Adding another string — BASC | Strength & Conditioning

Take home message

CAN BROADENING YOUR SKILL SET ACTUALLY RAISE A CURRENT SKILL?

For Coaches

Take some time to look outside the box for a skill that you can bring back to your game.

For Athletes

Always strive for another skill to add to your game. It might even be an off-field skill?

The reduced pace of training has allowed many people to divert attention to side projects. Areas related to their field, but perhaps given less attention in the normal day-to-day hustle. I have used this time to add another string to my bow, one that I have not used for a long time - analysis!

My Masters thesis involved match analysis of Australian Rules Football, supervised by Dr Brian Dawson who was the Fitness Coach at the West Coast Eagles. I remember collecting boxes of VHS cassettes and painstakingly watching quarter by quarter of every West Coast match of the 1997 season, noting with pencil and paper, the location and result of marking contests, ruck contests and kick-ins. It took about 200 hours to watch the entire season of West Coast’s games, compiling a lever arch file of notes. As a student-intern, my role at WCE was very minor indeed, limited to assisting in the gym and very little understanding of the analysts role.

Remember these? Photo by Gabriel Petry on Unsplash

Full time at the Force, I became more aware of the mammoth task and seemingly endless duties of analysts. Filming and coding training sessions. Live coding whilst sitting in a dynamic match day coaches box with stats readily on hand. I was more aware of the crucial role analysts played at elite sporting organisations. They worked incredibly hard.

Whilst hockey analysts are not in the match day coaches box (coaches are on the bench!), they don’t miss out on the pressure. Filming from a ‘tower’ two to three stories high, ranging from purpose built constructions to hastily assembled scaffolding, the analyst operates a video camera in one hand and a temperamental laptop with the other, whilst still at the coaches beck and call thanks to wireless headphones and a mic. Working with elite teams with full-time analysts, there seemed little need to be familiar with the analysis process. Whilst I help code on match day, my expertise extends to pressing buttons on an iPad from the comfort of the grandstand. At the end of the game, I hand the iPad to the expert and that’s it, job well done.

Over the past 12 months, I have accidentally evolved to including some of my own keys on the iPad for moments of the match I am interested in. This has been awesome. The instances are S&C related, but the capacity to get the information has required me to increase my technical skills in another area. I have had to learn about platforms such as Sports Code, to be able to capture, collate and review match examples of S&C. The benefit has helped in many areas. My relationships and communications with coaches - we get to talk using real examples. My relationships with players who will from time to time, actually watch my code lines for examples of what we are trying to achieve physically either in the gym or during those few precious moments of S&C time on pitch.

Now, by no way am I suggesting that I have even 1/100th of the skill of an analyst, or that I am considering a transition - analysts are specialists. My suggestion is that by learning a new skill outside of my S&C (by adding a new string to my bow), that I have actually strengthened many existing ones. Talking with coaches and players about ‘S&C stuff’ with real match examples has been very powerful. Being able to watch a match and code an instance I like is good, but then to be able to not have to bother the analyst to go and get the info is even better. To be able to review and dissect game instances for opportunities for physical improvements has been very beneficial.

Depending on where you are, it might be a different service you need to consider. For example, developing S&C coaches at an amateur club, might be able to support the overworked, part-time sports trainer with some ankle strapping for the long list of players turning up for training after work. You never know when this skill may come in handy later in your career and at the time, you will be learning and interacting with your player group in a different manner. It might be helping take a selection of players for a small drill or umpiring/timing a mini-game away from the main group, giving the only coach a bit more time with the remaining players. This responsibility might enable you to learn the skills, rules and tactics quicker and you are always having to interact with players when umpiring at training (they love providing feedback!). It might be the responsibility for managing the kit for your high school team or managing on the bench with rotations so an assistant coach can watch from another part of the ground. These offer excellent opportunities to develop logistical skills and the ability to work under pressure, which may bring a new composure and calmness to other areas of your work. It may be offering to film matches or segments of training at your club if you have the freedom from other duties. Again, as well as benefiting the team, these new skills can transfer to your own technique analysis on pitch or the gym.

For some reason, I have the feeling that post-COVID being a generalist and being very capable across a broad range of skills may be more beneficial than an expert in a very narrow range. For me, gaining skills in a non-S&C area has actually directly impacted on my S&C area in a very rewarding manner. Personally, I think it is also a way to contribute as a valuable team member, being able to assist others to do their job. Consider how you might be able to add another string to your bow.

As a young buck with a famous archer. (The cover photo credit by Steve Harvey on Unsplash).

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Thanks again. BA.