{"id":716,"date":"2020-08-07T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-08-07T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/reports\/a-snapshot-of-athlete-physical-preparation-at-the-golden-state-warriors\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T05:12:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T05:12:14","slug":"a-snapshot-of-athlete-physical-preparation-at-the-golden-state-warriors","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/a-snapshot-of-athlete-physical-preparation-at-the-golden-state-warriors\/","title":{"rendered":"A Snapshot of Athlete Physical Preparation at the Golden State Warriors"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n\t
\n\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\n\t\t\t\t
\n \n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t

\n Aug 07, 2020 <\/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

A Snapshot of Athlete Physical Preparation at the Golden State Warriors<\/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
Category<\/div>\n Human Performance<\/a> <\/div>\n
\n
Share<\/div>\n Facebook<\/a>\n Twitter<\/a>\n Email<\/a>\n Copy Link<\/a>\n
https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/a-snapshot-of-athlete-physical-preparation-at-the-golden-state-warriors\/<\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/section>\n\n\n
\n
\n
\n
\n

A key member of the performance department, Adi Vase, explains that trust and empathy are essential in an environment still moving towards standardization.<\/p>\n \n \n \n

\n

\u201cThe opportunities I\u2019ve encountered with my work during the pandemic have made it different and made me approach things through a different lens,\u201d says Adi Vase.<\/h4>\n
\n

By John Portch<\/h6>\n

Vase, who works with the Golden State Warriors as a strength & conditioning coach, is talking to the Leaders Performance Institute ahead of the NBA\u2019s announcement that the league will return in a 22-team format in late July at Walt Disney World’s ESPN Wide World of Sports complex in Orlando, Florida.<\/p>\n

The Warriors were one of the eight NBA franchises excluded from this ultra-sanitized Orlando ‘bubble’, each of whom hoped that discussions for a second bubble, likely based in Chicago, bore fruit.<\/p>\n

Those hopes have now faded and the Warriors’ season is over. Vase had considered this outcome and much of his work since the league\u2019s suspension in March has been working towards the 2020-21 while keeping an eye still on the present possibility of organized team activity later in the year.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously we\u2019d never want a pandemic,\u201d Vase tells the Leaders Performance Institute, \u201cbut the challenge of being adaptable; to have something thrown at you that you\u2019re not expecting but needing to figure out a solution to get the outcome you want, that part is exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n

In between holding Zoom calls with Warriors\u2019 players and performance staff, Vase sat down with us to share the matter of athlete monitoring in the NBA and his ability to work closely with staff across basketball operations to develop solutions that drive answers to questions.<\/p>\n

Adi, what are some of the challenges a team like Golden State faces when seeking to navigate the tech market?<\/b><\/strong><\/p>\n

AV:<\/b><\/strong>\u00a0The NBA has started to introduce standardization, but it’s still an unregulated space that, as a practitioner, you really need to take it upon yourself to understand what information you\u2019re getting. If you can\u2019t trust it and you\u2019re making decisions based off information that\u2019s inaccurate, then you\u2019re not going to help the athletes and you\u2019re not going to help your organization because your goalposts are always moving since you don\u2019t have information you can rely on to be accurate and reliable.<\/p>\n

How have the Warriors worked to navigate such an unregulated space?<\/b><\/strong><\/p>\n

AV:<\/b><\/strong>\u00a0It helps to have a clear long-term and short-term strategy. You can define: \u2018these are the questions we\u2019re trying to answer, and this is where we want our competitive advantages to be\u2019. Only then can you know what types of information you actually need, as opposed to getting all this information and then figuring it out from there, which of course sometimes you have to do in certain environments. We know the silver bullet doesn\u2019t exist, so it\u2019s a fine line between utilizing information to answer questions versus collecting information and using it to answer questions afterwards. However, if you can find out and define what people want answered first, you can then say \u2018these are the pieces of tech we should be looking at and this is what they are going to give us.\u2019 Of course, you can get as simple or complicated as you want to with information. There are plenty of solutions available according to the manpower that can be dedicated to emphasizing a data driven approach in an environment.<\/p>\n

What are the key things you need to convince a player of a device\u2019s value?<\/b><\/strong><\/p>\n

AV:<\/b><\/strong>\u00a0We have to do our best to make them understand how it\u2019s going to improve their ability to be available to play more games and perform better than the competition when they play. We are lucky to have great players and leadership in our organization from top to bottom, and certainly this makes things easier. As a performance group, we are fortunate to be in the position where some of our key veterans can be our biggest advocate.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve said the NBA is player-driven in its use of tech and that must lead to customized solutions. Where does the process for introducing bespoke tools begin?<\/b><\/strong><\/p>\n

AV:<\/b><\/strong>\u00a0You must be cognizant of the team\u2019s sporting culture and immerse yourself in it. You have to be comfortable with the fact that there may be some things that you are not able to change culturally or there are some things that are going to take a generation to change culturally.<\/p>\n

Then you have to ask the right questions and involve people; you have to make the players feel comfortable in your knowledge of the sport. As always with humans, there is the psychology and empathy piece: you make people understand that you understand their perspective. When you look solely through the microscope of athlete monitoring or performance or data or numbers, what that does is it blurs out so much additional context for you that all of a sudden you can\u2019t make the impact you want to make. We could come in with all our data that may show a player that he\u2019s one of the slowest players in the NBA; but in his mind he thinks he\u2019s really fast. In this scenario, if one comes in and attacks what he perceives to be his advantage, that\u2019s likely going to be met with great opposition and could run the risk of making an individual completely averse to any type of data or information. So, its imperative to understand who you are dealing with, what\u2019s important to them, and then you can frame discussions, educate and be collaborative because their perspective can inform an additional layer of context as well.<\/p>\n

At that point, do you work to make them a part of the decision-making process?<\/b><\/strong><\/p>\n

AV:<\/b><\/strong>\u00a0We try to lead them and let them discover it. That\u2019s where we can truly make an impact. We must show the players that we care, then guide them; give them little tidbits that guide them along this path where everything is crystallized for them. The players can eventually see the value in the objectivity and understand that data can answer questions that they might have.<\/p>\n

What about the iteration and reiteration process when it comes to tech solutions?<\/b><\/strong><\/p>\n

AV:<\/b><\/strong>\u00a0It likely comes down to collaboration and understanding what is important to the people you\u2019re trying to impact. How to measure the impact that something has had? One possible strategy is to look at every level of an organization: players, coaches, front office executives. Have stakeholders at each level been educated of the value and use of a certain tech solution? If every technological solution hasn\u2019t been maximized, then the value is not understood clearly by key stakeholders and the picture is blurred on how useful that particular tech solution is. This has the trickle-down effect of tech solutions being less integrated across the entire environment.<\/p>\n

How mindful are you of the vocabulary you use around a device? Are you reluctant to change it when you bring in something new?<\/b><\/strong><\/p>\n

AV:<\/b><\/strong>\u00a0It\u2019s important to ask the question: is this new term going to help the person do their job better? If not, then there\u2019s no reason to change what they\u2019re doing, and you have to be honest about this assessment. Maybe you can change how a device is implemented in the day-to-day, but you don\u2019t change the language around the device. If it\u2019s more of a long-term solution, that affords us time to map out a strategy detailing the particular language we want to use. We have time to let it build and go through stages and granularity. When it\u2019s short-term, we may not have that time so it\u2019s best to use what people are comfortable with.<\/p>\n

How will you know when to discontinue using a certain device?<\/b><\/strong><\/p>\n

AV:<\/b><\/strong>\u00a0It could be that a tool wasn\u2019t accepted, or people didn\u2019t see the value; maybe it doesn\u2019t answer the questions that we thought it would. As practitioners, we have to be humble and admit that we don\u2019t know the answers sometimes right away and we could very well be wrong. We must ask ourselves prior to implementation of a device: if this doesn\u2019t work then how can we exit and pivot from this particular tool? On the different levels of the organization and the team, will we be able to articulate to key decision makers why we are pivoting away from this particular tool? One of the critical parts of implementing a new device is of course vetting it first, and then considering an exit strategy if it doesn\u2019t give us the information, we need from it.<\/p>\n

What about the inevitable variability that comes with a new device or metric?<\/b><\/strong><\/p>\n

AV:<\/b><\/strong>\u00a0It comes back to what question you are trying to answer in order to give your organization a competitive advantage. You need to recognize what resources you need to maximize the use of a device, and what are the specific skillsets required to handle the variability. When handling variability, filtering is essential: what information is accurate and reliable, how much information to consider, and what information is comparable.<\/p>\n

How do you see data use in the NBA developing in the near future?<\/b><\/strong><\/p>\n

AV:<\/b><\/strong>\u00a0I think with the NBA being a player-driven league, players are going to start seeing value in personalized care and treatment. They will start to have more questions and need more evidence as to why they are training and preparing in a certain way. Data will certainly be able to assist practitioners in this endeavor because with enough volume and detail it will be possible to develop and impact a player who is in the top 450 players in the world. The margins are so razor thin in elite sport that consistency will win out and data will help with that because players will be able to see how training can be completely individualized to give them the best chance to compete at a high level. How they feel is going to be the biggest advocate and once they see it; that\u2019s when the snowball starts going.<\/p>\n

\n

Looking for more performance insight?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Performance<\/em> 21<\/em> is available for download now and leads with a selection of insights lifted from our At Home With Leaders podcast series, which has featured the likes of England Rugby\u2019s Eddie Jones<\/strong>, the Toronto Blue Jays\u2019 Mark Shapiro<\/strong>, and Chelsea\u2019s Emma Hayes<\/strong> speaking directly from their home offices.<\/p>\n