{"id":12741,"date":"2022-09-23T08:14:27","date_gmt":"2022-09-23T08:14:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/?post_type=article&p=12741"},"modified":"2025-12-15T11:31:51","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T11:31:51","slug":"leaders-meet-interdisciplinary-performance-support-the-key-takeaways","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/leaders-meet-interdisciplinary-performance-support-the-key-takeaways\/","title":{"rendered":"Leaders Meet: Interdisciplinary Performance Support – the Key Takeaways"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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\n 23 Sep 2022 <\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>Articles<\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t

Leaders Meet: Interdisciplinary Performance Support – the Key Takeaways<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n \n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Category<\/div>\n Coaching & Development<\/a>, Leadership & Culture<\/a> <\/div>\n
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Members of the Leaders Performance Institute gathered at Loughborough University in the UK to hear from organisations including the Lawn Tennis Association, Loughborough University Tennis Academy, England & Wales Cricket Board, English Premier League and Management Futures.<\/p>\n \n \n \n

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In Partnership with<\/p>\n

\"sport<\/p>\n

By Sarah Evans<\/h6>\n
The focus of our fifth and final Leaders Meet of 2022 was around how to collaborate with the wider interdisciplinary team.<\/h6>\n

An ongoing thread throughout the conversations across the day was how crucial relationship building is when working within an interdisciplinary team.<\/p>\n

Session 1: Session Observation with Loughborough University National Tennis Academy: <\/strong><\/p>\n

Featuring:<\/p>\n

Nick Cavaday, Academy Head Coach, Loughborough University National Tennis Academy<\/h6>\n
Louis Cayer, Coaching Consultant, LTA<\/h6>\n
Ben Trevor-Jones, Physiotherapist, Loughborough University<\/h6>\n
Kam Sodha, Strength & Conditioning Coach, Loughborough University<\/h6>\n
Ranah Stoiber, Tennis Player<\/h6>\n

For the first session of the day we had an interactive session, observing a live tennis training session at Loughborough University National Training Academy. Nick Cavaday, and the coaching team wore microphones during the session so the attendees were able to see and hear how the team approach their coaching sessions. It was not only Cavaday and the tennis coaches that were on court providing input, they were joined by the S&C and physio for the duration of the session.<\/p>\n

Session 2: A Coaching Perspective<\/strong><\/p>\n

Speakers (from the Loughborough University National Tennis Academy):<\/p>\n

Nick Cavaday, Academy Head Coach<\/h6>\n
Alex Bailey, Performance Lifestyle Advisor<\/h6>\n
Nathan Miller, Academy Manager and Head of Performance Support<\/h6>\n

Following the session observation, we were able to hear from Nick Cavaday, Alex Bailey and Nathan Miller to get their view in a Q&A style format on what it takes to have a perfectly functioning team around the athlete.<\/p>\n

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  • Is a psychologist also present on court as part of the interdisciplinary team?<\/strong> Yes, we work closely with the psychology team, however they are only contracted for one day per week. When the psychologist is working, she will be on court and listen to the sessions, the coaches\u2019 feedback, and assess how the player reacts to the feedback. The psychologist also feeds into the wellbeing and psych\/social team who are full-time practitioners.<\/li>\n
  • What are the processes around session design, especially for a technical proficiency session? How do you make it the best quality session?<\/strong> The athlete needs to be mentally engaged as there is high learning content and a lot of detail. It shouldn\u2019t be scheduled at the back end of a tiring week, as the athlete needs to be more mentally fresh. These sessions actually have some of the highest load in terms of mental\/physical so it\u2019s better to do them in the morning and when the athlete is physically fresh.<\/li>\n
  • How much are athletes involved in the analysis process? <\/strong>There\u2019s a balance, as they grow there\u2019s a transition period of needing to know more about their opponent but then having information overload and not concentrating on her own game. When they are younger they don\u2019t have analysis and so they just focus on playing, but getting this balance of how much information is needed as she gets older is key. As they get older, the coaches compare key stats against other world top junior players to see if there are any trends or areas of real improvement. Coaches can analyse the stats and use it to look deeper and understand how that can translate into coaching points before they share them with the athlete. Analysis varies so much when they are younger as it is so harder to pick out trends, and they are more focused on the athlete\u2019s understanding of the game when they younger, and as they get older and the trends are more obvious, then you can incorporate the analysis into coaching.<\/li>\n
  • How do you encourage openness and feedback from the younger athletes?<\/strong> You have to recognise that it\u2019s a huge transition process for the younger athletes, therefore we do a lot around helping the athletes feel a sense of belonging to the programme. We look to build relationships with the staff and players in the first instance, coaches visit their home environment too; and building relationships is a big focus when onboarding new junior players. Pre-match chats and post-match debriefs when on the road also encourage open feedback. These are interactive and collaborative sessions, rather than the coach telling them what they need\/don\u2019t need to do, and the athlete always feeds back first.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Session 3: Building Relationship Intelligence<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Speaker: Jide Fado, Coach & Trainer, Management Futures<\/h6>\n

    For the third session of the day, we shifted our attentions to exploring a skill that can be hugely impactful in working with others, building relationships. Fado began the session by asking our attendees to discuss in their roundtable groups and think about what skills needed by those who are good at building relationships. The attendees were then asked to make a snapshot wheel of their relationships with the colleagues\/departments they work with, and score their relationship with each out of 10. He then invited participants to answer the following questions:<\/p>\n

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    • What strikes you about your wheel?<\/li>\n
    • What surprises are there?<\/li>\n
    • Where would you like to focus some energy?<\/li>\n
    • What score would you like this relationship to be?<\/li>\n
    • Specifically, what does that relationship need from you?<\/li>\n
    • How motivated are you to do it?<\/li>\n
    • What is your first step?<\/li>\n
    • When will you do it?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      Key takeaways:<\/p>\n

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      • Don\u2019t find time; make the time to build relationships.<\/li>\n
      • Show your appreciation.<\/li>\n
      • Regularly reflect on the quality of your relationships and take action.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

        Session 4: A Bird\u2019s Eye View<\/strong><\/p>\n

        Speaker: Mo Bobat, Performance Director, England & Wales Cricket Board<\/h6>\n
        Moderator: Edd Vahid, Head of Academy Football Operations, Premier League<\/h6>\n

        For the final session of the day, we had the opportunity to explore the strategic view of the inter-disciplinary teams and hear from the Performance Director of England and Wales Cricket, Mo Bobat. The session format was a Q&A style with Edd Vahid from the Premier League drawing out some learnings around interdisciplinary support.<\/p>\n

          \n
        • What is high performance? It\u2019s important to pay attention to both words, and inevitably it means to be better than everyone else, and to be able to sustain it. I think you need three ingredients to operate at a high performance level: quality of people, alignment to a vision, and to be less dysfunctional to your opposition.<\/li>\n
        • Interdisciplinary support is all about cohesion. Ultimately you want cohesion so you can add to the player experience.<\/li>\n
        • When you think about problem solving, often there\u2019s not one problem that is wrong, so why would there only be one solution?<\/li>\n
        • When you have diverse thinking, you\u2019re more likely to find the best solution.<\/li>\n
        • Just having more people at the table and more disciplines working with athletes, if they are not aligned then it can create more problems than it solves. They have to work together in a clear, cohesive and simple way.<\/li>\n
        • We have had healthy disruption recently with a new head coach coming in. There is enough pressure around the first team at the moment that my role is to not add to those pressures. How can you get them to prepare like a professional but play like a kid enjoying the game with no pressure? It is important to do the work off the field to cover scenarios so they don\u2019t have to think on match day, they can just perform.<\/li>\n
        • Start with the needs of the athlete and getting buy-in from the people that are closest to them such as parents, agent etc., and then collaborating to speak about their performance programme. If you start with the programme you can miss some of the most obvious pieces and solutions, and also lack the buy-in from the athlete.<\/li>\n
        • Don\u2019t underestimate the value of having the athlete in conversations about their development, with the other practitioners. They need to understand the bigger picture and also the process.<\/li>\n
        • Managing multi-format players across different schedules is a challenge and so is finding a time to sit down and make a plan for these players with the wider team.<\/li>\n
        • We are conscious of wanting to make the players feel like they are a part of one programme rather than stretched across different programmes with different outcomes and with different practitioners.<\/li>\n
        • Is it in the player\u2019s best interest? Practitioners have to be humble enough to be able to recognise whether it is in the players best interest for you not to be a part of their development.<\/li>\n
        • A skilful generalist who is really adaptable might be more valuable to a team than just simply adding more specialists to a group. Of course, a specialist can be incredibly valuable but if you think the answer is just adding more specialisms, it doesn\u2019t necessarily add more value if they aren\u2019t aligned and don\u2019t work cohesively.<\/li>\n
        • Player power and player ownership is a key area of work within interdisciplinary teams moving forwards.<\/li>\n
        • Strategy is all about priority. Therefore you have to be really honest and clear about what the key focuses are. How you then communicate this with the athletes is also key, and you need to have them bought into the strategy.<\/li>\n
        • If the player is self-aware and clear on their own needs that really helps the wider team. But if not how can you communicate and involve them in the development process. Having the player at the centre is crucial, and you must let them adapt to the different practitioners.<\/li>\n
        • If you\u2019re struggling to fulfil a need or a role, an adaptable generalist in your team can be invaluable as part of the interdisciplinary team. You don\u2019t want to compromise specialisms but you have to be aligned and cohesive.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/p>\n <\/div>\n \n \n \n <\/div>\n
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