Dan Cleather Profile picture
Anarchist Scientist | Strength Coach | OCD: https://t.co/kL5DCLjtQa | Educator @YourStMarys | FD @UKSCA | Open Science Advocate @IGDOREinstitute | he/him
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Aug 21, 2020 35 tweets 6 min read
I have some grave concerns about some of the underlying messages in this paper (thread).

For me, it is a good example of an argument that on the surface seems reasonable, but when you dig a bit deeper is badly flawed.

bjsm.bmj.com/content/early/… First of all, I should state that I do have some sympathy for the problem highlighted by the authors. Yes, it is worrying when there are mistakes in published literature. However, the cure implicit to this article is worse than the problem.
Dec 12, 2018 4 tweets 1 min read
I’ve seen quite a few “how to be a good coach” lists recently. They all seem a bit complicated and specific to me, so I thought I would put together my own. How to be a better coach:
1. Coach
2. Think about coaching
3. Gather lots of information from a wide range of sources.
Nov 15, 2018 10 tweets 2 min read
#OnPrecisionInTheUseOfMechanicalTerms

There is a lot of overlap between everyday language and technical mechanical terminology. This can lead to a lot of confusion when talking about movement. It is very common for coaches to use language incorrectly when talking about mechanics. For instance, I talked about the misuse of the term "power" in a separate thread.
Nov 14, 2018 10 tweets 1 min read
#OnMagnitudeBasedInference

I don’t know enough about statistics to decide if the approach is appropriate or not...

And neither do you. But that is OK.
Oct 19, 2018 13 tweets 11 min read
It's always a huge achievement when a student publishes their MSc dissertation in a peer reviewed research journal. This is a celebration of the @StMarys_SandC students who have published their research in the last 2 years. 😃👏👨‍🎓🏋️‍♀️ @YourStMarys @SMUDocCollege Paul Wood

Lighter and heavier initial loads yield similar gains in strength when employing a progressive wave loading scheme

termedia.pl/Lighter-and-he…

@Jonnie_Mechanic
Oct 11, 2018 25 tweets 4 min read
#TheForceVelocityMyth

This will be another long one.

The force-velocity curve is one of the most badly understood concepts in S&C. Firstly, in classical mechanics there is no universal relationship between instantaneous force and instantaneous velocity. Many S&C coaches assume there is.
Oct 3, 2018 12 tweets 2 min read
#AnotherDynamicSystemsTheoryRant

A big problem with justifying training by appealing to DST is that no one really understands it properly (including, I would suggest, most of its proponents). However, because proponents of DST seem so confident in their delivery, they can appear to have some advanced knowledge of training (this is why they like it).
Oct 1, 2018 8 tweets 1 min read
#BadWeightliftingCoaching Part 2:

I'm always surprised by how many (experienced) coaches think that the bar is supposed to bang against the thigh/hips during the pull. Do they really believe it is possible to "knee" the bar upwards? Not to mention that this seems like a pretty painful strategy.
Sep 1, 2018 17 tweets 2 min read
What is the theory in Dynamic Systems Theory? (thread/rant)

#WhyDoPeopleMakeEverythingSoComplicated Dynamics is part of Classical (Newtonian) Mechanics.

Biomechanics is the application of classical mechanics to biological systems.
Aug 27, 2018 11 tweets 2 min read
#BadWeightliftingCoaching (thread)

One of @stevemagness's "Rules of Everything" is "We overemphasise the importance of what we can measure and what we already know".

Similarly, in skills coaching we overemphasise the importance of what we can see. In Olympic weightlifting, one of the easiest positions to see is the so called “triple extension” that occurs at the end of the pull.

This leads many coaches to spend a great deal of time working on this position.
Aug 20, 2018 39 tweets 9 min read
#SquattingIsABalanceSkill2018: The Twitter Remix

Warning: this will be a long thread.

To be effective in your coaching you need to know why errors happen.

In squatting, most errors are due to the fact that athletes are afraid they are going to fall over. When we squat, we need to keep the projection of our centre of mass (the arrow in the picture), within our base of support (the pink area in the picture). If the arrow moves outside of our base of support we will fall over.
Aug 15, 2018 14 tweets 4 min read
#ForceVectorTheory. A force is, by definition, a vector. The name of the theory is thus a tautology and should really just be “Force Theory”. I thus propose the new name #TheoryOfTheMagicalHorizontalForceMuscle which more accurately captures the fundamental idea behind the theory Biomechanics 101 - understand the distinction between global (relative to the world) and local (relative to the athlete) frames of reference. When people refer to “horizontal” forces they generally mean in the global frame #TheoryOfTheMagicalHorizontalForceMuscle