Dan Howells is a strength & conditioning coach accredited through the UKSCA and NSCA. He has worked in elite sport for over 15years, with experience in preparing athletes in Olympic and professional settings, having previously worked for the English Institute of Sport, Wasps Rugby, England 7s and the Houston Astros Major League Baseball team. He also most recently helped the GB rugby 7s team prepare for the Tokyo Olympics just as he has done for the Rio 2016 Games. Dan also aims to help developing practitioners with group mentorship via his personal development platform called Collaborate Sports.

QUOTES

“I was emotionally invested in that sport and probably blinkered by what performance impact meant”

“There needed to be recognition that everybody below the Major Leagues is there for player development”

“Travel fatigue, to a point, you can get away with it in professional baseball when compared to rugby sevens”

“The reality of using numbers puts some perspective on sport and what is physically possible”

“Just like sets and reps, conditioning for me is all about duration of time and duration of rest”

“People talk about data driven versus data informed, and it is definitely data informed for me”

SHOWNOTES

1) Dan’s backstory and influence from his time at the US Ski and Snowboard team

2) The nature of strength and conditioning in major and minor League baseball

3) Player development in a very congested schedule like baseball

4) Working back from the sport and focusing on what you can influence

5) Developing power in hitters and how to determine the performance foci for individual players

6) The differences in training paradigms for pitchers and hitters

7) The off season and in season periodization structure at the Astros

8) Travel and sleep in major and minor league baseball

9) The benefits of using a duration-based energy system development scheme

10) Using numbers to inform decisions on physical preparation

11) Coach development, personality profiling and collaboration amongst professionals

PEOPLE MENTIONED

Ben Rosenblatt

Jose Fernandez

Luke Storey

Bobby Stroupe

Beauden Barrett