Sports science has become one of the hottest topics and trends in the  world of strength & conditioning.  It seems like everyone is trying  to find the holy grail of athlete monitoring or how to utilize sports  science to find the key to athletic success.  Millions of dollars have  been poured into technology designed to enhance our understanding of  athletes so that coaches can make better decisions about training and  practice.  Unfortunately, it does look like those dollars have had much  of a return on investment for most programs yet.

This could be due to many factors:

It could also be that technology can’t tell us everything that is  going on.  It can’t account for the human factor in sport, so coaches  still need to make instinctive decisions and athletes still need to make  plays.

Director of Sports Science & Operations for the University of  Michigan Football Program, Fergus Connolly Ph.D., has a unique  perspective on the sports science trend.  While Connolly is fully  educated on the technology, he also has a deep understanding of the  human element present in sports.  In his new book, Game Changer – The  Art of Sports Science, he goes into great depth on the ways teams win  games.

At first, this seems like just another book on winning, but it’s not.   Instead, it’s an in-depth study of sports at both the macro and micro  level that makes you think about sports from a unique perspective.

In this episode of The Impact Show, Jim & Fergus discuss the  impact that sports science is having on sports and how we can use it to  truly make a difference.