Posts by stevemagness
Do Movement Screens actually do anything?
In an editorial for the British Journal of Sports Medicine, Dr. Rod Whitely argues that “screening as we now do it is the same as player evaluation was years ago—it sounds like a good idea, but we are kidding ourselves if we think it is preventing injury.” If you’ve been around in the sports performance…
Read MoreEpisode 24- Why we are horrible coaches- Part 1
In this episode, Jon and I are coming at you together from Houston, Texas. In a rare podcast where we are actually face to face, we discuss why we are horrible coaches. Yes, we’re giving the trolls what they want and discussing all of the times we screwed up, made mistakes, and generally talk about…
Read MoreEpisode 23- Accountability and Ownership-
In Episode 23 of the Magness & Marcus show, we talk about the importance of accountability and ownership. When success or failure comes, how you frame these outcomes can change not only each individuals motivation to succeed, but also whether they learn from their mistakes, and surprisingly how well the entire team does. We delve…
Read MoreA Brief History of Track and Field in the US
The sport of track and field has a long history dating back to the Ancient Greek Olympics and other festivals in which athletics played a key role. There have been many books and articles detailing the ancient Olympic Games and the modern Olympic games, which began in 1896. However, few have looked into this sports…
Read More7 Quick Thoughts on the IAAF Corruption and Doping scandal.
The Independent Commission investigating corruption of the IAAF and doping in Russia released a bombshell of a report today. While others have summarized the findings better than I can, which included bribery, doping cover-ups, over 1,400+ doping tests destroyed, and much much more. I wanted to give a quick reaction to the report and some…
Read MoreHaving “Space” in your training plan- Why Density is often the neglected variable
People love comparisons. It’s built into our nature to compare groups and note the differences. So it’s no surprise when I present at conferences, that one of the topics is often on looking at the differences between runners. Whether that’s from the high school to college to pro groups, or from different types of runners.…
Read MoreCigarette Smoking Enhances Endurance- The dangers of narrowing focus
If I had to pinpoint one skill that I’m good at in an academic setting, it’s that of coalescing information. I love the feeling of sifting through all of the academic research available, making sense of it, and then connecting it to the practical world. The feeling of connecting disparate ideas is something that I’ll…
Read MoreEpisode 22- Outliers and the average- Who do we pay attention to?
In this episode of the Magness and Marcus podcast, we take on the concept of outliers and averages. Research and coaching practices tend to focus on a select demographic, whether that’s the WEIRD (Western, educated, and from industrialized, rich, and democratic countries) research or coaches focusing on the practices of those who speak English and…
Read MoreSciencyness- The problem with using science to justify what you’re doing…
The heavy breathing, as I found my seat on the plane, must have seemed like an appropriate invitation to start a conversation, as the man sitting behind me quipped “Did you run the marathon today?” It was an appropriate question, given that I was on my way back from the race, although the breathing was…
Read MoreEpisode 21- We have no idea what we’re doing- The Dunning-Kruger Effect and Coaching
In this episode of the Magness & Marcus show, we delve into the Dunning Kruger effect. You might not know the name of this cognitive bias, but it’s something we’re all familiar with. It refers to our inability to accurate assess our abilities. Novices tend to overestimate their abilities, while experts tend to do the…
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