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:

* The NFL draft recap, new NFL Schedule. Aaron Rodgers’ new contract with the to Pittsburgh Steelers,

* NBA draft & playoffs,

* College athletics 5 plus 5, MBB/College FB,

* NHL playoffs,

* LIV updates,

* MLS season, 2026 World Cup,

* MLB season

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. NFL Draft recap, new NFL schedule, Aaron Rodgers to Pittsburgh

“Pittsburgh really shined in the NFL draft. The weather was tremendous on Thursday, Friday a little bit of rain. I took my daughter on Saturday afternoon. They’ve become the model. Every city that hosts — and next year it’s going to be in Washington DC — I believe Washington will shatter the record that was set recently by Pittsburgh, beating Detroit from two years ago because of their location. People will train down from New England, New York, Philly, Baltimore, and up from Atlanta and Florida to go to this event. It was a very, very cool event. Pittsburgh pulled it off and it was great. To see 700,000 additional people in the city was overwhelming.”

“The Steelers, Aaron Rodgers signed a one-year deal more than twice what he made last year — 22 million for this one year with an accelerator that could get him to 25 million. Some people are talking about this now while organized team activities are taking place. For the first time ever it seems like the growth here is going to be in brand-new countries that have never hosted an NFL regular season game. Melbourne is going to have a game, Rio in Brazil, and Paris, France — the Steelers are going to play there.”

“The NFL has, of the 32 teams, assigned countries to certain teams. For example, the Cowboys’ only country they’re assigned to is Mexico. The Pittsburgh Steelers are assigned to Germany, Ireland, and Mexico. They’re trying to get those countries excited about and supporting those teams, so what better way than to go there and play a game? That’s where this seems like the growth is, and that was very apparent on day three of the draft.”

“Boy, it seems like the NFL loves them some Eagles. The Eagles are playing on Thanksgiving in Dallas, they’re hosting on Christmas Eve, and they’re on a lot of the radar for national games, as are the Steelers. So it’s going to be a great football year and it’s pretty exciting.”

2. NBA Draft and NBA Playoffs

“The NBA Draft Lottery took place. It looks like Washington got the first pick, Utah second, Memphis third, Chicago fourth. In no particular order, I don’t think it’s clear-cut who’s one, two, three, and four in the draft. The players are AJ from BYU, Peterson from Kansas, Boozer from Duke — of course his dad played in the NBA and was an All-Star — and Caleb Wilson from UNC Chapel Hill. They are considered to be without a clear top four. You could argue what order, and it should be interesting what Washington does. There’s a little bit of drop-off from five and down.”

“Spurs versus OKC. This is what we’ve all wanted. This is one versus two. This is going to be an awesome series. Those two teams are going to be around for a long time because they are both so young.”

“The Knicks could get to the NBA Finals for the first time since 1999 with Patrick Ewing. So that’s pretty exciting in the NBA. I think OKC versus the Knicks, and OKC wins back-to-back titles.”

3. College athletics: 5 plus 5, college basketball, college football

“Brand new rule, it’s called five plus five. When you graduate high school — or when you turn 19 — you have five years you can play. They’re trying to rush this through with the NCAA and all the big conferences. There are players that are playing that are 26 or 27 years old, getting an eighth or ninth year. This is insanity, right? Let’s streamline this, let’s make it incredibly simple so everybody understands.”

“If you get injured, you don’t get that year back. You have to do it in five years. So that would cap everybody out at roughly 23 or 24 years old. The only exemptions would be pregnancy, military, and religious missions. It all kind of makes sense because we’ve got guys going in that are on second marriages, they’ve got child support, alimony — and it’s like, how do you play college sports when you’re 26 or 27 years old?”

“This will give freshmen more of an opportunity because they’re really missing out on opportunities coming out of high school. You can leave any time you want to go play professionally, but you can’t play any time past those five years. Simple as could be.”

“Ohio State, $50 million is what they’re going to pay. They have a budget of roughly $50 million. That’s above and beyond NIL — just here’s our budget for our athletic department, we’re spending $50 million this year on our football team. If you’re not going to spend 50, and you’re in the SEC or Big Ten, then can you compete with a $50 million payroll?”

“They really want to push through 24 teams in the college football tournament, up from 12. And in 2027, March Madness is going to go from 68 teams to 78. Ten additional teams will get in. But now you may see teams with three losses making the football playoff. I don’t know if that’s a good idea, but they’re going to give more opportunities to teams.”

4. NHL Playoffs

“We’ve got a Game 7 coming up, Buffalo versus Montreal. The winner takes on the Carolina Hurricanes. Then you’ve got a tremendous Colorado Avalanche team that is going to play the Golden Knights of Vegas, and the winners of those series will go to the Stanley Cup Finals.”

“No more Tampa Bay Lightning, no more Florida Panthers. They’ve won quite a few recently. Back to back, yes. So now we’re seeing a bit of a changing of the guard.”

5. LIV Golf updates

“They are on life support. They lost $6 billion in their 54-round type format. Five guys in particular want to come home and play in the PGA — Jon Rahm, Bryson, Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson, and Cameron Smith all saying, ‘Can we come back and play for the PGA?’”

“I believe they will take them back. I think it’s happening already. It’s forgive and forget, and probably we’ll just pretend like it never happened that they left the PGA. But for all practical purposes, LIV is dead.”

6. MLS season and World Cup ticket prices

“The MLS is going to be on a little break because the World Cup is starting on June 11. There are going to be 11 US cities hosting the World Cup. There’s been controversy about the prices going through the roof, and now it looks like the prices are finally coming down a little bit.”

“With food prices, gas prices, cost of living — for them to try to demand $5,000 a ticket or $10,000 a ticket, it’s obscene. It feels predatory, and people just won’t buy it. It’s not an inelastic product. It’s elastic. The rubber band will only stretch so far, then I just won’t go.”

“There have been lawsuits and people trying to figure out why the prices of the tickets are so high. It is very difficult, even with electronic tickets, to control the secondary market once you decide you want to go down that road. Some have argued it’s impossible to control the secondary market. But it’s something they better figure out really fast because this thing’s jumping on us June 11th.”

“They’ve got high-end facilities, they’re ready to do it, and this is probably a once-in-a-lifetime type of situation for a lot of people. I think we’re going to do a really nice job hosting it in the United States.”

7. MLB season

“We are roughly a third of the way through and a couple things jump out at you. The Rays in Tampa, their building’s been fixed after the hurricane, they’re playing there, and they have 30 wins already. That’s number one in the AL East. The Yankees are number two.”

“We had rivalry weekend, which I found very interesting. The Mets play the Yankees, the Phillies play the Pirates, Rangers and Astros — it made a lot of sense and sparked interest around the league.”

“In the Central we’ve got two teams over .500. How about the Sacramento Athletics, number one in the AL West right now. The Braves have the most wins in baseball. The Phillies got off to a horrific start, fired their manager, hired Don Mattingly, and they’ve gone on a run since then.”

“The Cubs look really good in the Central. Everybody in the NL Central is over .500. The West, it’s all Dodgers. Padres looking really good too.”

“There’s a number of brand-new Japanese players that are doing very well this year for the first time. We’re going to see more and more players coming in from the Nippon League in Japan to become stars in MLB.”

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Today we have the honor of interviewing Curt Truhe, VP of Health & Performance at Excel Sports Management, a leading sports agency.

Curt built his career at the intersection of strength and conditioning and sports science, beginning as an athlete before transitioning into coaching when his playing career ended. He started out as a strength and conditioning coach, gaining hands-on experience in training and athlete development while working in environments where sports science was just beginning to emerge. During this time, he effectively operated across multiple roles—blending coaching with early sports science responsibilities—which gave him a strong foundation in both performance training and data-driven decision-making.

Prior to his current position, Curt held various performance-focused roles across team and private training settings, where he worked directly with athletes on development, rehabilitation, and performance optimization. These experiences exposed him to different systems, technologies, and athlete needs, helping him build a holistic understanding of performance environments. Today, as Vice President of Health & Performance at Excel Sports Management, he leverages that background to oversee performance, medical, and sports science initiatives, ensuring athletes receive individualized, high-level support throughout their careers.

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: Through this interview, we touched on:

* His journey & journey.

* His role & day-to-day impact

* His philosophy on performance training

* Individualization & athlete care

* What makes Excel Sports Management unique

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

Here are the quotes from the interview with Curt:

1. Background & Journey“Growing up I would have loved to become an athlete… But at one point we fail out or the talent gets above us and we have to move on. I was more of a strength and conditioning coach by trade—that was the lens I viewed everything through. As a strength coach in that time, you kind of had to wear the hat of sports scientist before all these roles were created, and getting really good insight into the tech and what you’re looking to measure really helped me later on in my career. Having a good understanding of what those people are looking at and how those worlds come together helps create a system that sports science fuels and performance fuels.”

2. Role & Day-to-Day Impact“My role specifically is always changing. Working within the agency is kind of this middle space between the team setting and a private setting. My role now is creating the environment and making sure the team has all the resources they need to deliver. A lot of what I do is understanding the landscape of performance and what’s out there, and if our athletes are training elsewhere, it’s about knowing who the good groups are so we can make sure they have the right support system. Ultimately, we can fill in the gaps no matter what support system they already have.”

3. Philosophy on Performance Training“You have to look at this holistic picture of what the athlete is. There’s so much stuff out there—it’s easy to get lost in it—so it starts with asking, what problem are you trying to solve? The larger picture is that there’s a lot of context that goes into what makes someone perform well. With younger athletes, you’re still trying to grow those attributes, but once you’re established, it becomes about refining and maintaining performance. With vets, it’s about keeping you healthy so you can stay on the field—because if you’re still playing at that point, it’s because you’re a hell of a player, and we just want to keep you there.”

4. Individualization & Athlete Care“The biggest thing you can do is the level of understanding. You know someone better after 20 years, and our goal is to get to that level of understanding with athletes. We’re never going to get it perfect, but every experience helps us learn—whether it’s something that works or doesn’t. It’s about how we utilize the tech and the numbers, but also conversations and what we’re seeing day to day, to better understand them. The better we understand them, the better we can support them—or help others support them. Ultimately, it comes down to time—time building relationships and time with the data—and I don’t think anyone is more directly aligned with the athlete than us.”

5. What Makes Excel Unique“The differentiator for us right now is that we exist—having a performance team within an agency hasn’t really existed before. Our role is to be that internal support group for each athlete. Our North Star is on-field or on-court performance, because if you’re playing at your best, that drives contract value and opportunities. We can meet athletes at different levels, from annual checkups to fully hands-on support, but the goal is always to create a system that helps them pinpoint what’s going to move the needle. Ultimately, we’re trying to make those blurred lines less blurry when it comes to development and longevity.”

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Today we have the honor of interviewing Chris Moseley, the Head of Medical at the Red Bulls NY, an MLS team.

Chris Moseley is currently the Head of Medical at the New York Red Bulls, where he oversees the club’s entire medical strategy, including athletic training, physiotherapy staff, and coordination with external doctors to support both first-team and development players. He joined the club in 2024 after a long tenure at Middlesbrough FC, where he spent over two decades—progressing from First Team Physiotherapist to Head Physiotherapist in 2011 and working across more than 1,000 matches. Earlier in his career, he served as a First Team Physiotherapist at Stoke City F.C., building a strong foundation in elite football medical performance before moving into senior leadership roles

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: Through this interview, we touched on:

* His background and what led him to the Red Bulls NY.

* His role at the Red Bulls NY, and what a typical day looks like.

* His approach towards injury reduction and innovation.

* How he sees the world of injury reduction in elite sports evolving in the coming years.

* Which technologies he would build if he had unlimited resources.

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

Here are the quotes from the interview with Chris:

Q1. Background & Journey to the Red Bulls NY

“My journey in professional sports started 35 years ago as an apprentice footballer at Stoke City Football Club. Unfortunately, my career was ended prematurely through injury, and during that time my rehabilitation wasn’t great. That experience really inspired me—I didn’t want that to happen to anybody else. I always had ambitions of becoming a physiotherapist, so I went back to study and completed a degree in sports rehabilitation, which at the time was quite novel and focused entirely on the assessment, treatment, and rehabilitation of sports injuries.”

“From there, I gained experience working with clubs like Bolton Wanderers and Newcastle United before returning to Stoke City full-time, while also completing my physiotherapy degree. I later moved to Middlesbrough, where I spent 22 years working with the first team as head physio. It was a very forward-thinking environment—we were involved in early sports science developments, including GPS validation. Eventually, I had a conversation with a colleague working within the Red Bull system about an opportunity in New York. After discussing it with my family and doing my due diligence, I made the move. I had to validate all my qualifications in the U.S., but once that was completed, I joined the New York Red Bulls, where I’ve now been for two years.”

Q2. Role at Red Bulls NY & Typical Day

“A typical day as head of medical starts with an early meeting where we discuss injured players and their programs for the day. That’s followed by a more detailed rehabilitation and load management meeting with the performance staff, where we look at player load across the day, week, and month—identifying any spikes or red flags. After that, we report back to the head coach with any recommendations or adjustments to training, and then we begin preparing for the players’ arrival.”

“Once players arrive, a lot of our time is spent working individually with them—making sure they’re completing their activation and corrective exercises based on their pre-season screenings. We’ve moved away from traditional strength and conditioning and instead microdose it into the activation phase before training, which has improved compliance and buy-in. During training, part of the staff covers the session while others focus on rehab. At the end of the day, we come back together for a full review—discussing load, injuries, and next steps. It’s a continuous daily cycle of monitoring, communication, and adjustment.”

Q3. Approach to Injury Reduction & Innovation

“There’s no such thing as injury prevention—injury reduction is the aim. What we’re really looking for is maximum player availability. We can measure everything now, but the key is what you do with that information. You can have great data on a player and they don’t perform, or poor data and they’re your best performer—so it’s all about interpretation. At the same time, we can’t get away from the personal touch. You have to be with the players, assess them, talk to them, and understand how they’re feeling on a daily basis.”

“A big focus for us is lumbar pelvic control—we do a lot of manual work to make sure the body is functioning efficiently before reinforcing that through exercises and transferring it onto the field. Communication is probably the most important factor in injury reduction. The medical staff, sports science staff, and coaching staff all need to be aligned. It’s a risk management business—sometimes you take calculated risks to get players on the field for important games—but those decisions have to be collective, transparent, and understood by everyone, including the player.”

Q4. Future of Injury Reduction in Elite Sports

“AI is exploding in the medical world, but ultimately it still comes back to understanding the results and making the right decisions. You can have all the technology in the world, flag players at risk, and still decide to play them—it comes down to communication, trust, and alignment between staff. Technology can inform decisions, but it doesn’t replace the need for human judgment and collaboration.”

“One of the advantages we have is being part of a global Red Bull network, where we can collaborate with clubs across different countries and share knowledge on complex cases. That kind of collective intelligence is incredibly valuable. The future of injury reduction isn’t just about better technology—it’s about how you integrate that technology into a system that prioritizes communication, collaboration, and informed decision-making.”

Q5. Dream Technology

“If I could build any technology, it would be something to regenerate spinal cord injuries—to repair nerve damage. That would obviously have massive implications in sport, but it goes far beyond that. Being able to improve or restore function in people with spinal injuries would be life-changing on a much larger scale.”

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Today we have the honor of interviewing Gavin Benjafield, performance director at LAFC, an MLS team.

Gavin Benjafield is the Performance Director at Los Angeles Football Club (LAFC), where he leads an integrated performance department spanning strength and conditioning, sports science, nutrition, data, and mental performance. Originally from South Africa, he has over 20 years of experience in elite football, beginning his career at Ajax Cape Town before progressing to Ajax Amsterdam in the Netherlands and later working in the Premier League. He holds a background and degree in exercise physiology, with expertise in final-phase rehabilitation and sports science, having developed his career during a time when practitioners were more generalist before the field became highly specialized. In 2018, he joined LAFC at its inception, drawn by the rare opportunity to build a high-performance model from the ground up, and has since played a key role in shaping the club’s performance philosophy and interdisciplinary approach.

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: Through this interview, we touched on:

* His background and what led him to LAFC.

* His role at LAFC, and what a typical day looks like.

* His approach towards performance training, S&C, rehab and innovation.

* How he sees the world of performance training in elite sports evolving in the coming years.

* Which technologies he would build if he had unlimited resources.

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

Here are the quotes from the interview with Gavin:

Q1. Background & path to LAFC

“I’ve been involved in football for close on 20 years. I’m South African, I started with Ajax Cape Town, then moved to the Netherlands with Ajax Amsterdam, and later worked in the Premier League before landing in Los Angeles in 2018. My background is exercise physiology, final phase rehabilitation, sports science—at that time we were still pretty generalists, and the industry has since become much more specialized. The big attraction for me coming to LAFC was that I’d never been in a club where I had the opportunity to build something from the ground up. In 2017 the club didn’t really exist at first-team level, so it was like having a piece of land and saying, ‘this is how we’re going to build the house.’ That opportunity was unique, and I felt this may be the only time in my career where I could do something like that.”

Q2. Role at LAFC & typical day

“My role as Performance Director is primarily overseeing areas like strength and conditioning, sports science, data science, nutrition, and mental performance coaching. It’s very much a managerial role—I’m the connector between all those disciplines, the players, the coaching staff, and the leadership. I’ve stepped away from being a specialist; instead, I hire experts in each field and make sure everything is aligned. There isn’t really a ‘normal’ day, but we do fall into a rhythm. We start early—around 7:45 the medical and performance teams meet to align on the day, then smaller staff meetings follow, and by 9:00 we meet with coaches. From nine to ten is really important for player interaction, maintaining those relationships. Training starts mid-morning, and the rest of the day flows from there. The challenge is that it becomes very cyclical, so you have to deliberately create moments to reflect, sit down with staff, and think about how to improve—because that’s really where the gold is found.”

Q3. Approach to performance, S&C, rehab & innovation

“For me, performance is a singular unit—everyone’s role is ultimately pointed toward improving team performance. Whether you’re in nutrition, strength and conditioning, or data, the question is always: how are you enhancing the player and the team? We are one team with different specializations. I often use analogies like Formula One, where even one person’s role is critical—if they don’t execute, the whole system is impacted. Or like an orchestra, where everyone plays a different instrument but must be aligned. I really emphasize teamwork, collaboration, and communication. My philosophy is not rigid—it’s fluid, because every season presents a different challenge. Whether it’s schedule congestion, injuries, or travel, you need a unique approach each time. Ultimately, our goal is to maximize player potential, maximize availability, and navigate the season as effectively as possible.”

Q4. Future of performance training

“I think we now have so much information at our fingertips that we’re actually becoming distracted. It’s very easy to keep adding new tools, new technologies, new ideas, thinking they will enhance performance—but often we’re just diluting what was already working. If we look back five years, we have to ask whether all these additions have really produced better outcomes. Distraction is becoming one of our biggest enemies. We can’t create more time with athletes, so if we keep adding more tasks, we’re just overloading both staff and players. I use the analogy of a backpack—if we keep adding more, we just end up tiring ourselves out. I believe the future is about simplification and consistency. If we reduce the number of ‘new’ inputs, we can apply things more consistently, and that’s what actually allows athletes to adapt and improve over time.”

Q5. Dream technology

“If I had unlimited resources, I would build a single, discreet device that captures everything—something like a continuous monitoring system that combines all the functions we currently separate across multiple tools. I want to see how an athlete moves from fatigue back to readiness, how travel impacts them, how they respond to both physical and mental stress over time. Right now, a lot of what we do is still a best guess, especially early in the training week. Ideally, we’d have continuous physiological data that helps us make better decisions day by day. The key is that it has to be simple—players don’t want to wear more technology, they want to wear less. At the moment, we risk turning athletes into robots by asking them to wear multiple devices. The goal should be one solution that gives us richer insights while staying completely in the background and allowing athletes to perform naturally.”

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This week we have the honor to interview again a group of sports executives to discuss the future of injury reduction and rehabilitation.

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

* Raphaël Ravet, the Chief Commercial Officer of Myocene, a leading Belgium based sports technology company revolutionizing how muscle fatigue is measured and managed.

* Frederick Donnell, the Head Football Athletic Trainer at the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV / NCAA).

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 Devan, Raphaël and Frederick:

Q1. From Data to Decisions

🔹 Frederick Donnell

“We can get all the data we want, but at the end of the day, the real challenge isn’t on the practitioner side—it’s getting buy-in from the athletes. We can lead a horse to water, but we can’t make them drink it. You can show a player that their recovery score is low or their sleep is poor, but that doesn’t guarantee they’ll change their behavior. So for us, the missing piece in translating data into injury reduction isn’t necessarily better technology—it’s actually getting athletes to engage with and act on the information we’re giving them.”

🔹 Devan McConnell

“I think we’ve reached a point where we can measure almost everything in isolation—force plate metrics, HRV, sleep, workload—but what we still haven’t figured out is how all of these variables interact together. One metric might be down while another is up, and the workload might be stable, so how do we actually interpret that collectively? The real challenge is building a system that connects all these data points into something meaningful, rather than just looking at them separately. That ability to understand how the pieces of the puzzle interact is what’s still missing when it comes to truly driving injury reduction.”

🔹 Raphaël Ravet

“Today, most technologies are very good at quantifying outputs and external load—we can measure movement and workload extremely well. But where we still have a gap is in understanding the physiological response to that load, the internal side. Many of the tools we use are still influenced by athlete perception, motivation, or emotion, which introduces bias. What we really need are fully objective markers that track internal load reliably, without being affected by those factors. Improving that aspect—getting closer to true physiological response—is where I see the biggest opportunity to better support injury risk reduction and rehabilitation.”

Q2. Individualization vs. Scalability

🔹 Frederick Donnell

“When you’re managing large rosters, it really comes down to trusting your staff and making sure everyone is aligned. There are very few opportunities to truly work one-on-one with an athlete, especially during rehab, so you have to rely on your team to execute the plan properly. That means constant communication, making sure everyone understands the goals for each athlete, and staying organized across a large group. There’s no textbook that teaches you how to build that kind of trust—it comes from experience and ongoing collaboration. At scale, individualization isn’t about doing everything yourself, it’s about building a system where your staff can deliver it consistently.”

🔹 Devan McConnell

“For us, it starts with building structured systems and processes. We begin with a broad program based on key physiological principles and then segment players into groups using their data. From there, it progressively becomes more individualized—factoring in injury history, preferences, and performance needs. Eventually, especially in rehab or return-to-play, it becomes extremely specific to the individual and their situation. So the balance comes from layering—starting broad for efficiency, and then filtering down into deeper levels of individualization where it matters most.”

🔹 Raphaël Ravet

“From a product development standpoint, we have to design tools that respect the reality practitioners face—limited time and large groups of athletes. That’s why we focused on creating a single, actionable metric that provides immediate insight. It’s not meant to replace decision-making, but to support it quickly and efficiently. When you’re managing many athletes, you don’t have time to interpret complex datasets, so the information has to be simple, reliable, and individualized. The goal is to make it easier for practitioners to act in real time, without adding complexity to their workflow.”

Q3. Return-to-Play: Art vs. Science

🔹 Frederick Donnell

“In the past, a lot of return-to-play decisions were based on observation and judgment, but that’s not something I’m comfortable relying on alone. The last thing I want is to look at how someone is moving and make a call without objective data, because if that athlete gets reinjured, the consequences are real. What we’ve done is build protocols using sports science—force plates, testing, and data tracking—so we’re covering every base. That allows us to go to coaches with confidence and say whether a player is ready or not. For me, the goal is to reduce guesswork as much as possible by grounding decisions in measurable data.”

🔹 Devan McConnell

“I see return-to-play as a true combination of art and science. Data and technology are incredibly valuable for identifying red flags, quantifying progress, and supporting decisions, but the experience and intuition of skilled practitioners are just as important. We have clinicians with decades of experience whose ability to assess athletes is exceptional, and combining that with objective data creates the best outcomes. If you rely only on one side, you’re missing something critical. The balance may shift depending on the situation, but both elements need to be present to make the most informed decisions possible.”

🔹 Raphaël Ravet

“One key gap in return-to-play has been the ability to assess fatigue resistance, especially in comparing an injured limb to a healthy one. It’s not enough to restore maximum strength—fatigue resistance is often still compromised after injury. By measuring this, we can identify imbalances that weren’t previously visible and better understand whether an athlete is truly ready. Technology won’t replace the expertise or intuition of practitioners, but it adds another important dimension to the decision-making process. It’s essentially a new box to tick, helping make return-to-play more complete and more objective.”

Q4. The Next 3–5 Years of Innovation

🔹 Devan McConnell

“We’re already collecting more data than ever before, but the real question is how we make sense of it. Right now, we still struggle to connect the dots between different physiological systems and performance indicators. I’m interested to see whether AI can help us process that complexity—whether it can identify patterns, relationships, or even new questions that we haven’t considered yet. The potential is there, but it will depend on how effectively it can turn large amounts of data into meaningful insights.”

🔹 Frederick Donnell

“As new technologies emerge, we’re going to keep getting more data, but the real challenge is how we use it in a practical way. For me, it comes down to shifting from being reactive to proactive. Instead of responding after an injury happens, we need to use data to identify issues early and intervene before they become problems. For example, if we see asymmetries or changes in movement patterns, we can act immediately and start a conversation with the athlete. That’s where technology becomes valuable—when it helps us prevent issues rather than just manage them after the fact.”

🔹 Raphaël Ravet

“AI has strong potential not only in injury risk reduction but also in optimizing performance. Beyond identifying risks, it could help predict when an athlete will reach their peak performance within a training cycle, allowing practitioners to better plan and periodize training. This shifts the focus from just avoiding injury to maximizing performance outcomes. In the coming years, the biggest impact will likely come from tools that can integrate data and provide predictive insights that are both actionable and reliable.”

Q5. Alignment Between Practitioners and Vendors

🔹 Frederick Donnell

“One of the biggest challenges with new technologies is time. If a tool requires 10 or 15 minutes per athlete, it’s just not realistic in our environment. We’re managing large numbers of athletes, and there’s very little opportunity for extended one-on-one sessions. That means tools need to be efficient and allow athletes to be somewhat self-sufficient, while we still oversee the process. If it doesn’t fit into our daily workflow, no matter how good it is, it’s not going to be used.”

🔹 Devan McConnell

“From a practitioner standpoint, time constraints and athlete motivation are major factors. Athletes have limited time and are focused primarily on performance and competition, so if a tool doesn’t clearly impact their ability to perform, it’s difficult to get consistent engagement. Even if we believe strongly in the value of a technology, adoption becomes a challenge if it doesn’t align with the athlete’s priorities or fit seamlessly into their routine. That’s something vendors really need to understand when designing solutions.”

🔹 Raphaël Ravet

“From the vendor side, it’s critical to design products that fit real-world conditions and workflows. Early on, we worked very closely with practitioners and early adopters to refine both the technology and the protocols around it. Having a scientifically valid tool isn’t enough—it has to be usable and actionable in daily practice. That’s why collaboration is essential. By putting the product directly in the hands of practitioners and learning from their feedback, we were able to build something that aligns with their needs and constraints.”

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Today we have the honor of interviewing Dhia Amara, the lead S&C coach of CF Montreal, an MLS team.

Dhia Amara is a Tunisian-born strength and conditioning specialist who grew up in Montreal, where he developed an extensive academic and professional foundation in exercise physiology. After earning his bachelor’s and master’s degrees, he spent five years working with varsity teams and Team Canada basketball, while also gaining experience in research at local hospitals. His career took an international turn in 2020 when his online presentations caught the attention of a professional football team in Saudi Arabia. He spent several years in Saudi Arabia’s top division and later worked with the Saudi Olympics to help athletes prepare for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.

Currently serving as the Lead Strength and Conditioning Coach for CF Montreal, Amara returned to his hometown after being recruited for his specialized philosophy on player development. His approach is heavily rooted in an “outcome approach,” focusing on high-performance metrics such as deceleration capacity, isometric work, and eccentric strength to ensure athletes are robust enough to handle the demands of elite soccer. Beyond physical training, he acts as a central figure in the performance department, bridging the gap between medical, nutritional, and coaching staff while advocating for the increased individualization of player loads through the integration of wearable technology and data analysis.

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: Through this interview, we touched on:

* His background and what led him to CF Montreal.

* His role at CF Montreal, and what a typical day looks like.

* His approach towards S&C, and innovation.

* How he sees the world S&C in elite sports evolving in the coming years.

* Which technologies he would build if he had unlimited resources.

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

Here are the quotes from the interview with Dhia:

Q1. Tell me about your background and what led you to CF Montreal?

“I was born in Tunisia and then I grew up in Montreal... I did all my school and internships here. I did a bachelor degree and a master degree in exercise physiology... I touched base on many things like rehab, management, and performance... I even worked in a hospital to work with researchers. I worked for five years with the varsity team... and I did a couple of camps with Team Canada basketball. In 2020, during COVID, I started to do conferences online. A person responsible from a team in Saudi Arabia attended the online conference... He liked my philosophy and he offered me a contract in Saudi Arabia. I went to Saudi Arabia to work for a football division one team for two years, then I got an offer from the Saudi Olympics to prepare for the Olympic Games in Paris. Then CF Montreal contacted me... they were looking for someone who can help them to develop the physical qualities of the players... Jill Gagan, who was the first person with whom I did my internship, knew me and we stayed in contact. After four years and a half in Saudi Arabia, I decided to come back home.”

Q2. What is your role at CF Montreal? What does your typical day look like?

“Basically, we don’t have a typical day, but the days they sometimes look alike a bit. We start in the morning around 7:30 or 8:00 AM with the staff... I start to see my planning for the day. Slowly the players start to come, so we start to check their readiness—who is sick, who is overloaded. The medical team tells us about the players who are in or out, and I change my plan if I have to. In the gym, I help the guys prepare; some have individual work, some have core work for the team. We have a meeting with the coaching staff, then we do our practice. Some training we do before or after practice, depending on the quality we would like to work, like speed or hypertrophy. By 2:00 PM we are done with the players... then we have another meeting with the medical staff to see what happened during the day and talk about the next day. When we don’t have big training sessions, we have more time to analyze and talk about what we want to do next month.”

Q3. What is your approach towards S&C and innovation?

“I don’t have a magical recipe... I call it an outcome approach. I have something I want to improve, I know I need to put this amount of dose for that athlete, and I manage through the week to give them that dose. We focus a lot on deceleration work... we use a lot of work on the field to improve these qualities. For example, we have a big downhill at the club that we use for overspeed because gravity pulls you, so you use less energy to reach high speeds. We expose the athlete to something bigger than what they can get in training or a game... so when they are exposed to it, they feel it is normal. Regarding innovation, the goal is not to collect as many useful tools as we can, but to select what fits our philosophy. I am sticking to my philosophy and always look for tools that can improve it. If it is not solving a problem, then what is it for? I don’t want to buy something I’m going to use only once; I want something I need every week or every two weeks.”

Q4. How do you see the world of S&C in elite sports evolving in the coming years?

“Many football players now have their personal coaches, and it’s going to become more and more [common], so I feel we have to collaborate with them. The goal is to establish trust between me, his coach, and him because I am the only one who knows the total load he underwent. We will reach a state where we have a lot of importance because we are the ones who understand the language of the coach, the nutritionist, and the medical staff—we are the connective tissue of all the departments. Our department will become big, maybe five people minimum in every organization, because to individualize all the work and respond to all the duties, you need more people. We are getting into an era where everything is individualized—even collective football training—because some players exceed their capacity during games and need to be managed. It’s going to be individualized every day, everywhere, and this is the new era of S&C.”

Q5. If you could build any new technologies and had unlimited resources, what would you build? Why?

“What I would do is something that I was thinking about for one year now... many athletes now wear Whoop. I wish we had a tool where Whoop is connected to the GPS. Now we have different data from everywhere—wellness questionnaires, HRV, GPS, force plates—and we have to interpret all this and convince the coach. I feel with AI, it could take the GPS load, gym load, sleep, and everything, and in the morning give me a number that says ‘this player is 70% ready for today’s training.’ It would take all the data, summarize it, and give me a score with recommendations so I can decide quickly. It’s not about adding more; it’s about making sense of what we have already. I have already a lot; I just need something that helps me to decide faster.”

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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:

* The NFL draft in Pittsburgh April 23-25 with 750,000 additional people expected.

* NCAA updates: The transfer portal, March Madness.

* WNBA updates.

* NBA & NHL playoffs,

* MLB season debut.

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:

🏈 NFL Draft in Pittsburgh

“It is going to be the new Woodstock. The original Woodstock had around 400,000 to 500,000 people, and when you look at what happened in Detroit with about 750,000 people and over $200 million in new revenue, I expect all of that here in Pittsburgh. There will be more people here than at any point in the city’s history, so just brace for impact. This has really become a pilgrimage—people just show up to be part of it—and because the NFL is a 12-month-a-year league, there’s really no offseason, which is why the draft has exploded into something none of us have ever seen before.”

🎓 NCAA (Transfer Portal & March Madness)

“The transfer portal has really turned into free agency—there’s a lot of movement, and players can go to the highest bidder without sitting out, which is a huge shift from how college sports used to operate. The challenge right now is that there still doesn’t seem to be much structure or formal contracts, so it’s evolving in real time and changing the entire landscape. And with March Madness, when you have situations where emotions run high, especially with Hall of Fame coaches, it’s important to handle things the right way—if you’re going to apologize, use the person’s name, because at that level, everyone should know better.”

🏀 WNBA

“The new financial structure in the WNBA is a major step forward. You’re looking at a minimum salary now at $300,000, up from $66,000, and the average salary jumping from about $120,000 to $600,000. There’s a $7 million salary cap, super max deals at $1.4 million, and even systems like a core player designation, similar to a franchise tag. I don’t see how this is a bad thing—the players are happy, the revenue is clearly there, and after nearly 30 years, the league’s growth and team valuations are finally catching up with where they should be.”

🏀🏒 NBA & NHL Playoffs

“Late March and early April is always one of the most exciting times in sports because everything is coming together at once—the regular seasons are wrapping up, playoff spots are being decided, and you’ve got a lot of strong teams across both the NBA and NHL. Injuries, momentum, and matchups are all playing a role, so there’s a lot of uncertainty about who’s going to make a run. That’s what makes it such a fun and exciting time to be a sports fan.”

⚾ MLB Season Debut

“You’ve got a 19-year-old signing a $140 million contract for nine years without ever playing a major league game, and that’s what makes this so risky. Seven teams passed on him in the draft, so clearly there were questions, and this kind of deal is very uncharacteristic, especially for a team like Pittsburgh. It caught the league and a lot of fans off guard, but at the same time there’s real excitement about his potential, so now the spotlight is on him to see if he can actually live up to that investment.”

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Today we have the honor of interviewing Frederick Donnell, the Head Football Athletic Trainer at the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV), an NCAA team.

Frederick Donnell is the Head Football Athletic Trainer at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), where he oversees all aspects of sports medicine, rehabilitation, and return-to-play decision-making for student-athletes. He began his career after discovering a passion for athletic training during an internship at Florida Atlantic University, before earning his master’s degree from the University of South Florida. Donnell gained valuable experience across both collegiate and professional sports, including roles with the Atlanta Falcons, Coastal Carolina, and the University of Central Florida.

Known for his evidence-based approach and emphasis on collaboration, he works closely with strength and conditioning staff, coaches, and sports science teams to ensure athlete health, performance, and long-term development, with the ultimate goal of helping players safely reach the next level.

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: Through this interview, we touched on:

* His journey to the NCAA.

* His role at UNLV.

* His approach towards training, S&C and innovation.

* How he sees the world of S&C evolving in the next 5 years.

* How sports medicine and S&C tend to intertwine.

* The impact of AI in the world of elite sports.

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

Here are the quotes from the interview with Frederick:

Q1. His Background

“Back in undergrad at FAU, I didn’t really know what I wanted to do. I had about a year left and was trying to figure it out, so I ended up interning with the sports medicine staff—and that’s where everything changed. I fell in love with the profession.”

“After FAU, I went to the University of South Florida for my master’s, then spent time with the Atlanta Falcons as a seasonal assistant, Coastal Carolina covering football and baseball, and then four years at UCF before coming here to UNLV.”

“It’s funny because the people I interned under back then are now in top roles in the NFL, and to see everyone grow together in this profession has been really special.”

Q2. His Role at UNLV

“You can almost call me a medical supervisor for the program—I tend to have the final say on whether a student-athlete can participate in practices, games, or workouts.”

“I’m essentially their voice when communicating with the strength staff and coaching staff about what they can and can’t do.”

“I oversee all rehab and treatment, and you can almost consider me the medical director of the staff, especially when it comes to return-to-play decisions.”

“My ultimate goal is to get these guys back on the field in a safe but timely manner—and hopefully help them reach the next level and play on Sundays.”

Q3. His Approach to Training, S&C, and Innovation

“I teach my staff four key points: inhibit, lengthen, activate, and integrate—that’s the foundation of how we approach rehab and training.”

“We want to calm down overactive muscles, improve range of motion, then activate and finally integrate movements that are specific to their sport and position.”

“I’m not going to have a defensive back doing offensive line drills—everything we do is tailored to the individual because that creates purpose and buy-in.”

“Everything we do here is evidence-based—we’re not going to do something the same way for 20 years without adapting to new research.”

“We’re constantly looking at data and using tools like force plates and force frames to make informed decisions instead of just guessing when an athlete is ready.”

Q4. The Future of S&C (Next 5 Years)

“There’s a lot more research now being done in the weight room compared to 20 years ago—back then, people were just repeating the same methods without much data.”

“Now strength and conditioning is becoming much more evidence-based, with smarter programming that avoids overtraining and looks at long-term development.”

“The best programs today are built by professionals who are actually developing structured plans—not just pushing athletes harder for the sake of it.”

“One concern I have is athletes having too much say in their programming—they should have input, but ultimately the experts in the weight room should lead.”

Q5. The Interplay Between Sports Medicine and S&C

“The triangle of communication between sports medicine, strength and conditioning, and coaching staff is absolutely essential.”

“What I communicate to the strength staff and coaches has to be identical—everyone needs to be on the same page.”

“If the strength staff sees progress in the weight room, that needs to be communicated so we can progress the athlete safely.”

“We never want a student-athlete to be confused about what they can or can’t do—that’s why communication is everything.”

Q6. The Impact of AI in Elite Sports

“AI definitely has a role in healthcare, but I’m not worried about a robot taking over my job—it’s more about how it can assist us.”

“If you didn’t write a note, it never happened—so using AI for note-taking and documentation can save a huge amount of time.”

“There are also opportunities to use AI for building rehab programs, which can be very time-consuming.”

“If AI can help us manage our time better—especially in a hands-on profession like ours—that’s where it becomes really valuable.”

“We need to put our egos aside and ask, ‘How can we use AI to be more efficient and better at our jobs?’”

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

* Michael Messer, the head of rehabilitation at Nashville SC (MLS).

* Darcy Norman, the Director of Performance at Chicago Fire FC (MLS).

* Karam Al-Hamdani, the Director of Sports Medicine and Head Athletic Trainer at the CF Montreal (MLS).

* Jason Han, the former head of rehabilitation at LAFC (MLS). Jason is also the head of business development in North America at OneBase health.

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 Michael, Darcy, Jason and Karam:

🧠 Q1. The Next Competitive Edge in the MLS

Darcy Norman

“I think it’s data and information systems. The groups that are willing to take on the challenge of implementing technology — and more importantly, building the systems and processes around it — are going to have a serious advantage. It’s a ton of work, but if you can get good data and turn it into meaningful information, it allows you to adapt faster to trends, league demands, and the global game. Ultimately, better information leads to better decisions and faster progress.”

“From a pure resourcing standpoint, MLS is still behind Europe. Some clubs here have very small or even non-existent departments compared to what you see overseas. But the teams that recognize this gap and embrace data and technology as a way to create an edge are the ones that will benefit the most.”

Jason Han

“The data is incredible, especially now with AI — you can process information from your own team and across the world at light speed. But we’re in this in-between stage. You can have all the data in the world, but if you don’t have enough people to implement it and build relationships with players, it doesn’t matter. The real competitive edge will come from combining data with the human side — and that requires investment in people.”

Karam Al Hamdani

“I really think the next competitive advantage is the creation of true R&D departments within clubs. You can have the best technology and AI systems, but if you don’t have dedicated people whose job is to interpret that data and turn it into meaningful, actionable insights for players and staff, then data is just data. The value comes from translating it into something usable.”

Michael Messer

“I’m really interested to see what happens after the World Cup in the U.S. It could shift resources, interest, and even the talent pipeline. In the U.S., we’re competing with other sports for top athletes, unlike many European countries. So the next edge might also come from improving our academy systems and attracting better athletes into soccer earlier.”

🤝 Q2. Collaboration Between Departments

Karam Al Hamdani

“Collaboration has evolved massively. When I started, it was basically one trainer, one assistant, and one fitness coach doing everything. Now you have full departments — medical, performance, analytics — all with strong opinions and ideas. The key is constant communication and having meaningful meetings with clear agendas and actionable outcomes. That’s what creates true synergy.”

“You have to be prepared, but also flexible. No matter how much planning you do, there will always be curveballs. So best-in-class collaboration is about preparation, communication, and the ability to adapt in real time.”

Darcy Norman

“As clubs grow, it becomes harder to keep everyone aligned. You might have more expertise, but also more complexity. So you need a really clear mission, vision, and values. Otherwise, you waste time and create friction. Collaboration today is about being interdisciplinary, efficient, and respectful of time — because if not, burnout becomes a real risk.”

Jason Han

“It really comes down to leadership. You can have five or ten smart people in a room, but if no one is truly leading and creating structure, things fall apart. You need clear processes, accountability, and clarity on who is responsible for what. At the same time, you have to stay flexible because in sport, things change instantly.”

Michael Messer

“What you’re starting to see is a better understanding across departments of how each role contributes to the bigger picture. But that only works if there’s strong leadership at the top to align everyone toward a common goal. Whether it’s rehab, performance, coaching, or analytics, everyone needs to be working toward the same vision.”

⚡ Q3. Athlete Fatigue (Physical & Psychological)

Darcy Norman

“Fatigue is a massive question — and I don’t think it’s ever fully solvable. It starts with leadership, culture, and good planning. Monitoring tools help, but they all have limitations. For example, with GPS, we thought we understood workload, but then realized we were missing 30–40% of what players were actually doing.”

“At the end of the day, the most important tool is still communication. Having honest conversations with players — ‘How are you feeling? Are you ready today?’ — is often more valuable than any piece of technology. The data helps guide you, but it doesn’t replace that human interaction.”

Jason Han

“What players do outside the facility is a huge, often untapped part of fatigue management. You can control training, recovery, and protocols inside the building, but you also need to educate players on their choices outside — sleep, activity, lifestyle. Ultimately, it comes down to helping them understand what they truly want and aligning their behaviors with that.”

Karam Al Hamdani

“You can have all the tools — Oura rings, Whoop, questionnaires — but it always comes back to honest conversations. You combine how the player feels physically, how they feel mentally, what the data says, and what you see clinically, and then you make a decision.”

“Fatigue today isn’t just physical — it’s travel, time zones, emotional stress, performance outcomes. You take all of that, mix it together, and try to make the best possible call. But communication is always the key.”

Michael Messer

“For me, communication is always the first line. A simple daily RPE or honest conversation can be incredibly powerful. The challenge is taking all the available data and turning it into a simple, confident decision — especially when that decision might impact training or game selection.”

“There’s so much technology out there, but the real challenge is using it consistently and meaningfully. And ultimately, you need the coach to trust the information you’re presenting if it’s going to influence decisions.”

🔮 Q4. Future of the MLS Athlete

Darcy Norman

“As academies improve and the talent pool grows, the overall quality of the MLS athlete will continue to rise. From a performance standpoint, I’d like to see players become more ‘pound-for-pound’ strong — not necessarily bigger, but more powerful and efficient relative to their body weight.”

“With better players and increased competition, everything speeds up — decision-making, intensity, execution. Players adapt to that environment, and it elevates the entire level of the game.”

Karam Al Hamdani

“I think the future MLS athlete will be smarter and more educated. With better academy systems and more resources in areas like performance and nutrition, players will develop stronger decision-making skills and a deeper understanding of the game.”

Jason Han

“As the quality of teammates and competition improves, the overall level rises. But I think a big shift will be players treating their bodies like precision-managed systems — combining objective data with their internal drive and passion for the sport. That balance will create better athletes.”

Michael Messer

“The level of the athlete will continue to improve across physical, technical, and cognitive areas. Physically, MLS players are not far off globally, but where you see the gap is at the very top end — the elite of the elite.”

“The biggest opportunity for growth is probably on the technical and tactical side — developing smarter players, stronger identities, and more refined styles of play through better academy development.”

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This week we had the honor to interview 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).

* Tyler Friedrich, Associate Athletics Director, Applied Performance at Stanford University (NCAA team).

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: Through this interview, we touched on the following questions:

Q1. Time Management

In a high-performance NCAA environment where demands are constant, how do you personally and professionally manage your time? Are there specific systems, tools, or habits that help you stay effective and avoid burnout?

Q2. Athlete Fatigue (Physical & Psychological)

Fatigue management is becoming increasingly complex. What methods or technologies do you rely on to monitor both physical and psychological fatigue in your athletes? And how do those insights actually influence your day-to-day decision-making?

Q3. Lessons Learned

Looking back on your career so far, what are some of the most important lessons you’ve learned? And if you had the opportunity to do something differently earlier on, what would it be—and why?

Q4. March Madness Predictions

With March Madness around the corner, who do you see as the team to beat this year? What stands out to you about their performance, preparation, or overall structure?

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

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

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

Q1. Time Management

Dr. John DeWitt

“In our environment, there’s always another question to answer or another dataset to explore, and if you’re not careful, you can spend all your time chasing analysis. What I’ve learned is that you have to weigh the value of the question against the time it will take to answer it. If the insight isn’t going to directly help improve performance or reduce injury risk, then it’s okay to say no. That discipline is critical—otherwise, you’ll find yourself stuck behind a computer all day without actually moving the needle for your athletes.”

Paul Silvestri

“One of the biggest lessons for me in managing time has been empowering my staff. I don’t set their schedules—one of my assistants handles that for the entire group. It gives them ownership, it builds trust, and it helps them create balance in their own lives. And that balance is huge, because when people feel good outside of work, they’re much more effective inside of it. For me personally, I try to recognize that there are going to be really busy stretches, but when things slow down, I make it a priority to invest that time back into my family and reset.”

Tyler Friedrich

“A huge key to managing time effectively is being extremely diligent with your front-end work. How you collect your data, how you store it, how clean and organized it is—those things determine how efficient you’ll be later. If you build strong systems and dashboards upfront, you can answer a lot of questions almost instantly instead of digging through hours of data. At the same time, we really emphasize taking advantage of downtime. In college athletics, there are moments—like breaks in the schedule—where you actually can step away, and we encourage our staff to use those moments because they don’t always come around.”

Drew Lukes

“One of the realities of working in this setting is that your time is not always your own. You can have a perfectly planned day, and within seconds, something urgent comes up and everything changes. So for me, it’s about being what I’d call ‘rigidly flexible.’ I try to block off time for things that matter—like working out or taking care of myself—because I know that directly impacts how well I can take care of others. It doesn’t always go as planned, but having that structure in place gives me a better chance to stay consistent.”

Q2. Athlete Fatigue (Physical & Psychological)

Paul Silvestri

“We use a lot of tools—GPS, force plates, different monitoring systems—but one of the biggest changes we’ve made recently was simply adjusting our schedule. Moving to morning practices gave our athletes more time during the day to recover, handle school, and just live their lives. The feedback has been incredible. Guys are telling us they feel more normal, less rushed, and more in control of their day. That psychological piece is huge. You can measure everything in the world, but if athletes don’t have the time and space to manage their lives, those tools only go so far.”

Drew Lukes

“For us, monitoring fatigue is really about building a complete picture. We use wellness questionnaires, but we fully understand their limitations. So we combine that subjective data with objective measures like force plate outputs, GPS data, and other performance markers. It’s not about relying on one metric—it’s about layering them together to create a profile of where the athlete is at. And beyond the data, a big part of it is education and trust. Athletes need to understand why we’re asking these questions and believe that being honest won’t negatively impact them.”

Tyler Friedrich

“We have more data than ever—force plates, GPS, wellness surveys—all feeding into our daily decision-making. But without strong relationships and proper education, that data doesn’t mean much. Sometimes the most valuable insight still comes from simply asking an athlete how they feel. And what’s interesting is that performance doesn’t always align with the numbers. You can have an athlete put up the best performance of their career on a day when their metrics aren’t great. That’s why our job is to use the data to inform decisions, not dictate them, and to always keep the bigger picture in mind.”

Dr. John DeWitt

“When we talk about fatigue, I think it’s important to distinguish between acute fatigue—what an athlete is feeling from recent activity—and chronic fatigue that builds over time across a season. The same data can help us identify both, but the interpretation changes depending on the question we’re asking. Ultimately, though, the data is just the starting point. When we see something change, that should trigger a deeper investigation—talking to the athlete, understanding context, and figuring out what’s really going on. And when it comes to psychological fatigue, we’re still largely relying on subjective tools like questionnaires. We don’t yet have a truly objective way to measure that piece.”

Q3. Lessons Learned

Dr. John DeWitt

“One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned is that coaches and athletes aren’t interested in the complexity of your analysis—they want to know what it means for them. Early on, I would get excited about the process and want to walk people through all the technical steps. But over time, I realized that what really matters is delivering a clear, actionable recommendation. The process is important for us, but the outcome is what drives impact.”

Drew Lukes

“We have a saying that really stuck with me: we take what we do very seriously, but we don’t take ourselves too seriously. Earlier in my career, I would take things very personally when something didn’t go as planned, and it would affect how I showed up day to day. Learning to separate those things—to still care deeply about the work but not let it define me—has been a huge shift and has made me a better practitioner.”

Paul Silvestri

“Early in my career, when something went wrong—whether it was an injury or a rehab setback—I would internalize it and take it very personally. Over time, you realize that even when you do everything right, things can still go wrong. That’s just part of the profession. The key is learning how to respond, how to adapt, and how to keep moving forward without letting those moments define you.”

Tyler Friedrich

“One concept that’s really shaped my approach is having strong convictions, but holding them loosely. I believe in what I do, and I’m confident in our systems, but I’m always open to evolving those beliefs based on new research, new experiences, or new perspectives. As you grow in your career, that mindset helps reduce pressure and allows you to be more adaptable, which ultimately leads to better outcomes.”

Q4. March Madness Predictions

Paul Silvestri

“If you had asked me before last night, I would’ve confidently said Florida—but after that loss, I think Arizona really stands out. They’re one of the most complete teams I’ve seen this year. They have a great mix of experienced players and young talent, and they seem to be playing really well together at the right time.”

Dr. John DeWitt

“I haven’t followed every team closely, but I’ll go out on a limb and say Houston. They’re playing in a familiar environment for this next stretch, which can be a big advantage, and they seem to be well-positioned to make a deep run.”

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