michael reid

Better Movement = Better Basketball

I will be teaching a clinic this Friday, May 2 at the Gothenburg Basketball Festival.

See you there,
Mike Reid

From the tournament website:

COACH CLINIC WITH GOTHIA BASKET PROFESSIONAL PHYSICAL TRAINER MIKE REID!

Mike will discuss, teach and lead you through what he believes are some key movements for Basketball players. You will learn how to identify athletes who have higher risk of knee injuries and strategies to correct their movement.

The exercises taught can be used for all age groups and levels.This is a learn by doing session so come prepared to move.www.michaelreid.ca We promise that this clinic is extremely useful in teaching movements that maximise output and minimize injury problems.

Free of charge for all Göteborg Basketball Festival coaches and players.

The language of the clinic is English.

Please come to Valhalla A – directly after the All Star Challenge appx. 20.30 – 21.30 Friday May 2

Water Polo Science: part V - "New" Training Ideas

This is directly copied from: the water polo ideas blog

1952: Majoni introducing new training methods

Torino, 28th February 1952: Mario Majoni as the new National coach of Italy, while introducing new training methods, such as swimming training with the use of stop watch and belts of extra weight for leg work. Photo: Majoni, Marciani, Ceccarini, Gionta and Raspini.
Source: Magazine "Il mondo del nuoto; 1985". Article of Aronne Anghileri: "Mario Majoni, una vita di Pallanuoto"

The Fresh Prince

The 2 keys to life according to the Fresh Prince (aka Will Smith):

1. Running (I would add any kind of hard physical training, but running is good because everyone can do it).

2. Reading (absolutely ... get rid of the TV, it just pollutes your mind & read some books!)

Be Well,
Mike Reid

How to Build Muscle

This is a great little course about how to add muscle to your frame. 

What exercises to do, what to eat, supplements, ...

Plus it is all free!!!!

Scrawny to Brawny free 5 day course (via email)

Enjoy,
Mike Reid

Medicine Ball Clinic (reminder)

Just a reminder that tonight I will be conducting a Medicine Ball Clinic. 

I will be covering what I feel are the 2 best MB exercises you can do for improving your vertical jump.

Medicine Ball Clinic
date: 21-04-2008
time: 20-21
Location: Gothia Arena, hall 2
Gothenburg, Sweden

• All costs are generously covered by Högsbo Basketball Club, so it is free for all to attend!

• this is a learn by doing clinic so come prepared to move.

• Please note, if you are NOT a club member please send me an email to confirm your attendance.

I will also be doing another clinic on "training the knee" on Saturday, 10-05-2008 at Gothia Arena.  I will post more details on this clinic later this week.

Be Well,
Mike Reid

Water Polo Science: part IV - strength training

Does on-land strength training help Water Polo performance?  The research basically says no, but most of the research is flawed in the exercises they use (mostly machine based) and the duration of the training usually around 8-12 weeks.  I also realize that this is the nature of the beast when it comes to research, so we need to take from it what we can.

As an example, one research study looked at if strength training will help a Water Polo athlete improve their shooting power?   I certainly think so but Bloomfield et al. (1990) noted otherwise "following strength training, no change in throwing velocity was observed".  The strength program used all machines and the training program only lasted 8 weeks.  Strength training is not a short term cure, it is a training mode you need to consistently work at from year to year.  The study does show the importance of training specificity.  They only used machines, which in my opinion is not the best piece of strength equipment to use for Athletes.  I would much prefer a program based on free weights and either cables or tubing.

Another aspect of strength training and Water Polo which should be considered is the occurrence of injuries, particularly over use type injuries that usually occur to the shoulder and elbow of Water Polo players.  A properly applied strength program can be used to keep the athlete healthy by working on movements and muscles that are underused during training.  Therefore, the athlete can train more in the water and miss less training sessions and ultimately become a better player!  So, in this hypothetical example, a strength program can improve performance just like eating healthy and getting the right amount sleep.  It becomes part of the total package of being a GOOD athlete.

A second important concept of strength training for Water Polo (this applies to swimmers too) is that they do not get the loading on the body the same way as land based sports.  Since you spend most of you life on land and not in the water I think it is very important to think of strength training as a tool to make the athlete healthy in and out of the pool.  Kavouras et al. (2006) found this in their study "Water polo is associated with an apparent redistribution of bone mass and density from the lower to the upper limbs".  This is where I think some running as well as weight lifting exercises like Dead Lifts and Squats can be very good for Water Polo athletes. 

Pictured below is myself doing Over Head Squats, which is one of my favorite squat exercises not only for strength but also total body flexibility and shoulder health (I will cover this exercise in more detail in a future post).

Be Well,
Mike Reid 

References:

J Bloomfield, B Blanksby, T Ackland & G Allison.  The influence of strength training on overhead throwing velocity of elite water polo players.  Australian Journal of Sience and Medicine in Sport (1990) 22(3), 63-67.

S Kavouras, F Magkos, M Yannakoulia, M Perraki, M Karipidou & L Sidossis.  Eur J Appl Physiol (2006) 97: 316–321

Medicine Ball Clinic

Next week, on Monday I will be conducting a clinic on how to use the Medicine Ball for strength and power development.  Details below:

Medicine Ball Clinic
date: 21-04-2008
time: 20-21
Location: Gothia Arena, hall 2
Gothenburg, Sweden

• All costs are generously covered by Högsbo Basketball Club, so it is free for all to attend!

• this is a learn by doing clinic so come prepared to move.

• Please note, if you are NOT a club member please send me an email to confirm your attendance.

I will also be doing another clinic on "training the knee" on Saturday, 10-05-2008 at Gothia Arena.  I will post more details on this clinic later this week.

Be Well,
Mike Reid

Strength Coach Podcast

The strength coach podcast, if you have not listened, is quite good.  The information presented is geared towards professionals working in the health, fitness, rehabilitation field and obviously the strength coach.  It comes out every 2 weeks and each one last about 60 minutes.

I usually download it and listen to it while I train, the Swedish athletes I work with get all "excited" when I tell them I have a new episode of the Strength Coach Podcast!

Be Well,
Mike Reid

No Time for a Healthy Breakfast?

There is a strength coach in the USA, Dan John, and his response to an athletes request for more nutrition information is to ask ... "did you eat breakfast?"   I would assume then that If they say yes, then he continues with the discussion, if they say no ... then that is all the information they need, start eating breakfast!

Here is what I ate for breakfast this morning.  It took maybe 3 minutes to prepare, cook in the oven on broil for 10-15 minutes (during that time I take a shower and get dressed).  So from waking up, eating, shower and getting dressed I could be out of the house in 30 minutes.

 

Here is the "recipe":

• Turn oven on high.
• Put your Salmon on the cooking sheet.
• Wash & cut up your peppers.
• Drizzle Olive Oil on peppers.
• Salt & Pepper on everything.
• Put in oven near the top.
• take out in 10-15 minutes & eat.

Be Well,
Mike Reid

Water Polo Science: part III - field players

Part III is all about the physiological demands of field players. For simplicity, I have grouped the different field positions together. Here are some key points of the research, with references at the end of the post.  All the below key points refer to men's international match play.  But I believe that it still strongly relates to youth and women's Water Polo.

• high intensity work demands last up to 15s with lower intensity effort work lasting up to ~20s.
• Some studies report a Work:Rest ratio = 5:3 while other are closer to 1:1.
• Average total minutes of work during a match = 34 minutes (7 min quarters)
• Average total minutes of rest during a match = 20 minutes
• Body position during a match is split almost evenly between a horizontal position (i.e. swimming) and a vertical position (i.e. passing, shooting, blocking, centre forward ...).
• Heart Rate exceeds 80% of maximum for most of the match.
• moderate demands on all 3 energy systems - aerobic, anaerobic alactic and anaerobic glycolytic.
• Distance swam during a match has been estimated from 500m to 1800m, but this is very difficult to measure accurately due to the complexity of movements in Water Polo.
• Aerobic Power or Vo2 Max of International players = 58-61 ml/kg/min.  
• This Aerobic Power is similar to other contact team sports such as Ice Hockey, Basketball, Rugby and Soccer but is lower then that of endurance athletes who will generally be between 70-90 ml/kg/min. Sedentary population is usually around 35 ml/kg/min.
• Swimming economy is very useful in managing fatigue during a match.
• The shoulder is the most commonly injured area of Water Polo players.  Although at the 2004 Olympics, 58% of the injuries reported were to the head with only 28% to shoulder, arm or hand.  All head injuries were via contact.

How do you think this applies to training a field player in Water Polo?

What would a sample training session look like?

Topics coming up in future posts:

• Physical training for Water Polo: strength, injury prevention, flexibility, ...
• Physical Training for Goal Keepers: how does it differ from field players?

Be Well,
Mike Reid

references:

HK Smith.  Applied Physiology of Water Polo.  Sports Med 1998 Nov; 26 (5): 317-334

M Franić, A Ivković, R Rudić.  Injuries in Water Polo. Croat Med J.  2007;48:281-8

A Junge, G Langevoort, A Pipe, A Peytavin, F Wong, M Mountjoy, G Beltrami, R Terrell, M Holzgraefe, R Charles & Dvorak.  Injuries in Team Sport Tournaments During the 2004 Olympic Games.  Am. J. Sports Med. 2006; 34

G Pavlik, Z Kneffel, M Petrekanits, P Horvath & Z Sido.  Echocardiographic Data in Hungarian Top-Level Water Polo Players.   Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2005 Feb;37(2):323-8.

T. Platanou.  Time-motion Analysis of International Level Water Polo Players.  Journal of Human Movement Studiesv46 (4) 2004; p. 319-331