Guidelines for Contributors

Articles for inclusion on the Sports Coach website may address, but are not limited to: conditioning, ergogenic aids, endurance, injury prevention, nutrition, physiology, psychology, planning, skill, strength and speed. Articles, literature review and original research should ideally be based on these topics but material which addresses other training related topics will be considered.

Contributions

Articles

Articles should be informative, of interest to athletes, have something new to say, offer a fresh approach to an old subject, challenge current thought or practice, predict future trends, or review current thinking. Articles should ideally address the theoretical aspects and the practical application of the content. Line drawings and pictures may be used to illustrate or help clarify the text.

Article length should be between one thousand (1k) and two thousand (2k) words.

Consider the following points when writing an article:

• What is it all about? - background and appropriate level of theory to set the scene
• Why should it be applied? - potential benefits and supporting evidence
• When should it be applied? - is it applied in training sessions, competition only or to a specific phase in the athlete's training year
• Who is it appropriate for? - is it specific to a sport (rugby) or event (long jump) or types of sports (racket ball games) or athletes (throwers)
• How is it applied? - the practical methods of application

As a guide the content should be:

• Expert
• Educational
• From a coach's point of view
• Practical
• Plain English
• To the point
• Written in the 3rd person

Content must not address:

• Politics, Sex, Religion or anything else not related to sport
• Advertising of products or services

One of the best ways of understanding the style of writing an article is to read a selection of articles previously published.

Literature review

This is a review of current writing on a particular aspect of fitness development. Good, up-to-date referencing is essential, as is a strong conclusion to bring the subject together.

Review length should be between 250 and 500 words.

References

All manuscripts should be supported by current literature comprehensively referenced. We cannot publish articles that do not supply correct, comprehensive and complete references. We rely on your integrity to supply accurate references as it is not possible for us to verify submitted references.

Each journal reference should include:

• The author's surname and initials - if there are more than two authors, the first author should be named and the others replaced with et al
• The year of publication in brackets
• The title of the article
• The name of the journal
• The volume, number and page numbers

Example

1. Koji Hoga et al (2003) Mechanical energy flow in the recovery leg of elite race walkers. Sports Biomechanics. 2, 1, 1-13

Each book reference should include:

• The author's surname and initials - if there are more than two authors, the first author should be named and the others replaced with et al.
• The year of publication in brackets
• The title of the book
• The city of publication, and state if in US
• The publisher.
• If you are citing a chapter within a book, supply the author's name and title of the chapter

Example

1. James G. Hay (1993) The Biomechanics of Sports Techniques. Fourth Edition. Englewood Cliffs, New Gersey, Prentice Hall

Preparing your article

Please prepare your articles using Microsoft word processing packages (Word, Notepad or Wordpad). If this is not possible then please email the editor to agree a suitable format. The author must include their full name, qualifications, postal address, contact telephone number and email address. In addition please provide a brief description (max 30 words) of the author's background suitable for use with published articles.

Submission of Articles

The preferred method is by email and contributions should be sent to: brian@brianmac.demon.co.uk

Contributor Information

With each article a section "About the Author" is include which provides a short resume of the author. The resume should be kept to 3 of 4 sentences and two examples are provided below. Please provide your short resume with your article. The following are examples:

• Brad Walker
  • Brad Walker is a prominent Australian sports trainer with more than 15 years experience in the health and fitness industry. Brad is a Health Science graduate of the University of New England and has postgraduate accreditations in athletics, swimming and triathlon coaching. He also works with elite level and world champion athletes and lectures for Sports Medicine Australia on injury prevention. Brad can be contacted through his web site at www.thestretchinghandbook.com
• Brian Grasso
  • Brian is the President of Developing Athletics which is a company dedicated to educating coaches, trainer, parents and youth sporting officials throughout the world on the concepts of athletic development. He is also the Director of Athlete Development for the Sports Academy Northwest in Chicago Illinois. Brian can be contacted through his website at www.DevelopingAthletics.com

Processing of submitted articles

All manuscripts are acknowledged on receipt. Authors can expect to wait approximately 4-10 days after acknowledgment before receiving an email response. This response will either be acceptance without revision, a request for a rewrite or an explanation as to why your manuscript has not been accepted for publication.

Most manuscripts are subject to review by individuals with expertise in the subject matter. Manuscripts that have been rejected will be returned to the author. Reviewers will often recommend acceptance of the manuscript, subject to amendments which the author will be asked to make.

Once accepted, manuscripts will be prepared for publication. This may involve editing and shortening the article. Shortly before publication, the author will typically receive a copy of the article as it is intended to appear. Only minor amendments can be accepted at this stage.

Copyright

It is requirement that you and no other third party holds the copyright to your article. When you submit an article please indicate that you hold the copyright.

Not accepted for publication

There are many reasons why your manuscript might not be accepted for publication and these may not necessarily reflect the quality of the submission. Where possible, we will try to explain why. We retain the right, however, not to engage in further correspondence on the matter.

Associated Pages

The following Sports Coach pages should be read in conjunction with this page:

• Coaching Articles
• Training Articles
• Sports Specific Articles
• Literature Review