Archive

Five years ago I turned up at a nutrition conference with hands died purple from blackberry picking. When asked what I had been doing, I innocently said making jam, not realising the commotion this would cause. For many people jam = refined sugar and anything with a large proportion of refined sugar is seen as BAD. But I […]

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 […]

Can food and drink affect your exam results? Research shows that eating the right foods can benefit mood and motivation, improve focus, lower anxiety and strengthen memory formation. The wrong choices can make you feel sluggish or jittery making learning and recall more difficult. Powering Performance EATING ADVICE FOR EXAM PERFORMANCE 1. EAT –   Your brain […]

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 […]

What are Nootropics Nootropics are smart drugs, supplements or foods that are taken to enhance memory, cognition or intelligence, increase concentration, attention or motivation and to relieve anxiety or stress, with the aim of improving academic performance and results. Although at the simplest level they include herbs, spices, phytochemicals like caffeine and energy drinks, the drugs that being […]

What can we learn from Sports Science ? Mark McClusky’s new book, Faster, Higher, Stronger, which was published at the end of last year, is the best book I have come across at answering the question “what we can learn from sports science?”. A really good review of the latest research and technology, written in […]

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 […]

I went to a very interesting talk this week given by Dr Andre Roca, from St Mary’s University Twickenham, whose research focuses on the psychology of expertise and skill acquisition in sports. Vision, pattern recognition and movement anticipation in football. The skills that separate Premier footballers from lower league players, have been extensive researched and documented. Analysis of this […]

We spend about a third of our lives asleep but until recently we have known virtually nothing about why we do. For decades sleep disturbance has been known to effect academic and athletic performance as well as health but how has not been clear. Jeff Iliff’s concise 12minute Ted talk describes how his groups research is coming closer […]

In last years post ‘So you want to be an Olympian’, I discussed talent identification and the research that looks at body type, size and genetics, trying to determine whether it is possible to pick out a future olympian before all the training. My conclusion was that although there have been some very successful talent identification […]