A little over four years ago, I left full-time employment in professional football to start my own business, after finally getting a handle on my burn-out, and with a new vigour for the self-employed space. Yet, here I am, doing exactly what I gave a ‘very slim chance’ and returning to full-time employment in professional football. Not only that, I’m actually incredibly excited to be doing so, and chomping at the bit to get going. So what happened?

In the last year or so, a few coaches and a handful of athletes have asked me what drove my decision to jump into self-employment, and to turn away from a career I’d long since pursued. Hopefully, this provides some insight and answers!

In recent years, the popularity of using MAS informed training has boomed in its popularity, particularly amongst field sports and practitioners aiming to chase specific energy system development with their athletes. This article aims to equip both coaches and athletes with more information about exactly what MAS is and why we would use it to inform training, how to appropriately apply it in a progressive fashion over the course of an off/pre-season, why you may choose not to use it at all, and shine a light on some common mistakes often stumbled over when application is attempted. A lot of the insights shared in this article are derived from personal experience and opinion and so if you are a coach reading this, I urge you to derive those of your own too.

The 3rd installment on the athlete stories series is from Pole Vaulter, Charlie Myers. In this incredibly honest account, Charlie talks about his journey into Pole Vault, the pressures that have persisted throughout his athletic career, and a brave insight into his struggles with mental health. I can’t tell you how proud I am to have worked with Charlie for the past 6 years, as a person above all else. I’m excited for his future, and will be with him every step of the way so long as he needs me.

Be sure to share, comment, and follow Charlie’s journey via social channels too, links embedded.

This installment in our guest writer series comes from former colleague and good friend, Jack Dent. Jack is an accredited Strength & Conditioning Coach and Rehabilitation Specialist at one of the world’s leading Sports Medicine Facility’s (Sport Surgery Clinic Santry).

In this brilliantly structured piece, Jack addresses hip function and some of the pitfalls letting down so many of us when it comes down to appropriate hip training. Lateral hip training is so often a missing piece of the jigsaw in many performance and clinical circumstances, and here Jack lends his expertise to shine light on an area often left in the dark. A brilliant read for coaches, athletes, and everyday people alike.

A muscle group that have acquired a fair amount of attention when it comes to current sport/medical research, with relationships between peak force, capacity, fascicle length and architectural structure, all being tied to the likelihood of injury risk, the quality of return to play, and the quality of our sprint performance. And yet, despite holding such a fair chunk of academic attention, I still frequently come across athletes that accept sub-standard support when it comes the attention that I believe they require. As much as we want to bulletproof our hamstrings during our physical preparation to ensure we don’t get injured, we also want to consider the power that a strong and robust pair of hammies has on our athletic performance. There is far far much more to hamstring strength & conditioning, then bolting some nordics on to your prehab sessions, or doing some flossing exercises when they’re feeling tight.

Blog post written for Kymira Sport on getting a handle on some basic fundamentals once your competition and/or training draws to a close to get the early advantage on your competitors that miss the boat when it comes to post-exercise practics.

Think you’ve tried everything to burst your current training plateau? Tried different training methods, jumbling around your training schedule, you’ve even changed your footwear, all in order to seek the extra 1% to take you to the next level. Have you ever taken a more serious look under the hood, and considered what your time between the sheets might be doing to your performance? No, not that. Sleep.

Blog post written for, and published by KymiraSport looking into why the “Veganuary” trend may have wheels beyond the first month on your calendar, and how there are concepts to live by year round embedded in to what is becoming a social norm for so many of us.

You may well have heard the term “plyometric” training banded around the gym, or the changing rooms every now and then. You may have even seen it referenced on social media, or hashtagged after a video of someone’s box jumps, but what exactly constitutes plyometric training? Should you be incoprotating it within your programme? Are you already doing so? This article hopes to shine a light on one of the most high value, high return training modalities available to everyone - and also raise the question as to why some people don’t seem to find them as sexy as other conventional training methods.

Mobility in itself is, in my opinion, an incredibly misunderstood part of the performance equation, and also an absolutely crucial element to maintaining and improving tissue and joint health. The point of this blog post is to give you an overview of what exactly mobility is, and equally as importantly, what it isn’t.

We’ll outline a framework for assessing your joint health, both in isolation, and as part of an integrated system. Finding out what is comfortably lengthening, and shortening, and where your limits lie, is integral to minimising your injury occurrence, and helping you to move better, more effectively, and pain free.

In the wake of the weekend that would’ve seen the London Marathon take place, I thought it as suitable time as any, to dive into what is oddly, a controversial topic. Strength Training, and Running. This article hopes to give a little insight both in terms of how strength training can have a direct affect on your running, as well as some practical tips in terms of the type of strength work you can and possibly should be doing if you have aspirations for improving your running performance.

The second blog in our guest writer series comes from PhD candidate Richie Barclay. Richie is the founder and owner of FocusFood UK, and PRPerformance is fortunate to work closely with Richie on a regular basis. The two of us regularly collaborate to provide bespoke nutrition services to multiple athletes with Focus Food providing high quality, responsibly sourced, beautifully cooked meals on a regular basis. In this post, Richie shares some insight into the value of dietary fat, including an overview of fat function, and providing a framework for assessing which foods you should and shouldn’t allow to form a solid foundation within your diet.

For the 2nd installment of the Athlete Stories series, I was fortunate enough to sit down with former Chelsea, West Ham and England Footballer, Claire Rafferty. Claire provides a fascinating personal insight to the evolving landscape within Women’s Football, as well as revealing some of her experience towards the end of her career that shaped her decision to retire from the game and successfully transition into the world of business.

I have previously written broadly on carbohydrate periodisation in a previous blog post, and so felt compelled to follow up with a similar overview of protein intake, and as usual, I’ll be following the structure of busting some common misconceptions, and providing an evidence based overview of what we currently know. As always, hopefully this blog provokes you to reflect on your current nutritional habits and routines, and perhaps may drive some change in the way that you approach your protein intake.