Below are
my notes from the recent Catapult conference in London. They are by no means extensive but do, as I
see it, address some of the main areas of discussion. There was an insistence at the start of the
day that Chatham House Rules should be applied and so I have omitted the two
sessions in which only one person spoke and have not attributed any of the
content to specific panel members.
Broad themes
Is
technology limiting what we do?
Whilst
technology has undoubtedly enhanced how we train and prepare athletes, there
was some discussion which suggested to me that practise was being limited by
what we can measure rather than what we can do. When trying to push the boundaries of performance
there has to be scope to try new techniques and approaches that we are not yet
clear how we can measure or assess. To
give an example, we were prescribing high intensity interval training long
before our ability to measure the speed or player load via GPS or in fact
intensity via the heart rate response.
In business
there is a term that suggests ‘what matters gets measured’. In sport perhaps this has been reversed and
what we can measure, matters. Sport and
performance therein cannot be distilled into numbers. As successful as the Moneyball concept was, a
common theme in the book is the ability of Billy Beane to sell his message to
the players, a tacit unmeasurable (?) skill.
Skill
set of young practitioners
There were
lots of conversations regarding the skill set required of young practitioners
and some bemoaning of the fact that few demonstrate the soft skills required to
work in sport at the highest level.
Whilst this may be a valid concern, perhaps this is a problem the
industry has created. When I first
began working as a sport scientist I got the impression that clubs and
organisations were only just beginning to organise the discipline into a viable
career path (not all that long ago).
Because of this there were a lot more opportunities to be involved with
coaches, athletes and professionals in other areas of the business. I found this to be the case in both an
institute and professional sport setting.
As the industry has become more organised, largely by practitioners who
have transitioned into managerial roles, the jobs I see advertised are more
discrete in nature. Practitioners are
employed as S&C coaches rarely stepping out of the gym, or data analysts pouring
over spreadsheets on their laptop. If we
don’t give people the chance to develop the skills identified as being
important we should not be surprised when they are not able to display them. Having the chance to spend time with the head
coach is invaluable in understanding the context of how your work can improve
performance. How many young
practitioners get the chance to do this on a regular and sustained basis?
Technology
is somewhat to blame; when I started there were limited options in terms of
monitoring training. Polar heart rate
monitors were the norm however this was by no means as time consuming to
collate and analyse as GPS nowadays allowing more time to interact with
coaches, athletes and other members of the support team. Perhaps the tasks we ask practitioners to
engage in now reduce this ‘socialising’ time?
Although
not perfect, at Oriam we provide dual roles for young practitioners whereby
they have a supervised role with one of our more senior squads combined with an
autonomous role with a junior squad, be that at the student or amateur level. This seems to be a good way of providing
supervision combined with the autonomy to make (safe) mistakes and learn from
doing so. In this sense I wonder whether
people looking to carve out a career in sport would be better starting at a
smaller organisation where they have more responsibility than at a bigger club
where they occupy a small role in a large department?
Are
academies working?
The draft
system in the United States and Australia means that young athletes can be
signed to a professional contract at the age of 18 and go straight into the
starting line-up of the first team. This
is very different to the controlled environment that institute and academy
development programmes run in the UK, however is it better?
One comment
made by a panel member regarding a young player was that, ‘they will be ready
in 6-12 months’. I have heard this a
number of times however rarely with a detailed plan of what exactly it is they
need to achieve in that time period to prove their worth. Is it an increase in
physical precocity or simply a greater exposure to training and
competition? The issue with the latter
is that academy competition is no acid test for how a player will perform in
the first team and as such recruiting players proven in a comparative
competition, often from overseas, is more appealing. I certainly don’t have an answer to this
issue other than to highlight the number of occasions in sport that young
players have been thrown in at the deep end as a result of circumstance
(injuries etc.) and have thrived. Perhaps
we need to trust young players more to make the step? (appreciating that this
is difficult in a results based industry).
A final
point on this issue is that having looked at the squads already named for this
summer’s Europeans I think England are the only team who have selected all
their players from the same league (happy to be corrected if I am wrong). I am not commenting on whether this is good
or bad, simply that young players, if not getting the opportunity they want in
the UK, may look to leagues abroad to get first team experience. This seems, as it always has, to be a
strategy adopted by players from other countries plying their trade around the
world.
Notes
from panel discussions
Is performance enhancement on international
duty a realistic goal?
This was an
interesting panel discussion with the general consensus (as I recall) being
that you can make meaningful improvements during international breaks and camps
providing you have effective links with the clubs players are being selected
from.
Some
interesting comments…
How can we make the international
environment as familiar to the athletes as possible? This rang true with my own experiences and
objective handed to me when I became involved with an international team; try
to, wherever possible, recreate the club environment. Easier said than done when you have athletes
from different clubs (and leagues) however perhaps a useful aim.
Should international competition be
the pinnacle of a player’s career? If so
how do we schedule sufficient recovery between domestic competition and
international games? Clearly this is a
wider question for the governing bodies of sport however does pose a real issue
when playing international games at the end of the regular season without
sufficient rest. This has long been a
problem for football however scheduling in sports such as Rugby League and
Rugby Union seems to have alleviated the issue to some extent. For example the state of origin clash in
Australia and the Rugby Union world cup happen in the middle of the domestic
season.
Strategies to return players to
their clubs in the same (or better) state as when they left. There will be an element of subjectivity
here, not least in the player’s enjoyment of the camp, and perhaps also success
(winning versus losing). It would be
interesting to see a comparison of match performance in subsequent domestic
games amongst players who played during the international break and those who
were in the squad but were not selected.
If anyone has this data or is interested in collaborating to answer the
question I would be interested in making contact.
Resilience – this was a common theme
of the day and despite being an intangible aspect of performance is hugely
important both for the athlete and coach.
There was some discussion around planned ‘speed bumps’ in which coaches
schedule obstacles and barriers for their players (for example dropping them
from the squad). I haven’t experienced
this personally (having usually been dropped because of a lack of talent rather
than to build resilience) however would suggest that it becomes increasingly
difficult the more important a player is to the team.
As suggested above, to get the most
out of international camps there should be a clear dialogue between coaches, medics
and sport scientists to ensure clarity in focus and content. Whilst great in theory I wonder how often
this actually happens? Whenever you have
multiple groups inputting into an individual’s development there is the
potential for conflict, this is as true when dealing with a PhD student who has
multiple supervisors as it is for an athlete.
If consistency in message cannot be reached one of the coaches must concede,
whether this should be the international or domestic coach is debatable. From my perspective you are better having a
consistent message that may not be optimal than an inconsistent message, even
if one of the conflicting points of view is right. In instances where there is a battle for supremacy
in terms of message it is usually the athletes that suffers. Coaches, medics and sport scientists must
learn, if they are not responsible for the player long term (i.e. on
international camps) to, where conflict arises with the club, keep their own
counsel.
The point
was made that with the professionalisation of coaching and sport
science/medicine that we are too keen to ‘give something’ to the athletes for
whom we are responsible when in certain instances we may serve them better by ‘taking
something away’. This ties into the
sense that the most important thing was bringing together a cohesive group of
athletes who genuinely ‘wanted to be there’ and have a shared objective. Like so many aspects of the discussion this
sounds nice in theory and, whilst not impossible to implement, in practise
could prove easier said than done.
There was
some discussion on how National Governing Bodies (NGBs) could support
individuals working within the clubs. In
one example it was apparent that the full time staff were employed by the NGB
yet the club coaches and support staff were all part time, despite the latter
having much more contact with the players on a weekly basis. This is not too dissimilar to my experiences
with a female sport in Scotland. It
seems strange that the full time staff would have the least contact with
players, whilst part time roles were created for their ongoing and long term
development.
Do great teams require great players?
My initial
reaction to this question was yes, absolutely.
Teams who achieve greatness must be, by definition, comprised of great
players. It seems the discussion comes
when we consider what constitute greatness.
Some
interesting comments…
The concept of momentum was discussed and winning being a habit. Most of us in sport recognise this when we see it however I for one still find it hard to objectively quantify.
There was some interesting discussion around the draft system and salary cap in other sports. Melbourne Storm (NRL) were mentioned in light of their salary cap being made up principally of three players but this not having a detrimental effect on performance or team cohesion (perhaps worth mentioning that two of their premierships and three of their minor premierships were removed from the annals for salary cap breaches). Given the publicised ‘marque’ or ‘franchise’ player in other sports I wonder whether acknowledging and celebrating the fact that some players in football are paid significantly more (and cost more to sign) than others in the same team would stop this issue being a source of friction in the changing room?
‘Round heads in round holes’ – I though this captured the importance of getting the right people in the right places at the right times.
Clarity of message – linked to the above and vital in ensuring you have a shared and common purpose that each player understands their role in achieving.
Difficulties surrounding due diligence in football, especially with the transfer window. Can we really understand whether a player will fit into the club before we sign them and are the processes we have to determine this robust enough?
There was
some discussion around the idea of team cohesion and a core group of players
being within the same team for a long enough period to develop a genuine
understanding on the field of play.
There were some statistics regarding successful teams in the Championship
having a more settled starting XI however I’m not aware of any research in this
area. This would be in disagreement with research suggesting squad rotation to
be beneficial during congested fixture periods, as are commonplace in many
leagues. There were some anecdotes from
Rugby and successful teams such as Harlequins and Saracens building their teams
over time – this would seem to be supported by the success of the England RFU
team in 2003 given the length of time they had played together and experience
of high pressure international matches.
There were a large number of the world cup winning team in the Lions
side that beat South Africa in 1997 from memory.
One thing
that this session highlighted was the importance of player transfer and squad
assembly. One of the take home messages
for me was that all practitioners should have a good grasp of the business of
the sport they are in, at least at the basic level. Understanding which players are likely to be
released and why, likely targets for future years, budgets and salary ranges
for me would help in developing the softer skills required to manage
individuals over the course of a season.
Do injury prevention plans really work?
For me this
is somewhat of a misnomer; we can never know whether we have prevented an
injury. All we can do is implement strategies
and analyse how injury rates compare with our peers and that of previous
seasons to assess whether incidence is up, down or stable. Prevention would imply that we knew more
injuries were going to happen than did based on the interventions put in place;
this is a constant unknown. Much was
made of this week’s report indicating the number of injuries and total days
lost at each of the Premier league clubs, congratulations to Swansea and
Leicester who had the healthiest squads.
There was
some healthy discussion on the direction sport science was taking. Are we employed to:
Some of
this discussion was on the back of comments in the media that sport science was
making athletes less resilient, an opinion I have heard a number of times
within sport. I think, and this was
argued well by the panel, that it is not sport science per se making players
less resilient, rather the lack of autonomy and ‘home comforts’ that exist
within modern day academies. For me
sport science has to be a balance between enhancing performance whilst
mitigating risk factors associated with injury (and illness); the important
note is that without addressing the latter we will rarely impact the former.- Reduce injury rates and keep players on the pitch?
- Push the boundaries of human performance
- Both?
It was
acknowledged that there are some individuals who are non-responders; there are
those who you can throw the kitchen sink at and still come back for more whilst
other players/athletes struggle to complete a basic level of training. Most of us will have encountered individuals
in both camps and wrestled with how best to address the issue. This is where an effective line of
communication with the coach is key and establishing what he or she needs from
the player. From there we can set
realistic and achievable goals whilst, if necessary, recalibrating their
opinion on what is possible. For
example, if we have a player who requires modified training each week it is
perhaps unrealistic to expect them to play in 40+ games per season. For the more robust player we may need to
reign ourselves in as well as the individual to ensure that we focus not on
volume but quality, training that addresses areas they have greater and need
scope for development in.
There was a
strong message that when it comes to modifying and/or planning training that an
evidence based approach is more appealing to technical coaches; show me the
numbers to support your rationale. This is a good example of how sport science
can, in the mind of coaches at least, be beneficial. An important point to consider is the
reliability and validity of the data we collect. There has been information published recently
regarding the broad spread of values reported from different GPS devices used
on the same person doing the same activity.
We also know that the positioning of the device can have an impact on
the values reported. When it comes to
wellness and RPE, consideration should be given to the range of scores each
player is likely to give when calculating individual cut off points and ‘red
flags’. In this instance it may be that
technology has outstripped our ability to truly understand the numbers and how
they relate to performance. This may be
one of the biggest challenges facing sport scientists in the future.
When
identifying whether to train or recover, from a personal perspective the
important question is, will we be better prepared with:
- An extra session focusing on shape and tactics (set pieces etc) OR
- Feeling fresher having performed one less pitch session.
Usually the
answer is the former and reinforces the comment made by one panel member that
decisions regarding training load are never made in isolation. Sport scientists must understand the context
of their decision and the impact it is likely to have on the individual, team,
club and coach. Whether we expose young
sport scientists to this decision making process and the implications our
choices have is debatable.
Finally,
there was a strong theme that players themselves had a responsibility to manage
themselves, being honest in their appraisal of readiness to train and compete.
How specialised do support staff need to be?
This was an
interesting session with some different perspectives from individual and team
sports. The general consensus as I
interpreted it was:
- Practitioners need to be critical thinkers and good decision makers. Difficult to assess at interview but crucial none the less.
- A coach I know has a more eloquent set of criteria for his support staff: ‘FIFO’ – fit in or f&*k off.
I did get
the sense during the debate that, as in so many industries, we were managing
for managing sake. There was some
discussion regarding how we assess effectiveness and the implementation of KPIs. For me coaching does not fit neatly into
these categories and if we really value interpersonal skills we must recognise
that quantifying personal relationships is often tacit in nature and
unmeasurable. To put that in context I
had a chat with a friend recently who coaches at a high profile Super League
club regarding whether playing in Australia makes British players better. In terms of their objective markers of
performance, tackles, line breaks, support runs completion rate, the data would
suggest not. In terms of their ability
to make decisions and perform consistently in high pressure, competitive
situations then probably yes. The latter
however does not lend itself to commonly used measurable metrics. I would argue that the skills good coaches
and practitioners have are similar in nature and no matter how innovative you
think your recruitment or management system is, you are likely unable to
quantify the nuances of what makes them effective. As in so many instances, it really comes down
to an opinion.
One thing
that did strike me during this session and having listened to the views of a
high profile coach earlier in the day is that perhaps sport science is a
discipline that sits within coaching and as such, should we be looking for
coaches who specialise in sport science?
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