Showing the value of sports science

Personal trainer Alison Storey’s weekly column, answers your questions on fitness and wellbeing.

Q: Watching the Commonwealth Games reminds me I heard it takes 10,000 hours of training to become good at a sport – how true is that? A: Swedish psychologist Anders Ericsson analysed, of all things, classical musicians at the top of their game, and found that an average of 10,000 hours practice before the age of 20 equated to top performance.

A convenient theory to use with sport, it was soon adopted into common lore.

However, authors of a 2013 study undertook the largest literature review on this subject to date, comparing 88 scientific articles involving around 11,000 participants and found that genetics and favoured physiology; if you’re six-foot seven you’ll automatically be better at volleyball than if you’re five-six, and if you come from West Africa you will be a better runner than your counterpart from Scandinavia.

Honestly, this is why sport science is now such a vital part of sports performance.

Q: I’ve recently had an injury to myITB and have just started back running after a two month lay-off. Do you think I will still be able to manage a half marathon in May? A: Your physio will be the best person to ask about this as they will have been regulating your return to sport.

Iliotibial band injuries are repetitive strain injuries and as such can take a decent amount of time to come right if you keep doing the thing that caused it in the first place.

You may want to consider if you can do a shorter distance in the same event if one is offered as I’ve seen people compete on half healed injuries and it ends up making the injury permanent. Not cool. -Cambridge’s Alison Storey is a personal trainer who has represented New Zealand in beach volleyball, rowing and rhythmic gymnastics. She has been awarded New Zealand Personal Trainer of the Year twice and runs Storey Sport, a mobile personal and sports training business which provides a range of services that optimise the fitness and wellbeing of its clients.

MARK KOLBE Emma Mitchell of Northern Ireland, Beth Potter of Scotland and Cambridge’s Camille Buscomb, competing for New Zealand, in the Women’s 10,000 metres final at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.