{"id":2428,"date":"2020-06-15T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-06-15T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/vlogs\/virtual-leaders-meet-developing-a-team-of-teams-in-the-irfu-athletic-performance-model\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T05:20:04","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T05:20:04","slug":"virtual-leaders-meet-developing-a-team-of-teams-in-the-irfu-athletic-performance-model","status":"publish","type":"vlog","link":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/videos\/virtual-leaders-meet-developing-a-team-of-teams-in-the-irfu-athletic-performance-model\/","title":{"rendered":"Virtual Leaders Meet: Developing a Team of Teams In The IRFU Athletic Performance Model"},"content":{"rendered":"<!-- blocks\/hero-editorial -->\n<!-- inc\/hero-editorial -->\n<div class=\"hero es-hero__editorial hero--var-1\" role=\"banner\">\n\t<div class=\"hero__image\" style=\"background-image: url(https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/08\/Session-1-Image.jpg);\">\n\n\t\t<div class=\"hero__overlay grad-overlay content-bottom\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"container\">\n\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"hero__content\">\n                    \n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"hero__content__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t                            <p class=\"es-label es-label--md\">\n                                Jun 15, 2020                            <\/p>\n                        \t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/videos\" class=\"theme-dark hero__back-link back-link es-label es-label--sm\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"icon icon--md icon--arrow-left\"><\/span>Videos<\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<h1 class=\"hero__title\">Virtual Leaders Meet: Developing a Team of Teams In The IRFU Athletic Performance Model<\/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    <section class=\"es-section theme-light hero__sidebar-wrapper container\">\n        <div class=\"hero__sidebar\">\n                            <div class=\"category-list\">\n                  <div class=\"es-label es-label--sm\">Category<\/div>\n                  <a href=\"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/category\/human-performance\/\" rel=\"tag\">Human Performance<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/category\/summit-session\/\" rel=\"tag\">Summit Session<\/a>                <\/div>\n                            <div class=\"share-list\">\n                  <div class=\"es-label es-label--sm\">Share<\/div>\n                  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer\/sharer.php?u=https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/videos\/virtual-leaders-meet-developing-a-team-of-teams-in-the-irfu-athletic-performance-model\/\">Facebook<\/a>\n                  <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?url=https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/videos\/virtual-leaders-meet-developing-a-team-of-teams-in-the-irfu-athletic-performance-model\/&#038;text=Virtual Leaders Meet: Developing a Team of Teams In The IRFU Athletic Performance Model\">Twitter<\/a>\n                  <a href=\"mailto:?subject=Here's a Leaders In Sport article for you &amp;body=Check out this article: Virtual Leaders Meet: Developing a Team of Teams In The IRFU Athletic Performance Model. https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/videos\/virtual-leaders-meet-developing-a-team-of-teams-in-the-irfu-athletic-performance-model\/\">Email<\/a>\n                  <a href=\"#copyLink\" id=\"copyButton\" class=\"copy-link-clipboard\">Copy Link<\/a>\n                  <div id=\"textToCopy\" class=\"font-hidden\">https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/videos\/virtual-leaders-meet-developing-a-team-of-teams-in-the-irfu-athletic-performance-model\/<\/div>\n                <\/div>\n                    <\/div>\n    <\/section>\n<!-- blocks\/section -->\n<section\n  class=\"es-section flexible-section  text-only theme-light\"\n    >\n                <div class=\"container\">\n                                    <div class=\"bg-striped-pattern__inner section-padding-top section-padding-bottom\">\n                <div class=\"es-section__inner col-parent col-parent--stack-sm\">\n                                            <div class=\"es-section__sidebar es-section__sidebar--sticky col col--12 \">\n                            \n                                                                <div class=\"video video__inline\">\n                                        <iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"\" width=\"100%\" height=\"100%\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/423620269\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\"><\/iframe>\n                                    <\/div>\n                            \n                            \n                                                            <div class=\"es-section__text content-area\">\n                                    <p><p>For the first session of the Virtual Leaders Meet: Athletic Performance we heard from the Irish Rugby Football Union&#8217;s Head of Athletic Performance &amp; Science, Nick Winkelman, on approaches to developing a team of teams that are both competitors and collaborators. He also shared insight on working towards a common mission to be world-leading in the holistic development of the physical and mental qualities required to thrive within all codes.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Key Takeaways<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The IRFU have a unique challenge and opportunity in that we have to get four distinct teams, who are all competitors of one another, at specific time point throughout the year to come together; players from different coaches, athletic performance teams, medical teams and performance coaches; we need to knit four of those parties together to create one team. \u00a0Question: how do we optimise player performance and the autonomy that that team needs within the province but also have enough continuity and consistency to accelerate the ability to jell these players together when they pull on the green jersey.<\/li>\n<li>\u201cThat is my remit: I am not the bricks, I am not the wood \u2013 I am the nail, I am the mortar that connects things together. I see myself as the seamstress; I am trying to pull it together to create one story while respecting the autonomy, insights and entities of the four provinces.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>The IRFU want to operate as a team of teams, which allows us to operate four times faster, as we integrate contextually similar data or information across four environments. If we can dissolve all ego and get parties to share with one another I will be able to synthesise a three-to-one value. This egoless nature is a core value that nurtures this idea of a community of competitors idea.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>What are we doing that we can do better? Which is low-hanging fruit.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>What are we doing that we should stop doing? A current sub-optimal behaviour or technology.<\/li>\n<li>What are we not doing that we should stop doing? Introducing a new behaviour or technology.<\/li>\n<li>What are we doing that we should keep doing? We lock that in and shine up that diamond.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Answers came in three buckets:<\/p>\n<p>1. People &#8211; how do we develop our personnel? There are opportunities for provincial and national CPD<\/p>\n<p>2. Process &#8211; how do we efficiently support those people to synthesise, collect and apply key information that we use on a day to day basis to support athletic development?<\/p>\n<p>3. Place &#8211; the physical environment.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Then, every single staff member must maintain a professional development plan [PDP]. The focus is your personal development and your ability to contribute within the department. The IRFU Professional Development Model is a living document for which there\u2019s an equivalent provincial document that is reviewed year on year. The information collected from these events goes into a central database that enables us to build legacy beyond the people in the present is important.<\/li>\n<li>\u201cRather than tell people what to do we provide feedback on how they\u2019re doing it; and they\u2019re the one who owns the change around shared accountability.\u201d This creates national standards around language, technology, the flow of information and the process. The art of coaching is the act of adapting but we need constructs and systems to adapt within, particularly with four divergent teams. Having the right people looking at the right information at the right time enables us to support our players to a higher standard, providing anonymised data insights into similar performance contexts.<\/li>\n<li>We want to move towards a holistic picture where we\u2019re telling one story about a player; we\u2019re not there yet but we have set up robust information highway across the varied information sources. We\u2019ve added and extended the view of sports data science.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/p>\n                                <\/div>\n                            \n                            \n                            \n                                                    <\/div>\n                                        <div class=\"col visibly-hidden col--flex-align-right\">\n                                            <\/div>\n                <\/div>\n            <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n        <\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":2429,"menu_order":0,"template":"","categories":[21,33],"pathway":[],"topic":[],"sport":[],"class_list":["post-2428","vlog","type-vlog","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-human-performance","category-summit-session"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Virtual Leaders Meet: Developing a Team of Teams In The IRFU Athletic Performance Model - 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