Share – Derek M. Hansen – As a running coach and conditioning consultant, I get many requests each week to work with different athletes. I do my best to accommodate most of these requests, referring the odd one to other colleagues where appropriate. One of the most recent requests, however, involved a unique problem. It… [Continue Reading]

Share – Derek M. Hansen – I am often witness to sporting coaches carrying out their training sessions and preparatory camps for various sports. The coaches have a practice plan and, invariably, an ambitious schedule for what they want to accomplish in a session, day or week. There are always injuries. It is inevitable. Some… [Continue Reading]

Share – Derek M. Hansen – Back in the summer of 2008, I was teaching a sport biomechanics course to a group of coaches. I was presenting a model for teaching running technique and how to use the concept of vision to elicit a desired postural response. When teaching an athlete to accelerate from a… [Continue Reading]

Share – Derek M. Hansen – A few months ago, a friend of mine sent me a link to an article about running shoe technology. The article appeared in the UK’s Daily Mail and is entitled, “The Painful Truth About Trainers: Are Running Shoes a Waste of Money?” Written by Christopher McDougall, the article described… [Continue Reading]

Share – Derek M. Hansen – Believe it or not, I’m asked this question at least once per week. Being in the business of making people run fast, you would figure that it would be the only question I would hear. Thankfully, some of my clients are already pretty fast. They just want to get… [Continue Reading]

Share – Derek M. Hansen – While everyone is clamoring to find the greatest new exercise or supplement for health, fitness and performance, I am always searching for easier ways to do more with less. In short, I am trying to determine the optimal amount of work for a given athlete, without falling into the… [Continue Reading]

Share – Derek M. Hansen – This article will be one of many on the topic of Electronic Muscle Stimulation (EMS) and related topics on electrotherapy and electrophysiology. It provides a general overview on the applications and benefits of electro-therapy devices. Future articles will delve further into the specific protocols for performance enhancement, injury management… [Continue Reading]

Share – Derek M. Hansen – (Continued from Hamstring Rehabilitation and Running Mechanics – Part 1) By the end of Week 2, we were in very good shape. The runs were getting faster, and we were moving further out in distance for each workout. By the end of Week 2, we were running out to… [Continue Reading]

Share – Derek M. Hansen – A few months back, I had the opportunity to do some hamstring rehab work on an athlete I had worked with in the past. He had been training another city for the past year and had torn his hamstring in a 30 meter sprint test. Four days later, he… [Continue Reading]

Share – Derek M. Hansen – Working with track and field sprinters and athletes in speed-dependent sports such as football and soccer has made me very aware of the prevalence of hamstring strains and other debilitating soft-tissue injuries. The recovery period for these types of injuries can vary from weeks to months, depending on the… [Continue Reading]