{"id":25130,"date":"2024-04-17T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-04-17T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/?post_type=article&p=25130"},"modified":"2025-12-15T05:10:59","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T05:10:59","slug":"we-are-witnessing-the-rise-of-the-hybrid-practitioner-what-qualities-set-them-apart","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/we-are-witnessing-the-rise-of-the-hybrid-practitioner-what-qualities-set-them-apart\/","title":{"rendered":"We Are Witnessing the Rise of the \u2018Hybrid Practitioner\u2019 \u2013 What Qualities Set them Apart?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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\n 17 Apr 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

We Are Witnessing the Rise of the \u2018Hybrid Practitioner\u2019 \u2013 What Qualities Set them Apart?<\/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 Data & Innovation<\/a>, Leadership & Culture<\/a> <\/div>\n
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https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/we-are-witnessing-the-rise-of-the-hybrid-practitioner-what-qualities-set-them-apart\/<\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/section>\n\n\n\n\n
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The Leaders Performance Institute delved into the concept with David Dunne of AI-powered nutrition app Hexis.<\/p>\n \n \n \n

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By John Portch with additional reporting from Joe Lemire<\/h6>\n
David Dunne believes the nature of the multidisciplinary team in sport is rapidly evolving.<\/h6>\n

\u201cWe expect a nutritionist, coaches, S&C, psych and physio \u2013 that\u2019s what we consider a multidisciplinary team,\u201d he told the People Behind the Tech Podcast<\/em> in April.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, now [a multidisciplinary team includes] behavioural psychology, UX [user experience design], UI [user interface design], data science, software engineering, performance science. It\u2019s a whole other world that has opened up new possibilities that we didn\u2019t know were there as a practitioner.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dunne, who is the CEO and Co-Founder of Hexis, an AI-powered predictive nutrition service for elite athletes, has made an almost full transition from high performance sport. He previously served as Head of Nutrition at English Premiership rugby club Harlequins and still works in a similar capacity with Ryder Cup Team Europe.<\/p>\n

While his assessment of tech\u2019s role in high performance is unsurprising, his views on those \u201cpossibilities\u201d now open to practitioners provide some food for thought \u2013 and not only for nutritionists or dietitians.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re going to see is the evolution of the hybrid practitioner,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n

What are the implications for you and your team? Below, we set out a HYBRID<\/strong> framework to illustrate the concept.<\/p>\n

H \u2013 Haste <\/strong>\u2013 \u201c[Going] back to Quins, you spend a lot of time behind the laptop,\u201d said Dunne. \u201cYou got bogged down in a spreadsheet. It\u2019s tedious.\u201d However, a hybrid practitioner will \u201cuse tech for tasks that can be algorithmically delivered at scale<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Y \u2013 Yield<\/strong> \u2013 this can mean being receptive to others; and a hybrid practitioner \u201cuses technology for what it\u2019s good at\u201d while people can focus on what they\u2019re best at, which is \u201cbeing human\u201d. As Dunne explained: \u201cHumans are good at building relationships<\/strong>, learning how to have conversations, and listening to people and actually helping them change their behaviours and change their beliefs about certain consequences or their own abilities over time.\u201d<\/p>\n

B \u2013 Balance<\/strong> \u2013 Dunne\u2019s Co-Founder at Hexis is Sam Impey. \u201cA brilliant scientist,\u201d as Dunne said. \u201cA far greater academic than I\u2019ll ever be.\u201d Nevertheless, Dunne is aware of his own assets. \u201cMy personal strengths have always been on the coaching side \u2013 put me in any locker room, put me in any team setting, I love to have conversations, I love to listen.\u201d In truth, a successful practitioner needs both sets of traits. As Dunne put it, \u201clet\u2019s call it practitioner tacit knowledge and actually the application on the frontline.\u201d The best example of this in Hexis\u2019 work is how their app has been influenced by the COM-B model<\/strong>, which is a framework for understanding and changing behaviour \u2013 both key factors in performance nutrition. For a behaviour<\/strong> to occur, a person must have the capability<\/strong>, opportunity<\/strong> and motivation<\/strong> to perform it. Practitioners aiming to change behaviour should therefore target one or more of these components.<\/p>\n

R \u2013 Roadmap<\/strong> \u2013 practitioners are too often constrained by tech being restricted to trackers. \u201cIt\u2019s retrospective\u201d, said Dunne, specifically of nutrition trackers. But with predictive AI entering the market, the role of the practitioner is likely to be more forward-facing<\/strong>. \u201cWe always need to know [and] we always want to help them know what to do next,\u201d he added. This is particularly important in light of Hexis-sponsored research suggesting that most athletes are \u2018confirmation seekers\u2019<\/strong>, meaning they want to lead on \u201cmaking the decision but then they want something to help verify that they’re going in the right direction.\u201d A hybrid practitioner can cater to this need.<\/p>\n

I \u2013 IT \/ MI<\/strong> \u2013 \u201cI think what we’re going to see more of is a more highly-skilled human<\/strong> practitioner with a lot more software skills and [skills such as] motivational interviewing [MI] on the frontline, and then technology systems that ensure a standard of care across the whole organisation, 24\/7, 365 days a year,\u201d said Dunne. Key to that is reducing the \u201cnoise\u201d around the athlete<\/strong>. With the right plans and structures, the hybrid practitioner can \u201cdeliver impactful value to the athlete.\u201d<\/p>\n

D \u2013 Data<\/strong> \u2013 with apps such as Hexis allowing for data integration \u2013 their collaboration with training app TrainingPeaks is a prime example \u2013 there is the opportunity for practitioners to make better use of existing data rather than merely seeking the next thing. With the right blend of skills, the hybrid practitioner is well-placed to ask: what can we do with the information we already have?<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Listen to the full interview with David Dunne below:<\/strong><\/p>\n