CONTENTS

Foreword Introduction

CHAPTER 1 WHO’S IN CHARGE HERE?: SETTING THE RACE PACE

Optimal Pacing Strategy

Picking the Pace: Distance and Speed

Picking the Pace: Selecting the Pattern of Speed

Pacing in Other Sports

What Research Tells Us

Picking the Pace: Doing as They Do

CHAPTER 2 MARCHING TO THE SAME DRUMMER: CADENCE IN ENDURANCE EVENTS

The Beat Goes On: The Motor Controller

Central Pattern Generator

Human Beings as Aerobic Endurance Animals

CHAPTER 3 DRAGSTERS, TIGER BEETLES, AND USAIN BOLT: TIME AND SPEED

The Human Machine

Determinants of Sprint Performance: Stride Length or Frequency?

Implications of the CPG Beyond the Track

CHAPTER 4 NIGHT AND DAY: CIRCADIAN RHYTHMS AND SPORT PERFORMANCE

Circadian Rhythms

Circadian Rhythms and the Athlete

Physiological and Metabolic Variables

Implications for Sport Performance

Intrinsic Circadian Rhythms of Performance

Implications for Athletes

CHAPTER 5 IT’S ALL IN THE TIMING: KEEPING YOUR EYE ON THE BALL

Musicians Keeping Time

Challenges of Perceptuomotor Timing in Sports

Athletes: Masters of Perceptuomotor Timing

Do Athletes Defy the Rules? Testing the Limits of Perceptual Timing

What Training Studies Say About Improvement

Descartes Meets Tim Noakes: Does Self-Determinism Really Exist?

Can Athletes Slow Down Time?

CHAPTER 6 GETTING BETTER ALL THE TIME: THE DEVELOPMENT OF ATHLETIC SKILL DURING THE CHILDHOOD YEARS—A CONVERSATION WITH BOB MALINA…

A Pertinent Topic

Effect of Birth Date

Limited Insights

Power of Practice

Does Success Breed Success?

Early Identification of Talent

An Alternative Approach

CHAPTER 7 OVER THE HILL: AGING AND SPORT PERFORMANCE

Categories of Aging

Physical Activity and Longevity

Why Do We Age?

Physical Activity and Body Composition During Aging

Difficulties of Studying the Effect of Aging on Performance

Aging Clock, Motor Capacity, and Athletic Performance

Coda Index About the Author