\n 19 Mar 2025 <\/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 <\/p>\n\n\n\n In this Virtual Roundtable, brought to you in partnership with ESSA, Jason Berry and Kenneth Graham discussed what research is required to support the future practitioner and athletes.<\/p>\n \n \n \n An article brought to you by<\/p>\n Berry, the Director of Sport Science, Research & Innovation at IMG Academy, was discussing the increasing tendency of some sports organisations keep sports science research in-house \u2013 a practice that does little to help the wider sports community.<\/p>\n \u201cOver here in the United States, we\u2019re in a spring training camp area around Tampa, so there\u2019s a lot of baseball teams and facilities in the area. They are doing in-house research.\u201d<\/p>\n This isn\u2019t new. Berry explained that there were professional teams in Australia in the 1990s conducting research independently of the Australian Institute of Sport, which had been the leader in sports science research initiatives (and one of the chief disseminators) across the Australian sports system for more than a decade.<\/p>\n He is speaking at the second session of \u2018The Future of Performance Sport\u2019, a three-part Virtual Roundtable series brought to you by the Leaders Performance Institute and Exercise & Sports Science Australia. This session explored \u2018what research is required to support the future practitioner and athletes\u2019.<\/p>\n Berry was joined on the virtual stage by Kenneth Graham, a member of the AIS\u2019s Research Review Committee and the Principal Scientist and Co-Founder of sports technology lab, eo.<\/p>\n Together they delivered a state of play on the industry and the obstacles it faces while also explaining how organisations can bridge the gap between research and its application in an increasingly complex performance landscape.<\/p>\n The strengths and weaknesses of current approaches to research in sports science<\/strong><\/p>\n The strengths:<\/strong><\/p>\n The weaknesses:<\/strong><\/p>\n How to bridge the gap between research and real-world application<\/strong><\/p>\n How can sports science practitioners do a better job of translating their research findings to athletes, coaches and other stakeholders?<\/p>\n Graham and Berry shared five tips:<\/p>\n It helps to build relationships with coaches and athletes. Not only does this engender trust, but it ensures greater applicability to research findings. \u201cBy always giving information that is contextually useful for that time of the year or by understanding the training cycle, you get more engagement,\u201d said Graham. \u201cYou do need that time to build up the credibility and the acceptance of the coach to take on information from you; and over time that becomes a faster process. It can be done over a cup of coffee, you may not need a formal presentation, but being part of the process, seeing the development of the training programmes, being at the training sessions, being at the competitions, looking for the gaps where the information you\u2019re giving is seen as valuable.\u201d<\/p>\n When asked how a sports scientist might increase their networking and collaboration efforts, Graham suggested to \u201cget a table, some whiteboards, a pizza, and time.\u201d He said: \u201cSpend time discussing, explaining, and exploring what the different people in the group know and what they\u2019re interested in helping create. And it\u2019s doing this iteratively. You have the discussion, you may then go away to do more reading, and then you come back. You do that two or three times, but what you\u2019re doing is you\u2019re getting closer and closer to a high quality question; or you\u2019ve actually generated the answer that can then be used. But that time, that collaboration \u2013 it\u2019s not play time, it\u2019s about people getting excited and bouncing ideas and information off each other.\u201d<\/p>\n A sports scientist does not have infinite time to share their research findings throughout an organisation. It requires collaboration, as Berry explained. He said: \u201cWe\u2019ve got our research publications, but who in that wider collaboration is going to then attack the social media side of it? And who\u2019s going to do some posts there? And who\u2019s going to do the community coach education?\u201d The message need not be complicated. \u201cYou might say: \u2018We\u2019re just down the road at Victoria University, we\u2019re doing all this research, but here\u2019s some stuff that can actually help the grassroots\u2019. It\u2019s just the collaboration spreading the load, not expecting one researcher or one practitioner to cover everything.\u201d<\/p>\n A common fear is that a tech solution becomes redundant. IMG Academy, as Berry explained, tries to avoid this through rigorous vetting. \u201cOne of the first couple of questions we ask as part of the innovation process is: what type of relationship are you after? Is it strictly vendor, some sort of partnership, or is it a sponsorship? We have variations of all those three at the academy. The second thing we typically ask is \u2018send us your research packet, we want to see the validation, we want to see what you\u2019ve done, we don\u2019t just want testimonials from a star athlete that this changed their game \u2013 we actually want the evidence\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n Artificial intelligence will have its uses, but as Graham said: \u201cMake sure that your AI model isn\u2019t giving you the answer that you want because of the way you\u2019ve trained it\u201d. When that information has been curated carefully, Graham finds that it \u201cdramatically shortens the development time and improves the quality information.\u201d<\/p>\n Future areas of enquiry: the technical, tactical and psychological<\/strong><\/p>\n Berry believes there are gains to be made in the technical and tactical realms. \u201cThat whole perceptual cognitive decision making component of performance, which typically separates those expert performers,\u201d he said, while also alluding to the psychological elements, such as performance under pressure. \u201cThe physical part is not a separator anymore.\u201d It is, however, tricky to find the measurables to support holistic athlete development. \u201cI guess that\u2019s the elusive one at the moment,\u201d he added, \u201cbut there\u2019s people working towards that\u201d.<\/p>\n Further reading:<\/strong><\/p>\nSports Science Research: the Strengths, Weaknesses and Opportunities<\/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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By John Portch<\/h6>\n
\u201cIt reminds me of a great quote,\u201d said Jason Berry. \u201cThere\u2019s no secrets in high performance, only insecurities.\u201d<\/h6>\n
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