{"id":986,"date":"2019-12-19T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-12-19T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/reports\/how-the-evolving-demands-of-athletes-and-staff-are-influencing-the-latest-generation-of-training-environment\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T05:12:25","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T05:12:25","slug":"how-the-evolving-demands-of-athletes-and-staff-are-influencing-the-latest-generation-of-training-environment","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/how-the-evolving-demands-of-athletes-and-staff-are-influencing-the-latest-generation-of-training-environment\/","title":{"rendered":"How the Evolving Demands of Athletes and Staff Are Influencing the Latest Generation of Training Environment"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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\n Dec 19, 2019 <\/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

How the Evolving Demands of Athletes and Staff Are Influencing the Latest Generation of Training Environment<\/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 Human Performance<\/a>, Leadership & Culture<\/a> <\/div>\n
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https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/how-the-evolving-demands-of-athletes-and-staff-are-influencing-the-latest-generation-of-training-environment\/<\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/section>\n\n\n\n\n
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Whether it’s the NBA, UFC or European football, a simple court, ring or pitch is going to cut it any more.<\/p>\n \n \n \n

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The evolution of the athlete is often discussed in performance circles, usually in terms of how their characters and personalities differ from the previous generations.<\/h4>\n
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By John Portch<\/h6>\n

There is another notable change. \u201cClubs are more conscious of meeting players\u2019 requirements now because the players have more power these days,\u201d says Phil Osborne, a Director at AFL Architects who have worked on the training facilities at a series of Premier League clubs including Manchester United, Liverpool, Everton and Chelsea.<\/p>\n

Those player requirements range from the provision of centralised services to the desire to produce true working partnerships between staff and athletes.<\/p>\n

In this chapter we explore how those working spaces are evolving to meet the needs of those working at the thick end of elite sport.<\/p>\n

A simple basketball court won\u2019t cut it<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe NBA is more of a community now,\u201d says Art Horne of the Boston Celtics. \u201cThey\u2019re all friends on social media and like each other\u2019s posts; they all know what other players do and players know if they\u2019re not getting the best care.\u201d And so a modern NBA team will not get away with providing a mere practice court or a couple of hoops.<\/p>\n

The Celtics\u2019 state-of-the-art Auerbach Center, which opened in the summer of 2018, is a 70,000 square-foot training complex that boasts the latest in physical therapy and strength & conditioning facilities, as well as hydrotherapy pools, sleek dining areas and an in-house chef amongst its numerous modalities.<\/p>\n

There is nothing quite like it in the NBA but Horne and the Celtics believe that their complex, known locally as \u2018The Red House\u2019 in honour of their former player, Head Coach and General Manager, Arnold Jacob \u2018Red\u2019 Auerbach, complements the values of the modern player.<\/p>\n

The values of the modern athlete<\/strong><\/p>\n

To illustrate how players are evolving, Horne cites the example of a 14-year veteran who was traded to the Atlanta Hawks back when he served as the team\u2019s Head Athletic Trainer.<\/p>\n

He recalls: \u201cHe came in one day, said he had some pain and asked, \u2018hey, can I get this medication?\u2019 We were like, \u2018we don\u2019t really do that; let\u2019s take a look at you, let\u2019s do an exam and do some therapy and some hands-on work.\u2019 He said, \u2018that\u2019s kind of weird and at my old club they would give me medication and just send me on my way.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cPlayers now almost never want to take medication, they\u2019re very thoughtful to modalities; the treatments that they receive from our staff. They\u2019re super well-educated so they know what everyone around the league is doing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the past, players wouldn\u2019t work out but now everyone works out, including in the summer. They\u2019re much more aware of what is right or wrong; they understand that they must invest in their bodies and their body is an investment; they\u2019re way more interested in food, therapy, recovery, all of those things.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Celtics\u2019 Jay Wessland adds: \u201cAnd they seem to respond in kind \u2013 we\u2019ve definitely seen the players stick around and use the facility a lot more after-hours and off-season compared to the past. So the fact they\u2019ve got a nicer place and a full staff seems to be paying off because the players are working harder on their bodies and their games.\u201d<\/p>\n

Creating a one-stop-shop<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Celtics aim to provide a one-stop-shop for their athletes\u2019 needs and this idea is a major selling point for the UFC\u2019s state-of-the-art Performance Institute, which opened in Las Vegas in May 2017. The $12 million 30,000 square-feet facility was the first of its kind in mixed martial arts in aiming to bring together the different disciplines of what Duncan French calls \u201cthe decathlon of combat sports\u201d under one roof. The UFC\u2019s Vice President of Performance, Duncan French, says: \u201cThat\u2019s very novel to the sport of mixed martial arts, which is multidisciplinary and historically fighters would travel around a city to go and do their boxing in one area, and strength & conditioning in another gym, they\u2019d go and do their wrestling in another gym, and they might just use a local float tank or recovery centre.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re moving around and travelling about to find those capabilities, whereas here at the Performance Institute it\u2019s all under one roof and it truly maximises the experience and the efficiency.\u201d<\/p>\n

James Kimball, Vice President of Operations at the UFC, says that the Performance Institute\u2019s retention rate is over 70% and has proved to be a big hit with its rostered fighters, who are often awestruck at the facility at their disposal.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had to create a true global destination to where athletes on the roster, no matter where they resided, could only access the type of tools and modalities and capacities and abilities that exist in the Performance Institute and really nowhere else,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

The UFC\u2019s aim, he adds, was to: \u201cDrive the use and the engagement of the athlete, because all of the athletes on the roster are independent contractors not employees, which is very different from the typical team setting where performance staff know that athletes are coming into the building at a certain time each day, we don\u2019t have that luxury.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had to build something truly to where that athlete is not utilising that so at some point it becomes a competitive disadvantage.\u201d<\/p>\n

The two-storey facility in the south-west of Las Vegas has been constructed on the principle that it is, as French says, \u201can athlete-centred model that is facility-enabled and objectively-led.\u201d He adds: \u201cEvery hallway, corridor and room in the facility has been maximised for space and potential\u00a0 because we\u2019re really tapping into the whole spectrum of the performance paradigm; everything from warm-up and movement preparation to nutrition, to workout, to maximising strength work, conditioning, to looking at bespoke and custom competitive advantage, to looking at regeneration, recovery, fuelling and all those different type of things as you look on the pathway of performance. I think we check every single one of those boxes here at the Performance Institute.\u201d<\/p>\n

In June, the UFC opened a second facility in Shanghai, China, which at 93,000 square-feet is three times the size of its Las Vegas operation and will serve as both a hub for its Asian athletes and an academy for local talent. \u201cWe\u2019re actually taking that same model and dropping it into Mexico City,\u201d states Kimball, adding, \u201cWe\u2019re at the beginning stages of building out the same type of facility. That\u2019s the pathway of growth for performance institutes and for the UFC as a whole in terms of growing the athletic standing of our athletes and competitors.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Whether it’s the NBA, UFC or European football, a simple court, ring or pitch is going to cut it any more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":987,"menu_order":0,"template":"","categories":[21,20],"pathway":[],"topic":[],"sport":[],"class_list":["post-986","article","type-article","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-human-performance","category-leadership-culture-performance"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHow the Evolving Demands of Athletes and Staff Are Influencing the Latest Generation of Training Environment - Performance Institute<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/how-the-evolving-demands-of-athletes-and-staff-are-influencing-the-latest-generation-of-training-environment\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How the Evolving Demands of Athletes and Staff Are Influencing the Latest Generation of Training Environment - 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