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Kitman Labs ensured Bayer Leverkusen knew what it took to win the German Bundesliga.

They demonstrated to Dr Karl-Heinrich Dittmar, Leverkusen’s Head of Medical, the optimal range of player availability to top the table during a meet in Dublin, four or five years before Die Werkself actually won the title.

“I kept this data; and last year we did it,” Dr Dittmar told the Kitman Labs podcast with evident pride. It turns out the data scanned almost perfectly across the numbers posted by the club during their unbeaten title-winning campaign.

“They found out what we need from the medical point of view, from player availability, and it was perfect – the data predicted what would happen in the future.”

It demonstrated the value of clean, consistent datasets – something that has given Leverkusen an edge over more celebrated rivals – and something that Yael Averbuch West is trying to build in her role as GM at 2023 NWSL champions Gotham City.

“We’re still in the data collection stage in the women’s game,” she tells the podcast, while also explaining that the work to bridge that gap is well underway in this corner of New York City.

In the third and final episode of this series, West and Dr Dittmar are joined by Kitman Labs Founder Stephen Smith to discuss how data strategies can help teams in their quest for greatness.

Elsewhere, the trio discuss a range of topics, including why learnings tend to emerge as data collection grows ever more sophisticated [17:30]; the importance of a centralised system for consistency [24:15]; the balance between using data to unearth ‘hidden gems’ and jumping on something misleading [33:00].

Episode one is available here and episode two is available here.

Further listening:

Kitman Labs Podcast: ‘Women Players Need to Feel Safe and they Need to Have Access to Support’

Listen above and subscribe today on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher and Overcast, or your chosen podcast platform.

Predictably, when Sport Wales formed its Female Health & Performance team, some asked why there was no male equivalent.

The truth is that male physiology and psychology has long been viewed as the default across sport.

“For so many years we haven’t thought about females as being different,” says Esther Goldsmith, who works for Sport Wales, on the latest episode of the Leaders Performance Podcast.

“When you think about it, it doesn’t make sense because it’s obvious we’re different.”

This lack of understanding or consideration makes one ponder just how much potential is being left on the table by female athletes. The menstrual cycle, for example, was seen as a taboo and was historically not taken into consideration when female athletes trained, performed or recovered.

In seeking to redress that imbalance, Sport Wales is empowering female Welsh athletes from the grassroots through to podium potential with the support they need to succeed.

“We’re just trying to open up some of those conversations and improve the comfort and awareness of the athlete in order to help,” says Dr Natalie Brown, who works alongside Goldsmith.

Both spoke of Sport Wales’ efforts to normalise conversations about a whole range of female health issues (10:00) including pelvic floor health and stress incontinence (36:00), while busting common myths along the way (21:00).

Goldsmith and Brown also discuss the importance of encouraging behavioural change through meeting the athlete where they are in their beliefs and values (15:00); helping coaches with any potential discomfort as they learn and become aware of the needs of their athletes (31:00); as well as the question of sports bras in a market without universal standards (26:00).

They offer useful tips for any sports organisation regardless of their budget or level of resource but the important thing is to start having the conversation. Now.

Listen above and subscribe today on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher and Overcast, or your chosen podcast platform.

More from Sport Wales:

How Sport Wales Is Enabling Female Athletes to Succeed on the World Stage

‘Female-Specific Considerations Should Be Part of Normal Practice’

Female Athlete Health: Five Top Tips When Discussing the Menstrual Cycle and Other Issues

By Rachel Woodland, Lottie Wright & Sarah Evans

The research gap – or gender gap in research – is one of the most enduring challenges in women’s sport.

Not only is there less research on female athletes, often that which does exist is of poor quality and is limited in its application to athletes.

To compound matters, much of the tech available does not have female athletes in mind, which calls for greater levels of safeguarding for those athletes.

The Centre of Excellence for Women in Sport is a space in which to address all of those challenges. It addresses the unique needs of female athletes, focusing on health and performance support for Olympic and Paralympic sports, as well as professional sport. The Centre also aims to bridge the gap between academic research and practical application in elite sports, ensuring that female athletes receive tailored support based on rigorous scientific research.

Opened in March 2024, the Centre is a collaboration between the UK Sports Institute [UKSI] and Manchester Metropolitan University.

In several key ways it is an ideal marriage. On one hand, the UKSI brings its sports knowledge and knowhow, and understanding of the complex environment of elite athletes and sports. On the other, Manchester Met brings their research expertise and both quality assurance and scientific rigour.

Leading the project are Dr Richard Burden, the UKSI’s Female Health & Performance Lead, and Kirsty Elliott-Sale, Professor of Endocrinology & Exercise Physiology at the Institute of Sport at Manchester Met.

Their hope is to generate richer information that is more valuable and applicable to the athlete, coach and the sport – all of which should lead to greater engagement from everyone.

Both joined the Women in High Performance Sport community call that took place in early October. It was the first of two in partnership between the UKSI and the Leaders Performance Institute. Joining the duo was rower Heidi Long, who won bronze in the women’s eights at the Paris Olympics this summer.

The Centre of Excellence for Women in Sport has three key purposes:

1. Thought leadership and collaboration

The Centre aims to be a hub for thought leadership in women’s sport, setting the agenda for elite female athletes in the UK. Experts from various fields are involved, ensuring that research is co-designed with athletes and coaches. It is then the duty of the Centre to ensure that its findings are relevant and applicable.

Part of this is building a network within elite sport so that the data can be picked up and used again. Then planning the research so that there can be intentional overlaps between sports and a pipeline of future users.

2. Standards and quality assurance

High-quality research is a must. The Centre is committed to producing credible and impactful data that can be translated into practical applications. This involves rigorous methodological standards and continuous feedback loops with athletes and coaches.

Knowing the sport specifics to focus on that help uncover necessary insights, but with the right overlaps to other projects so that the science and sample sizes increase to build the science.

3. Adapting research at the pace of high performance

With research traditionally taking time, the Centre is a live example of research adapting to the needs and wants and context of the sport without losing the scientific robustness that we so need and that’s constantly evolving. For example, exploring less invasive ways of measuring ovarian hormone profiles using saliva and urine based methods.. Whilst taking any measurements can feel time consuming for the athletes, it’s a balancing act of beneficial learning versus over imposing on the athletes..

Realtime feedback has been a key advancement of engaging the sports with the research, and to be able to make changes based on findings before the full project is completed in the run up to an Olympic or Paralympic Games.

All of which raises standards as the data collected is credible, with the potential to be translatable, which in turn increases its utility and potential impact.

Project Minerva is a prime example of this process in practice.

Introducing Project Minerva

Project Minerva – named after the Roman goddess of wisdom, justice and strategic war – is an ongoing research project started by the GB Rowing team in collaboration with the UKSI, Manchester Met and several external stakeholders.

It has set out to investigate the relationship between the women’s squad training programme characteristics (e.g. training volume, intensity distribution and frequency), internal training load (heart rate, RPE, and blood lactate monitoring) and hormone function, on the menstrual cycle and overall health.

For GB Rowing, project  Minerva has been an iterative process, and ,  working with the UKSI Female Athlete Programme, Man Met, and in collaboration with the athletes, has increased the research capability and scientific rigour, so it now provides a valuable resource within the UK sports system, as Dr Burden and Prof. Elliott-Sale explained alongside Long, who shared her experience of Minerva as an athlete during the Paris Olympic cycle.

Project Minerva has led to…

… increased athlete and coach engagement through education and a focus on purpose / the why. The more performance-based something is, the more likely an athlete will be to engage. Heidi Long and her teammates were keen to know what they could glean from the research.

… better communication and understanding between athletes and coaches. This allows for more personalised training and performance strategies (that can be tweaked due to embedded real-time research and data). They could see the results of applied research – and the data that was personalised for each athlete – which was further motivation for a cohort of goal and results-driven athletes.

… the debunking of common myths, particularly those around the menstrual cycle. There is no supporting evidence to suggest that an athlete’s phases impact her ability to train. Minerva – in an unplanned moment of feedback – demonstrated to athletes they could perform – and win – in different phases of their cycle.

… increased use of useful tech. Minerva can call upon technology developed by the UKSI and its partners, such as Intel. Data collection is less arduous and much more accessible as a consequence.

Three questions to ask yourselves when embarking on such projects:

1. Your female-specific research: is it being conducted from a health perspective, a performance perspective, or both?
2. Do your performance team have the bandwidth, the funding, the right people with the knowledge and experience, and capacity develop and deliver to make changes based on the results?
3. Is it useful or merely interesting? Understand the question you want to ask; where it’s come from and why it needs answering.

The Centre of Excellence for Women in Sport’s ultimate vision is to pioneer innovative and impactful research that accelerates the development of women’s sport. This includes:

• Ensuring that research findings are directly applicable to athletes’ training and competition.
• Leaving a lasting legacy through credible data sets, resources, and educational initiatives that benefit future generations of female athletes.
• To allow every female athlete to train and compete to her potential.
• By generating and showing cases resources that can be used, raising awareness that starts now and continues through all future generations.
• Providing trustworthy, reliable, rigorous education tools. Filling the void around female athlete health that is too often filled with nonsense.
• Continue to be a place for athletes, coaches, and all staff to have deeper conversations, as understanding is deepened and academic application expanded.
• Be a hub for colleagues and allies across the world, not just a UK-based centre, but something that becomes truly global. There’s a lot to be learned from one another.

Final question: is any research better than no research?

Not all research is good research. Research can bring beneficial interest in an area, but poor-quality research can lead to misinformation (particularly on social media) as well as misdirected efforts and resources, which is a significant concern in the context of limited budgets and time.

Research has to meet standards in terms of methods, equipment and protocols (all of which can be expensive or time-consuming). Moderate research may have its uses but it’s nuances must be clearly signposted.

Prof. Elliott-Sale explained that research can never be one-size-fits-all. It is important to work with individual athletes, establish their response (if there is one) to stimulus and whether or not theirs is a consistent response. Either way, you can leverage a positive response and mitigate an adverse response.

By John Portch

When Great Britain’s wheelchair rugby team came off the court in Paris, their disappointment was mixed with immense pride.

The team narrowly lost their bronze medal match at the Paris Paralympics 50-48 against Australia, but captain Gavin Walker was positive.

“If you’d have asked me two years ago, I’d have probably snatched your hand off for the experience of playing for a bronze medal,” he said, mindful of the transition the team has been in since winning gold in Tokyo.

“We go into another rebuilding process, another four years ahead of us and looking towards LA now,” he continued. “[We will be] growing the sport, putting time into grassroots and developing the team going forward.”

Not that any stone was left unturned in the build-up. “Our performance in Paris highlighted the progress we are making and confirmed that we remain at the forefront of wheelchair rugby,” says Lee Stutely, Great Britain’s Team Manager.

She is speaking to the Leaders Performance Institute about Great Britain’s two team camps that took place at St George’s Park in Staffordshire before the Games. The first, a seven-day visit in January, focused on their continuing preparations; the second, a four-day camp in August, represented the final taper towards Paris.

Both were a result of smart planning, with Stutely taking a lead on the logistics of the camps. “We came and rec’ed, just me and our Head of Performance Support & Science Barry Mason,” adds Stutely. “Then the coaches came with some athletes to check the playing surfaces.” From there, the coaches and performance team came together with Walker and vice-captain Stu Robinson to map out the sessions and structure.

All reflect with satisfaction on the work that was done in the last cycle. “The team’s trajectory is clearly on the right path toward further medal success,” says Stutely, “and we are driven by our commitment to high standards and continuous improvement.”

The team will conduct a post-Paris debrief to identify its strengths and weaknesses. “We will be hoping to learn if the systems and processes in place were effective,” adds Stutely, who emphasises how important it is to retain and refine successful strategies. “We will also examine what can be improved and what we should stop doing. As Paris showed, there is little between the top teams. We need to identify where can we get our marginal gains and what can increase our competitive edge in the next cycle.”

Chris Bond of team Australia is on the ground after a clash with Aaron Phipps of Team Great Britain during the Wheelchair Rugby Group B game Australia vs Great Britain. (Photo: Marco Mantovani/Getty Images)

The home of England

Great Britain qualified for Paris by finishing runners-up at the 2023 European Championships.

With their passage secured, the team could step up their preparations. While happy with their usual training facility at the Lilleshall National Sports Centre in Shropshire, Stutely and her colleagues felt that a change of scenery could reset minds and take players out of their comfort zones.

The 330-acre facility at SGP fitted the bill. Stutely says: “It made them more aware that they were moving onto a competition and preparing for something special rather than just being their home from home training environment.”

SGP is also the home of 24 England football teams. “We have quite a few football fans within our team so they were excited,” adds Stutely. “It’s historic and other senior teams have trained here, such as the England women’s rugby team. The venue is awesome for us because it’s accessible; and everything – training facilities and accommodation – is in one location.”

In addition to an onsite Hilton Hotel, the complex boasts 14 state-of-the-art football pitches, which can be configured for a variety of sports, as well as a range of indoor facilities including a full 3G pitch, a multifunctional sports hall, gym, hydrotherapy pools and a cryotherapy chamber.

The SGP team were on hand to allay any concerns. “Kevin Sanders was very good to us,” says Stutely of SGP’s Elite Sport & Partnerships Manager. The team could count on court time, gym time, meeting rooms and private dining rooms. “The Hilton were also very good at making sure we had as many accessible rooms as possible and that everything was suitable for our athletes’ needs.”

SGP is the home of England’s Para football teams and has long been committed to ensuring that the nation’s disability and impaired teams have equal access to the complex’s high performance facilities. It’s a point of pride for SGP, even if this process remains a work in progress, as Becky Bullock, the SGP Customer Account Lead at the Football Association, tells the Leaders Performance Institute.

“We acknowledge there is always more we can do,” she says. “We are continually learning, listening and striving to improve, and we remain dedicated to incorporating best practice into the future design and development of our facilities to be accessible for all.”

Aaron Phipps of Team Great Britain competes during Bronze medal match between Australia and Great Britain. (Photo: Aitor Alcade/Getty Images for IPC)

The future

The Great Britain team is aware of its legacy beyond the court, with Walker taking the opportunity after the bronze medal match to address the audience watching at home in the UK.

“For fans out there and people who are watching this, we’re all playing this sport after starting life with a disability or going through some sort of traumatic injury,” he said. “The fact that any athlete in the Paralympics is competing shows they’ve overcome adversity and everyone should be proud of any performance. I guess that’s the main message for anyone out there that is struggling – this is something that can get you out of those dark times.”

Wheelchair rugby, as Walker alluded to, is an egalitarian sport. It is built on ensuring that players with different care needs can compete together. Players are assigned a points-based value based on their functional ability ranging from 0.5 (those with the highest support needs) to 3.5 points (those with the fewest). The total point value of a four-player team cannot exceed 8.0 points unless it includes a female player, which affords a team an extra 0.5 points, taking the maximum total to 8.5 points.

“Some team bonding happens because of accessibility issues, the whole ‘no-one is left behind’ thing,” says Stutely. “They always look after each other.”

The British Paralympic Association works with Games authorities to ensure that athlete accommodation at all Paralympics is suitable for their teams’ needs. Stutely, who took part in her fifth Games in Paris, believes that environments have generally improved since the London 2012 Games raised the bar.

“As staff and athletes, we spend a lot of time being adaptable to the environment we enter,” she says. “Overcoming any challenges and learning how to control people’s mindsets when things are not going the right way is so important.”

Looking further ahead, Stutely is excited for Great Britain’s prospects. “We also have a promising depth of young and talented athletes. This blend of experience and emerging talent positions us well to continue competing at the highest level and achieve even greater accomplishments on the world stage.”

Further reading:

Pre-Season Preparations: Why a Home from Home Can Make All the Difference

By Esther Goldsmith & Dr Natalie Brown

Talking to female athletes can feel challenging and uncomfortable; and sometimes concerns of safeguarding practices can exist.

This results from historic perceptions of the menstrual cycle and female-specific factors such as pelvic health being personal, secretive and related to feelings of embarrassment, shame and uncleanliness.

However, female health and topics such as the menstrual cycle are normal biological functions related to hormonal control, the same as heart rate, breathing, and appetite.

From speaking to practitioners and coaches, as members of the Sport Wales Female Health & Performance Team, we know there are additional influences on comfort levels when having conversations with female athletes about the menstrual cycle. For example, knowledge of the topic, appropriateness, gender of practitioner, experiences (professional and personal) and perceived relevance (both to athletes and performance).

Previously reported barriers to conversation include:

• [Male] coaches feel that it’s inappropriate or an invasion of privacy
• Cultural taboos resulting in shame and embarrassment
• Confusing messages in the media
• Not having resources or education to know what to say and when
• [Female] coaches’ previous experience of menstrual cycles not affecting performance/training
• Perception that discussion of menstrual cycles and hormonal contraceptives are outside of the coaching role
• Lack of a female practitioner
• Lack of structure in place for education or support
• Lack of time in a season for proper education
• In addition, practitioners and coaches are sometimes paralysed because they don’t know the right questions to ask, the right language to use or how to start the conversation with the female athletes that they work with

Here are our top tips…

1. Acknowledge that everyone feels different

It is important to acknowledge and have awareness that some athletes may feel comfortable to talk openly about their menstrual cycles whereas some may feel like it’s the worst thing in the world to start with. This could be influenced by their culture, age, family, and social surroundings.

2. Think about language

One thing that is important to be aware of is the language that you use. We’ve all grown up using euphemisms for lots of different things, whether that is for parts of the body or biological functions that we are embarrassed to talk about. There are lots of period euphemisms or ‘code words’ but using these can reinforce the perception of awkwardness, embarrassment and the negative stigma that is historically related to menstruation. We encourage using the terms menstrual cycle, menstruation, periods, and period products.

3. Consider the who, what, where, when and how

Before initiating conversations with female athletes about their menstrual cycle or other aspects of female health, have a think about the ‘who’, ‘what’, ‘where’ and ‘when’ and ‘how’…

Who – Who is best to have the conversation? Do you want support from another coach/team member to improve comfort of the first conversation e.g. is there someone the athlete is familiar with. Dependent on the age of the athlete, this may be a parent or guardian.

What – It’s OK to let the participant know that you’re not an expert. Explain the reasons why you want to talk about menstrual cycles – that they are key factors in health and wellbeing and may also affect training and performance. Avoid statements such as ‘don’t need to know any more detail’. Remember to be clear, to use evidence and to listen to what they are saying back to you.

Where – Be aware that there may be cultural barriers that prevent people feeling comfortable talking about these topics and let them know that they are in a safe space outside of these barriers. Try to avoid it being an afterthought to a conversation that you’re already having that might be interrupted or have a time limit to it.

When – Is there an opportune moment to bring it up rather than a formal conversation? Think about when you approach an athlete to talk, when is the best time? When they’re tired and hungry after training?! Probably not, but don’t just ignore it! Remember that it is important for long-term health and performance of the athlete.

And finally, here are some ideas for ‘how’ to start the conversation:

• ‘Do you think your training is affected by your menstrual cycle/hormonal contraceptives?’
• ‘Do you track your menstrual cycle?’
• ‘Do you experience any symptoms such as menstrual pain, lower back pain, fatigue related to your menstrual cycle that affects you in training or competition?’
• ‘Have you got any management strategies in place for bleeding on competition day or to manage any related symptoms that are associated with the menstrual cycle?’

4. Think about actions

Following on from a conversation with a female athlete about their menstrual cycle, how could you action outcomes of the conversation and improve support? You don’t have to have all the solutions, but following up on actions promptly is important. This will help with positive experiences of talking openly about female specific factors. An example of this could be an athlete with heavy periods is extremely worried about leaking through the white shorts, so you put motions in place to change the colour of the kit.

5. Consider all the stakeholders

Whilst conversations with female athletes are the first step engaging all stakeholders in that athletes’ support network is important. This includes parents/guardians/carers, other coaches, support staff, teammates and medical practitioners.

Sometimes athletes respond better to an older athlete talking about their experiences with their menstrual cycle. Encouraging senior athletes to talk to junior athletes may be helpful in your sporting environment.

These approaches and principles can be applied to other female specific areas such as sports bras, pelvic floor health/incontinence and menopause. For further advice on conversations with female athletes, complete our Menstrual cycle openness and conversations e-module.

Further reading:

How Sport Wales Is Enabling Female Athletes to Succeed on the World Stage

By John Portch

When the Leaders Performance Institute asks Vignesh Jayanth what tool would enable him to do his job better, his answer is both light-hearted and instructive.

“I’d like a robot that could do my job and I just tell it what to do,” says the Head of Sporting Insights at AS Monaco with a laugh.

Time, resource and support are precious commodities for data analysts. They can only be earned through trust and belief in the value of the insights they provide.

“Data can help to make decisions, set directions and add value to people’s opinions,” Jayanth continues, “and it’s also there to ask the right questions. The important thing is to create a holistic picture to help a player or coach understand what they’re doing and why they should be doing it.

“Numbers sometimes speak louder than simply saying things.”

But what makes those numbers the right numbers? With Jayanth’s help, we explore how your analysis team can turn insights into a critical performance edge.

For better integration consider: is your insight ‘great-to-know’ or ‘good-to-know’?

How integrated is data analysis within your multidisciplinary work? If you struggle you’re not alone; it is arguably the analyst’s most enduring challenge. Where it exists, integrated analysis can provide insights that will inform decision-making, both for the match at the weekend and looking further ahead.

But it’s often tricky to reach that point. “Maybe overtime you gain that sort of trust, but in football, it’s quite hard because there can be lot of turnover,” says Jayanth of European football in general.

How can the analyst better help themselves in a volatile world? A clear data strategy with the right support structure helps but, too often, data analysts struggle when making the distinction between what Jayanth terms “great-to-know” (“something that could influence the next few games or the next two to three months”) and “good-to-know” (“something that could influence future practice”).

“Analysts get pulled into the tendency of everyone putting their heads down and working towards the weekend ahead,” he continues. “It’s always nice to take a step back and look at things from a global perspective.” Indeed, you should reiterate those good-to-knows occasionally. The frequency may depend on whether or not you are running data analysis from your academy through to your senior team or whether you are part of a wider team quietly running models in the background.

Take athletes and coaches through a ‘process of realisation’

Data must be relevant and consumable at the right times. The data, in Jayanth’s case, needs to be football-relevant and, ideally, will be “encapsulated in one or two points.”

There is what he calls a “process of realisation” for coaches and performance staff. He says: “What I’ve learned over time is it’s better to ask questions with information that you have and then the coach can try to understand what’s needed by themselves. It has to be a process of realisation because no-one wants to be told what to do”.

As a coach begins to make their decision, they might also bring other members of staff into the conversation. “Eventually, it’s like a circle where you say ‘I found something interesting, what do you think?’ and then the coach gives you their perspective, which could be completely different from what you’ve been thinking about.”

Such a difference in opinion is not necessarily a bad thing, even when pursuing coach or athlete buy-in. “It helps you, once you build that relationship, to go back and analyse elements for the future; and you can always bring back this conversation and say ‘this is what you mentioned, this is what I took away, and this is what we analysed’.”

Here, Jayanth’s advice for analysts is simple. “Know your audience,” he says. “Know exactly what their role is and what they are doing and eventually see how you could give them an impactful suggestion or an impactful way of making yourself more useful.”

‘No-one cares how, they just want it done – so prioritise’

As a data analyst, what is the key to working under pressure? “Prioritising helps,” says Jayanth, referring back to the great-to-know versus good-to-know balance. “It also depends on how you’re structured as an organisation”, he adds, alluding to the fact that no two clubs are the same.

Moreover, if the performance team comes to you with a request that sidelines your current projects, it is an opportunity to strengthen the standing of your work.

“The idea is to be able to communicate clearly and find a solution at that point, so if there’s something that breaks down in the process, you can just tell them ‘OK, let’s find another way’ and continue to include them in that process; but ultimately no-one cares how it’s done, they just want it done, so prioritising really helps.”

To wrap up, the Leaders Performance Institute asks Jayanth for one mistake he’s made that other analysts should avoid. “I would say finding the right place to speak to someone at the right time and then picking your battles.”

Main photo: Watford FC/Alan Cozzi

By John Portch

There is rarely people lining up to praise the English weather, but the coaches and performance staff of Watford, West Bromwich Albion and Sheffield Wednesday have their reasons.

The three Championship clubs held pre-season training camps at St George’s Park in July when a number of their counterparts were visiting foreign climes.

“You can guarantee that the weather isn’t going to impact training loads,” says Watford Head Coach Tom Cleverley, who took his side to SGP between 22 and 27 July. “Sometimes you can go to Spain, Portugal and it’s too hot to get the intensities that you want.”

It was the week of pre-season where Watford started their out-of-possession work and intensity was a must. “You can’t be intense the whole pre-season because you’ll burn them out,” Cleverley tells the Leaders Performance Institute, “but for one week of pre-season, we identified that week where we could work twice a day on the pitch; we could have a meeting every day in the morning about what we’re going after; and then a meeting in the evening about a target that we’ll set for the season.”

Tony Strudwick is of a similar mindset, as he tells the Leaders Performance Institute of SGP. “We’re guaranteed a consistent weather pattern,” says West Brom’s Director of Medical. “We want to try to create that level of consistency in pre-season.”

The 330-acre Staffordshire facility, which includes a Hilton Hotel, boasts 14 state-of-the-art football pitches, which can be configured for a variety of sports, as well as a range of indoor facilities including a full 3G pitch, a multifunctional sports hall, gym, hydrotherapy pools and a cryotherapy chamber. It suited West Brom to a tee. “The one-site solution is perfect for us,” Strudwick adds.

West Brom spent 13 to 20 July at SGP – hot on the tails of Sheffield Wednesday, whose camp took place between 8 and 13 July.

“You literally come off the training pitch, you’re into recovery, lunch, you can maybe get your feet up for an hour or two and be ready for the next session and then it’s the same in the morning,” Neil Thompson, the Assistant Manager at Sheffield Wednesday, tells the Leaders Performance Institute.

Here, we explore three clubs with five similar reasons for choosing SGP for part of their pre-season work.

1. An escape from monotony

Monotony was a big issue for Championship clubs in an off-season that for those not involved in the play-offs ran from the last day of the 2023-24 season (4 May) to the opening day of the 2024-25 season (10 August).

The gap led to an extended pre-season. “A seven-week pre-season is longer than usual,” says Cleverley, who explains that the club’s own training ground “can become monotonous if you’re doing double sessions every day for seven weeks”. SGP, on the other hand, is “second to none” in his view.

“It can freshen things up a bit and create an impact,” says Strudwick, adding that it allowed West Brom’s own training pitches a further week to recover. “It doesn’t sound like a long time, six or seven weeks, but given that you’re going to be at the training ground for the next 38 weeks, it does make sense to create something unique and special.”

Tom Cleverley, the Head Coach of Watford, explains tactics to his players. (Photo: Watford FC/Alan Cozzi)

2. Enhanced bonding activities

SGP enabled all three teams the opportunity to promote team bonding, which is particularly critical early in pre-season when new players and staff are settling in.

“You’re there and living in each other’s pockets for a week,” says Thompson. “You might speak to an individual who you’ve never spoken to in depth.”

There are nurmeous “breakout areas” around the Hilton too, as Strudwick explains. “There are plenty of opportunities for players and coaches to interact and engage.”

“The team spirit aspect, I really enjoy,” says Cleverley. “So keeping guys together between sessions, they’re not on their digital devices, they’re together in the evenings, they’re eating together, they’re not going straight back to their rooms – they want to be around each other for that week – which really builds something to move forward for the whole season.”

Neil Thompson, the Assistant Manager of Sheffield Wednesday. (Photo: Jacques Feeney/Getty Images) 

3. Increased training opportunities

There is real value in English teams booking camps in southern and central Europe – Sheffield Wednesday also arranged camps in Germany and Austria – but there is something to be said for having everything on hand at one site at a familiar venue. It is instructive that each of Watford, West Brom and Wednesday previously held pre-season camps at SGP.

“I’m keen to go back there,” says Cleverley, who is already onto the Watford team secretary about the idea. “I’ve had a lot of experience of St George’s Park as an international player, as a club player. I’ve played there, done a camp there with Watford, and now, as a coach.”

“We’re looking at doing the same next year,” says Strudwick of West Brom. “We wanted to reduce travel time and maximise the training opportunities. We didn’t have to get on early flights, go through airports, we don’t lose training days, we don’t lose match prep days.

“We’ve had two years of St George’s Park and both experiences have been fantastic.”

The same works in reverse, with overseas teams such as SL Benfica and AS Monaco enjoying similar benefits in the Staffordshire countryside.

4. Complete control for clubs

Not only is there favourable training weather and pitches at SGP (“the ground staff were putting the sprinklers on at the right times,” says Cleverley), but teams have the full ability to tweak schedules as necessary or make adjustments.

Cleverley, for example, split his Watford squad in two midway through their camp in order to play Scottish Premiership side Hibernian in Edinburgh. The fixture was arranged as part of Ryan Porteous’ move from Hibs to Hertfordshire in 2023. “It was a unique week,” says Cleverley, who was still satisfied with the camp’s outcome.

A team’s plans are subject to “constant iteration” in pre-season, as Strudwick explains. He says: “We’ll have certain priorities that we want to hit, we’ll have certain individual players that need managing, and players coming back into the training process. But I’ve been in football long enough now to understand that the plan you have in early May often changes come mid-July.”

He also discusses the challenge of working in an environment where players employ external practitioners, particularly as there is no firm guidance for clubs. In any case, “it means you can’t switch off. You’ve got to be in constant contact with the players and tracking them outside of the season now.”

Darnell Furlong of West Bromwich Albion is all smiles in the gym during his club’s pre-season training camp day two at St George’s Park on July 16, 2024. (Photo: Adam Fradgley/West Bromwich Albion FC via Getty Images) 

5. Behind-closed-doors matches

As pre-season focuses continue to evolve from conditioning to game-based, there is an increasing need to test ideas out on the grass in realistic conditions. With this in mind, the facilities at SGP can be primed for behind-closed-doors matches, which West Brom used to their advantage this summer.

The Baggies’ first two pre-season friendlies, against Bolton Wanderers and Peterborough United, were held onsite. The team played a further two fixtures behind-closed-doors (versus Blackpool and RCD Mallorca) at their West Bromwich Albion Training Ground.

The matches at SGP ticked many performance boxes for Strudwick and his colleagues. “You don’t want to go into your first game and expose the players to a 70,000 crowd,” he says. “You still have your referees but it allows you to be more flexible in playing minutes.” This is not just in terms of minutes per player, but reducing half lengths to 30 minutes, or even extending them to 60. “It gives you a lot more flexibility to nail down what you want from a team perspective.”

By Luke Whitworth

Let’s begin this month’s Debrief with a question.

How many meetings did you attend in September and how many of those meetings were useful or productive?

On second thoughts, you may want to keep your counsel on that front. If you do happen to feel that your meetings were, let’s say, sub-optimal, you’re not alone.

A 2017 report in the Harvard Business Review laid out some stark facts that ring just as true today:

• 71 % of senior managers believe meetings are inefficient.
• 40% of employees consider unproductive meetings to be the highest cost to their organisations.
• 50% of all meeting time is found to be effective, well used and engaging. This percentage is even lower for remote meetings.

All were discussed in a recent Leadership Skills Series session, which kicks off the September Debrief, before segueing into performance analysis.

Before we get into it, we want to thank those of you who completed our Future Trends in High Performance survey. We’re excited to dissect the findings and begin condensing this into a report which we hope you will find valuable – keep your eyes peeled for this later in the year.

Making your meetings more impactful

Let’s cut to the chase: what we can we be doing practically to make our meetings better? We set out some simple but actionable tactics to deploy right away in our September Leadership Skills Series session.

Before the meeting :

• Ask at the outset, is a meeting actually required for this particular item? Too often we see meetings happen for meetings’ sake. Be diligent and reflective of the purpose and desired outcome.
• If it is agreed that meeting would be useful, clearly define the purpose of the meeting before bringing the relevant people together and create an agenda with those involved. Is the purpose to make a decision? Is the purpose to brainstorm or solve a problem? On the whole, what is it and is everyone clear?
• Create an agenda. This sounds simple but it’s important as many meetings skip this part, which can often derail the quality of the discussions. Start and finish on time. Consider allocating time for items so ‘less is more’ and identify a specific aim for each to give direction – what specifically do we need to take away from this agenda item?
• Identify the required resources and pre-reading required for the meeting or each agenda item.
• Instead of inviting everyone, who do we want in the room who is going to enable the decision or enable the best thinking?
• Assign roles: a chair or facilitator? Who is leading each topic and who is the note taker? Often what happens is the expert or leader of the team ends up defaulting to the chair and facilitator. Look to vary this to bring fresh voices in.

During the meeting:

• Start well. Start with positivity and be mindful of your body language and the impression you’re creating, as we know about the emotional contagion this can create.
• The chair or facilitator should look to set out the ground rules from the outset, do this nice and early: share what the plan is, that there will be equal opportunity, expect interruption if the direction of travel isn’t where it needs to be, and be rigorous, especially around timings.
• Check for buy-in and permission at the beginning of the meeting to stick to the above as this takes away some people feeling a bit nervous about coming in and stopping the conversation or moving it on.
• Consider ‘mini diamonds’. Each agenda item becomes a mini diamond. At the top of the diamond, you look to open up the conversation and bring different people in and then the chair or facilitator needs to bring it to the end point. What were the actions and ideas that came out of the conversation?

After the meeting:

• This is where meetings can lose their impact. A really good discussion is had, there are some actions that come out of it, but by the time we actually get the notes from it, the momentum has been lost.
• In an ideal world, the note taker has some time immediately after the meeting where the notes can be summarised and circulated.
• Ensure all actions have a specific person – not a department – assigned to them.
• Ask for feedback. If you haven’t gone out to your teams or the organisation to review what people think of meetings recently, how effectively they’re being used, what’s working and what isn’t working, it’s perhaps an idea to do that.

Mobilising performance analysis: solutions for common challenges

In last month’s debrief, we touched on some of the learnings and reflections from part one of our series titled Advances in Performance Analysis. As part of that first session, we asked attendees to reflect on some of the common challenges they are facing in the space. As a refresher, these were:

1. Integration: efficiently setting up datasets that allow for different data points to intertwine with one another.
2. Communication of the data: consider: how good are you at data visualisation and storytelling?
3. Buy-in: how strong is the understanding around the value of performance analysis across the organisation to show return on investment? How well are you showing and measuring the impact?
4. Data management: given the amount of metrics being collected, is there clarity and prioritisation of what matters?

The aim of session two, was to explore these challenges in more detail and, by leaning into a couple of case studies from different environments, share some ideas and solutions to shift the dial. Those case studies were provided by the UK Sports Institute’s Head of Performance Analysis, Julia Wells, and Wolverhampton Wanderers’ Head of Performance Insights & Data Strategy, Mat Pearson. Both shared some useful ideas.

Integrating and connecting data

• Focus on data skill development. This means upskilling the relevant staff involved, from the right data, correct formats and in the right places, before the interrogation and analysis even begins. Go back to basics and upskill everyone in the team.
• Structures can support this too. There is clear data strategy and leadership within the UKSI environment, all geared towards supporting performance planning. Roles such as Data & Insight Lead and Performance Data Lead are embedded within the organisation to help those leading programmes with the direction and the integration of their data.
• Do not underestimate the importance of clear strategy as part of your performance planning. Know what needs collating and why within your team.

Data collation

• Taking the time to pause and critically reflect is really important in the process as it can be very easy to stay on the hamster wheel and just keep collecting.
• Ask quality questions: why are we creating the data, what is its purpose, what decisions is it informing, particularly in the coaching process? Do this periodically and continue to plan, do and review.
• Engage in conversations with key leaders in the environment to discuss what to start, continue and stop. It’s important to intentionally carve out those opportunities as part of your performance planning.

Communication of data

• Communication is a critical skill. Wells suggested that some people would say that communication is a non-technical skill, but it is highly technical, in her opinion. Therefore, it is really important to upskill those working in this space considering the critical nature of human engagement in the process.
• At the UKSI, staff work closely with the psychology team to help elevate understanding of self and others. If we can better understand the people we work with, it will support how to get the best out of each other. They’ve tapped into better understanding one another’s preferences to be more impactful in how they support each other.

Buy-in

• Alignment to the sport’s strategy helps to provide a clearer connection. If this alignment and connection isn’t there, you’ll naturally get disconnection so it will be more challenging to get the buy-in.
• Relationships are key. Invite key stakeholders and leaders into your world and shadow them. When they immerse themselves to better understand the process you’ll find that it can quickly lead to them becoming a voice for you in wider conversations.

Data literacy

This is a bonus challenge and set of solutions, which does have some relevance to communication and buy-in.

• Often practitioners can suffer in silence when looking for solutions. In the latest Olympic cycle, the team at UKSI have introduced an internal online data community that provides access to resources. This accessibility allowed them to be able to connect with others in the network and share good practice.
• The UKSI team put together a Data Leadership Programme which was focused on pulling together the data leaders in their sports to look at opportunities, challenges and future direction. Courses and best practices, called ‘Data Camp’, ‘Project Automate’ and ‘Code School’, were created to improve skills and processes for coaches and practitioners to help them be more efficient.

By Luke Whitworth

We spend copious amounts of time in meetings and yet only 50 per cent of all meeting time is found to be well used and engaging – that percentage drops further for remote meetings.

Furthermore, 71 per cent of senior managers believe meetings are inefficient and more than 37 per cent of employees consider unproductive meetings to be the highest cost to their organisations.

These stats derive from surveys conducted across the business world and, in a recent Leadership Skills Series session, members of the Leaders Performance Institute indicated there was considerable room for improvement in their environments.

The case for more effective meetings

The Leadership Skills Series session sought to explore and discuss best practice for effective meetings, share top tips, and promote practical ideas to trial in your environment.

We started with some potential benefits when meetings are well-chaired and well-structured:

• Improved communication.
• Enhanced collaboration and creativity.
• Increased accountability.
• More effective decision making.
• A boost in employee engagement.
• Greater alignment of goals and priorities.

What works in meetings?

Attendees were invited to reflect on what they think works and what frustrates them in their usual meetings. Ideally, you’d double down on what works and adapt what isn’t working.

The group suggested the following as important:

• Have a clear agenda.
• Appoint a good moderator.
• Ensure there is engagement from everyone.
• Establish pre-reading or preparation to elevate productivity.
• Ensure there is clear alignment / positioning between the goals of the meeting and the title.
• Establish the purpose of the meeting: is it a discussion or decision focused?
• Make sure that actions and next steps are completed and communicated.
• Be considered in making sure that the right people are in the room.
• Implement an agreed set of acceptable behaviours.

What frustrates in meetings?

The group believed that the following got in the way of effective meetings. If you can avoid these eventualities you should see an immediate uplift:

• When there is a conversation between two people but there are ten in the room.
• A lack of engagement and agreements around expectations.
• A lack of preparation from others.
• If last minute cancellations occur but the meeting is still run it often means the same conversations need to happen twice.
• People ‘spectating’ or not contributing to discussions.
• Personal agendas hijacking objectives.

Best practice: before, during and after meetings

The session provided some tactics to provide right away.

Before the meeting:

Firstly, is a meeting actually required for this particular item? Too often we see meetings occur for meetings’ sake. Be diligent and reflective on the purpose and desired outcome.

If it is agreed that meeting would be useful, clearly define the purpose of the meeting before bringing the relevant people together and create an agenda with those involved. Is the purpose to make a decision? Is the purpose to brainstorm or solve a problem? On the whole, what is it and is everyone clear?

Create an agenda. This sounds simple but it’s important as many meetings skip this part which can often derail the quality of the discussions. Start and finish on time. Avoid blocks of time – calendars on laptops and phones work in blocks, but if only ten minutes is needed or 40 minutes is better, take the time it needs and not how your calendar is designed. Similarly, in the creation of the agenda, consider allocating time for items so less is more and identify a specific aim for each to give direction – what specifically do we need to take away from this agenda item? We should be able to answer that clearly and make that obvious for the people who are attending.

Identify the required resources and pre-reading required for the meeting or each agenda item.

Instead of inviting everyone, who do we want in the room who is going to enable the decision or enable the best thinking? You don’t need everyone in the room all of the time. When there is alignment on who needs to be there, assign roles: a chair or facilitator, who is leading each topic and a note taker.

Often what happens is the expert or leader of the team ends up defaulting to the chair and facilitator, look to vary this to bring fresh voices in.

During the meeting:

Start well. Start with positivity and be mindful of your body language and the impression you’re creating. We know about the emotional contagion this can create.

The chair or facilitator should look to set out the ground rules from the outset. Do this nice and early: share what the plan is, that there will be equal opportunity, expect interruption if the direction of travel isn’t where it needs to be; and be rigorous, especially around timings. It’s important for those in the room to have confidence around the agenda.

Check for buy-in and permission (at the beginning of the meeting) to stick to the above as this takes away some people feeling a bit nervous about coming in and stopping the conversation or moving it on.

Consider ‘mini diamonds’. Each agenda item becomes a mini diamond. At the top of the diamond, you look to open up the conversation and bring different people in and then the chair or facilitator needs to bring it to the end point. What were the actions and ideas that came out of the conversation?

The note taker should not be passive. They should be pushing for actions, especially if there is an agenda item being discussed with no clear actions coming out of it.

After the meeting:

This is where meetings can lose their impact. A really good discussion is had, there are some actions that come out of it, but by the time we actually get the notes from it, the momentum has been lost.

In an ideal world, the note taker has some time immediately after the meeting where the notes can be summarised and circulated. This is really useful for clear actions: who’s doing it? By when? If these can’t be done immediately afterwards, ideally it should be the same day and certainly within 24 hours or our memory starts to fade, and we’re not capturing what we need to.

Ensure all actions have a specific person is assigned to them – not a department. And ask for feedback. If you haven’t gone out to your teams or the organisation to review what people think of meetings recently, how effectively they’re being used, what’s working and what isn’t working, it’s perhaps an idea to do that.

Some final top tips to try:

1. ‘Peel away’

Nina Sunday is a renowned expert in workplace culture and someone who specialises in meetings. She talks about the notion of ‘peeling away’. Sunday suggests that if you organise your agenda well enough, relevant people can leave after each specific agenda item if there isn’t a need for them to be there. It prevents people from sitting in the meeting and going through the motions, plus those that have got out of the meeting what they needed.

2. Vote

Often in meetings, there is a decision to be made, but what can materialise if a question is opened up on that decision, is that you hear from everybody in the room and it just becomes a conversation based on opinion that doesn’t help to make a decision. Before asking, check-in to see who thinks they know what decision they’ve already made to get a sense of if collating opinions is actually needed. You can ask for a show of hands or use different technologies, which is something that can help cut to the chase around the actual decision.

3. OPUR

OPUR stands for ‘one person ultimately responsible’. Make one person responsible for an agenda item or a particular action. It keeps things clean.

4. Fast assessment of choices

This tactic may save a lot of time but it may also prolong a meeting. On the whole, though, it will save a lot of time in the long run. Do a fast assessment of choices that considers the impact and energy of doing something. If something is low effort and it has high impact, it’s going to be a big bang. If something is going to take a lot of effort, but has high impact, it’s something that might need to be evaluated a bit more to have clarity on how it is going to be approached.

5. Stand

Finally, hold stand up meetings. The evidence shows that it brings, focus, energy and often makes meetings shorter.

By Luke Whitworth

Though data has long been used in pre and post-competition planning, it is becoming an increasingly common tool to help inform in-game decision-making.

We recently hosted a virtual roundtable for Leaders Performance Institute members – coaches, analysts and sports scientists – to discuss how data-informed decision-making is evolving in their respective sports.

Here, we bring you five trends and considerations when refining your use of data and analysis during competition.

1. A structured approach to information flow

All participants stressed the need for a structured approach to information flow during the working week. This is more important than ever given the increasing volume of data available. That data must also be relevant and consumable at the right times if it is to be used effectively. If not, you run the risk of overwhelming staff, which leads to inefficiencies, potential miscommunication and, ultimately, poorly-informed decision-making.

2. Pre-game planning

This featured prominently in the discussion. A pre-game plan is a critical factor if in-game decision-making is to prove efficient. When coaches have a clear plan, their messages are not only more likely to be precise (and therefore effective), but they can support the work being done by the data and analysis team to provide insights based on the game plan.

3. Reliability and timing

Attendees were uniformly concerned about the quality of in-game data. Some sports, for example, currently finalise their data up to 40 minutes after the game, which poses an obvious challenge. Nevertheless, some sports are able to use data to influence their team’s performance (and limit the performance of their opponents) with consistent, high-fidelity data during high-stakes moments.

4. Collaboration and integration

If data analysis is to have a genuine impact, it requires the collaboration of coaches, analysts, and other staff members. Some attendees suggested that a team can enhance the overall impact of their data with greater integration of different disciplines both in real-time, pre-game planning, and during post-game reviews. By fostering a more collaborative environment, teams can ensure that all insights are considered and aligned, leading to more informed and effective decision-making.

5. Record your decisions, assess your performance

Coaches can better assess their decision-making, from the processes to their delivery and communication, when the analysts themselves are on hand to record their efforts. Several teams in Australian rules football explained during the roundtable that they use video and audio recording in their coaches’ boxes, which allows all relevant stakeholders to assess the quality of the in-game decisions  being made; they can be informed by the data and reflect on how it was communicated. The attendees explained that this has created a valuable feedback loop.

There are tools that can improve your practice. One member discussed their use of an app called Zello, a communication platform that functions like a walkie-talkie and allows for audio playback. Zello has proven to be a valuable resource for live communication and the post-game review of coaches’ messages. By enabling coaches to listen to their messages after the game, the app helps ensure that communication during the game itself is clear and effective. This tool could be particularly beneficial for improving the clarity and impact of in-game instruction.