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Applied Sports Science Deep Dive with Marc Lewis, Director of Sports Science at Houston Texas
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In this episode of The Speed Lab Podcast, Les Spellman sits down with Dr. Marc Lewis, Director of Applied Sports Science for the Houston Texans, for a deep, practical conversation on what sport science really looks like inside elite performance environments.
Dr. Lewis shares his unconventional journey — from military service to earning a PhD and leading applied sport science at the NFL level. Together, they unpack how sport science evolved in the U.S., why systems matter more than tech, how to actually manage athlete load (without “doing less”), and what coaches at any level can apply immediately.
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Episode Timestamps00:00 – Introduction & context
02:00 – Marc Lewis’s early life & military background
06:00 – Discovering human performance
10:00 – Education path & research foundation
14:00 – Entering sport science before it was a role
18:00 – Why sport science over traditional strength coaching
22:00 – Evolution of sport science in the U.S.
27:00 – Building systems vs chasing technology
32:00 – Athlete communication & buy-in
37:00 – Load management philosophy in team sports
44:00 – Practical guidance for high school coaches
52:00 – Fatigue monitoring & force plate philosophy
1:00:00 – Hidden stressors in NFL football
1:04:00 – Final thoughts & future of performance
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Transcript
Meet Dr. Mark Lewis: Background and Influences
00:00:06
Speaker
Okay, we're live. We got Dr. Mark Lewis from the Texans. And this is one of my favorite people in the industry. i actually read your entire thesis a few times.
00:00:17
Speaker
and um And the reason why I read it is because I got hired to consult with the University of Arizona And, um, at the time there wasn't, there there was not like a real sport science role and i didn't really know what I was doing.
00:00:29
Speaker
Um, so I read that and I had a pretty good framework from that. So I appreciate you putting that out there and now let me read that, but yeah, that's, it's a good to have you on. I appreciate Les. It's good to be here. and And likewise, I mean, all of our conversations, um, I've learned a lot from you. always enjoy our conversations and um kind of the iron sharpens iron mentality. I have a lot of respect for you and the work and you always, our conversations anytime we we speak always ah sharpens me up. So I appreciate it.
00:00:59
Speaker
No, thank you, man. Well, I didn't send this to you beforehand, but I did want to know kind of like how you, like your journey to where you're at now, just a little
The Military Pathway to Sports Science
00:01:08
Speaker
bit. And, you know, i think it's, it's a really cool story. So I wanted, you know, just to tell that story a little bit and people have context to who you are.
00:01:17
Speaker
Yeah, no, absolutely. I think um your background and your previous experiences in your personal life shape who you are. And um I think really do influence influence your professional career, influence um your position and how you view things.
00:01:33
Speaker
um So a little bit about me, you know, my background when I was growing up, um you know, Didn't really, didn't know my father. um You know, my mother abandoned me when I was young. So in and out of of temporary custody situations, um temporary care, um foster home for a bit, a group home for a bit.
00:01:56
Speaker
I was emancipated as soon as I turned 16. um Actually only made it through formal education, eighth grade. Didn't go to high school. ah Worked, lived in HUD housing.
00:02:07
Speaker
um So income-based housing. um The military was my way out. So as soon as I turned 17, I did knee apparent signature because I was a man's fit. I joined the military.
00:02:20
Speaker
um Did not know what I was getting into. Signed up for what what paid the highest signing bonus and had the lowest requisite education, which was infantry. I went in just ground pounder. um we we had just um you know We had just entered wartime with ah the 9-11 attacks and then the invasion of Baghdad in 03.
00:02:41
Speaker
um So that was premium in terms of ah you know money. um And then also just in terms of For me, you know, hearing the recruiter talk about it, being able to have your life mean something, being able to, if if something were to happen, if I were to die, like my life would mean something.
00:03:02
Speaker
Because before then, I think for me, it was really on, if I died tomorrow, would it really even matter to anyone? Would it even matter? you know, be a, be on the radar anyone's radar. So I think, um, for me, that was, that was very meaningful with that as a thought of, of being able to do that. So, um, joined the military and was able to, to do a lot in the military, uh, because right out of bootcamp, man, I was just so, I was just so
Transition to Academia and Research
00:03:27
Speaker
thankful.
00:03:27
Speaker
Like going in, it was like, I got health insurance. I got a roof over my head. I got food, I got gym, like I got all this stuff. And, um that I wasn't used to having stability. And so I really enjoyed bootcamp.
00:03:42
Speaker
And because of that, I got opportunities opened up to the airborne school, um aerosol school, do some of these other things right out of bootcamp that ah otherwise I wouldn't have been able to to do.
00:03:54
Speaker
So, um you know, really transitioning through the military, I got stability. I was really connected to a lot of of people like older brothers. I got to a great, um a great unit that had folks that were, um that were able to give me life advice, brotherly advice, kind of fill a little bit of that role that I didn't really have with ah a father figure.
00:04:16
Speaker
So, um On one of our deployments, I was able to get access to some you know basic exercise physiology, anatomy books. I was really, i loved training, ah running, lifting weights, just everything training within um the framework of what we had to do.
00:04:34
Speaker
In physical preparation in the military. ah But I knew zero about the human body. I was just kind of figuring it out myself. um And then I got turned on to some of these textbooks because someone in our unit, ah major in our and the unit actually, he had did his undergrad in exercise science before going to grad school, getting MBA, things like that.
00:04:53
Speaker
She's like, I think you, you find this interesting. So I started reading those books. I started absorbing everything I could on physiology, biomechanics. Basically, if it was about training the human body, I was, ah I was going to read it.
00:05:04
Speaker
So I was just soaking all of it up. Some of it, I didn't understand other parts. I was figuring out and experimenting within my own training, trying to understand and connect the dots. And so, um, when I out of the military transitioning to go to school, um,
00:05:20
Speaker
you know, I knew I wanted to study exercise science, but I had no idea what that meant in terms of a career, anything like that.
Applied Training and High-Performance Experience
00:05:28
Speaker
I knew i i knew I loved performance broadly and I knew that, um, I was very interested in kind of the intersection between research, being able to, to answer questions using data and training.
00:05:47
Speaker
And so, going to undergrad and, um
00:05:54
Speaker
I was kind of figuring it out. So I started at West Virginia university. I treated it like a job. I went in there ah every day, um, backpack, uh, on with all my books for all the classes I had, even if we didn't have that ah day, I, I treated it like a job. I was on campus from, you know, eight o'clock in the morning after I did PT and eat breakfast, I was in campus from eight to five every day. I was in a library in between classes.
00:06:19
Speaker
So I did really well. Um, in spite of the, you know, the no high school GED background, And because of that, um you know, I did really well academically and some of the faculty took notice. So I came across um a professor named Dr. Jean McCrory and she could tell i had a different background and things. And so she talked to me, she asked questions and basically she was, um she opened up my eyes to, Hey, you know, if you want some opportunities, you also said can go to a school that maybe helps support undergraduate research. You get involved. Yeah.
00:06:52
Speaker
In different ways. And so she actually encouraged me um to to go to a different university. So I ended up applying to a couple of schools, um Duke, UVA, Wake Forest, and I kind of narrowed it down and ah to Duke or Wake Forest and ended up going to Wake Forest and being able to have full scholarship and then do my honors research there under Dr. Mike Berry.
00:07:12
Speaker
And um it was there that really had was able to put one foot in ah research and understand research methodology, statistics, um basic physiology, and be connected from the understanding of how to systematically answer questions and how to ask the right questions and how to use that information and interpret that information in terms of biological systems.
00:07:40
Speaker
Meanwhile, I was personal training. I was strength conditioning intern. Anyway, anytime I had outside of the classroom, I was basically in the trenches. I was training people. I was learning. I was training 60-year-old women. I was training 14-year-old high school athletes. I was you know training student athletes at Wake Forest.
00:08:01
Speaker
Just anyone I could train, i was I was doing it. So I think that was really important. the time of my life where I was putting together, I was doing both. And i was like, these are going to intersect.
00:08:13
Speaker
Um, I just don't know how right now in terms of a career. And so at the time, you know, this is 2012, 2013, applied sports science positions really weren't that big of a thing. At least I wasn't aware of folks that had my type of role.
00:08:29
Speaker
Um, there was very, very few. And, um, and so, With that, I didn't really see that role or see what I would do from a work standpoint. And so fast forward a little bit and um doing my master's at the University of South Carolina, had an opportunity to do a sport physiology strength conditioning fellowship at US ski and snowboard in Park City, Utah.
Career Growth and Philosophies in Sports Science
00:08:51
Speaker
And that was really where I got introduced to sports. what a high performance environment looks like where you've got, you know, Bill Sands was there at the time. You've got Bill Sands, one of the the pioneers in sport, American sport physiology.
00:09:05
Speaker
You've got um excellent strength coaches. You've got dietitians, sports psychologists all under the same roof and all looking at different ways and collaborating, truly integrating um their information to help make the best decisions that they possibly could.
00:09:21
Speaker
for the athlete. And that was when I saw how data science can work together. You can train athletes, use information and work in that type of, of collaborative environment, um, to really develop athletes and and optimize performance. And so, um, that's when it really, you know,
00:09:42
Speaker
stuck with me like this is the type of work I want to do. Now, where this will be and what it looks like, I don't know. So I go to do my PhD at Virginia Tech. We've got no sports science. um We've got strength conditioning coaches.
00:09:56
Speaker
you know We've got sports med. We've got all these folks that work in their areas, but no sports science, no true interconnectedness or no one that's doing that type of work. This was before there were people in administration that have some of those roles that some universities have now.
00:10:10
Speaker
um And so um I was fortunate enough to just, you know, kind of connect with some strength coaches based on my previous um internship experiences.
00:10:21
Speaker
A guy named Greg Warner, um you know, kind of opened his door up to me. I started working with him. I was doing, you know, graduate assistantships, teaching, things like that on the on the side or, you know, on the academic side, you know, doing doing my coursework and then going over to athletics and coaching in his room. Then in the meanwhile, going to other coaches and athletics, knocking on their door basically and saying, Hey, like, how can I help you? This is what I could do.
00:10:48
Speaker
Um, and I mean, it was every, it was every door. I was with the tennis coach. I was in the cross country. I was over in, uh, volleyball. And then, um I got linked up with the the football staff there, um Cody Cook, Ben Hilgar, at that group.
00:11:03
Speaker
And it was really there that um I started formalizing kind of my work as us as an applied sport scientist in terms of actually, um you know, okay, this is – this is what we're doing. They had just gotten um stat sports, so they just gotten an integrated microtech unit, ah GPS devices for the football team. I was like, okay, this is good going through the data. We're talking things out, helping them develop daily reports, talking through what the metrics mean what metrics we should or should not look at.
00:11:31
Speaker
And, um you know, one thing led to another, and over time, were the years there, worked my way up, ah got a first paid position. I was the first paid sports scientist there. And then um joined the strength staff as one of the five football strength coaches, director of sports science. So again, just kind of plugging away with that. And ever since then, it's just been career progressions. Basically, was at Penn State as associate director of applied health and performance science before joining the Texans.
00:11:58
Speaker
And um yeah, I just been career progression since then. But it was really that path to getting um into the field that I think in different ways really shaped um who I am, ah how how I go about my work.
00:12:11
Speaker
I very much view the performance community as a family. Anyone that knows me, um if if they're listening to this, they've interacted with me, they know. I pour into people like well anything I can do to help anyone, even if I've never met you, if you reach out to me and you're like, Hey, i need what I, there's no questions asked is how can I help you? Because, um, this field has, has been, has done so much people in this field have been so has done, has done so much for me everything. Everything I do is rooted in in, and this is my work, my personal life, everything is rooted in really one thing to me.
00:12:48
Speaker
um My mission in life is to help others achieve what they aspire broadly in any context, whether that's teaching, coaching athletes, everything I do is rooted in that. And so it's very easy to simplify your life, simplify everything you do.
00:13:03
Speaker
figure out what you're going to do and not do. And all these things make those life decisions. If that's what it's rooted in, if you're, if you're able to simplify something to really go back to one thing.
Diverse Experiences Shaping Success
00:13:12
Speaker
And that's really what I've done, you know, in my life. And it's like every day I set out, I'm like, that's my goal for the day.
00:13:19
Speaker
And that plays out in different ways, but I'm very fortunate to be where I am and um to be able to help others achieve what they aspire, whether that's grad students, undergrads, athletes, whoever it is. So um yeah, that's that's kind of, it's not easy. I've been outcast influences it All right, we got to take a second to talk about the universal speed rating because I literally just found this out and it blew my mind. We just hit over 500,000 verified speed tests inside the USR software, half a million.
00:13:53
Speaker
That's coaches all over the country testing, tracking, and proving athlete progress with this system. It's not just data. It's giving athletes confidence and giving coaches real proof of results. I remember running our first speed lab test back in 2019 in a closet that my uncle helped me build, now half a million.
00:14:10
Speaker
If you're not testing speed yet or you're doing it without a system, this is your chance to check it out. Hit the link in the description, book a free consult, and see how the USR could work in your program.
00:14:22
Speaker
It's fine. I didn't know all of that. I knew like the military piece so it a little bit, but man, that's, that's incredible. And it's unique. And it's, um it's interesting because like, I always have people ask me like when they're looking for jobs, it's like, what kind of background do I need to have?
00:14:40
Speaker
And i think the, the number one missed background that people have, like people that they they don't really consider this as something important. It's like, Have you had other jobs? Have you done other things? Have you had other life experiences outside of academia?
00:14:55
Speaker
And if you haven't, then go seek them out. Because i was having this conversation with the coach last night. where was like, i only hire people that have worked service jobs. I only hire people that have worked construction. I've only hired people. And you start to see a trend.
00:15:07
Speaker
um But like I would say the things that predict success in this industry are beyond academia, a life experience, other jobs, other ways to communicate and find um solutions to problems like we will probably lead to better outcomes than just academia.
00:15:25
Speaker
going straight through bachelor's, master's, PhD, you know? And you mentioned you're training people. you you were training 60-year-old women. I've done that. You're training 14-year-old boys. Still do that. So I know i know how it is.
00:15:40
Speaker
um Now, my next question is, like, when you first entered into sports science, um what drew you to sports science versus traditional strength coach, head strength coach? Like, what made you want to do sports science?
00:15:56
Speaker
That's a really good question. um i think for me, um i've always I've always liked the process of answering questions using information and then trying to use that information to do something, whatever that something is, right?
00:16:12
Speaker
And For me, it was being able to take what I loved most about, I'll say the research or the clinical setting and what I loved most about the applied setting, the team setting also, which is something I didn't mention, but the team setting, which to me links very much to the brotherhood and the camaraderie that I had in the military that literally was my first formal family or felt like that for to me.
00:16:38
Speaker
And like, I'm able to kind of have those intersect in sports science because I'm able to create systems that help answer questions using information in service of the
Sports Science Evolution and Future Predictions
00:16:52
Speaker
athletes. So so so creating systems that are sustainable, repeatable, adaptable, but athlete centered.
00:17:00
Speaker
yeah And I'm able to apply that in my work every day. And within that team environment, that camaraderie, um working with others, because that's the biggest part of a of a high performance unit is the integration of different ways of thinking, different ideas, all these pieces of information connecting the dots to do what's best for the athlete.
00:17:23
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. And so that's really what drew me to sports science is just that intersection piece of being able to do the thing, all the things that I love in one, in one space.
00:17:35
Speaker
I love that. And what was the state of sports science ah in in the U.S. when you when you got into it and you're doing your PhD? Like, where where did you observe sports science and where where were the gaps that you saw in it?
00:17:49
Speaker
um I think the the biggest, I mean, there's there were several gaps and some of those gaps I think we're still dealing with as a field today. But I would say that I observed sports science in different ways. um Obviously, you and ski and snowboard, I observed some sports science there.
00:18:07
Speaker
i i had observed strength conditioning coaches doing certainly doing sports science, even though it wasn't called that they didn't view themselves as a sports scientist. I think the biggest gap that I saw when I was entering the field is that there wasn't truly um the value.
00:18:28
Speaker
the value wasn't really perceived to be there for people doing sport science in a way of like, that's your primary role, right? It was almost looked as like a secondary, oh, by the way, can you, can you do this? You know, some are like, okay, you're the fifth guy on a strength staff.
00:18:44
Speaker
Oh, you collect the GPS units. And then, you know, half the time it's, you know, oh, what max speed did to the guys run. There's no right actual, like we're going to use this information in some systematic way to help inform our practice structure, our individual management of players, anything like that. And so it was almost like an, oh, by the way, type of type of position or type of work.
00:19:09
Speaker
And so the coaching to athletes was viewed as separate um and also was viewed as more important. And I think as the field has grown now, as you see, like there's been tons of positions that pop up. And now you're seeing, i think, there's more value being observed in those positions.
00:19:28
Speaker
There's more value observed in what what you can do with different information streams, how you can build systems that help support all the things that are done in the weight room, on the field, at practice, outside the building.
00:19:41
Speaker
And so I think that was the biggest gap and at the point of time that I was kind of transitioning and doing that work. in an applied environment ah was really around around just the value seen in in the role.
00:19:56
Speaker
Yeah, makes makes a lot of sense. I remember when I was working for USA Rugby, and this is ahead of the 2016 Olympics. It's like 2014. And we got a couple of GPS units and we were looking at it like, what what is this?
00:20:11
Speaker
what is this thing? And we put it on and we started running around and all the only two things that we got from it were how far they were ran and how fast they ran. And that was it. And we rolled for a whole Olympics off of that. And then next Olympics rolls around and we're like,
00:20:27
Speaker
accelerations and decelerations are pretty important. So we're going to start to look at that. And then we got into speed zones and then it just like, but before that, all we were doing was heart rate. Um, and you know, it, to be honest, like I still think heart rate has some value.
00:20:43
Speaker
Um, like a ton of value. And, Yeah, it's it's just evolved as as we've as as we've grown. So next question is really around like, where do you see the field evolving into? Like, you know, it it kind of started where it was this very archaic thing.
00:21:00
Speaker
um i ended up being a sports scientist on accident a couple of different times because that role didn't exist. And now to like where you have a Dr. Mark Lewis at the Texans to what is the next like like layer in progression in this in this industry?
00:21:17
Speaker
Yeah, no that's a great question. um I think really you're starting to see the progression to this high performance model, right? It's where you have some performance manager, performance director that's helping bring all this information together.
00:21:34
Speaker
and oversee all the systems and processes that take place within a performance unit. And that matters for sports science and is an evolution for sports science for a couple of reasons, primary reasons.
00:21:46
Speaker
One of which is because I think that as that role continues to evolve, a lot of those positions are going to be coming with people, are with are coming to people with sports science backgrounds because of their ability of connecting information streams, interpreting information, thinking about all the different factors, contextual factors that need to be considered to inform those decisions.
00:22:13
Speaker
So there's going to be, I think, a a continual growth, but that also provides more of a runway of development for sports scientists as they progress in their
Building Sustainable Systems for Athlete Monitoring
00:22:22
Speaker
career. and the second The second reason that's important is because it requires there to be a high level level of of the quality of the information collected and that you're collecting enough information that represents all the things that you should probably be looking at.
00:22:42
Speaker
external loading, internal response to your point on heart rate, some type of internal response indicator, some type of objective measure performance task-wise of monitoring, whether that's CMJ, some isometric testing, subjective factors like wellness, things like that.
00:22:57
Speaker
And when you start talking about all the collection of all these data, it's not just about, oh, fill this out, jump on a plate. It's about establishing putting everything in place that allows for the highest level of the quality of the data, the management of the data, analysis, some type of analysis to identify change, to understand time series data if you're monitoring over time, and to interpret that information, visualize it. So now you're talking about skill sets that take time to develop, to be taught,
00:23:33
Speaker
obviously you can learn on your own, but it's, it's raising the level of the need of the education, but also as you can see, um the growth of the positions around, okay, now we might need some people that specialize data science. We might need somebody specializing more in research and measurement or testing and measurement. We might need someone specializing, uh, as a biomechanist or a physiologist, depending on your sporting environment.
00:23:58
Speaker
So, again, the the growth of the field and now you're having higher levels. I think you're going to have more of a longer runway and career progression for sports scientists. um That kind of, i think also, you know, previously,
00:24:15
Speaker
you know, even though it wasn't titled that way, head of performance, you're basically coming from an S&C background, head strength coach. I think that is going to continually evolve to where but more and more sports scientists are in those types of roles or people that have at least served as a sports scientist in some yeah capacity while also potentially serving as an S&C coach or a dietician or athletic trainer or whatever that looks like.
00:24:38
Speaker
And so, and then with that other piece is I think you're getting more specialized, being getting bigger sports science groups, that hire these, these specialties. So getting away from the, you've got to wear eight different hats.
00:24:52
Speaker
You've got to be able to, to know a little bit about programming, computer programming. You need to know a little bit about technology. You need to know about research methodology. You need to know about statistics. You need to know about periodization and um how to coach lifts. And you need to know all these different things.
00:25:10
Speaker
Because you're, you're, you have all of these different responsibilities. So I think you're going it's going to continually evolve to where now you have, okay, I have a staff of two or three people. Someone's going to specialize or focus in this area. Someone's going to focus in this area.
00:25:25
Speaker
I will still believe there's a there's a lot of power in, especially early on, being a generalist before specializing. yeah um However, I just think based on the requirements and how the field is going to grow, some of the hiring processes and who you're bringing into your building and building your staff out, there's going to be more specialization needed. Right.
00:25:48
Speaker
To obviously inform, you know, grad studies for for young sports scientists and what they learn and how and how they they focus that because there's going to be just higher levels of requirement of of knowing something specific or a couple things specifically.
00:26:01
Speaker
Yeah. Makes a ton of sense. What, um, I guess that that kind of leads into kind of understanding like what your actual role as a sport scientist entails. Because like, I think that if, if I'm not working in a team sport right now and I'm hearing about sport science, like lot of, a lot of people visualize a guy sitting in a closet with a computer cranking numbers and,
00:26:26
Speaker
And that's it. And it's, it's not that like, i' you know, I've been a couple of different places where it's like, whoa, like this is fully a part of everything. Like it's hard to even tell where, where it lies because it's everything. So in terms of program architecture, like how do you summarize a role like yours within a team?
00:26:47
Speaker
oh that No, that's a great question. i think to your point, I think a lot of people, you know, you say sports science, they think, oh, you're sitting in the closet with a computer looking at data all day. um And quite honestly, that's ah um quite the opposite.
00:27:02
Speaker
ah But I would say in terms of of program architecture, what I look at, and this is just broad, um more of a philosophical outlook, but um It can be really simplified as I look at building systems, not isolated solutions.
00:27:24
Speaker
So I want systems that are simple, that can be scalable, sustainable, repeatable, and are athlete-centered. And my role in in what I do, as simple as possible, is I connect people to information.
00:27:43
Speaker
it's it's it's no more advanced than that at the very base level. It's just, ah it's the intersection of data, decision-making, and human behavior. yeah So, you know, and again, like,
00:27:57
Speaker
We'll get into this or we'll probably touch on some of these when, you know, a lot of times I'm talking to young up and coming sports scientists. Our conversations always go towards ah what new technology, ah you know, are you looking to implement or what metrics are you looking at for this or that? and And quite honestly, you know, I view that as a lot of times i think you're asking the wrong questions because it's not about.
00:28:22
Speaker
the methods that you look at. It's not about the force plates or the the isometric testing devices or the GPS units. It's about understanding how these different methods, these different pieces, whatever they are, fit into the actual systems that you're running.
00:28:38
Speaker
What questions are you answering? What decisions are you trying to make? When does that information have to, you know, have to be in the stakeholder's hands and how can we use these different pieces to make better decisions?
00:28:51
Speaker
And so, You know, in a good and I'll just use a basic example is, oh, GPS, right? it's We think all the different metrics you can look at from external load monitoring.
00:29:04
Speaker
Well, it's not about the real external load monitoring. Okay, it's about you're probably using that information to inform decisions around practice structure or individual load management, right?
00:29:16
Speaker
So let's think about that a little bit. When you're thinking about it, there's an athlete that comes with a host of intrinsic factors around their age, their previous injury history, the recency of that injury, what the site of that injury potentially was in relevance to their position group.
00:29:35
Speaker
um So whether the demands of their actual job beyond position. Then you have other contextual factors like player value, um where you are in the season, their actual career age, like which may be different than their then they're um biological age.
00:29:54
Speaker
And then you have whatever they they did from an external load standpoint situated in that context. and Then you have how they're responding. And then hopefully you have multiple information streams that are connecting how are they responding.
00:30:10
Speaker
What are their strength levels? where are they What is their, um you know, if you're looking at some type of readiness measure around performance tasks, you're looking at what are they reporting sleep-wise or what are they reporting from like a general fatigue-wise, all these different factors.
00:30:24
Speaker
And so overall, if you're trying to make a decision around sleep, loading, there's all these factors that have to be considered. And so you're trying to put things ah put a system in place that's going to provide information around all these things in a in a very efficient manner that has some type of if this, then that.
00:30:46
Speaker
Some type of intervention that takes place based on the information that's organized, keeps it It keeps it organized and keeps it efficient because that's the other thing that I think sometimes gets overlooked in our environments is that whenever you're in a team environment and you know this, you're you're working within generally a stressful to some level.
00:31:10
Speaker
and environment in generally with some time restriction. So you've got to have this by then. There's some type of tight turnaround with it and there's multiple people that need to be brought into it. So your system has to be able to identify all of these different factors, have it organized in some way,
00:31:31
Speaker
And then it has to have some type of outcome based on the interaction of these factors that has some system to it, like some systematic way of thinking to it.
00:31:43
Speaker
And then you use professional nuance and understanding your experiences in conversation with others to come to some decision. But it all has to be done in a very efficient manner.
00:31:54
Speaker
And you want to set it up to where it's easily repeatable to where every time there's some decision to be made, you're not going to the drawing board saying, okay, well, what should we do? there's some There's something in place. Now, you're going to have the ebbs and flows of certain nuance that you might slightly change a decision, but there has to be some systematic way of thinking And some outcome that you're that you're going towards, some intervention you're going towards that you think is related to an outcome that makes it organized and clean and efficient within your environment.
Educating and Communicating with Stakeholders
00:32:28
Speaker
And so, um you know, that's kind of an example of what I would say my philosophy is when it comes to monitoring athletes.
00:32:38
Speaker
And in just hearing that, like ah I'm hearing two sides of it. you You have a system of what happens and if then statements and, you know, if this happens, do this. But then on the other end, you have communication.
00:32:53
Speaker
So how do you communicate that to to people? Because that's the interpersonal side of it. um And starting with the athlete, like what is the athlete ga what does the athlete need to know and in this in this loop, if anything?
00:33:08
Speaker
Yeah, well, I think the athlete absolutely needs to be part of the conversation. um And that goes to the very beginning in terms of educating them on what you're doing, why you're doing it, how it's going to help them.
00:33:20
Speaker
no that's That's one of the things. So when talking about my role and what I actually do, going back to that question, like it's the interpersonal piece, it's the communication piece that really is what my job is.
00:33:32
Speaker
It's the educating the athlete piece. It's all these things that connect together when I said connecting information to people, it's that connection piece, that communication piece, Peter Rodley, whether that's an athletic trainer, whether that's a football coach, whether that's a strength coach, whether that's an athlete's parent, because I have those conversations too. We have rookies come in,
00:33:54
Speaker
ah I'm presenting to the rookies and their family but and their families about what we do, why we do it, and how it's going to ultimately serve their son in in trying to reduce the likelihood of an injury and optimize their performance.
00:34:10
Speaker
yeah And so on so I'm having to communicate to a lot of different people coming from different – perspectives having different experiences about why we're doing what we're doing and how it's potentially and hopefully going to help make better decisions for their son.
00:34:26
Speaker
yeah And I think that's a key piece. So immediately when we get a new player, whether that's someone we draft um or whether that's a free agent we sign, I'm trying to connect to just explain to them,
00:34:41
Speaker
you know, who I am, depending on your previous experiences, they may have not worked with a sports scientist. Generally now with rookies, they will have generally come from a university that has someone doing that type of work. Sometimes free agents, they're coming from a club. There's still NFL clubs that that don't really have someone doing that type of work, especially I would say to the degree that we do that work.
00:35:04
Speaker
um We ask a lot of our of our guys and, you know, But we have incredible compliance because of the education piece. So the athlete has to be part of that conversation. If they understand why you're doing what you're doing and how it's being used and that it's actually being used, you know, then...
00:35:24
Speaker
That's a big, important piece for when it comes to an intervention. At some in some level, you're going to have to have the athlete buy in for an intervention to actually work. In most cases, it's not lab-based interventions. like A lot of interventions, it's communication with the athlete, asking them,
00:35:42
Speaker
you know, to do something or be part of something or help us do something for you. It's not a, you know, we're giving you something and we're going to see the effect of it. It's not something like that. So, you know, again, if something as simple as, you know, an athlete's experiencing a load change,
00:36:01
Speaker
We have indicator that they may not be responding well. They may be fatigued, things like that. Like, yeah, there's going to be emphasis on recovery, um talking with them through their routine, things like that. But there's also potentially weight room intervention. There potentially things that are done in practice. There's these other decisions that are made, which has to be done and tries to be done with them.
00:36:21
Speaker
Right. um and so there's a big there's a significant piece to that of of having the athlete buy-in and having making sure they're educated on things and sharing information with them like no guys coming to my office constantly i'm texting updates for guys and it's not max speed like sure guys care about how fast they run but our guys because of the education piece they are asking really good questions they understand um they understand metrics that we look at on the force plate. They understand, um you know, pieces in terms of, you know, our, our hamstring monitoring, things like that, beyond just looking at asymmetry or something like that, which is cool.
00:37:00
Speaker
Yeah. Ask really good questions. I mean, I never forget, I got asked last off season about 10, 80 splits on resisted excels and, yeah, you know, texted about how that compared to Latin. And it's just, wow, those are, you know, high level questions for an athlete to be at. And they are interested in that in the, this was March, you know, it's like, that's probably Myles Bryant or somebody. Yeah. Yeah, not like
Optimizing Athlete Performance and Health
00:37:27
Speaker
yeah. I mean, it's crazy because all the guys we have from the Texans will be like, in the 1080, we'll give them kind of like the the breakdown of what it does. And they're like, yeah, we know.
00:37:38
Speaker
Or like, you're explaining like what we're doing with the jump testing. And they're like, yeah, we know. Or you have them fill out the wellness. They're yeah, we do this. Um, that's pretty cool because like, for me, the future of sports science is like now within the athletes ownership, like they own their process and they understand their own data and they are making their own decisions and, um, it's easier to get and it's, it's simpler. Um, yeah.
00:38:05
Speaker
I did have another question just on that. So like hypothetically, let's say you guys practice Wednesday, Thursday, Friday um most of the time, right?
00:38:17
Speaker
So like Tuesday's off, Monday's like plus one. So in those three in those three days like If I'm an athlete and let's say I i go on special teams and I do way too much running and I still got to practice and do the other pieces of it, like as a sports scientist, are you communicating to the people like, hey, like he just did way too much on special teams. We need to pull him from this. Or is it more of like, you're going to do the work. We're just going adjust on the back end.
00:38:47
Speaker
Like what what kind of philosophy do you have on on that type of situation?
00:38:53
Speaker
Well, I think ideally um you're always trying to be proactive, right? And so it's like the goal is to to have a plan going in and have expectations around when guys are going to get certain, okay, we're doing full speed special teams reps on punt, okay? Yeah.
00:39:11
Speaker
you go in knowing, okay, we're going to do a lot. We're going to full speed rep. Great. It's like, you should be able to expect based on who those guys are. And if you're tracking data longitudinally, you have all these other periods for those guys tracked, you know what to expect in terms of that. So you're being proactive in planning those things.
00:39:32
Speaker
Um, you're also understanding what they did the previous week. So if they played in a game on Sunday, and you're going into practice on a minus four, well in advance, you've had conversations, you've you've planned of, okay, do we need to adjust? Okay, so let's use your example on special teams.
00:39:49
Speaker
If a you know if a if a guy was in the game and he saw a significant, experienced a significant change in high so in high velocity running volume,
00:40:01
Speaker
due to special teams, we know historically in practice, based on what's being planned that week, what he might see on those given days. And so when you're, when you're intervening and you're managing load, you're trying to be proactive in my opinion, but you're also trying to be very specific, right?
00:40:19
Speaker
It's like, where's he going to get the stressor that's going to increase his risk of injury most likely? And how can we reduce that stressor specifically? And so that's sometimes I think, um,
00:40:33
Speaker
looked at as just, oh, a guy saw an increase in load. We're going to just, you know, limit him in practice and reduce reps. Well, all reps aren't created the same. You're trying to identify what type of stress that they experienced to disrupt that homeostasis. And that is subsequently setting them up for a potential injury. What type of injury, high velocity running volumes, easy. Like, okay, we know the soft tissue risk, the muscular, the ah you know, lower body muscle location of where they're but they might have that injury. And then we know where to look, what, like what metric or what stressor to look for within the practice week for them to see where we can take that away or reduce that.
00:41:16
Speaker
So maybe it's like, okay, we're not going to have, you know, that full speed rep. We're going to have, you know, a release. Do we absolutely need that full speed rep? You know, and that's where I think you get into the nuance too of understanding,
00:41:30
Speaker
where specifically those stressors are, and then what's most ah valuable to the coaching staff in terms of their preparation for the game. So itts say if it's a wide receiver and – you know, we're talking about their high-speed running volume and they're not a special teams guy.
00:41:48
Speaker
So you're trying to reduce their high-speed volume. That's great. But you also have to be understanding of the fact that, hey, you know, making sure they're running routes fast enough to fill to where they feel like they're getting the timing right with the QB. They're being able to fit in right within the covers they're seeing and that they feel like they're getting good flow and practice reps that are going to be then be done in full speed on game day is important. no So you, you can't lose the nuance of making sure they're prepared and doing what they need to do to feel prepared for the gang.
00:42:20
Speaker
And so there's that give and take. And that's where, to your point too, on the athlete, it's important to communicate with them, which, which I do, we do as a group. um And it's also important to be proactive and looking at it because obviously there's going to be times where a guy does more in practice and than he normally does.
00:42:42
Speaker
And because of that, you're being reactive in, you know, trying to, you know, whether whatever your system is, like we have things we do um in terms of interventions that, that try to make sure that that player is in position to, to be as fresh and as, um,
00:43:03
Speaker
I would say in a position to make sure there's no red flags right for them the next day of practice. So can we get you recovered as possible, but also can we make sure subsequently we don't see any red flags before you're out on the field the next day?
00:43:17
Speaker
And so there's things that that take place based on that as well. yeah And so, you know, yes, you're going to have those cases, but, you know, really, in my opinion, you're wanting to always be on the proactive side. And that's where the collaboration with the coaching staff, the making sure you track your data really well, understanding, you know, all the way down, like cutting periods, annotating your data, making sure that it's that it's cut really well to where you can go back.
00:43:41
Speaker
And when you're giving recommendations to coaches, you're being specific about the stressor. where that's going to come from most likely based on historical data and working with them to figure out how we can potentially modify script, get the guy the work they need to be prepared for the game while also hopefully anyway and theoretically reducing the risk of injury.
00:44:01
Speaker
Quick pause here. i want to talk about the universal speed rating. So many coaches I meet are just overwhelmed. They're running sessions, programming, dealing with parents and trying to prove their athletes are actually getting faster.
00:44:13
Speaker
One of the reasons why we built USR was to take some of this stress off the table. One software solution to help coaches test, track, and show improvement without adding hours to your week. If you feel like you're guessing with your speed training or drawing, trying to make sense of your data, hit the link in the description.
00:44:29
Speaker
Schedule free consult and see how the USR can help. Yeah, that's brilliant. And it's like, I would say, 80% of coaches then in like, the let's say a sport like football, um when they hear things like load management, sports science, they think that there's somebody with a computer telling them to do less and telling them to rest the players and and not work. And, you know, and it's it's like a fear. It's like when I remember we used to go around to high schools and,
00:45:00
Speaker
put GPS on the players and the coaches are take that thing off. They're going to tell us to stop running. And, uh, you know, it's, it's got a little bit better now, but yeah, I'm in a wild, wild West, by the way, that's like what we do. But, um,
00:45:13
Speaker
What advice would you give to high school coaches that are managing loads, maybe don't have all the systems and dashboards and connection points, but they might have one or two inputs, like it might be GPS or it might just be like ah time out on the field or plays or reps. But how would you manage the same situation in ah in a youth developing window?
00:45:37
Speaker
For sure. um No, and i and I completely agree. A lot of times, like load management, people think doing less and and I don't view that, I don't view it that way at all. You know, there has to be requisite stress to require recovery.
00:45:52
Speaker
You can get caught up that you're always too worried about the recovery. You forget there has to be a certain level of stress that disrupts your body to require recovery. right What we're trying to do, I look at it very much, is you're trying to build adaptable and robust athletes that can ultimately handle more stress over time.
00:46:11
Speaker
And you're using information to modulate stress, to build more capacity, more robustness over time. So some days this may be due less if you're getting information or understanding that maybe you need they're not adapting, they're not in a place to appropriately respond to more stress.
00:46:32
Speaker
But then there are certainly times where you're using that information to increase stress because their body can handle it. And over time, if you, again, this goes back to understanding the ebbs and flows and periodization and actually over time progressively overloading to increase their ability to handle stress, you're building more robustness over time. And so...
00:46:57
Speaker
And I think ultimately, too, with that, um you're creating more resilient athletes, more adaptable athletes that can perform in uncertainty and that can hold up to, OK, I've got to go out here and handle a load I've never seen, but I've been loaded chronically well.
00:47:14
Speaker
And that capacity has been increased that I can handle these one off times where I've got to handle something that I've never done before. And um and so that's ultimately where I think you get there to to your question about someone that doesn't have the resources.
00:47:28
Speaker
You can absolutely, and this is where it's, you can get pen, paper, or now, you know, electronics or, you know, Microsoft forms, things like that, Google forms, things like that. But if you're tracking stuff as simple as obviously duration, know,
00:47:42
Speaker
but you can grab RPE and have session RP and have a and and have a volume intensity type metric that's global. yeah There's a lot of advantages to that too because you can do that in the weight room for strength training. You can do that on the field.
00:47:55
Speaker
You know, it's um there's a lot of advantages to a global measure like that that can be compared across anything. And so you can have a global measure of load, if you will, from using just duration and and RP. The other thing you can do with that is you can create and you can track context information.
00:48:15
Speaker
So things like environment, all we know it's more hot and humid, that load is going to be more stressful on the body than that same load done in cooler temperatures, less humidity, simple stuff. Everyone, all coaches should know that.
00:48:29
Speaker
So it's like you provide, okay, now we've got load. Now we're, we're collecting context information. Environment was just pads, helmet spiders. like What's the equipment? These other factors that are going to,
00:48:42
Speaker
um are going to really situate how stressful that load is on the body. And then in terms of some type of response indicator, the wellness questionnaire that that I used at Penn State, we use here at the Texas A&M one abroad, it's a five question, one to five, so some out of 25.
00:49:02
Speaker
It's five simple constructs of general stress, um general muscle soreness, general fatigue, um mood state, and sleep quality.
00:49:14
Speaker
And so from that, very simple stuff, very quick for the athlete to fill out. Now you're getting some idea of how they're responding and and also some insight into ah behaviors that influence recovery like sleep and some of the other factors outside general stress, life stress, social stress impacts athlete response.
00:49:38
Speaker
It's not isolated to physical stress. Now you're getting some insight into that, which impacts all ah all athletes of all environments, student athletes in university. Obviously they're dealing with classes, academics, they can be going through relationship things. So all these things impact their response and ah ultimately, um you know,
00:49:56
Speaker
Whether they're their body um impacts, whether their body can handle more stress and respond favorably to that stress. And so in that example, and you could set up, depending where you're at, like I talked with them a university coach at a D2 school.
00:50:15
Speaker
And we built out their entire Power BI structure, which is free with their level of university licensure, to where they could collect the context information, the RP and wellness on Microsoft forms.
00:50:29
Speaker
They house that within their Microsoft Teams channel and build a Power i a power BI dashboard for the loading and for the the wellness piece. All of that for free. They didn't spend a dime.
00:50:40
Speaker
And it's stuff they can collect on their phone. And they can have the athletes put it on their phone. And that's good information. That's got research behind it. Every piece of that. yeah And it's bringing in like the the simple things that we as coaches understand environment, equipment, things like that.
00:50:57
Speaker
Turf versus grass, like simple stuff that then can help you interpret that information a little better. And then you can track that over time. And I will say that there's incredible power in consistently tracking simple information over time.
00:51:12
Speaker
Yep. And so with that, like you can use that at high school. Everyone could track that type of information and do it um consistently over time. Yeah, i love that. um Yeah, one of the things like when you talk about the dose response relationship, like.
00:51:31
Speaker
what they're doing, how they're responding to what they're doing. um How does it compare to what they previously done? How does compare within the team? And then like, that's what, like your response, you talking about the wellness and all that, that's one level. And then I know you do some, some external like neuromuscular response stuff, like with force plates.
00:51:51
Speaker
Yeah. and so just to double click on the force plates, like what do you trust the most for fatigue? Whether it's, you know, output strategy, whatever, um what are you What are you doing with that? Without giving away everything, but like what's your general philosophy?
00:52:08
Speaker
yeah absolutely. Well... You hit the nail on the head, which considering you you read my dissertation, then you, that is, well yeah. So the, you know, kind of bucketing output versus strategy. um Generally, I'm looking for a couple of things when I look at force plate. And I would say also as a preface to this is um basically look at five force plate metrics and representing, um,
00:52:36
Speaker
both output and strategy three that, or excuse me, two that represent output, three that represent strategy. And keep it very simple and do not introduce new metrics on one-off cases.
00:52:47
Speaker
Every piece of technology, simple metrics that represent different, slightly different things and track them consistently over time and build using simple statistics to identify change in those metrics.
00:53:03
Speaker
And that's that's the way i I view it. I think that there's power in simplicity and you never want to lose the signal for the noise.
00:53:14
Speaker
And if you look at too much, it will create too much noise. You're not able to identify the signal. And if you're not able to identify the signal, You're not able to to then be able to clearly and quickly identify when things change to help inform a decision.
Environmental Impacts on Athlete Development
00:53:31
Speaker
And that's ultimately what we're trying to do. And so even though other metrics may be sexier and and you may be interested in these things, great. You can do one-off projects, things like that. But the way I look at it and I'll tell my staff this and if people ask my opinion, I give it and I'll say it and I will say like,
00:53:47
Speaker
Great projects and different things you can do, case studies you can do with other metrics, but for monitoring over time longitudinally, keep it simple and have metrics that represent different things and organized.
00:53:58
Speaker
put it in and we use different statistical measures based on what's appropriate to understand change and identify that change within an athlete. And so I would say metric wise, very simple and understanding um from a fatigue standpoint, I'm looking really at fatigue from the standpoint of what their output is versus their strategy. Fatigue most of the time will be manifested through an athlete's change of strategy.
00:54:27
Speaker
Generally, they will compensate to maintain whatever output, but their strategy will change to do that. The other two is like, exactly. And the ah and that's why it's important to the statistics statistics to identify the change because you're not going to have the time bandwidth,
00:54:45
Speaker
to go through and check force traces of it yeah all your athletes to get that information turned around in time. So you ended up some way of scoring for that. Um, no. for So for, so for instance, for, um, force plate measures, we're using left. We're always comparing left to left, right to right limb wise for internet limb function. right And then we're looking at, we use effect sizes. Um,
00:55:11
Speaker
So, um and effect sizes are simple, and we're always comparing similar time frames similar time frames. So, game day plus one to game day plus one, game day minus four to game day minus four.
00:55:23
Speaker
yeah um The way we're calculating the effect sizes, we're using the value, the average value, On that day, so let's say this game day plus one minus the rolling average value, or excuse me, minus the previous average value.
00:55:40
Speaker
So the previous game day plus one divided by a rolling within athlete standard deviation. yeah And it'd be for that, for each limb, or if it's an output for that output metric.
00:55:52
Speaker
And so if it's a limb measure like concentric impulse, it's that value for each limb. And then if it's like the output metric, so okay, it's I take ah RSI apart for jump height and contraction time broadly. So it's like, okay, jump height, it'd be the average of the jump height, game day plus one minus the previous game day plus one value divided by the rolling within athlete standard deviation.
00:56:17
Speaker
of jump height. And the power of why we do that is because we want to quickly identify as an athlete changing outside of their norm. This is different than what I look at if I'm trying to figure out if an athlete has a limb deficit or potential tissue tolerance issue, which that's a different path. I'll go down of the process of that.
00:56:41
Speaker
Um, And and but this is simply I want to know, is an athlete demonstrating fatigue or the um or are they potentially demonstrating an issue related to something going on with a limb, a joint, something like that? Because obviously in a collision based sport, we're jumping athletes day after game.
00:57:00
Speaker
um We're jumping athletes in the middle of the week. You're wanting to make sure you detect an athlete could have something bothering them. Something could be changing on an athlete they're unaware of. It might be something that they didn't say.
00:57:12
Speaker
That when you then you look at it and you have a conversation with them after you see their strategy change. You know, your left limb changed considerably because of your impulse today. Like you don't, I wouldn't use those terms, but checking in on them on their left limb and they're like you know, actually did take a helmet to the to the knee Sunday. i didn't think any of it, but it is kind of bothered me. Great.
00:57:32
Speaker
Now we are we just gain time in getting you treatment in the training room, something that maybe would have popped up halfway through the week. You couldn't then get in treatment in the meantime. Or, oh, go ahead.
00:57:44
Speaker
Yeah, no, I was thinking, because this is something I ah consistently go back to in your thesis. the get The decision to do a game day plus one was to detect that as early as possible, correct?
00:57:57
Speaker
Yes. no okay Yeah, okay. Okay, sorry, continue. Yeah, absolutely. ah and And I was going to say that the second piece is that it could be something they're unaware of. And so, obviously, like,
00:58:09
Speaker
When you're talking about jumping, you're talking about the hip, you're talking about the knee, you're talking about the ankle. There could be things going on with their body they're aware of that's as simple as adjustments, things like that. But that can alter biomechanically how they're moving on the field. That could alter things. So you're wanting to make sure, again, it's just a proactive strategy. If something's changing, we're going to check it out. It may be nothing.
00:58:29
Speaker
But it's a way to identify if something's changing. More times than not, if their strategy is drastically changing, there's something going on. And it's something either they're very fatigued or they're having something going on with one of their limbs, whether they know or not. And if generally, if it's something they're not aware of,
00:58:48
Speaker
once they start getting worked on or assessed, then it's like, oh, okay, yeah, this actually feels a lot better or, you know, and again, that's why it's important to establish if something's changing outside their norm and to your point, really gaining some time on it because the earlier in the week we're able to start working with someone on something and this goes across any sport, the closer to game day, the You're able to start working on so getting them ready for the next game, whenever that is. You're going to gain that time that that can 100% influence whether they're available for that game and potentially you know how they are in terms of performance. like
00:59:27
Speaker
Are they 70%, 80%? Because you want to gain that time back because lost time within a game week, as you know, like it goes by fast. Man, it does. It does. Um, we're, we're running out of time and I had one more question.
00:59:42
Speaker
That's probably very difficult to answer, but I'm going to say it anyway. Um, but but in, in football, and you're going to say it depends. So just be prepared. But in, in football, what have you found to be something that was more stressful, um, in the whole atmosphere?
01:00:03
Speaker
um more stressful than you originally thought it would be? It could be on the field. It could be external. like What is the thing that you got into NFL and you're like, man, I didn't expect this to be such a big stressor? Yeah,
01:00:17
Speaker
um yeah it it does depend, but i'm I'm going to give you two different answers. um Okay, one in the NFL in particular. yeah Until you see it up close, I don't think you can truly appreciate how hard the impacts are, the collisions.
01:00:36
Speaker
yeah um It's not like the way the NFL has it set up, you're not really capturing that in data, um which is a different conversation due to the technology, the type of of technology used to measure external loading in NFL games.
01:00:50
Speaker
you're not really able to capture that in your data. And so I think that's one reason it's very important to watch the game up close and personal, see the guys and watch their expressions, look at their faces when they're coming off the field.
01:01:05
Speaker
You're understanding that's not an element you can capture in high-speed running yardage. You're not getting that in any metric you're capturing in the game partially because of the, again, the technology used.
01:01:15
Speaker
But it's a very, very important piece in terms of understanding the wear and tear and what they experienced from a stress standpoint in the game. Yeah. And until you're able to wash that up close and personal, you you can't really appreciate it on TV. and And you understand this, you've seen it, but it's it's it's ah it's just different. It's much different than college.
01:01:35
Speaker
And... um And it's it will also see in the players' bodies after playing in a game and in in what those look like. like it's it's It's something you really have to to see up close, personal, and appreciate, and then also understand what that means in terms of the stress experience on the body that you're not going to capture in data.
01:01:58
Speaker
And the second piece I would say, and this is partially here in Houston, but it's also just something I think sometimes we forget about And I mentioned it earlier a little bit with these external load mets ah metrics, right? These high-speed running yardage, accelerations, accelerations.
01:02:14
Speaker
um environmental factors. So I was having this conversation um not long ago ah with Adam Beard, but we were talking about it and I don't like, there's a lot of research under, um out there looking at how heat, humidity, some of these environmental factors impact ah the body physiology and what that means in terms of an athlete's internal load relative relative to what they're experiencing externally.
01:02:42
Speaker
And you're equating measures and understanding really what that means in the toll of the body and what that means in terms of fatigue and risk of injury, I think is underappreciated in a lot of our environments and in particular in American football. and then you add potentially padded practices on top of that. So you're wearing equipment and gear in severe heat and looking at understanding how to One, again, however you do that, we have our ways, but how you track some type of environmental load measure and look at it over time and come up with some rules and considerations for how you handle practice and balance that with turf versus grass and all these other factors.
01:03:20
Speaker
Like that is obviously has to be a consideration for how you handle that in your environment, but also just understanding how that impacts fatigue on an athlete, how that impacts um the interpretation of those external load metrics. So I would say that's just two things.
01:03:36
Speaker
yeah The second one slightly different, but I think it's relevant ah relevant to your question. No, it makes a lot of sense. And even like thinking outside of practice and thinking outside of just training, like walking around in Las Vegas is different than walking around in San Diego, you know, i'm like, za yeah. yeah or Or Buffalo, New York and the the stress of being inside or, you know, the sun goes down earlier. Like there's, there's so many other factors and,
01:04:06
Speaker
and we we We saw that with with rugby a ton. and like um we you know We had the best environment in San Diego, perfect weather, no humidity.
01:04:17
Speaker
um And then you have another group training in Texas, and it's a completely different output. And even the style of the game changed a little bit, like depending on the location. Like if you're like a New York City team, you tend to to play a little a bit more physical and inside. And these West Coast teams are playing more outside and doing more running. And if you look at it, like where they're training most of the year, that New York City teams are indoors in small spaces and they get a really good inside game. And then, you know, the West Coast teams are always outside. So...
01:04:49
Speaker
more spread. So, um, super interesting. Uh, I obsess over that in my brain. um thinking about same athlete, put them in two different places, clone them and how do they develop differently because of their environment and not just practice, just all of the
Enhancing Operational Methods in Sports: The Book
01:05:08
Speaker
things. Um, it's fascinating.
01:05:10
Speaker
Um, okay. Last part, you and Adam have put out a book and, And I read it three times and I'm, and it it's, it's very good.
01:05:23
Speaker
um i I view it as like, For me, it was like, sometimes I get lost and lose the principles. And it brought me back to the main principles. I'm not a sports scientist, but i I think every coach should understand sports science principles. So first thing i want to ask you is like, who is the book for specifically?
01:05:44
Speaker
And what kind of outcome will you get from reading the book? Well, first of all, I i appreciate appreciate that you read it three times and I appreciate that you took some something away from it because I think that's that's something that we we really appreciate that experienced seasoned coaches like yourself can read that book and take something away from it.
01:06:05
Speaker
But then an intern or someone just starting in their career can read it, understand and take away from it because that was really one of our goals is this is we felt applicable and valuable to anyone across the spectrum of their career And, um and so I really do appreciate that. um It means a lot.
01:06:23
Speaker
I would say the book is for, to your point, it's not just for sports scientists. I've had to answer this question a lot, but we tell them like, there's not GPS in there. There's not force plates in there. Like we're not, we're not telling you what metrics you should look at on a force plate. This, this is not that type of sports science book. This is really, this is really about,
01:06:43
Speaker
how you think and and how you operate within an environment. it's not it's it I think it's for coaches, it's for sports scientists, it's for anyone that works in sport.
01:06:53
Speaker
And I would even argue it's really anyone that just thinks about high performance in whatever that environment is. There's a lot of high performers in a lot of high performing environments.
01:07:06
Speaker
um So I think it's really applicable across, but especially for coaches, physical therapists, athletic trainers. um I think it's applicable. And the takeaway from it, I hope one of the things it makes you do is think about how you're operating in your own space.
01:07:23
Speaker
And hopefully it's it's allowing you to take a step back from how you're operating your own place. And there's questions posed in there. there's There's models that help you, I think, take a step back and maybe think about a certain thing in your environment and then answer those questions.
01:07:41
Speaker
It's really about how you think. it's not ah It's not, again, it's not going to tell you, look at these metrics on on GPS and look at these metrics on force plates. It's not that way at all. It's really going to help you. We hope it helps you think about how you do things in your environment or think about how your philosophy And then hopefully help you think on on small ways to improve it and small ways to enhance your value in your own environment and ways to enhance how you're doing things in your own environment.
01:08:13
Speaker
Or it it may be as simple as it's making you revisit things that you've previously done or revisit problems that you've that you've looked to solve and think like a lot of times I think we You know, we have different things. We have different times in our career where we're where we're going through and and it's the ebbs and flows of of what we're working on at the time. And sometimes we can get pulled into that everyday work, right?
01:08:38
Speaker
And we sometimes get so focused on something so specific that we lose sight of the bigger picture. I know I'm guilty of that. I've done that in my career. I've had to take a step back and think about, okay, where does this one thing that I've been working on fit in the bigger picture of what I'm trying to do here?
01:08:53
Speaker
And so for some experienced coaches, some experienced sports scientists, that might be how it helps you. But it really is about how you're thinking and hopefully is a tool that you can use and something you can revisit. Because I think that's something else you can do with this book is you read it now and maybe it's got you thinking about certain things or maybe it's got you thinking about how you operate or collect data in your own environment.
01:09:17
Speaker
But then you put it on the shelf. Your career progresses. You go back and revisit that book three years from now. i I still believe and and you've read it. I still think you could probably read that and have some slightly different takeaways at that point in time based on where you are in your career and be able to apply it to your context there.
01:09:40
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. No, a thousand percent. and And that's exactly what it did for me. Um, and I appreciate you letting read it. And I recommend that everybody that's in this, in this space should, should read, um, because it it gives you that foundation of, of thought.
Closing Thoughts and Community Engagement
01:09:58
Speaker
And, um, like you said, like I get distracted sometimes and you start chasing things like metrics. It's the same way. Like everybody DMS me and says, Hey, what workout should I do today? And I'm like,
01:10:09
Speaker
I don't know, dude, or what exercise is the best exercise for speed. I'm like, okay, like let's back up. And it's inspired me because I do want to write a book. I'm nowhere near as smart as you, but I do want to write a book on speed. And ah yeah, hopefully you'll review it for me and give me some feedback. So let's do it.
01:10:29
Speaker
Man, first of all, yeah but first of all, yeah, it's ah you, anything you put together is going to be elite. So I couldn't wait to read it. But yeah, not, not the smartest, not the smartest in any room. Just, you know, try to go in and try to learn from place from people. And in this case, like writing this with Adam, um you know, he's,
01:10:47
Speaker
He's one of the the sharpest people that I know, one of the best human beings that I know, and ah one of my best friends. And so um he was he was able to, like, he he steered the ship. Like, he's the he's the guy.
01:10:59
Speaker
And so, um yeah, really, really grateful to be able to do this with him. I love it. And so, yeah, and I can't wait for when you take that on. may I can be a reviewer, get to learn some too. And yeah, all of it would love it.
01:11:13
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. One of these days. But no, I appreciate i appreciate you coming on, man. I know you're busy. You guys got a lot going on right now, but we'd love to hop back on at some point. And where can everyone find you?
01:11:25
Speaker
And ah Twitter, Instagram, all those things. Yeah. Yeah, all my social media um at Mark T Lewis, M-A-R-C-T-L-E-W-I-S. And then my website's drmarklewis.com.
01:11:38
Speaker
um I'm always, like I kind of said at the beginning, I'm always willing to hop on conversations with people, any questions, anything like that. So feel free to reach out. um Anything I can do for anyone that's listening. And and then, um you know, I'm i more than happy to try to help. And if I can, hopefully I can connect you to someone that will.
01:11:56
Speaker
Yes, sir. Awesome. Appreciate you. Yes, sir. Appreciate you to us.