1. Success in global sport now requires good leadership and state-of-the-art scientific back up. Discuss, using example, the role the sports science now plays in the long term preparation of elite sports performers

Introduction

In this study I will debate why the modern performers need state of the art scientific back up. The margin between modern performers is so small and therefore scientific back up is needed to help increase the athlete’s potential and push above that margin to beat the opposition. This scientific evidence will help improve the athlete’s weaker areas and focus on improving weaknesses in the performer and therefore time management is required to maximise training time.

Main points and examples

Most elite squads now have access to a team of sport scientists which means the quality of sport in the modern game has increased and evolving thoroughly. The slight margins between performers in the modern game meaning that most performers have specialized coaching and scientific support to improve the performers skills. Sports scientist help the performer improve on their weaknesses and narrow down the margin between opposition and aim to increases the team’s chances of winning and the overall performance from the individual athlete. The advantages of this it will increase the team’s chances of success and performing better as a team due to the fact they more specific training programmes to help eliminate the weaker attributes in the squad. Sport scientists can also monitor and analyse psychological factors to help get the best out of the squad and improve confidence in their ability which can be a huge factor in performance.
However the disadvantages of this it may give an unfair advantage to other teams that are in different nations and do not have the money and funding to access scientific equipment to improve their weaknesses in the game. Thus allowing other teams to have a minor advantage due to scientific benefits and decreasing the opposition’s chances of winning as they haven’t had the support to narrow down the margins. An example of this is the sport science team aiding help to the current 2014 England world cup squad. They provide programmes for the team to work off and help distinguish diet plans and nutrition plans for the athlete so they have the correct energy level and can recover from training session previously and properly to be ready for the upcoming fixtures and next day sessions. They also help distinguish individual’s weaknesses and help develop the player to improve their game in the training sessions and then bring further on into the games.

Setting goals with teams and individuals can increase the performance of an athlete as it increases motivation and effort levels as they are aiming to meet a specific target/ goal. This encourage the performer to increase their performance and try their best way to meet their target thus trying their very best to get there. For example a team may have a target to win by two goals by the end of the match and then will try their very best to do this. A negative impact this may have on an individual or squad is that they may only be focuses on reaching the target and may not push themselves further to exceed their target and or only concentrate on the reaching the target and not take any other factors into account.

A large focus in sport is increasing motivation and arousal levels and scientific back up allow the athlete to increase their motivation and arousal levels in the game. Sports psychologists now work with most elite teams and aim to increase motivation and arousal levels as well as working with coaches and managers with player analysis. This is a large focus in the modern day and helps improve the performer that little better to improve their skills and attributes. This may not be offered to other less economically developed countries as they may not have the funding to afford specific high developed coaching and get a more generalized coach to help support their squad/individual. Nutritionist will work to help get the most out of the athletes by providing those with energy requirements to help in training and when in competitive situations. Nutritionist identifies energy demands for the performer and weight management. For example a boxer may need to be in a lower weight class and therefore nutritionist would provide the correct healthy diet to do this in the best way for the performer.

The biomechanics look help analyse technique and look at the movement and technique of the individuals to see what improvements will be required and how they can be made to improve the performers ability and also reduce the chance of injury through poor technique as well as making the performers more efficient alongside improving technique to help improve ability.

The issue with sports science is the cost of the systems and the technology is very expensive so a lot of team wouldn’t be able to use these systems, so due to this factor a lot of people look at sport science as an unfair advantage. Most rural areas don’t have access to sport science as much as it’s predominantly in main cities.
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