John Kiely has done some groundbreaking work on periodization, but that isn’t the only topic he is interested in. When it comes to his work with rugby, track and field, and soccer he focuses on making an impact through coordination. On this week’s podcast we take a look at the framework he uses to understand coordination, and how that translates into some surprising methods with athletes. Read more
Hamstring injuries in sport are highly pervasive, often representing the most common injury site across a range of sports from rugby to sprinting to American football. One sport in which hamstring injuries have been well examined is that of soccer; during the 2016/2017 English Premier League season, 27% of all injuries suffered were hamstring injuries. This lead to the loss of over 20,000 training days, with the wages of the injured players exceeding £131 million. Alongside this massive financial burden is the issue of future performance decrements; having suffered a prior hamstring injury, players are more likely to suffer a further hamstring injury, an injury at another site, and a reduction in future performance. Read more
Within sport, everyone is now looking at prediction. Coaches, athletes, and support staff are all searching for methods to predict various outcomes, such as injury, talent, performance, or training adaptation. The ability to successfully predict within these areas would obviously be hugely advantageous. Injury prediction could allow you to make interventions to stop that from happening. Talent prediction can allow teams to better focus resources. Predicting adaptations would allow coaches to design better training blocks or alter them based on the predicted response. In other words, prediction is the holy grail of sports science. Read more
Welcome back to another edition of Sports Science Monthly. This month, we take a closer look at monitoring post-match fatigue, the debate on hamstring muscle action, mindfulness, warming up, travel, and more. Read more
Every June, GAIN brings together world-class practitioners from a variety of sports. In addition to the presentations and practical sessions, this year we had a roundtable discussion on coaching Olympic champions, with panelists from Fiji rugby, snowboard, USA women’s hockey, and USA women’s basketball. We recorded the discussion and are sharing it in its entirety on this week’s GAINcast. Read more
Every June, we both make a trip to Houston for Vern Gambetta’s annual GAIN conference. With faculty included strength coaches, sport coaches, physical therapists, trainers, academics and sports scientists from a variety of professional and amateur sports, it provides a chance to learn and share. On this week’s podcast we broadcast live from the event and recap the key lessons learned on each day of the event. Read more
Start talking about sprinting and it won’t be long until you the discussion turns to hamstring injuries. Hamstring injuries are a major concern of any athlete that has to sprint. Soccer has a notorious hamstring problem, but they are not alone. Hamstring injuries are also the most prevalent form of non-contact injury within sports like athletics, American Football, rugby union, Australian Rules Football, cricket, and basketball. Read more
“A lot of things weren’t firing — his glutes, his hips, thighs.” (Training Guru to the star players – name deleted to protect the guilty) told the newspaper. “I wouldn’t say his condition was the most severe, I wouldn’t say it was the best . . . But if I were to classify it on a scale of one to 10 with 10 being the most extreme, I’d say he was definitely in the seven, eight category.” Read more
In the March edition of Sports Science Monthly we look at new research across a variety of areas including the impact of coaching behavior, Selye’s General Adaptation Syndrome, nordic hamstring exercises, genetic testing, monitoring fatigue and more. Read more
We all know that exercise is good for us. The lists of benefits that exercise can give us is as wide as it is varied; it lowers our risk of obesity, metabolic syndrome, and cardiovascular disease. It provides a mental health benefit. It reduces our chances of having low bone mineral density. It’s an important part of the healthy aging process, with exercise allowing for a maintenance of muscle strength as we grow older, making us less likely to suffer from falls, and keeping us mobile and active for much longer. Read more
