Lessons from Melbourne and ACU

Last week I was lucky to spend some time in Melbourne contributing to the Masters degree in high performance sport and summer seminar series at the Australian Catholic University (ACU).  The event included some fantastic sessions, aided by the engagement and insightful questions of those in the audience.  Given the transit time back to Edinburgh I thought I would collate some of the lessons I learnt at the conference and share below for those who are interested.  

Show your workings…

Caution was recommended (and rightly so) when dealing with technology that does not allow you access to the raw data or to how it calculates reported values.  This was especially pertinent in the practical session on profiling strength and power; a range of devices were used to assess the same countermovement jump with very different results.  Technologies that allow you to assess how values are calculated provide much more scope to assess their validity whilst also giving you the best chance to spot errors before they lead to false conclusions.  The above also highlights how important gaining experience in using different pieces of technology and assessment protocols is when working with high performance athletes; firstly, even if you are not able to assess validity you can check reliability through performing repeated measures and calculating the magnitude required for a ‘real change’ (coefficient of variation and the technical error of measurement are useful metrics to consider – both detailed in Physiological Tests for Elite Athletes).  Secondly, experience using the test and method of assessment will help you identify aberrant data points prior to them entering your database.  This is especially important for technologies such as GPS that produce large data sets; even the smallest error relating to which cells are used to calculate your metrics may impact dramatically on the results.  Experience of what ‘looks’ is a valuable skill to develop.

There was also a useful session on how to calculate commonly used statistics by hand, a skill that computer programmes such that Excel may have rendered obsolete.  Data such as the mean, median and standard deviation are all calculable by hand and there is genuine value in understanding the underlying process.  A strong grasp of these data assessment tools will undoubtedly help when it comes to working out Z scores and effect sizes, useful statistics when it comes to comparing athletes against themselves and each other in a range of assessment modalities.

What – How – Why…

There are a range of tools, tests and methods for sport scientists to collect data in the field and lab setting; the skill of a good practitioner lies in selecting the most appropriate protocol based on the performance question being posed, time available and resources at their disposal.  The first question is, what do you want to measure?  This may be related to jump performance, the movement characteristics associated with match play or body composition, amongst others.  Secondly you need to determine the most appropriate method for collecting reliable, useful and useable data; it is likely that lots of options exist so spend some time getting to know the literature and selecting the best available.  Lastly, the why, or ‘so what?’ – how is the data you have collected going to affect the way you assess or prepare the athletes you work with.  You may find that after a rigorous approach to stages one and two that there is no real impact on performance; although frustrating this is all part of the process and ensures that when you do have a strong rationale at stage three you also have a well-developed and accurate method at stages one and two.  Remember, ‘think slow’.

Don’t get too attached…

High performance sport is a changeable environment in terms of the aims, objectives and personnel associated with teams and athletes.  With these changes are likely to come new performance questions and challenges.  Practitioner’s need to embrace these changes and find the best possible way to use their skills for the benefit of the team or individual with whom they are working.  At times this may require subtle, or more wholesale changes in the way you operate and the data you collect, analyse and disseminate.  Try not to become too attached to what you do or presume a better way does not exist; avoid operating according to dogma, critique your work and that of others without missing opportunities to try something new.  Finally, read outside of the field in which you specialise whilst reviewing the annals of sport science literature; there are some fantastic articles which may not exist in online libraries yet are highly relevant today.

It was clear from the conference programme and particularly round table discussions that individuals with plenty of experience in their field differ in which data they consider important and how the same information can be interpreted in different ways.  This is not an excuse for anecdotal practise, rather a reminder to avoid becoming entrenched in what you do without taking take to reflect and evaluate.  High performance sport is not an industry that seeks equilibrium; rarely will imitation achieve success, rather we need to adapt and improve upon what others are doing to make it fit the objectives and practicalities of the team or individuals we work with.

Responders and non-responders

Choose your parents carefully, the genetics you inherit will go a long way to determining the sports you are likely to excel at.  This was the clear message from one of the sessions discussing the underlying physiological systems concerned with adaptation to exercise.  Few would argue with this and the point may well have contributed to the popular debate surrounding responders and non-responders.  The family athlete’s have around them however is likely to affect their success beyond the genetic endowment it has graced them with.  Young athletes will benefit enormously from parents and family members who are willing to take them to practise, purchase the relevant equipment and expose them to a range of sports so that they can decide which one they enjoy the most.  As athlete’s progress, a supportive family will underpin success in their chosen sport as much if not more than their coach and formal support staff; few athletes have been so vocal about this as Chris Hoy.

In this sense, there are multiple factors that contribute to success, some more measurable than others.  Sport scientists are by their very nature concerned with data and the process of measuring however we should ignore factors that matter yet cannot be measured so easily.  A recent study suggested that when the dose of exercise prescription is increased, all participants improved their cardio respiratory function (https://goo.gl/VpXwRb) refuting perhaps the notion of non-responders.  If you encounter an athlete who is not improving despite adherence to your training programme, consider all the factors (objective and subjective) that may be holding them back and how you might go about assessing and then addressing them.  There is a growing body of research within sport science, especially psychology that deals with qualitative analysis and may hold the key to improved performance in situations where numbers fail to come up with the answers.

The power of pessimists

Social and popular media is awash with messages of positivity; how to achieve your goals, the impact of positive thinking and be more effective in ten easy steps.  We all need positive people around us, especially when we feel challenged or things aren’t going too well however is there a place for pessimists in a world that values positivity so highly?

It is easy, especially when pursuing an idea that is your own, to only see the positives, to extol why it will succeed and ignore the obvious (and less apparent) pitfalls.  Of course, there are plenty of business plans and new ideas that succeed however there are also numerous projects which despite starting with best laid plans fall by the wayside.  This costs businesses and entrepeneurs hours in productivity, pounds, shillings and pence (assuming you are reading this in Great Britain) something which smaller organisations can ill afford.

So how do you give your plan the best chance to succeed?  Look for a pessimist.  Unlike the eternal optimist they may be more attuned to the pitfalls in your plan, the oversights and areas where more detail is required.  By their very nature they are likely to see why something might fail rather than why it may succeed and it is this information that will help you plan for roadblocks and, if necessary, alter your plan accordingly.  The downside?  Well too many pessimists may prevent you from trying anything new or getting your idea off the ground.  If however you can use their feedback constructively without it affecting your enthusiasm, a well placed 'doubting Thomas' may force you to think about the challenges before they arise and invest your time in projects more likely to succeed.

How you decide whether someone is a pessimist or not is up to you.

Eating soup with a knife

Much has been made of culture recently; we hear it cited using negative connotations in reports of our incarceration system and with a more favourable tone when discussing successful sports teams.  There is an excellent book entitled ‘legacy’ which deals with cultural issues within the All Blacks Rugby Union team and how it has helped them achieve unparalleled success on the field. What the latter demonstrated was the importance of consistency in staff, or to broaden to the wider business community, decision makers.  This is a luxury rarely permitted within sport and perhaps why, especially in football, few clubs succeed in developing their own unique culture.

A culture is something that should permeate an organisation; it should be able to be articulated by those at every level and function; it should go beyond what I would consider basic manners and set the tone for how its proponents are viewed by each other and the outside world [On point 2 above I get frustrated when sports teams are lauded for ‘sweeping out the sheds’ or essentially, cleaning up their own mess, something that is expected, although increasingly unenforced, amongst young children].  Cultures are not created overnight, certainly not those that go deeper than a fancy headline or marketing slogan.  Cultures that unify groups of individuals toward a shared and common goal are years in the making, a timeframe rarely experienced by managers in professional sport and in some cases big business. In situations where new managers are perceived to have little time to achieve such a sea change within their organisation they may face a threat far greater than inertia; quiet rebellion.

To take an example from football, a new manager inherits staff from their predecessor, both players, coaches and support staff.  With a relatively small window of opportunity to deliver success they must ensure that every person within their wider team understands what they are trying to achieve and more importantly, the tactics by which they will pursue this end.  Outside observers may consider the most important group from which support must be garnered to be the playing staff; whilst I wouldn’t disagree, the impact of back room staff who are not supportive of the new regime should not be overlooked.  The logistics of organising a team are very similar to many businesses.  There are uniform requirements (kit), logistical considerations (travel), organisational (administrative and alike), end product (tactics and strategy) to name but a few, all tasks undertaken by the support staff whom the manager must develop a close and effective working relationship with.  How the manager wins their support, cooperation and trust may be one of the most important tasks in the early days of assuming control.

The skills required to achieve this are subtle; people need to feel secure in their role but also challenged to improve wherever possible; communication channels need to be open and effective; a clear objective, strategy and tactics should be made clear; and a fair review system developed.  Whilst the new manager may be met with suspicion upon entering the organisation (especially when their predecessor was well liked) approaching a potentially rebellious group in an aggressive and/or combative way should be avoided.  To quote Lawrence of Arabia, ‘to make war upon rebellion is messy and slow, like eating soup with a knife’.  As frustrating as a lack of support for your ultimate objective may be, confrontation is rarely an effective strategy.

In football as in many businesses we have a culture of ‘easy come, easy go’; this is epitomised by the recent reports of would be managers openly discussing their dealings with a club who already have an individual in the post they are linked with.  Such an open lack of support for the incumbent makes managing staff even more difficult, especially for managers who have employees that would rather see the back of them.  If football clubs (and businesses) want to see a culture change in their organisations they would do well to start at the top and allow individuals a sufficient degree of time to achieve the targets they have been set.  Without such a mandate managers may find it increasingly difficult to garner the support of their staff and prevent being overcome and perhaps overthrown by a rebellious miniroty.