The Upside Newsletter

Today we have the honor of interviewing a group of MLS and NBA sports performance experts.

* Mauricio Elizondo, Director of sports medicine, Austin fc (MLS)

* Marco Nunez, Head Athletic Trainer, ex LA Lakers (NBA)

* Tyler Killinger, Head Athletic Trainer, Orlando city SC (MLS)

📝Show Notes: Through this interview, we touched on the following questions and topics:

* Q1. The current state of sports medicine:

* How has sports medicine evolved over the past five years, and where are NBA and MLS organizations currently delivering the greatest value in injury prevention, diagnosis, rehabilitation and athlete availability?

* Q2. Congested schedules, travel and load management:

* With increasingly demanding schedules, extensive travel and limited recovery time, how should medical and performance teams balance athlete availability with long-term health? How do the challenges differ between basketball and soccerQ3. AI, wearables and injury prediction.

* Q3. What are the best practices for lifting around games and while traveling in the MLS and NBA?

* Q4. Teams now collect enormous amounts of information from wearables, force plates, biomarkers, imaging and athlete-management systems.

* Which data genuinely influence your clinical decisions, and how realistic is the promise that AI can predict injuries before they happen?

* Q5. Rehabilitation and return-to-play decisions.

* What does best practice look like today when determining whether an athlete is truly ready to return? How do you combine imaging, strength and biomechanical testing, workload data, psychological readiness and the athlete’s own feedback?

* Q6. The future of sports medicine.

* Looking ahead five to ten years, which developments could most significantly transform athlete care—earlier diagnostics, advanced imaging, regenerative medicine, personalized rehabilitation, digital twins or AI—and which technologies are currently receiving more attention than the evidence justifies?

You can read the full transcript of the podcast interview located at the top of this blog post.

You can also watch the full video interview below:

Here are some of the best quotes of our conversation with them:

Q1. The current state of sports medicine

Marco Nunez — Head Athletic Trainer, ex-LA Lakers

“Every team nowadays has force plates, dynamometry and different performance tests. The NBA is now trying to create criteria where every team does the same sort of testing—to create consistency and a baseline for every player.”

Tyler Killinger — Head Athletic Trainer, Orlando City SC

“Sports medicine more and more is molding with sports performance. In the past, we saw these two separate silos—sports medicine keeping athletes healthy and responding when an injury occurs, and performance asking how we optimize. Now we’re really starting to work together as a better unit: How can we optimize these athletes? How can we prevent more? How can we get ahead of it?”

“Being able to track these athletes through the long seasons and through the many matches—trying to monitor an athlete as best as possible through those demanding periods—is the thing that’s really evolving the most.”

Mauricio Elizondo — Director of Sports Medicine, Austin FC

“We’ve done a really good job with diagnostics and rehab. A hamstring rehab is probably 50% of our rehabs in a season, and I think we’re in a very good direction because we know how to treat. Now we’re exploring what goes before that—the prevention and the monitoring. I think that’s where most of sports medicine is going to go over the next five to ten years.”

Q2. Congested schedules, travel and load management

Marco Nunez

“Recovery began as soon as the game was over. With the Lakers, we had a whole hydration program postgame, customized compression tights for the plane, and we would talk to coaches about modifying or avoiding morning shootarounds and letting players sleep in. Sleep is the number one method of recovery compared to anything else.”

“These guys are professional athletes. They’re getting paid millions of dollars, but they’re also humans. You have to work with what you have, and as sports medicine practitioners, we have to try to manage it and make the best of it.”

Mauricio Elizondo

“It depends on your relationship with the performance department, nutrition and all the different areas: How do you break that cycle of fatigue in the first 72 hours? You have to modify training based on who played the most, who is still in that inflammation stage and who didn’t play much and needs a harder training session.”

“Sometimes budget is an issue. Sometimes recovery or the length of the flight is an issue. Sometimes the city is an issue. It’s multi-departmental communication—you need to be mindful of all the details.”

Tyler Killinger

“On a normal week in MLS, we’re Saturday to Saturday, so for the most part our go-to is: ‘Let’s get home.’ Let’s play the game, get on the plane and allow our guys to be where they’re most comfortable, which is their homes. The curveball comes with the midweek games, and then it becomes case by case.”

“You have to figure out what works for your athletes and what works for your organization to really find what prioritizes and optimizes the best.”

Q3. Best practices for lifting around games and while traveling

Mauricio Elizondo

Mauricio emphasized that lifting has to be adapted to the athlete’s minutes and the match schedule:

“When we have a week in between games, the middle of the week is usually when we do our loading, and that’s when the priority for a strength day would be.”

“If you have a guy that benefits from strength training but plays 90 minutes Saturday and another 90 on Wednesday, then maybe your strength focus changes to more of an isometric-type day—a little less of the power stuff or the heavy strength stuff that you would do in a normal week.”

He also discussed using alternative methods when recovery has to take priority:

“There are other tools now that we use for that. We can use BFR, which has shown it could be just as good of a stimulus on that day. But it depends on the athlete. Maybe an athlete has a chronic problem—that is the priority at that point.”

Marco Nunez

Marco explained that postgame lifting in the NBA doesn’t necessarily mean a conventional heavy strength session:

“In the NBA, we would do postgame workouts or lifts, but I wouldn’t call them lifts, so to speak. It depends on the individual athlete. If they played a lot of minutes, they would do more of a recovery lift.”

And the workload was very different for players who hadn’t played:

“Other athletes that played zero minutes would get an actual, somewhat larger lift, but then they would also do some treadmill or sprinting, some interval running, and try to get the cardio. Every individual athlete would do something different.”

Marco also made an important distinction about heavy lifting vs. postgame work:

“Even after the postgame lifts, they weren’t really heavy, heavy lifts. That would be more in between the days, during the quote-unquote off days. It wouldn’t be a true lift in that sense postgame.”

Tyler Killinger

Tyler highlighted one of the practical differences between MLS and the NBA when teams are traveling:

“Especially looking at post-match lifts, I think in MLS a hurdle that we hit is when you’re on the road, you don’t have access to a full gym. Whereas maybe the NBA and other leagues have access to some equipment.”

When Orlando is at home, players who haven’t accumulated enough match load can do additional work:

“Those guys who didn’t put in as many minutes—their load wasn’t as much—they will have a small lift after the match. And in soccer, the guys who don’t get as many minutes or any minutes at all, you’ll see them doing runs after the game on the pitch.”

His explanation of why teams do this is probably his strongest quote from this section:

“The concept is to do our best to try and get the whole team at roughly the same load, the same demand, so that we can still have the team on roughly the same schedule.”

Q4. AI, wearables and injury prediction

This produced …

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Today we have the honor of interviewing a group of NCAA sports performance experts.

* Dr. John DeWitt, Director of applied sports science in the athletic department and a faculty member, Rice University (NCAA team).

* Paul Silvestri, Sr director of sports health and performance, University of Florida football (NCAA team).

* Drew Lukes, Senior PT at Duke University and the head of sports science, Duke university’s women soccer team (NCAA team).

📝Show Notes: Through this interview, we touched on the following questions and topics:

* Optimizing athlete availability

* How do you define and measure athlete availability, and how are your medical, performance, coaching and nutrition teams working together to keep athletes healthy throughout the season? When an injury occurs, how do you balance an efficient return to play with the risk of returning too soon?

* The effect of roster limits on athlete health

* Could smaller roster limits unintentionally increase workloads, reduce recovery opportunities and make injured athletes more vulnerable to losing their positions? How are programs adapting their health and availability strategies following the House settlement?

* Are universities collecting too much data?

* Are programs measuring athletes because the information changes decisions—or because the technology is available? What information have your programs stopped collecting because it created noise rather than value? What are the top metrics you like to collect on your athletes?

* Are we protecting injured athletes after college?

* Who should be financially responsible when an athlete develops chronic pain, neurological problems or another long-term condition linked to college participation after eligibility ends?

You can read the full transcript of the podcast interview located at the top of this blog post.

You can also watch the full video interview below:

You can leave a comment by clicking on the button below:

Here are some of the best quotes of our conversation with them:

Q1. Optimizing athlete availability

Drew Lukes

“There’s a difference between return to play and return to performance. My baseline is that the athlete is safe to return to play and begin reintegrating into training and lifts. From there, it becomes a fluid discussion about how much the athlete can do.

There’s no perfect test that can provide 100% reinjury mitigation, but we can establish objective checkpoints that allow us to say, to the best of our ability, that the athlete is safe to begin returning to specific activities.”

Paul Silvestri

“You have to work backward. You need to understand the physical demands athletes will face during the season and ensure that their weight-room and conditioning programs match those demands.

The days of two-and-a-half- or three-hour grinder practices are starting to go away. You can get the necessary work done more efficiently and give athletes the recovery time they need. Eighteen- to 22-year-old athletes will recover well if you allow them to recover—not just physically, but mentally.”

John DeWitt

“At Rice, we define availability as the number of players who are not out or on the limited list relative to the entire team. We can put a number on it, and obviously we want it to be 100%.

Open communication between the medical team, performance staff and coaches is essential to making the best decision for the student-athlete and the sport. We also need to understand whether a decline in a metric such as peak power is expected during the season or greater than expected. That could help us use these metrics more effectively.”

✅ Five recommendations for teams

* Establish a consistent definition and measurement of athlete availability.

* Distinguish medical clearance to play from readiness to perform at full capacity.

* Use objective return-to-play checkpoints while recognizing that no test eliminates reinjury risk.

* Align training and practice workloads with competition demands while protecting recovery time.

* Maintain continuous communication among medical, performance, coaching and nutrition teams.

Q2. The effect of roster limits on athlete health

Paul Silvestri

“With smaller rosters, you could encounter seasons with a lot of severe injuries, and that could place real stress on the team. You have to practice smart and potentially change how long you’re on the field.

What you do during the week creates your availability to the best of your ability. If you’re consistently losing players during the week, you’re doing something wrong.”

John DeWitt

“Smaller rosters will make some players stay on the field longer unless there is a corresponding reduction in practice time. That may require a philosophical change from some coaches.

One of our football players had a much higher practice load than everyone else. When I asked why, he said, ‘Two of our players are injured, so I’m getting all the reps.’ Programs have to recognize when injuries are causing the remaining athletes—particularly starters—to receive too many repetitions.”

Drew Lukes

“Programs may need to get creative by bringing in practice players. If starters need an additional day off or injuries leave you without enough athletes for an 11-versus-11 session, practice players can take on some of that load.”

✅ Five recommendations for teams

* Recalculate workloads when injuries or smaller rosters reduce the number of available athletes.

* Monitor whether starters and healthy reserves are absorbing excessive repetitions.

* Shorten practices or reduce repetitions when roster depth becomes limited.

* Use practice players and other permitted alternatives to preserve training quality.

* Ensure roster pressure does not cause athletes to conceal injuries or return prematurely.

Q3. Are universities collecting too much data?

Drew Lukes

“It’s not necessarily about the amount of data you collect. It’s about having someone who can articulate what you’re collecting, why you’re collecting it and what is actually necessary.”

Paul Silvestri

“The first thing I want to know is whether the technology has been verified and researched. Is it true data? Is the technology accomplishing what the company says it is doing?

You can collect almost any kind of data now, but you have to define your goals and determine which data is actually actionable—whether it is being used to reduce injuries, improve performance or accomplish something else.”

John DeWitt

“There are three steps: collect the observation, create insight from the observation and use that insight to make a recommendation. A lot of teams stop after collecting the observation. An observation without insight and recommendation is simply trivia.

Every university should examine what it is spending money and time on but not actually using. A threat schools must recognize is coaches buying technology because they saw someone else using it. The larger questions should be: How will we use it? What will it cost to maintain? What will we get out of it?”

✅ Five recommendations for teams

* Define the decision each metric will support before collecting it.

* Turn observations into insights and actionable recommendations.

* Stop collecting data that does not influence or confirm decisions.

* Validate technology claims and conduct annual audits of usage, cost and value.

* Give coaches concise recommendations instead of overwhelming them with raw data.

Q4. What are the top metrics you collect about your athletes?

John DeWitt

“I really like force-plate monitoring because it can be used not only to determine someone’s strength and power, but also to measure body weight and changes in performance. That one source of data can be shared across four or five different groups, which makes it very useful.

GPS and accelerometer data are also very important. They are particularly useful for making sure players who are not receiving much playing time are still getting an adequate training stimulus.

GPS tells you what is happening externally, while biomarkers tell you what is happening internally. I think you want to know both so you can determine which dial needs to be adjusted.”

Paul Silvestri

“I agree that…

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Today we have the honor of interviewing a group of NWSL practitioners to discuss the latest trends and best practices related to women teams.

* Mitch Toda, head of medical, North Carolina Courage (NWSL).

* Nicole Surdyka, Director of performance and medical, Orlando Pride (NWSL).

* Juliet Barnes, Director of Medical, Chicago Stars fc (NWSL)

Here are the topics that we covered during the video interview:

* The Current state of performance in the NWSLHow has the performance and medical environment within the NWSL evolved in recent years, and what challenges are practitioners prioritizing today?

* Female-specific health and injury preventionHow are clubs incorporating female-specific considerations—including menstrual health, pelvic health, nutrition and hormonal factors—into athlete care? What is being done to better understand and reduce ACL injuries?

* Workload, travel and player availabilityHow do you manage workload across the NWSL schedule, national-team windows and extensive travel while keeping players healthy and available? Where are the biggest opportunities to improve scheduling and recovery?

* Technology, AI and player dataWhich technologies are delivering the most value to NWSL practitioners today? How do you separate actionable insights from data overload while protecting player privacy, consent and trust?

* The next five yearsHow do you expect health and performance practices in the NWSL to evolve over the next five years? What research, technology, staffing or league-wide standards could have the greatest impact on the women’s game?

You can watch the video interview below by clicking on the Youtube link. You can also listen to the audio interview by clicking on the link at the top of the page:

Here are some of the best quotes of our conversation with Nicole, Mitch and Juliet:

1. Current state of performance in the NWSL

Nicole Surdyka

“The biggest and most impactful change has been the increase in staff resources. We now have a very robust department, which makes things easier because people are not getting burned out as much. But it also requires intentional collaboration.”

“Historically, we have always asked what the women’s game can learn from the men’s game. This is an example where the reverse is also true. The women’s game has done a really great job of prioritizing mental health and mental wellbeing.”

Mitch Toda

“The collective bargaining agreement established a much higher baseline than what existed previously. Generally speaking, there are now more providers—and better-quality providers—supporting the players.”

Juliet Barnes

“The league has incorporated more checks and balances into player care, including mental health support and mandatory opportunities for players to complete screening. It is not enough to add staff; you also have to make sure players can access and use those resources.”

2. Female-specific health and injury prevention

Nicole Surdyka

“The menstrual cycle has often been cited as an obstacle to research rather than something to be embraced and studied further. Just because it adds another layer does not mean the research becomes drastically more challenging.”

“It needs to be done to empower the players. Every athlete wants to feel like she is being treated as an individual, and there is enormous variability in how athletes respond to their menstrual cycles.”

“My call to action would be: Don’t conduct research for the sake of doing it. Do it well. We need a greater quantity of research, but it also needs to be high quality.”

“I hope Project ACL does not take us down a rabbit hole of trying to link the menstrual cycle and ACL injuries. That narrative can be dangerous because it takes attention away from the factors we can actually change.”

Mitch Toda

“The purpose of Project ACL is that we simply do not know enough yet. We have extensive data from the men’s game and some emerging data from the women’s game, but much of it is not yet practical.”

“For now, we focus on proper periodization, wellness monitoring and appropriate weekly strength programs. We have to do the fundamentals well while remaining humble enough to admit that nobody has figured out ACL injuries yet.”

“I rely on specialists in areas such as pelvic health, OB-GYN care and nutrition. Every player responds differently, so the question is how we can support each athlete in doing her job despite how she may be feeling.”

Juliet Barnes

“Players do not want you to collect data simply for the sake of collecting it. The message has to be that the information is being gathered to help them perform—not to find a reason to remove them from training.”

“We can still support players through nutritional and other interventions based on their symptoms. What we should not do is say, ‘You’re on your cycle, so we’re going to modify your training,’ without truly understanding the individual athlete.”

3. Workload, travel and player availability

Juliet Barnes

“We have had to get creative with travel. If we are playing in the Bay Area and San Diego during the same week, we may remain on the West Coast for ten days. We bring the injured players and the necessary staff so everyone can continue progressing with their return to play.”

“Collaboration with national teams is extremely important—understanding when players are traveling, whether they are going overseas and whether they can arrive a day earlier to gain an additional day of recovery.”

“When a player returns from a long international tournament, we may give her five to seven days off, even if that means she misses a club game. We have to consider her total load.”

Nicole Surdyka

“Most soccer medicine research comes from Europe, where teams are not regularly flying six hours to play league matches. That travel has not been adequately accounted for in the way we periodize recovery and prepare players.”

“We have played an 8:00 p.m. game and then had to wake up at 4:00 a.m. for the best available commercial flight. If we know sleep is essential to recovery, what are we doing when players are getting only two or three hours of sleep?”

“When players return from their national teams, we do not always receive sufficient information about what they did. We may then have to tell the club that a perfectly healthy marquee player who just played four 90-minute games needs to rest.”

Mitch Toda

“The most successful teams typically have the greatest roster depth. Increasing squad depth would benefit not only player health but also the quality of the product on the field, because players would be fresher.”

“Charter flights could be a major game changer. If we truly want to support our players, that is a minimum standard the league should strive toward.”

“The worst-case scenario may be a player who goes to the World Cup, reaches the final stages but barely plays. She may actually detrain, creating another challenge when we have to rebuild her training load after the tournament.”

4. Technology, AI and player data

Nicole Surdyka

“We evaluate technology by looking at its total cost—in staff resources and money—and then comparing that with its impact. How much are we actually using it to make decisions?”

“If we are not making decisions from a technology, or if it does not weigh heavily in our decision-making process, we need to ask whether there is something else that should replace it.”

Mitch Toda

“We use wellness reporting, GPS monitoring and force-plate testing, but the goal is to use technology to support informed, collaborative decisions—not to say, ‘You are flagged red, so you cannot play today.’ That does not work.”

“Ultimately, we are working with people. The real value comes from combining the data with human interaction and getting an accurate picture directly from the player.”

“A red recovery flag does not necessarily mean the player cannot train. The player must remain a stakeholder in decisions about her own health and wellbeing.”

Juliet Barnes

“It is about the quality of what you collect, not simply the quantity, and about showing the players why you are collecting it.”

“Players need to see that…

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This week we have the honor of interviewing a group of experts in biomechanics in elite sports. We discussed the state of the market, the biggest barriers to a wider adoption, the main strengths and limitations of 3D markerless solutions, and how you see the space evolving in the next 5-10 years.

* Dr. Robert Butler, Director of High Performance, Nashville SC (MLS).

* Luis Justiniano, Director of Sales, Elite Sports Americas, Qualisys

* Jordan Troester, Director of Performance, Red Bull Performance Center

* Felix Proessl, Senior Director of Sport and Data Science, Colorado Rapids (MLS)

* Nikki Jansson, Field Application & Support Engineer, Qualisys.

Here are the topics that we covered during the video interview:

* How would you describe the current state of biomechanics in sports?

* Where is biomechanics delivering the most value for practitioners today?

* What are the biggest barriers to wider adoption of biomechanics?

* What are the main strengths and limitations of today’s 3D markerless motion capture solutions?

* How do you see biomechanics evolving over the next 5–10 years, and what role will AI play?

You can watch the video interview below by clicking on the Youtube link. You can also listen to the audio interview by clicking on the link at the top of the page:

Here are some of the best quotes of our conversation with Rob, Luis, Jordan, Nikki and Felix:

1. Current state of biomechanics in sports

Jordan Troester, Red Bull Performance Center

“Biomechanics is at an inflection point. Everyone believes it may hold answers to our injury questions, performance questions and everything in between. The technology is reaching the point where it can become point-and-click and user-friendly for strength coaches, athletic trainers and physical therapists.”

“Biomechanics lived in laboratories and universities for decades. Motion capture is now where force plates were 10 to 15 years ago: ready to move into practitioners’ hands.”

Dr. Robert Butler, Nashville SC

“Just because you can measure something doesn’t mean it will tell you what you want to hear. That is the humbling part of being a coach with new measurement tools: determining whether what you have always believed is actually producing the outcome you expected.”

“The technology is there. What interests me is how it will shape coaching curriculums, athlete-development programs and health programs—and whether it can motivate meaningful change.”

Luis Justiniano, Qualisys

“Historically, biomechanics was performed in a controlled environment with sophisticated equipment. It was a tedious process, and teams might wait a week for a report. By then, the actionable information they needed was often already late.”

“We are moving toward collecting more in-game data and comparing it with what we collect in the laboratory. Psychological pressure and other contextual factors can produce very different movement patterns.”

Felix Proessl, Colorado Rapids

“Markerless motion-capture technology has allowed practitioners in complex team sports to begin asking questions that were previously more accessible in controlled sports such as baseball.”

“In complex team sports, practitioners are trying to determine which pieces of that complexity can be simplified and placed into a repeatable, standardized testing battery.”

Nikki Jansson, Qualisys

“We are at a point of transition. We are not completely sure where biomechanics will go, but initiatives such as the NBA’s are helping other elite sports explore how this technology can benefit their programs.”

2. Where biomechanics delivers the most value

Jordan Troester

“I am most optimistic about use cases involving specific—and often individual—problem-solving. If you have a clear question, kinematics can provide deeper insight and help you make a decision.”

“The people who approach biomechanics with a specific problem-solving mindset will be more successful than those who simply capture everything and hope to learn from it eventually.”

Felix Proessl

“It needs to start with a question. A clear intervention and a clear question allow everything downstream—the collection, analysis and interpretation—to make sense.”

“The alternative is assessing 10 different movements simply because everybody else does it, without knowing why they matter to your environment.”

Dr. Robert Butler

“I am not looking at all 25 athletes coming through the system. I am looking for the two or three who need more attention than I anticipated.”

“Biomechanics can become another part of the signal—alongside sleep, wellness questionnaires, GPS data and conversations with the athlete—to help us understand athlete health and how that individual is organizing movement on a given day.”

“People typically respond consistently within themselves when they are fatigued, frustrated, worn down or approaching an injury. Identifying what is organic to that individual can be very powerful.”

Nikki Jansson

“Teams are using biomechanics in return-to-play initiatives and protocols. The important part is having the right staff to translate the data—not only to athletes and practitioners, but also to the front office so leadership understands the value of the technology.”

Luis Justiniano

“It is about asking the right question. If you collect a large amount of data but cannot manage it, you hit a wall and end up with a system that collects dust.”

“A coach wants to know whether movement changed—but, more importantly, whether that change was meaningful.”

3. Biggest barriers to wider adoption

Felix Proessl

“There is a mythical expectation that an optimal ground truth exists for movement. Athletes are some of the best compensators, and they operate within a range rather than around one perfect point.”

“The challenge is understanding what represents healthy and expected variability—and what represents unhealthy variability or movement outside the athlete’s normal boundaries.”

Jordan Troester

“As the capability becomes more widely available, people with less experience will be responsible for handling the data and interpreting the results.”

“There is a long process of education required to understand which metrics matter, what constitutes meaningful change and how much natural variability is associated with each measure.”

“Biomechanics will take off when the average person understands it well enough to find it useful.”

Dr. Robert Butler

“You cannot examine 697 variables related to speed, power, displacement, takeoff and everything else simply to find something—because you will find something. The question is whether it is meaningful and repeatable.”

“One reason biomechanics has not achieved wider adoption is that it is presented as everything, rather than as the one or two things that matter most.”

“It is no longer primarily a space or location issue. It is a purpose, intent and focus issue. The simpler we make biomechanics, the faster it will gain traction.”

4. Strengths and limitations of 3D markerless motion capture

Luis Justiniano

“The strength of markerless technology is scalability: moving from testing players occasionally toward testing them much more regularly, with less invasive systems that can adapt to indoor, outdoor and travel environments.”

“We must remain mindful of variability and accuracy. Whatever you measure at home must be repeatable when you test somewhere else.”

“A single-camera solution may be sufficient if you only need something simple, such as knee flexion. But rotational movements require multiple perspectives and triangulation.”

Felix Proessl

“Automation significantly reduces the time between testing and delivering information. That immediacy can make an enormous difference for coaches and athletes.”

“A limitation is that athletes know they are being tested and may change their behavior. Telling someone to ‘move naturally’ is much more difficult than giving them a clear objective such as jumping as high and as fast as possible.”

“That is why in-game assessment is so appealing. During competition, players are not thinking about being tested; they are trying to perform.”

Jordan Troester

“Visualization …

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Today we have the honor of interviewing a group of experience soccer practitioners who have participated in soccer world cups including the latest 2026 Soccer World Cup in the US. The goal of this group podcast was to talk about their experience competing in the World Cup, the best practices, the does and don’ts.

* Pierre Barrieu – Assistant Coach & Performance Manager, Canada Soccer Men’s National Team.

* Derek Lawrance – Athletic Trainer, U.S. Men’s National Team.

* Guilherme Passos – Head of Sports Science, Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF)

Here are the topics that we covered during the video interview:

* The Reality of Preparing for a World CupEveryone talks about preparing for a World Cup, but what does that actually look like behind the scenes? What were the two or three priorities your staff focused on in the months leading up to the tournament that you believe had the greatest impact?

* Training vs. Recovery During a Congested TournamentWith matches every few days, how did your philosophy shift from improving performance to maintaining performance? How did you balance training, recovery, and keeping players fresh?

* Injury Prevention and Return-to-Play Under Pressure.A World Cup creates enormous pressure to have your best players available. How did you approach injury risk reduction and return-to-play decisions when every match could determine the tournament?

* Biggest Lessons LearnedLooking back, what’s one thing you would absolutely do again—and one thing you would do differently—if you were preparing another national team for a World Cup tomorrow?

* One Key to SuccessIf you had to choose just one factor that has the greatest impact on keeping elite players healthy, available, and performing throughout a World Cup, what would it be—and why?

You can watch the video interview below by clicking on the Youtube link. You can also listen to the audio interview by clicking on the link at the top of the page:

Here are some of the best quotes of our conversation with Derek, Pierre and Guilherme:

1. The Reality of Preparing for the 2026 Soccer World Cup

Pierre Barrieu

“For us, the objective was pretty simple: we wanted to be healthy and fit. But we experienced an avalanche of injuries. I had more injuries with this Canadian national team than in the previous three World Cups combined.”

“We had ACL injuries, Achilles injuries, ankle surgeries and long-term concussions. It was one for the ages, but we managed it well—and the future is bright.”

Derek Lawrance

“Preparing for a World Cup is about using every camp beforehand to define how we will operate: how we assign responsibilities, monitor and screen players, and determine which technologies actually provide information we can apply.”

“We tried to replicate the World Cup environment as much as possible before the tournament so that the players could arrive feeling comfortable, relaxed and ready.”

“Even details such as the distance between the therapy room and the recovery area matter. If the recovery room is too far away, a player may simply decide to return to his room instead.”

Guilherme Passos

“Our main concern was understanding how the players would arrive at camp. Some finished their seasons two weeks before the World Cup, while others were still playing in the Champions League final.”

“We focused heavily on the training facility and hotel—making sure the physiotherapy and recovery areas were organized functionally so the players could use them easily and remain relaxed.”

✅ Summary - Key recommendations for teams

* Prioritize player health and match fitness while maintaining contingency plans for late injuries.

* Coordinate with clubs early and create individualized arrival, recovery and preparation plans.

* Test staff workflows, monitoring technologies and operational processes before the tournament.

* Design the hotel, training and recovery areas to make the players’ daily routines as easy as possible.

2. Training vs. Recovery During a Congested Tournament

Pierre Barrieu

“Having six days between matches allowed us to spend time not only maintaining performance, but also improving it.”

“When you have players returning from injuries, the additional days give you a better chance of getting them back and more time to focus on their individual needs.”

“Managing performance and recovery is much easier when you win, because so much of a team’s success comes down to the atmosphere between the players. When you win, there tend to be fewer conflicts.”

Derek Lawrance

“The longer cadence between games made a significant difference. We could play, recover, give the players a full day off and then follow a proper periodization plan going into the next match.”

“The additional recovery time allowed players to recover more fully and, if the training was managed properly, helped produce a better product on the field.”

Guilherme Passos

“The most difficult part of a World Cup is keeping the non-starting players fit. You often need those players during the most important stage of the competition.”

“Using youth players during the match-day-plus-one session can be an effective strategy for increasing the load on players who did not start and keeping them prepared throughout the tournament.”

“Microdosing strength training is one of the best strategies for giving players the strength stimulus they need during a World Cup.”

“Acclimatization was also a major priority. Most of our players compete in Europe, so we brought them to the United States almost ten days before the opening match to adapt to the conditions and the heat.”

✅ Summary - Key recommendations for teams

* Individualize training according to match minutes, injury history and recovery status.

* Prioritize recovery for starters while using match-day-plus-one sessions to maintain non-starters’ fitness.

* Continue microdosing strength training and provide complete days off when possible.

* Prepare players in advance for the tournament’s heat, humidity and time zone.

3. Injury Prevention and Return-to-Play Under Pressure

Pierre Barrieu

“We watch out for the safety of the players—not only for the World Cup, but for the short, medium and long term of their careers. We have an obligation not to put them at risk.”

“We spent countless hours communicating with club medical and performance teams, reviewing each player’s return-to-play plan and making sure we were aligned.”

“The timeline of a club may be different from the timeline of a national team. At the end of the day, we put the player at the center of the process and make sure his long-term future is not compromised.”

“We knew some players would not return to training or performance until potentially the fourth game. You can take that route with one or two players, but doing it with more would be irresponsible.”

Derek Lawrance

“Tournament results can dictate how you approach a player’s return. After clinching the group, we had ten or twelve days before the knockout match, which allowed us to buy additional recovery time.”

“In an all-or-nothing match, your risk tolerance may change. You consider what the player wants, the medical information and the match situation—but if the player is not adamant about pushing, perhaps you do not do it.”

“The player’s wishes matter, but the competitive situation also matters because it can dictate how the return-to-play process is structured.”

Guilherme Passos

“A return-to-play decision must always involve the player, the medical staff and the coaching staff.”

“We always prioritize the player’s health and safety, but there is a gray area when deciding whether a player should compete or remain out of the match.”

✅ Summary - Key recommendations for teams

* Put the player’s long-term health at the center of every return-to-play decision.

* Include the player, coaching staff, national-team medical staff and club medical team in the process.

* Establish clear return-to-training, return-to-play and return-to-performance benchmarks.

* Create an environment in which players feel comfortable reporting injuries early.

4. Biggest Lessons Learned

Pierre Barrieu

“I would always look to…

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Today we have the honor of interviewing Pat Byrne, a sleep expert and the founder of Fatigue Science,

Pat Byrne is a leading sleep and fatigue-management expert with more than two decades of experience studying how sleep, travel and circadian rhythms affect safety and human performance. After spending over 20 years in occupational health and safety, he founded Fatigue Science, where he helped develop the Readiband—an FDA-cleared sleep and fatigue monitor combining actigraphy with U.S. military performance-prediction software. Byrne later spent seven seasons working with the Vancouver Canucks (NHL) and has supported approximately 20 professional sports organizations across the NHL, NBA, NFL, MLB and soccer, including the Seattle Seahawks and Dallas Mavericks. His work has helped teams identify sleep problems, evaluate fatigue risks associated with competition and travel schedules, and develop evidence-based strategies to improve athlete recovery, readiness and performance.

You can watch the video interview below by clicking on the Youtube link. You can also listen to the audio interview by clicking on the link at the top of the page:

📝Show Notes: During the interview with Pat Byrne, we discussed his journey from occupational health and safety into sleep and fatigue management, the personal tragedy that inspired his work, and how he founded Fatigue Science and helped the Vancouver Canucks (NHL) become the first professional sports team to use automated sleep-monitoring technology. We explored how teams can optimize sleep by adjusting travel, training, meetings and recovery schedules; why individualized support and confidential athlete data are essential; and why sleep quality can be just as important as duration. Pat also explained the limitations of consumer wearables, the importance of identifying the underlying causes of poor sleep, and the dangers of relying on marketing claims or flawed research.

We discussed the lessons from his book, Inconvenient Sleep: Why Teams Win and Lose, practical recommendations for building an effective fatigue-management strategy, and real examples of how schedule changes, strategic naps and better sleep opportunities have helped elite athletes perform more effectively.

Order Pat’s book by clicking on the button below:

You can read the full transcript of the podcast interview with Pat located at the top of this blog post.

Here are the quotes from the interview with Pat:

1. Background and elite sports

“My background is in occupational health and safety. Then one day, my young nephew and godson—a local basketball player—was working long hours, fell asleep while driving home, drove his car off a cliff and died. That changed my entire approach. I started contacting people around the world and asking, ‘What do we know about people falling asleep, and what can we do about it?’ They all said, ‘We don’t know.’ That is how I began my journey into sleep and fatigue.”

“In occupational hygiene, you have to measure something if you want to improve it. Whether you are measuring noise, dust, radiation or chemicals, you need to know whether the solution you put in place actually works. The problem with sleep and fatigue was that there wasn’t anything available to do that effectively.”

“I founded Fatigue Science, where we created the world’s first automated sleep watch. We could measure sleep, but we also needed to understand fatigue. The more tired you are, the slower your reaction time becomes and the greater the risk of an accident.”

“I sent Mike Gillis and the Vancouver Canucks (NHL) a letter saying, ‘I have this technology if you are interested. I haven’t worked in sports before, but let’s check it out.’ I didn’t hear anything for two months. Then I was invited to present to the team. After an hour and a half, he asked, ‘When can you start?’ The Canucks became the first professional sports team in the world to wear sleep watches.”

“If the entire team lost approximately 10% of its reaction time, it lost the vast majority of those games. At the beginning of a season, we could identify 12, 13 or 14 potentially problematic games and then test different solutions: What if we left one day earlier? What if we canceled a practice? What if we changed the travel schedule?”

2. Approach to sleep optimization

“From the team’s perspective, the first responsibility is to create sleep opportunities for the players. What time are practices? What does the meeting schedule look like? What demands are being placed on the players, particularly around travel? You have to look at the entire picture and ask, ‘Where are the opportunities we are giving these players to sleep?’”

“If you return from a Monday night football game and then wake the players at 7:00 the following morning for a meeting, why are you doing that? Teams will say, ‘We have always held meetings at that time.’ My response is, ‘Then don’t do it.’”

“The other side is working individually with players. Sometimes athletes believe they have a sleep problem when they actually do not, and understanding their sleep can remove some of that anxiety.”

“We work with athletes as individuals, but we use aggregated data to advise the team. We can say, ‘We understand how the group sleeps at home and on the road, so here are the changes that could create more sleep opportunities for the players.’”

“The entire idea is to create sleep opportunities. With the Canucks, operational changes reduced the time between the final whistle and the plane taking off to approximately one hour. That gave the players an additional hour to an hour and a half of sleep between back-to-back games.”

3. Latest trends and technology

“At Fatigue Science, we did not focus on the consumer market because our thinking was: we can sell people these devices, but they will not know what to do with the data. That is still true today.”

“Poor sleep is not a disease that you can fix by putting a Band-Aid on it. Poor sleep is a symptom—and it can be a symptom of hundreds of things: a sleep disorder, mental-health issues, stress, diet or many other factors.”

“If an athlete is not sleeping, the first step is to determine why. Once we understand why the athlete is not sleeping, we can find an appropriate solution. Gadgets often try to fix the symptom instead of addressing the underlying cause.”

“Sleep is not only about how long you sleep; it is also about how well you sleep. Sleep quality is just as important as sleep duration.”

“The bouncing back and forth between time zones is extremely difficult on the body. We collected enough data with the Canucks to show the NHL that repeatedly moving the team across time zones was creating problems. The league listened and changed the schedule.”

“Collecting good data can help beyond the individual team. You can take the evidence to the league and demonstrate why scheduling or travel practices need to change.”

4. The book and common misconceptions

“Suzanne and I realized that every time we spoke with a coach, team or group of players, we were saying the same things repeatedly. We finally said, ‘Why don’t we write a book?’ It took several years and a great deal of research.”

“You should not get all your science from podcasts, marketing or the news. You should read the original research paper and judge the evidence for yourself.”

“What has happened in sports is that people have taken consumer products off the shelf and applied them to athletes. A lot of those products do not work.”

“People frequently claim that less sleep automatically produces a greater risk of injury, but some of those claims are based on old and deeply flawed research. People select the parts of a study that support what they want to tell athletes. Teams need to examine the quality of the original research.”

“Many teams simply do not have the time or personnel to work through the research and understand what works and what does not. That was one of the main reasons behind the book.”

5. Recommendations for teams and athletes

“I start with diagnosis: What are you doing…

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Today we have the honor of interviewing Mike James, head of coaching intelligence and strategy. Mike is joined by Shane Liyanage, the VP & head of tennis and Computer Vision at Orreco Tennis, one of the market leaders in performance analysis in tennis.

Orreco Tennis was born through the acquisition of Data Driven Sports Analytics (DDSA) in December 2025. It applies sports science, artificial intelligence and individualized athlete data to the specific demands of professional tennis. Its technology helps players and support teams monitor how intense matches, training sessions, international travel and short recovery periods affect performance throughout a tournament season. Orreco’s tools combine blood biomarkers, wellness information, workload data and movement analysis to identify fatigue, insufficient recovery and potential soft-tissue injury risks.

Through products such as the @thlete app, Recovery Lab, Motion Signal and its biomarker-monitoring platform, players can receive personalized recommendations related to sleep, nutrition, training and recovery. Orreco also provides female tennis players with menstrual-cycle-informed guidance through FitrWoman and FitrCoach. By bringing these insights into one performance system, Orreco Tennis helps players prepare more effectively for matches, recover between rounds and maintain their health and availability across a demanding season.

As shown in the video below, Orreco Tennis’ Trax platform uses AI-powered, three-dimensional skeletal tracking to analyze a player’s body positioning and movement patterns from video without requiring wearable sensors. By turning this movement data into biomechanical insights, Trax helps coaches evaluate technique, footwork and physical performance while identifying areas for improvement in training and match preparation.

As shown in the video below, Orreco Tennis’ PlayerDEX is a professional scouting and performance-analysis platform that organizes ATP and WTA data on serving, returning, groundstrokes, tactics, physical movement and pressure situations. It transforms live and historical match data into heat maps, three-dimensional court visualizations, player comparisons and automated scouting reports, helping coaches quickly identify strengths, weaknesses and opponent patterns

As shown in the video below, Orreco’s Tennis AI Agent provides a conversational interface that allows players and coaches to ask questions about match statistics, opponent tendencies, performance patterns and physical readiness using natural language. It analyzes Orreco’s connected tennis and sports-science data to produce charts, summaries and actionable recommendations that support scouting, tactical preparation, training and recovery decisions.

Trusted by Elite Tennis players

Leading players such as Aryna Sabalenka, Coco Gauff, Ons Jabeur, Rafael Jodar and Holger Rune, are among the players Orreco Tennis today. The combined Orreco–DDSA platform aims to connect these tennis-intelligence capabilities with Orreco’s expertise in biomarkers, readiness, recovery, injury management and long-term workload planning. This creates a more complete performance system that can help elite players understand both how to compete against an opponent and whether their bodies are prepared to perform.

In the video below, Aryna Sabalenka speaks with the Tennis Channel team about how detailed, opponent-specific game planning helps her prepare for high-pressure matches and rivalries. A key member of that process over the past six years has been data scientist Shane Liyanage, founder of Data Driven Sports Analytics (DDSA), whose analytical tools help transform match data into practical insights on opponent tendencies, tactical patterns and areas of opportunity.

Pictures: Mike James with Holger Rune (Left); Shane Liyanage with Sabalenka’s coach, Anton Dubrov (center); Shane Liyanage with Aryna Sabalenka (right).

Liyanage works closely with Sabalenka’s coach, Anton Dubrov, and the rest of her performance team to ensure those insights complement coaching experience rather than replace it. Their collaboration demonstrates how data science, tactical expertise and player instinct can work together to identify small competitive advantages at the highest level of professional tennis.

You can watch the video interview below by clicking on the Youtube link. You can also listen to the audio interview by clicking on the link at the top of the page:

📝Show Notes: During this interview with Mike and Shane, we discussed their journeys to Orreco Tennis and how the company combines AI, computer vision and performance science to deliver actionable insights for players and coaches.

We also explored Orreco’s work with elite players, its AI Agent and rating system, and how technology can improve match preparation, decision-making and injury prevention.

You can read the full transcript of the podcast interview with Shane and Mike located at the top of this blog post.

Here are the quotes from the interview with Shane and Mike:

Q1. Mike and Shane’s journeys to Orreco Tennis

Shane Liyanage — DDSA and the Orreco acquisition

“With DDSA, we had reached the stage where we had a decision to make. We could take out a loan or raise more money to scale, look to merge with someone, or seek additional investment. At the same time, Orreco was looking to enter tennis, and I felt that bringing the two organizations together was a natural progression.”

“I always felt Orreco was the other side of the coin to what we were doing. Our focus was strategy and analytics—how to win a match and how to develop a player—but I felt we were ignoring, or not doing a good enough job of, the athlete’s recovery, injury management and return to play. Orreco complemented us in all of those areas, so the acquisition made sense.”

Mike James — coaching and performance analysis

“I come from a coaching and sports-science background, but I didn’t play professional tennis at the highest level. When I started working in tour and professional coaching, I was always using analysis—going back to manual charting around 15 years ago and then using Dartfish about 10 years ago. I felt tennis was missing the opportunity to do performance analysis at a really high level.”

“When I looked inside the performance-analysis departments in soccer, the NBA and the NFL, I could see that they were so far ahead of tennis it was incredible. I remember thinking, ‘We’re not even scratching the surface.’ I eventually set up my own company and then spent four years leading the performance-analytics department at the Mouratoglou Academy.”

“The opportunity to join Shane at Orreco didn’t require much convincing. You could see the holistic, 360-degree approach—covering every side of the athlete, from biomarkers and biomechanics to tactics. For me, it was a no-brainer. The energy, enthusiasm and ideas being created made me feel that I had to be part of it.”

Q2. What Orreco Tennis does

Shane Liyanage

“We’re not just a product. Yes, we have dashboards, an app, analytical outputs and video, but we are much more than that. We don’t simply say, ‘Here are 50 KPIs—go and analyze them and come up with your own conclusions.’ We work through that process with the player and the team.”

“For a specific player, we identify their strengths and opportunities and then ask how we can track those areas and provide meaningful feedback. That support might come before a match, after a match or during an offseason. There is a service behind the product, and we are also integrated into some of the teams, sitting in the player box, receiving live data and supplying the context that allows a coach to use it.”

“I think of computer vision, biomechanics, nutrition and performance science as parts of one large value chain. First, computer vision captures the data. Then you have the analysis, which might involve nutrition, strength and conditioning or biomechanics. Finally, there is the presentation: how do you communicate all of that in the most meaningful way to …

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This week we have the honor to interview again a group of NBA sports performance executives to talk about the latest trends in the world of sports performance and rehabilitation.

* Dr Andy Barr, president of Quantum Movement.  Andy has worked in the NBA and professional soccer for 25 years for teams such as New York Knicks (NBA), NY Liberty (WNBA), the Brooklyn Nets (NBA), Manchester City (Premier League), Chelsea (Premier League), and NYFC (MLS).

* Dr Andrew Paul, the Director of Performance and Rehabilitation for OKC (NBA).

* Ryan Petersen, the assistant S&C coach for the Chicago Bulls (NBA).

Here are the topics that we covered during the video interview:

* Q1. With training camp approaching, what should an ideal final few weeks of the offseason look like for an NBA player—physically, technically, and mentally?

* Q2. Many players work with private coaches during the offseason. What does strong collaboration between a player’s private coach and NBA team staff look like, and where can problems arise?

* Q3. What are the biggest offseason mistakes you see players make—such as overtraining, playing too much live basketball, chasing social-media workouts, or neglecting recovery?

* Q4. How should offseason preparation be individualized based on a player’s age, injury history, role, expected minutes, and the way their team plans to use them?

* Q5. When you look at players who consistently have successful, healthy seasons, what habits or decisions during the offseason separate them from everyone else?

* Q6. If you could give every NBA player one piece of advice before training camp begins, what would it be?

You can watch the video interview below by clicking on the Youtube link. You can also listen to the audio interview by clicking on the link at the top of the page:

Here are some of the best quotes of our conversation with Andrew, Andy and Ryan:

Q1. With training camp approaching, what should an ideal final few weeks of the offseason look like for an NBA player—physically, technically and mentally?

Dr. Andy Barr

“The player has to go into camp fresh and prepared. They don’t want to be fatigued, but they need to be ready for the work they’re going to face and in the shape required to cope with the preseason.”

“Players often peak too soon in their offseason work. They need to be in shape to handle the demands, but they don’t want to peak too soon.”

“They might not be out of shape—they may have trained too much of the wrong things, or things that don’t align with the team’s philosophy.”

Dr. Andrew Paul

“Nowadays, I see players who are almost overprepared. They hit it so hard through August and September that they’re nearly overtrained when training camp begins.”

“If you’re even slightly mentally fatigued coming into October, then by January or February, you’re in a really tough spot.”

“One strategy I encourage is taking a vacation in late August or early September. It gives players a mental reset before the season.”

Ryan Petersen

“Showing up at your freshest—physically and mentally—is going to put you in a better position than cramming for the test for two or three weeks in August.”

“If you’re not excited to get back into the facility at the beginning of October, it’s going to be a long season.”

Recommendations for teams

* Prioritize freshness over last-minute volume.

* Gradually reduce the workload before camp.

* Include basketball-specific conditioning.

* Give players time to reset mentally.

* Monitor rookies and players coming off long seasons.

Q2. What does strong collaboration between a player’s private coach and NBA team staff look like, and where can problems arise?

Dr. Andy Barr

“Ultimately, the player is going back into the team environment. You have the team philosophy, the coaches’ intentions, the strength and conditioning program and the medical requirements. You have to support that.”

“I would rather be an extension of the team than work in isolation and have my own agenda.”

“If you can embrace people and bring them in instead of creating barriers, you’re off to a good starting point.”

Dr. Andrew Paul

“We don’t want the player caught in the middle of anything. If they’re caught in the middle, it should be in the middle of positivity and support from both sides.”

“If I have an issue, I try to handle it without putting the player in the middle.”

“We’re not working against each other. We’re there to support one another, and at the end of the day, everyone’s agenda is pretty much the same.”

Ryan Petersen

“What has been effective for us is early and clear communication about our goals for the player’s offseason training, and then trusting the private coaches as professionals to implement their programs.”

“Regular check-ins allow you to address something sooner rather than having the player show up at the end of September with glaring holes in their preparation.”

“It’s all part of the cumulative offseason load. That needs to be laid out and understood by all parties.”

Recommendations for teams

* Communicate with private coaches early.

* Establish shared goals and workload expectations.

* Include skill coaches in planning.

* Schedule regular check-ins.

* Resolve disagreements without involving the player.

* Respect each professional’s expertise.

Q3. What are the biggest offseason mistakes players make?

Dr. Andrew Paul

“Offseason workouts have become heavily focused on individual, half-court, offensive skill work. Players may not get enough defensive work or full-court work.”

“It becomes one-dimensional loading for the tissues over and over again.”

“Players may miss defensive work, reactive lateral movement and full-court sprinting. That loading may not be totally representative of what the game actually is.”

Ryan Petersen

“The other issue is inconsistency in where players are and what they’re doing. They may be in Los Angeles for a week, Chicago for a week, back home and then on vacation.”

“There’s a structured plan, but they have six structured plans.”

“They’re not staying within one structure long enough to receive all the benefits it could offer.”

Dr. Andy Barr

“It’s not only multiple programs—it’s multiple locations and multiple time zones. Players are going to Europe, Asia, social-media events and appearances.”

“That contributes to psychological fatigue as well as physical fatigue, and it doesn’t allow them to be fresh.”

“Get a routine, get a rhythm, work on your deficits and then have a recovery period. Jet lag is a killer.”

Recommendations for teams

* Track the player’s total workload.

* Include full-court and defensive movement.

* Avoid excessive one-dimensional training.

* Encourage consistent training locations and routines.

* Account for travel, sleep and mental fatigue.

* Schedule meaningful recovery periods.

Q4. How should offseason preparation be individualized based on a player’s age, injury history, role, expected minutes and the way the team plans to use them?

Dr. Andy Barr

“It starts with an individualized plan that is communicated well with all the stakeholders.”

“Make sure the plan is appropriate for what the player needs, what their role is and their injury history.”

“Good communication, good planning, clear goals and alignment are the keys.”

Dr. Andrew Paul

“One of the most important people you need to communicate and align with on offseason goals is the player.”

“It starts with you and the player getting on the same page, so everyone knows what will be communicated, to whom and when.”

Ryan Petersen

“What is the plan for this player this season, but also three years from now?”

“Are we building this player to play meaningful minutes next year, or do we have a more gradual runway in which we want that player to become a contributor two or three years from now?”

“For a player at the end of a contract, the conversation becomes: What is most important to you for your career right now?”

Recommendations for teams

* Build an individualized plan for every player.

* Include the player in setting the goals.

* Consider age, injuries, role and expected minutes.

* Balance immediate readiness with long-term development.

* Align team staff and outside providers.

* Revisit the plan when circum…

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This week we had the honor to interview again Dr. Ron Dick, associate professor of sports marketing at Duquesne University in the school of business. Ron also worked for 20 years in sports, including 15 years in the NBA with the Sixers and the Nets, and then five years in the NCAA.

You can watch the video interview below or you can listen to the audio interview above:

📝Show Notes: Through this interview, we touched on:

* MLB season

* NBA: LeBron James’ trade to the Sixers.

* WNBA’s 2nd half of the season and controversies.

* NFL camps

* College sports

* NHL camps

* LIV golf is saved for now

* Spain’s victory at the 2026 World Cup. Messi’s dad’s passing

* MLS’s 2nd half of the season. Griezmann’s and Lewandowsky’s debut in the MLS.

* Tennis: Jannik Sinner’s Wimbledon victory. Can he win the US Open?

You can read the full transcript of the podcast interview with Ron located at the top of this blog post.

Here are some of the best quotes of our conversation with Ron:

1. MLB season

“Vegas and a lot of fans think the Dodgers are going to three-peat. I would pump the brakes on that a little bit. Milwaukee is running away and hiding, the Atlanta Braves are right there with the Dodgers, and the Cubs are on quite a roll and looking really strong.”

“Do the Dodgers really want to see the Phillies again in the first round—or the Padres, who constantly have that battle with them? There are several good teams that could make the postseason very difficult for Los Angeles.”

“In the East, Tampa Bay—doing it with that budget and that facility—has the best record in baseball. Boston has come from nowhere and would make the playoffs, too. Baltimore and Toronto are also competitive. There are a lot of good teams in the American League.”

“We still have 2027 looming: the salary cap, reducing the draft to 12 rounds, and not allowing high school players to be drafted, similar to the NFL. These are all issues that will have to be worked out. But let’s stay positive and see how the World Series goes this fall.”

2. NBA: LeBron James joining the Sixers

“LeBron is obviously chasing rings. He’s going to join one of the best teams that needed a final piece, and that starting five will be fabulous. Philadelphia fans like to take care of their own and want players to be part of the community, so if he lives in New York, that may be bad optics—but it’s something they’ll have to get over.”

“He signed a two-year deal for the veteran minimum of $4 million per year, with a player option for the third year. That was probably the only money Philadelphia had available under the salary cap, so it’s an extremely exciting move.”

“One of my students recently sold about $400,000 worth of Sixers tickets in four hours through mini-plans and full-season packages. They’re going to sell out almost every game. When they play Miami, Cleveland, New York, Boston or the Lakers, those games will be automatic sellouts.”

“It’s exciting for the NBA. My Philadelphia people are going crazy—they’re really into it. It has become almost must-watch television.”

3. WNBA’s second half and controversies

“College basketball is a coach’s league, but the NBA is a player’s league. Most WNBA teams are playing in NBA arenas, and what drives the NBA is the star power of the players—not the coaches. The WNBA needs to figure that out as well: it’s a star league, so celebrate the stars.”

“The top-selling jerseys in the WNBA belong to Caitlin Clark and Sophie Cunningham. The league is thriving: salaries have doubled, tripled and quadrupled, teams are chartering flights, and sponsorships, television ratings, concessions, parking and ticket sales have increased.”

“If calling it the ‘Caitlin Clark Effect’ makes certain people uncomfortable, then don’t call it that. Just call it success. The value of these teams has exploded over the last five years, and leadership needs to make sure everyone understands that.”

“If I were Commissioner Cathy Engelbert, I would meet with every team and explain the extraordinary growth the league has experienced. Let’s put the pettiness behind us. They need to approach it the way the NBA does: it’s a star league, so celebrate the stars.”

“We also have to give the referees more power. Too many fouls are being called common fouls when they are actually flagrant fouls. That needs to be addressed on the court.”

4. NFL training camps

“The NFL is really heating up. We’ve already had a game in Canton, and more preseason games are coming. Veteran players with guaranteed contracts may not need these games, but they will make or break certain backup quarterbacks.”

“For players roughly 40 through 60 on the roster, it comes down to how they perform on special teams and what else they can bring to the field. That will determine who makes the 53-man roster. These games mean everything to those players.”

“The physically unable to perform list is always something you have to monitor, but teams cannot protect everybody. Injuries will happen during the season, so some players who are cut will eventually be brought back over the following 17 weeks.”

“Financially, the NFL keeps splintering where games can be seen. Some Christmas games require Netflix, certain nights require Amazon Prime, and other games will be spread across ESPN, ABC, Fox and CBS. Fans are being forced to buy multiple streaming services to watch all their favorite teams.”

5. College sports

“The first major college season will be football, and we already have some massive heavyweight matchups. Mark your calendar for Ohio State versus Texas. That game will tell us a lot about college football.”

“On the same day, Oklahoma plays at Michigan. These are big-time nonconference matchups involving Big Ten and SEC programs, and they will give us an early indication of where these teams stand.”

“Then we have LSU at Ole Miss—the Lane Kiffin Bowl. It’s always fun to have the game within the game, especially when a coach faces his former employer. Do you think he might get booed out of the stadium that day?”

“There are some major matchups to watch, and it is going to be a great college football season.”

6. NHL training camps

“The NHL is quite amazing. Training camps begin around September 16, 17 or 18, and then teams start playing real games around the 21st. The players barely know each other’s first names—they have about three practices and then it’s, ‘Let’s go play a game.’”

“Veteran players love the shorter preseason because it means less wear and tear on their bodies. But just like in football, there are players trying to earn a place on the main NHL roster instead of being assigned to the AHL.”

“Of the four major sports, hockey has the greatest difference between watching on television and watching in person. Live hockey is incredibly intense. You are close to the ice, you can see the players’ facial expressions, and you can feel how badly both teams want to win.”

“One of the greatest sporting events I ever saw was a 2009 playoff game between the young stars of the Penguins and the Capitals. It was one of the most competitive events I’ve ever witnessed. Hockey live is great—it really is.”

7. LIV Golf is saved—for now

“Scott O’Neil says LIV has a sponsor that will subsidize the league from this point forward. I don’t think it is Saudi money again, but LIV is operating around the globe and saying all the right things.”

“I looked and looked, and I’m still curious about who that sponsor is. I’m sure that, in time, we will find out who it is.”

“They are still alive. The LIV Golf Group has a heartbeat. Good for them—and if Scott O’Neil can straighten it out, I’m sure he will.”

8. Spain’s World Cup victory and Messi’s father

“If you look at the totality of the World Cup, Spain dominated from A to Z—beginning to end, from soup to nuts. They were very dominant, appeared to be a close-knit group and benefited from great coaching.”

“Argentina has nothing to be ashamed of. They represented themselves very well, and Messi’s performance as a 38-year-old runner-up was remarkable. The way he moves with the ball, scores and sets up his team…

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This week we have the honor to interview a group of NHL sports performance executives to talk about the latest trends in the world of sports performance.

* Alexi Pianosi, Head S&C coach, Colorado avalanche (NHL Team).

* Adam Douglas, Hockey Product Manager, Sportslogiq. Adam is also the former S&C coach for the Pittsburgh Penguins (NHL Team).

* Kevin Morley, Head ATC, Nashville Predator (NHL team).

* Devan McConnell, High performance director, Utah Mammoth (NHL Team).

📝Show Notes: Through this interview, we touched on the best practices related to:

* Preparing players for NHL training camps

* Managing a shorter preseason and longer regular NHL season

* Reassessing the technology stack

* Defining a successful start to the season

* Aligning team staff with players’ private performance teams

You can watch the video interview below by clicking on the Youtube link. You can also listen to the audio interview by clicking on the link at the top of the page:

You can read the full transcript of the podcast interview located at the top of this blog post.

Here are some of the best quotes of our conversation with Alexi, Kevin, Devan and Adam:

1. Preparing players for NHL training camps

Devan McConnell

“The number-one priority is clearing up any medical issues. We want players coming back healthy, back to baseline—or improved physically from where they were the previous season—so they’re ready to perform.”

“With an older veteran, the developmental window might be closed and you’re getting them back to who they are as a mature player. A 19-, 20-, or 22-year-old is still physically developing, so you’re trying to move the needle.”

Alexi Pianosi

“Training camp tends to bring a spike in intensity and skating volume. The closer we can bridge the gap between offseason skating and training-camp skating—in speed, intensity, and volume—the better prepared players will be to stay healthy.”

“The work is finding the players who might arrive with issues and getting ahead of those problems—finding solutions before they become problems.”

Adam Douglas

“Guys train. Guys prepare. Guys skate. If a player doesn’t have a great training environment at home, teams can create a place where they want to train and develop.”

✅ Key Recommendations for Teams: Preparing players for training camps

* Resolve medical issues and return players to a healthy baseline.

* Prepare players for camp-level skating speed, volume, and intensity.

* Emphasize maintenance for veterans and development for younger players.

* Create individualized plans for injured players and new acquisitions.

2. Managing a shorter NHL preseason and longer regular season

Devan McConnell

“We’re being squeezed at both ends: we have less time to manage workloads and get players up to speed, while losing some of the tools that have been beneficial over the last 10 to 15 years.”

“It may have to go back to the coaching eye—communicating, having good discussions with the staff, and making informed decisions without relying on the data quite as much.”

Alexi Pianosi

“A shorter camp puts more responsibility on the staff to prepare ahead of training camp so you can expedite those early growing pains.”

“You’re going to have to screen players early, get ahead of potential issues, and nip those problems in the bud before they happen.”

Adam Douglas

“It will be interesting to see whether veteran players arrive earlier than usual so they can get high-quality skates in and get their legs underneath them before camp.”

✅ Key Recommendations for Teams: Managing a shorter preseason and longer regular season

* Begin high-quality skating and conditioning before camp.

* Screen players early and monitor workload and fatigue.

* Use rest days strategically to reduce injury risk.

* Adjust preparation according to roster age, experience, and turnover.

3. Reassessing the technology stack

Devan McConnell

“It’s an ongoing process. You’re always evaluating what tools you have, what questions you need answered, and whether those tools are helping you answer those questions.”

“I’m always curious and eager to learn, but something doesn’t need to be added to our process simply because another team is using it.”

Alexi Pianosi

“Exploring new technology has to start with where your team came up short last year. What did you not do well, and what do you need to do better?”

“After the season, look at what you used and what you didn’t use. If you didn’t use something all season, there probably isn’t a good case for continuing to pay for it.”

“The best beta test is whether players like something for one or two days—or whether they’re still using it after a month.”

Adam Douglas

“The best recovery modalities are the ones where you can create stickiness across multiple players, multiple departments, and multiple points in the schedule.”

“In the recovery space, your BS meter and your Spidey senses need to be on high alert, because there’s a lot of voodoo out there.”

✅ Key Recommendations for Teams: Reassessing the technology stack

* Retain technology that answers important performance or medical questions.

* Remove tools that are underused or do not influence decisions.

* Pilot new products and evaluate long-term player adoption.

* Consider evidence, cost, contracts, space, and workflow.

4. Defining a successful start to the NHL season

Alexi Pianosi

“You can define success in a variety of ways. Before the season starts, you have to decide: What are our KPIs? What do we really want to improve?”

“Ultimately, you want to be playing really well in April, May, and June—not necessarily in October and November. The beginning of the season is part of that process.”

Devan McConnell

“Success is completely context-dependent. During a rebuild, it may be about establishing a training culture and team culture. With an established team, wins and losses may become part of the expectation.”

“From a performance standpoint, it would be very unsuccessful if we had a lot of players on the training table. I’d feel that we hadn’t done our job if players were already banged up coming through camp.”

✅ Key Recommendations for Teams: Defining a successful start to the season

* Establish team-specific performance and health KPIs.

* Monitor injuries, recovery, energy, and workout participation.

* Evaluate team cohesion, practice quality, and tactical progress.

* Adjust when injuries, fatigue, or performance problems begin increasing.

5. Aligning team staff with players’ private performance teams

Alexi Pianosi

“Create an environment for an open exchange so that whatever the private trainer did can flow back into what you do. You might have chosen a different drill, but you can still appreciate the thought process and recognize that you’re pursuing the same adaptation.”

“Players can feel when there isn’t a competition or push-and-pull between practitioners. It isn’t about who is right or wrong—it’s about everyone being there to help the player.”

Devan McConnell

“It comes down to relationships and communicating with the offseason professionals: explaining our organizational KPIs, the player’s individual KPIs, what we see, what they see, and our training philosophy.”

“We’re flexible, and we work with players—not over players. Especially with veteran players, we see them as colleagues. We work together to reach conclusions and provide the best support possible.”

Kevin Morley

“I’ve learned enough in my career to know that I don’t know all that much—and that there are a lot of right ways to do things. The scaffolding can be different while the goal remains the same.”

“We tell our players, ‘You’re your own LLC.’ Their body is how they provide for their family, so we approach it as a partnership.”

“Let us work together to find what works best for you, and then we’ll add and take things away as we go.”

Adam Douglas

“The person an athlete chooses to work with in the offseason is someone it’s in my best interest to know. Share the scaffolding, share the philosophy, and work together.”

“I want that practitioner to understand what we’re trying to accomplish from a team perspective and become a champion in the player’s ear.”

✅ Key Recommendations …

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