Archive

Record numbers of people are playing netball in the UK,  the super league is thriving and the English team’s win at April’s Commonwealth Games brought unpresidented media coverage. Around 1.4million women and girls currently play regularly and high five, Nets and mixed netball are all gaining popularity, introducing men to the game. If you have […]

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 […]

Banana and Nut Butter Bars Makes 12 INGREDIENTS 1 tablespoon coconut oil 3 ripe bananas 1 tablespoon honey (local is best) 2 tablespoons nut butter (yummy with Wyldsson’s Choc, Nut & Seed Butter) 2 tablespoons mixed flaxseed. sesame & poppy seeds 280g porridge oats METHOD Mash the bananas until very smooth. Melt the coconut oil, […]

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 […]

Since writing ‘Ergogenic aids – is it possible to boost performance with food?’ in May, I have already added almonds to the list of foods that are thought to give a boost to performance. I can now add another, blackcurrants. The University of Chichester have recently announced some very interesting results, looking at the effect […]

We spend about a third of our lives asleep. Why?….. We used to believe that we slept to save energy during the night, as it was too dark to hunt. In fact the amount of energy saved by sleeping is tiny and recent research shows that far from being in active, sleep actually plays a […]

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 […]

EAT LIKE A CRICKETER The English Cricket Board has issued an amazing 82-page list of catering demands for its Ashes team, including recipe requirements and instructions for preparing nearly 200 different types of meals and beverages. This move may have raised eyebrows amongst cricket officials and various sections of the media, but it also gives us […]