improving sporting performance through science, … · specific examples include improving the...
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IMPROVING SPORTING PERFORMANCE THROUGH SCIENCE, MEDICINE & TECHNOLOGY
IMPROVING SPORTING PERFORMANCE THROUGHSCIENCE, MEDICINE AND TECHNOLOGY
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Jessica Ennis-Hill, 2012 Olympic champion, Heptathlon
“The support UKA is able to provide me through the EIS plays a key role in my day-to-day training as well as
competition. To have the edge in competition, you need to make sure you continually look to
improve every aspect of preparation and the EIS helps me make the most of
sport science and medical support in achieving that. ”
The EIS helps elite athletes to improve performance through the delivery of science, medicine, technology and engineering.
Our employees have more than 1,100 years of collective experience and work
across more than 10 areas of expertise to provide a range of sport science
and medical services to improve the health, fitness, training, preparation – and
ultimately the performance – of elite athletes.
We are the team behind many of Great Britain’s most successful sports and
our 300 employees deliver more than 4,000 hours of service a week to over
1,700 athletes. At the London Olympic & Paralympic Games we worked with
86% of the medallists and 27 of the 29 sports that won a medal for Team GB.
These include Jessica Ennis-Hill, Mo Farah, Sir Bradley Wiggins, Sir Chris Hoy,
Victoria Pendleton, Nicola Adams, Katherine Grainger, Ellie Simmonds, David
Weir, Alistair and Jonathan Brownlee, Louis Smith, Rebecca Adlington and the
women’s bronze medal winning hockey team.
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ENVIRONMENTS
PERFORMANCE
PRACTITIONERSQUALITY
CUTTING EDGE& APPLYING A INNOVATION
ACCE
SS TO
WOR
LD
LEAD
ING
EXPE
RTIS
E
SERVICE INTEGRATIONCONSULTATION
PERFORMANCE PLANNING
IDENTIFY &
DEVELOP TALENT
HEA
LTH
& W
ELLB
EING
IMPR
OVE
ATHL
ETE
PERF
ORM
ANCE
MAX
IMISE
COMPET
ITION
PROGRAMMES
OPTIMISE TRAINING
We also have a dedicated team of scientists that work with
coaches and Performance Directors to feed the pipeline
of new talent into sports. Delivered in partnership with
UK Sport, our talent development work activities aim to
identify, recruit and progress the most promising young
athletes and put in place the systems, pathways and
support to facilitate their transition from talented junior to
elite international performer.
The scale and infrastructure of the EIS, which is the
country’s largest provider of sport science, medicine and
technology, also provides a range of added-value benefits
to the sports we work with. These include access to
world-class performance environments, the opportunity to
connect with globally renowned experts, access to cutting
edge innovation and research programmes and working
on a day-to-day basis with teams of practitioners that are
continuously developing and improving their knowledge
through on-going education and training.
EIS practitioners help coaches and Performance Directors to improve the performance of their athletes by delivering services which enable them to optimise training programmes, maximise performance in competition and improve the health and wellbeing of their athletes. Services are delivered by teams of practitioners and supported by specialist Research & Innovation (R&I) programmes.
WHAT WE DO
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METHODOLOGY
SERV
ICE
PRIO
RITIE
S ADDED VALUE
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METHODOLOGY
Our job is to increase the probability of an athlete being
successful. Our approach to doing this is based on creating
a partnership with the sport whereby EIS practitioners
are embedded into the daily training routine of the
athletes to provide them with the science, medical and
technology support they need to achieve improvements in
performance.
Our relationships with a sport are headed-up by one
of our EIS Performance Leads. These are all experts in
their field and serve as the primary contact for a coach or
Performance Director whom they work with to develop a
Performance Partnership Plan for the sport.
The starting point of every Performance Partnership Plan
is to work with the head coach or Performance Director
and establish “what it takes to win” for their athletes. This
would be based on both the expert opinion of the coach
and analysis of the technical indicators required to be
successful in a particular event or discipline.
Once this has been set, the goal of winning is then broken
down into a prioritised plan to address optimisation of
training, preparation for competition and improving the
health and wellbeing of the athlete or squad. A series of
measurable technical indicators for each component of the
plan is identified to enable coaches and practitioners to
evaluate success and track progress.
At the EIS we think of ourselves as ‘the team behind the team’ and aim to provide sports, coaches and athletes with the best package of support, delivered by the best people in the best possible environment.
SCIENCE AND MEDICAL STAFF A combination of practitioners from a range of disciplines which may include sport medicine, physiotherapy, soft
tissue therapy, strength & conditioning, physiology, performance psychology, performance nutrition, performance
analysis, biomechanics, performance lifestyle and pathways.
ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY Equipment, technology and accessories that can be used to support practitioners as well as specific projects.
SUPPLEMENTARY SUPPORT & EXPERTISE Projects, expertise and education to address specific performance issues and supplement the day-to-day service
provided by practitioners.
The Performance Partnership Plan captures all the components (and accompanying technical indicators) and will typically be
made-up of all, or some combination of, these three elements:
Once the Performance Partnership Plan has been agreed a performance support team of practitioners works with the
athletes and coaches on a day-to-day basis at one of the nine EIS High Performance Centres or many partner sites. The EIS
also travels with teams to training camps and competitions at home and overseas.
Evaluation and monitoring are integral to the process. Technical indicators are consistently measured and the Performance
Partnership Plan reviewed to ensure it is delivering against its objectives and contributing to improvements in performance.
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Based on the approach set-out by the methodology, the services delivered by the EIS aim to help athletes and coaches to optimise training programmes, maximise competition day performance, improve athlete’s health and wellbeing and to identify and develop talent.
SERVICE PRIORITIES
3 IMPROVE ATHLETE HEALTH & WELLBEING
OPTIMISE TRAINING PROGRAMMES1MAXIMISE COMPETITION PERFORMANCE 2
IDENTIFY & DEVELOP TALENT 4
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OPTIMISE TRAINING PROGRAMMES
Our approach to training programmes aims to ensure
sports have the right level and blend of practitioner
expertise to enable their athletes to optimise training
and achieve the technical indicators required to deliver
improvements in performance.
Training programmes are delivered by performance
support teams; a group of practitioners, embedded into
sports under the leadership of a coach or Performance
Director, who work holistically to deliver performance
solutions.
For example, a training programme to increase an athlete’s
power may include input from a Strength & Conditioning
Coach, a Physiotherapist, a Nutritionist and a Physiologist.
This team’s knowledge and expertise would combine
to develop a regime that included exercises to improve
strength and power, advice and guidance on nutrition, pre-
habilitation work to protect those parts of the body that
will come under most strain and a system of monitoring
and measuring to assess the impact of the programme.
Services are delivered to athletes at EIS High Performance
Centres, numerous partner sites as well as at training
camps and competitions around the world. These may
include warm weather training or camps with athletes
from other countries, which are common in combat sports.
Ensuring athletes have a training programme which enables them to be in peak condition for major competitions is a critically important part of the services provided by the EIS to sports.
1EIS SERVICE PRIORITIES
It may also include taking athletes to train at altitude to
help their bodies acclimatise to conditions they expect
to face at a particular competition or as part of training
intervention to increase the mass of red blood cells
(haemoglobin) in the blood, which is particularly beneficial
in endurance sports. Alternatively these conditions can
be re-created in the EIS laboratories where physiologists
manipulate the training environment to replicate the
effects of altitude or reproduce the atmospheric conditions
that an athlete can expect to face in a competition
destination.
One example of this is our work with British Cycling where
Performance Analysts and Physiologists have teamed-
up to deploy a combination of video, GPS technology and
altitude simulation to replicate the experience of pedalling
the actual routes of road cycling events around the world
in the EIS laboratory at Sportcity in Manchester.
To ensure the EIS remains at the front of technological
development and training science our practitioners also
undertake research or work with the EIS Research &
Innovation team to run special projects to investigate new
ways of tackling particular performance issues. This has
led to numerous innovations that have helped to deliver
improvements in sporting performance over the years.
Specific examples include improving the aerodynamics of
bike design and the development of wrist splints for divers
which help to protect their joints when they hit the water
at high speeds.
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Working with our coaches is our sport science and medical team from the EIS. The team covers everything including medical issues and physio, strength and conditioning, nutrition, psychology, lifestyle and performance analysis and has been a massive factor in our success, giving our boxers a performance edge over their opponents.
Rob McCracken, Performance Director, GB Boxing
CASE STUDY: IMPROVING THE EFFICIENCY AND IMPACT OF ALTITUDE TRAINING ACROSS ENDURANCE SPORTS
Altitude training (>1800 meters above sea-level) is a
common part of many training programmes and aims to
improve performance by stimulating a condition known as
hypoxia which causes the body to increase the mass of red
blood cells (haemoglobin) in the blood. Increased levels of
haemoglobin improves the delivery of oxygen to muscles
and leads to better performance, particularly in endurance
sports that place a high priority on the body’s capability to
use oxygen to generate energy.
Whilst this process works for some athletes and can lead
to a high level of response, some find their response to
the stimulus provided by training at altitude is small or
negligible. These differences have placed a question mark
over the effectiveness and value of running altitude camps,
which are costly and fraught with logistical issues, and led
EIS scientists to look at ways to improve the efficiency and
impact of altitude training.
In the course of the 2009-13 Olympic cycle, physiologists
from the EIS worked on a range of projects to increase
understanding of altitude training which led to a significant
breakthrough in the development of a test using a carbon
monoxide re-breathing technique to enable scientists to
measure the amount of haemoglobin in an athlete’s blood.
This breakthrough was a step forward from previous
techniques that had only been able to measure the
“concentration” of haemoglobin in the blood rather than
the actual amount (“mass”).
The test works through a device which enables athletes
to breath and re-breath the same air. A low dose of
carbon monoxide is pumped into this and attaches
itself to some of the haemoglobin molecules creating
carboxyhaemoglobin. By measuring this, EIS physiologists
are able to accurately calculate the total mass of
haemoglobin in an athlete’s body.
This development has led to a step change in the EIS
understanding of altitude training for endurance sports
and means that physiologists are now able to measure the
amount of haemoglobin in an athlete’s body before and
after altitude training and thereby determine the extent to
which they are a ‘responder’ or ‘non responder’.
The insight has been applied across a number of
endurance sports, including athletics, triathlon, swimming
and cycling and means that coaches and Performance
Directors can now be far more precise and better informed
in planning their altitude strategies and move towards a
more individualised approach to this type of training which
reflects the physiological make-up of the athlete.
Simon Mills, Performance Development Manager, British
Triathlon, said: “Altitude training is a significant element
of our annual plan and it is important that we have the
right support to maximise the impact of this intervention.
Having more and better information about the science
behind altitude training and the performance gains our
athletes have made has been vital and has influenced
the way we have planned and delivered our altitude
programme.”
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MAXIMISE COMPETITION PERFORMANCE
Whereas optimising training is about helping athletes
to build-up to peak physical condition and get the best
long-term programme, our work to maximise competition
performance is focused on the specific detail of getting
things right on-the-day.
It covers a vast range of sports and types of contests
such as individual races (for example, athletics, swimming,
cycling or triathlon), team races (such as the majority
of rowing and canoeing events), races against the clock
(such as cycling time-trials and some equestrian events),
team matches (for example, hockey, rugby or football),
one-on-one contests (such as combat sports or games
such as squash, badminton and table-tennis) or skills-
based competitions against a field of athletes (for example
archery, shooting or athletics field events).
Services to maximise competition performance cover
physical, mental and tactical aspects of preparation and are
delivered by performance support teams of practitioners
who aim to ensure athletes are in the best possible
condition on competition day and have the capability to
find the extra one per cent that may be the difference
between winning and losing a medal. This area of work
may also be supplemented by technology and engineering
projects delivered by the EIS R&I team to improve kit and
equipment.
Enabling athletes to deliver winning performances in major tournaments and have the support they need to perform at their best in the heat of battle is one of the key objectives of the services provided by the EIS and as athletes get closer to major competitions this element of our service becomes more prominent.
2EIS SERVICE PRIORITIES
From a physical point of view, a key aspect of our service
is to help athletes taper their training regimes so they
remain in peak condition whilst reducing their training load.
Tapering strategies vary across sports and athletes and
our role is to advise on the best way to taper effectively
and, at the same time, adjust the service delivered to each
athlete to reflect their reduced workload.
Injury and illness prevention is also a critical element of
service as athletes move into the competition stages of
their regime. Practitioners will focus on pre-habilitation
work to protect those parts of the body most at risk of
injury and ensure that athletes are regularly monitored for
signs of illness or injury. Diets may be modified to reflect
a reduced training load yet ensure the athletes consume
the right amount and type of food to deliver the correct
nutritional balance they need to perform.
With most sports, some combination of an EIS
Physiotherapist, Nutritionist, Psychologist and a Doctor
will routinely travel to every major competition to ensure
consistent delivery of service and safeguard the health
and fitness of the athlete. This is common across the vast
majority of sports we work with and was the case at the
London 2012 Olympic Games where 46 EIS practitioners
were accredited members of Team GB working with the
athletes in the Olympic Village and 41 provided support
remotely by travelling into the Village on day passes.
PHYSICAL
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Services to help athletes manage the mental challenge
of delivering their best performance at the biggest
tournaments are primarily delivered by the EIS
Performance Psychologists who work with the athletes
throughout their training programmes to help them
develop the skills and capabilities to deal with a range of
situations and pressures.
Pressure training takes various forms and is focused on
helping athletes to find a way of managing stress and
preparing for events in a way that allows them to produce
their best. This involves helping athletes to work out
competition day routines that suit them and develop
mental “triggers” that enable them to manage pressure or
aid motivation.
Reducing distractions and leaving athletes free to focus
totally on performance is a critically important aspect of
mentally preparing for competition and our Psychologists
and Performance Lifestyle Advisors have developed
a range of practices to help athletes limit external
interferences.
Distraction was a particularly challenging performance
issue at London 2012 where the unique situation of
a home Olympics meant there was huge potential for
athletes to have their final preparations disrupted by
requests from those close to them. To help manage this,
the EIS performance lifestyle team worked with the British
Olympic Association (BOA) to deliver its “Friends & Family”
programme across more than 30 sports.
It involved hosting a series of workshops with athletes’
friends and families prior to the games to explain how
things would work during the Olympics. For each sport,
Performance Lifestyle Advisors were designated as central
contacts for family and friends to call if they wanted to
reach an athlete. In many cases, athletes were supplied
with new mobile phones for the duration of the Games
which meant they had more control over the people to
whom they spoke.
MENTALAnother way in which the EIS provides support to athletes
during competitions is through tactical insights and
the work of our Performance Analysts who use video
technology and data analysis to provide objective feedback
and data to coaches.
Performance Analysts work with coaches and athletes
throughout their training programme and their feedback
can be used to help develop technique. However, during
competitions their primary purpose is to provide feedback
and analysis on athletes and their opponents which can
be used to influence tactics in competition. These insights
can be used to highlight technical weaknesses in an
opponent, pick-up trends in judges’ scoring or identify parts
of a contest when an athlete or team is at its strongest
or weakest. This can be used to influence how an athlete
approaches contests against a particular opponent and can
often provide the extra one percent that is the difference
between winning and losing.
One sport where performance analysis is very important
is track cycling and the EIS has worked extensively with
the British Cycling team for a number of years. It has a
group of Performance Analysts that travel with the team
to all major tournaments around the world and provide
the coaches and the riders with real-time analysis of their
opponents that can be used to influence strategy and
tactics from race-to-race during competitions.
Sports that work with the EIS also have the opportunity
to access the R&I team which deploys leading-edge
technology, engineering and new research in science and
medicine to help British athletes achieve improvements in
performance.
The R&I team is closely aligned with the EIS performance
teams and works with them to help practitioners address
specific performance issues. The ambitious research and
development programme; looking at innovation in the
areas of training science, performance medicine, equipment
and coaching technologies, aims to achieve the marginal
improvements that can be the difference between winning
and losing a medal.
Examples of technology and engineering projects
developed by the R&I team to assist athletes include:
aerodynamic packages for cycling and winter sliding sports,
customised wheelchairs for paralympians and innovations
in boat and paddle design for aquatic sports.
TACTICAL
TECHNOLOGY & ENGINEERING
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Sport science and medicine are inextricably linked to performance and are areas that British Cycling has continued to embrace. However, analysis by
statistics and technology whilst important, are not as fundamental as their interpretation and the creative use of such information. Over the past 10 years the
EIS and Olympic sports have leapt ahead and are leading the way in the appliance of expertise and this
is down to the breadth of experts they employ.
Sir David Brailsford, Performance Director, British Cycling 2003-2014
CASE STUDY: HIGH INTENSITY WARM-UP OFFERS A PERFORMANCE EDGE TO MIDDLE DISTANCE RUNNERSAlthough the warm-up is an accepted part of the race day routine for elite athletes, very little scientific research into the efficacy of warm-up techniques exists, so in the course of the 2009-13, a group of Physiologists from EIS undertook a project to learn more about this area of performance.
In track athletic running events athletes typically employ a warm-up procedure that includes low intensity jogging, mobilisation exercises and short duration fast running ‘strides’. The study aimed to compare this approach to warming-up for a middle distance race with a higher intensity ‘priming’ warm-up and test the theory that a sustained bout of high intensity exercise could enhance performance.
The sample was based on a group of 11 (7 male, 4 female) well-trained, middle distance runners of national and international standard who were asked to complete two 800 metre time-trials on separate days on an indoor track preceded by two different warm-up procedures.
In the first instance, the 800 metre time trial was preceded by a traditional warm-up comprised of 10 minute self-paced jog and standardised mobility drills, followed by 6x50 metre ‘strides’. The second, the warm-up comprised of a 10 minute self paced jog and standardised mobility drills, followed or 2 x 50 metre strides and a continuous high intensity 200 metre run at race pace. Blood lactate was measured before the time trials and VO2 max was measured breath-by-breath throughout exercise.
The results showed that the second, higher intensity, ‘priming’ warm-up appeared to be more effective and improved stimulated performance in high-level track athletes, particularly in the latter part of the race, and has allowed athletes and their coaches to explore whether their current warm-up procedures provide optimal preparation.
“We wanted to find out if you could adapt what you do in the warm-up to see if it could enhance the physiological responses during performance and in turn if this could improve performance,” explained Dr Steve Ingham from the English Institute of Sport, who worked on the study with colleagues, Dr Barry Fudge and Dr Jamie Pringle, along with Andrew Jones from the University of Exeter.
“The protocol was specifically designed to mimic the routine of an athlete at a major competition, whereby an athlete would undertake the main body of their warm-up but then find themselves in a holding area for between 20 to 30 minutes immediately prior to competition. This study held the athletes for 20 minutes to simulate the call-room conditions. The warm-up methods were also moulded to get the physiological systems up and running but that they would be still switched on after the simulated holding period.
“Performance was faster in the primed athletes, their oxygen uptake during the 800m race was greater, and interestingly the racing profile showed that the athletes fatigued less in the final 200-400m of the trial compared with a traditional warm-up. Whilst the magnitude of the improvement might seem small 1.2 seconds (or approximately 1%), this would translate to 6 to 8 metres difference in a race.”
The findings represent a significant insight into the potential impact of warm-up routines on performance in middle distance running along with other similar sports that require a combination of speed and endurance. EIS scientists are continuing to work with a number of athletics coaches on implementing the findings from this research and have also shared them with a range of other Olympic sports that may benefit from the findings.
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Penalty corners represent a significant scoring opportunity
in hockey and frequently account for more than a third of
all goals scored in a tournament.
Improving the conversion rate of penalty corners has
the potential to make a significant improvement in
performance and in their work with the women’s
GB Hockey team, an EIS performance analyst and
biomechanist have developed a method to help the team
improve the technique of its players in this part of the
game.
Using video analysis technology, the pair deployed cutting
edge 3D SIMI motion software to analyse the technique
of the players when executing the drag flick, which is a
specialist scoring shot used during penalty corners.
Working with a small group of players, Alistair and
Matthew used two high speed cameras to film the players
and obtain 3D footage which could then be digitised so that
it showed the chain of movements through the legs, arms
and the stick.
It enabled them to show the athletes what they were
doing in great detail and with the help of their coaches they
looked at ways of refining their technique to maximise the
power they could generate when striking the ball.
The players were re-tested at six-week intervals over a six
month period to monitor progress and ensure they were
integrating the refinements into their technique on match
days.
The Women’s Assistant Coach, Karen Brown, said “The drag
flick is a very important skill in hockey and the 3D analysis
work we did with the players allowed them to make
some small alterations to their technique which not only
improved it and gave them greater power, but also gave
them confidence that they were executing the technique
correctly.”
The importance of penalty goals and working hard to
improve the players’ technique was validated in the
critical third and fourth place play-off at the London 2012
Olympics when Great Britain’s women defeated New
Zealand 3-1. All three goals can from penalty corners as
Great Britain converted three of the six penalty corners
they won in the course of the match. Speaking after the
game, the scorer of Great Britain’s second goal, Crista
Cullen, said: “We’ve got one of the best penalty corner
routines here at this tournament. We just had to keep
winning them.”
PENALTY CORNER ANALYSIS HELPS HOCKEY HIT THE TARGET
CASE STUDY:
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IMPROVE ATHLETE HEALTH & WELLBEING
Research and analysis into understanding when athletes
are most susceptible to injury is critical to this and
underpins the day-to-day work of practitioners in helping
to maximise athlete health and minimise days lost to
injury.
Much of this work focuses on prevention and developing
techniques and interventions that reduce the incidence of
‘preventable’ injuries and illnesses. Services are delivered
by inter-disciplinary teams of practitioners and take a
whole-body approach with a focus on pre-habilitation work
to make the athlete as robust as possible by strengthening
those parts of the body which come under most stress.
These will vary from sport to sport so the regime for a
swimmer will be very different to that of a cyclist or a long
jumper. Monitoring by physiologists, who run tests to
measure how the body is responding to training regimes
and environments, also provides intelligence and can act
as an early warning sign which enables practitioners and
coaches to detect signs of injury or illness and take steps
to prevent this worsening.
Injury prevention techniques also include sport specific
interventions designed to address particular types of
injury risk that may be peculiar to a sport. For example,
in the 2009-13 Olympic cycle, the EIS Physiotherapist and
Doctor that work with the GB Boxing squad developed and
implemented a new way for the boxers to wrap their hands
that led to a significant drop in the number of hand injuries
sustained by the athletes.
When injuries do occur the EIS has developed an approach
to intensive rehabilitation that has shortened the time it
takes to recover and return to high performance training
and elite-level competition.
This has delivered a significant performance benefit to a
range of sports both by reducing the number of training
days lost to injury and in a series of ‘race against time’
situations where individuals have been able to return
to fitness in time to compete or be selected for major
championships.
Injury and illness are two of the biggest factors that prevent athletes from achieving improvements in performance. They result in a loss of training days and cause athletes to miss major championships, so one of the most important areas of service provided by the EIS practitioners is our work to improve health and wellbeing and to reduce the incidence and protraction of injuries.
3EIS SERVICE PRIORITIES
This form of rehabilitation is based on developing an
individualised methodology for treating the athlete and
a multi-disciplinary, whole-body approach to treatment.
It incorporates a wide range of experts from the first
consultation, typically including a Doctor, Physiotherapist,
Strength & Conditioning coach and a Physiologist. As the
athlete recovers, the team will be expanded to include a
Performance Psychologist and a Performance Nutritionist
to support the athlete’s mental well-being and ensure their
diet reflects their rehabilitation needs.
The rehabilitation method is solutions-based and aims to
identify the specific problems an athlete faces and agree
the ‘solutions’ to overcome these along with the metrics
and objective indicators that can be used to track progress.
The process of rehabilitation is delivered intensively
whereby the athlete’s treatment schedule is rigorously
timetabled from morning until evening over a period of
weeks and months to allow for work on every aspect of
their recovery in a series of 30 minute sessions.
As part of its rehabilitation services, the EIS funds and
manages the Team GB Intensive Rehabilitation Unit (IRU)
at Bisham Abbey in partnership with the British Olympic
Association (BOA). The IRU is a world-leading facility
designed to support athlete rehabilitation which provides
a residential service for athletes to work solely on recovery
and rehabilitation away from the pressures of their usual
training environment. It works in partnership with EIS
Doctors and practitioners from across the network and is
staffed by a full-time rehabilitation manager, Physiologist,
Physiotherapist and Strength & Conditioning coach.
By providing the opportunity for athletes to live on-site for
weeks at a time, the IRU allows individuals to spend more
hours working on rehabilitation which enables them to
work more intensely with practitioners on a one-to-one
basis as the athlete to practitioner ratio is much smaller
than those at a traditional training camp or performance
centre.
Feedback from athletes that have spent time recovering
at the IRU is extremely positive and the facility has an
excellent track record of shortening the time it takes
athletes to recover from injury or surgery and return safely
to high performance training and competing at an elite
level.
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I wanted to get back into training as soon as possible, my coach and the physiotherapist (Emma Deakin from the EIS) looked at the options for me to get running but at a reduced load and the underwater treadmill came up. Although I needed more physiotherapy and have had to adapt my training whilst I recovered, I was able to train across all three disciplines.
The professional set up of the sport and the medical team at British Gymnastics now is amazing. When I suffered my knee injury ahead of London I thought it was the end. But, within 48 hours I’d had a scan and was lined up for surgery – when I first started Gymnastics I remember it could take weeks even to get a scan. Every moment of my week was planned around my rehab and training.
Alistair Brownlee, 2012 Olympic champion, Triathlon
Beth Tweddle, 2012 Olympic bronze medallist, Gymnastics
CASE STUDY: INTENSIVE REHABILITATION WINS RACE AGAINST TIME TO SECURE A GOLD MEDAL
In March 2011, slalom canoeist, Etienne Stott, suffered a traumatic dislocation of his shoulder. It came less than six months before the world championship which was also the final qualifying event for London 2012 and plunged him into a race against time to recover and return to competition to compete in the Olympic qualifier.
From the moment the accident happened speed was of the essence and because British Canoeing was supported by a team of EIS practitioners, it meant the process of recovery and rehabilitation could begin immediately. An EIS Sports Physician, accompanied Etienne to the hospital where his shoulder was relocated and an EIS Physiotherapist, booked him in for surgery with a leading shoulder specialist. Normally this type of injury would warrant at least 12 weeks out of the water followed by a gradual return to training, however, with just 20 weeks to go until the world championship selection, a plan was developed to help shorten the period of rehabilitation and enable Etienne to return to full training in time to prove his fitness for world championship selection.
A team of practitioners including a Physiotherapist, a Strength & Conditioning Coach and a Nutritionist worked with the Doctors to develop a recovery plan based on physio sessions to mobilise the shoulder, gym work, which began two weeks after the operation under careful limits, and nutrition support. An external sports psychologist was also part of the team.
Progress was good and once Etienne began to recover and regain strength in his shoulder he went to the Team GB – Intensive Rehabilitation Unit at Bisham Abbey where he spent two-weeks at the residential facility working solely on all aspects of rehabilitation.
By the time Stott returned he was already back on the water just 10 ½ weeks since his operation and nearly two weeks ahead of schedule. He went on to prove his fitness for selection and at the world championships in Slovakia in September 2011 Etienne and Tim Baillie won a bronze medal and secured Olympic qualification. The pair topped this at London 2012 winning gold in the Canoe Slalom C2.
Etienne said: “The speed at which everything came together was crucial not just in terms of my physical recovery, but also my state of mind. It was ambitious, but in my mind it had to be done and I trusted my support. The plan was managed really well so that I was always raring to move on to the next stage of rehabilitation, whilst great care was taken at every level to ensure there were no setbacks along the way. I had clear goals and always understood exactly where I was on the plan, so I always felt I was moving forwards.”
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IDENTIFY AND DEVELOP TALENT
Working in conjunction with UK Sport, our activities are
delivered by a team of sport scientists that focus on talent
development and provide a series of services covering
technical support and education, benchmarking, research
and recruitment campaigns to help sports and national
governing bodies (NGBs) improve their performance
pathways.
Technical support for pathway managers and coaches
includes a bespoke education programme comprised of
residential workshops and international study visits to
enhance understanding of talent development and building
world leading performance pathways. The workshops
feature guest speakers with a proven track-record in talent
development and look at a range of topics such as athlete
profiling, tracking and benchmarking, and optimising talent
development environments.
Benchmarking and helping sports to establish objective
indicators that enable them to measure and compare
the capabilities of athletes is a critically important part
of talent development. Our sport science professionals
have developed a series of specialist diagnostic tools to
support and inform this aspect of the talent process and
deploy them to help sports benchmark their performance
pathways and develop systems to measure the capabilities
of their athletes.
Whereas the other EIS service priorities are concentrated on helping to improve the performance of elite athletes already on world class performance programmes, this aspect of our work is more focused on the longer term and aims to create systems to deliver on-going, sustained success by developing pathways to identify and nurture future talent and facilitate its progression through the high performance system.
4EIS SERVICE PRIORITIES
Other services include research projects to investigate
key issues and provide sports with insights and a greater
understanding of the route to excellence in elite sport.
We also help sports to identify and enlist new talent and
have run a series of national recruitment campaigns.
The campaigns have traditionally focused on identifying
key sporting characteristics indicative of future potential
through a multi-phased assessment and trialling process
and have assessed more than 7,000 athletes since 2007.
Over 100 athletes recruited through these talent
campaigns have been selected to participate in a world
class talent development programme in sports including
rowing, canoeing and taekwondo. These athletes have
made over 300 international appearances and won more
than 100 international medals including one gold, one silver
and a bronze at the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic
Games.
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Four years ago Helen Glover had never even stepped foot in a rowing boat. Yesterday she stood by the waterside in Eton Dorney clutching one of Britain’s first two gold medals. None of it would have been possible had the Truro-based teacher not taken the spontaneous decision to respond to an advert seeking unusually tall and fit people to become potential Olympic athletes.....as part of the “Sporting Giants” scheme.
The Independent, 2 August 2012
CASE STUDY: SPORTING GIANT TURNS GOLDEN GIRL THANKS TO TALENT DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME
Rower, Helen Glover is one of the biggest success stories of our talent development work and won a gold medal in women’s coxless pair at the London 2012 Olympics, after being recruited into the sport in 2008 as part of the Sporting Giants Campaign.
Helen grew up in Penzance and played a range of sports from an early age. By the age of 14 she was playing hockey for the England satellite squad and was the captain of her county team. She also swam competitively and played tennis to a high standard. When she left school, Helen decided to pursue her love of sport by taking a degree in Sport and Exercise science at the University of Wales and pursuing a career as a PE teacher.
Her career path changed in 2008 when she responded to an advert to try-out for the Sport Giants campaign. The campaign aimed to discover young people who could be fast-tracked into sports, particularly rowing, handball and volleyball. The basic criteria was that candidates must be tall, a minimum of 6ft 3in for men and 5ft 11in for women, be between 16 and 25 and have some sort of athletic background.
Thousands attended the day, which included a series of tests to determine the athletic capability of the respondents. Despite having never having rowed in her life, Helen exhibited many of the traits required to be an elite rower and in 2008 she was placed onto GB Rowing’s Start programme in Bath where she was coached by Paul Stannard.
Helen’s progress was rapid and in 2009 she won gold in the senior single scull at Henley. In 2010 she delivered a breakthrough performance, along with crewmate Heather Stanning, in the women’s pair by doggedly hanging on to the coat-tails of the reigning champions from New Zealand to win a silver medal in the World Championships. The pair followed this up with gold in the 2011 World Cup series in Munich and a victory over the world champions from New Zealand in the final World Cup event in Lucerne.
Two more victories in Belgrade and Lucerne in the first two World Cup events of 2012 meant they approached London in confident mood and Helen and Heather did not disappoint at the Olympic Games when they memorably took gold at Eton Dornay, less than five years after Helen had first taken-up the sport.
Helen recalled: “I remember sitting in a room in Bisham Abbey and someone saying: ‘A gold medallist in 2012 could be sat in this room. Look around you’. I thought: ‘Right, I’m going to make that me’.”
She added: “I hope my story can be an inspiration for kids in PE or at home thinking about taking up a new sport. Just go on, go for it - you don’t know what’s going to happen.”
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As the country’s largest provider of sport science, medicine and technology with more than 300 employees the EIS has a scale and infrastructure which enables the athletes, coaches and NGBs we work with to secure a range of added value benefits in the form of world-class performance environments, continually developing practitioners, access to world-leading expertise and cutting edge innovation.
Better facilities and support from the EIS, on everything from nutrition to performance analysis, has moved us from being ranked seventh in the world to a team achieving bronze at the Olympics.
“The new gym will be a significant improvement on the previous set-up. It will be great to work in a gym that has been purpose-built for the needs of high performance athletes and I am sure it will be inspiring for all of us to train in an environment where we will be surrounded by elite athletes from other sports.”
Hannah MacLeod, GB Hockey Olympic bronze medallist
Michael Jamieson,200 metres breaststroke silver medallist
Through its network of nine High Performance Centres
across England, the EIS is able to provide athletes and
coaches with access to high quality facilities that are
specifically designed for elite athletes.
Our sites are operated in conjunction with a range of
partners, including Sport England, local authorities
and Universities. Many of these have benefitted from
significant financial investment in recent years and mean
that athletes and coaches are able to train and work in
world-class facilities which include a range of features
specifically designed for elite performers such as high
performance gyms, physiology laboratories, medical and
physiotherapy facilities, performance analysis suites and a
vast array of technology and equipment.
All of our Performance Analysts and Biomechanists are
supplied with leading-edge, high speed technology which
they use to support their work and provide coaches and
athletes with access to thousands-of-pounds-worth of
technology and kit. Through our R&I team we also run
special projects to look at news ways of using technology
or develop new products and kit that have the potential to
improve performance.
PERFORMANCE ENVIRONMENTS
ADDED VALUE
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Our employees have more than 1,100 years of collective
experience in the delivery of performance impacting sport
science, medicine, technology and engineering to elite
sport. Our experts have worked with hundreds of Olympic
medallists and more than three quarters of our staff have
worked at one or more summer Olympic Games. The EIS
medical expertise is world-class with 18 of our 22 Sport
and Exercise Physicians are on the General Medical Council
(GMC) specialist register.
Continuously developing the expertise and capabilities of
our practitioners is critical to the ongoing success of the
organisation and we place a great deal of emphasis on
creating opportunities for EIS employees at all levels to
extend their knowledge and expertise and, at the same
time, acquire the skills required to have a successful career
in high performance sport.
New joiners are provided with a tailored induction
programme designed to suit the particular requirements
of the sport and the athletes they work with. This is
especially important for younger practitioners, or those in
their first or second job, who may have less experience of
the specific demands of working with high performance
athletes and coaches on a day-to-day basis.
Numerous further opportunities for continuous personal
development exist through on-the-job learning, mentoring,
access to technology, equipment and expertise and the EIS
National Conference. This is an annual, two-day event that
brings together all of our employees and creates a platform
to share knowledge, best practice and new insights
and ideas. Together with other team focused learning
experiences, such as our programme of workshops,
forums and symposia, it helps to build and solidify the
connectivity between the network of practitioners and
create opportunities to share and scrutinise case work and
new innovations in the practice and application ofscience,
medicine, technology and engineering in sport.
Beyond these in-house opportunities, EIS practitioners
are also encouraged to continue their professional and
academic development through publishing research
or pursuing further qualifications. Financial support is
available for both and the EIS currently has a number
practitioners developing research projects into a diverse
range of areas including tapering strategies, adaptation,
pressure training and the role of nutrition in strengthening
bones and reducing injury.
QUALITY PRACTITIONERS
35 members of staff are currently enrolled in an MSc or
PhD. Since 2010, four practitioners have completed a PhD
or MSc and three have secured the IOC Diploma in Sports
Nutrition.
Underpinning all of this, the EIS aims to foster a culture
of continuous learning and personal development. We
are improving the systems we have in place to collect,
share and disseminate leading-edge thinking and practice
across all areas of expertise. This ensures practitioners
have access to the latest developments in sport science
and sport medicine in both their own area of expertise and
those with cross-disciplinary applications.
Our employees are also given opportunities to attend and
speak at conferences and events around the world and
develop relations with globally-renowned experts. This
culture of personal development combined with a rigorous
focus on professional advancement brings huge benefits to
the athletes and coaches we work with and provides them
with on-going access to practitioners that are continually
developing their capabilities and increasing the level of
expertise they are able to provide to sports and NGBs.
In addition to our 300 employees the EIS also has links
with a host of external associates which provide the
organisation with access to an unrivalled level of expertise
on sport science, medicine, technology and engineering.
It enables practitioners to seek advice, share knowledge
and call-upon expertise from inside and outside of
the organisation to help address issues and develop
performance solutions.
This includes access to a team of Special Advisors and the
EIS’s Technical Advisory Group (TAG) which was established
in 2013. The TAG is a collection of world-renowned experts
from high performance sport and provides technical
support and advice to the Board of the EIS and our
practitioners. It acts as a strategic sounding board for the
organisation and provides connections and access to other
world-leading networks, institutions and individuals that
practitioners can contact for help and advice.
Whether it’s innovative research, unique collaborations or
developments through the EIS R&I team, sports working
with the EIS benefit from its ongoing drive to stay at the
forefront of science, medicine, technology and engineering
to improve sporting performances.
The R&I team is closely aligned with the EIS performance
teams and works with them to help practitioners address
specific performance issues or deploy technology and
engineering to develop kit, equipment or new approaches
to help athletes achieve the tiny improvements in
performance that can be the difference between winning
and losing.
All projects delivered by the R&I team are performance-led
and the scope of work covers anything from the research,
design and development of a new piece of equipment to
new research to help better understand specific issues and
achieve breakthroughs in training science, performance
medicine and coaching equipment and technologies.
ACCESS TO WORLD-LEADING EXPERTISE
CUTTING EDGE INNOVATION
300Employees
LONDON 2012 OLYMPIC AND PARALYMPIC GAMES
Delivering more than with over
The EIS worked with...
These include:
Jessica Ennis-Hill Sir Bradley Wiggins Ellie SimmondsDavid Weir Mo Farah
hours of service per week years collective experience4000 1100
86%of Medallists
27/29 of medal winning sports
ENGLISH INSTITUTE OF SPORTNational Office
SportcityGate 13, Rowsley Street
Manchester, M11 3FFTel: +44 (0)870 759 0400
www.eis2win.co.uk [email protected]