Every quarter we take a deep dive into the latest research in sports science. In this edition we look at the latest research on what artificial intelligence means for elite sport, optimizing practice environments, velocity based training, parkour for athletic development, and much more.
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Load management is a hot topic with evolving viewpoints in many sports, especially basketball. A few years ago coaches seemed to think of loads as a poison to be avoided, but many coaches are advocating a new paradigm instead: loads are best managed when you are prepared for them. Chris Chase of the Memphis Grizzlies joins this week’s GAINcast to discuss how he prepares athletes for the demands of the long NBA season, including his use of some non-traditional methods such as flywheel training and constrained movements to find stimulus during the season.
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Looking back on successful people, coaches, training programs, and processes, one thing keeps showing up over and over: simplicity. Dr. Michael Joyner has wide-ranging experience at the forefront of medicine, research, public health, elite performance, and coaching. Across these domains he keeps seeing the reductionists move ahead. On this week’s GAINcast he shares examples of how simple approaches can be effective when it comes to planning, data collection, performance models, load management, and much more.
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Every month we take a deep dive into the latest research in sports science. In the August edition we start off looking at some lessons we can learn from a recent editorial giving an elite athlete’s perspective on training and load management. We also look at the modern consensus on hamstring injury risk, coaching resilience, how the athlete biological passport has impacted performance, team comedians, and more. Read more
In the previous article, I wrote about a variety of different models that better help us explain and understand why injuries occur. As a quick refresher, we typically have a predisposed athlete, who finds themselves in a local environment that increases their susceptibility, and they then have an inciting event which causes the injury itself. Central to many of these models is the concept of stress or load placed on the athlete. This installment of the Performance Health series looks to help coaches understand external and internal load, and what that means to coaches. Read more
We’re in unprecedented times, with the COVID-19-driven lockdown of many countries and cities affecting athletes ability to train. The long-term effects of this lockdown, and how it might influence performance in 2021, are impossible to predict. However an older study, published in 2011 and widely shared on social media in the last couple of weeks, might give us some potentially crucial insights. Read more
The whole concept of load management as it is being interpreted and implemented is beyond me. Frankly, it makes no sense. Call me old school, but isn’t good planning and training design that prepares the athlete for the rigors of competition what we are supposed to be doing? We have reduced the quality and intensity of training to meet magic numbers developed by flawed measurement devises based on artificial algorithms. Read more
Mike Barber came to the javelin as an outsider, but a fresh perspective has helped him rethink the event and led Kelsey-Lee Barber to World Championship gold last month. On this week’s GAINcast we talk with Barber about how his career has developed, his approach to the javelin, and how he navigated complex waters in the lead up to the World Championships. Read more
Every month we take a deep dive into the latest research in sports science. The amount of research in sports science has exploded, and for coaches in the trenches it can be hard to keep up on it all. That is one of the reasons we have put together the Sports Science Monthly, and we start off the July edition by looking at where coaches get their sports science information. After that we look into new research on small-sided games, re-examine training load monitoring, as well as looking into other topics. Read more
