Sport Physiology for Coaches

by Brian J. Sharkey, Steven E. Gaskill

Sport consists of preparation and performance—about 99 percent preparation, 1 percent performance. You know the importance of physical fitness in sport, but do you know how to train your athletes to perform at their best? Sport Physiology for Coaches is designed to help coaches assess, refine, enhance, and improve athletes' performance through an applied approach to exercise physiology. Written primarily for high school coaches, this practical, user-friendly text not only covers training essentials for muscular and energy fitness, but it also provides the hands-on assessments, forms, and training plans to help you implement the concepts in your training sessions. To guide you in the development of a training program for your sport, the book features sample programs for sports involving skill, power, power endurance, intermittent activity, and aerobic activity. You'll learn the principles behind development of muscular and energy fitness, differentiate between myth and science, and glean the latest training techniques and lessons from science and top coaches. In the end, you'll come away with a systematic approach and integrated training plan for developing your athletes' energy and muscular fitness. With Sport Physiology for Coaches, you'll discover how knowledge of sport physiology and training can contribute to your athletes' success and to your understanding and enjoyment of coaching. Sport Physiology for Coaches serves as the text for the American Sport Education Program (ASEP) Silver Level course, Sport Physiology for Coaches.

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 30, 2006

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

This an outstanding resource for high school and club sport coaches, as well as collegiate coaches without exercise science backgrounds. Best of all, the book is evidence based, which is a rarity in coaching books. The book is part of the study curriculum for certification as a prévôt by the U.S. Fencing Coaches Association.

The authors explain highly technical concepts in layperson's terms without watering down the basic science. Occasionally the text is the victim of bad editing, as when concepts are referred to in a way that implies that they are explained elsewhere in the book—but there is no explanation.

The book focuses heavily on developing and using sport-specific assessments for muscular and energy fitness, and then on plans to improve that fitness. There are lots of examples and sample plans. The case study sidebars are also helpful.

I teach and coach fencing—not exactly a mainstream sport in the U.S. But fencing was at least occasionally mentioned in various tables—enough so that I could develop my own material that was fencing-specific.

It should be emphasized that this is not a book that is going to give coaches cookie cutter training plans. It will give coaches who have the desire to take their athletes (and their coaching) to the next level the tools needed to devise solutions for their sport and their athletes.

One thing that would really improve the next edition would be to include blank examples on either a CD or on the publisher's website so that coaches wouldn't have to create forms from scratch.