Articles
Building Effective Culture is more complex now than ever. With busier fixture lists, ever-increasing pressure to maximise every minute of staff/player available time – now is the time to consider best practices in how to efficiently build a culture of clarity, empowerment, and inclusivity – which ultimately drives an environment of high performance and success. […]
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Effective planning is more important now than ever. With busier fixture lists, ever-increasing pressure to maximise every minute of staff/player available time, and most testing and protocols than ever – now is the time to consider best practices in whole team planning. From organising first-team training sessions that include a few promising youth players, to […]
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Safeguarding in football has recently been thrust back into the spotlight following the findings of the Sheldon report, published on 17th March 2021. Although the report suggested “mistakes were still made”, football as a sport has come a fair way since the launch of the FA’s child protection policy in May 2000. Safeguarding frameworks are now […]
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Elite sports teams are complex. The success of a team will often depend on how well a collection of unique individuals with specific individual goals and targets, can form successful relationships, on and off the field. To achieve peak performance, teams must act cohesively and they must be adaptable to a constantly changing environment. To […]
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Kairos co-founder and CEO Andrew Trimble recently caught up with former Irish International rugby player and current coach, Paul O’Connell. They talked about getting coaching balance between the ‘magical’ and the scientific, the styles of some of the greats, and the lessons learned when Paul left Ireland to coach in Paris. Paul is well known […]
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While everyone is trying to adapt to these new and challenging times, for some sports it is not just the pandemic posing challenges for them but also new rule variations. For a variety of reasons, sporting rules are in a constant state of flux and evolution at present. With recent examples such as VAR in […]
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Elite level sport is slowly returning after the COVID-19 crisis, but in a very different form with games behind closed doors and truncated fixture schedules to get the current 2019-20 season finished. A few weeks ago, we looked at how the world of Elite Sport would look in this new landscape. Germany’s Bundesliga has led […]
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It goes without saying that the COVID-19 pandemic has caused a lot of uncertainty in the elite sports world. Major international sports events like the Olympics, The Euros and Copa America were all moved to 2021 and almost all major national sports leagues have been postponed, or, in the case of top level sport in […]
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It is no secret that in the modern world of elite sports, nutrition has become a vital variable that can influence the performance of an athlete. It is not by chance that we often read about athletes’ strict eating regimen. Whether it is the intensive keto diet LeBron James used to lose weight, or Michael […]
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Periodisation is the long-term systematic planning and division to maximise performance to coincide with important competitions of the season and involves structuring the annual training plan into phases. Utilising a periodised training approach for sports also enables better management of performance variables such as load, intensity, fatigue and recovery. A well-structured periodisation program can enable […]
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Strength training has increasingly become more popular as an additional method for athletes to improve performance in their sport. Whether it is golfers, triathletes or basketball players, the modern sports science community almost unanimously agrees that all athletes can benefit from some degree of strength training. Not so long ago, the common wisdom was that athletes just […]
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AN INCREASINGLY NEEDED CONVERSATION An important, yet often neglected topic of discussion in the world of elite sports, is the mental health of athletes. It is often easy to forget that despite all the accolades, prestige and fame, professional athletes are nonetheless human beings, and like everyone else, can experience a variety of events that can […]
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“ Man, I don’t know, I was just in the zone…” Every athlete has said these words at least once after a particularly successful event. For basketball players, there are “nothing-but-net” games, for tennis champions some tournaments just become streaks of “down-the-line” winners. As a golfer, I’ve had days where my ball and the green […]
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The 2019 Rugby World Cup will be held in Asia, outside the traditional heartland of rugby union. This September, the world’s best 21 teams will fly to Japan to defend their colours and become the trophy-winning nation. Amongst this year’s teams is Ireland, and amongst its delegation, Ulster Rugby captain Iain Henderson. The rugby star […]
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Can an outsider, coming into form at the right time upset all the odds? On Thursday, 156 players will tee off to compete in the oldest tournament in golf history, the legendary Open Championship. Historically held in England or Scotland, the Northern Irish town of Portrush will be hosting the major tournament this year, for […]
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11:30am, July 15th 2018- watched by several million people, Serb tennis legend Novak Djokovic has just defeated 6-foot-8 Kevin Anderson on the most renowned grass court in the world. Novak is no stranger to victory, especially in slam tournaments, but there is something special about this win… This is not only the culmination of a phenomenal […]
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Today, hundreds of thousands of young elite athletes throughout the world strive to be successful both in their sport and in the classroom. It can be quite challenging for teenagers and young adults to find the right balance between education, personal life and sports. Even the most dedicated young person will eventually have to make […]
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Sports legends: that’s what we call sports professionals like Michael Phelps, Serena Williams, Tiger Woods, Mia Hamm, Tom Brady, Usain Bolt, and Michael Jordan. These athletes do not just play a sport; they are the face of their respective sports, a source of inspiration for present and future generations, the reason why many kids spend […]
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70 caps for Ireland, 229 for Ulster (still the most capped Ulster player ever) and more tries than one could count in a Rugby career: Andrew Trimble’s record speaks for itself. The Coleraine born rugby child prodigy has animated crowds from Ravenhill stadium in Belfast, to Soldier Field in Chicago to the Stade de France, […]
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