The world is filled with thousands of gadgets that claim to improve your speed and acceleration, but which ones actually deliver?

By Matt Solomon
Last updated: February 29th, 2024
3 min read

Speed training: How technology can help

The world is filled with thousands of gadgets that claim to improve your speed and acceleration, but which ones bring you million-dollar speed, and which just cost a million dollars?
In episode 82 of the Science for Sport podcast, Matt Tometz, Sport Science Coordinator at TCBoost Performance, divulges some industry secrets, letting you in on the cutting edge technology which is making a difference at the highest levels of sport.

First things first though – why is speed the most desired and famed physical trait? It may seem intuitive that speed changes games, wins tournaments, and defines careers, but it is also a gateway into pro sports.

“A high school baseball player who trains with us has been chatting with professional scouts, and they said that they’ll consider drafting him if he can drop his 40m sprint time. Not hit more homers, not get his arm stronger for throwing the baseball – ‘drop your 40’,” Tometz said.

So now we know speed is vital in many sports. And obviously tech can play a massive role in shaving milliseconds off your sprint time, but when it comes to technology, where do you start?
“You can get [something] as simple as Kinogram from Altis. This is a series of five pictures of someone’s sprinting technique, which just uses the slo-mo function on a phone. Although that’s not specifically measuring speed, you can just use your phone to [work out] ‘has our technique improved’?” Tometz said.

What else do you need for your speed training?

The next logical step is to get your hands on some timing gates. These are typically lasers that give you the exact time you break the beam at both the start and the end of your sprint. These are the ones that beep incessantly when they’re not working – that horrible, high-pitched noise you hear in your sleep three days after testing. Yeah, those.

“We need to be measuring speed. Now there are so many different lasers out there. We’re fortunate to have fusion smart speed lasers, so that’s a little bit higher end. There’s also stuff like Freelap, Brower, everything in between,” Tometz said.

Timing gates are the bread and butter of speed tech, but if you want to take things up a notch, there’s one piece of kit Tometz can’t live without.

“If I had unlimited money, I would use 1080 Sprint, because it spits out time, velocity, force, and power. The graph plots every step over time – it is how you run. So I can specifically say, ‘Oh, it was your fourth step that the curve kind of flattened out’,” Tometz said.

Obviously, 1080 Sprint sounds fantastic and futuristic, but what on earth is it?
“So it’s a linear transducer. Which basically measures how fast the string comes out of the machine. And that’s how it measures all of those metrics. But also one of the main selling points is that you can get super specific with the resistance, down to the 10th of a kilogram,” Tometz said.

A swift Google search will show you the 1080 Sprint will set you back north of $18,000 (USD). So if you need to have next-level precision in your sprint training, you’ll have to put your hand in your pocket.

More tips and tricks for speed training

Tometz goes on to discuss how he translates all of this great data into improved training and performance – if you want to hear more, just hit the link to the podcast below.

You can download the podcast on any of the big hosting services, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify, or just use this link: https://scienceforsport.fireside.fm/82
Don’t forget to hit the subscribe button and be sure to give us a review and rating too!

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Matt Solomon

Matt is a strength and conditioning coach at Team NL (Dutch Olympic Team). He was also the Lead Academy Sports Scientist/Strength and Conditioning coach at Al Shabab Al Arabi FC. For Science for Sport, Matt works as the group manager for the Coaches Club and is the host of the Science for Sport Podcast.

More content by Matt

The post Speed training: How tech can help you get faster, quickly appeared first on Science for Sport.

There are some risks involved with weight cutting, but a leading performance nutritionist says there are ways to do it safely. Here, he shares his secrets.

By Matt Solomon
Last updated: February 29th, 2024
4 min read

Weight cutting tips: Secrets of a performance nutritionist

Have you ever wondered how fighters lose incredible amounts of weight just hours before the most important bouts of their lives? In episode 67 of the Science for Sport Podcast, Dr. James Morehen, a leading performance nutritionist, shares the secrets behind the seemingly impossible weight loss demonstrated by elite fighters.

The podcast contains a gold mine of advice that both coaches and athletes involved in weight-making sports need to hear, including the key goals during cutting and the risks associated with it. Morehen goes on to provide fantastic, scientifically-backed recommendations, which all athletes involved in these sports should be paying attention to.

First of all, why do some athletes cut weight? It does bring with it some advantages, Morehen said. He stated that taller fighters in particular believe it allows them to compete in a weight class against potentially smaller opponents.

“Certainly for fighters that are taller, and make a weight that is below where they should be for their height, they feel that cutting can give an advantage in the ring,” Morehen said.

Short-term and long-term impacts

That said, it could become dangerous if the fighter tries to lose too much weight too quickly, or is poorly supervised. There is even emerging evidence that those who cut weight during their athletic careers gain weight quicker in later life. This of course can have larger long-term health consequences.

Despite the potential risks, weight cutting is still commonplace and in the fighting world, the last seven days of the fight camp are probably the most interesting when it comes to looking at diet. Even though most of the hard work is done in the weeks preceding this, and the athlete likely being close to fighting weight, the last days are make-or-break when it comes to weighing in for a fight.

According to Morehen, research suggests that during the last 72 hours before a bout, fighters can safely lose a whopping 5% of their body weight. The heavyweight boxing category starts at 200lbs (90.71kg), and this means that a heavyweight could safely be losing upwards of 10lbs (4.54kg) in the three days preceding a fight. But with such drastic fluctuations, how do you do that safely?

The ins and outs of making weight

Morehen provides some excellent research-driven insights into how this is possible.

Firstly, fighters might want to ‘manipulate their gut content’, which is a polite way of saying they’ll be sitting on the toilet for a while to get rid of the food they’ve eaten. To do this effectively it is recommended to reduce fibre intake, and consume high GI (glycaemic index) carbohydrates. The glycaemic index is a measure of how quickly carbs cause your blood sugar to rise, with higher scores given to foods that cause a sharp rise in blood sugar.

A practical recommendation might be that the athlete consumes a sugary drink containing 50g of carbs, instead of eating 50g of carbs found in a baked potato. In this case, the fighter gets the same amount of carbs in, but the body removes the liquid drink faster than the solid baked potato. It is possible to lose 1-2% body weight in a day using this technique.

MORE: A complete guide to making weight safely
Manipulating the carbohydrate intake for the athlete might also be a useful way to tip the scales in their favour. Simply put, the body stores carbohydrates in the muscle in the form of glycogen. This glycogen binds to water in the muscle for storage and this water and glycogen combination can be heavy. Therefore lowering muscle glycogen levels through reduced carbohydrate intake could also help when looking to lose those last few grams.

“Some of my rugby players at Warrington, they used to lose around 2.5kg in a game without even thinking about it. But I would never say they were forcibly dehydrating, it was just part of playing rugby,” Morehen said.

On the morning of a fight, the athlete could wake up and still need to lose some extra weight, and this is traditionally done by deliberately dehydrating themselves to a small degree – it is reasonable to lose 2-3% of body weight in this way. To put this into context, professional rugby players could easily lose 2.5kg of water in a game. So a 2-3% reduction in body weight is not a massive stress on the body.

More practical recommendations on weight cutting

Morehen uses the example of British super-middleweight Rocky Fielding who in the last 72h of his preparation for his world title fight lost 4kg, and on the morning of the fight still needed to lose the last 1kg. The pressure was on to ensure that he was ready to weigh in. To achieve his 1kg weight loss, he took a 15-minute run wearing a sweat suit, in 30-degree heat. This removed the last 1kg and helped Rocky to win the world title.

These great practical recommendations are just a fraction of the podcast, if you want to get more great tips and hear the full story, you need to download the podcast now!
You can download the podcast on any of the big hosting services, including Apple podcasts and Spotify, or just use this link: https://scienceforsport.fireside.fm/67
Don’t forget to hit the subscribe button and be sure to give us a review and rating too!

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Matt Solomon

Matt is a strength and conditioning coach at Team NL (Dutch Olympic Team). He was also the Lead Academy Sports Scientist/Strength and Conditioning coach at Al Shabab Al Arabi FC. For Science for Sport, Matt works as the group manager for the Coaches Club and is the host of the Science for Sport Podcast.

More content by Matt

The post Weight cutting tips: Nutrition secrets you need to know appeared first on Science for Sport.

There are myriad pain points in the high-performance sport industry but there are several strategies you can use to significantly improve your happiness, health, and job satisfaction.

By Matt Solomon
Last updated: March 1st, 2024
4 min read

Wellness in sports: Pain points and solutions

Have you struggled to find happiness in your work? Are you no longer the same person with the same verve and passion that you used to have? It happens to the absolute best of high-performance practitioners.

If you have neglected your health, happiness and wealth and want to improve those areas, you need to listen to episode 87 of the Science for Sport Podcast.
In this episode, Josh Fletcher, founder of CareerBlueprint, highlights the pain points of the high-performance sport industry and how you can make the necessary changes to significantly improve your happiness, health, and job satisfaction.

Fletcher, who worked for years in high-pressure roles including a project with a special forces unit in Romania, eventually reached a breaking point and he decided to take a step back. He realised he needed to concentrate on his wellbeing. With so many other high-performance practitioners going through similar battles, the idea of his new business was born.

No practitioner sets career goals of poor health, unhappiness, and fun-crushing bills. So how does it happen?
“The analogy I like to use is the world’s slowest train crash that everybody else can see coming, apart from you,” Fletcher said.

So if everyone else can see it, what are the signs to look out for? This is where athletes, coaches, colleagues and family all need to pay attention.

“Are they giving energy or taking energy, the general body language, the type of words, the language that they use, their physical appearance, the terminology they use, their availability and engagement,” Fletcher said.

The importance of a healthy environment

This is a great list, but the difficulty comes when the person in question doesn’t have a support structure they can trust. Creating this environment can be the first step to changing your health and happiness.

“You have a responsibility for yourself to create an environment where people can talk openly about these things,” Fletcher said.

So opening up to share your thoughts and feelings with trusted members of your inner circle might help remove some of the weight from your shoulders, but when it comes to really improving your situation, what are the key changes you need to make?
“Journaling is a huge way that a lot of people are looking after themselves,” Fletcher said.

This is a super interesting and cost-effective way of looking after yourself – writing your thoughts down allows you to process the information in your head. But instead of just projectile vomiting your life onto a helpless piece of A5, you’ll need to work out a structure.

“What works for Boris doesn’t work for Doris. Your wellness and your wellbeing are bespoke, and that’s why I’m encouraging people to create their own system and structure, based on some sound principles,” Fletcher said.

Three key questions you need to ask

Fletcher says there are three key questions you need to ask to help structure your thoughts and ensure you get more out of your journaling experience.

Combining the above questions with goal setting is where the magic really starts to happen
“You can combine this with basic things like goal setting. So essentially, you’re looking at short, medium, and long-term,” Fletcher said.

It would be simple to start setting goals for one week, four weeks, six months, and one year. Then look longer towards three or even 10-year goals.

This potent combination of reflective questioning and goal setting can highlight any discrepancies in your work-life balance.

The most important question you can then ask yourself is whether you are executing your decisions based on your goals.

“Are my decisions and my guiding principles in line with my short and long-term goals?” Fletcher said.

Wellness in sports – there’s no quick fixes

So there you have it – a cheap, simple, and effective way to improve your health and wellness. No shiny tricks or quick fixes, just an honest look at yourself and your situation, coupled with simple goal setting and the self-reflection to work out whether your actions are matching your goals.

If you want to hear more about how to improve your health wellness and happiness, or how you can help others around you, be sure to check out the full podcast episode using the link below.

You can download the podcast on any of the big hosting services, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify, or just use this link: https://scienceforsport.fireside.fm/87
Don’t forget to hit the subscribe button and be sure to give us a review and rating too!

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Matt Solomon

Matt is a strength and conditioning coach at Team NL (Dutch Olympic Team). He was also the Lead Academy Sports Scientist/Strength and Conditioning coach at Al Shabab Al Arabi FC. For Science for Sport, Matt works as the group manager for the Coaches Club and is the host of the Science for Sport Podcast.

More content by Matt

The post Wellness in sports: How to prioritise and maximise your mental health appeared first on Science for Sport.

Mental toughness rarely comes naturally but it is a vital part to sports performance. Zion Clark is one athlete who has learnt the hard way to overcome some serious obstacles.

By Matt Solomon
Last updated: February 29th, 2024
4 min read

Mental toughness: One man’s guide

Lacking motivation for your workout? Take a lesson from one of the world’s most impressive athletes, who smashes through obstacles, breaks world records and never makes excuses.

In Science for Sport Podcast episode 81, Zion Clark, athlete, motivational speaker and children’s author, discusses the obstacles he has overcome, and how he uses the phrase ‘No Excuses’ as his life motto.

Clark was born with Caudal Regression Syndrome – which means he was born without legs. His biological mother couldn’t care for him, and he battled through the American foster care system.

Though growing up in that environment might have been enough to break most people, Clark has demonstrated fantastic mental toughness and resilience, partly due to lessons he learned as a high-school wrestler.

During a big event, with the odds against him, his coach helped to change his mentality forever.

“My coach grabbed me by my shirt and said ‘you don’t have an excuse’ – you battled this far. You can finish it through – no excuses,” Clark said.

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Growing mental toughness from challenges

These simple words were enough to inspire Clark to win in dramatic fashion. But those words left a legacy longer than just a single win.

“That’s what did it for me. I went out there and this guy tried to jump over me to take me down – I caught him mid-air by his legs, got the takedown, and won the match. I was the victor. Ever since then, I’ve adopted that mentality,” Clark said.

Alongside wrestling, Clark took up track and field, inspired by the results of his sister.

“She had completely destroyed the state record and won a state title in the long jump. And just I fed off that energy – I was just like, ‘that’s my sister, that’s my family’. I’ve got to do something like track and field, this thing is cool,” he said.

MORE: THREE LESSONS ANY ATHLETE CAN LEARN FROM PARALYMPIANS
Clark took to track and field like a duck to water, and while the training sessions were gruelling, he was able to rely on the mental toughness he had built up through his wrestling experience.

“When I’m covered in blood, breathing hard, throwing up, or nearly passing out because I work so hard … I am used to it,” he said.

Extra tips to help boost your mental toughness

Learning to push your body that hard requires some serious motivation and dedication, plus of course a next-level pain threshold. So where does all that motivation go on an average training day? Well, brace yourself for a mad schedule.

“I wake up, I go to practice for about two, two-and-a half hours, maybe three. Then I’ll go to the gym and I’ll get a lift in or I’ll do some extra conditioning and then I rest up, fuel up, and I’ll probably have another workout later that evening,” Clark said.

So that’s at least one technical and one strength and/or conditioning training in the same day, alongside all his other commitments. This might seem like a mad schedule, but it’s what Clark feels he needs to do to make it at the top in both life and sport.

If you’re feeling lazy, you’re not the only one, but the good news is you can take a lesson from both Clark and his wrestling coach. So next time your training session is in doubt, or you don’t want to haul your lazy ass to the gym, just remember what Clark would say: No excuses.

If you want to hear more from Clark, like exactly how he trains in the gym, how he broke a world record, and how he uses sport science to take his performance to the next level, just hit the link below to listen to the full podcast!
You can download the podcast on any of the big hosting services, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify, or just use this link: https://scienceforsport.fireside.fm/81
Don’t forget to hit the subscribe button and be sure to give us a review and rating too!

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Matt Solomon

Matt is a strength and conditioning coach at Team NL (Dutch Olympic Team). He was also the Lead Academy Sports Scientist/Strength and Conditioning coach at Al Shabab Al Arabi FC. For Science for Sport, Matt works as the group manager for the Coaches Club and is the host of the Science for Sport Podcast.

More content by Matt

The post Mental toughness: An inspirational guide to overcoming obstacles appeared first on Science for Sport.

Adding what is called the ‘anaerobic speed reserve’ to your aerobic test data can help take athletes’ conditioning to the next level.

By Matt Solomon
Last updated: March 1st, 2024
4 min read

Anaerobic speed reserve: Your secret conditioning weapon?

We all know you need a seriously beefy engine to drive team sport performance, but building it can be really complex. So if you’re fed up with feeling like you’re about to throw up during your conditioning drills, you need to listen to episode 77 of the Science for Sport Podcast.

In this episode, world-renowned sports scientist Martin Buchheit reveals how you can plan conditioning sessions with sniper-like precision, so you can show your quality for the full match and, if necessary, beyond.

Traditional conditioning training may involve a test of aerobic or intermittent performance, followed by a training prescription based on the individual athlete’s data. This, my friends, no longer cuts the mustard. The problem is that an athlete’s maximum sprint speed (MSS) influences anaerobic performance significantly.

Buchheit advocates adding what is called the ‘anaerobic speed reserve’ to your aerobic test data, and interestingly, according to Buchheit, coaches have been subconsciously doing this for decades already.

“It’s something that looks new for some people, but it’s been in the air for a while. I think for track and field coaches, [they knew about it] about 100 years ago,” Buchheit said.

Some important definitions

Before we get into some fantastic physiology, we need to take on board some important definitions, which help to frame the discussion:

• Maximal Aerobic Speed (MAS): The slowest speed an athlete will achieve their V02 max 
• Maximum Sprint Speed (MSS): The maximum speed an athlete can sprint
• Anaerobic Speed Reserve (ASR): Reserve of speed between the MAS and MSS

To explain this using a metaphor, Buchheit tells us to imagine a glass of water. If you fill the glass up to just above half with water, you’ll have your MAS. Now add in oil, which sits on top of the water – that’s your Anaerobic Speed Reserve. The top of the oil would be your MSS. Luckily, he’s a great sports scientist – he’d make a terrible barman.

Putting some numbers on this, let’s say that your MAS was 18km/h, and your MSS was 30km/h.

“The amount of oil between 18-30km/h — the amount of oil you could put in — is the ASR,” Buchheit said.

The-all important data

So, how can you get data to plot?

Well, this is fairly simple – testing for max speed just requires some timing gates and a distance between 30-60m. In this test, you simply run as fast as possible to get your MSS. For MAS, you can easily use a 1,500-2,000m time trial, where you run this distance as fast as possible too. Taking the speeds of these tests will allow you to create a bar chart (figure 1) and start to compare to your previous results, or to other athletes. This is where it gets interesting.

A practical example

Some athletes may have the same MAS scores, but differing MSS. Let’s take the example of two athletes (for fun, let’s call them James de Lacey, my Science for Sport colleague, and me, Matt Solomon), both with a MAS of 18km/h. James has an MSS of 30km/h, Matt of 36km/h. These athletes have an ASR of 12km/h and 18km/h, respectively.

If you prescribed conditioning training based solely on their MAS scores, James would have to work closer to their maximal sprint speed than Matt. This causes an issue because either James is working way too hard, or Matt is sauntering around with no difficulty at all. By allowing for their ASR, coaches can optimise an athlete’s conditioning work.

Let’s take the following practical examples:

• Example 1: Coach prescribes running at 120% MAS. For both James and Matt, this is 21.6km/h.
• Example 2: Coach prescribes running at 100% MAS + 20% ASR. James runs at 20.4km/h and Matt runs at 21.6km/h.

In this example, we can see allowing for the ASR has meant James no longer overworks during their conditioning training.

“Instead of prescribing intervals based only on percentages of MAS, we can now prescribe intervals based on the percentage of the reserve. Instead of doing 15s of work of 120% MAS, we can probably do it at 20% of the ASR. And a player with a greater reserve will do more work than or run at a higher speed than another athlete with the same MAS but a smaller reserve,” Buchheit said.

All you need to know about the anaerobic speed reserve

Buchheit goes on to discuss how you can group athletes based on their profiles, link this to muscle fibre type, and subsequently how you can adjust the conditioning work you do to the type of athlete. This is a really important consideration for anyone working in team sports, who have a large range of athlete types.

If you want to hear how you can take the ASR a notch further, listen to the whole podcast with Buchheit using the link below.

You can download the podcast on any of the big hosting services, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify, or just use this link: https://scienceforsport.fireside.fm/77

Don’t forget to hit the subscribe button and be sure to give us a review and rating too!

Matt Solomon

Matt is a strength and conditioning coach at Team NL (Dutch Olympic Team). He was also the Lead Academy Sports Scientist/Strength and Conditioning coach at Al Shabab Al Arabi FC. For Science for Sport, Matt works as the group manager for the Coaches Club and is the host of the Science for Sport Podcast.

More content by Matt

The post Anaerobic speed reserve: A secret weapon to optimise conditioning? appeared first on Science for Sport.

Fascia link muscles all over the body and they seem to have a massive role in human movement, even if our understanding is still incomplete. But is it possible to train with these tissues in mind? And if we do, will it improve performance?

By Matt Solomon
Last updated: February 29th, 2024
4 min read

Fascia: What are they, and can they help improve your training?

Fun fact: Fascia link muscles all over the body. This mysterious and under-researched tissue is often overlooked, with our understanding of how it works just emerging.

So can you risk not considering it in athletic performance? Or is it just another useless piece of information you need to forget ASAP?
To answer that question, we asked Danny Foley, strength and conditioning coach at Virginia High Performance, to join us on the Science for Sport Podcast.

In episode 105, Foley describes how he uses a fascia-focused approach to get special forces personnel in top shape, ready for deployment.

What do fascia actually do?

Before we get into the nitty-gritty of training prescription, however, it’s important to work out what fascia actually are.

You might remember from an anatomy class a long time ago that fascia is a thin connective tissue that covers the muscle. But it is much more than just a turtleneck for your biceps.

“This is one integrated piece that really encompasses everything from head to toe. So we have fascia that encases muscles, nerve fibres, vessels … literally everything,” Foley said.

So fascia are all over the body, wrapping your insides, but what do they actually do?
“In addition to being a global connective tissue, it is also a major sensory and receptor network. For that reason, I think it’s probably got a little bit more importance or significance than we’ve conventionally thought,” Foley said.

The role of fascia on movement and training

So it sounds like we should be paying this more attention, but what about its influence on movement?
“It’s also a fibro-elastic connective tissue that plays a significant role with posture and movement – it’s really a dynamic tissue. The fascia network in my mind is what humanises our movement,” Foley said.

So the fascia are tissues that seem to have a massive role in human movement, even if our understanding is still incomplete. But with what we do know, is it possible to train with these tissues in mind? And if we do, will it improve performance?
Foley thinks so. But there’s no need to overhaul all of your training methods.

“It’s not a matter of doing completely different things, but rather just doing some things differently,” Foley said.

“Predominantly, we’re going to move away from bilateral stances. I think that especially as athletes continue to progress throughout their career, bilateral, symmetrical loading with high constraint and high external stability just has a really low level of return.”
So this means plenty of unilateral and split stance exercises are on the menu when Foley is cooking up a storm in the gym. The direction of movement also plays an important role in his training.

“Moving in multiple directions and emphasising omnidirectional movement is important. This is another way of saying breaking out of your traditional three cardinal planes [Sagittal, Frontal, Transverse],” Foley said.

According to Foley then, we can create fascia-focused training by stepping away from bilateral lifts, in just one plane of movement, and instead pay more attention to working on one leg, across a range of different movement vectors. But how much weight should be on the bar? Do we need to load these tissues up or do they fare better with lighter weights?
“Collectively, it’s not as much of a pursuit of maximal loading. What I’m more interested in is kind of that 65 to 85% range where we’re moving the weight with high intent,” Foley said.

The full story of fascia and sports performance

So there you have it, Foley presents a case that fascia are a super interesting albeit under-researched tissue, with loads of potential. You can train them by moving away from heavy bilateral exercises, and replacing these with lighter, unilateral variations across many planes of movement.

If you want to hear exactly how Foley programs fascia-focused training, using novel methods like offset loading, listen to the full podcast using the link below.

You can download the podcast on any of the big hosting services, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify, or just use this link: https://scienceforsport.fireside.fm/105
Don’t forget to hit the subscribe button and be sure to give us a review and rating too!

Matt Solomon

Matt is a strength and conditioning coach at Team NL (Dutch Olympic Team). He was also the Lead Academy Sports Scientist/Strength and Conditioning coach at Al Shabab Al Arabi FC. For Science for Sport, Matt works as the group manager for the Coaches Club and is the host of the Science for Sport Podcast.

More content by Matt

The post Are fascia the missing link in sport performance? appeared first on Science for Sport.

To jump higher and run faster than ever before, the first step is to make an individual profile of your force and velocity. But how on earth do you get your profile?

By Matt Solomon
Last updated: February 29th, 2024
3 min read

Power development: How one simple test can help

You can use one simple test to take your explosive power to the next level, and all you need to know is in episode 70 of the Science for Sport Podcast.

In this episode, world-renowned researcher JB Morin discusses how you can use a simple phone app to optimise your training, upgrade your sprinting and start dunking on your pals.

To jump higher and run faster than ever before, you will need to make an individual profile of your force and velocity, and based on the results, focus with laser-like precision on what will make you better.

So importantly, how on earth do you get your profile? Well, unless you’re an elite athlete who has access to all of the world’s top gadgets like force plates, you can make do with the easy-to-use phone app ‘My Jump 2’.

The importance of the force-velocity profile

Exactly how you use the app is outside the scope of the article and podcast, but if you’re interested, check out episode 55 of the Science for Sport Podcast, where the app’s creator, Carlos Balsalobre, discusses it in detail.

Simply put, you will need to perform several exercises with increasing resistance. Let’s take the example of a jump. As physicist and healthy eating advocate Sir Isaac Newton helped us to understand: as things get heavier, movement gets slower. This means as you add weight to the movement, for example, by using a bar and plates, the app will track you getting slower.

After completing a number of jumps, you can start to plot a line of force (weight) vs. velocity. Ultimately, it is this which can help you to work out where to focus your training
“With a force-velocity profile, you’re going to track, for a given athlete, where the weaknesses are, and where is the margin for change and improvement,” Morin said.

When you have your well-determined line, you can use it to work out where there is the greatest room for improvement. To calculate precisely whether you are better off attacking the force or velocity end of the spectrum, Morin himself has produced some excellent spreadsheets. When you’ve done the math, you’ll know exactly where your focus needs to be.

According to Morin, even the most elite athletes can find areas of weakness using this method.

“Believe me, even elite people still have some margin of improvement,” Morin said.

Reacting to what the data tells you

So let’s say the data tells you that if you want to dunk like prime Michael Jordan, you need to improve your force production. Well, that’s simple, you need to train for maximum strength. This doesn’t mean stop everything else and train like a powerlifter – far from it. Morin believes that it just needs to be a small adjustment to your training.

“It does not mean that if you have a force deficit, then your everyday life is about force output – this is not the reality of training,” Morin said.

With that in mind, it may just mean that you take one or two opportunities per week to lift some heavier weights while still maintaining your other training types. In a practical scenario, you might build up from lighter to heavier weights or adjust your exercise selection to allow for more weight to be lifted. However, to do it, you will need to lift some heavy stuff.

“There are not a million ways to improve force output, it’s not by lifting light or running long – you’re going to have to lift heavy,” Morin said.

Want to know more about force production?

So that’s it, all you now need to do is listen to the podcast, download the app, and you can start training to rocket your explosive performance.

You can download the podcast on any of the big hosting services, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify, or just use this link: https://scienceforsport.fireside.fm/70
Don’t forget to hit the subscribe button and be sure to give us a review and rating, too.

Matt Solomon

Matt is a strength and conditioning coach at Team NL (Dutch Olympic Team). He was also the Lead Academy Sports Scientist/Strength and Conditioning coach at Al Shabab Al Arabi FC. For Science for Sport, Matt works as the group manager for the Coaches Club and is the host of the Science for Sport Podcast.

More content by Matt

The post Power development: How one simple test can take you to the next level appeared first on Science for Sport.

NBA players play multiple games every week through the season, not to mention practice, travel, recovery and many other commitments. So how do they fit in their S&C work?

By Matt Solomon
Last updated: March 1st, 2024
4 min read

How can you fit in S&C when your game schedule is non-stop?

Have you got a crazy match schedule and have no idea how to fit it all in? Need to keep your strength up, but also have to perform multiple times per week? This is the exact problem facing NBA superstars.

If you need to solve your mad training and match demand issues, you could take a lesson from these top performers. To do it, all you have to do is crack on episode 86 of the Science for Sport Podcast.

In this episode, Brady Howe, Director of Performance and Health at the Phoenix Suns, gives us a behind-the-scenes glimpse at how he gets the best out of these elite performers despite challenging game and training loads.

But what exactly are we dealing with in the NBA? Prepare yourself … I did say crazy.

“There can be anywhere from 85 to 100-plus games over a six-to-nine-month season, depending on how far you go into the playoffs. So within a month, you’re looking at 14 to 16 games, which essentially equates to playing every other day,” Howe said.

But it’s not just the games and travel, there are plenty of other commitments. On an unrelated note – if any NBA athletes fancy throwing some Airmiles my way, just let me know.

“These guys have to do training regimens, treatments, recovery sessions, team practice, shootarounds, and of course everyday life, which is a little different for them as well,” Howe said.

Get creative with some microdosing

So when it comes to training, you’d be forgiven for thinking they just don’t have the time or energy, but that’s where the coaching staff have to get clever.

“So this is where you have to get ultimately creative, and the term that comes to mind is microdosing,” Howe said.

If microdosing sounds like a fancy training word made up to make coaches sound clever, it is. Microdosing just means giving small doses of stimuli throughout the day or week, smaller than a regular gym session, but enough to make a small positive difference. Accumulating these small positives leads to bigger wins.

But how do you go about doing this when there are training sessions and games?
“These guys, some of them are finding two or three windows over a game day to get these microdosing sessions in. They might come in and do something very short and sweet post-game. There might be the same type of a short and sweet session pre-game or the morning of game day,” Howe said.

Don’t forget about the power of isometrics

So there you have it – the morning of the game, before the game, and even after the game itself. These guys are stepping off-court, breathless, dripping with sweat, and then go tear things up in the gym. Feeling lazy yet? I am.

So what are these beasts doing in the gym? Well, one option is isometric training. Isometric just means the muscle doesn’t change length during the movement. For example a wall sit (where you sit against a wall and stay there as if you were sitting on a chair).

“One of those things that we do add for our guys is isometric training,” Howe said.

Why bother with isometric holds? Well, there may be a range of benefits, but Howe focuses on creating a robust athlete.

“Isometric holds are an extremely healthy and viable option for everyone looking to build a robust system or improve our physical qualities,” Howe said.

Howe uses the example of a wall sit as a super simple exercise that he programs at the Suns, but he prescribes it differently, depending on the athlete.

“You might have one 60-second hold for a player who’s been playing a lot of games, a lot of minutes recently, whereas a player who hasn’t been playing as many, he’s going to have a longer session. He might be prescribed three or four sets,” Howe said.

Just find a way to do the work!

So the morale of this story is, the best basketball athletes in the world just find a way to get it done. Through microdosing physical training throughout the day and week, they can get enough training to ensure they perform optimally through a grueling season.

If you want to find out more about how Howe uses these training principles, as well as how he programs ‘active foot’ training, check out episode 86 of the Science for Sport Podcast using the link below.

You can download the podcast on any of the big hosting services, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify, or just use this link: https://scienceforsport.fireside.fm/86
Don’t forget to hit the subscribe button and be sure to give us a review and rating too!

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Matt Solomon

Matt is a strength and conditioning coach at Team NL (Dutch Olympic Team). He was also the Lead Academy Sports Scientist/Strength and Conditioning coach at Al Shabab Al Arabi FC. For Science for Sport, Matt works as the group manager for the Coaches Club and is the host of the Science for Sport Podcast.

More content by Matt

The post NBA training secrets: How the world’s biggest and best balance training and games appeared first on Science for Sport.

High-performance teams are only for the elite level of sport, right? Wrong. You can actually build some great systems for peanuts, even at the lowest levels of sport.

By Matt Solomon
Last updated: February 29th, 2024
1 min read

High-performance teams: Only for elite sport?

Even amateur-level teams are looking to get the edge on their opponents – ideally, with the smallest possible price tag. The secret most clubs don’t know is that you can do this for peanuts, even at the lowest levels of sport.

In episode 100 of the Science for Sport Podcast, sport science legend Dave Tenney joined us to share his one-of-a-kind experience in team infrastructure innovations.

Tenney has worked with a range of professional organisations including the NBA’s Orlando Magic, and the MLS’ Seattle Sounders. He is currently Director of Performance at Austin FC.

Uniquely, Austin FC has just been formed, and Tenney played a pivotal role in the development of its sports performance department. If you want to hear the full story on that, you’ll need to check out the full episode.

During the podcast, Tenney let us in on key performance aspects that any team can improve by adjusting their systems and processes, regardless of whether they have a $40 million training facility like him, or if they train on a cow field the local farmer has lent them.

The importance of strength & conditioning

His first recommendation is the prioritisation of strength training. This appears to still be a debate even at top clubs, but one thing is for sure: at the lowest levels, the local Lionel Messi can make more impact with some additional strength.

“A lot of organisations have infrastructure issues because they’re not prioritising space for something like strength training,” Tenney said.

For professional teams with the cash to splurge on a nice gym, this is an easy solution, but for those that don’t have the backing of the latest Sheikh, there might be a simple solution.

Performing some on-pitch strength and conditioning work could be a simple way to make easy performance gains. This might take the form of some additional sprint work after the warm-up, or bodyweight exercises after the technical session. You could do this by using free resources on the web (cough, Science for Sport, cough).

For teams on a budget that want to take their performance up a notch, a trainer might be available in the local area to write a strength and power program for the whole team, and/or assist in some on-pitch work. The monthly cost could be as little as one post-match beer per person when split over a team.

On an even tighter budget, the local university might be able to offer students who can help for a fraction of the price of an experienced coach.

Invest in recovery

This appears to be an under-addressed area of performance, even at top teams.

“Most people above us [in the organisation] focus on the work being performed, and I think oftentimes they’re not really focusing on the recovery side,” Tenney said.

Recovery is essential if you want to perform at your best, we all know this and have heard it thousands of times. For elite teams, this might mean throwing cash at ice baths, compression boots, or napping rooms.

“Recovery is probably the area where I see the most innovation happening by practitioners,” Tenney said.

Obviously sleeping (get your eight hours) and eating like a grown-up are essential parts of the recovery process. This is true for any athlete at any level. But when you’re on a budget and can’t afford a chef, what are the possibilities?
Well in my experience of amateur sport, most post-match meals are deep-fried rubbish, which makes it hard to believe that clubs are taking the health, recovery, or performance of their players seriously. A simple adjustment here would be to make a home-cooked meal packed with carbs, protein, and some veggies. Everyone can make spaghetti bolognese, which begs the question: why aren’t Sunday league teams giving their players a good recovery meal?

Another option could be the addition of a cool down after the game – most amateur teams skip this entirely, despite it being a great option to relax the players and maybe even improve performance aspects like mobility.

As most trends trickle down to amateur sport, it seems like the renewed focus on recovery at the highest level might find its way to your local club sooner rather than later.

“A lot of the innovation I see is how teams are using infrastructure to create recovery spaces,” Tenney said.

Just don’t expect the latest state-of-the-art facilities like Dave has at his disposal.

Some more tricks of the trade

If you want to hear more budget-busting tips and how Dave developed a high-performance department from scratch, hit the link below to listen to episode 100 of the Science for Sport Podcast.

You can download the podcast on any of the big hosting services, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify, or just use this link: https://scienceforsport.fireside.fm/100
Don’t forget to hit the subscribe button and be sure to give us a review and rating too!

[optin-monster slug=”nhpxak0baeqvjdeila6a”]

Matt Solomon

Matt is a strength and conditioning coach at Team NL (Dutch Olympic Team). He was also the Lead Academy Sports Scientist/Strength and Conditioning coach at Al Shabab Al Arabi FC. For Science for Sport, Matt works as the group manager for the Coaches Club and is the host of the Science for Sport Podcast.

More content by Matt

The post How to unlock high performance on a budget appeared first on Science for Sport.

Concussion is an ever-growing area of concern in many collision sports, but cutting-edge mouthguard technology is being developed in the hope of helping prevent or minimise head trauma.

By Matt Solomon
Last updated: February 29th, 2024
4 min read

Concussion technology – the mouthguards hoping to protect athletes

Massive hits are part of the adrenaline-filled entertainment package that many people love seeing in contact sports. These impacts have been par for the course in combat and field sports for many years but increasing evidence shows serious long-term effects of these impacts. Research suggests that repeated concussions can lead to issues with memory and fine motor coordination.

It is therefore imperative that clubs and organisations better measure these impacts for the health and safety of their players.

That’s why we got Chris Turner (CEO of Sport & Wellbeing Analytics) and Eoin Power (Head of Medical Services at Gloucester Rugby) on episode 95 of the Science for Sport Podcast.

Turner and Power combine years of experience in sport technology with practical advice from the top level of rugby to discuss how player health and performance can be improved with cutting-edge mouthguard technology.

It’s all about the accelerometer chips…

Until recently, a mouthguard was just a piece of plastic that many of us all swiftly spat out during PE lessons as kids. But the pros certainly don’t.

But why did Turner choose the mouthguard in an attempt to improve athlete safety? Well, it turns out this is the perfect place to insert tiny accelerometer chips.

“Previous research used sensors in helmets to try and measure collisions. But the problem you’ve got is that the skin and the hair move independently of the skull,” Turner said.

This means that what a helmet accelerometer reads, and what actually happens, can be drastically different. But cometh the hour, cometh the sport tech.

“So inevitably, that leads to a mouthguard because when you put a mouthguard in, it’s anchored to the teeth and that’s anchored into the skull. And that therefore moves as one,” Turner said.

How this technology helps the pros, and one day amateurs, too

So, what does the mouthguard actually measure? Well, there are loads of potential options, but one simplified measure is ‘contact load’, where many variables are combined to give a total load of the impacts received.

“What we’re measuring is rotational acceleration, which is measured in rads per second, which is gobbledygook to most people. But it also measures linear acceleration in G forces. So we combine those two to create something called a contact load,” Turner said.

With the help of Power, these mouthguards and metrics are transforming the way top teams monitor head impacts in both training and matches. Power gives the example of one of Gloucester’s key players, and how they have adjusted his weekly contact load.

“If we are aware that on a Saturday he’s going to achieve X amount of contacts or X amount of contact load, we’re confident we can reduce his overall contact training from Monday to Friday, to try to keep him fresh. Just exposing him to that minimum dose-response before playing that game. So that’s a really, really useful kind of metric that we use,” Power said.

READ MORE: How can you fast-track your recovery after a concussion?
It’s not only used in player monitoring throughout the week but in rehabilitation, especially after a concussion.

“This software allows us to prescribe exact quantities of contact at incremental periods and add at incremental contact loads, optimising the rehab process,” Power said.

Unfortunately, this technology is not yet available for all levels of sport but provided it’s well researched, it may well be in the future.

“We must start at the right level in a very well-regulated, managed, and monitored environment. And only then do we bring it down to the kids, much as we would love to do that right now. It’s important to take it in the right order,” Turner said.

Is this the future of fighting concussion?

So there you have it, it could be the future of fighting concussion in combat and field sports. However, for now, it’s only available to the pros. But keep your eyes peeled in the future for its release at sub-elite levels.

If you want to hear more from Turner and Power about how these mouthguards are used at the highest level, hit the link to listen to the full podcast.

You can download the podcast on any of the big hosting services, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify, or just use this link: https://scienceforsport.fireside.fm/89
Don’t forget to hit the subscribe button and be sure to give us a review and rating too!

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Matt Solomon

Matt is a strength and conditioning coach at Team NL (Dutch Olympic Team). He was also the Lead Academy Sports Scientist/Strength and Conditioning coach at Al Shabab Al Arabi FC. For Science for Sport, Matt works as the group manager for the Coaches Club and is the host of the Science for Sport Podcast.

More content by Matt

The post Concussion technology: The high-tech mouthguards trying to combat concussion appeared first on Science for Sport.

Just a few years ago, suggesting virtual reality as a training method would have got you laughed out of the room – now, many elite and amateur athletes are using it.

By Matt Solomon
Last updated: March 1st, 2024
4 min read

Virtual reality for sports training – is it a legit option?

Virtual reality is changing the way you play and watch sport, whether you like it or not. The only real choice is whether you get on board or watch your opponents outclass you with their superior vision, skill, and performance under pressure.

Just a few years ago suggesting virtual reality as a training method would have got you laughed out of the room – now English Premier League players, among many elite leagues, are using it before they go on to the pitch.

We needed to know how the pros are using this futuristic kit, and how the everyday athlete can use VR to make an impact at all levels. That’s why we welcomed Andy Etches onto episode 99 of the Science for Sport Podcast.
Etches has vast experience in the sport science and data world and is the founder and sport director of Rezzil, a VR software company that works with top athletes throughout the world, including in the Premier League and NBA.

So why would these world-class pros use VR software? Well, firstly, it allows them to review game footage in a realistic environment.

“Premier League teams will use it for the situation analysis – to recreate moments of the game looking at what could have been done better; you know, taking a viewpoint of a player’s actual position in real-time from the game on Saturday,” Etches said.

This has been done for years to improve a player or team’s tactics and decision-making, but until now, never from the player’s own perspective.

So from a real-world perspective, a player can not only better learn how and where they can improve, in fact, they can practice the situation over and over again using VR to replicate the game.

What about VR for rehabilitation?

The second key situation VR is used is during rehabilitation.

“More often (players) will use it for rehabilitation. We can pretty much get you on your feet interacting with a football six weeks post-surgery, maybe a little sooner (even for) an ACL (reconstruction) – we’ve done that with a lot of different clubs, we’ve had some great success,” Etches said.

Clearly, top professionals are doing all they can to improve their game and get a big W on the weekend. But could you really imagine players with VR headsets on, in the changing rooms before a game? Imagine no longer, it’s reality.

“There’s a Premier League goalkeeper who uses it for warm-up and reaction time training,” Etches said.

Passing the pressure test…

It’s not just tactics and reaction times – VR can be used to put players into high-pressure situations such as full stadiums, where they can start to acclimatise to the pressure put on them during a match.

Alternatively, game situations could be sped up in VR, so playing a real game feels like a walk in the park.

“If you’re in a Premier League academy and about to move onto a first team, then we can show you what first-team speed is like and how fast it is. We can also … make it (the game speed) 120 percent. So every player is 120 percent of Cristiano Ronaldo. Then when you’re on the field, everyone else just feels like they’re so slow. You feel ‘I can deal with this, no problem’,” Etches said.

And what about the fans?

The technology isn’t just for elite-level professionals though – players at all levels and in a range of different sports could benefit from training using VR.

“And if you’ve never even headed a ball in your life, there’s UEFA pro coach-designed drills in there that will teach you how to head the ball correctly, and then will also get you moving around a little bit and teach you to position your feet better, for better and better execution of the ball,” Etches said.

So athletes of all ages and abilities could benefit from a wide range of mental, tactical, and technical improvements, but what about using VR to enhance our experience watching sport?
“We’re doing this. So, this is a bit of a reveal. Let’s say you’re sitting on the sofa, and there’s a big miss in the game. And then your mate next to you says ‘I could have scored that’ – all right, put this headset on and let’s see if they can. Literally five minutes after that’s happened, they’ll be able to take part in that and see if they can get on the end of that cross,” Etches said.

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The complete picture for VR and sports training…

So there you have it – if you’re anything like me, you’ve got thousands of thoughts flying through your brain about how VR could be used to improve your own performance or that of the athletes you work with.

These are just a few of the possibilities Etches outlines in the podcast, if you want to hear the full show, just hit the link below.

You can download the podcast on any of the big hosting services, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify, or just use this link: https://scienceforsport.fireside.fm/99
Don’t forget to hit the subscribe button and be sure to give us a review and rating too!

Matt Solomon

Matt is a strength and conditioning coach at Team NL (Dutch Olympic Team). He was also the Lead Academy Sports Scientist/Strength and Conditioning coach at Al Shabab Al Arabi FC. For Science for Sport, Matt works as the group manager for the Coaches Club and is the host of the Science for Sport Podcast.

More content by Matt

The post Virtual reality for sports training: How VR can help pro and amateur athletes (and fans) appeared first on Science for Sport.

Optimising and reporting GPS data can feel like a never-ending task, with thousands of metrics and the need for highly specific reporting, so how on earth do you select the right key performance indicators?

By Matt Solomon
Last updated: February 29th, 2024
3 min read

What is the best option for GPS analysis?

Optimising and reporting GPS data can feel like a never-ending task, with thousands of metrics and the need for highly specific reporting, so how on earth do you select the right key performance indicators (KPIs)? If you need to take your GPS monitoring to the next level, episode 76 of the Science for Sport Podcast is essential listening.

In this episode, Mat Pell, applied sport scientist at Catapult Sports, brings amazing insights from the world of American football and explains how these can be used to prepare teams across a range of sports.

REPORT: HOW TO USE ATHLETE MONITORING IN AMERICAN FOOTBALL

Pell starts by explaining the importance of individualising the data and the reporting process. It sounds obvious, but not all athletes can be measured using the same metrics.

First things first – understand your athletes

“Understanding the positional demands is critical,” Pell said.

This makes intuitive sense – a wide receiver will be covering loads of distance at high speeds, but a defensive linemen won’t be very happy if you asked the same of them. These gargantuan humans fight ferociously, with huge impacts, but they do it in a very small space. When we look at how these athletes can be assessed using GPS technology, we are comparing apples and oranges. Or maybe celery and oranges.

This leads Pell down two very different paths – firstly the path of the wide receiver.

“I’ve been really surprised by the capacity that these guys have. When we look at sprinting, it’s sometimes double what you would see in an AFL [Australian Football League] game,” Pell, who boasts an extensive work history in the AFL industry, said.

Here Pell is using running KPIs, which may include total sprints, sprint distance, and high-speed running. By controlling these factors from a physical perspective, the sport science team can reduce the risk of injuries, which may occur when athletes perform too much high-speed work.

5 sports technology trends to watch in 2022
The other path is that of the really really big blokes.

“Your inside guys are just getting bashed and crashed continually,” Pell said.

These athletes aren’t running very much, which means Pell has to find another metric to ensure that they can quantify the training load.

“Our player load KPI is a validated metric – it’s really good, especially in the management of the bigger players. That’s where player load from a volume perspective [comes in], and then going deeper into that with the respective bands, that is really critical,” Pell said.

How GPS data is used within elite teams

It’s easy to see the depth of analysis and attention to detail that goes into training these athletes and managing their load. In this example, it’s not only the player load that is taken into account but the intensity bands within that KPI. This means the load will be split up into bands of increasing intensity, so sport scientists and coaches can see exactly how much work a player performs, and how much of that is at the highest intensities.

“Player load is just one number, and then we can dive into the detail around the planning aspect of that, which is specific towards each position group. And we need to go deep into that as to how we are managing those individual players,” Pell said.

Pell goes on to discuss some of the inner workings of high-performance teams, specifically how teams can best use communication and data to drive more intelligent solutions and programming. The podcast concludes with a rundown of how Pell would organise his team if he was given a perfect world.

So if you want a glimpse behind-the-scenes in elite level American football or want to get some juicy GPS details, hit the link below to download the podcast now!
You can download the podcast on any of the big hosting services, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify, or just use this link: https://scienceforsport.fireside.fm/76
Don’t forget to hit the subscribe button and be sure to give us a review and rating too!

[optin-monster slug=”nhpxak0baeqvjdeila6a”]

Matt Solomon

Matt is a strength and conditioning coach at Team NL (Dutch Olympic Team). He was also the Lead Academy Sports Scientist/Strength and Conditioning coach at Al Shabab Al Arabi FC. For Science for Sport, Matt works as the group manager for the Coaches Club and is the host of the Science for Sport Podcast.

More content by Matt

The post GPS analysis: How coaches and athletes can get the most out of it appeared first on Science for Sport.