Tom Joel, Talks through the importance of peak speed exposures.

Examining the purpose, applications and challenges of peak speed exposures, Tom provided a fascinating insight into the work that has been done at Leicester to implement and refine effective practices in this important area. 

  • Introduction (00:00) 
  • Why all the fuss about peak speed? (05:15) 
  • Leicester’s approach to peak speed exposures (07:04) 
  • How has Leicester’s approach changed over time? (17:42) 
  • What challenges have Leicester faced around peak speed? (36:03) 
  • What’s next? (43:08)

At a recent Catapult workshop at St George’s Park, Dr. Steve Barrett, First Team Lead Sport Scientist at Hull City Tigers, gave a presentation on injury risk reduction strategies in elite football. Providing an insight into the processes used at the highest levels of football, Steve’s presentation looked at a number of key topics, including: 

  • Can we really prevent injuries? (00:50) 
  • The importance of establishing clear goals for sports medicine and sports science departments (02:00) 
  • Key ways sports scientists can monitor performance to reduce the potential risk of injury to players (05:30) 
  • How injury risk reduction strategies can be put into practice during pre-season training (25:15)
  • Reviewing the effectiveness of processes and analysing results in the appropriate context (37:00)

Hear from Tom Page, Sports Scientist at West Bromwich Albion FC and PhD student at Liverpool John Moores University, about the research he is conducting into feedback strategies in elite football. Exploring the nature of feedback in football and discussing the findings from his research, Tom’s presentation provides a fascinating insight into how performance feedback is delivered and how strategies can be improved at the highest levels of the game. 

  • Introduction
  • Exploring Feedback
  • Designing & Implementing a Survey
  • Preliminary Findings
  • Discussion/Practical Applications
  • Next Steps 
  • Reflections

Catapult’s Rob Heyworth & Andrew Lombard discuss Vector Core.

Vector Core offers an easy to use system with powerful insights to help athlete’s perform better, reduce injuries, and recover faster.

The Vector X7 device leverages the same hardware and technology as our Vector S7, which has been proven by the best teams in the world and validated by 3rd party studies.

Chris talks through the design of return to training (RTT) programmes 

Some of the key topics in Chris’ presentation included: 

  • The financial cost of injuries (00:57) 
  • The evolution of sports science (01:37) 
  • Factors to consider when designing RTT and rehabilitation protocols (02:40) 
  • Understanding the environment you’re working in (11:38) 
  • Increasing player workload over time (12:50) 
  • The delivery of effective late-stage RTT programmes (15:20) 
  • Monitoring player rehabilitation in relation to the squad (21:15)
  • Summary (22:30)

Most performance staff in sporting environments have some responsibility to manage components of athlete load prescription.

This process is most effective when conducted using a blend of art (based on practitioner experience and expertise) and science (using training and match data).

This episode presents an overview of how load management can be conducted effectively in sporting environments

This episode explores how data from wearable technology can be used ‘forensically’ to explore key messages from athlete performances.

The importance of clear and simple communication of messages with end users (coaches and athletes) is emphasised.

Wearable technologies have evolved such that they create a huge number of metrics to describe athlete performance.

This can be somewhat confusing for practitioners and end users.

This episode strips metrics back to basics, and explores how they can fundamentally be used to describe two of the core pillars of training – volume and intensity

Chris Barnes discusses the term ‘load’ which is used across sport by a range of practitioners, often with different meaning.

This episode presents a simple model to describe load, and how it can be applied to athlete performance irrespective of sport or environment

Chris Barnes Wearable technologies have the capacity to create huge amounts of data.

However, in order to utilise this information efficiently and effectively, organisations should have clear workflows across departments.

Chris Barnes presents an overview of the benefits to be gained by organisations who invest in tracking technologies.

As well as the obvious performance benefits, ways to leverage value from data to promote dialogue between departments and organisations are explored.

Matt Reeves, Head of Fitness and Conditioning at Leicester City FC, provides a fascinating insight into some of the challenges congested fixture schedules pose to sports scientists. Going behind the scenes at the 2015/16 Premier League champions, Matt’s presentation looked at a range of interesting subjects, including: 

  • How pre-season demands can affect the conditioning of players
  • How additional games in-season can impact on squad training 
  • How Leicester City adapted their practice by adjusting to player needs
  • What Matt has learned regarding best practice over the last two seasons