“Research shows that athletes move from a neuromuscular feedback strategy in the pre-pubertal phase to more of a neuromuscular pre-activation strategy post-puberty, where they have greater co-contraction of muscles prior to ground contact, and it’s actually a more effective jump-landing strategy.”
– Dr Paul Read
This conversation in with Dr Paul Read, an accredited strength and conditioning coach and clinical researcher at a specialised Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine Hospital in Qatar.
His expertise lies in the assessment strategies of lower limb neuromuscular control and injury risk factors.
Paul has worked with youth, professional and international athletes in a range of sports including football, athletics, fencing and mixed martial arts.
He’s also authored numerous book chapters and peer-reviewed papers and presented at conferences across the globe.
In this conversation, Paul provides great insight into the influence of maturation on injury risk factors in youth, the importance of individualised training for optimal development and why you should consider movement variability in your programme prescription.
We also discuss:
- Why plyometric training pre-puberty is a good idea;
- How to integrate movement screening into training and why a more critical approach is required;
- Paul’s advice for coaching movement with young athletes of various maturation;
- Playing Academy level football in the UK;
- Paul’s love of movement;
- The long-lasting effects of an injury on the way an athlete moves;
- The difficult questions of measuring movement variability and how Paul is starting to tackle it;
- Chaos versus structure in the training environment;
- The importance of working from a set of principles;
- Significant mentors in Paul’s research and coaching journey;
- Why getting rid of the term ‘injury prevention’ might be a good idea; and
- Using technology to enhance your coaching.
You can say hello to Paul on Twitter here.
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Kia ora!
