There has been many podcats that have been the inspiration for this production. Scientific American’s Science Talk, The Health Report and The Strength Power Hour were amongst the best three, but along with a host of others, we’ve taken the best elements of each to hopefully produce a free resource that is both educational and entertaining. Some of our other favourites that have been influential include The Skeptics Guide to the Universe, Point of Inquiry and The Performance Nutrition Show (click on any of the names to be taken to their homepages).

The plan is to not just get all of my friends on, advetisers nor people who just agree with our way of thinking. We’ll be asking the tough questions and playing devil’s advocate as often as possible – in short to be like REAL journalists (should be) reporting science.

The goal of this website is to go against the growing trend of self-appointed gurus (and their loyal disciples) and give a profile to those people who do the ground work – the actual scientists. The other benefit of going ’straight to the source’ is that the messages don’t get mixed up via retellling or distorted by ’salespeople’. Like most science, the goal is to expose everything, warts and all so it is kept in perspective, relevant and real!

While any good coach or practitioner knows that their is an art and science to physical preparation, without a solid foundation, as the late and great Dr Mel Siff taught us, their really is no structure that will be meaningful or lasting. So the other part of the plan is to speak to coaches and practitioners who use an evidenced-based approach and find out how they balance the art and science of physical preparation in order to get results.

We at Supertraining International plan to keep the dream of Dr Mel Siff alive and promote the science (and the scientists) via this website as well as educational videos and podcasts – at minimal cost to you the consumer. Our name comes from the ‘must-have’ textbook written by the late-doctor (Supertraining), and ‘International’ obviously relates to our desire to resource information from across the globe.

We’re planning to review a couple of current science articles each week, but also put them into context with the other related research (and not just cherry pick and sensationalise quotes like so much mass media – you won’t be readin about the latest cancer cure here!).  We also hope to cover a number of the big nutrition, exercise and sports science conferences around the world and keep everyone who can’t attend up to date on the latest in those fields.

We also plan to publish a series on why ‘the scientific method’ is not only the core of our philosophy, but also the best way to find the truth in most endeavours. It is something I was never taught during my post-graduate studies, but after learning why humans are so falable and easily fooled (myslef included) , brings the importance of objective data collection and interpretation to the forefront.

If I had to summarise the mission statement in a few words – it would be ‘to be the pipeline and translator between the scientists and practitioners in all things related to physical preparation’.

David Driscoll

www.supertraininginternational.com