Striving for Excellence in Sport

The Update! Part 3

2011-04-18T15:07:00.001-07:00

As you can tell, I’ve been slacking here. Things have been really busy, and unfortunately, this fell to the bottom of the list. I’ve been swamped with new things going on- weightlifting, weights for ETSU Women’s tennis, my thesis, and a couple of side projects I may speak on at a later date. My first competition was in February, where I totaled a meager 227 kilograms (92 snatch, 135 C&J).

Methods for Athlete Tracking, Part 2

2010-10-18T18:25:00.000-07:00

Here is part 2 of Methods for Record Keeping: Others:1. Medicine Ball/Weight Throws for Distance: There are many variations of throws you can do here, such as behind the back, forward push toss, granny toss, and side tosses.2. Jumping Movements: Standing Broad Jump, Vertical Jump (Vertec or Jump Mats). Source:http://www.examiner.com/images/blog/replicate/EXID58202/images/

The Update! Part 2

2010-10-15T07:47:00.000-07:00

It has been a breath of fresh air here at ETSU in the Sport Science program. I finished up my bachelor’s degree last year in a program that was mostly geared toward health and wellness. Unfortunately, this is far from my interests, and I found myself in a place that was not an ideal fit for me. This is not to say that my previous program isn’t up to par. That is far from the case. I built a

Methods for Athlete Tracking, Part 1

2010-10-13T18:25:00.000-07:00

In my last blog post, I gave you strong reasons why you should be keeping records. In this post, I will give you a slew of ways that you can keep track of records. Hopefully you can use a few of them! Keep in mind this is far from exhaustive. These are but a few of seemingly infinite ways you can track training. Subjective and Self-Reported Measures:1. Regular Surveys: (i.e. Ask about

On Record Keeping

2010-10-07T09:53:00.000-07:00

One of the most important things you can do as a coach is keep records. You can keep track of attendance, RPE (rate of perceived exertion), training load, bat speed, playing minutes, the list goes on and on. Even something like writing daily comments about how the team and/or players are looking can serve an important purpose. Tracking these pieces of data can serve a few vitally important

We're on the same team

2010-09-22T08:08:00.000-07:00

A conversation I had with one my fellow grad students got me thinking. It is very easy some times to be frustrated with the training decisions of sport coaches. Coaches may train their athletes with a frighteningly high volume of plyometrics, or run mile repeats the day before a competition. These training decisions run contrary to what we believe are prudent training decisions, based upon

The Update!

2010-09-19T08:49:00.000-07:00

Well, this has been a long time coming. I have been extremely busy over the last few months, with the big move and all. For those who don't know, I moved across the country from California to Johnson City, Tennessee to get my master's degree. "Why in the world would he move to Tennessee?" you might ask. I chose to move here to join a program that is centered around Sports Science. When I was

Setting the Pace

2010-05-26T08:10:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I made the mistake of not setting the correct pace and mindset for a client’s training session. My client is a 20 year old left tackle, who is getting ready for his move into another season of JC level football. We typically BS for a bit while he is foam rolling and stretching before his training, but this particular session, I told him about the crazy weekend I had flying out to an

The Combination of Coaching and Programming: Part 3

2010-05-12T08:34:00.000-07:00

Improving your programming This is part 3 of a 3-part series. You can find Part 1 here and Part 2 here. Improving your programming abilities are just as important as improving coaching. I don't know EVERYTHING that you need to become a better coach, but I can share the things that have helped make me better. Hopefully the topics I write in the following will help you as well. ASKING WHY:

A Great Way to Get Audiobooks Free

2010-05-06T19:30:00.000-07:00

I've been doing a lot of driving over the past few months, and I figure that if I'm by myself, it is just wasted time. To use the time wisely, I listen to audiobooks. Unfortunately, I am far from well-off enough to buy a new audiobook every time I go for a drive, so I tried to find ways to get them for either free or cheap that isn't unethical. Here is what I found: Local Library: I have

Great Quote

2010-05-05T10:02:00.000-07:00

Got this from an Alwyn Cosgrove Blog Posting: “We don’t rise to the level of our expectations – we fall to the level of our training” -Archilochus, Greek Soldier

The Combination of Coaching and Programming: Part 2

2010-04-28T13:43:00.000-07:00

Note: This article is in three parts. The first article looks at the relationship of the training plan and the way it is coached. The second article focuses on improving the coaching side of the process. You can find Part 1 here. The two sides of coaching that I talked about in Part 1 are both challenging to improve. Here is an outline of the ways that you can best improve on the coaching side

The Combination of Coaching and Programming: Part 1

2010-04-19T17:08:00.000-07:00

Note: This article is in three parts. The first article looks at the relationship of the training plan and the way it is coached. The second article focuses on improving both parts of the overall process. The third is coming soon. I’ve been lucky to work under a Head S&C coach that puts just as much focus on HOW he coaches as WHAT he coaches. His philosophy (I’m paraphrasing here) is that

First Post

2010-04-16T13:33:00.000-07:00

Here is the first post of my new blog. This will be a place for me to talk about the transition to graduate school and my experiences there, about strength and conditioning, sports science, powerlifting and just about anything related. I also want to keep my writing ability up. I am going to need to be able to write like a madman once I start in the fall, so I want to get those words going as