Week 11 - Sir Alex Ferguson: Greatest High Performance Manager of All Time?

Week 10 - Lifestyle and Player Management: Life After Sports mindmap

Week 12 - Accreditation in Sports Science mindmap

Reflective blog post - Sports drugs tempt teens

One in 12 interviewed in an Australian study conducted for the World Anti-Doping Agency said they intended to use drugs to lift their performance, and many others might use them but were undecided. Do you think this is an ethical problem? Why or why not? How can a HPSM organisation best education their athletes on drug enhancement in sport?

Read more: http://www.canberratimes.com.au/national/sports-drugs-tempt-teens-20131004-2uzvx.html#ixzz2iJbiMQP8

The article starts off fairly misleadingly, stating “an alarmingly high number of children would dope”. 34 children out of 436 (7.8%) is not really alarming. If studies were conducted and this trend continued over the entire population it still wouldn’t be “alarmingly high”.

I think the bigger issue uncovered by this study is the number of children that appear to have the makings of sociopathic tendencies as discovered by their answers and justifications towards doping in sport. This lends to the question; do these kids only have this moral issue towards sport, or do they display this towards all aspects in their lives?

In another unit I am currently enrolled in, I have read many journal articles, newspaper articles and opinion pieces on the subject of doping in sport. Personally, I have held my views on doping in sport for quite a long time, that it is inherently unsafe (due to the black market nature of it created by societies attempts at strict regulation and those trying to fly under the radar) and that it destroys the spirit of sport.

Doping in sport is an ethical problem but one not as clear cut as we all may think it to be. In a sport such as cycling, the list of those who ride clean is shorter than those who use PED’s (especially if you take into account all those implicated but not convicted of their use). Doping has existed in cycling forever and the general catch phrase, and one used by Lance Armstrong, is that “everyone one does it, so it is just leveling the playing field” and “it is impossible to win the Tour de France if you are not doping” – although I believe Cadel Evans would have to disagree with this.

I have read parts of USADA’s report against Lance and his use of doping measures was not at all the worst part of this whole saga. It was his witness intimidation, evidence tampering, falsifying affidavits, suing those who publically called him out on his doping that really stuck out as the worst part of all. It was his Godfather and pit bull like involvement in his doping empire/enterprise that made his fall from grace that much harder. Lance Armstrong’s actions also were inherently sociopathic and this is where we need to find out which path our future athletes are going to head down.

One article I read made me sit and evaluate my long held beliefs on doping in sport and helped me to see further into the issue. Doping in sport is inherently spurred on by a societal hypocrisy and the commercialisation of sport. Spectators want athletes to perform faster, stronger, more explosively – but there is the problem of when natural sports performance catches up with evolution. Humans can only perform so well and sports science can only assist this up to a point naturally, whilst the crowd’s expectations continue to grow. The commercialisation of sport is another big catalyst for doping. As prize money soars and the winning margin between first and second continues to get closer, the allure of doping is inevitable, and some take the chance.

This then begs further questions; Do these athletes deserve the payouts they are receiving? How do we adjust the system so that doping is better regulated and safer? (because we all know it will continually exist throughout sport).

The money currently spent on digging up past doping offences would be better spent on preventing future ones, or at the very least educating our future athletes on all the risks associated with doping and teaching them how to more morally weigh up the risk - benefit ratio and to focus on the better extrinsic and intrinsic motivators which pushed them into sport in the first place.

A high performance sports manager and organisations job is extremely complex and the added issue of steering an athlete away from illegal sports doping is tricky and sometimes an impossible task. Education programs need to focus on the health risks associated with doping especially when it is conducted off site and under the radar. Focusing and athlete on the positive intrinsic and extrinsic motivators for competing in the sport is equally as essential to educating them on the issues in doping. Helping them discover how to compete, win and enjoy the sport without the need for doping will help to keep them physically, mentally and emotionally healthy.

Week 6 - Managing LTAD and Talent ID - mindmap

Reflective blog post - Fast tracking Talent ID through a Talent Search

(Image retrieved from http://all-free-download.com/free-vector/vector-logo/australian_olympic_committee_132713.html)

"What is the benefit of fast tracking talent identification via a talent search? Is it a cheaper/more efficient option than putting in place a long term athlete development pathway? Also see lecture content."

A talent search is an interesting way to identify and fast track potential talent which appears to have been quite successful in a few cases.

Rebecca Romero, UK – Olympic medalist in rowing and cycling

Alisa Camplin, AUS – former gymnast and national title winning catamaran sailor turned winter Olympic aerial skiing Gold medal champion

Tim Duncan, US – San Antonio Spurs: former potential Olympic swimmer turned 4 time NBA champion

Sonny Bill Williams, NZ – professional football player and undefeated heavyweight boxer.

These are just a couple of cases where athletes have successfully transferred their talent from a chosen sport into a new one and produce excellent results.

Some sports, although different, quite evidently have identical skill sets i.e. basketball and volleyball. In this instance, talent transfer is beneficial between both sports with very little need to develop abilities, mainly just essential skills needed for the sport (dribbling = basketball, hand positioning for serving/setting the ball = volleyball).

The benefits for a long term athlete development pathway are well documented and lend well to sports specificity. But a LTAD can be quite expensive, not merely in terms of money spent to produce athletes and results, but in terms of hours required to reach an elite level, 10,000 hours of training to master a sport! If an athlete or organisation was looking to win medals or championships this is a lot of training that needs to be undertaken and plenty more to continue the athletes advancement.

A talent transfer can be beneficial by being able to fast track athletes into sports that their skills fit rather than trying to fit the skills of one sport into the athlete. In this way a talent ID and transfer program is cheaper than LTAD programs in terms of the time and money spent training. Where the costs for the talent transfer approach will become evident will be the funding required to enact trials and testing to discover our nation’s next champions, and subsequently any costs associated with their training in the sport.

The NTID program has the ability to scout from a larger pool of athletes from all over Australia and bring to the forefront athletes who may never have had the chance to showcase skills and their potential for Olympic glory. Using already established skills then allows for fast tracking the training of athletes to compete for medals and championships.

I believe the talent ID/talent transfer programs currently running and being developed will lead to success for Australia in some form. But the question I am left with is; if the fast tracking of athletes proves unsuccessful and more training in the sport is required, when does the situation move from ‘talent transfer’ into more of a ‘LTAD’ pathway scenario again?

Reflective blog post - GB cycling team failing to impress at World Championships

(Image retrieved from http://spaldingcyclingclub.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/british_cycling_logo.jpg)

The GB cycling team failed to impress in poor weather conditions at the World Championship Road Race this weekend. What would / should the team have done better? Could the High Performance Manager have done anything different or the support team? What should be discussed in the post-race debrief?

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2013/sep/29/world-championships-bradley-wiggins-chris-froome

What would/should the team have done better?

Less established teams/countries on the day managed to perform quite well under the exact same conditions so the excuse of the weather appears to only be a part of the issue. The team could have potentially ensured everyone racing was mentally and physically prepared pre-race for the horrible conditions they were about to face. On the face of it, it seems that this was a big issue faced by the British team. Yes there were crashes and a tremendous amount of water which increased the danger and difficulty level of the race, but other riders, especially Rui Alberto Costa – the winner, managed to perform and mentally dig deep to finish strong.

Could the high performance manager have done anything different or the support team?

There are a couple of things that the HPM and/or support team could have done differently if they hadn’t already done them to begin with:

·         Progressive and accurate weather forecasting to help plan:

o    Race tactics

o    Training schedules

o    Training sessions

o    Periodisation

·         Accurate and thorough scouting of the venue(s)/course and relay information back to the riders concerning:

o    Whether there were any areas of the course with dangerously deep puddles of water,

o    What the best racing lines to take would be

o    An assessment on what track conditions would likely become if the weather became worse

§  Where these changes would most likely occur

In the end, even if the team had done all it could have done, the craziness of the weather would have taken a toll on a bulk of the riders. The article indicates that there was also an inevitability of bad luck hanging over the race and it just seems that on the day the British team were the ones that it appeared to hit much to the surprise of most people.

What should be discussed in the post-race brief?

Clearly the riders are laying blame at the feet of the weather conditions on the day for the poor results shown and this needs to be brought up in the post-race debrief. Weather conditions affecting the race are inevitable in a sport such as outdoor cycling, and seeing as lesser competitors rode successfully on the day, the weather can only be used briefly as an excuse.

What needs to be discussed is whether everyone involved in the British team had done everything they could possibly do to ensure success at the race. Did the manager and support staff effectively prepare the athletes and plan for the race so as to mitigate any shortcomings? Where the athletes mentally prepared for this race? So were they mentally ready to compete in such horrendous conditions from the outset and at what point did they lose focus?

What also should ultimately be discussed in the post-race debrief is how the team can bounce back. What needs to be looked at and done to overcome any issues faced in this race and lessen or eliminate these issues in future races.