Training loud refers to the amount of training related physical stress that is performed by an athlete. Monitoring training load has become a huge topic in strength and conditioning in the last decade or so. It’s also become a huge business. A variety of companies have emerged with products that are designed to either a) …
Some of the most common injuries in team-sport athletes are to the ankle and knee. The high intensity running, changes of direction and in some cases, body contacts, make these joints vulnerable to both contact and non-contact related injuries such as ACL tears and ankle sprains. In effort to reduce the risk of these types …
The most common area’s of injury occurrence in team-sport athletes are the ankle, knee and low back. These injuries can be quite debilitating, often requiring time away from training, practicing and competing. Coaches must be proactive in limiting injury risk in their athletes by devising evidence based programs that improve strength, stability and mobility of …
Screening athletes for the purposes of identifying at-risk individuals for future injury is a hot topic in the field of strength and conditioning. A variety of movement screens and symmetry tests have been developed. Possibly the most well-known of these screens is the Functional Movement Screen (FMS). The FMS is comprised of a series of …
We’ve all seen it at one point or another. It typically happens on the first day of pre-season training camp while testing 40-yard dashes. About 20 yards in, he pulls up in agonizing pain and grabs the back of his thigh like he’d just been shot by a sniper. If you’re lucky it’s just a …
Most youth sporting organizations have age classifications for most sports programs. For example, an organization may break their age categories into the following: Category Age Minor Novice 8 Novice 9 Minor Atom 10 Atom 11 Minor Peewee 12 Peewee 13 Minor Bantam 14 Bantam 15 This classification system uses chronological age to separate youth …
Apart from enhancing performance in athletes, one of the other primary objectives of strength and conditioning training is to reduce injury potential. There are a variety of ways in which we can work to protect our athletes on the field. Some common methods include teaching proper mechanics and skill execution. In field sports, this includes …
One of the more common injuries in field sports involving high intensity sprinting are hamstring strains. Apart from the competitive season, a common time of year that hamstring injuries occur is during pre-season training camps. In fact, most coaches can probably attest to witnessing athletes “blowing a wheel” during performance testing (e.g., 40 yard dash) …
The effects that sleep duration and quality have on athletic performance have been extensively studied. Acute sleep deprivation likely has a negative impact on certain performance qualities such as reaction time. However, chronic sleep deprivation most certainly has negative consequences on performance potential. Perceptions of effort and fatigue will be higher, strength will be impaired, …
Fatigue comes in many forms. In the sports realm, we commonly see acute fatigue that occurs in responses to intense training or competition. Or, we can see chronic fatigue that occurs due to insufficient recovery or poor manipulation of training loads over time. Simply put, technique changes in the presence of fatigue. As a simple …