Reflections on Starting a Sports Science Department

Sports science is not a new field, if anything, it has been an unexplored field for many of the sports in America. Coaching staffs and administrators have always asked the questions:

“How do we win?”

“How can we train better?”

“Why are our athletes getting tired after week three?”

“Why did this training style work?”

Etc.

And for the most part, many coaches would figure out the answers to these questions on their own while resear

chers struggled to catch up to them and understand these same questions. But now due to the constant arms race and desire to win, coaches don’t have the opportunity to spend years fine tuning their reasons and understanding. Being able to potentially answer these questions and directly impact performance is a flashy ability that everyone desires. As a result, being the first person to venture down this path can go from a dream to a nightmare within a week if you are not careful. To avoid this, here is a brief outline I used when I came to Auburn as th

eir first Director of Sports Science.

1) Clearly outline your short-, mid-, and long-term goals and how you get there

Building a sports science department is no easy task. Frankly, it is going to take a lot of effort, especially building it from the ground up. Once you begin, you will have to manage expectations from your supervisors, coaches, and coworkers. As the person doing the work, you are the only one that truly understands how much time it will take to establish standard operating procedures, data pipelines, databases, and communication lines. As a result, establish a realistic timeline. Will you start with microscopic perspective with the goal of truly understanding the needs of a few sports? Will you start with a macroscopic perspective and implement basic strategies for every sport and slowly delve into each one as time goes on? Where do you want the department to be heading at the end of year one? Only you can give these answers based on your abilities.

2) Manage expectations and your time

One thing I remember being told was that for the first 90 days, I would be working 18 hours a day setting everything up because I would be bombarded with needs and questions. I did not believe it and I have never been so wrong. This came from the combination of “shiny new toy syndrome” and having to build everything from the ground up. My first month was spent building a database for every teams’ data, educating the staff on metrics and data hygiene, identifying what KPI’s to use, retrospective analysis, etc. I was doing this while simultaneously fielding requests from every coach around me. In the end, I developed a hierarchy and calendar. If you wanted a meeting with me, you had to schedule it, describe your question/idea so I knew what to expect, and give me a timeframe for completion. Additionally, I shifted my focus to the teams that were in season with the out of season teams being scheduled for after my daily work for in season teams. The implementation of both this calendar and specific focus allowed me to develop extremely in-depth systems and reports for a few teams that have the potential to scale to every team and do this within a regular workday.

3) Develop a culture of curiosity

One of the other issues I faced while beginning in this role was that people didn’t really know what they wanted or what to ask for. During my interview, I constantly brought up the idea that the job of a sports scientist will be limited by their abilities as well as the questions and problems

they are brought. In a sense, a sports scientist is a problem solver. That means only problems that are brought to them can be answered or researched, and nobody was bringing me problems to solve.

To begin the process of developing this culture, conversations and face time are key. Most of the questions I have been b

rought have come from normal or passing conversations where a coach says “I just don’t understand, this is our third oblique strain this month” or “I wish we could find out who is developmental and who will be an output player.” This opens the door for further questions about context, and from there you get a problem to solve and more questions that come from each solution.

4) Forward Facing Feedback

Just like a member of the coaching staff, a sports scientist is only successful when the administration, sports medicine, athletes, and coaches buy-in. At times we might feel like we are the driver of the car, but we need to remember that we are what keeps them on track to their destination. That means everything we do has to be forward facing when it comes to feedback. If our reports and analyses only make sense to us, but provide no practical utility to any of the staff around us, what value will we bring to them?

To put it simply, we must be vulnerable and open about what we are doing. If an athlete won’t fill out a questionnaire

because it takes too long, we need to hear this feedback and adjust what we are doing accordingly. If a coach has no interest in app

lying what we provide, we must adjust to their needs while still relaying practical and impactful information. By hearing this feedback and adjusting, we can then create an environment around us that is open, communicative, and progressive.

I know for many reading this, it will seem myopic and intuitive. Theoretically it is both of those things, but realistically, these four basic ideas are what has helped me establish the role and culture I am currently in as well as push for progress at a rapid rate.