The Sport Slice

Hey guys, I thought I'd post on something interesting I heard people talking about the other day. Myths of stretching versus the truth. It's quite an interesting topic if you ask me and something that all sports people should be doing every day. So here it goes... 1. You should always stretch before you workout (Myth): You don't NEED to stretch before you workout. Yes, it is recommended you do stretch but not all activities require stretching. For those of you into your running, you should look more towards the dynamic stretching techniques which you do during your warm up. This can include high knees, heel flicks, shoulder rotations etc. These can be done while you warm up. 2. Everyone should do the same kind of stretching: This is false. Not everyone needs to do the same stretching as the person beside you. Sure everyone's body is different and requires different stretches. Second of all, different sports require different stretching also. There are no rules as ...

Hi guys, for this post I will be talking about my trip to Kazan, Russia for the European team championships! We left on Saturday the 10th of February on an 11am flight to Istanbul where we then got our connecting flight to Kazan. A long, long day of traveling that was. We arrived in Kazan at 3am, each and every one of us knackered. I just wanted to fall into bed. It was 4am before we got into our beds... Some sleepy faces were seen the next morning at breakfast. Sunday 11th: Today was our first proper day here in Kazan and we used it to try and recover from our long travels. We slept most of the morning after we got breakfast. All we did was go for a hit in the practice hall from 4-6. When we got back we had time to explore around the local area and to our delight we found a shopping mall connected to our hotel. We walked around the shopping center looking for somewhere to eat which was quite a task as everything was in Russian. We found somewhere eventually and got some lovely f...

So, as many of you know my sport is badminton and this weekend is the Irish National Championships. I go into the weekend after some good results at the weekend in Essex where I played on the Leinster senior team against Essex and Ulster. Beating Ulster 7-4 and Essex 6-5, this leaves us second in the table going into the final weekend which is in March where we will hope to qualify for the play-offs for promotion to England's top league. With National's this weekend, I have been very focused and excited to play after being selected to represent Ireland at the European Women's team championships in 10 days time. So I am really looking forward to this weekend and my preparation has been going well. Leading up to a tournament I try not to put too much stress on my body while still training at the same time. Looking after your body is a crucial factor in being able to perform at the highest level in competition. This includes diet, sleep and training. Eating a balanced, healt...

Anyone keeping up to date with what's going on in the Australian Open? Well, what a tournament it has been! Kyle Edmund, British number 2 men's singles player has reached his first ever grand slam semi-final. He plays Marin Cilic, who overcame Rafa Nadal in the quarter finals. On the other side of the draw, we see Hyeon Chung, the 20 year old South Korean who has reached his first ever grand slam semi-final also and the first for his country. On his way to the semi, he beat 4th seeded Alexander Zverev in 5 sets as well as Novak Djokovic, one of the hot favorites for the competition. But will this be the end of the road for Chung as he faces reigning champion Roger Federer, the fans favorite? A mere 15 years age difference between the two. Who will come out on top?  The women's tournament in my opinion is always so hard to call who is going to come out on top as there is so many women currently at similar standards and all capable of beating each other. And with Serena ...

Hey guys, post number two! Here it goes. So, when we are training day after day to reach our potential you think to yourself "keep going you can do this". You want to win that Olympic Gold medal or the World Cup, whatever your endeavors may be, big or small. The truth is, you can have all the skill in the world but skill doesn't win Olympic Gold on it's own. Hard work, determination as well as the skill will win you that final. It doesn't come easy. Nothing does in this life. So, if your dream is to be an Olympic Champion or a World Champion in your chosen sport then my advice to you is to work hard and never give up. Winners never give up and that is what can lead to your success. You don't just stop training when you're tired you stop when you are done. I don't know much about boxing but I loved Muhammad Ali and what he did in sport and so when I am training and trying to reach my goals I always remember him and in particular his saying: ...

Hey Guys, my name is Kate, I am 19 years old and I am an international badminton player and train intensely week in week out. I'm new to the concept of blogging but I thought for my posts I will share with you my opinions on different topics in sport including warm ups, sleep patterns and routines for training and competition and also a few sport hacks. My advice will stem mainly from what I have acquired throughout my badminton career although I am now studying Sports Science and Health and will try incorporate many different sports as well as posts that are generic and work across all sports. As I grow into blogging I hope that I will extend the topics that I will discuss. Hope you all enjoy!  So, for this first post I thought I'd jump right in. Why wait?  So, my question for you is...Should you train while you're sick? Well there's no simple answer to this and everyone has their own rules and proceedings which they follow...