As we embark on this fledgling venture, it seems a good time to articulate the ‘why’ behind Prepared Athlete Training & Health, and equally importantly the ‘what’. Why have we chosen this path (pun intended), and why now? We will also share the purpose of this initiative, and elucidate practically what it is we aim offer to the different types of clientele we are seeking to serve. Finally, whilst the Origin Story outlines the journey that has taken us to this point, given this is an endeavour for humans by humans, this post also aims to capture some of that story from a more personal perspective.
SO WHAT IS IT YOU DO..?
Naturally, this is a question I am often posed upon meeting new people, but it is less straightforward to answer than might be expected. During my career to date, I have essentially made it my business to not easily fit into a particular ‘pigeon hole’. There is a rationale for this: performance and sports injury do not respect boundaries between disciplines or discrete domains, such as physiology, biomechanics, or motor learning. Given that performance and sports injury are the spaces I operate in, it seemed to follow that I should also not be constrained by a particular discipline or area of specialism.
So, rather than staying within the confines of physiology, biomechanics, the more nebulous catch-all ‘sport science’, ‘strength and conditioning’, or sports coaching, I have chosen not to stay in my lane. Over the course of my journey to date, I have chosen to explore in depth whatever area was required by the athlete and the scenario I encountered. My scope of practice is therefore the aggregation of these experiences and learning across respective areas.
Interestingly, others in the field have also remarked on the need to reframe what we do. Various titles have emerged in recent times, including physical preparation coach, performance rehabilitation coach, athletic development coaching, movement specialist.
Sadly, I am not sure coming up with an ever-growing array of new labels to stick on ourselves is necessarily the answer. I am also uncomfortable with self-appointed titles (for instance, last week I learned with some incredulity of a company chairman anointing himself with the title ‘Chief Visionary’). So, inevitably what I end up saying when asked, is simply that I am a coach. When pressed to elucidate, I generally say that my role is to prepare athletes and work with injured athletes to return them to competition. It is often at this point where the conversation devolves in a question and answer round:
- so you’re a physio?
- no.
- oh, you’re a personal trainer?
- no. I work with athletes.
- so strength and conditioning?
- well, yes - but beyond making athletes stronger in the gym, a big part of what I do is work on movement mechanics
- so you coach sport?
- well, yes and no - I coach track and field athletics, but I work with athletes in all sports, including artistic athletes; for instance a ballerina at the Bolshoi
*blank stare*
You see my predicament…
BACK TO THE BEGINNING - WHAT GAPS ARE WE SEEKING TO FILL?
What does resonate with most people is the idea that there is a gap in what is provided when it comes to honing athletic skills. When we ask the question who actually helps athletes to develop and refine their athletic skills (i.e. running, jumping, landing, etc.), rather than simply the skills in the sport, often we discover that this is a missing piece.
Parents in particular can appreciate that there are increasing shortcomings in the natural or spontaneous development of athletic movement skills among youth. Kids are spending less and less time in unstructured play in the ‘developed world’, and so have less opportunity to discover and master fundamental movement skills on their own. The provision of physical education in schools is also on the decline. Once again, this raises the question who is it that provides for the growing need for remedial development of the athletic skills that are common to all sports?
Clearly the gap in the current provision of athletic skill development applies to youth sports, but it also evident in sport at all levels. When we think in terms of ‘athletic preparation’ and accompanying coaching intervention, these aspects are not often catered for within the established roles and responsibilities of the coaching staff and support personnel. Given the issues we observe in youth sports, this poses a growing problem: young players coming through the ranks to senior levels bring increasingly less well developed athletic abilities, as many of my colleagues in elite and professional sport will attest to.
Athletic abilities such as speed, jump height and distance, and power expression in striking or throwing are hugely prized assets in sports. Each of the professional sports in North America has a ‘combine’, where athletes are evaluated on running speed, jump height and distance, and various assessments of change of velocity. What this exemplifies is that athletic qualities such as speed and jumping ability are routinely employed as selection criteria in sports. When we consider this, it seems bizarre that developing and honing these capabilities seems to be largely left to chance, or at best an afterthought.
THE MECHANICS OF INJURY…
There is a mechanical element to all the overuse and non-contact injuries that are prevalent in youth sport particularly, but also sport at all levels (including the professional ranks). There is a reason that these injuries occur simply through exposure of performing athletic tasks such as running over time; and mechanics is a big part of this.
The mechanical element of sports injury is under-recognised. This is particularly the case when we simply use a workload monitoring lens, which is typically the case in sport even at the highest levels currently.
Let us pose the question: is the wear and tear associated with 1000 repetitions of an ‘aberrant’ or mechanically unsound action the same as 1000 repetitions of a well-coordinated and mechanically efficient movement? When framed in this way, most of us would say clearly not.
So, failing to capture mechanics as part of the injury equation renders global measures of volume such as mileage or workload monitoring of limited use. As a corollary, this again begs the question who caters to this need to address movement mechanics as part of our counter-measures to reduce sports injuries?
Once injuries do occur the outcomes that follow, including rates of subsequent injury, also remain very poor despite the best efforts of therapy providers and trainers. A cascade of changes in motor coordination and biomechanics become apparent following these injuries. These compensatory changes are superimposed upon and compound the mechanical issues that contributed to the original injury. Once again, who caters to this apparent need to address, remodel, and refine mechanics to break the injury cycle?
WHY TAKE ON THIS QUEST?
My background is in team sports; I began my career in professional rugby union football, and I have since worked 1-on-1 with athletes across the majority of team sports, racquet sports, and individual pursuits. However, it has been my experience coaching track and field athletics which really opened my eyes to how much room remains for athletes even at the top level to develop their athletic capabilities, and how this can benefit from both a performance and injury viewpoint.
In some ways working with track and field athletes ruins you for returning to work with athletes in other sports. Once you have coached sprinters, jumpers, and throwers, with some notable exceptions team sports and racquet sports players are just no longer impressive as ‘athletes’. But if you shift this around, what becomes evident is the huge amount of scope there exists to enhance athletic performance in these sports - to essentially turn them into athletes. My experience is that this applies even to professional athletes at the highest level; when I recently worked with a ten-year veteran of the most prestigious and lucrative professional basketball league in the world (the NBA), I was surprised to discover he had not been exposed to the fundamentals of acceleration mechanics, jumping, and change of velocity mechanics that we were working on.
I am driven by achieving human potential: this makes it tough to watch athletes not even coming close to what they are capable of. Fundamental aspects of performance (the capabilities which in combination are typically termed ‘athleticism’) are presently being neglected, or at least not optimally catered for. This is a big part of what prompted the Prepared Athlete Training & Health initiative.
As a scholar of all things related to performance and sports injury, it is also frustrating to see the lack of progress we have made in terms of reducing the incidence and improving outcomes of common sports injuries. Despite masses of injury data, extensive studies, and a host of evidence-based injury prevention interventions, to date we have made very little dent in the prevalence of injuries such as ACL injury, which continue to blight the sporting careers of so many athletes.
Similarly, the outcomes that follow these injuries remains very poor. It is maddening how often athletes continue to suffer further injury upon returning to their sport. Our efforts to future proof athletes against further injury are currently not working. Despite the diligent attention and efforts of therapy staff, how we currently prepare and equip athletes to return to performing in their sport is incomplete.
Once again, it is this missing piece in the arc from injury rehabilitation to returning to competition that we are seeking to fill with Prepared Athlete Training & Health.
So in essence, I am taking this on because from a range of perspectives I feel a sense of professional and personal imperative to do so.
WHY NOW?
Another perspective on the ‘why now?’ question is, if not now then when? As noted, from various viewpoints, the needs of aspiring athletes in multiple areas are becoming increasingly glaring. Once again, timely action to address these gaps seems imperative.
With the ongoing expansion of organised youth sports, the rates of ‘overuse’ injury among children and adolescents continue to sky rocket. Once again, when I speak with colleagues across the globe who work in elite and professional sport, they all report the same trend: @@young athletes are increasingly unprepared, and there are ever-growing gaps in their development of fundamental athletic skills@@.
Similarly, despite the ever growing array of tools and technologies, and ever expanding teams of support staff and specialists operating in professional sport, non contact and overuse injuries remain epidemic in sport. The burden of sports injury from a financial perspective and on a personal level continues to grow. There is a fundamental gap in what is being provided, at a time when athletes have an ever increasing need for this provision.
TIME TO ACT…
There is a school of thought that states if you have conviction in an idea or assertion, you should be ready to put money down on it. Having written, presented, and talked about these ongoing issues for some time, I felt it was necessary to put my money where my mouth is, and do something about it.
On a personal and professional level, as so often happens when you climb the ladder, the roles I moved into most recently in my career were also taking me further away from working with athletes day to day. Whilst engaging in developing coaches and practitioners is one important part of the solution (hence the Informed Practitioner in Sport initiative), ultimately I felt that in order to best effect change I also needed to get back to more hands-on involvement on the ground. Besides which, I am a coach; so not much fun to be around when not coaching on a consistent basis.
INTO THE BREACH WE GO…
Having firmly established the need, and taken the decision to act, we have brought Prepared Athlete Training & Health into existence. The ‘we’ I refer to here are the family, friends, and colleagues who have generously lent their support, input, and skills to help bring make this initiative a reality.
Chief among these supporters is my wife Sian. Sian’s belief in the project has been particularly vital, given it meant walking away from my previous employment in a senior leadership position, with the attendant salary, benefits, and security, in order to pursue this venture. Aside from being my de facto benefactor, Sian has also stepped into the role of my business coach, perhaps to protect her investment, and having her insights and input makes me entirely more confident about the success of the project.
The biggest test for the initiative will come over the coming months, and time will tell. What is encouraging is how positively the project has been received by various providers and sports injury clinics across Vancouver, and how receptive they have been to collaborating. Whatever the future brings, I look forward to continuing to share the story…
