One Track Mind

Sport scientists face one of the most rapidly changing roles in all of sport. This episode proposes 10 adaptive tools -  new types of training, skill sets, operational processes or even mindsets - that sport scientists can call upon to not only help adapt to changing conditions in their workplace, but also to thrive and take advantage of these anticipated changes.

It borrows from concepts introduces in Gerd Gigerenzer's 'Bounded Rationality: The Adaptive Toolbox' as well as a 2020 paper from Sam Robertson in the Journal of Sports Sciences

To help host  work through the first five of these in part 1 of this mini episode, Dr Alice Sweeting joins the show for the first time.

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Subscribe to the Track newsletter for a regular dose of sport's science insights from our team of leading researchers and further reading for every episode topic. Learn more and see full episode transcript at trackvu.com/podcast

All good things must come to an end. For athletes, that end can be sudden and far sooner than hoped. After years of intense dedication and sacrifice, the average career of a high performance athlete lasts no more than a few years. So what comes next? And how can we help them prepare for the emotional, physical and financial toll that comes with that final whistle call?

Today, host Professor Sam Robertson speaks to Bianca Chatfield and Matti Clements. Hitting us with the athlete perspective, Bianca is a former Australian Diamonds netballer and Vice Captain, with a slew of gold and silver Commonwealth Game and World Championship medals under her belt. Matti sits on the other side, as a qualified psychologist and the Director of People, Wellbeing and Engagement at the Australian Institute of Sport. Over the last two decades, she's worked with myriad elite athletes and sporting codes to develop effective support systems. Together Sam, Bianca and Matti explore what a successful transition looks like and where the responsibility lies in making that happen.

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Subscribe to the Track newsletter for a regular dose of sport's science insights from our team of leading researchers and further reading for every episode topic. Learn more and see full episode transcript at trackvu.com/podcast

What does a good video game have to do with improving athlete performance? On the face of it , perhaps not much. But if we dig a little deeper into the science and design behind video games, we can see the incredible power that modern games have in facilitating learning, through engaging the participant in a manner that is enjoyable and interactive.

On this mini episode, host Professor Sam Robertson welcomes back Dr Carl Woods to unpack some of the key principles that sports coaches can adapt from video game design to create performance enhancement opportunities for their athletes. 

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Subscribe to the Track newsletter for a regular dose of sport's science insights from our team of leading researchers and further reading for every episode topic. Learn more and see full episode transcript at trackvu.com/podcast

Just like the economy, the weather, or traffic, sport is deeply complex. And we don't just mean that it has lots of elements or that it's difficult to understand, we're talking specifically about what's called a complex system – have a listen to our mini episode on this topic for a bit of a primer! When you're dealing with a complex system, you've got a whole lotta moving parts, interacting with each other and their environments in unpredictable ways, and there isn't a clear and simple relationship between what one individual element does and what the system as a whole will do. It takes a special approach to tackle complex problems, so how and why should we embrace complex systems thinking in sport?

Today, host Professor Sam Robertson speaks to friends, colleagues and experts Professor Paul Salmon and Dr Scott McLean. And this time, they're all chatting together at once!

Paul is the Director of the Centre for Human Factors and Sociotechnical Systems at the University of the Sunshine Coast, where Scott is a Research Fellow right alongside him, leading the Centre's work on sport and outdoor recreation. Together these complex systems thinkers investigate complexity's rise in sport, the tools we can use to leverage it, and the risks of passing it up.

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Subscribe to the Track newsletter for a regular dose of sport's science insights from our team of leading researchers and further reading for every episode topic. Learn more and see full episode transcript at trackvu.com/podcast

We’ve had a lot of fantastic guests on the show thus far and now’s your chance to get to know some of them better through a segment we call ‘5 in 5’. In this mini episode, we ask guests to answer five questions about themselves, their career and of course the future of sport - all in less than 5 minutes. 

Join host Professor Sam Robertson as he speaks with FIFA's Nicolas Evans, San Antonio Spurs' Xavi Schelling, Victoria University's Carl Woods and the English Institute of Sport's Steve McCaig. 

What do you think? Tell us on our socials:
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Subscribe to the Track newsletter for a regular dose of sport's science insights from our team of leading researchers and further reading for every episode topic. Learn more and see full episode transcript at trackvu.com/podcast

Analytics is arguably one of sport's fastest growing and most exciting fields. It's something people in sport never seem to stop talking about, but do we all agree on what it actually means? To help sift through the mud and understand what we should really be asking of our sports analysts, host Professor Sam Robertson speaks to two industry legends to figure out where sports analytics can have the most impact and what's in the future for this evolving area.

First up is expert Sarah Rudd, who until recently was the Director of Analytics for none other than Arsenal FC.  Next, Sam is joined by the prolific David Sumpter – Professor of Applied Mathematics at University of Uppsala and author of popular titles 'Soccermatics', 'Outnumbered' and 'The Ten Equations that Rule the World'.

Together, Sam, Sarah and David take a hard look at the current state of sports analytics and what might be on the horizon.

What do you think? Tell us on our socials:
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Subscribe to the Track newsletter for a regular dose of sport's science insights from our team of leading researchers and further reading for every episode topic. Learn more and see full episode transcript at trackvu.com/podcast

Complexity is a topic that is growing in popularity across sport. Before we get into making a case for complexity’s importance to sport on our upcoming main episode on this topic, we’re taking the opportunity on this mini episode to actually define the term. 

Luckily, recent work from a UK group, the Centre for the Evaluation of Complexity Across the Nexus has already done a lot of the heavy lifting. Developed in conjunction with leading experts, the Centre has distilled complexity down to its 16 defining features. On this episode,  Professor Sam Robertson is joined by Dr Carl Woods to unpack these features as they specifically relate to sport.

What do you think? Tell us on our socials:
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Subscribe to the Track newsletter for a regular dose of sport's science insights from our team of leading researchers and further reading for every episode topic. Learn more and see full episode transcript at trackvu.com/podcast

Behind every high performance athlete is a sprawling network of support staff. Physios, coaches, performance analysts, sports scientists, the list goes on and on. So what does the dream staff team look like?  How can we find the right spread across disciplines, the perfect number of people, the ideal hierarchy and structure, and get everyone working together well to give the athletes the best chance of success?

On today's episode, host Professor Sam Robertson has got two expert guests with a tonne of experience in building exceptional staff teams. 

First up is Lorena Torres – Performance Coordinator for the Spanish National Basketball Team, formerly the Performance Director for the Philadelphia 76ers and Sport Scientist with the San Antonio Spurs.

Next, he chats to Dave Tenney – High Performance Director for Austin FC, and formerly holding the same role for NBA's Orlando Magic and Major League Soccer's Seattle Sounders.

Together, Sam, Lorena and Dave deep dive into what people, practice and processes need to be in place for an optimal staff team.

What do you think? Tell us on our socials:
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Subscribe to the Track newsletter for a regular dose of sport's science insights from our team of leading researchers and further reading for every episode topic. Learn more and see full episode transcript at trackvu.com/podcast

For modern day professional athletes, the idea of your every waking (and sleeping) moment being tracked and measured isn't so far-fetched. On today's episode, we dig into when, why and how athlete tracking can be done effectively, and when it's taken too far.

This week's expert guests are Stuart Morgan, the Lead of  Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Data Innovation at the Australian Institute of Sport; and Steve McCaig, the Athlete Health Consultant at the English Institute of Sport.

Together, Sam, Stuart and Steve dig deeper into the rapid evolution of athlete tracking, where we get things right, and where we get things oh so wrong.

What do you think? Tell us on our socials:
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Subscribe to the Track newsletter for a regular dose of sport's science insights from our team of leading researchers and further reading for every episode topic. Learn more and see full episode transcript at trackvu.com/podcast

Innovation is certainly one of sport's favourite buzzwords, but what does innovation in the high performance sporting world actually look like? On this episode, host Sam Robertson looks into how we can actually make innovation happen and what sort of innovation should we be looking for.

Our first guest is Albert Mundet – Director of the Barça Innovation Hub and Head of Knowledge at FC Barcelona. A former physicist, Albert is a Fullbright Fellow with a multidisciplinary background in research and innovation management.

Next up, we hear from Dr Véronique Richard – Researcher and Mental Performance Consultant for Cirque du Soleil and Quebec's National Institute of Sport. She works with athletes globally to stimulate creativity through movement improvisation, creative problem solving and collective ideation.

Together, Sam, Albert and Véronique dig deeper into what innovation really means and how we can encourage, evaluate and govern it in sport.

What do you think? Tell us on our socials:
- Instagram: @track.vu
- Twitter: @trackvu

Subscribe to the Track newsletter for a regular dose of sport's science insights from our team of leading researchers and further reading for every episode topic. Learn more and see full episode transcript at trackvu.com/podcast