A key role of the BUAFL Sport Science and Medical Commission is the provision of up-to-date sport science information for league as stated by Dr. Argent, BUAFL Head of Research and Development. Therefore my first action in the role of Performance Scientist for the commission, was a visit to the impressive Sportcity, Manchester, for a BASES (British Association Sport and Exercise Science) workshop on "Current and Future Applications of Performance Analysis in High Performance Sport."
BASES
BASES is the UK professional body for all interests in sport and exercise sciences. The aim of the association is to lead the promotion of excellence in sport and exercise science through four channels; biomechanics, physiology, psychology and interdisciplinary. Performance analysis is a sub-discipline that is used by each one of the mentioned channels.
Sportcity was originally constructed for the 2002 Commonwealth Games and is the largest concentration of sporting venues in Europe. Home to Manchester City Football Club, the National Squash Centre, Manchester Velodrome and Tennis Centre, the venue plays host to over 400 events each year. Due to the high concentration of elite athletes at Sportcity the EIS (English Institute of Sport) has based their North West department there, providing sport science support for over 25 Olympic and Paraolympic Sports.
The impressive venue was matched by the calibre of the attending delegates, three soccer clubs (Middlesbrough FC, Charlton FC, Watford FC), two county cricket clubs, London Irish Rugby FC, and a wholehost of university lecturers plus BUAFL!
Performance Analysis
Traditionally US American Football coaches have used performance analysis (PA) to analyse games, training and scouting. Wide Reciever coach, Brent Pease of Boise State was an example at the BAFA conference back in June, but in general these skills have only surfaced at a superficial level in the Britball game.
Performance analysis is the process of providing objective feedback to players and coaches to get positive improvements in performance. The workshop hosted by Stafford Murray (National Lead for Performance Analysis at the EIS) stated coaches often are able to correctly recall and feedback information with 30% accuracy, therefore a massive 70% of information is incorrectly analysed. Cue the Performance Analyst, whose role is to accurately feedback and answer questions posed by players, coaches through video analysis, notational analysis (written) and other means. Originally pioneered by Professor Mike Hughes (UWIC, National Performance Centre) in squash, PA has expanded into numerous sports.
Current Use
The day consisted of various lectures by EIS performance analysts working with various sports. Des Blackburn and Will Forbes provided interesting insight into how they set up performance analysis systems in two sports that had previously not used performance analysis. An important message was the relationship building between players, coaches, NGB and the PA staff. Will Forbes who works with GB Wrestling had to overcome initial reservations by GB Coaches (both Russians) that the EIS were not there to take control of the coaching but to facilitate. This is a message the BUAFL Sport Science and Medicine Commission strongly emphasize, to facilitate the coaching process.
University American Football along with Britball in general has a good habit of filiming and collating "game tape" unlike others which have had virtually none at all before the introduction of PA. Another aspect that became clear was the involvement of coaches in the PA process. GB Cycling head coach Matt Parker expressed how PA feedback helped him to tackle riders training with more specific strategies focused on improving their weaknesses and developing questions to examine opposition traits. Six months after the implentation of PA in GB Cycling the the "Track Pursuit" record (improved by milliseconds over ten years) was smashed by six seconds. Whilst this is an extreme example, the same magnitude of effect is definitley achievable in my view for Britball.
National Squash Coach, David Pearson, lead a practical session where instant display feedback from PA helped a young elite player improve his fore hand stroke to simulate that of British number one James Willstrop, within 20 minutes! The speed at which the players arm moved was so fast the naked eye could not identify the subtle change of the wrist during mid stroke. However video analysis identifed the weakness by overlaping the players movement with that of the GB number one and the coach used this information to demonstrate and alter the players stance, which lead to the correct wrist alignment. Consider your first year quarterbacks, how much improvement could be obtained with a similar system in training? American football is highly technical in nature, I believe the use of instant PA will massively assist the skill acquisition of the various positions within the very limited time available for BUAFL pre-season.
Future Use
Future applications of PA are very exciting, development of performance indicators in different sports, use of software and artifical intelligence for predicting opposition tendencies were some stated by Joe Taylor (GB Disability Swimming PA) whose Phd focused on PA methods in football. However one that impressed me immensely was a "Ghosting" training system that invloved players viewing a squash match and replicating what they saw. Performance indicators like heart rate and lactate levels indicated the players experienced match like conditions, with the benefit of learning the strategy of the players on the screen. This could be the next advancement in "walkthroughs" at practice for American Football, playing the opposition before the game has been played!
Links:
http://www.bases.org.uk/newsite/aboutbases.asp
http://www.sportcity-manchester.com/default.asp
http://www.eis2win.co.uk/gen/default.aspx