The Team Behind the Team - Joe Hewitt

The Team Behind the Team - Joe Hewitt

Joe Hewitt holds BSc and MSc in Sport Science and is a highly qualified Strength and Conditioning coach, working full time with Wales’ elite athletes at Sport Wales in Cardiff.  

A former rower for Wales, Joe began his career in sport as a Sport Science Officer for Welsh Rowing which involved writing training and weights programmes for the rowers. After shadowing some of the strength and conditioning staff at Sport Wales his talent was soon spotted and he soon became a full time employee, working with some of Wales’ Paralympic athletes ahead of Beijing 2008.

Joe said;

“My role is to physically prepare athletes to meet the demands of their sports, so that when competition arrives they are in the best possible shape.

“Most of the work I do involves attending training sessions to discuss any issues, holding one to one sessions to coach and observe athletes, working at training camps and workshops.”

“I predominantly work with sports where strength and power are vital components of a successful performance, for example, athletics, boxing, cycling and gymnastics. A big part of my role is to enhance these physical qualities to ensure that athletes can compete at the highest level.

“In other sports, such as shooting, golf and endurance events, structural strength and movement efficiency are more important, so it’s all about understanding the sport and therefore knowing what each athlete requires for success.”

Although Joe mainly works with athletes from the worlds of boxing, cycling, gymnastics and from Disability Sport Wales, he inputs into each sport utilising the facilities at the Sport Wales National Centre, to not only aid his learning but also to provide athletes with the best possible service.

Joe works closely with some of Wales’ sporting household names, such as Commonwealth Games gold medallist, Sean Mcgoldrick, World Champion javelin star, Nathan Stephens and 11-time gold medal-winning swimmer David Roberts.

Sean Mcgoldrick said;

“Strength and Conditioning has become a major part of my training schedule over the last year. It’s used in all the World Class Programmes throughout the world, not just Great Britain and Wales.

“There are certain elements that Joe always concentrates on, like power strength. If I’ve got a fight coming up, we’ll do more work on circuit-based exercise, like strong man exercises. There’s a lot of science behind it but I just listen to what Joe tells me!”

Five members of staff from the Sport Wales Institute are being followed by BBC Radio Wales to look at the work going on behind the scenes in the build up to London 2012.

Find out more about Joe Hewitt and the work he does with Sean Mcgoldrick and other athletes here; their interview is at 2hr 45 into the programme:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b019h43q/Good_Morning_Wales_16_01_2012/

Sweeteners

If you're not sitting down reading this, you might just want to, or grab onto something for support, because I'm going to start this post out doing something I don't all that often: praise Mark Sisson.   The sample menu page on his blog reads:

A typical breakfast for me is a cup of coffee with cream and sugar and an omelet

This page has been around for a good long time and he hasn't changed it, so presumably Sisson hasn't jumped headlong on the stevia wagon.  In the summer, as a kid, we would suck on honeysuckle blossoms for the faint sweetness.  Needless to say, we did this more for the novelty of "hey, this is sweet" than scavenging for every blossom we could find for a sweet kick ... they just weren't that sweet.   If one googles chewing and sugarcane or stevia leaves you will find references to both.    If you are ever in New England in late winter/early spring, you'll see the maple syrup taps on trees.  The dried syrup that may ooze from the tap, etc., also tastes sweet.  We humans tend to like sweet stuff, and when found in nature, we'll chew/suck or otherwise extract the sweet leaving the rest behind.  But the only foods that are truly sweet eaten whole (or at least most) are fruits and honey.  I suppose we could add in the faintly sweet root veggies as well.  

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More thoughts on unsolicited professorial advice

One other thing you get a lot of advice about as a new professor is how to run your show.

"Don't spend too much time on teaching"

"Write every day"

"Don't take too many grad students your first year"

The thing is, like anything, do what works for you. You want to spend 14 hours on making Teh Perfect Slides for your first class, do it. You want to get up at 4am and start writing, go for it. Want to relax all weekend playing Facebook games while occasionally picking at your grant proposal, sounds grand!

The trick is to know what makes you happy and know your own style, and work that way. You have a lot of flexibility in your schedule, the trick is figuring out how to best structure it so you're most productive. And to factor in recharging time, for whatever that means for you.