Archive

Dr Camilla Knight from Swansea University studies parents and their role in youth sport and this week I spent an afternoon listening to her talking about her research. Parents of elite child athletes are generally represented in the media as pushy and competitive but Dr Knights research suggests that actually, the majority of parents “get […]

Professor Greg Whyte is a former olympian and sports scientist, who has been the main motivator behind Comic Relief and Sport Reliefs momentous sporting challenges. Described as a “motivational god” by Comic Reliefs CEO Kevin Cahill and “the best mentor ever” by Davina McCall, Greg Whyte’s new book ‘Achieve the Impossible’ published March 2015, encourages us […]

I know that this post is not strictly speaking anything to do with food or exercise but it is about performance and until reading the research earlier this year, I had no idea that font type could help improve learning, comprehension and revision. Even though my family is riddled with dyslexia, I had also not been aware that […]

Almost every list of New Years Resolutions has “getting into shape” at number one, a resolution to be fitter, more toned or have a different body. Historically this would have meant being smaller or thinner but now it is just as likely, particularly in boys, to mean a desire to bulk up, build muscle, get a […]

Chris Hoy winning a life time achievement award at last nights BBC Sports Personality Awards, reminded me how much I had enjoyed Richard Moore’s book – Heroes, Villains and Velodromes. First published in 2008 and primarily focusing on Chris Hoy, it gives an unprecedented insight in to the secret worlds of track cycling at a time when everything was […]

Is it possible to boost academic and tactical performance with what you eat?    As we all focus on appearance and look for the next miracle diet to make us thin and toned, the food manufacturers are looking to make as much money out of our obsessions as possible. We all seem to have forgotten that brain development […]

Michael Hutchinson’s book ‘Faster‘ is genius and definitely worth reading if you are involved in or interested in sport in any way. Michael Hutchinson is a British pro rider who has focused his career on the domestic time trial circuit. Naturally talented and blessed with giant lungs, he found it relatively easy to get involved […]

In 1998, the iconic Ethiopian runner Haile Gebrselassie said he had been able to break the 2000m record by “synching his (running) cadence with the beat of the pop song Scatman” (by Scatman John), which was playing during his race at the Birmingham National Indoor Arena. At the time the benefits of using music to […]

With exam season approaching, is it best to scale back your sport commitments and training or to put your sport first and fit your revision in around your training ? I first came across the idea that exercise improves academic performance when I was recommended the book ‘Spark’ written by Dr John Ratey, a professor […]

Richard St. John was on his way to a TED conference when a girl on the plane asked him, “What really leads to success?” He searched for the answer amongst some of the worlds most successful entrepreneurs and wrote a book. Although aimed at success in business this 3-minute talk can equally be applied to […]