REFLECTIONS OF HIGH PERFORMANCE INSIGHT FROM THE PLAE LAB 2022

I was able to send David Johnson to the PLAE Lab in Loughborough recently. Having won the competition, David agreed to collaborate on this blog article to highlight his takeaway reflections for anyone who wasn’t fortunate enough to attend! Read on below!

Developing Strong Foundations in Young Athletes to Support High-performance - Dr Rhodri S Lloyd:

This talk really highlighted how:

• Coaching young athletes is about putting them in the best place to be able to do what they want – not about creating future Olympians.

• Whilst growth and maturation are important to monitor and use to dictate programming, they are only one piece of the puzzle.

• Whilst coaching young athletes often occurs in academies or schools where large groups have to be navigated, individualisation into the programs were highlighted.

“A big thing that stood out to me was that whilst movement quality and strength are often trained separately, strength throughout a range of movement is required for high movement quality and so these should be trained concurrently not separately”

Practical Application of Change of Direction - Rich Clarke:

Rich performed a practical session that highlighted:

·        Most typical change of direction drills are chaotic to match what we see in sports

·        These movement skills still need to be broken down into drills to make sure learning occurs

·        The need to consider change of direction drills as the “teaching of skills” and not just a task to complete a drill (from A to B)

“I really liked how Rich made me consider how I can teach skills that transfer to sport and consider facilitating the athlete to teach themselves in the process. I hadn’t considered how helping athletes become aware of their affordances (such as how fast they can go before they need to complete a task) can complement movement execution.”

Translating Performance Solutions Across Sports - Jo Clubb:

The underlying message learned from the session were:

• Context drives content when deciding upon what data to collect

• Assess the trade off between burden and value to justify the use of specific data collection

• Also consider balance between precision and practicality of equipment.

• The importance of having to translate systems of work (not transplant or “copy and paste” them) when moving environments or jobs is critical

• Check your assumptions and biases - especially if swapping to other sports as the cultures are very different – reiterating context drives content.

Sprinting for Field sports - Jonas Dodoo:

The practical take home messages were:

• The sequence in sprinting of projection, re-activity and switching should be viewed as three stages

• Understand the teachable techniques within them.

• “Bum before back” – hip extension and movement of the glute rather than leaning back and losing pelvic and torso control and posture.

“This session made me consider the importance of improving efficiency, to make athletes faster, as opposed to only physical factors. The fact we can do this in elements such as warm up I really liked. It also highlighted for me the notion of relaxation and the impact being relaxed has on efficiency – and how athletes are often faster in these situations than when they tense up for efforts like flying 10s, and with a given perception of effort that is lower!”

Digital S&C/Multimedia - Rob Pacey:

The first part highlighted the importance of being self-aware on social media and acknowledging that if you’re open to criticising someone online, it doesn’t matter whether you are right or not, you will always come off bad.

The discussion of a recent report highlighted some truths about our profession in football academies, particularly that 80% of the practioners in football academies now have a masters degree and 52% had 2 or more internships before getting their first paid job.

The importance of networking by making an impact and adding value was highlighted with 59% of people getting jobs by way of recommendation.

Navigating Complexity in Career Management - David Joyce:

This session focused on how to look at our careers in a certain way. Different operational contexts were introduced as well as simple advice for career progression:

• Complex – where leadership sits

• Complicated – where experts sit

• Simple – the domain for best practice.

• Career goals should be smart, safe, modest, actionable, researchable and testable.

• The things needed to succeed in a career are mastery, autonomy, purpose, identity/identities.

“A big thing for me was that true diversity is not just background and culture, but that of diversity in our thinking, and the importance that a truly diverse network has for problem solving”

 The Application of the Critical Power Concept in Team Sports - Christian Vassallo:

Key concepts shared were:

• “Find where you are, before where you look at where you want to be” – highlighting the importance of testing

• The use of the 3-minute all out test and its reliability for critical power and w’ prime was demonstrated

• W’ prime can be used to individualise distances in HIIT rather than using a blanket approach in large groups.

Finding Your Way Through Strength and Conditioning - Dr Ian McKeown:

Ian presented his information in a story format, reflecting on his own career journey. It highlighted:

• Reflection at each stage is key.

• Ensure you view each experience as loosening the lid on the jar.

• To immerse yourself fully in the experience and grab every opportunity.

• Acknowledge that slower improvements often equal real improvements once you get there, so be patient.

 “I liked how Ian framed that athletes have everything decided for them, and often struggle to think for themselves. So, can we give them some decision making and control over their decisions in the program and lifestyle?”

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 “To summarise the day………what an opportunity for learning and development! Not only from a technical and practical standpoint, but also for personal relationships too and potential future opportunities.”

“Thanks to PLAE for putting the event on, and thanks to the senior practitioners, who were very welcoming and friendly to less known, younger developing practitioners like myself!”

“Thanks to Dan and what he is doing with Collaborate Sports in sending me to an opportunity I wasn’t able to fund for myself!”

“I shall be back next year, highly recommended”

Thanks from me to David for his commitment to attending and sharing his notes from the day. Please keep you eyes out for more future opportunities like this, where I will be looking to send other developing practitioners to personal development events to provide them with an opportunity that they may otherwise miss!