We’ll be taking a little detour from our usual suspects today. This will be a short article but one that is heart felt. Suicide is actually a growing problem, locally and globally. Suicide affects athletes. 0.1% of high school athletes commit suicide (look it up). The easiest (though not necessarily most effective) way to prevent(…)
Anyone who has exercised for a period of time has experienced a ‘high’ from it. The rush of endorphins that occurs during and shortly after activity is an inherent part of the work done and directly related to the level of intensity one can tolerate. The endocannabinoid system is a group of neuromodulatory ligands and(…)
For those of us that are involved in professional sport, managing the off-season and pre-season periods can be difficult at the best of times for the standard team or athlete competing from September – May. How much time an athlete needs in the off-season is always planned, but often comes down to subjective feelings of the athlete & coach,(…)
While religion and spirituality are generally taboo topics in medicine and sport, research into them is taking place and their effects being monitored. Larimore et al 2002 completed a literature review on the use of positive spirituality interventions with normal treatment. They conclude that there is a positive correlation between mental and physical health, most(…)
Our pro football expert Frederico kicks off his soccer series for us here. Freddy gives us a unique insight into his off-season/pre-season conditioning, taking us from the sunny beaches of Brazil to fitness testing and week 1-8 pre-season. Enjoy! — It is usually a good idea to do some kind of training during the few weeks of off-season.(…)
We have written a little about LTAD, however we haven’t yet posted on motor-skills training for U8 – U12. Motor-skills training should target (static & dynamic) balance, reaction time (using visual, audible and physical cues), speed & agility (preferably non-predictive), upper/lower body co-ordination and dissociation, strength (full body weight), leg & hand speed and proprioception. Moreover, I(…)
Fedewa and Ahn 2011 completed a meta-analysis of 59 studies from 1947 through to 2009. Over 200 different metrics were used through the studies however the conclusion was clear. Physical activity, exercise, organized games, free play and all other forms of movement have small but measurable effects on children’s attention, cognition, stress, mental health, memory(…)