cormie's power talk, and Jon Goodwin's presentation at the UKSCA (AND later, the NSCA).

Training update

It has been a while - a long while since I gave you progress on my own training! I will not be calling it "rehab" anymore to get away from that side of things mentally.

I am squatting over 100 kg for 5 comfortably, which is not a great deal in anyones book, but is a long way better than when I was back in England.

Movement wise I feel good but have not been testing myself and pushing myself in that department as well as I should - that has to change.

Prue Cormie - how strong is strong enough?

I hope that some of you were lucky enough to see Prue Cormie present this year at the NSCA National Conference on "The Influence of Strength on Muscular Power". Along with Jon Goodwin and Mike McGuigan, I felt that Dr. Cormie set a good example of how SPORT science can positively impact what we as coaches do in the weightroom or on the field.

Prue's talk primarily centered around what her recent research (with high level athletes) has shown her about strength and it's importance in the never-ending quest for power, with the following being key findings: