The Sport and Exercise Scientist Issue 27, Spring 2011 - BASES

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Applied practiceRight: Applied sports science supportshould complement the coaching processCourtesy SWPixBASES experts give their top tips for upand coming sport science practitionersWith the lure of London 2012 and other high profile sports events, there are more and more graduatestraining for, and seeking careers in applied sport science support. Whilst many undergraduate andpostgraduate courses develop sound technical knowledge and scientific skills, are these enough to get youthe job you want and enable you to make the difference to the athlete or team you work with? Below is aseries of top tips from applied sport science experts across the UK for the up and coming practitioner.Be an expert in your field, but play on theirs! Your field is whatdefines you as a practitioner. The role of the sport scientist is tobring technical expertise to enhance performance, and whilst youwill probably never understand the sport as well as the coach does,you certainly need to bring knowledge and understanding in yourown area that is of value to them. Their field is where you need towork. Practitioners need to come out of the lab, or indeed the ivorytowers, speak the coaches’ language and immerse themselves in theculture and challenges of the sport. Coaches and athletes need to seethat you are as passionate about their performance as they are.Dr Ken van Someren FBASESGet some experience! Any type of experience you can get yourhands on will stand you in good stead. Whether this is doing somevoluntary work with your local football team or with a recognisedorganisation it is going to be impossible to get a job without it. Youneed to be proactive and be prepared to do anything, includingholding the stop watch or jotting down some heart rate values.There are some organisations that offer internships or workexperience opportunities but these are few and far between.You need to find out who offers these sorts of opportunities andapproach them to find out when these opportunities are advertisedand what the appointment process is. This will ensure that you don’tmiss out on applying. Speculative approaches can sometimes workbut make sure you do your homework first. Don’t send a one linee-mail to an organisation’s general e-mail account. Find out thename of the lead person, some background about the organisationand the opportunities that they may have, and finally, sell yourself byproviding some basic information on your background.Matt CosgroveSometimes the best advice is that which you have heard manytimes before. In that spirit my advice is to commit to continuousprofessional development. The commitment required to heed thisover a career should not be underestimated. It requires selfreflectionand effort over long periods but in my view offers thebest odds of career success. Continuous professional developmentis not just about attending courses and reading journal articles,it is the internal drive to maximise every facet of yourself asa practitioner. The great comfort of continuous professionaldevelopment is that you don’t have to be an expert practitionerfrom day one; only that you develop an objective opinion of yourselfas a practitioner and act on the development potential it reveals.I believe that once you commit to cultivating your developmentpotential almost each day offers some opportunity to progress.Mike BourneWhen asked to provide physiological support, my primary objectiveis to discover where I can make the greatest performance impactwith an athlete and coach. More often than not this will be in theenvironment in which they normally train or compete. Therefore, Iwould encourage practitioners to regularly attend training sessionswhere the response to a specific load can be monitored. By doingthis we can facilitate the coaching process real-time through theprovision of relevant information. For example, heart rate andblood lactate responses may support modification of the trainingset or session. This regular interaction can rapidly enhance sportsspecificknowledge and also help to fast track the developmentof professional relationships between the service provider andathlete(s) and coach. This will have much greater impact than simplyconducting standard laboratory and field physiological assessments,which should be used mainly to profile and benchmark.Declan GambleApplied sports science support should complement the coachingprocess. Some practitioners think that they know all the rightanswers. Over time I have recognised the importance that a multi/interdisciplinary approach is often needed to find better ways ofenhancing competition performance. This means working as a team,talking to each other, listening and the sharing of best practice. Inthe field of disability sport this process is still often driven throughevidence-based practice to gain the respect and trust of theperformer and their coaches – as ‘change’ is often hard to accept.Dr Vicky TolfreyI think that there is an assumption amongst many of us enteringthe world of scientific support that, having spent a number of yearsacquiring a wealth of knowledge regarding our own discipline,we must impress on athletes and coaches just how clever andskilled we are. The fact is, more often than not the most successfulinterventions are the most simplistic ones. The important thing isto ensure that any intervention is appropriate and relevant for theathlete you are dealing with. It is then important to get buy-in fromathletes and coaches, and in my experience this buy-in is moreeasily achieved when they have a full understanding of what you aretrying to achieve and why.Chris BarnesEngage the coach and establish clear roles. When choosing tocommence work with a new athlete-client or team, a key issuefor me is establishing the degree to which I feel that the coachand coaching staff are going to be receptive of my services -not simply in relation to the athlete, but in terms of their own12 The Sport and Exercise Scientist n Issue 27 n Spring 2011 n www.bases.org.uk
Meet our expertsDr Ken van Someren FBASESis the Director of Sport Sciences at theEnglish Institute of Sport. He holds BASESHigh Performance Sport Accreditation.Matt Cosgroveis Sport Wales Institute Managerbased at the Sport Wales NationalCentre in Cardiff. He holdsBASES High Performance SportAccreditation.willingness to engage in educationand self-development. A lesson that Ilearned when working in professionalfootball is to clarify the role of thecoach and profile the degree to whichthe environment around the player wasopen to change and improvement. Aproductive, collaborative relationshipwith a coach (whilst retainingconfidential information as appropriate)is a critical ingredient for me and Iwould urge practitioners to spend timeon this aspect. Although challengesshould be taken, you should also havethe confidence and integrity to declineworking with an athlete or team if youdon’t feel you can make a difference dueto the environment.Dr Chris HarwoodExpand your knowledge! The best adviceI can give to up and coming practitionersis to keep learning everything thatcan have an impact on their career.Learning has to be in every area: Fromspecific scientific and technical aspectsto statistical techniques to computerskills. Every practitioner will have tomake decisions based on all sorts ofdata in the future, so it is important tobe prepared. I also suggest investing inknowledge. Books and CPD activitiesare invaluable and help in building andconsolidating knowledge. I still do alot of reading (not as much as I wouldlike to!) to make sure I always learnsomething new. Time spent studying isalways well spent! As Benjamin Franklinso eloquently put it: “The only thingmore expensive than education isignorance.”Dr Marco CardinaleThe ability to effectively apply technicalskills and also deliver evidence-basedsolutions within the high performancesport sector clearly depends uponstrong communication and personableinteraction skills. Prior to engaging inhigh performance interventions weoften spend significant time negotiatingand agreeing support opportunities andinterventions. Planning in the necessaryup front time to observe and more fullyunderstand coaches’ and athletes’ needscan be clearly supported by developingcommunication skills that helpsummarise and focus a more collectiveattention on impact opportunities.Following observational periods timespent preparing key questions canreally help deliver important messagesespecially during face-to-face meetings.Reaching agreement on interventionsand associated impact measures thatare closely coupled to periodised sportplanning and competition conditionsavoids confusion and helps focus theservice provision interface. Likewise,strong communication and interactionskills that are appropriately appliedduring the course of feedback provisionand within reflective coaching andmultidisciplinary discussions, help delivertechnical and evidence-based knowledge.To develop your own effectivecommunication and interaction skills myadvice is to seek on-going opportunitiesfor professional feedback anddevelopment. Look for opportunitiesthat can help build your skill sets inthese important areas such as, coursescovering communication skills andshadowing opportunities where youcan observe experienced colleagues inaction.Dr Malcolm FairweatherCompiled by: Dr Ken van Someren FBASESMichael Bourneis the England and Wales Cricket BoardNational Lead for Performance Analysisand has over 10 years of experiencein the industry in biomechanics,performance analysis and skillacquisition.Declan Gambleis a BASES accredited sport and exercisescientist and leads the PerformanceScience team at the Sports InstituteNorthern Ireland, delivering physiologicalservices to the Commonwealth and Olympicprogrammes.Dr Vicky Tolfreyis a BASES accredited sport andexercise scientist and has providedapplied sport science support toParalympic athletes since 1994.She attended the Atlanta and SydneyParalympic Games.Dr Chris Harwoodis a Reader in Applied Sport Psychology atLoughborough University. He holds BASESHigh Performance Sport Accreditationand serves as the lead sport psychologistfor the Lawn Tennis Association.Dr Marco Cardinaleis the Head of Sports Science andResearch of the British OlympicAssociation. He provides scientificsupport and innovation to Team GBpreparation strategies for theOlympic Games.Dr Malcolm Fairweatheris Head of Science and Innovation atsportscotland institute of sport. Heholds BASES High Performance SportAccreditation.Chris Barnesworks as an independent sportand exercise scientist providingphysiological support for Premiership andChampionship soccer teams, Rugby Leagueand a range of individual sportsmenincluding National Hunt Jockeys.The Sport and Exercise Scientist n Issue 27 n Spring 2011 n www.bases.org.uk13
Page 2: The University of Essex Presents:BA
Page 9 and 10: “For Jon, life was over despitest
Page 11: Postgraduate Opportunities at the U
Page 15 and 16: MSc in Applied Sport ScienceThe MSc
Page 17 and 18: CommentBy Dr Joanne Thatcher,Aberys
Page 20 and 21: BooksACSM’s Exercise is MedicineJ
Page 22 and 23: Case studySports science support fo
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Page 26 and 27: Diary datesMarch 201118 BASES Works
Page 28: Exciting new productsfrom CranleaTe

The Sport and Exercise Scientist Issue 27, Spring 2011 - BASES

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