Pacing: Individual Strategies for Optimal Performance

Description

Whether it's a runner who starts the race too fast, a cyclist battling a strong headwind, or a tennis player taking extra recovery time during a court changeover, athletes and their coaches agree on one thing: Selecting the correct pacing strategy can make the difference between winning and losing, or even finishing, an event. In Pacing: Individual Strategies for Optimal Performance, Kevin Thompson reviews the latest studies on pacing and sport performance to give athletes the tools they need to formulate their own customised pacing strategies. As one of the first to make a comprehensive, research-based analysis of pacing strategies across an array of sports, Thompson identifies the physiological underpinnings of each type: all-out, positive, even, negative, parabolic and variable. While the adage of "slow and steady wins the race" may hold true for some, the best strategy is one that athletes develop to ensure they never work at too high a level so that they tire too quickly or at too low a level so that they fail to reach their potential. It features cutting-edge strategies to achieve peak performance.

Kevin G. Thompson, PhD, is director of the Research Institute for Sport and Exercise at the University of Canberra, Australia. He has previously held administrative positions at Canberra and at Northumbria University in the UK. He has held senior positions in elite athlete support, including director of sport sciences and regional director at the English Institute of Sport from 2002 to 2009 and manager of coaching, sport science, and sports medicine at the Welsh Institute of Sport from 1999 to 2002. He is a member of the Australian Institute of Sport High-Performance Sport Research Advisory Panel and former chair of the British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences (BASES) sport and performance division and special sport science committee. He is a fellow of BASES and a fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine. Thompson is a BASES-accredited high-performance sport physiologist. Since 1994, he has practised as an applied sport scientist supporting professional rugby and soccer players and elite athletes who have competed at Olympic Games and European and World Championships. Thompson is a section editor of the European Journal of Sport Sciences and former associate editor and current advisory board member of the International Journal of Sport Physiology and Performance. He has been on the organizing committees of scientific conferences, including the 2005 English Institute of Sport National Conference, the 2010 and 2011 International Sports Science and Sports Medicine Conference in the UK, and the 2013 Sports Medicine Australia-ACT Conference, Science and Medicine in Sport. Thompson has authored more than 120 articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals and conference proceedings and over 25 articles for sport, professional, and coach education publications. He has written five book chapters and contributed regularly to the Times and Guardian broadsheet newspapers. Much of his research has been on pacing strategies, physiological monitoring of elite athletes, and fatigue mechanisms.