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THE NEXT ARMS RACE IN COLLEGE ATHLETICS: REVOLUTIONIZING MEDICAL, PERFORMANCE, COACHING, AND WELL-BEING
To say it has been a chaotic time in college athletics is an understatement. As a period of historic disruption plays out on the front page, in the background a quieter transformational movement is also gaining momentum. This movement- emerging on the heels of a mandate from the Transformation Committee- represents an overdue call to action for modernizing mindset, models, and practices across medical, performance, coaching and well-being.
For decades, these critical areas of athletic departments have been lagging, growing without evolving. Today it’s clear they are moving to the top of the priority list, as athletes, coaches, administrators, and University leaders alike, recognize that performance on and off the playing field, begins here. Systemic change, not incremental reform, is needed. The current model is broken. Is it possible the next arms race in college athletics could play out here?
For those in tune with the world of performance beyond college athletics, the mandate to modernize (delivered this past Summer by the D1 Transformation Committee), was not a surprise. Across the landscape these areas have been quickly evolving. Influenced by international sport, North American professional sport has been adopting integrated models and deepening and broadening specialized expertise across the health and performance spectrum for over a decade. And National Governing Bodies (NGB’s) for Olympic sport in the U.S. have been transitioning toward a high-performance approach for almost two decades.
A high-performance approach (also known as a performance support model or integrated performance model) represents an interdisciplinary (or transdisciplinary) approach that unites all athlete support areas under a common umbrella in the spirit of seamlessly delivering evidence-based practices to optimize athlete/player care. These areas operate in synergy and independently at times, with a performance director orchestrating the “front lines” in a holistic and comprehensive manner toward common performance goals (Brocherie and Beard, 2021).
In the NFL, a performance support staff may include 12-15 full-time staff- sport scientists, physiologists, biomechanists, nutritionists, psychologists, strength and reconditioning coaches, physical therapists, athletic trainers and team physicians- under one umbrella and led by a high-performance director (Figure 1A). Beyond athlete care, the impetus for creating integrated performance models is assisting coaching/technical staff and front office staff with strategies to understand what winning looks like through analysis of key performance indicators (Halson et al, 2019).
Figure 1A: Example NFL Performance Support Model
Why does the integration of medical and performance services really matter? The answer lies in the critical link between athlete development, player availability, return-to-play (post-injury)) outcomes, competitive readiness, and ultimately, winning. Sports science and performance analytics have exploded in elite sport, and now sit (or should) at the epicenter of decision-making around these areas- providing objective data to advance sport-specific, gender-specific and individual-specific planning and programming.
On the reconditioning (rehab) front specifically, return-to-play (RTP) processes have traditionally been based on the application of the same fixed timelines for all athletes, led by medical providers. Today, criteria-based return-to-play processes, leveraging data from sport science technologies and managed by integrated teams of medical and performance practitioners, are guiding progressions and decisions. These objective processes (for the first time) acknowledge every athlete is different. They also ensure late-stage preparation- from movement profiles and conditioning capacities- is effectively organized to safely prepare each athlete to return to game demands. This represents a huge cost saving opportunity- in time and dollars.
From a coaching standpoint, years of data from wearables and/or optical tracking systems have led to new levels of understanding around game and position demands in many sports. Accordingly, there is now a need and an opportunity to apply this data to modernizing coaching- from practice planning to optimizing game day preparation and freshness. Tactical periodization strategies (using sport science data), though still relatively new in North American sport, are designed to integrate physical, technical, tactical, and psychological planning according to a head coach’s playing philosophy (or game model). This is the next frontier.
Though most media coverage focuses on pro sport, early adopters in college athletics have already had years to get ‘ahead of the curve’. At the University of Louisville, where the first sport science and performance analytics division (in NCAA) was created (in partnership with CATAPULT) in 2014, coaches had already been experimenting with sport science integration and tactical periodization for 5-7 years, and the impact on recruiting, player availability and competitive success was paying dividends. Today, Louisville continues to lead from the front with an integrated model and team that now includes a variety of academic and corporate partnerships to advance innovation and research and development efforts.
As leaders in college athletics rethink philosophy and recalibrate models and strategies to build for the future, looking outside their immediate campus gates for expertise and direction is essential. Though NIL collectives, revolving transfer portal doors, coach salaries, and rising cost of attendance issues are front and center, this quieter change management opportunity presents real potential for competitive advantage.
About the Authors:
Teena Murray is a consultant with The PICTOR Group. They are leading The High-Performance Project, a new division of The PICTOR Group, committed to future-focused organizational strategies for college athletics.
References:
Brocherie, F. & Beard, A.., All Alone We Go Faster, Together We Go Further: The Necessary Evolution of Professional and Elite Sporting Environment to Bridge the Gap Between Research and Practice. Frontiers, Jan. 2021.
Halson, S., Hahn, A., Coutts, A.. Combining Research with Support to Enhance Sport Performance. International Journal of Sports Physiology & Performance, May 2019.
