Prepared: Unlocking Human Performance with Lessons from Elite Sport


Book Description

The pursuit of human performance goes beyond sport. Whilst we might most readily associate sport with the quest to perform at the highest levels of competition, this is not exclusive to sports teams and athletes. Striving for excellence and dedication to continual improvement are hallmarks of high performing organisations, teams, and individuals across all realms. Following this logic, forward thinking individuals have started to explore processes and principles from elite sport and coaching, with the aim of applying high performance practices within their own domain. Just as there are traits that unite high performers across sectors, there are common themes and challenges shared by all those who aspire to excellence in performance. With 'Prepared' we use the lens of elite sport to illuminate universal truths and illustrate the key lessons that we can apply to our chosen domain (including sport): - the critical ingredients for a performance environment, - the dynamics of performance management at the level of the organisation, team, and individual, - the essentials of navigating the complexity of coaching humans, - the key principles and critical lessons from the process of preparing athletes for the crucible of competition, - and finally, the meta-abilities that will allow us to sustain the highest levels of performance, manage ourselves, and navigate the challenges we will inevitably face along the way. This is a book for all those who have an interest or involvement in human performance in the widest sense. Whilst the content remains highly relevant to those in sport, within the text we explore the parallels to other domains, and thereby derive unique insights for leaders, teams, and professionals in all sectors. Throughout the journey the reader is prompted to reflect and connect the dots at the culmination of each chapter to help relate the information presented to their own context.




Speed Strength


Book Description

In training speed, the most elusive athletic quality, what really works, and what doesn't? What are the components of sprinting itself that elites do, where amateurs falter? And how can we arrange all of this in a training medium that facilitates high performance? Speed Strength is the product of hundreds of athletes trained, thousands of hours of study, dozens of expert mentors, and an open mind. If you are interested in the answer to these questions, then Speed Strength is the book that holds the answers you are looking for, and much more.Joel Smith is the host of the Just Fly Performance Podcast and a track and strength coach of 13 years. As a track coach to national champions and Olympic champions as a strength coach, Joel has seen the elements of speed inside and out. Featuring the insight of over 25 field leaders, Speed Strength touches on the most important trainable elements of sprinting in a holistic and thorough manner.




High-Performance Training for Sports


Book Description

High-Performance Training for Sports changes the landscape of athletic conditioning and sports performance. This groundbreaking work presents the latest and most effective philosophies, protocols and programmes for developing today’s athletes. High-Performance Training for Sports features contributions from global leaders in athletic performance training, coaching and rehabilitation. Experts share the cutting-edge knowledge and techniques they’ve used with Olympians as well as top athletes and teams from the NBA, NFL, MLB, English Premier League, Tour de France and International Rugby. Combining the latest science and research with proven training protocols, High-Performance Training for Sports will guide you in these areas: • Optimise the effectiveness of cross-training. • Translate strength into speed. • Increase aerobic capacity and generate anaerobic power. • Maintain peak conditioning throughout the season. • Minimise the interference effect. • Design energy-specific performance programmes. Whether you are working with high-performance athletes of all ages or with those recovering from injury, High-Performance Training for Sports is the definitive guide for developing all aspects of athletic performance. It is a must-own guide for any serious strength and conditioning coach, trainer, rehabilitator or athlete.




Run with Power


Book Description

RUN WITH POWER is the groundbreaking guide you need to tap the true potential of your running power meter. From 5K to ultramarathon, a power meter can make you fasterbut only if you know how to use it. Just viewing your numbers is not enough; you can only become a faster, stronger, more efficient runner when you know what your key numbers mean for your workouts, races, and your season-long training. In Run with Power, TrainingBible coach Jim Vance offers the comprehensive guide you need to find the speed you want. Run with Power demystifies the data and vocabulary so you can find and understand your most important numbers. You’ll set your Running Power Zones so you can begin training using 8 power-based training plans for 5K, 10K, half-marathon, and marathon. Vance shows you how you can compare wattage, heart rate, pace, and perceived exertion to gain the maximum insight into your performances, how you respond to training, and how you can train more effectively. Run with Power will revolutionize how you train and race. Armed with Vance’s guidance, you can train more specifically for races, smooth your running technique, accurately measure your fitness, predict a fitness plateau, monitor injuries, know exactly how hard you’re training, get more fitness from every workout, recover fully, perfect your tapers, warm up without wasting energy, pace your race on any terrain, know when to open the throttle, and create an unprecedented picture of yourself as an athlete. If you’re just glancing at the number on your wrist or computer monitor, you’ve got a lot more speed potential. Knowledge is power and understanding your power numbers can open the gate to new methods and new PRs. Run with Power introduces the use of power meters to the sport of running and will show you how to break through to all-new levels of performance. Key concepts explored in Run with Power: 3/9 Test, 30-minute Time Trial Test, Running Functional Threshold Power (rFTPw), Running Functional Threshold Pace (rFTPa), Averaged and Normalized Power (NP), Intensity Factor (IF), Peak Power, Variability Index, Efficiency Index (EI), speed per watt, Vance’s Power Zones for Running, Training Stress Score (TSS), and Periodization with Power. Includes 6 testing methods and 8 power-based training schedules and workouts for 5K, 10K, half-marathon, and marathon.




Athletic Development


Book Description

Athletic Development offers a rare opportunity to learn and apply a career full of knowledge from the best. World-renowned strength and conditioning coach Vern Gambetta condenses the wisdom he's gained through more than 40 years of experience of working with athletes across sports, age groups, and levels of competition, including members of the Chicago White Sox, New York Mets, and U.S. men's 1998 World Cup soccer team. The result is an information-packed, myth-busting explanation of the most effective methods and prescriptions in each facet of an athlete's physical preparation. Gambetta includes never-before-published and ready-to-use training approaches in - sport-specific demands analysis, - work capacity enhancements, - movement skills development, - long- and short-term training program progressions, and - rest and regeneration techniques. Athletic Development explains what works, what doesn't, and why. Gambetta's no-nonsense approach emphasizes results that pay off in the competitive season and reflect his work at the highest echelons of sport. Merging principles of anatomy, biomechanics, and exercise physiology with sports conditioning applications and four decades of professional practice, this is the definitive guide to performance-enhancing training.




The Sports Playbook


Book Description

Why do so many sports teams have losing records, year after year? Why do others win big, but only every 20 or 30 years? And why is it that so few teams enjoy sustained, continual success? This book gives the answer. Providing a blueprint or "playbook" for success in sports at every level, it lays out a clear step-by-step plan for building a team culture that will lead to winning consistently. With each step, the book introduces real-world tools that can be easily implemented by every sports organization and coach to achieve success, including team charters, individual athlete plans, player accountability systems, and team communication strategies. It offers expert advice and practical guidance on key areas, such as aligning individuals with a clear team plan, resolving conflicts proactively, and learning from every game and every season to develop a smarter and more consistent culture of success. The Sports Playbook: Building Teams that Outperform, Year after Year will help every team fulfil its true potential through leadership, focus, and performance. It is essential reading for coaches, sport management professionals, and leaders of every kind of team, inside and outside of sports. The foreword, introduction, chapter 1 and chapter 2 of this book are freely available as downloadable Open Access PDFs under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com.




Output: Optimizing Your Performance with Lessons Learned from Sport


Book Description

Sustain high performance through what you can control: your output. You don't need to be an elite athlete to be at the top of your game. By understanding the dynamic relationship between your objectives and the actions required to achieve them, you can perform at the highest level in your profession-consistently, on demand, when it counts. If you've got your eyes locked on your outcome, you need to get your mind set on your output. In Output, Olympic physiologist and performance consultant Ben Sporer combines his scientific expertise with decades of experience in sport and business to simplify the strategies of high-performing athletes and how they can apply to anyone, in any field. By explaining the mechanics of the Core 4 performance factors and reframing the link between preparation, action, and purpose, Sporer reveals a performance solution that empowers you to prize output over outcome. Whether you're an executive, an entrepreneur, an artist, or an athlete-if you're ready to see what you can achieve when working at your best, Output will help you get there. This accessible and integrated approach to high-level human performance is a must-read resource that will help you prioritize and strategize your efforts toward your highest level of productivity and success.




The Boys in the Boat (Movie Tie-In)


Book Description

The inspiration for the Major Motion Picture Directed by George Clooney—exclusively in theaters December 25, 2023! The #1 New York Times bestselling true story about the American rowing triumph of the 1936 Olympics in Berlin—from the author of Facing the Mountain For readers of Unbroken, out of the depths of the Depression comes an irresistible story about beating the odds and finding hope in the most desperate of times—the improbable, intimate account of how nine working-class boys from the American West showed the world at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin what true grit really meant. It was an unlikely quest from the start. With a team composed of the sons of loggers, shipyard workers, and farmers, the University of Washington’s eight-oar crew team was never expected to defeat the elite teams of the East Coast and Great Britain, yet they did, going on to shock the world by defeating the German team rowing for Adolf Hitler. The emotional heart of the tale lies with Joe Rantz, a teenager without family or prospects, who rows not only to regain his shattered self-regard but also to find a real place for himself in the world. Drawing on the boys’ own journals and vivid memories of a once-in-a-lifetime shared dream, Brown has created an unforgettable portrait of an era, a celebration of a remarkable achievement, and a chronicle of one extraordinary young man’s personal quest.




Behavioral Sport Psychology


Book Description

Sport psychology is a topic of growing interest. Many professionals read journals such as The International Journal of Sports, Journal of Sport Behavior, Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, and The Sport Psychologist. In August 2008, Monitor on Psychology, the monthly publication of the American Psychological Association (APA), featured a special issue on sport psychology. Indeed, Division 47 of APA is devoted to "the scientific, educational, and clinical foundations of exercise and sport psychology." The North American Society for the Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity (NASPSPA) and the Association for the Advancement of Applied Sport Psychology (AAASP) convene conferences each year to present scientific findings and new developments in a rapidly expanding field. The AAASP and other organizations also qualify professionals as certified sport and exercise psychology consultants. Finally, a visit to any bookstore will reveal the lay public’s fascination with sports, as revealed in numerous self-help books and guides to perfecting athletic performance. Behavioral psychologists have studied sport psychology for more than three decades (Martin, Thompson, & Regehr, 2004). Applied behavior analysis (ABA), in particular, has been an instrumental approach to behavioral coaching in many sports, including baseball (Osborne, Rudrud, & Zezoney, 1990), basketball (Pates, Cummings, & Maynard, 2002), figure skating (Ming & Martin, 1996), football (Ward & Carnes, 2002), golf (Pates, Oliver, & Maynard, 2001), ice hockey (Rogerson & Hrycaiko, 2002), soccer (Brobst & Ward, 2002), swimming (Hume & Crossman, 1992), and tennis (Allison & Ayllon, 1980). ABA stresses the application of learning theory principles, objective measurement of athletic skills, controlled outcome evaluation, and socially significant behavior-change. Cognitive behavior therapy, or CBT, also has been a dominant approach to psychological intervention in sports (Meyers, Whelan, & Murphy, 1996; Weinberg & Comar, 1994). CBT addresses athletic performance through cognitive-change methods combined with behavioral practice and environmental modifications. The purpose of the book described in this proposal is to compile the most recent experimental and applied research in behavioral sport psychology. Several journal articles have reviewed critical dimensions of behavioral sport psychology (Martin et al., 2004; Martin, Vause, & Schwartzman, 2005) but no book has covered the topic with an emphasis on ABA and CBT methodology and practice. Accordingly, Behavioral Sport Psychology: Evidence-Based Approaches to Performance Enhancement is a first of its kind volume.