In sports, having an end of the season vision is the center point for which all success and failure hinges. There will be pitfalls throughout the year, but resiliency, determination, and persistence are the keys to long-term success in sports. How do athletes find a vision? Athletes need to explore what excites and drives them on a daily basis. Once this is established, athletes can use this to begin planning goals to achieve their vision, one step at a time. Athletes must also determine specific steps that will set them up to achieve their goals. Ultimately, goals drive motivation, commitment, focus, and enhance athletic performance.

Elite coach and BridgeAthletic’s co-founder, Nick Folker, joined HMMR for a podcast episode discussing how coaches can leverage strength and conditioning technology to be better at their jobs. Technology is a controversial topic in sports training and is oftentimes frowned upon by coaches in the weight room or on the field. Nick talks about these common misconceptions, benefits of incorporating technology, and the future of sports and technology in strength and conditioning programs. Here is the HMMR episode and a recap of the discussion.

Delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) is common for all athletes and is caused after performing high-intensity unaccustomed exercises. More specifically, it is due to the high intensity eccentric (lengthening) contractions during these exercises. Eccentric contractions in unprepared muscles can cause micro traumas to the muscle that result in soreness. DOMS tend to concentrate at muscle-tendon junctions due to the high concentration of muscle pain receptors at these myotendinous junctions. An athlete's body responds to this damaged muscle tissue by swelling and causing muscles to feel tender. 

Muscle soreness is a familiar and dreaded companion for competitive athletes in training. Ice baths, also known as cold water immersion or cold water therapy, can be an effective recovery method to flush out lactic acid, diminish muscle soreness, and leave athletes feeling fresh for their next training session. This recovery method is common amongst collegiate and professional athletes across a variety of sports.

Soccer is currently the most popular sport played worldwide and it also, not surprisingly, happens to have the highest injury rate among high school sports, with ankle sprains occurring most frequently. Ankle sprains are a common injury in the sports world, comprising approximately 25% of all sports-related injuries.¹ A prior ankle sprain is one of the greatest risk factors for a future sprain, so both prevention and optimal management of acute (new) sprains is essential. This article will briefly review the anatomy and mechanism of an ankle sprain, management options, and finally prevention strategies. 

Stats on Ankle Sprains
20% of all injuries in youth soccer players¹⁶
25% of all injuries across all sports

Kinesiology tape is used by athletes of all ages across all sports. Commonly seen on the shoulders of volleyball players and knees of runners, kinesio tape comes in a variety of bright colors and is intended to improve athlete performance. Although this tape is a popular wardrobe addition, the real question is: does the tape actually work? Injured athletes will try anything if it means they can return to the game, and this tape may or may not be the answer. 

Technology has impacted the world significantly, but not all sport coaches and athletes have taken advantage of it. BridgeAthletic’s strength and conditioning software provides digital training tools to revolutionize the way performance programs are created, delivered, and tracked. Developing an integrated, digital platform allows coaches to improve training personalization, exchange information related to performance and readiness, and track physical achievements. By combining technology with performance, coaches are better able to understand individual needs, limits, goals, and the capacity of athletes. Ultimately, leveraging strength and conditioning software revolutionizes athletic training and optimizes game day performance.

BridgeAthletic's strength and conditioning software leverages the power of technology to revolutionize the way coaches create, deliver, and track athlete training and progress. The integrated platform serves as a central hub for a team’s training and communication needs. In addition, the digital platform allows coaches to improve training personalization, exchange information related to performance and readiness, and track physical achievements. By combining technology with performance, coaches are better able to understand individual needs, limits, goals, and the capacity of athletes. Ultimately, leveraging strength and conditioning software revolutionizes athletic training and optimizes game day performance.

As coaches, we know how important it is to keep track of athlete performance. While it used to be time consuming or just plain difficult to track everything each of your athletes do in the weight room, BridgeAthletic’s interactive analytic features simplify this piece of coaching, allowing you to track effort, collect test data, and update maxes seamlessly, with a few simple clicks.