Sports Biometrics is excited to offer a selection of audio podcasts from a variety of well-respected authors that specialize in the athletic training and sports management fields. Podcasts are posted regularly, so check back often.
Here is the most recent podcast by Conference Advisory Board member and Founder of the GAIN professional development network Vern Gambetta. Vern is also president of Gambetta Sports Training Systems. Vern is recognized internationally as an expert in training and conditioning for sport having worked with world-class athletes and teams in a wide variety of sports. He is a popular speaker and writer on conditioning topics having lectured and conducted clinics in Canada, Japan, Egypt, Australia and Europe. Vern’s coaching experience spans 49 years at all levels of competition. His background is track & field, having coached at all levels of the sport. In addition, Vern served as the first director of the TAC Coaching Education Program, an innovative program designed to upgrade the standard of track and field coaching in the US. Episodes will appear here at the Sports Biometrics Conference site shortly after they are published by Vern.
Legendary coach Vern Gambetta coaches the best to be better. On the GAINcast he answers one question a week on training and coaching. The GAINcast is brought to you by the GAIN Network.
The best teams in the world aren’t just teams, they are systems. A system lends order and structure to enable the coach and athlete to focus on the process. It provides a framework to build on. On this week’s GAINcast we look at the power of systems, what makes a good system, and how systems fall apart.
3:30 – A historical look at systems: “If you look at the teams that are good, there is more to it than talent. They have a system.”
8:00 – Historical examples of systems and processes: “The best teams might not have the best technique, tactics, talent, or periodization. But what they do, they do well. They have a system to execute it to the best they can.”
13:00 – Staring to create a system: “By the time you finish your second year of coaching you should have the identifiable elements of a system defined. Then the rest of your career you are constantly refining those elements. Don’t be so rigid that you can’t modify them.”
15:45 – Key elements of a system: “Good systems are built on core values, progression, individualization, goals, and evaluation. They also have have a willingness to innovate; innovation comes around the edges, not in the core beliefs.”
19:15 – The athlete’s role in the system.
25:30 – Rigid systems and learning to adapt: “A system cannot be static. You have to be asking the questions that will get you better.
30:00 – Talent identification and development.
30:45 – Avoiding inbred systems.
This episode begins with some thoughts on learning before diving into some highlights from last week’s event in the GAIN Master Class Series on periodization and planning with Vern, myself, Nick Lumley, and Dan Noble. After the panel discussion, we take a look ahead at the next event with Keith Baar by revisiting our interview with him on GAINcast 177.
- 0:00 – Introduction
- 3:00 – Some initial thoughts on technology: “Often we are giving coaches cut flowers when we should be teaching them how to grow plants.”
- 6:00 – Has technology over promised and under delivered?
- 7:45 – Advances in measuring in game actions: “Good technology facilitates conversation between coach and athlete, rather than interfering with it.”
- 9:45 – The cost of technology: “There’s a fear of missing out, but you have to ask what is the cost to buy the technology, learn it, and use it. And what benefits it will bring. Then simply measure the return on investment.”
- 14:30 – Putting technology in the athletes hands without creating dependencies.
- 16:45 – Using technology without understanding it.
- 20:30 – Interpreting the data: “Data is meaningless unless you can put a dimension to the number. No matter how much technology you have, you still need the human element.”
- 22:15 – Ask the questions first: “Most people start with the technology and then figure out what to do with it. But you have to know what you questions you want answered before you go and start buying technology.”
- 26:30 – Driven by technology vs. informed by technology: “Technology should inform decisions not drive them. If you’re going to invest heavily in technology and science, you as a coach better invest heavily in learning the science and technology.”
- 28:00 – Final thoughts. / Marginal gains.
To hear more about these topics you can listen to the full episode above. If you like what you hear on the GAINcast, don’t forget to give us a review and subscribe on iTunes.
Gareth Sandford is a post-doctoral research fellow at Canadian Sport Institute Pacific. Sandford came to our attention with his doctoral work analyzing the 800-meter run. He traveled the world to dissect the event, coming up with some interesting and novel findings. He continues to support track and field, but also has a background across many sports and continents.
- 0:00 – Introduction and GAIN update
- 4:30 – Introduction to Gareth Sandford and the 800-meter run.
- 7:15 – Sandford’s background and current role.
- 11:45 – Summary of Sandford’s dissertation: “The 800m is thought of as primarily aerobic. There is an important aerobic part, but it is not just that. We have a good idea of the aerobic physiology of the 800 meters, but when we talk about the speed and neuromuscular side, there was no reference point.”
- 15:00 – Rethinking speed reserve and maximum sprint speed.
- 18:00 – Fatigue and freshness: “If you cannot maximally express force fresh and have the biomechanics to do that, then you won’t be able to beat them even if you start the race on the last lap.”
- 20:00 – The evolution of 800-meter tactics and physiology: “Championship finals used to have a slower first lap, which the physiology required is more similar to the 1500m. Over the last decade, tactics have been to go out hard and hold on. That requires different physiology.”
- 28:45 – Talent ID and development.
- 31:15 – Profiling athletes: “All the things that determine your aerobic capacity and maximum sprinting speed: how many of those things have we trained? And what are the current limiting factors to moving those things along?”
- 36:30 – Balancing speed and endurance work: “In sport, we end up in thinking it’s volume OR speed. The reality is the best programs are doing the best year-round, with a bit of a bias in one direction or the other.”
- 44:30 – Implications on strength and conditioning and learning how athletes express force.
- 50:30 – Training tactics, video analysis, and preparing for racing.
- 55:00 – Parallels to training in swimming and examples of developing a training model.
- 1:00:30 – Individualization in a large group environment.
- 1:04:15 – Influences from sprint research, team sports, and more.
To hear more about these topics you can listen to the full episode above. If you like what you hear on the GAINcast, don’t forget to give us a review and subscribe on iTunes.
You Had Me At Sabermetrics: A Conversation on Analytics in Sports with Bill James
Field of Dreams (and Data): A Conversation with Jonathan Kraft
Defend It Like Shane: A Conversation with Shane Battier
Join co-hosts Jessica Gelman and Daryl Morey as they team up with guest Shane Battier, Vice President of Basketball Development & Analytics, Miami Heat. Hear them discuss how Shane is applying lessons learned as a former player to analytics, quantifying culture and the unique way Coach K influenced it at Duke and a recap of Shane and Daryl’s legendary karaoke duet at Shane’s annual Battioke charity fundraiser for the Battier Take Charge Foundation.
The Sloan Sports Analytics Conferences invites you to join our Co-Founders and sports industry experts Daryl Morey (Head of Basketball Operations, Philadelphia 76ers) & Jessica Gelman (CEO, Kraft Analytics Group) as they host and chat with high-profile guests in the sports, media & entertainment space. Each episode will focus on demystifying and debunking the myths of analytics in sports, specifically, the dangers of using trash data to make decisions. Produced and edited by Jasonaduclos.
Pierina Merino: Bringing Digital and Physical Spaces Together
Written By Ronen Ainbinder
On today’s Halftime Snack, I’m snacking with Pierina Merino!
Pierina is a Venezuelan entrepreneur who’s innovating daily. She’s pushing the boundaries of technology to bring the physical and digital world closer together.
Her creative industry experience covers everything from designing architectural projects with one of the greatest architects of our time (Frank Gehry) to leading the design strategy for premium VR experiences for fashion brands.
Today, she is the founder and CEO of Flickplay. This platform combines immersive video technology with gaming tools to create a new and innovative experience.
We talked about creativity, working with Frank Gehry, Flickplay’s technology, and how the digital and physical spaces will coexist to create new social experiences in the future.
🗣Come snack with us!
Sports Loft works with the most exciting tech startups in sport and entertainment. Listen for our network’s insight into sport, entertainment, investment, and technology. Available as an Apple Podcast Series, the authors have given us permission to present this session.
Data & elite sports performance with Jesus Perez & Tal Brown of Zone7
Data plays an increasing role in elite sports performance management. We chatted to Jesus Perez, assistant manager to Mauricio Pochettino at Tottenham Hotspur for five years, and Zone7’s Tal Brown about data informed decision making. Both set out that context is king. Someone needs to analyze the data. Coaches, like Perez and Pochettino, are the point at which data sets merge and decisions are needed. If done well, clubs can save money because their players are not picking up wages while injured, estimated at £35m a year in the Premier League. They discuss how managers have to be held accountable for players getting injured if the data said they needed a rest. Tal said: “when I’m asked by investors in Silicon Valley ‘why are you in sports, it’s not a very big market? There are no sports teams in the Fortune 500.’ My answer is that if you want to create technology for human performance, you need data about it, and going back 2, 3, 4 years, the only industry that had this kind of data at scale consistently is sports.” Jesus discusses how he has used data to understand players and gives examples from his time at some of the biggest clubs in England and Spain.