If you’ve not checked out the first two instalments of this series yet, click here and here to read. If you want the short version, here it is: the siloed system is broken and we addressed how to fix it on a macro level. Now it’s time to dig deeper into roles and responsibilities for each individual within an interdisciplinary high-performance team. Remember, like a high-performance team within Formula 1 or NASCAR, each person must know exactly what their role and responsibilities are and must know when they must act in order for there to be the success a team wants to achieve. Peter Theil was famous for ignoring the opinion of team members who wanted to discuss things outside of their domain. To Theil, if you are the expert in your domain, be the expert and work as a team. Do not tell someone how to do their job when you don’t know what truly goes into that role. However, when members would be experts in their domain, AND then work together with other respective experts the magic happened for Theil and his team – ever heard of PayPal? Let’s dive in with how it relates to sport.
Does it make the boat go faster?
This is the question that each member of the high-performance team must ask themselves. Derived from the British Olympic rowing team determined to win Olympic gold – the team asked themselves every day. Is what they are doing going to help the boat go faster? If the answer was yes, they would continue doing said action, if not, they would not pursue that action further. High-performance teams need to ask themselves the same thing, are my actions helping keep the athletes healthy? If the answer is yes, keep doing it. If not, take a hard look in the mirror and see what it is you should be doing to help the athletes you work with.
S&C
Let’s start here since this is the Strength Coach Network. As a strength and conditioning coach are your actions helping the athletes stay health? Are you designing training sessions in isolation and not looking at the big picture of the week or month of training? Are you periodizing your training sessions, or are you prescribing 23 reps on a movement because that is your favorite number (you think I am joking but this was the answer from a head FBS football strength and conditioning coach). Are you married to exercises rather than principles and see the exercises as a tool to improve a certain quality? If you are creating training sessions in isolation, doing reps based on your favorite number, and doing exercises because you like them – you are not making the boat go faster. In fact, you might be the one to make it sink. Instead, design training sessions that pair stressors well within the day, and within the week. Have your speed work match up to the weight room. Don’t let your actions on one day, ruin the actions the next day (think massive volume of RAS work on the field then ask them to wake up early and lift heavy – all in the name of toughness).
ATC/Medical Staff
Charlie Weingroff is known for his saying ‘training = rehab and rehab = training’. I would add a caveat and say GOOD training is rehab, we just showed you how bad training can be designed by the strength and conditioning staff. Does the medical staff you work with understand progressions and regressions for rehab? Or do they simply prescribe everyone 3×15 and call me in the morning? In all seriousness – this type of exercise prescription needs to change. There are better ways to improve muscle hypertrophy, neural activation (this is outside of the scope of this article and could be multiple in and of themselves). But, if you are an athletic trainer reading this or are a member I commend you. You are taking the steps to better yourself as a professional. You are instrumental in the rehab and return to play progression for athletes. The acute stages of injury you are the boss, a great rehab and RTP starts with a great ATC who understands how to progress/regress training.
Nutrition
You cannot outwork a bad diet, and stress + rest = growth. Although athletes will hear this all the time they will still attempt to outwork eating fast food (or nothing at all), and will sleep less than 5 hours per night. Then will ask for more mobility or strengthening exercises when they are not healthy or performing the way that they want. Here is where an excellent nutritionist/staff can help. Constant communication between the nutritionist and the athletes will create buy in. Athletes spell care ‘T-I-M-E’. You need to spend time with them. This is often the reason why strength coaches and sport coaches have the best relationship with the athletes – they spend the most time with them. So, as a nutritionist it starts with being around the athletes you work with, create opportunities with face time. Once they see how much you care, they will care how much you know. Then it is the time to help adjust their eating and hydration timing. Additionally, working in conjunction with the strength coach and sport coach for post training nutrition options will allow for optimal recovery. Finally, taking nutrition to the next level – work with the strength and conditioning coach and sport coach to find out the different high volume of loading, or different loading times in the weight room to help offset any additionally eccentric loading with additional nutrition intervention.
Sports/Behavioral Psychology
This might be one of the most important and truly neglected areas of high performance, especially in the world we live in now with COVID and racial tensions. This area cannot be overlooked, and cannot be treated by the sport coach, strength coach, ATC, or anyone else. This is the role for an expert in mental health. Sports psychology is not that trendy thought to visualize success the night or day of a game. It is getting to know the personalities and behaviors of the athletes you work with. We are talking about the brain, neurochemicals, hormones, etc. When an athlete hurts themselves physically, there is a team to support them, and sport coaches are all about helping the athlete. The same needs to happen when the athlete has a mental illness or injury. The same level of care, progression, regression needs to be met – and everyone needs to understand the seriousness of the issue. Think about this slightly differently, if your car isn’t working well you don’t talk to your coach or friend about it, you go to a mechanic. Why? Because they are an expert on fixing cars. The same thought process needs to happen with your mind. Not working properly? Then you need to work with a mind mechanic to help you out. For those who don’t have a sports psychology team on their campus, I recommend the team at Summit Performance with Emily and Theresa.
Sports Scientist
This is also a trendy topic in sports performance as it seems like a new tech company pops up offering help with data collection, organization, or both. These software platforms are important to the high-performance team, but do not forget they are only part of the equation. It is important to use data to back up decision making for training, rehab, and practice design. Just do not become paralyzed by all of the different metrics that can be measured. Find 5-8 values that really make the boat go faster, and focus on those.
Sport coaches + Administration
And at the end of the day, if as a high-performance manager, you are not able to work with your respective sport coach, nor does your respective sport oversight administrator support what you are doing – to quote Matthew McConaughey in Wolf of Wall Street “Fugayzi, fugazi. It’s fairy dust.” It’s great if everyone on the high-performance team knows their role and wants to help the boat go faster. But if the sport coach doesn’t want to put the boat in the water, and the administration won’t help you get into races – none of it matters. You need to make sure that EVERYONE on the team is committed to helping the boat go faster. That means the sport coach supports your decision-making process and understands how the on-field and weight room training effect their team during practice/games. And they want to have the nutritionist with fuel pre and post training, rather than saying things like let them figure it out – we didn’t have any of this when I played. Your administration will need to be on board because they will be the ones who handle the higher-level conversations with people way up the chain. Additionally, if they support what you are doing as a high-performance team, chances are they will show that support in the form of money. Either with increases in pay, or increases in technology available.
Conclusion
To wrap things up, make sure you are the expert in your domain and don’t tell someone how to do their job when you don’t know what their job is. Rather, be great in your area and work well with everyone else who is great in theirs. This process ensures you all are helping the boat go faster and keeping the athletes on the field, because at the end of the day, that is why they came to your school or private practice. What to do now
- Find out what you can do to make the boat go faster
- See what other members of the team do to make the boat go faster
- Talk with them about how you each row in the right direction together
- Talk with your sport coach to make sure he/she is on the same page
- Get in front of your sport administrator and let them know the work you are doing.
