{"id":23979,"date":"2024-03-13T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-03-13T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/?post_type=article&p=23979"},"modified":"2025-12-15T05:11:01","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T05:11:01","slug":"where-can-a-performance-coach-have-the-greatest-impact-on-an-athlete-and-team","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/where-can-a-performance-coach-have-the-greatest-impact-on-an-athlete-and-team\/","title":{"rendered":"Where Can a Performance Coach Have the Greatest Impact on an Athlete and Team?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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\n 13 Mar 2024 <\/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

Where Can a Performance Coach Have the Greatest Impact on an Athlete and Team? <\/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\n\n\n\n
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Ryan Alexander of Atlanta United explains that it stems from a more accurate interpretation of \u2018performance\u2019.<\/p>\n \n \n \n

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By John Portch with additional reporting by Joe Lemire<\/h6>\n
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    Does your physical work complement the technical, tactical and mental demands of your team?<\/h6>\n<\/li>\n
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    Athlete motivations naturally ebb and flow. Monitor those motivations and work with them.<\/h6>\n<\/li>\n
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    You can take safer risks when you understand an athlete\u2019s training range.<\/h6>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
    The Leaders Performance Institute and SBJ Tech caught up with Ryan Alexander, the Director of Sports Science, at Atlanta United, ahead of the new season.<\/h6>\n

    The pre-season period has evolved in Alexander\u2019s seven years at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium.<\/p>\n

    \u201cThe landscape has changed immensely,\u201d he told The<\/em> People Behind the Tech <\/em>podcast. \u201cIt comes significantly with a great demand of collaboration, especially when we have such a multicultural roster.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Atlanta can call upon players from Europe, Central and South America and, when those players return to their homelands or go on international duty, Alexander and his colleagues maintain communication at suitable moments.<\/p>\n

    \u201cThe mastery of a topic of a given field, of a specialisation, comes down to how well you can explain it and meet your audience at their level,\u201d he said, adding, \u201cMy ability to connect with you and for you to understand the importance of that information and how it relates to performance: that\u2019s where the communication is.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Here, we explore Alexander\u2019s efforts to gain \u201ca more accurate interpretation of what performance is [as] that\u2019s where we\u2019re able to assist in the technical and tactical elements of how a coach views a player.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Understand the competition demands<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Alexander explained that his work is governed by the physical, technical and tactical demands of the team, with the physical facilitating the technical and tactical. It is, as he said, a \u201cbroad, holistic approach\u201d that takes its lead from Head Coach Gonzalo Pineda. \u201cWhat will it take to actually prepare them to be able to execute?\u201d he continued. Tech and data will only take you so far. \u201cIt can\u2019t just be that we monitor everything at all times. We can\u2019t overwhelm the players with the technology. We want to provide them with the correct data so that they are informed and making the best decisions for themselves, as well as the leaders of the club, and how we are able to combine all of those things to put a consistent high-level performance on the field every time the whistle blows.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Work with an athlete\u2019s motivations<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Monitor athlete motivation because it will enable you to plan accordingly. \u201cEverybody has a \u2018why\u2019,\u201d said Alexander, adding that it is natural for motivation to ebb and flow across a draining MLS season. \u201cIt\u2019s important for us to understand, from a training process standpoint, times when we are going to intentionally taper within the intensity of our training because we know the motivation, and what has been taken from them, throughout that time of year trying to implement less cognitively demanding exercises.\u201d Therefore, \u201cthe demand on problem-solving within an individual exercise or training session is going to be lower because we have to time them, at the right moment through that micro cycle, to switch on in the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Find the balance in risk taking<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Risk-taking is ingrained in preparation and performance. \u201cIt is important to find a player\u2019s \u201crange\u201d, said Alexander, adding: \u201cWe\u2019re always going to look to analyse what we\u2019ve been successful with, [establishing] the foundation of what the player has performed well in this specific environment against a certain style of player opposition [for example] and then looking back at how they\u2019ve been communicating and what they\u2019ve presented with on a daily basis to the training ground versus on match day. If we can see trends in a consistency of all those different areas then we become much more confident in the expectation of performance.\u201d Any risks can be offset \u201cif we perform and train consistently within your range that has you performing at a high level, at a high rate, successful in all these different scenarios and environments.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Take onboard athlete feedback<\/strong><\/p>\n

    What do you do when you see an athlete visibly lose interest in a session? Athlete feedback is crucial. \u201cWe can\u2019t say \u2018we\u2019re the only ones providing the solutions here and you guys are the execution so be quiet\u2019 \u2013 that will never be the messaging from us,\u201d said Alexander. \u201cMiss the mark and there will be reflections in a group setting [and] in an individual setting.\u201d Atlanta\u2019s players have a voice, Alexander and his colleagues will bring their own passion and energy to a session and \u201cthat\u2019s how we maintain mutual respect to the value each brings within the training process.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Listen to the full interview with Ryan Alexander:<\/strong><\/p>\n