Reverse engineering is a key strategy commonly utilised in performance sport. Most versions aim to define physical markers or competition statistics as targets to work towards. But is this truly reverse engineering the problem? While a useful step, and certainly worth undertaking as a means for gaining some clarity, does it go far enough towards addressing the…
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Groin pain is a common occurrence in multi-directional field sport athletes. According to a 15-year prospective UEFA injury study1, groin pain accounts for approximately 12 – 16% of all time-loss injuries in men’s football (soccer). The complex, anatomical nature of the region makes groin pain challenging to diagnose, manage and rehab, with high recurrence rates of…
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The athletic motions of running, jumping and landing require the foot and ankle complex to be adaptable to varying surfaces and demands. The complex needs to be compliant to dampen ground reaction forces (GFR), but also become stable as a base and lever arm for propulsion. It is one of the musculoskeletal systems most versatile…
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Michael Giakoumis: Physiotherapist: British Athletics, Total Performance & Centre of Health and Human Performance (London) Carles Pedret MD, PhD: Sports Medicine and Imaging department. Clinica Diagonal (barcelona) Sprinting places a significant demand on the rectus femoris (RF) and is one of the most common mechanisms of injuries for this muscle (Hasselman et al., 1995). During the initial…
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I reflect on my time as a coach since finishing formal education, and try to identify what was most relevant within those teachings, to working in coaching and impacting high performance teams. I can link the underpinning physiology, methods of strength and conditioning practice and the analysis of information, all very clearly as technical impact…
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“The multifactorial complex nature of sports injuries arises not from the linear interaction between isolated and predictive factors, but from the complex interaction among a web of determinants” Bittencourt et al. (2016)1 Shoulder overload injuries in the career of elite level throwing & overhead athletes, tendon problems in jumping athletes, hamstring injuries in soccer players;…
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We place a lot of stock in limb symmetry but critically we need to couple this with performance. During a conversation with Mick Hughes (soon to be released as a podcast) we discussed the significance & need for baseline information during RTP benchmarking. Especially in the context of a potentially de-conditioned uninvolved limb becoming…
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For a physical performance department to gain a competitive advantage in elite sport, where the objectives of optimising physical output while minimising time loss to injury are common, effective leadership can be the differentiating factor! Performance practitioners who possess leadership skills that harness the capabilities of the department to achieve world leading support processes may separate the exceptional…
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