{"id":969,"date":"2020-01-13T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-13T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/reports\/from-the-head-coach-to-the-consultant-knowing-how-and-when-to-apply-your-specialist-knowledge-in-elite-sporting-environments\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T05:12:23","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T05:12:23","slug":"how-and-when-to-apply-your-specialist-knowledge-in-elite-sporting-environments","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/how-and-when-to-apply-your-specialist-knowledge-in-elite-sporting-environments\/","title":{"rendered":"From the Head Coach to the Consultant: Knowing How and When to Apply Your Specialist Knowledge in Elite Sporting Environments"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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\n Jan 13, 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

From the Head Coach to the Consultant: Knowing How and When to Apply Your Specialist Knowledge in Elite Sporting Environments<\/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 Leadership & Culture<\/a> <\/div>\n
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https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/how-and-when-to-apply-your-specialist-knowledge-in-elite-sporting-environments\/<\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/section>\n\n\n
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The Leaders Performance Institute takes a look from a number of roles and perspectives.<\/p>\n \n \n \n

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We all know that specialist knowledge will only get you so far in the sports performance industry.<\/h4>\n
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By John Portch<\/h6>\n

In fact, there is a fair chance that the most-common trope cited at Leaders Sport Performance Summits is that of sport as a \u2018people business\u2019.<\/p>\n

When it comes to the athletes, numerous head coaches and general managers have lined up to tell Leaders Performance Institute members why it is critical to value character over talent. In that environment, it is unsurprising to witness increasing amounts of resource being poured into recruiting the right talents across all sports and nations.<\/p>\n

But what of the performance practitioners themselves? From the head coach down to the consultant, there are any number of skillsets that help to produce a winning team, but knowledge alone will not get the job done; character is just as important.<\/p>\n

Here at the Leaders Performance Institute, we have asked a cross section of the sports performance community how they rose through the ranks and established themselves in their respective roles and here we detail four roles \u2013 the head coach, performance director, head of department, the practitioner \u2013 and some of the challenges behind the application of their specialist knowledge. Here is what each had to say.<\/p>\n

The head coach<\/strong><\/p>\n

Chris Boyd<\/a> now serves as Director of Rugby at the high-flying Northampton Saints, but in 2016, he spoke at the Leaders Sport Performance Summit in London on the back of his greatest achievement as a head coach.<\/p>\n

Boyd had just led the Wellington-based Hurricanes to rugby\u2019s prestigious Super Rugby Championship in his second season \u2013 he also led the team to the final in his maiden campaign. It was a remarkable turnaround for a team not noted for its pedigree in recent decades.<\/p>\n

Underpinning the shift was Boyd\u2019s desire to take an experienced squad and help them to find suitable solutions, be it in practice or during matches.<\/p>\n

He had 12 years of coaching experience under his belt, both at domestic and international level, and joined the Hurricanes from the New Zealand men\u2019s Under-20s. Boyd, for all the coaching acumen he accrued during that time, chose not to lay down the law.<\/p>\n

It made sense: here he would be dealing with seasoned All Blacks, whose problem was not a lack of rigid strictures but too much; players needed to be liberated, to be trusted.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m happier operating in the grey,\u201d he explained. \u201cMy philosophy is that a culture of discipline requires no rules. You need to empower management and playing groups to make decisions for themselves and pick their way through issues; and rather than black and white that means a lot more grey. I stopped unnecessary meetings, which caused a bit of trouble for my management group who weren\u2019t used to it, but it forced conversations to start and improved the flow of information.\u201d<\/p>\n

Within two years the Hurricanes were arguably the best club team in the world.<\/p>\n

The performance director<\/strong><\/p>\n

The role of the performance director is often ambiguous, with numerous interpretations across leagues and sports. \u201cIn England there is more emphasis placed on the medical side, which is probably because the training you can do at a club like Liverpool isn\u2019t extensive because you\u2019re playing three times a week,\u201d says Darren Burgess<\/a>, who has worked in the English Premier League with both Liverpool and Arsenal and is now back in his native Australia with Melbourne FC. \u201cIn Australia I\u2019d say that 90 to 95% of performance managers or directors come from a sports science or S&C background.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Whatever their background, the performance director is best-placed taking a hands-off approach, particularly in environments where performance directors are still uncommon. Adam Beard<\/a> is the Director of High Performance at the Chicago Cubs but, during his time as the Cleveland Browns\u2019 first High Performance Director, he spoke to the Leaders Performance Institute on his first season with the team.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cI spent a lot of time with the strength & conditioning team, the athletic trainers, the psychology department, the scouting team. I also spent a week with each playing group, following them to see exactly what they did during a week, from recovery to nutrition; I went to lunch with them, the weight room and also looked at their domestic modalities. I also spent time with the coaches and purposefully stayed away from the media.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a whole process of understanding a big sport; I wanted to see how they prepared and how they recovered and what their tactics were then have a look and try to identify the performance gaps. It was essentially an audit in terms of what we had, which I then presented to the owners with my recommendations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Day by day, Beard earned the trust of the coaching staff and playing group, who saw beyond is lack of football expertise to see how he could help to improve their performances.<\/p>\n

The head of department<\/strong><\/p>\n

Whereas head coaches or performance directors can benefit from taking a helicopter view in their roles, the head of department has, in several ways, greater freedom to apply their specialist knowledge.<\/p>\n

A case in point is Cate Sexton<\/a>, the Head of Women\u2019s Rugby Development at New Zealand Rugby. She oversaw an overhaul of the women\u2019s game across the nation following the Black Ferns\u2019 defeat at the 2015 Women\u2019s Rugby World Cup. Three years later they were world champions again for a record fifth time and it\u2019s a position Sexton wants to retain.<\/p>\n

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\u201cOur new strategy was implemented in 2015 and we have certainly accelerated opportunities for girls and women to play,\u201d she tells the Leaders Performance Institute. \u201cIn my role I oversee the development from the top to the bottom of the game and we benefit from having people placed around the country, working with the provincial unions, and waking up every day thinking about how we create opportunities for women to get involved in rugby.\u201d<\/p>\n

Women\u2019s rugby, even in a nation such as New Zealand, remains a growth sport, with opportunities across the country. By contrast, a head of department may encounter greater obstacles when working within, say, a firmly established, high budget, male sporting environment.<\/p>\n

The trick in such scenarios is to start to earn the trust of the coaches and athletes, as recommended by Megan Popovic<\/a>, the Director of Athlete Well-Being and Performance at the Toronto Maple Leafs. Popovic found herself in what she terms a \u201chyper-masculine environment\u201d and had to be astute in implementing any initiatives around wellbeing.<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cOne of the things that we\u2019ve tried to do is not make anything that we do mandatory and allow the players to choose if they want to speak with myself or anybody else because there has been more than one or two people open up to me who have said, \u2018I spoke to the team psychologist and then the next thing the coach knows and the manager knows and I was given heck or penalised for being vulnerable\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose aren\u2019t necessarily their words but I\u2019ve\u00a0seen\u00a0it and so I think as an organisation we\u2019re trying to attune ourselves to what is actually empowering\u00a0for our athletes within the context of professional sport and professional hockey and then we essentially created a menu of options that we see or are called for from the players themselves that they can use if they want; and if they don\u2019t then we respect them as individuals who are trying to make a career in this highly competitive environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

It remains a work in progress for Popovic at Toronto but her player-focused approach is making inroads in a sport that has often exhibited resistance in this area.<\/p>\n

The practitioner<\/strong><\/p>\n

The practitioner may \u2013 or may not \u2013 have designs on a position as a head of department or even a director of performance. They might even work on a consultancy or freelance basis.<\/p>\n

There is, however, in the short-term an ability to have a direct impact on the athlete. \u201cWhatsApp has been a godsend for me,\u201d says performance coach Dave Alred<\/a>. \u201cI can handwrite stuff, take a picture and send it to the athlete. If I draw a diagram with some arrows saying \u2018this is what I\u2019m trying to say\u2019 it\u2019s so much better and often I might ring afterwards and ask \u2018did you get that?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

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Alred has worked with a series of athletes, including England Rugby World Cup-winner Jonny Wilkinson and golf\u2019s Open champion, Francesco Molinari. His work with Wilkinson garnered international interest, while Molinari has experienced unprecedented success since teaming up with Alred, who will identify performance gaps, bring greater relevancy to their practice and instruct them in emotional regulation. Underpinning it all is trust.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I ask them to start off with is if you could change one thing what would it be? That\u2019s my starting point,\u201d he tells the Leaders Performance Institute.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always \u2018we\u2019 not \u2018you\u2019 and that\u2019s really important, whereas with most coaches it\u2019s \u2018you\u2019. As soon as you get that there\u2019s this directive and you know that the athlete, unless they\u2019re very confident, tends to just go back a little and say, \u2018OK, I\u2019ll just receive the information and in my own time sort it out and decide what I\u2019m going to use\u2019, whereas if it\u2019s \u2018we\u2019, \u2018if we can look at this slightly differently\u2019 then it\u2019s \u2018I like that, I\u2019ve never thought of that\u2019. I need the athlete to say \u2018I\u2019m trying to do this and the reason is\u2019 and then you have a chance to look at the thinking behind what they\u2019re doing and now you\u2019re really beginning to make a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

In reflection, the \u2018people industry\u2019 labels ring true and an athlete-centred approach must guide your specialist knowledge.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/div>\n \n \n \n <\/div>\n

\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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