In a previous post i have talked about how we should bridge the gap between coaching and academia. There should not really be one pure coaching side and 1 pure science side. We need input and information from both to enhance an athletes preparation.
Currently myself and collegue Keane Wheeler are research supervisors to 4 S&C coaches at the Australian Institute of Sport and 1 at ACT Academy of Sport, on this premise of these guys will have the most contemporray and best ideas on how athletes can be better trained / prepared, and we can help formulate this into a research process that will help them dissemninate what they are doing. At present there are some great projects going on and we are excited to see where they will go.
A recent article that came out in Strength and Conditioning Journal talked about evidence based coaching supports this process.
Appreciation that both sides can contribute to athlete preparation and then benefits of both points of view, will be a step forward int he field of S&C.
Friday, September 21, 2012
Gait Recognition Software - Big Brother is watching you walk
Its been in the making for a while but gait recognition seems to be a step closer to being implemented in the UK. Go to this link to find out more. May be implemented within Airports first. Some research is out there showing that gait can be used to recognise mood - anxiety, nervousness etc. - these may be used in the future to catch criminals on the run in a crowded place - of course if criminals get wind of it they may then alter there gait accordingly! Intrigued to see where this technology will go and how it will be used.
Monday, August 27, 2012
Gait Analysis - a team approach
I recently attended a Clinical Gait Analysis course in Melbourne. As a sports biomechanist going away for 3 solid days with Orthapeadic surgeons , Physiotherapists, Podiatrists was a little daunting but I figure I had the most to learn and the most to gain.Starting with the least expeience
My exposure to gait analysis (walking analysis) up to this point had mainly be theoretical from a teaching standpoint. I had a pretty good understanding of the basics temporal spatial parameters, determinants of gait etc. Qualitatively i analysed gait in my athlete Rob Oakley , as we attempted to make him walk more freely and ensure he had good foot clearance to prevent (hopefully) risk of falling. The progress and improvements i had seen in Robs ability to walk due to resistance training and other methods, prompted me to attend the above course to learn more.
The course was great, it covered the basics of kinematics and kinetics, through to case studies and surgical outcomes. I come away with more understanding overall but most importantly i came away with a massive appreciation of the process and role gait analysis plays. It helps people walk again.
Lets think about that - one of the things most of us are fortunate to have is the ability to move independently - some people are unfortunate enough not to have the ability - biomechanics can help people walk again. As a sport biomechanist's we think about improving a running technique to enable people to run faster or identify problems that may be causing injury. Both valid applications but the root cause that the area of gait analysis developed was to help people walk again.
The process is as you can understand not easy - its not a case of the coach, biomechanist sitting down understanding what can be improved. In Clinical gait analysis the process involves biomechanist (generating kinematic and kinetic gait patterns), physiotherapists (conducting very important clinical tests to help understand the kinematics and kinetics), and orthopaedic surgeons (deciding which surgery to do). Due to the stakes of the outcome of Clinical Gait analysis being higher there are usually multiple of the above to ensure agreement is made as the end product is a surgical procedure. The knowledge and commitment is amazing. Seeing videos of children who were assessed at an early age, who had very limited walking ability, be able to walk better in later videos as a result of biomechanical assessment was amazing.
My exposure to gait analysis (walking analysis) up to this point had mainly be theoretical from a teaching standpoint. I had a pretty good understanding of the basics temporal spatial parameters, determinants of gait etc. Qualitatively i analysed gait in my athlete Rob Oakley , as we attempted to make him walk more freely and ensure he had good foot clearance to prevent (hopefully) risk of falling. The progress and improvements i had seen in Robs ability to walk due to resistance training and other methods, prompted me to attend the above course to learn more.
The course was great, it covered the basics of kinematics and kinetics, through to case studies and surgical outcomes. I come away with more understanding overall but most importantly i came away with a massive appreciation of the process and role gait analysis plays. It helps people walk again.
Lets think about that - one of the things most of us are fortunate to have is the ability to move independently - some people are unfortunate enough not to have the ability - biomechanics can help people walk again. As a sport biomechanist's we think about improving a running technique to enable people to run faster or identify problems that may be causing injury. Both valid applications but the root cause that the area of gait analysis developed was to help people walk again.
The process is as you can understand not easy - its not a case of the coach, biomechanist sitting down understanding what can be improved. In Clinical gait analysis the process involves biomechanist (generating kinematic and kinetic gait patterns), physiotherapists (conducting very important clinical tests to help understand the kinematics and kinetics), and orthopaedic surgeons (deciding which surgery to do). Due to the stakes of the outcome of Clinical Gait analysis being higher there are usually multiple of the above to ensure agreement is made as the end product is a surgical procedure. The knowledge and commitment is amazing. Seeing videos of children who were assessed at an early age, who had very limited walking ability, be able to walk better in later videos as a result of biomechanical assessment was amazing.
Sunday, July 29, 2012
Back online!
Sorry for the dearth of posts in the past 8-9 months. Back now after being reminded to keep posting by one of my life mentors and have many things to talk about that have been happening. Thanks for sticking around!
Optimum versus Maximum
Just watched an interesting Vlog by Vern Gambetta on game speed. A term he used within it is the title of this blog. Optimum versus Maximum.
A concept that has always been of interest to me is that of specificity. We can be specific in terms of movements - but in the gym we can never be specific with regards to loads and reps. If we were the repetitions would be very high for many events including sprinting, jumping etc. Exclusions include high / long jumpers and I'm sure there are others.
I remember reading an article by Gavin Moir a while back on how strong is strong enough which covers elements of this thought process. In a mature athletes with good movement dynamics, when do we stop trying to get stronger in one move and shift to improvements in other areas? Whilst we are trying to improve our dead lift by 10kg, could we be spending a this time investment focusing on other elements?
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Fitness Coach - Post 1
I have undertaken the role of fitness coach for the Dragonboat club I am with (icedragons.com.au - check out the webpage). Current Australian Champions and competing in the World Club Championships in Hong Kong next year. 'Dragonboating! - thats not a real sport' I hear some disbelievers cry - well come down and get in the boat - paddle a 500m and see how you feel at the end.
Upon finishing that 500m, as well as finding god you will realise that the sport is heavily based on your fitness level and involves elements of power, lactate tolerance, neuromuscular co-ordination, aerobic capacity and flexibility, like many other sports. Doing events from 200m, 500m and 2,000m all with one set of paddlers you will realise that programming fitness for those involved is no small task. Add into the mix there are 150+ paddlers all with different training age, fitness level, age, goals etc, and with a fitness coach who fully understands that one program doesn't fit all, the challenge is big - but man I am really looking forward to it.
I will use this blog as a progress report on what's happening for myself as much as the readers, challenges i've faced and how i have dealt with them.
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
A blue print for learning a new skill
I am about to embark on a quest to learn a new skill. There are many ways to go about doing this and Daniel Coyle's blog on this gives some great pointers.
In the world of sport/exercise we hear a lot about train smarter not harder and a new term that is used frequently of 'deliberate practice'. How much do we actually do this in our daily lives though? We talk alot about time constraints preventing us doing things, but maybe we just need to engage more. (BTW i am aware of the irony that me writing this blog on this topic is actually an example of me not engaging with my actual work!)
The other day i attended a PhD supervisors meeting where we used the term deliberate practice to indicate the number of hours a PhD student should do per week. Often times supervisors may hear...'i spent all day doing my PhD'. Ok but how many of those hours were they actually engaging in the PhD? Were they deliberately practicing or merely just present at there desk? After discussion we thought that 2 hours per day of engaging PhD work is a good amount. The key word is engaging - do not underestimate how hard that is. It is work that involves no distractions (turn off the phone) and pure focus. In a day and age where we have so many distractions at our fingertips, this can often be the biggest challenge
This concept of deliberate practice although has come to me through sport and Daniel Coyle's book The Talent code - i am finding crops up in every part of my daily life. So if you a student, an amateur athlete or like me just embarking on learning a new skill you may find the concept of deliberate practice as a blueprint to get to where you want to go.
In the world of sport/exercise we hear a lot about train smarter not harder and a new term that is used frequently of 'deliberate practice'. How much do we actually do this in our daily lives though? We talk alot about time constraints preventing us doing things, but maybe we just need to engage more. (BTW i am aware of the irony that me writing this blog on this topic is actually an example of me not engaging with my actual work!)
The other day i attended a PhD supervisors meeting where we used the term deliberate practice to indicate the number of hours a PhD student should do per week. Often times supervisors may hear...'i spent all day doing my PhD'. Ok but how many of those hours were they actually engaging in the PhD? Were they deliberately practicing or merely just present at there desk? After discussion we thought that 2 hours per day of engaging PhD work is a good amount. The key word is engaging - do not underestimate how hard that is. It is work that involves no distractions (turn off the phone) and pure focus. In a day and age where we have so many distractions at our fingertips, this can often be the biggest challenge
This concept of deliberate practice although has come to me through sport and Daniel Coyle's book The Talent code - i am finding crops up in every part of my daily life. So if you a student, an amateur athlete or like me just embarking on learning a new skill you may find the concept of deliberate practice as a blueprint to get to where you want to go.
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