Stretching has long been standard practice in sport. Advocates of stretching claim that it helps reduce injury, improve performance, and aid recovery. However, a number of studies have shown that stretching doesn’t actually produce all the positive physiological effects that were once thought to be true. In fact, studies have shown that certain types of […]
‘We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit’ – Aristotle Novices and experts alike are all, or at least should be, aware of the vital physiological benefits of a warm up. They are crucial to performance by preparing the body for action, whilst minimizing the risk of injury. […]
In a sport and exercise context, music is typically used in one of four ways; Asychnronous, Synchronous, Pre-task and Recuperative. The current article will explore how we can use listening to music before starting sport or exercise, as part of the physical warm-up or mental preparation. In this sense, pre-task music is applied immediately prior to a […]
People often question the value, methods and merits of a sport psychologist. In fact this area of sporting expertise still remains taboo for an awful lot of sports people including some professionals. When broaching this subject with a PGA golf European Tour professional golfer recently, he revealed that it was an area he had yet […]
I was recently re-reading Terry Orlick’s In Pursuit of Excellence, and in the chapter on Coaching Relationships, Orlick was discussing coaching communication and wrote that coaches’ pregame pep talks don’t motivate the athletes, but instead serve as “a method of tension release for the head coach”(p.276). While Orlick wrote this to make athletes aware of why […]
In almost every sport the top level performers are all similar in their level of ability, for example they all have similar attributes of being strong, fast, skilful, and have as much stamina as each other. Yet in every sport some performers emerge as winners while others never quite reach this level. The difference between […]
I had never really given much thought to football warm-ups. The process I believed was quite simple. After you have sent the goalkeeper with the goalkeeper coach (or with a substitute depending on the level), you set about preparing your players physically for the game. There was the psychological aspect of course – to “mentally […]