Having looked at the influence of heat and altitude on performance at the 2026 World Cup, and what can be done about it, I’ll now turn my attention to the next topic in my World Cup preparation series. This is something that affects many of us in today’s world: travel, jet lag, and travel fatigue.
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Every quarter we take a deep dive into the latest research in sports science. In this edition we look at the latest research on talent development environments, deliberate practice, reducing hamstring injuries, developing hardy coaches, and much more.
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On this week’s GAINcast Vern shares his top 6 books of 2023, key insights after recent travels to Europe and Australia, plus thoughts as we look ahead at preparing for the 2024 Olympics.
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Every quarter we take a deep dive into the latest research in sports science. In this edition we look at the latest research on the current state of genetic testing in sport, talent detection, injuries in youth athletics, the effects of long haul travel, and more.
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Every month we take a deep dive into the latest research in sports science. To kick of 2021 we’ve put together one of our biggest editions yet, reviewing 12 new articles on a range of topics from a critique of data-driven coaching, repeatability of training improvements, caffeine periodization, crowd wisdom, and what coaches can learn from hunter gatherers.
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This was my fourteenth visit to Australia with my first visit coming in 1996. I love Australia and Australians, so much so that I have been labeled by my Aussie friends as “Aussie Vern.” Read more
When you watch the Olympics it is easy to see all see the athlete performances on television. But what we don’t see is the logistical work required to help get the most out of the athletes on the biggest day of their careers. Support teams start planning years in advance to make sure that athletes have optimal lodging, food, and training facilities in their final hours before competition. On this week’s episode we are joined by strength coach Tracy Fober and high performance chef Megan Chacosky from US Ski & Snowboqard to talk about the steps required to bring their high performance support system to PyeongChang, and how to get non-traditional sports to buy into the high performance culture. Read more
Earlier this week we posted the first part of our interview with Dean Benton, head of Sports Science for the England Senior Rugby Team. Our interview covers a variety of topics on rest and recovery, and to start with we looked at sleep. Below we continue with part two of the interview where we continue to discuss rehabilitation strategies, recovery methods, and coping with travel demands. Read more
Welcome back to another monthly round up of recent research in the sports science world. This month we finally have some objective evidence on the use of high fat, low carbohydrate diets for elite athletes – perhaps this will lessen the debate, although I expect not. We also have a look at the training of elite endurance athletes, early versus late specialization in Olympic Athletes, sleep (as always), oxidative stress, and the use of hot baths after exercise, amongst others. Enjoy. Read more
When you watch rugby sevens it’s not going to surprise people to hear it’s the most physically demanding sport I have ever witnessed. Just look at a standard tournament: 6 14-minute matches over two days in hot conditions. Look at each match: players average 1.5 kilometers of ground covered at 115 meters/minute, along with many collisions and contacts thrown in. In each match players reach high acceleration speeds of over 8 meters/second several times. In simple terms, it’s a stressful sport with up to 14 minutes of maximal effort 6 times over two days. Most people who know the sport are familiar with this, however one hidden stressor added on top of all of this is the extreme travel involved with the Sevens World Series. Read more
