The Sport Slice

Hey Guys, so for this post I am going to focus on the mental aspects of sport and what mental skills you require to be a successful athlete. Not only that but I will also discuss some ways of how you can leave your non-sport thoughts at home while training or competing so you can focus solely on the task in hand. A room full of trophies is not what defines a successful athlete. A successful athlete is one who is committed to being the best they can be no matter what their circumstances are and what limitations they may have. Being the best and being the best you can be are two completely different things. It is important that you understand that. These athletes are successful because they are training and playing hard, enjoying their sport and working towards their realistic goals. They believe that what they are putting into their sport is worthwhile and it enriches their lives.  There are nine learned mental skills that contribute to success in sports. These are all le...

Hey guys, welcome back! So, over the weekend I was over in London playing on the Leinster senior team in division 1 of the English Inter Counties. In what was a very successful weekend, I helped the Leinster team finish second in the division, securing a play-off place where we will face stiff opposition from three other English counties to fight for promotion to the premier division, the best in English badminton! It was a brilliant weekend and a very enjoyable one with some tough games all round. First off, we faced Devon who we beat 8-3. This was a brilliant result for us and a flying start which we had hoped for. Those 8 points were well needed as all the teams around us seemed to be catching up. We followed this up with a 6-5 win over Middlesex to round up the play for Saturday. A massive 14 points gained today which kept us in second and with the help of some other results between the other counties we were in a commanding position in staying second to reach the play-o...

Hey guys, welcome back to my blog. For this post I am going to talk about how we should warm up before a training session and I will also give you an example of my warm ups. Hope you enjoy! Warm ups in my opinion are a vital component of training. Every athlete,in every sport should do a warm up. The point behind warming up is that it gradually warms up our body temperature which decreases risk of injury. Skipping a warm up completely can be extremely detrimental not only to your performance but you can also pick up an injury easily because your muscles aren't warm. A warm up should last roughly 15-20 minutes. Dr Ian Jeffreys developed the framework RAMP protocol which allows for activities to be easily classified into a warm-up sequence. 1. R aise 2. A ctivate and M obilise 3. P otentiate (or performance) Phase 1: Raise The aim of the raise phase is to increase our body temperature, heart rate, respiration rate, blood flow and joint viscosity. This first section of t...

Hey guys, so for this post I have done some in depth research into the stages of injury and the best ways to try speed up your recovery. Hope you find this interesting and don't forget to comment and share!   Injury can range from a tear or pain in a joint, muscle, tendons and ligaments to breaks or dislocations. The most common injury seen in elite athletes is an ACL (Anterior Cruciate Ligament) tear. This is most commonly seen in footballers and happens mainly when a player is jumping to head the ball and as they come down to land their knee twists rupturing the ACL. Injury prevention is important in the life of an athlete as it is necessary for them to keep strength across all their body muscles. Strength and conditioning is the most utilised method of injury prevention and it is applicable across all sports. When an injury occurs, it follows three stages: Inflammation, Proliferation and Remodelling. The Inflammation stage is the first stage of injury and may last be...

Hey guys, As promised here is my post on Foam Rolling(Self-Myofascial Release). Hope you guys find this interesting and can use this information in your training. Foam rolling can be a handy method used by many athletes to acutely increase range of motion without a decrease in muscle activation or force (MacDonald et al.,2013, Cheatham et al., 2015). I find that a quick bout of foam rolling (self-myofascial release) is extremely beneficial just before training as it increases our range of movement and it helps warm up our muscles. I would always finish training sessions with foam rolling (about 30 seconds per muscle group) as I find it helps aid recovery and loosens out the muscles. Rolling for longer than 30 seconds per muscle group can be counter productive! Athletes across all different types of sports should use self-myofascial release as a method of recovery after training to speed up the rate at which muscles regain their normal size. Foam rolling can also be seen...