Hi there,
My name is Owen and I’m the Founder & Director of Science for Sport.
I was formerly the Head of Academy Sports Science and Strength & Conditioning at Cardiff City Football Club, and an interim Sports Scientist for the Welsh FA.
During my internship at Cardiff City F.C. with the U21s and 1st team, the position for “Head of Academy Sports Science” opened up and I knew this was the opportunity I had to seize.
After a grueling interview process… I got the job.
But just one week in I was hit with a problem coaches and trainers have to deal with constantly...
'Knowing the answer to a tough (and expensive) question'
My manager, the Head of Academy Sports Science & Medicine asked if we should spend $80k USD on GPS units for the academy. The pressure mounted when he told me he had to make a decision fast due to limited stock.
I didn’t know the answer.
Were they reliable?
High-quality?
Worth the cost?
I had used some versions of this GPS technology in the past, but my experiences with the technology certainly didn’t live up to the claims the manufacturer was making.
I was now in a position of authority (that I had wanted most of my life) and had to make a decision… But I didn’t have the knowledge to make one that was informed and backed up by reliable data.
So, I did the only thing I could:
I promised I would do intense research and return with a fact-based answer the following morning.
That promise wasn’t easy to fulfill.
I searched everywhere I could to find a concise summary of GPS technology to make sense of it all - accelerometers, gyroscopes, magnetometers, GPS modules, algorithms, etc.
I found 5 individual studies.
But they each looked at different brands, models, and algorithms, and none of them even discussed gyroscopes or magnetometers. My research only turned up contradictions between these 5 studies.
So, I went back to my manager and told him the truth:
“Very little information exists on this technology and my experience with them suggests they’re not worth the investment. I don’t think we should buy them.”
So we didn’t.
And this entire experience lead to an epiphany that eventually led to the creation of Science for Sport and the Coach Academy...
Coaches and trainers need a trustworthy and easy-to-understand resource that cuts through the jargon, bias, and contradictions for key topics and only delivers the essential information you need to make smart decisions, along with practical takeaways so that you can implement this information from day one.
A resource I wish I had when my manager first asked me that question about GPS units.
That’s when I decided to create this resource myself to avoid being an under-informed coach when I’m supposed to be the one with all the answers.
I began with building the Science for Sport website.
My mission?
To make Science for Sport the definitive resource for evidence-based sports science.
But I ran into another problem… Once you dig deep enough to find it, there is an incredible amount of information out there for key topics that coaches need to know about, amounting to pages and pages worth of content. How on earth could I make sure that coaches around the globe were delivered with the essential 'must-know' points, without wasting hours of their time?
It was this question that led me to create the Coach Academy.
An online library of bite-sized S&C video courses carefully curated by professionally certified sports scientists and strength and conditioning coaches.
Designed to be quickly consumed (without sacrificing any of the important information) and immediately actionable - so you can update, modify, and improve your current athlete training programs the minute you get your subscription. We knew we needed to cover the 7 key areas of coach development:
1) Career development
2) Performance
3) Recovery
4) Nutrition
5) Testing & Monitoring
6) Injury Prevention & Rehab
7) Health & Mindset
The Coach Academy delivers you with a selection of valuable mini-courses that would otherwise cost you and arm and a leg. Instead, you get everything for just $30 a month.
Join us on our mission to apply key sports science knowledge to win more games, build better athletes, and grow a rewarding career.