What are the most effective tools, techniques and technologies available to coaches and sport scientists in the assessment of player and team performance? This is the first book dedicated to the assessment of performance in field sports such as soccer, rugby, hockey and lacrosse. It provides detailed and clear information about the laboratory and field-based methods that can be used to evaluate improvements in individual and team performance, from basic physiological assessment to the use of video and information technologies. Standing at the interface between sport sciences and sport coaching, the book examines a wide range of performance criteria, including: physiology strength, conditioning and fitness decision-making coordination and motor skills sport specific skills team play. Integrating cutting-edge theory, research and technology with best practice in applied sport science, this book is important reading for all students of sport sciences, kinesiology, human movement science, sports performance, or sports coaching. Christopher Carling is Head of Sports Science at Lille Football Club. Thomas Reilly is Director of the Research Institute for Sport and Exercise Sciences at Liverpool John Moores University. He is President of the World Commission of Science and Sports. A. Mark Williams is Professor of Motor Behaviour at the Research Institute for Sport and Exercise Sciences, Liverpool John Moores University.

This is the first book dedicated to the assessment of performance in field sports such as soccer, rugby, hockey, and lacrosse. It provides detailed and clear information about the laboratory and field-based methods that can be used to assess and improve both individual and team performance, from basic physiological assessment to the use of video and information technologies.

It is an essential skill for any strength and conditioning coach to be able to reliably assess the physical performance of their athletes and communicate the results and their implications to performers and coaches, alike. Performance Assessment in Strength and Conditioning is the first textbook to clearly and coherently suggest the most appropriate and reliable methods for assessing and monitoring athletes’ performance, as well as including detailed sections on testing considerations and the interpretation and application of results. The book explores the full range of considerations required to reliably assess performance, including questions of ethics and safety, reliability and validity, and standardised testing, before going on to recommend (through a comparison of field- and laboratory-based techniques) the optimal methods for testing all aspects of physical performance, including: injury risk jump performance sprint performance change of direction and agility strength power aerobic performance body composition Closing with a section on interpreting, presenting and applying results to practice, and illustrated with real-life case study data throughout, Performance Assessment in Strength and Conditioning offers the most useful guide to monitoring athlete performance available. It is an essential text for upper-level strength and conditioning students and practitioners alike.

High-Performance Training for Sports changes the landscape of athletic conditioning and sports performance. This groundbreaking work presents the latest and most effective philosophies, protocols and programmes for developing today’s athletes. High-Performance Training for Sports features contributions from global leaders in athletic performance training, coaching and rehabilitation. Experts share the cutting-edge knowledge and techniques they’ve used with Olympians as well as top athletes and teams from the NBA, NFL, MLB, English Premier League, Tour de France and International Rugby. Combining the latest science and research with proven training protocols, High-Performance Training for Sports will guide you in these areas: • Optimise the effectiveness of cross-training. • Translate strength into speed. • Increase aerobic capacity and generate anaerobic power. • Maintain peak conditioning throughout the season. • Minimise the interference effect. • Design energy-specific performance programmes. Whether you are working with high-performance athletes of all ages or with those recovering from injury, High-Performance Training for Sports is the definitive guide for developing all aspects of athletic performance. It is a must-own guide for any serious strength and conditioning coach, trainer, rehabilitator or athlete.

Monitoring Training and Performance in Athletes provides practitioners with the information needed in order to oversee an athlete monitoring system and to collect, analyze, and interpret monitoring data so that training programs can be adjusted to achieve optimal athlete preparation and performance.

Sport performance analysis techniques help coaches, athletes and sport scientists develop an objective understanding of actual sport performance, as opposed to self-report, fitness tests or laboratory based experiments. For example, contemporary performance analysis enables elite sports people and coaches to obtain live feedback of match statistics and video sequences using flexible internet systems, systems that have become an indispensible tool for all those involved in high performance sport. The Routledge Handbook of Sports Performance Analysis is the most comprehensive guide to this exciting and dynamic branch of sport science ever to be published. The book explores performance analysis across the four main contexts in which it is commonly used: support for coaches and athletes; the media; judging sport contests, and academic research. It offers an up-to-date account of methodological advances in PA research, assesses the evidence underpinning contemporary theories of sport performance, and reviews developments in applied PA across a wide range of sports, from soccer to track and field athletics. Covering every important aspect of PA, including tactics, strategy, mechanical aspects of technique, physical aspects of performance such as work-rate, coach behaviour and referee behaviour, this is an essential reference for any serious student, researcher or practitioner working in sport performance analysis, sport coaching or high performance sport.

This is the first book exploring the concept of home advantage (HA), the well-known beneficial effect that players and teams derive from performing at home in all sports throughout the world. Despite the fact that the existence of HA dates back to the origins of organized sport in the late 19th century, its root causes and how they operate and interact with each other are still unclear and remain the topic of intense research involving many disciplines, all with the potential objective of improving team and individual performance. This book covers a broad review of HA divided into three different sections: (i) Section 1 focuses on the theory of HA in sport (the concept of this phenomenon, its quantification, and factors supposedly associated with the HA are explored; (ii) Section 2 analyses the effects of HA in sports related to both male and female athletes, in relation to tactics and strategies, fans, referees, travel, situational variables and the home disadvantage; and (iii) Section 3 studies the HA as it applies to specific sports worldwide such as outdoor sports (football, rugby, cricket, and Australian Football), indoor sports (basketball, futsal, handball, water polo and volleyball), US professional sports, individual sports, racket sports, combat sports, minor sports, disabled sports and the Olympic Games. This book has been written in cooperation with top leading experts in this field worldwide. The book offers a better understanding of the HA effect for MSc and PhD students, athletes, coaches, performance analysts, sport psychologists, sociologists, sport scientists and sport journalists.