Paperback isbn: 9781914110382
£19.99
Pages: 270
Publication Date: September 10th 2024

1. Knowing Stuff – Myths, Science and Reality

Christopher R. Matthews

2. Winning Matters Most in Elite Sport

Elliott Newell, Cath Bishop, Laurence Halsted and Katie Mobed

3. The Myth of the Zombie: Why Automaticity is Insufficient for (Aspiring) Elite Athletes

Henrik Herrebrøden

4. Busting myths: Navigating pregnancy as an elite athlete

Melanie J Hayman, Margie H Davenport, Nicola Bullock, Amy E Whitehead

5. “All Feedback is Beneficial” A Deconstruction of Feedback

Ross Corbett, Dr. Mark Partington, Lisa Ryan and Ed Cope

6. The Myth of “Periodisation”

James Steele, James Fisher, Jeremy Loenneke, Samuel Buckner

7. The myth that being a good mother and an elite athlete are not compatible

Kelly Massey and Amy Whitehead

8. “Stretching the Truth: A critical examination of stretching for athletes”

Tim Pigott

9. Distinguishing the truths from the myths: The Dual Axis Framework

Philip E Kearney, Frank J Nugent, & Andrew Harrison.

10. Smoke and Mirrors: the superficial rise of women’s sport

Alex Lascu

11. Physical fatigue in football: A challenge to the importance of fatigue in determining performance in football match-play

Liam Anderson, Thomas Brownlee, Barry Drust, Matej Varjan

12. “Seeking Clarity on Psychological Safety: Tackling Myths and Misconceptions in Competitive Sport

Michael Cooke, Kyle Paradis, Lee Ann Sharp, David Woods, & Mustafa Sarkar

13. Harnessing the power of attention: exploring ‘focus of attention’ theories, practice, and myths.

Marianne Davies, Robin Owen, Vicky Gottwald, Harjiv Singh

14. Menstrual cycle myths

Jacky J. Forsyth

15. Challenging the Myths of High Performance in Esports

Laura Swettenham, Kabir Bubna, Matthew Watson

16. Think Using Electronics Before Bed and Only Getting 5 Hours of Sleep is OK? We Bust These Athlete Sleep Myths

Kathleen Miles, Stephanie Shell, Dean Miller

17. Leadership: a title bestowed from above; a position of awarded power. Truth or myth?

Jane Booth

18. “If you want to go fast go alone. If you want to go far, go together” – engaging productively with a Coach Developer

Andrew Bradshaw

Stretching? Sleep? Fatigue? Psychological Safety? Pregnancy? Leadership?

Sport Performance is a complex, highly studied, highly debated and often controversial mixture of theories, opinions and evidence. This book aims to demystify some of the most pervasive myths, misconceptions and realities surrounding the how, what and why of improving performance in sport.

Ultimately, you’ll learn the truth about a particular myth, based on the most credible evidence available.

The subject is multidisciplinary in nature, made up of a myriad of sciences and philosophies, with the aim (the majority of the time) of improving performance, well-being, and health. Readers will learn multidisciplinary perspectives of sport and performance, from the physiological, psychological, pedagogical, sociological, and even philosophical.

Yes, this book is underpinned by science, but we also invited authors from around the world to bring their own personal experiences to the chapters, hence including not just experts within academia, but also those working on the ground of sport and performance. Contributors include lead sport scientists working in national institutes of sport, physiotherapists, sport and exercise psychologists, former athletes and high-performance consultants. It is important to us that this book is read by practitioners in the field of sport, and therefore is informed by those successfully working in these areas.

Whichever area of sport you compete, participate, work, or have an interest in, this book provides both the research underpinnings and practical considerations for you to be able to apply to your own environment and context. Whether you just become more aware of a specific topic, or you actually change what you do as a result, we hope you enjoy reading as much as we enjoyed putting together.