IMPROVING SPORTING PERFORMANCE THROUGH SCIENCE, MEDICINE AND TECHNOLOGY

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1 IMPROVING SPORTING PERFORMANCE THROUGH SCIENCE, MEDICINE AND TECHNOLOGY IMPROVING SPORTING PERFORMANCE THROUGH SCIENCE, MEDICINE & TECHNOLOGY 1

2 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. 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. Jessica Ennis-Hill, 2012 Olympic champion, Heptathlon 3

3 OPTIMISE TRAINING PROGRAMMES PERFORMANCE ENVIRONMENTS WHAT WE DO IMPROVE ATHLETE HEALTH & WELLBEING PERFORMANCE MAXIMISE COMPETITION SERVICE PRIORITIES ADDED VALUE PRACTITIONERS QUALITY CUTTING EDGE & APPLYING A INNOVATION DEVELOP TALENT IDENTIFY & ACCESS TO WORLD LEADING EXPERTISE 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. CONSULTATION METHODOLOGY PERFORMANCE PLANNING SERVICE INTEGRATION 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. 5

4 METHODOLOGY 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. 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. 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: 1 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. 2 ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY Equipment, technology and accessories that can be used to support practitioners as well as specific projects. 3 SUPPLEMENTARY SUPPORT & EXPERTISE Projects, expertise and education to address specific performance issues and supplement the day-to-day service provided by practitioners. 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. 7

5 1 OPTIMISE TRAINING PROGRAMMES SERVICE PRIORITIES MAXIMISE COMPETITION PERFORMANCE 2 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. 3 IMPROVE ATHLETE HEALTH & WELLBEING IDENTIFY & DEVELOP TALENT 4 9

6 OPTIMISE TRAINING PROGRAMMES EIS SERVICE 1PRIORITIES 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. Our approach to training programmes aims to ensure habilitation work to protect those parts of the body that It may also include taking athletes to train at altitude to To ensure the EIS remains at the front of technological sports have the right level and blend of practitioner will come under most strain and a system of monitoring help their bodies acclimatise to conditions they expect development and training science our practitioners also expertise to enable their athletes to optimise training and measuring to assess the impact of the programme. to face at a particular competition or as part of training undertake research or work with the EIS Research & and achieve the technical indicators required to deliver intervention to increase the mass of red blood cells Innovation team to run special projects to investigate new improvements in performance. Services are delivered to athletes at EIS High Performance (haemoglobin) in the blood, which is particularly beneficial ways of tackling particular performance issues. This has Centres, numerous partner sites as well as at training in endurance sports. Alternatively these conditions can led to numerous innovations that have helped to deliver Training programmes are delivered by performance camps and competitions around the world. These may be re-created in the EIS laboratories where physiologists improvements in sporting performance over the years. support teams; a group of practitioners, embedded into include warm weather training or camps with athletes manipulate the training environment to replicate the Specific examples include improving the aerodynamics of sports under the leadership of a coach or Performance from other countries, which are common in combat sports. effects of altitude or reproduce the atmospheric conditions bike design and the development of wrist splints for divers Director, who work holistically to deliver performance that an athlete can expect to face in a competition which help to protect their joints when they hit the water solutions. destination. at high speeds. For example, a training programme to increase an athlete s One example of this is our work with British Cycling where power may include input from a Strength & Conditioning Performance Analysts and Physiologists have teamed- Coach, a Physiotherapist, a Nutritionist and a Physiologist. up to deploy a combination of video, GPS technology and This team s knowledge and expertise would combine altitude simulation to replicate the experience of pedalling to develop a regime that included exercises to improve the actual routes of road cycling events around the world strength and power, advice and guidance on nutrition, pre- in the EIS laboratory at Sportcity in Manchester. 11

7 CASE STUDY: IMPROVING THE EFFICIENCY AND IMPACT OF ALTITUDE TRAINING ACROSS ENDURANCE SPORTS 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 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 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. 13

8 MAXIMISE COMPETITION PERFORMANCE EIS SERVICE 2PRIORITIES 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. 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 skillsbased 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. PHYSICAL 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. 15

9 MENTAL TACTICAL 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. Another way in which the EIS provides support to athletes or weakest. This can be used to influence how an athlete during competitions is through tactical insights and approaches contests against a particular opponent and can the work of our Performance Analysts who use video often provide the extra one percent that is the difference technology and data analysis to provide objective feedback between winning and losing. and data to coaches. One sport where performance analysis is very important Performance Analysts work with coaches and athletes is track cycling and the EIS has worked extensively with throughout their training programme and their feedback the British Cycling team for a number of years. It has a can be used to help develop technique. However, during group of Performance Analysts that travel with the team competitions their primary purpose is to provide feedback to all major tournaments around the world and provide and analysis on athletes and their opponents which can the coaches and the riders with real-time analysis of their be used to influence tactics in competition. These insights opponents that can be used to influence strategy and can be used to highlight technical weaknesses in an tactics from race-to-race during competitions. opponent, pick-up trends in judges scoring or identify parts of a contest when an athlete or team is at its strongest TECHNOLOGY & ENGINEERING Sports that work with the EIS also have the opportunity areas of training science, performance medicine, equipment to access the R&I team which deploys leading-edge and coaching technologies, aims to achieve the marginal technology, engineering and new research in science and improvements that can be the difference between winning medicine to help British athletes achieve improvements in and losing a medal. performance. Examples of technology and engineering projects The R&I team is closely aligned with the EIS performance developed by the R&I team to assist athletes include: teams and works with them to help practitioners address aerodynamic packages for cycling and winter sliding sports, specific performance issues. The ambitious research and customised wheelchairs for paralympians and innovations development programme; looking at innovation in the in boat and paddle design for aquatic sports. 17

10 CASE STUDY: HIGH INTENSITY WARM-UP OFFERS A PERFORMANCE EDGE TO MIDDLE DISTANCE RUNNERS 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 Although 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 , 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 selfpaced 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 m 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. 19

11 CASE STUDY: PENALTY CORNER ANALYSIS HELPS HOCKEY HIT THE TARGET 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. 21

12 IMPROVE ATHLETE HEALTH & WELLBEING EIS SERVICE 3PRIORITIES 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. 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 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. 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. 23

13 CASE STUDY: INTENSIVE REHABILITATION WINS RACE AGAINST TIME TO SECURE A GOLD MEDAL 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. Alistair Brownlee, 2012 Olympic champion, Triathlon 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. Beth Tweddle, 2012 Olympic bronze medallist, Gymnastics 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. 25

14 IDENTIFY AND DEVELOP TALENT EIS SERVICE 4PRIORITIES 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. 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. 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 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. 27

15 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. 29

16 ADDED VALUE 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. PERFORMANCE ENVIRONMENTS 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. Hannah MacLeod, GB Hockey Olympic bronze 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. The new gym will be a significant improvement on the previous setup. 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. Michael Jamieson, 200 metres breaststroke silver medallist 31

17 QUALITY PRACTITIONERS Our employees have more than 1,100 years of collective experience in the delivery of performance impacting sport Numerous further opportunities for continuous personal 35 members of staff are currently enrolled in an MSc or Our employees are also given opportunities to attend and science, medicine, technology and engineering to elite development exist through on-the-job learning, mentoring, PhD. Since 2010, four practitioners have completed a PhD speak at conferences and events around the world and sport. Our experts have worked with hundreds of Olympic access to technology, equipment and expertise and the EIS or MSc and three have secured the IOC Diploma in Sports develop relations with globally-renowned experts. This medallists and more than three quarters of our staff have National Conference. This is an annual, two-day event that Nutrition. culture of personal development combined with a rigorous worked at one or more summer Olympic Games. The EIS brings together all of our employees and creates a platform focus on professional advancement brings huge benefits to medical expertise is world-class with 18 of our 22 Sport to share knowledge, best practice and new insights Underpinning all of this, the EIS aims to foster a culture the athletes and coaches we work with and provides them and Exercise Physicians are on the General Medical Council and ideas. Together with other team focused learning of continuous learning and personal development. We with on-going access to practitioners that are continually (GMC) specialist register. experiences, such as our programme of workshops, are improving the systems we have in place to collect, developing their capabilities and increasing the level of forums and symposia, it helps to build and solidify the share and disseminate leading-edge thinking and practice expertise they are able to provide to sports and NGBs. Continuously developing the expertise and capabilities of connectivity between the network of practitioners and across all areas of expertise. This ensures practitioners our practitioners is critical to the ongoing success of the create opportunities to share and scrutinise case work and have access to the latest developments in sport science organisation and we place a great deal of emphasis on new innovations in the practice and application ofscience, and sport medicine in both their own area of expertise and creating opportunities for EIS employees at all levels to medicine, technology and engineering in sport. those with cross-disciplinary applications. extend their knowledge and expertise and, at the same time, acquire the skills required to have a successful career Beyond these in-house opportunities, EIS practitioners in high performance sport. are also encouraged to continue their professional and academic development through publishing research New joiners are provided with a tailored induction or pursuing further qualifications. Financial support is programme designed to suit the particular requirements available for both and the EIS currently has a number of the sport and the athletes they work with. This is practitioners developing research projects into a diverse especially important for younger practitioners, or those in range of areas including tapering strategies, adaptation, their first or second job, who may have less experience of pressure training and the role of nutrition in strengthening the specific demands of working with high performance bones and reducing injury. athletes and coaches on a day-to-day basis. 33

18 300 Employees Delivering more than with over hours of service per week years collective experience ACCESS TO WORLD-LEADING EXPERTISE The EIS worked with... LONDON 2012 OLYMPIC AND PARALYMPIC GAMES 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 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. 86% of Medallists CUTTING EDGE INNOVATION Whether it s innovative research, unique collaborations or All projects delivered by the R&I team are performance-led developments through the EIS R&I team, sports working and the scope of work covers anything from the research, with the EIS benefit from its ongoing drive to stay at the design and development of a new piece of equipment to forefront of science, medicine, technology and engineering new research to help better understand specific issues and to improve sporting performances. achieve breakthroughs in training science, performance medicine and coaching equipment and technologies. 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. 27/29 These include: of medal winning sports Jessica Ennis-Hill David Weir Mo Farah Sir Bradley Wiggins Ellie Simmonds

19 ENGLISH INSTITUTE OF SPORT National Office Sportcity Gate 13, Rowsley Street Manchester, M11 3FF Tel: +44 (0)