Some can view sport as a question of make-it or break-it. But questionable training cultures and concerns around toxic training environments have been under the spotlight in recent times. The Nike Oregon project and British Cycling, to name two of the more high-profile cases, have been rocked by accusations of a culture of bullying, shady practices and medical mismanagement (https://www.bbc.com/sport/athletics/51599747). These accusations often centre around dominant, didactic coaches. Some athletes have now broken their silence and given their perspectives on the culture inside these highly successful teams. Are these isolated cases? Doubtful. But what is it about the culture of...
The New Year is here, at the start of 2019 the days are already getting longer, we can look to the future again. Not uncommonly, after Christmas and New Year binges, we can look forward with the aim of improving our health. It is renowned that New Year’s resolutions fail. But why is it often so hard to make changes stick? It is tempting to think we are responsible for all our decisions, for every nuance of our health. It is tempting to think the same of others. But why, in an era of universal education where almost everyone knows...
You might have noticed that there are a lot of health trends and fads around, a lot of gurus and people with new books. It is claimed that this new way-of-life/diet/gadget/exercise will revolutionise your health and make you feel great! The existence of these trends doesn’t seem so strange; they aren’t so new; there have been many different diets and curious health methods around for a long time. Remember the watercress soup diet? Pilates craze? The electrical abdominal contractor? What about blood-letting (a slightly older craze)? I am sure you can come up with many more. These fads, trends, fashions...
This year’s Wimbledon final was fought out between two players, both of whom have a former superstar player as their coach. It seems obvious to think any individual who has reached the pinnacle of their sport, like Lendl, must understand it to great depth. This may well be true in certain cases. But there are clear examples that contradict this. I will use Tennis and Football as two examples to make a case for why “super-coaches” can both succeed and fail. The premier leagues most successful clubs mostly have managers who were average players, think Sir Alex Ferguson, Arsene Wenger,...
Doping is cheating, cheating is wrong, cheaters should be punished. This view is ingrained in many psyches. Yet evidence builds every week that doping is rife in sport. Many of those caught – and many who aren’t – will have been raised to share exactly the ethical standpoint outlined above. Nevertheless, they choose to dope. Sports medicine, inevitably, is essential to performance enhancement. Physicians enable doping and some – the evidence suggests – encourage it. But all over the world clean athletes too will look for a physiological edge, and turn to teams of nutritionists and physiologists and physicians for...
What can sports medicine really achieve and just as importantly what should it be aiming to achieve? This may seem like a simple question, but the answer has a myriad of competing influences. Should sports medicine be aimed at merely optimising the sports person’s health? Should it try to improve their performance? Perhaps prevent them from getting problems? How much to intervene and what to leave to nature is a common dilemma in physiotherapy and medicine. The shades of grey are no less opaque in sports. The history of sport includes many unsavoury events where clinicians have intervened too greatly...
