The NFL lockout and the NHL’s approved sale of the Atlanta Thrashers to Winnipeg hold various implications for current and future sport managers. Whether you are an instructor or professional, please share how these events will affect you and/or your students: Are you or your students being directly affected by these current events? Have you worked professionally with these leagues or their teams? Will your students have an opportunity to gain field experiences, or might those field experiences be jeopardized? Will you bring your own personal views--or any direct impact you... [read more]

By Brian Holding

June 10, 2011

In 1988, I attended my first U.S. book show for Human Kinetics.  The event, then known as the American Booksellers Association Convention (ABA), was a massive celebration of the publishing industry. Nearly 50,000 publishers and booksellers attended annually.  Representatives from some of the more than 30,000 independent booksellers existing then and major bookstore chains like B. Dalton (eventually became part of Barnes & Noble) and Waldenbooks (eventually became part of Borders) clogged the aisles, and publishers generously pass... [read more]

There’s a new twist in fat burning, exercise and food timing. While some promote exercising fasted to maximize fat burning, manipulating fuel use during training may not contribute as much to fat loss as you might think.

Realize that the fuel burned during exercise is only part of the weight loss equation. The twist comes in, however, when we consider what happens during the rest of the day, after exercise. That’s just what a group of researchers from Italy investigated. They compared the all-day effects of exercise performed either fasted or fed (after breakfast) using everyday

Guam National Olympic Committee enlists help of ASEP ahead of 2011 Pacific Games

While online education provides convenience, it still cannot replicate the type of interaction that occurs in a classroom. So while high quality online delivery of Coaching Principles and Sport First Aid provides effective and convenient content delivery, athletic administrators cite the interactive nature of classroom courses as the distinguishing factor that adds unique value. And for one sport administrator, the insistence on classroom training overcame the fact that she was l... [read more]

Are high profile coaches intent on making a mockery of the claim that coaches’ foremost concern is the proper development of their athletes? These are just a few of the more recent cases that prompted that question:

• A prolific college football coach previously thought to be the model of integrity confesses to failing to report transgressions by several of his team’s star players, and did so only when his duplicity is about to be revealed.

• A prominent Big 12 basketball coach makes a money grab for a long-term contract in excess of $15 millio... [read more]

Disagreements, verbal disputes, and physical confrontations have become far too common in today’s sports setting.  Sadly, such acrimony seems more prevalent than ever before between adults—parents of athletes and their son’s or daughter’s coaches—that should be seeking many of the same aims. A rash of parent-coach incidents in 2005 prompted the New York Time to bring this problem to national attention, and anecdotal evidence suggests that since then, if anything, parent-coach relationship problems are even more numerous and intense now.  Ask coaches w... [read more]

During a particularly grueling spin class, the instructor admitted to spending $15 on the bottle of coconut water sitting atop her handlebars. In the conversation after class, one fellow cyclist said, "I read that coconut will hydrate you way better than water!" Well, not really. Here’s the real truth behind the craze.

Back in the ’70’s, coconut water was used as a rehydration beverage in remote areas where cholera outbreaks occurred, and severe dehydration resulted. Coconuts were plentiful, but safe drinking water was not. Coconut water was used to provide the much

Youth and high school sports have changed in significant ways over the past 45 years. Of course, technology, culture, family, and education are dramatically different today than they were four decades ago, as well. Time passes and the accompanying alterations of the landscape of life continue, though we may wince that perhaps a better way has been lost.

Not so long ago, the term sports seasons meant football, volleyball, cross-country, or soccer in the fall, basketball, wrestling, swimming, and gymnastics in the winter, and baseball, softball, golf, and track and field in the... [read more]

ACSM recently released survey results to predict the top 10 fitness trends for 2011. (See the full ACSM release here .)

I was pleased to see that at Human Kinetics, we’re ahead of the curve. Better yet, in some areas, we have been for quite some time. We have books, DVDs, online courses, and other resources to help fitness professionals deliver programs to their clients in 8 of the 10 top areas for 2011!  Take a look at our report card:

  Educated and experienced fitness professionals. This area is of special interest to me because of... [read more]

Rarely does a day pass that an incident or article pertaining to head injury in sports does not surface. This firestorm of awareness and interest has been brewing for some time, dating back to 2006 when the Brain Trauma Foundation reported that as many as 3.8 million sports and recreation-related traumatic brain injuries occur in the United States each year. But only recently has concern about this problem reached critical mass.

Additional alarming research findings and true heart-tugging stories of afflicted athletes have been widely disseminated through excellent journalist... [read more]