1. Introduction
2. Embrace a Growth-Oriented Mindset 
3. Prioritize your athletes’ needs and leave your ego at home
4. Communicate Honestly and Directly 
5. Acknowledge Limits and Seek Expertise
6. Empower Athletes’ Autonomy
7. Connect on a Personal Level, not just as professionals

Introduction

Strength and Conditioning (S&C) coaches hold a key role in enhancing athletes’ performance and minimising injury risks during sports participation. Knowledge of training principles, exercise physiology, anatomy, biomechanics, and the ability to design precise training programs for optimal performance are all key abilities for an S&C coach to have. However, an often-overlooked aspect is understanding human motivation, effective communication, and the right approach to guide individuals toward self-improvement. Neglecting these factors can present barriers in the coach´s strive to develop high-performing athletes.

To become a highly skilled and sought-after S&C coach, it is advisable to explore the fields of behavioural psychology and leadership. This article outlines 6 key attributes that will make you as a new S&C coach better prepared to coach athletes. Let’s explore the 6 key attributes that every S&C coach should strive to develop.

Embrace a growth-oriented mindset

Mindset as an S&C coach should be a top priority when considering personal development. When discussing the impact of mindset on one’s career, the work of Carol Dweck is a key reference tool. In her book “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success,” Dweck differentiates two distinct types of mindsets: the “Fixed mindset” and the “Growth mindset.” Individuals with a fixed mindset tend to believe that talent is inherited, while those with a growth mindset believe that persistence and hard work can make a coach develop and that it is possible to learn or improve in almost any skill. Choice of mindset significantly affects the approach to work and response to criticism or setbacks (2). 

So, how does all this apply to S&C coaches? Those with a fixed mindset tend to focus too much on talent, and when they realise that they lack talent, they may either waive any thoughts about possible personal shortcomings or give up and quit. Does this sound like the path to becoming a top-level coach? Certainly not. To excel as an S&C coach, it is strongly recommended to adopt a growth mindset. As Dweck explains in her book “Mindset: Changing The Way You Think To Fulfill Your Potential,” individuals with a growth mindset value constructive feedback, welcome challenges, and bounce back stronger after any defeat or failure (2). 

For example, if a newly qualified coach gets the opportunity to spend an hour with a highly experienced S&C coach who has worked many years with elite international clubs, how well that hour is utilised will depend on their mindset. A fixed mindset might lead the new coach to avoid asking questions that they think might be stupid and reveal gaps in their knowledge. In contrast, a growth mindset would encourage the new coach to enjoy the opportunity, ask questions, and attempt to add golden nuggets to their existing knowledge. A growth-mindset would also be willing to change from his or her existing beliefs if those were to be proven false, and instead adopt a new way to think in line with what seems to be the right information at the time. 

Prioritise your athletes’ needs and leave your ego at home

Ego has no place in coaching. It’s key to always prioritize what’s best for your athletes to facilitate their improvement. While this may seem obvious in theory, it can be challenging. Transitioning from playing sports to coaching requires a change in mindset. As a player, the focus is to become a better player, with less focus on the needs of others.  However, it is important to understand that as a coach, the primary task is to provide athletes with the best training suited for their needs; most athletes only care that the exercises programmed will help them elevate their performance within their sport. 

Communicate honestly and directly

Honesty and straightforward communication are highly valued qualities, not only in the business world but also among athletes. Research by Perry and Mankin (2007) indicates that work satisfaction and trust in leaders are closely related to their leader’s level of honesty and ability to communicate fairly and directly (3). As an S&C coach, athletes very much appreciate honesty and clear communication between them and their coaches and executives. The level of honesty can be seen in a variety of situations, from club executives making promises about the direction of a club or future resources to coaches explaining reasons behind player selections. 

It is also essential to address an athlete’s physical weaknesses or areas for improvement. Honesty and straightforward communication apply to our profession as well. But it is how well this information is packaged and delivered to the athletes that is the real deal breaker. While being direct in communication is important, the tone and how the message is framed are equally critical. Giving constructive feedback shows that the athlete’s best interests are the priority, and this could be a springboard to a more productive working environment. 

Acknowledge limits and seek expertise

When athletes come to a coach for help on a topic that lies beyond their area of expertise, it’s important that the coach admits that they lack the requested knowledge and instead helps them find someone with more knowledge in that area; happily sharing weaknesses with the athletes will build credibility and trust. The next time the same athlete approaches a coach for help, they will assume that they are exactly the right person to ask because they will have built trust with that coach to guide them to the right source for that information. Instead of pretending to know everything, it is important to say, “I don’t know, but I can find out,” or “This topic falls outside my expertise; perhaps you should consult…” and follow up, demonstrating integrity and honesty, further building trust.

Empower athletes’ autonomy

According to self-determination theory (SDT), autonomy is an essential psychological need that contributes to enhanced intrinsic motivation and psychological health (1). In order to increase athletes’ autonomy, provide them with choices within the prescribed training programs that are still aligned with the goals strived to achieve. 

One concrete example is the following: The day’s focus is lower-body strength, and the athletes are told: 

“Today, you can choose between Trap bar deadlifts and High bar back squats.. Giving athletes a choice shows them that their opinion is important, and invites collaboration in their development. So, when using this approach, the program does not only target the key physical capacities but also targets increased intrinsic motivation, which is very important for their long-term commitment to the program.

As a coach, it is possible to take this collaborative approach to programming to a different level; invite the athletes to share which skills or physical capabilities they want to develop. After identifying areas of improvement (that both coach and athlete agree on), start to give them different exercise options that all share the same fundamental training principles and aim. This is a much more motivating way to work for all parties, as a motivated and happy athlete is a more successful athlete. So next time, invite the athletes to create a programme together, improving commitment to development and developing intrinsic motivation. 

Connect on a Personal Level, not just as professionals

Relatedness, another key component of SDT, represents the human need to feel part of a community where people care for and look out for each other (1). At the beginning of a coaching career, athletes are often considered purely through their performances. If that is the case it is important to change perspective. Senior coaches may say something like: “Don’t get too caught up in their personal lives. You are their coach, not their friend”. While this is true to some extent, by getting to know athletes on a personal level and by understanding their drive and appreciating them as people, coaching becomes easier and much more fun. Also, when motivation is running low as a coach, or when there is a bad day at work, considering athletes as people and not as professionals can help to readjust one’s mindset. Treating them as people first and athletes second should be a guiding principle in any coaching career.

For more ways to level up your coaching, listen to the following podcast hosted by Matt Solomon with Scott Caulfield, Director Of Strength & Conditioning at Colorado College.

The post 6 key attributes that make a great S&C coach appeared first on Science for Sport.

1. Summary
2. History of Women’s Football 
3. Needs Analysis of the Female Footballer
4. Considerations for Women’s Football
5. Data Analysis in Women’s Football
6. Performance Testing in Women’s Football
7. Program Design Ideas for Women Footballers
8. Conclusion 
9. References 

Summary

The demands of women’s football are ever-evolving. Like all sports, it is a process of identifying the key physiological metrics and demands that are placed on the athletes to further enhance performance across various levels. 

History of Women’s Football

For 50 years, women were banned from playing football. During the first world war, the men would have fulfilled their duties of fighting in the war, while the women stayed at home to reoccupy the roles that were left, working in factories, and assisting to raise funds for the war efforts. During this time, women took up playing football in more organized games and events with an estimated 150 teams created across the country. 

After the First World War, the men’s leagues which were previously suspended, resumed, despite women’s football being at an all-time high where a match on Boxing Day drew in a crowd of 53,000 people. In 1921 the English FA decided to ban women’s football quoting it to be, ‘quite unsuitable for females and ought not to be encouraged’. The ban was later lifted in 1971, ending a 50-year absence of women’s football. (1)

Women’s football is now at an all-time high with more global exposure, greater access, and massive demand for more resources at both elite and non-elite levels. Just six days into the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 a record high of 1.5 million tickets were sold (2). Coming off a historical UEFA Euros campaign for the Lionesses, it was more than just bringing home a trophy – it was creating a lasting legacy.

Looking to the future, the Lionesses wasted no time in creating a UEFA-supported legacy programme to get more females into football consistently. The history of the game is pivotal in understanding the demands as it has changed and will continue to change through time. 

Needs Analysis of the Female Footballer

It is imperative as a practitioner to complete a thorough Needs Analysis to not only identify the demands an athlete has placed upon them in a game scenario but to inform the training strategies while aiming to minimize any potential injury threat.

Focusing on strictly women’s football, Turner and colleagues (2017) produced an in-depth ‘Part 1 – Needs Analysis’ of the game looking at these key areas. A follow-up piece was created, noted as ‘Part 2 – Training Considerations and Recommendations’. This research is an important starting point to understand the key demands of the game.

In basic terms, during a game, a female footballer is likely to: 

• Sprint 
• Jog 
• Walk 
• Sideways or lateral shuffle 
• Backwards running 
• Jockey 
• Jump 
• Turn or change of direction 

Energy Systems 

The movements identified correspond with our energy systems depending on the demand placed on each activity listed, and the time and intensity those movements are completed for. In simple terms, the energy systems are broken into aerobic and anaerobic metabolism where oxygen is either present or not, respectively. 

The anaerobic energy system is divided into alactic and lactic components, which ultimately refers to a process of spitting stored phosphagens, ATP and phosphocreatine (PCr), and the nonaerobic breakdown of carbohydrates to lactic acid through glycolysis (3). The aerobic system, also known as the oxidative system, requires oxygen to produce ATP and is the preferred system for long-duration and/or low-intensity activities. All three energy systems will be active during exercise or physical activity, but one will be working predominately harder or more consistently than the others. The key to which energy system is in the driving seat lies within the duration of the exercise being completed and the intensity of it. 

For example, a marathon runner will utilize more aerobic capacity due to the long duration of the event, whereas a 100 m sprinter will maximize their anaerobic, also called the phosphagen system, as a quick burst of high-intensity maximal force is needed. The glycolytic system is further broken down into fast and slow glycolysis. Fast glycolysis refers to pyruvate being converted to lactate which is faster but is limited in duration, while slow glycolysis allows a longer duration but is when pyruvate is shuttled into the mitochondria to undergo the Krebs Cycle (4). In football, certain movements such as jumping, sprinting, or turning direction maximally will require the anaerobic energy system to kick in, but athletes need to last a 90-minute period which draws on the aerobic energy system capabilities.  

“It is explosive actions such as sprinting, jumping, tackling and change of direction (COD) that seem to influence the outcome of games.” – Mujika et al., (2009).

Key Demands for Women’s Football

In a study by Krustrup and colleagues (2005), it was acknowledged that females spent 16% of their time standing, 44 % walking, 34 % on low-intensity activity and 4.8 % running at high intensity during a competitive match (5). Despite this study being completed over 15 years ago, some of the findings are still similar in the modern game concerning percentages around specific movements and time spent completing a given task. 

The key demands we must consider for women’s football are:

• Aerobic Capacity – VO₂ Max
• Strength & Power 
• Speed and Change of Direction
• High Intensity or High-Speed Running 

Aerobic Capacity 

Maximum oxygen uptake (VO₂ max) is defined as the greatest amount of oxygen that can be used at the cellular level for the entire body. It is often found to associate with an individual’s physical conditioning status and accepted use of measuring cardiovascular fitness (6). According to Iaia, Rampinini and Bangsbo (2009), aerobic energy production is highly taxed and accounts for more than 90% of total energy expenditure during a football match (7). 

Certain metrics such as age, gender, fitness levels and elevation can affect the final VO₂ max score reading. Pertaining to female football players, it has been reported that an elite player will report a VO₂ max score of 49.4 – 57.6 ml⋅kg⋅min^-1 (8). In perspective, the highest VO₂ max recorded to date is from cyclist, Oskar Svendsen, with a score of 97.5 ml⋅kg⋅min^-1 and long-distance runner, Joan Benoit, with a score of 78.6 ml⋅kg⋅min^-1. 

Table 1. shows a representation of VO₂ max scores for elite, highest division, and national team female soccer players. Similarly, to research conducted by Datson and colleagues (2014), all scores reflect the same metrics identified that an elite female soccer player needs to show to compete at the highest level. 

Speed and Change of Direction 

Speed is movement distance per unit of time and is often quantified as the time taken to cover a fixed distance (9). Figure 3 represents normative data reflecting different linear sprint times across various distances and levels for female soccer players. While Figure 4 pinpoints the number of sprint bouts that players racked up during a match. This normative data allows those specific teams to inform training demands to mimic the average sprints per game, or, if in pre-season to increase the load to entice a progressive adaptation. 

Table 2. Female soccer player’s sprint and agility performance as noted by Turner, Munro & Comfort (2020). 

Table 3. Female soccer player’s sprint performance as noted by Turner, Munro & Comfort (2020).

Agility is defined as the skills and abilities needed to explosively change movement velocities or modes (9). Often agility and change of direction coexists as one but agility explicitly refers to changing direction because of a stimulus and thus change of direction, simply being a pre-planned movement ahead of time. The terminology surrounding these words is important as a practitioner as in a competitive environment female soccer players will be continuously responding and reacting to a stimulus (players, ball etc.) which relates to agility-based movements. According to Bangso (1994), players perform a different action every 4-6 seconds throughout a match whereas Tuner, Munro & Comfort (2013) define it as 1,300 changes in each activity during a match setting, which equates to a change every 4 seconds. 

High-Intensity Running

High-intensity running, otherwise known as high-speed running, is the capability of athletes or players to perform short-duration sprints (< 10 seconds), interspersed with brief recoveries (< 60 seconds) (11). Elite-level athletes are typically able to clock up increased high-intensity runs per game, as well as distance, than non-elite athletes. Figure 5 represents normative data that can be used at the elite standard as a benchmark. 

Table 4. Turner, Munro & Comfort (2020) research findings show the number of high-intensity runs that occurred as well as the distance (km).

Strength and Power

Strength is the ability to exert force (N) to overcome resistance while power is defined as the ability to exert force in the shortest time (Power = Force (N) x Velocity (m/s)) (9). Strength and power movements are often imitated in football during tackles, jumping, heading, and diving. Referring to the energy systems, these movements are more anaerobic based due to the nature of explosive strength or power needed for a small duration of time. 

Table 5. A systematic review conducted by Datson et al. (2014) referencing various studies that completed the squat jump, countermovement jumps and drop jumps with their athletes. 

In normative data terms, often a 1RM test can be used to gauge strength levels, but often teams are looking at the Countermovement Jump as shown in the data presented in Figure 6. 

Considerations in Women’s Football

When working in women’s football some obvious, yet important, considerations that must be acknowledged are: 

1. Tactics 
2. Elite vs non-Elite 
3. Menstrual Cycle 
4. Injuries 

Tactics 

Every coach has a different philosophy and playing style which results in potentially different formations and tactics a player must understand. With different formations, a player’s role could change significantly, even if they are playing the same position. It is imperative that during the needs analysis, playing position is considered, as demands will naturally differ based on the role being played. 

It is frequently perceived that midfielders will complete the most running and therefore distance in a match with defenders likely covering more lateral distance and strikers less total distance but more sprint bouts. International and domestic normative data is available as shown in Figure 7, where the work of Andersson et al. (2010),  investigated the differences of players at club level and national level by playing position (12). 

Table 6. Defenders, midfielders, and forwards data at international level and domestic. 

A great tool to assist with player observation and the objective data collected is to ‘bucket’ players. The process of bucketing players allows tactics to be taken into consideration while focusing on detailed metrics the players can meet, relative to their position. Figure 8 shows an example of how two similar positions on the pitch, can have different outcome measures based on what metrics or capabilities could be looked at. Bucketing works in multiple ways outside of data analysis, it can work for injuries, personality traits, fitness testing scores and numerous other areas a multi-disciplinary team (MDT) may wish to focus on. 

Elite vs non-Elite

There is currently a huge gap in data between female athletes playing at an elite level, to those playing at non-elite. Non-elite teams often use their players as a normative data benchmark due to relevant research at the respective level just not being available or yet studied. Budgets, resources, training status and often quality is what separates the two. This is an important consideration to take into account as a coach or practitioner working at the non-elite level where players may have full-time commitments or work outside of training and game time. Being adaptable and keeping track of the player’s well-being must be at the forefront. 

Menstrual Cycle 

The menstrual cycle begins on the first day of menstruation which is when an athlete will be bleeding and persists until the start of the next period. A full cycle in academia is often referred to as 28 days, but this range can be anywhere between 21-35 days (13) and can vary from person to person. Each phase of the cycle should be treated as a separate hormonal profile, and the transition from one phase of the cycle to the next is complex, as the transition time is unclear, due to a lack of research within this area. 

Not all female athletes will have a menstrual cycle, some may be taking prescriptive contraceptive pills which is a further consideration to think about. During the various phases, different hormone receptors will be adjusted and show altered levels pending the stage in the menstrual cycle. Pre-ovulation will show high levels of estrogen but significantly low levels of progesterone but as the luteal phase occurs these levels almost flip flop, where progesterone is at its highest and estrogen tails off. 

Understanding the basis of the menstrual cycle will allow practitioners to work closely with their female athletes to best serve them, ultimately, keeping the athlete fit and healthy. The menstrual cycle must be treated as an individualized process as some athletes may suffer from heavy side effects, whereas some, may not report any during menstruation. A coach’s guide to the menstrual cycle assists with a more practical take away while a great resource to use is the Fitr Woman App, which provides detailed information and supports with tracking a menstrual cycle. 

Injuries 

A recent study in 2021 conducted by López-Valenciano and associates (15), showed a systemic review and meta-analysis of the injury profile within women’s football (see Figure 10). The results concluded that injury rates were higher in a competitive match setting, where per 1,000 hours of exposure, 19.2 injuries were likely to occur (15). Within this, 1.5 injuries were related to joint and ligament per 1,000 hours of exposure while 1.8 injuries to muscle and tendon-based injuries. Figure 11 reflects on the seasonal calendar year where injuries are more common, and clearly notes, there is a vast significant difference between late in the season compared to post, pre- and mid-season. As practitioners, the duty of care in the mid-late stages of a season must be accounted for. Utilizing health and well-being regular check ins, alongside subjective and objective measures will avoid injury rates spiking. 

The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) repeatedly takes the headlines when women’s football is discussed in terms of injuries and the rising occurrence rate happening across the top leagues worldwide. ACL injuries are multifaceted, there are multiple reasons why they may occur; anatomy and biomechanics, pitch surface, shoe type, menstrual cycle and hormones, player load, historical injuries, quad-to-hamstring ratio and simply, a contact tackle, or non-contact movement. Drawing on previously conducted literature, some quick snap figures are reported below: 

72 % of ACL injuries occurred with non-contact mechanisms during sudden deceleration or landing manoeuvres (16). The rate of ACL injury occurrence in female athletes is higher in cutting, jumping, and pivoting sports compared with males (17). Female athletes were at nearly 4 times greater risk of injury than male athletes after having an ACL reconstruction surgery (18).

Data Analysis in Women’s Football

There are endless amounts of data points that can be collected and compared for an athlete or squad of players competing in competitive matches or training. The first step is to identify the global positioning system (GPS) in place and understand the terminology and data points being measured. Various companies will use different vocabulary, but often, relate to the same metric. Check out to data metrics measured below: 

• Catapult Sport
• STATS Sort
• Player Data

The ‘Rule of 3’

A top tip to allow data analysis to become more practical to best serve the athletes and build buy-in is focusing on 3 distinct areas and providing a rationale. A key example is noted below: 

High-Speed Running

Why? High speed running can assist in the improvement of a player’s aerobic endurance to maintain a high level of performance. This metric is often the huge gap between elite and non-elite in terms of distance and time spent on high-speed running or high-intensity running. 

Sprint Distance 

Why? Twofold. Firstly, inform training sessions to maintain match fitness based on athletes ‘average or normal’ sprint distance in a game. This avoids overtraining which could lead to injury and undertraining which can lead to fitness levels not being realistic to match the demands. Secondly, provide a structure for subs or players who do not play > 30 minutes, additional support is used with objective markers to make player specific and relevant. 

Accelerations and Deceleration Totals 

Why? The MDT has reviewed injuries from the past season which reported a high number of athletes suffering from hamstring injuries (whether small, medium, or long in duration and recovery). Tracking Accels and Decels can assist in determining overall hamstring health in relation to sprint and movement form. 

Before collecting any data it is crucial that you understand what GPS metrics you’d like to monitor and whether they are accurate or not. Data analysis requires buy-in from all MDT and players it touches and in this article, we explain how coaches and athletes can get the most out of GPS devices. 

Fitness Testing in Women’s Football

Fitness testing, also referred to as performance testing, is vital to create club-wide normative data that can be used as a benchmark to push athletes to improve and ultimately, enhance overall performance. Working in a MDT is fundamental to ask the following performance testing questions: which tests? Why these tests? When do we test and re-test? A consideration for ease of transparency and application is to create buy-in from the players. 

Possible aerobic capacity tests used to measure fitness levels for elite female footballers are:

• YoYo Intermittent Recovery Test 1
• YoYo Intermittent Recovery Test 2
• 1 Mile run
• 1.5 Mile run 
• Maximal Aerobic Speed (MAS)
• The Man United Fitness Test 
• The Cooper Run
• The Broncho Test 

Agility tests that are often used could be, not limited to, one or more of the following: 

• 5-0-5 Agility test
• Pro-Agility test
• T-Test
• Arrowhead test
• Illinois Agility test 
• Zig Zag test 

Sprint or speed tests often look to test an athlete’s maximal sprint across various distances such as 5 m, 10 m, 15 m, 20 m and even up to > 30 m. Keeping in line with the demands of the game, often most sprints that occur during a completive match do not exceed 10 m in distance (18), therefore, a practitioner may want to that this into account when selecting the correct linear distance to keep it specific as possible. 

Strength and power tests that are often used, not limited to, one or more of the following: 

• Countermovement Jump (CMJ) with and without arm use 
• 1RM test
• 3RM 
• 5RM 
• Squat Jump

Read more about the 4 Essential Tips for Administering Fitness Testing. For practitioners not working with gold-standard equipment or in non-elite environments, check out Fitness Testing on a Budget. 

Program Design Ideas for Women Footballers

Periodisation looks to segment an overall program into specific periods. The largest one, a macro-cycle, is often the entire year or a period of multiple months or years that frequently reflects all training and matches. Within the macro-cycle, a mesocycle resides, which could last several weeks or months. Finally, within the mesocycle, there may be one or more micro-cycles that could be a week long but could last up to four weeks (9). 

Working in women’s football, the best place to start is by looking at the overview of the entire season. Firstly, mapping out all known league matches, cup matches and any additional competitive fixtures that may occur. Around this, add in any contact time for technical and tactical sessions that the coaching staff wish to have. Once the macro-cycle is completed, the next step is to delve into a mesocycle block which may have coaching points, sessions or outcomes attached to them. 

The micro-cycles can be pre-planned in advance, but are often subject to change, based on previous results and match outcomes. Fixture congestion and fixture changes are quite possible, so being adaptable is the key. In the event a game goes into added time which was not previously accounted for, the MDT may look to utilize a longer active recovery session the following day, or possibly, give players the full day off. 

Speed, plyometrics and strength training can regularly be added into the main technical session as part of a warm-up or S&C segment. Specific sessions with a sole focus on speed mechanics may be beneficial, but for non-elite teams, it can be incorporated in creative ways during the regular training sessions scheduled. 

Conclusion 

The demands of women’s football that are outlined within this article aim to draw on all research conducted to date. With women’s football being banned for 50 years, the growth since 1971 has been on a constant rise, albeit, with the demands of the game changing to suit the times.   Completing a Needs Analysis is essential to understand the demands a player faces in a game and therefore, create training strategies to help bridge the gap. As different movements occur, football draws on both the aerobic and anaerobic energy systems. Often, a practitioner may look to investigate aerobic capacity, strength and power, agility and change of direction, and high-speed or high-intensity running. 

On the larger scale, normative data concludes that a female footballer should have a VO₂ max score between 49.4 – 57.6 ml⋅kg⋅min^-1. Other research states that changes of direction occur every 4-6 seconds during a game. Sprint distances look to vary based on position but are often recorded as > 10 m in distance. These demands allow training strategies to be implemented based on the findings that current research has to offer. Practitioners must take into account considerations of the tactics and playing style, the effects the menstrual cycle could impose, potential and common injury threats, and the gap between elite and non-elite levels. 

The post The Demands of Women’s Football appeared first on Science for Sport.

A 7-part mini-course presented by expert coach Matthew Ibrahim.

By Matthew Ibrahim
Last updated: December 30th, 2023
1 min read

Deceleration and landing mechanics are critical components of athletic performance, as they are essential for preventing injuries and maximizing power output. In this course, expert coach Matthew Ibrahim will guide you through 7 lessons, including:

• An introduction to force plates
• Force application
• The problem with deceleration and landing mechanics
• Direct loading
• Building the breaks
• Deceleration training
• Conclusion

You’ll finish the course armed with fresh knowledge around deceleration & landing mechanics that can be practically implemented with your athletes to help improve their performance.

Click to access the entire course for free on a 7-day, no obligation trial to The Coach Academy.

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Matthew Ibrahim

Matthew serves as Co-Owner, Director of Strength & Conditioning, and Internship Coordinator at TD Athletes Edge in Boston, MA. He is also an Adjunct Professor at Maryville University and Endicott College, in addition to being a Ph.D. student at Rocky Mountain University.

More content by Matthew

The post Online Course: Deceleration & Landing Mechanics appeared first on Science for Sport.

By Niall Seewang
Last updated: February 29th, 2024
3 min read

Contents

1. Summary
2. Culture development: A guide for coaches
3. The 4 key factors of culture development

Summary

Culture development in a team sport setting is a long-term process. Understanding athletes’ motivations and psychological needs can help ‘buy-in’. Intrinsic motivation is the most durable form of motivation in this instance.

Culture development: A guide for coaches

Understanding athletes’ motivations and fulfilling their psychological needs can help organisations such as sporting teams establish and strengthen their culture.

That’s the opinion of Parker Teagle, a long-term strength and conditioning coach who also boasts a Master’s degree in sports psychology. He said coaches played a huge role in helping build a strong culture within a human performance program, and taking a long-term approach was the smart play.

“Building a culture within an organisation requires a multifaceted approach,” he said during his Science for Sport presentation titled ‘Creating Team Culture’. “Coaches will come in and try to change culture within an instant – they have [their] job security on the line, so it’s understandable they want to change it in a hurry, but the quicker you try to change it, the less effective you usually are. You have to let it slowly happen.”

The 4 key factors of culture development

Teagle said four key factors to concentrate on were:

• Create systems and maximise motivation
• Focus on long-term development
• Pursue growth, not the spoils of sport
• People were always more important than programming

Teagle explained an athlete’s psychological motivations played a big part in whether they bought into the establishment and nourishment of a new culture.

“[There are] two types of motivation – intrinsic and extrinsic,” he said, adding intrinsic motivation came when a person gained satisfaction from a process (for example, a sense of achievement, pride or curiosity), while extrinsic motivation came when someone gained satisfaction from outcomes (money, praise, trophies or avoidance of punishment).

“Both are positive and necessary, but intrinsic motivation is fundamental because intrinsic motivation is much more durable,” he said. “Rewards will come and go, championships will be lost – if that’s your only motivation, then your motivation is too fragile.”
It was also important to be aware of a person’s psychological needs (competence, autonomy and relatedness), he said.

“The three needs must be met,” he said. “Competence refers to feeling effective in one’s ongoing interactions with the social environment, and experiencing opportunities to exercise and express one’s capacities. It leads people to seek challenges that are optimal for their skill sets.

“Autonomy refers to being the perceived origin or source of one’s own behaviour. It is different from independence, which does not rely on any external sources or influence. Why is it important? Because self-expression is encouraged and athletes feel the perception of choice and individuality.

“Relatedness refers to a feeling of connection to others, to caring for and being cared for by these others, to having a sense of belongingness both with other individuals and one’s community. It helps drive a shared vision and purpose.”
He said human performance coaches should look to encourage all of these things within their program.

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Niall Seewang

Niall Seewang is a former sports journalist and editor who has helped launch two of Australia’s leading online sports platforms – AFL Media in 2011 and ESPN Australia in 2016.

He also has a Bachelor of Applied Science (Human Movement) from Deakin University in Australia and has a Postgraduate diploma in Journalism from La Trobe University, also in Australia. On top of all this, Niall has a long-standing curiosity about how athletes and teams get the best out of themselves.

More content by Niall

The post Culture development: A guide for coaches and administrators appeared first on Science for Sport.

To effectively develop athletes, coaches should follow three progressive steps in their training plans: define the demands of the sport, categorise those demands into coachable components, and model training plans to target athlete skill mastery.

By Will Ambler
Last updated: February 29th, 2024
3 min read

• Athlete development relates to the process of mastering skills, becoming more efficient at sporting actions and enhancing athletes’ technical understanding of play to become more competitive.
  
• To effectively develop athletes, coaches should follow three progressive steps in their training plans: define the demands of the sport, categorise those demands into coachable components, and model training plans to target athlete skill mastery.
  
• These three steps give coaches a structured tool to use to coach successful performance actions within competition.

Athlete development: What coaches need to know

There are many factors that make up athletic performance — coaching, training and nutrition to name a few — and each factor carries with it a lot of ambiguity. Therefore coaches often develop unique approaches as they try to find a way to consistently improve their athletes’ performance.

However, implementing models and frameworks to develop consistency can be vital, a leading performance and rehabilitation coach says.

“Models and frameworks are important to developing the consistency required to produce successful performance routinely. They aim to simplify and systemise our strategies, enabling unique coaches to train athletes appropriately in their development,” explains leading performance rehabilitation coach Joey Wannouch in his Science for Sport presentation titled “Athlete Development Framework’.

3 progressive steps for athlete development

Wannouch mentioned coaches should follow three progressive steps in order to simplify and systemise their training and development strategy:

1. Define: Identify Demands
2. Categorising: Coachable Components
3. Model: Strategic Planning and Periodisation

Define: Identify Demands

During this stage, “coaches should define key movement processes. To do so, conduct both sport and athlete-orientated needs analysis,” said Wannouch.

“Your sport needs analysis will allow you to understand competition level, sport duration, game stoppages, and positions of play. This is fairly basic but it is important to outline the context in which your athletes compete.”

For a sport like football (soccer), an example needs analysis features below:

Categorising: Coachable components

Once you have completed your needs analysis and identified sport demands, you can categorise the tasks and movement patterns.

“Find the common movements across each sporting task and then identify the coachable athletic components. Typical components include: stances, linear and lateral movements, acceleration/deceleration, multi-directional agility, jumping and landing, and others,” mentioned Wannouch.

The process of categorising simplifies processes that would otherwise be overwhelming and enables coaches to develop compound drills that can improve multiple movement pattern qualities.

“At this stage of the framework, you should have defined the demands of the sport and the actions required during competition, identified the movements associated with those specific actions, defined the demands of the athletes and identified their strengths and weaknesses, and categorised the movements into coachable athletic components,” said Wannouch.

Model: Strategic Planning and Periodisation

“In this stage, you should apply your knowledge of athletic drills to improve the underlying qualities associated with identified movement components. This allows for skill mastery and increases the quality and consistency of the actions within the sport; thus, improving performance outcomes,” outlined Wannouch.

To master and improve performance outcomes, coaches need to strategically progress the movement components through increasing stimuli and imposed demands. Wannouch outlined five stages athletes should be taken through:

1. Predictive conditions – athlete dictated (initiates, directs, and grades movement)
2. Reactive conditions – movement executed in response to stimulus (e.g., coach calling out which direction to move in, left or right)
3. Resisted/loaded movements – develop directional strength (strength, power, and speed in movement should be focused on, such as performing resistance band movements)
4. Perturbative/unstable conditions – Challenge athlete stability with unstable surfaces or resistances.
5. Controlled chaotic conditions – real-time scenarios that are closely related to match demands.

For a lateral progression, specifically focusing on a side shuffle movement, Wannouch’s five stages could look like this:

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Will Ambler

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Youth development is highly complex and involves multiple key stakeholders. But how can coaches, teachers and youth athletes themselves best work together?

By Tom Green
Last updated: March 1st, 2024
10 min read

Youth athlete development: It’s all about teamwork

Despite the vast movements in sports science in recent years, the simplest of things, such as effective communication, can often go amiss. Take humans for example. Humans are innately social beings, who value the opinions and interactions of their peers to feel worth and self-efficacy.

When combined, opinions can be a powerful vehicle for personal development and growth. Such processes allow sports scientists to give their athletes the most informed and educated training methodology to drive performance.

Good inclusive communicators are skilled in their ability to concisely lay out a plan whilst causing little offence or alienation to others. Mastering this skill is increasingly important when multiple sports science agencies are involved in working with individuals or groups.

Take my line of work for example. I am the Head of Athletic Development at a Secondary School (11-19yrs) in England, where I deliver strength and conditioning lessons over a seven-year LTAD programme. Out of the 167 students I work with daily, at least 75% are coached by someone other than myself. Moreover, at least 37% receive strength and conditioning (S&C) support from at least two coaches. Over time, I have had to surrender something I hold dear when working with athletes: control.

At first, the very thought of competing with another coach’s programme is an innate challenge. My job, after all, places me in a position of responsibility to maintain and develop athletic qualities in a safe and ethical manner under one organisation. The term ‘sharing is caring’ doesn’t apply here acutely, as I’ve been involved in my fair share of unsuccessful collaborative work with external S&C coaches. But then I get a little bit excited – it can be a great opportunity to network, collaborate and spearhead a new journey for the athlete(s) at hand. Once I get into this head space, losing control doesn’t seem as intimidating.

When talking about control here, this isn’t inherently what everyone would instantly think. “You want all of the success for yourself” or “you are reluctant to share”. No. That’s not it. It’s more of a desire to avoid conflicting priorities. A bit of ego mixed with fear. “I know this athlete and I know what’s best for them” coupled with a work-load conundrum.  Who can blame me? The majority of research is in and of itself monodisciplinary in nature.

Benefits and downsides of a monodisciplinary approach

I read. I read a lot, in fact. While many of you are on your Kindles, reading illustrious stories and drifting into a sleepy state, I am sifting through PDFs and making notes. This probably isn’t healthy and I’m not an advocate of this approach; however, this has made me more aware of how poor research can be from a holistic sense.

Let’s say I read a hypothetical journal article titled ‘The influence of one-repetition max strength on speed in youth football players’ – sounds pretty good actually. As an S&C coach, I read this to understand the programming methodology, sets, reps, distances … the good stuff.  I apply my own biases and then think about how/if I should incorporate this into my system.

The reason I can do this is because I do not have to consult with other coaches, scientists or therapists – this is what I mean by a monodisciplinary approach. I work with my athlete and no one else. My relationship is strictly one-to-one and selfishly, I don’t have to worry about the opinions of others or how their programmes may interact with mine.

The benefits of this approach are there is little room for intragroup conflict, programming becomes more linear and thus predictable, and I have a strong handle on the programming direction for that individual. This happens in many schools across the UK and isn’t necessarily a bad thing. We do after all want children to receive S&C support for all of the known benefits. But what about if two coaches come into the equation, which often happens when young athletes play at clubs and organisations outside of school and receive coaching advice externally?
Now we have two coaches – I have my programme, they have theirs. This is an example of a multidisciplinary approach, where although collaboration is possible, both can still work independently of one another. The issue with this, although seemingly obvious, is many youths miss out on their ability to develop optimally due to conflicting programming: I set a heavy rep scheme, the other coach set a heavy rep scheme – and who suffers? The athlete, who is bombarded by a constant fluctuation of load and volume because two adults can’t send an email, pick up the phone, or better yet – meet in person.

Collaboration is key with youth athlete training

Another example I hear you say? Sure. This athlete also suffers with pre-match anxiety and consults with a sport psychologist. Meanwhile, the club’s nutritionist prescribes caffeine as an ergogenic aid to improve performance and heighten readiness, despite its anxiogenic properties. Here, two agencies are working with the individual but are having little to no contact, so while the athlete is benefitting from psychological support, they are still feeling tight-chested and nervous before competing. In the absence of communication here, both disciplines think they are doing right by the athlete.

Where there is little-to-no communication, those who are supporting an athlete become islands. Sure, they may make tiny gains in developing athleticism, but a collaborative approach has the benefit of widening the magnifying glass, allowing coaches, teachers and sports scientists to observe how different disciplines work together for the benefit of the athlete (See figure below).

Figure 1: Mono, multi, and inter disciplinary support and its ability to make meaningful change.
Unlike a multidisciplinary approach, interdisciplinary models attempt to align theoretical principles with practical delivery solutions in a coordinated and integrated manner. Collaborative problem-solving can support sports scientists in appreciating the diverse ways of thinking, approaching, and developing new systems or ways of practice. Although this may be considered the ‘gold-standard’ of collaboration, there are some considerations that need to be made. For example, interdisciplinary approaches heighten the risk of:

1. More experienced members are likely to dominate conversations and over emphasise the importance of their input.
2. Collaboration heightens the likelihood of the ‘risky shift’ phenomenon, where practitioners take poorly measured steps to gain social status.
3. Increases the likelihood of the groupthink phenomenon, where members agree to reduce conflict.

As you can now hopefully see, collaboration doesn’t always lead to improved productivity, so developing strong relationships that are built on trust, transparency and effective communication is key.

So how can coaches use this information practically? Well…

Youth athlete training – it all starts with a conversation

Getting to know your athletes is an essential part of being a great coach, teacher and sports scientist. Once you engage in conversations and develop rapport, you’ll be amazed at how much they will tell you. For example, you are midway through a set and all of a sudden, your athlete opens up to you out of the blue and says “we do something similar to this at our academy”. This can stop you in your tracks a little bit, but then you’re instantly filled with a little bit of excitement. Let’s go off topic for a paragraph:

Coaching 101 – Moments where an athlete confides that your work is similar to what they are doing at their academy or club marks a really great way to get buy-in. Once they tell you this, show as much interest as possible. Find out what they do, how they do it, and how they are coached through the movement. Reserve any judgement. Just let them speak to you and if it doesn’t harm your programme, even look to incorporate it. Now let’s get back on track…

Once you get the athlete’s permission, the first stage is to contact their coach. In my opinion, a face-to-face meeting is the best method for this, but a telephone/computer call is the second-best option. In the first encounter, the most important objective in my opinion is to be human. Topical subjects, discussing your relationship with the athlete and being empathetic to their role is important. If you go in with a righteous or entitled attitude, you may meet a coach who stands off and has a reserved opinion and/or is reluctant to help.

Promoting a positive environment in this first encounter is essential. Being accepting of their ideas and showing a strong willingness to share is a great way to remove any barriers that may exist. To elaborate on this further, encouraging the other party to describe their role with this athlete, being appreciative of their efforts and offering helpful feedback are all great ways to show shared purpose. People who feel appreciated are often inclined to speak again.

Get to know yourself – and the people around you

An issue I’ve had when meeting coaches before is having some form of bias. My biggest advice here is to drop your ego and go in with an open policy to change. Some of the collaborative partners with the biggest reputation have offered the lowest returns, whilst the ‘amateur’ coach has given me a thousand doses of wisdom.

However hard it may sound, don’t make inferences from the information you receive immediately. Coaches, parents and other sports scientists tend to jump to conclusions in the absence of context. I’ve done this many times. Conclusions drawn from pure speculation are very seldom accurate, especially when there is emotion involved. If you are unsure what an individual means, ask them to clarify and give them the opportunity to provide some more context. Usually, you can clear up any misconceptions here.

However, an important point to remember on your first encounter is not to be a pushover, especially if you are the first person to make contact. I’ve had plenty of encounters where coaches make assumptions about my programme. Striking a balance can be hard, but it’s really important that you do not undersell your priorities as well. Good relationships are reciprocal, and you can gain value by digging in your heels from time to time and showing that your intentions do matter. Avoid being aggressive/condescending, but just be firm and bring it back to the fact that you are there to help the athlete first and foremost. Listening more than you talk, nodding and offering your insight on the individual helps to reinforce your common purpose (the athlete).

In my experience, you can’t do everything in one call, so you better be prepared for the long-haul. A follow up email of “really enjoyed our conversation the other day, would like to do this again soon” shows a great sign of intent – you want to do this again, frequently. Simultaneously, you may want to contact the parent to say you’ve had a great chat with their club and are looking to align your programmes to help their son/daughter. The benefits of this are twofold. Firstly, the parents know you are offering a credible service to their child, and secondly, you establish a clear investment in their child’s long-term athletic development – it’s a win-win.

On the second meet/call, it’s good to bring some practical programming to converse about. As mentioned earlier, never play down the importance of your objectives. Power should be distributed evenly here, as you can help them as much as they can help you. By the end of this meeting, clear expectations should be set so that individuals know exactly who is doing what so that training priorities do not overlap. This is a great way to avoid injuries and overreaching.

The ‘who, what, how and when’ method is one of my favourites to introduce to a coach, as this is a clear contract outlining accountability (See Table 1):
Table 1: The who, what, how and when method for developing interdisciplinary collaboration.
Once this is established, you each have a fantastic blueprint for your programming. To establish trust in this method, it’s really important you don’t tread on their toes. Stay in your lane and do your bit really well. This simple method is accountability criteria. You do your bit and I’ll do mine, nothing more, nothing less.

You’ve taken some big strides … now what?

Now your relationship has been established, you need to maintain it. My top tips for maintaining your relationships is to continue to be open and honest about your progress. Here, you must have the confidence to talk openly about your project and any issues that you are facing along the way. Give yourself the same sympathy you would afford others who confide in you from an open and honest place. In turn, you will gain respect, trust and appreciation in your approach to youth development.

Regular messages help to maintain a relationship, so remember to make contact. My old-school method of a post-it note with a reminder to contact a coach/other member of the sports science team has since been replaced with a reminder app that tells me it’s time to contact ‘Joe Bloggs’. This is another great way to show the other party they are involved in your decision-making processes.

Now that you are in the ‘circle of trust’, look to expand this relationship to other members of the athlete’s support network. Over time, you can move towards providing interdisciplinary support which will lead to meaningful change (See Figure 2).

Figure 2
Finally, you must appreciate that this process can’t be rushed. Your willingness to help is great, but you need to make sure every encounter is a quality one. As you show that you are adding value, the veil will slowly be pulled back as you are introduced to more people who have influence with the coach. Such a process is a great way to network and who knows, it could open up job opportunities in the future.

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Tom Green

Tom Green is currently the Head of Athletic Development at St Peters RC High School in England. Tom has extensive experience in a range of sports at varied levels. He holds a BSc and MSc in Strength and Conditioning, is a qualified teacher, and sits on the UKSCA board for S&C in Schools.

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There are myriad variables an athlete and their coach must navigate when it comes to performance and one way to mitigate this complexity is through a sports needs analysis.

By Will Ambler
Last updated: March 1st, 2024
5 min read

A sports needs analysis is the formal process of identifying and assessing the training that athletes should engage with to meet the specific demands of a sport and its competitions.

There are four main reasons for a needs analysis – they are the current best practice when assessing sport demands and athlete needs; enable coaches to objectively share athlete-derived insights among other team staff; bring new team staff quickly up-to-speed on team performance strategy, and provide the framework for future strategy development.

When creating a sport needs analysis, the athlete should be seen as the glue that provides the context and background to a coach’s decisions and insights. To build a comprehensive sport needs analysis, coaches should follow seven pillars – athlete, sport, injury risk, psychology, monitoring, programming, and an annual plan.

Sports needs analysis: An introduction

There are myriad variables an athlete and their coach must navigate when it comes to performance – training, injury risk, human biology and strength and conditioning to name just a few. But one way to mitigate this complexity is through a sports needs analysis, a leading physical performance coach says.

“Factors [coaches must juggle] include, although not limited to: sport and athlete context, athlete biology, training programming, nutrition, injury risk, conditioning and speed,” said Adam Crook during his Science for Sport presentation titled ‘Holistic Sport Needs Analysis’.
“So, coaches should complete a sport needs analysis, [which is a] formal process of identifying and assessing the training that athletes should engage with to meet the specific demands of a sport and its competitions.”
A needs analysis is often referred to as situational analysis, problem assessment, and/or diagnosis which involves the collecting of background information, understanding the demands of the sport, identifying benchmarks, potential obstacles, and the resources required to perform.

The process of creating a needs analysis is one of the most time-consuming aspects of developing a performance strategy.

“Yet, it is valuable. They are not an evaluation, instead, more of a process of identifying the facts around performance and the athlete to help coaches identify and close the gaps and/or differences between what is done in training and what athletes should be doing as part of a performance strategy,” explained Crooks.

Why complete a needs analysis?

Crook says coaches should engage in a needs analysis for four main reasons:

• Best practice

“A needs analysis enables coaches to better understand the demands of the sport played, competition level, age groups, positional differences, and build a library of resources for future use and objective reflection.”

• Knowledge exchange

“With the objective assessment of an athlete’s needs complete, your multi-disciplinary team (physio/medical, sports coach, strength and conditioning, sports science, nutritional, psychology) can exchange information and create an athlete-specific plan for their development and performance improvement.”

• Education

“The information you can build around your sport and athlete is particularly important for those staff new to your organisation. It enables them to get up to speed quickly on the demands of the sport, what the short- and long-term plans are for the athlete, and support the team as effectively and quickly as possible.”

• Value

“Your sport needs analysis work contributes back to the athletes and provides value for others trying to model their training and/or performance levels.”

Holistic versus traditional approach

Ultimately, a sport needs analysis enables coaches to fully assess and therefore understand the context in which their athletes are performing. A traditional approach to a sport needs analysis considers the following factors:

• Metabolic – What are the main physiological demands of the sport, athletes, and position?
• Biomechanical – What are the main movement pattern demands of the sport, athlete, and position?
• Injury – What are the common injuries?

Crook suggests the approach to a sport needs analysis needs to be more holistic in nature than as described above, as the traditional approach does not encompass the modern nature of sport and is sport-specific rather than athlete-specific.

“Performance is complex and multifactorial – a focus on a single coach/team department is too limiting, so sport needs analysis’ should integrate all interdisciplinary departments. Keep the athlete as the focus of your plan rather than just assessing the demands of the sport, and be progressive enough to reflect sport changes (rule/competition) and an athlete’s lifestyle (relationship/family developments),” explained Crook.

How to build a sports needs analysis

When creating a sport needs analysis, the athlete should be seen as the glue that provides the context and background to any decisions and findings. Crook outlined seven pillars coaches should follow to build a comprehensive sport needs analysis.

• Athlete

Assess: background, context, social environment, training history, and previous medical/physiotherapy.

“Social factors are a key component in providing context to an athlete’s background … and technical competency frameworks (inventory of anticipated knowledge, skills and abilities) such as an OHS Assessment can be used to gather this critical information. Also, screening tools are subjective but they can be utilised for detecting underlying musculoskeletal limitations that might predispose an athlete to injury,” said Crooks.

• Sport

Assess: physiological, biomechanical, and physical.

Crooks explained: “during this stage, coaches should gauge aerobic and lactic capacity required, kinetics and movement demands, movement type, duration, intensity, and frequency, movement patterns and categorisation, and the desired strength, power, and speed of the sport.”

• Injury risk

Assess: relationship to sports activity, mode of onset, mechanism, and injury classification.

“Injury risk is arguably the most important, yet overlooked pillar. If not already in place, practitioners should record injury data according to the classification systems of: Sport Medicine Diagnostic Coding System (SMDCS) & Orchard Sports Injury & Illness Classification System (OSIICS). Also, they should be cautious about claims surrounding ‘injury prediction’ and ‘injury prevention’,” mentioned Crooks.

• Psychology

Assess: Behaviours, traits, and values.

Crooks suggested: “practitioners spend a large amount of time, effort, and energy profiling an athlete’s physical qualities. Less can be said for an athlete’s psychological profile. Subjective archetyping (pattern of behaviour) may be a useful tool for better understanding individual preferences and communication styles. It is important to note that any psychometric evaluation/interventions should come from a qualified sports psychologist.”

• Monitoring

Assess: Testing practices and reliability.

“Monitoring practices are vital for understanding baselines, ranking athletes, evaluating training impact, informing rehabilitation and programming,” explained Crooks.

Performance testing (fitness testing) should follow a logical sequence and should be standardised to ensure the reliability of results.

• Programming

Assess: Rationale and justification for exercise selection and implementation.

“Use the sport and athlete context derived from the other pillars to objectively assess your plan for your athletes, and use it as a reflection tool in the future,” said Crooks.

• Annual plan

Assess: calendar, key fixtures, and travel.

“Extended competition seasons, multiple training goals, concurrent training, time constraints, and impact of physical stress from the sport should all be assessed during an annual plan. Annual plans extend far beyond just the sport and its competition, it should also consider an athlete’s personal calendar,” outlined Crooks.

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Will Ambler

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NBA players play multiple games every week through the season, not to mention practice, travel, recovery and many other commitments. So how do they fit in their S&C work?

By Matt Solomon
Last updated: March 1st, 2024
4 min read

How can you fit in S&C when your game schedule is non-stop?

Have you got a crazy match schedule and have no idea how to fit it all in? Need to keep your strength up, but also have to perform multiple times per week? This is the exact problem facing NBA superstars.

If you need to solve your mad training and match demand issues, you could take a lesson from these top performers. To do it, all you have to do is crack on episode 86 of the Science for Sport Podcast.

In this episode, Brady Howe, Director of Performance and Health at the Phoenix Suns, gives us a behind-the-scenes glimpse at how he gets the best out of these elite performers despite challenging game and training loads.

But what exactly are we dealing with in the NBA? Prepare yourself … I did say crazy.

“There can be anywhere from 85 to 100-plus games over a six-to-nine-month season, depending on how far you go into the playoffs. So within a month, you’re looking at 14 to 16 games, which essentially equates to playing every other day,” Howe said.

But it’s not just the games and travel, there are plenty of other commitments. On an unrelated note – if any NBA athletes fancy throwing some Airmiles my way, just let me know.

“These guys have to do training regimens, treatments, recovery sessions, team practice, shootarounds, and of course everyday life, which is a little different for them as well,” Howe said.

Get creative with some microdosing

So when it comes to training, you’d be forgiven for thinking they just don’t have the time or energy, but that’s where the coaching staff have to get clever.

“So this is where you have to get ultimately creative, and the term that comes to mind is microdosing,” Howe said.

If microdosing sounds like a fancy training word made up to make coaches sound clever, it is. Microdosing just means giving small doses of stimuli throughout the day or week, smaller than a regular gym session, but enough to make a small positive difference. Accumulating these small positives leads to bigger wins.

But how do you go about doing this when there are training sessions and games?
“These guys, some of them are finding two or three windows over a game day to get these microdosing sessions in. They might come in and do something very short and sweet post-game. There might be the same type of a short and sweet session pre-game or the morning of game day,” Howe said.

Don’t forget about the power of isometrics

So there you have it – the morning of the game, before the game, and even after the game itself. These guys are stepping off-court, breathless, dripping with sweat, and then go tear things up in the gym. Feeling lazy yet? I am.

So what are these beasts doing in the gym? Well, one option is isometric training. Isometric just means the muscle doesn’t change length during the movement. For example a wall sit (where you sit against a wall and stay there as if you were sitting on a chair).

“One of those things that we do add for our guys is isometric training,” Howe said.

Why bother with isometric holds? Well, there may be a range of benefits, but Howe focuses on creating a robust athlete.

“Isometric holds are an extremely healthy and viable option for everyone looking to build a robust system or improve our physical qualities,” Howe said.

Howe uses the example of a wall sit as a super simple exercise that he programs at the Suns, but he prescribes it differently, depending on the athlete.

“You might have one 60-second hold for a player who’s been playing a lot of games, a lot of minutes recently, whereas a player who hasn’t been playing as many, he’s going to have a longer session. He might be prescribed three or four sets,” Howe said.

Just find a way to do the work!

So the morale of this story is, the best basketball athletes in the world just find a way to get it done. Through microdosing physical training throughout the day and week, they can get enough training to ensure they perform optimally through a grueling season.

If you want to find out more about how Howe uses these training principles, as well as how he programs ‘active foot’ training, check out episode 86 of the Science for Sport Podcast using the link below.

You can download the podcast on any of the big hosting services, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify, or just use this link: https://scienceforsport.fireside.fm/86
Don’t forget to hit the subscribe button and be sure to give us a review and rating too!

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Matt Solomon

Matt is a strength and conditioning coach at Team NL (Dutch Olympic Team). He was also the Lead Academy Sports Scientist/Strength and Conditioning coach at Al Shabab Al Arabi FC. For Science for Sport, Matt works as the group manager for the Coaches Club and is the host of the Science for Sport Podcast.

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Despite the plethora of research surrounding talent identification, few studies, if any, have investigated if successful players make consistent improvements in their performance, or start and remain on top of the talent pool.

By Tom Green
Last updated: March 2nd, 2023
6 min read

Original study

Fortin-Guichard, D., Huberts, I., Sanders, J., van Elk, R., Mann, D. L., & Savelsbergh, G. J. (2022). Predictors of selection into an elite level youth football academy: A longitudinal study. Journal of Sports Sciences, 1-16.

Click here for abstract

Background & Objective

Talent identification and development is a highly complex and competitive process in many elite sports.

Progression through a talent identification pathway relies on a number of factors, such as performance data, technical and tactical knowledge, and suitability to the organisation’s culture. Therefore, coaches and sport scientists can play a large role in an athlete’s progression.

As competition increases, selection becomes an increasingly challenging process, where the smallest differences between athletes can be the defining factor in a successful transition into the senior team. Despite the plethora of research surrounding talent identification, few studies, if any, have investigated if successful players make consistent improvements in their performance, or start and remain on top of the talent pool.

Therefore, this study aims to explore the longitudinal relationship between talent variables and their relationship with development over time.

What They Did

One-hundred and ten youth football players (8-12yrs) participated in this study from a Dutch academy. Inclusion criteria required players to be in good physical condition and to be clear of injury/sickness throughout the study.

All athletes had the same programme, with no players being dropped during this longitudinal study lasting five years. To monitor predictors of selection, anthropometry, physical fitness (10, 20 and 30m sprint, a modified arrowhead agility test, standing long jump), gross motor skills test (KörperkoordinationsTest für kinder and Athletic Skills parkour test), technical ability (Loughborough passing test) and psychosocial capacities (Scale for Identification of Sport Potential) were tracked over five years.

Players were tested monthly and independent sample t-tests were used to assess differences in variables of those who were selected into the U13 team for every participant.

What They Found

The main finding of this study was that there were few differences in the developmental trajectories between selected and non-selected players between the ages 8-12. Although both selected and non-selected players improved, there was no sudden leap in performance variables through these age groups. However, greater identifiable features were found when using cross-sectional analysis.

These results indicated that among the players who progressed to the U13 team, the selected players were already superior in a number of talent indicators and maintained this advantage throughout the 8-12 phases of the programme. These included increased strength, speed, and conditioning. These identifiable factors were identifiable from the age of nine. The differences in gross motor coordination, footballing ability and psychosocial characteristics were far less obvious.

Out of all of the variables measured, sprint speed over 20-30m showed the highest correlation with selection, where faster players were more likely to be selected.

Practical Takeaways

From this study, coaches should look to chase physical development by providing regular and consistent strength and conditioning sessions. Given that ‘physicality’ and 20-30m speed are highlighted as desirable traits, S&C coaches can play a key role in developing these qualities. Considering children are not producing high levels of androgens between 8-12yrs, a majority of the adaptations to strength training will be neural in nature. Training approaches that will support this can be achieved by incorporating:

1. Heavy sled drags are a fantastic way to drive force adaptations whilst developing good sprint mechanics. Cumulatively, the results from a recent study (HERE) show the greatest gains in short-distance sprint speed were made when youth trained at loads greater than 50% of bodyweight over 6-9 repetitions. Before working at this load, I would recommend a far lighter load (10% of bodyweight) to develop a good technical base. In the attached video, sled drags are preferred to sled pushes as the arms are free to move with the contralateral leg. This is more ecologically valid to the key positions of sprinting (e.g. big arm split, horizontal lean and positive shin angles).
2. High levels of eccentric strength training – initial approaches to incorporating eccentric training can be achieved by performing exercises such as Romanian Deadlifts (HERE), hamstring sliders (HERE) and Nordic Hamstring exercises (HERE). These can be advantageous when looking to develop landing kinematics, eccentric strength, braking strength, and deceleration/change of direction ability. When incorporating eccentrics, the attached article recommends 1-2 sets of 6-8 repetitions for beginners, moving to 2-3 sets of 6-8 reps over 8-weeks. In addition to the strength improvements, eccentric exercises are highly effective as injury preventatives and muscle myofibrillar hypertrophy.
3. Improve ankle stiffness – ankle stiffness has a long association with sprint speed. In an athletic sense, stiffness describes the ability of the body or ankle to resist deformation. A stiffer leg-sprint should augment performance by utilising elastic energy. Stiff ankles show a high correlation with sprint speed and optimal stride length (HERE). To develop stiffness, plyometric tasks with short ground contact times are preferable. These may include ankling, skipping, pogo jumps and various hops. Asking youth to ‘follow a leader’ or create a trail is a fantastic way to keep S&C playful whilst working on ankle stiffness mechanics.

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Tom Green’s comments

“The results from this study indicate that although both selected and non-selected players benefit and improve as a result of training, a natural ‘gap’ does exist and continues to exist after years of training. Therefore, it is important that those who are less developed physically take steps to catch up to their more physical peers in order to influence the selection process. As well as seeking S&C support for physical qualities, my experience of talent identification has seen that individuals who do the basics well (e.g. punctuality, organised, friendly etc.) are also likely to succeed despite physical disadvantages.

“In the attached podcast, Jim Miller (Chief of Sports Performance at USA Cycling) suggests individuals who are motivated, employ a growth-mindset, build relationships, set goals and prioritise their development as athletes are more likely to perform at the highest level. My philosophy about working with youth completely aligns with this, as realistically not all will make it to the highest level. Therefore, the biggest credit our athletes can give to us when they leave is that they are good people, with strong values and identities. This places them in good stead to secure future opportunities in sport and employment, falling under the responsibilities of a holistic long-term athletic development (LTAD) programme.

Finally, sprint speed over 20-30m proved to be a factor that selection identified as significant. Therefore, coaches should look to continually develop sprint speed over acute distances (<50m), to ensure players stand a fighting chance of being advanced through the LTAD system. Those activities mentioned in the practical takeaways, coupled with some tempo runs (e.g. 50m in 6 seconds) should develop anaerobic qualities to drive sprint performance. Tempo runs should only occur when maximal sprinting technique (HERE) can be maintained.” 

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Tom Green

Tom Green is currently the Head of Athletic Development at St Peters RC High School in England. Tom has extensive experience in a range of sports at varied levels. He holds a BSc and MSc in Strength and Conditioning, is a qualified teacher, and sits on the UKSCA board for S&C in Schools.

More content by Tom

The post Talent identification: What coaches are looking for in youth athletes appeared first on Science for Sport.

Contents

1. The history of physical literacy
2. What is physical literacy?
3. Why is physical literacy important?
4. Why is physical literacy important for youth development?
5. Who is responsible for developing physical literacy?
6. How to improve physical literacy
7. Fundamental movement skills, and closing thoughts…

The history of physical literacy

Physical literacy has become a trendy term in recent times and has led many to believe it is a new concept. However, references to physical literacy can be found in articles from the early 1900s. Historically, literacy refers to being ‘educated’ or ‘cultured’ and is commonly associated with the ability to read and write.

Early research revealed that physical literacy is vitally important to human existence and quality of life. Therefore, in recent years, many educational organisations around the world have argued that physical literacy should be given the same educational attention as literacy and numeracy.

What is physical literacy?

The World Health Organisation (WHO) defines physical activity as “any bodily movement produced by the skeletal muscles that require energy”. Although many definitions of physical literacy have been developed and altered throughout the years, it is generally accepted that Margaret Whitehead’s definition is the most distinguished: “the motivation, confidence, physical competence, knowledge and understanding to value and take responsibility for engagement in physical activities for life”.

When examining this definition, two main points strike me – one, physical literacy is comprised of much more than physical activity, and two, becoming physically literate is a lifelong journey and not a sudden endpoint destination. Physical literacy should promote positive behaviours, knowledge and understanding towards a healthy lifestyle as well as creating a solid foundation for elite sport.

It is important to understand that although ‘physical activity’ is a large component of ‘physical literacy’, it is not the same thing. Instead, physical activity forms only a component of physical literacy.

Why is physical literacy important?

I’m sure not many of you will be surprised to know that obesity levels have tripled globally since 1975. More worryingly though, the WHO reported last year there were 39 million children under the age of five classified as obese. Poor diet and a decrease in physical activity are the cause of this horrendous statistic. Now more than ever, physical literacy is becoming more and more significant.

There is a huge cost to healthcare worldwide as a direct result of obesity. Therefore, many governments have put large financial investments into physical literacy programs. Benefits associated with increased physical literacy include future savings in healthcare, improved physical well-being of the population, improved mental health and psychological well-being, increased workforce productivity, and increased levels of sport and exercise participation. In 2013, Australia invested $200m into education initiatives to promote participation in physical activity and believed it would equate to an eventual $13.8b saving in healthcare. Other physical literacy initiatives include the Canada Sports for Life (CS4L), Kiwi Sport New Zealand, and Nike Designed to Move USA. These are excellent resources and well worth checking out.

Why is physical literacy important for youth development?

Any coach involved with training children needs to ask themselves a very simple question: “Do I know enough about physical literacy?”. If the answer is “no,” then I strongly suggest you change that immediately.

I have worked with youth athletes from different sports and have seen some wonderful coaches create fantastic learning environments for children to prosper through sport and physical activity. However, I have also seen the exact opposite and often wondered to myself: ‘how can a coach who clearly has no knowledge, or even worse, no regard for physical literacy development, be allowed to coach children?‘

Therefore, if you are a coach working with children, I urge you to improve your knowledge of physical literacy and create a child-centred coaching approach. We only get one childhood – let’s get it right!

Who is responsible for developing physical literacy?

Physical literacy needs to be a multi-faceted approach. Parents, physical education teachers, sports coaches, strength and conditioning coaches, leisure management personnel, family members, and peers all play an integral role in physical literacy. It is critical all parties work together for the development of the child and not the development of their own specific agenda – I get very frustrated when I hear sports coaches blaming physical education teachers for the lack of ‘athletic children’ being produced. No doubt physical education teachers have a vital role regarding physical literacy, but they cannot be fully responsible.

From my experience, I have seen some sports coaches only focus on the talented, and as crazy as it sounds, I’ve heard one coach say they can predict at eight years of age if a child is going to ‘make it’ or not.

Sports coaches must understand that all children who won’t become elite athletes can remain involved in sport and physical activity for life. A quote – from the excellent resource icoachkids – I love is: “good coaches coach sport, but great coaches coach people”.

Children can gain indispensable lifelong cognitive, social, and physical skills from sport if the correct environment is created by the coach. This is how children become physically literate. A great example I have witnessed is when a coach ensured every single child got the same playing minutes and experienced playing in every position throughout the season. Playing time was equal for every child throughout the season and was not impacted by talent or match results.

How to improve physical literacy

We know physical literacy is a lifelong process, but the seeds are sown during childhood, and that’s where the major focus should be. To improve physical literacy, there are three core elements to focus on –  affective, cognitive, and physical.

Affective
Affective describes one’s confidence, motivation, and self-esteem. A lack of confidence, motivation, and self-esteem in individuals results in a lower enticement to participate in physical activity. It is imperative children are encouraged to take part in sport and physical activity. Having high self-esteem will help a child engage positively with the activity, but having low esteem causes a child to avoid the activity for fear of embarrassment or disappointment.

Environments need to encourage children to try new skills and not to be afraid to make mistakes. We all learn from mistakes, and coaches should be there to guide children through mistakes and not embarrass them for making them.

Some training techniques used in programs can detract from the child’s desire to be active later in life. For example, using exercise as a form of punishment not only increases injury risk but leads to decreased motivation and potentially leads to dropping out of the sport or activity. It also creates a negative association with the exercises being used in the punishment. How many people do you know have never tried a certain exercise or activity again because their childhood experience of it was so bad? But the exercise or activity wasn’t the enemy – it was the person who prescribed it inexcusably.

I have experienced a sports coach who used to constantly use exercise as a form of punishment, and it is certainly one of my biggest dislikes. Not only was it horrible to witness a complete misuse of the basic training principles, but seeing children develop a hatred for exercise and sport was gut-wrenching to see. Making children do a certain number of sprints, squats, burpees etc., because they made a mistake, is certainly not fun and doesn’t seem endearing to stick with it.

Promoting physical activity must be done effectively and sporting organisations must create a child-centred framework to meet the desired goals and limit any poor practice that detracts from it.

Cognitive
Cognitive ability plays a strong role in becoming physically literate. Knowledge and understanding are cognitive properties that are essential for children to develop on their physical literacy journey. Each sport has its own unique set of rules, traditions, and values – it is important coaches take time to help children acquire knowledge and understanding of these.

Knowledge and understanding of basic health and physical activity principles must be instilled into every child too. Children need to be taught from an early age the importance of good health and exercise choices and how it leads to a healthy life. Becoming physically literate in childhood is essential for lifelong participation in sport and exercise.

Children spend a lot of their time in school and typically will only experience physical activity in structured physical education classes. The main role of a school is to improve academic and cognitive performance and often this results in physical activity in school not getting enough importance. I know from my experience in my last two years of secondary school here in Ireland, we had no timetabled physical education classes. For teachers, parents, or education leaders, it is important to understand that schools need to do more for physical literacy. Research from Demetriou et al. (2018) showed that when schools increase physical activity and physical education classes, it has no adverse effect on cognitive performance and academic results. In fact, some researchers believe that increased physical activity in school can lead to improved academic performance.

Physical
The physical component of physical literacy is, without a doubt, the most important, and I know many people wonder what physical activity is best for children to help them become physically literate. Firstly, it is important to discuss Fundamental Movement Skills (FMS). FMS are basic patterns of movement and are regarded as the building blocks of more complex sport-specific movements. FMS can be categorized into three groups. Firstly, locomotor skills are movements that transport the body in any direction from one point to another – this includes walking, running, hopping, skipping, jumping (both vertically and horizontally), dodging, and side-stepping. Secondly, stability skills involve balancing the body in stillness and motion and include balancing and landing. Lastly, manipulative skills involve controlling objects with various parts of the body such as catching, throwing, kicking, striking with the hand, and striking with an implement.

There are several different tests that can assess FMS but generally, the Test of Gross Motor Development (TGMD) is used to assess the FMS. The TGMD assesses six locomotor and six manipulative skills and gives a score for each FMS.

It is generally accepted that children have the potential to master FMS at the ages of five to seven. Children failing to achieve FMS mastery around this age are already falling behind on their physical literacy journey.  To achieve FMS mastery, children need to learn and practice FMS, as they are not acquired naturally. Worldwide, FMS mastery among children is very low and worse than in previous generations. Excellent research on FMS has taken place by Bolger et al. (2018) in Ireland. In their analysis of 203 children between six and 10 years of age, no child displayed mastery of all of 12 FMS assessed. This is very alarming and reinforces the need for coaches, parents and teachers to change what we are doing because together we are all at fault for creating this problem.

Other interesting findings from FMS analysis include boys typically displaying more proficiency than girls in overall FMS performance. However, some research has shown girls perform better in locomotor skills, which can be explained by their participation in more locomotor activities such as dancing and gymnastics. Conversely, boys tend to outperform girls in manipulative skills, which is no surprise as boys engage more in object control sports such as ball sports. This supports the evidence that learning the FMS is directly impacted by the activity the child does, and it does not come naturally. Therefore, everyone from coaches to parents to teachers needs to ensure FMS development is achieved in children, especially during three to seven years of age, by providing a variety of different sports and activities for children to participate in.

Fundamental movement skills, and closing thoughts…

I’m guessing many of you are now asking how FMS development can be improved. Firstly, let’s look at the term FUNdamental movement skills. Yes, that’s not a typo, it’s deliberate – all FMS activities must be FUN for the child. Teachers and schools need to promote a wide range of fun physical activities for children during school, and physical education classes need to heavily focus on all FMS for girls and boys. Sports coaches need to focus on helping children acquire FMS mastery while not forcing early specialisation of their sport on children so young. Children performing a variety of sports will gain more exposure to the FMS, which leads to better overall athleticism long-term.

Sports coaches need to promote competition in a developmental way too. Competition for children should not be about triumphing over the opponent. It should encourage respect for the opponent and working with them to achieve mastery of skills which will lead to enjoyment, high self-esteem, motivation, and continued participation resulting in improved physical literacy. When competition is only focused on winning, the opponent is the enemy, and more negative outcomes such as low enjoyment, low self-esteem, athletic burnout, and dropout happen. Parents play the biggest role in this and need to encourage their children to participate in a variety of physical activities and sports, always emphasising fun and enjoyment.

As this blog started, I asked you to ask yourself “do I know enough about physical literacy?”. For those who answered “no”, I hope you now know a little more about how important physical literacy and its components — affective, cognitive, and physical (FMS) — are.

Remember, we only get one childhood, so let’s get it right!

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Eric Curry

Eric is a Strength and Conditioning Coach from Ireland. Eric holds a MSc in Sports Strength and Conditioning and an undergraduate degree in Sport and Exercise. Eric is also a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) with the NSCA. Eric currently works as a Strength and Conditioning Coach in Ireland predominantly with youth performance Tennis players. Eric also has experience working with athletes from basketball, martial arts, football, hurling, and Gaelic football.

More content by Eric

The post Physical literacy appeared first on Science for Sport.

While sports technology continues to develop at a rapid rate, there are simpler ways to monitor your exercise intensity. One of these old-school methods is the Talk Test.

By Dr. Tom Brownlee
Last updated: March 1st, 2024
7 min read

Talk Test: An old-school method in a modern world

To say it’s been a tricky time for the world over the past two years would be an understatement. But it seems many of us are now starting to emerge from our Covid hibernation. Around the world, things are beginning to return to normal as shops, cinemas, sporting arenas and gyms reopen. These reopenings have brought with them a sense of normality that many had longed for throughout the darker periods.

For some, though, when it comes to exercise, the idea of returning to their gyms may not be front and centre in their minds. Once we got over the initial idea that gyms and fitness centres would be closed for an extended period (and the rush to buy up ever-scarce gym equipment subsided), some began to find it quite enjoyable. We were being given the chance to train in our living rooms, gardens or in our local parks and trails. So, for some, the reopening of gyms may not see a total return to the old normal. This isn’t to say that people no longer have the desire to use a gym – there are obvious advantages, including more varied or specific equipment and potentially greater comfort during the winter months. But it seems likely that many will continue to train, at least occasionally, in the settings they became used to during respective lockdowns.

The idea of a shorter journey to our exercise space, enjoying the great outdoors, or saving some money by having a cheaper gym membership sounds great, but can we be sure that we’re getting equal benefits from our new training programs? Specifically, in this blog, we’re going to consider whether we are working at the right intensity for what we’re trying to achieve when we train. To be clear, this isn’t to say ‘are we working hard enough?’, as anyone can train until they throw up, but are we working in a way that fits our goals, be they a recovery, light, medium or hard day?
Now, as I write this, I can see you looking over at your tech pile and thinking you’ve got it all covered. You’ve got your phone with your subscription running app on it, you’ve got your heart rate belt, you’ve got your watch that tells you all you need to know, and that’s just the start of it. And I’m not saying that all of those things aren’t useful. But what if you forget something, you’re out of town, you didn’t remember to charge something, or you’re new to the game and haven’t amassed the whole Batman utility belt just yet? What can we use to measure our intensity of effort then? One such option is the Talk Test. You may have heard of this before, but today we’ll cover the what, when, why and should yous of this test to see whether it can help us get the most from our workouts in the simplest way possible.

So, what is the Talk Test?

The principles of the Talk Test were first proposed at least as far back as 1939 when a professor at Oxford University recommended mountaineers ‘climb no faster than they can talk’. The idea being that if they were working hard to the point where they couldn’t hold a conversation, then it might be too taxing for them to complete their climb. In the many decades since, exercise physiologists have continued to play around with the idea, mostly with regard to exercising for health. The thinking being that if you could just about hold a conversation, you were likely working hard enough to see some improvements to your health. More recently it has been shown that, in fact, the ability to talk is strongly linked with exercise intensity.

So, with a general idea of what the test is and knowing it might be linked to how hard we’re working when we’re training, let’s have a look at how we might consider implementing it.

Working in the right zones

As I mentioned above, training isn’t all about thrashing yourself every time you do some exercise. So, let’s have a quick look at what we mean by training zones and what this might mean for our training. We know that aerobic fitness is really important for both our health and athletic performance. But when we’re planning our training with some longer term thinking applied, it is important to manipulate the intensity (how hard), frequency (how often) and duration (how long) if we want to progress and consider appropriate recovery.

It’s likely that it might be our aerobic exercise that we continue to perform away from the gym now we’ve discovered the benefits of doing it outside. Typically, when programming such sessions, you have likely heard of us being interested in the percentages of our maximum heart rate and oxygen consumption (VO2) that we might be working at. This relates to our exercise intensity, and it is these heart rate or oxygen consumption bands that we’re interested in manipulating. Recommended guidelines are quite broad for training using heart rate when aiming for health benefits. For instance, the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) traditionally recommended exercising between 55 – 90% of maximum heart rate or 40 – 85% of maximum oxygen uptake for most individuals. When aiming for fitness improvement, it’s good to mix up our intensities throughout the week to improve all aspects of fitness, from speed and power through to aerobic endurance.

This can be very individual and will relate to how experienced you are, but you will likely know how hard you want to work to achieve your objectives. A reasonable rule of thumb is to consider three exercise intensity bands:

• Low-intensity work (would score a 3 to 5 on the ratings of perceived exertion (RPE) scale seen on the right). It would be reasonable to aim for this level once a week, often as a recovery.
• Moderate intensity work (5 to 7 on the RPE scale). This might be factored in once to twice a week.
• High-intensity work (7 to 9 on the RPE scale). This too might be incorporated once or twice a week.

Beyond the physical benefits, this manipulation also keeps our training from getting too boring, which can often lead to us quitting. Due to having a good understanding of the importance of tracking exercise intensity, many fitness enthusiasts find it useful but often difficult and sometimes tedious. Thankfully, there is good evidence that using the Talk Test can help us to plan our training by taking into account the intensity of that exercise in a simple, cost-free way.

How to perform the Talk Test

Summarising the above, we know that monitoring training is beneficial, though we may not always want or be able to use technology to help. Thankfully, we also know there is a correlation between our ability to talk during exercise and that exercise intensity. So how can we put it all together? Based on the intensity ratings and RPE scores above, we can consider that:

• Being able to speak comfortably relates to that low-intensity, sub 5 RPE score.
• For medium intensity, you can try counting as high as you can at a steady pace in one breath. Repeat this during your exercise at the same pace. If the number has reduced by more than a quarter, then you are now in the medium-intensity zone.
• It’s been suggested that at higher intensities or in very trained individuals, the talk test may be less effective in determining your training zone. Despite this, some have offered that when talking becomes too difficult, or only a word or two can be achieved, then this can be considered high-intensity.

Are you talking to me?

It seems the Talk Test offers a nice opportunity to very easily alter your exercise intensity between or during sessions. It works in most environments and all-but the most conditioned athletes at higher intensities. The downside is, it is admittedly hard to be as specific as you can be when using heart rate zones. Overall, the test is a useful, free method, especially for beginners and non-competitive exercisers. For those who are a little more serious, it would be useful for them to finetune their intensity zones by cross-referencing their ability to talk while they exercise against their heart rate when they are wearing their extra equipment. This knowledge can then be used when you’re equipment-free to increase the accuracy of the Talk Test.

One thing to keep in mind, though, is that depending on your goals, if you are looking to exercise to become a little more active or for health benefits, then any level of exercise is going to be hugely beneficial. If you’re able to consider factoring in low-, medium- and high-intensity efforts throughout the week, then all the better. Just be safe and take comfort in the knowledge that you don’t have to be giving James Bond a run for his money in the gadget stakes to make it worthwhile.

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Dr. Tom Brownlee

Tom is an assistant professor in applied sports sciences and has worked with elite sports for over 10 years. Previous roles include working as a sports scientist at Liverpool F.C., where he completed his Ph.D., and working across a number of other sports. He is passionate about physiology, coach communication, and high-performance strategy and systems.

Tom graduated with a BSc in 2011 before undertaking an MSc at Loughborough University. He has published 25 academic papers on strength and conditioning, nutrition, and youth development in Sports Medicine, the Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, and others. Tom also now supervises a number of his own Ph.D. students around the world embedded within sporting organisations.

More content by Tom

The post Talk Test appeared first on Science for Sport.

How to deal with problem athletes? Coaches need to display honesty and vulnerability when dealing with athletes who display difficult behaviour.

By Niall Seewang
Last updated: March 1st, 2024
3 min read

How should coaches best manage problem athletes?

Building strong relationships is a key plank of successful coaching but is especially important when it comes to problem athletes.

That’s the opinion of a leading strength and conditioning coach, who believes coaches need to display honesty and vulnerability when dealing with athletes who display problematic behaviour.

Cole Hergott — Head Strength & Conditioning Coach at Trinity Western University in Langley, BC, Canada — says dealing with difficult athletes is one of his profession’s trickiest tasks, but there are tools to make things easier.

“Problem athletes are common on most teams – they pose a challenge to your normal work environment and you need to address it to protect team culture and prevent negative influences,” Hergott, who has a Master’s Degree in Coaching Science, said during his Science for Sport presentation titled ‘Coaching Problematic Athletes.’
“A problem athlete can be someone who is uncoachable, self-centred, argumentative or just someone who is tough to deal with and can lead others astray. It is something as a coach you need to address because it’s our job to develop these athletes and people. If you don’t try to improve them, they’ll pull others down.

“Research shows a strong coach-athlete relationship can increase motivation, work ethic and positive mindset.”

The ‘5-10-5’ rule of team sports

Hergott highlighted what he termed the ‘5-10-5’ rule, which explains that on a squad of 20 athletes, there will generally be five who are “perfect” and five who can cause issues. The 10 in the middle can be heavily influenced by their teammates either positively or negatively – hence the need to make sure the middle group is positively influenced.

Hergott said coaches had to concentrate on their relationship with the problem athlete to improve the situation. And a coach had to be prepared to be honest and vulnerable.

“Show you care [about them] – for real,” he said. “Showing you care for real opens the door to so many avenues when it comes to coaching. When athletes are cared for in a nurturing environment, they’re more likely to do what they’re told – [that is] the essence of buy-in. Why? Because when someone cares about them and has their best interest in mind, they’re more likely to follow a plan and trust that person.

“Ask them about their day outside of sport, ask them about their upcoming weekend, or what’s up at school, or what type of music they like. The easiest way to build a strong relationship is to spend time with them and have meaningful conversations. Learn about them.  And it has to be a two-way street – make sure you open up to them. Be a human, not a robotic coach who does no wrong. You need to contribute to the relationship. It does involve some vulnerability. Make it a safe place.”

It might sound obvious – but you’ve got to know your stuff

Gaining an athlete’s respect is also a key weapon in trying to coach a problem athlete, Hergott says.

“You have to know your stuff,” Hergott said. “Step up when given a chance – if you’re asked a question, answer it! Demonstrate your value. But keep it simple – if you can’t explain the concept to your grandmother, then you don’t know it well enough.

“And it’s OK to say ‘I don’t know’ – being honest and vulnerable can help build relationships and then you can try to find out the answer and/or find someone else who can help, which is a great way to show them [the athlete] that you care about them.”

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Cole Hergott is the Head Strength & Conditioning Coach at Trinity Western University in Langley, BC, Canada. He has a strong passion for helping his athletes reach their full potential through strength training, nutrition, and recovery methods. He holds his CSCS as well as a Masters Degree in Coaching Science.

The post How honesty and vulnerability can help coaches break through with problem athletes appeared first on Science for Sport.