ASCA Podcast #121 - Dr. Gareth Sandford

Dr Gareth Sandford has a consulting business that helps Olympic, Pro & College coaches with individualized conditioning. Recent consulting clients include: Manchester City Football Club (EPL), England Football Association (International Football), Australian Institute of Sport (Olympic/Paralympic Sport), Melbourne Football Club (AFL), Kerry GAA (Gaelic Football). Prior to this, Gareth has worked for 14+ years across individual and team sports within three Olympic and Paralympic systems (UK, New Zealand and Canada) and three professional sports leagues (English Football, Cricket and Rugby), supporting over 450 athletes that achieved 23 Olympic, Paralympic and World Championship medals, and one world record. He was also scientific lead for the Canadian Olympic marathon and race-walk athletes at the Tokyo 2021 Olympic Games. He holds a PhD in sport physiology and running performance from the Sport Performance Research Institute at AUT University in New Zealand and a ‘mini’ MBA from Simon Fraser University in science innovation and technology commercialisation. QUOTES “There are a number of things that we should be looking for. The first thing is the athlete profile. So that is where all your sub-disciplines come in, from a medical standpoint, what are we talking about? From a biomechanical, psychological standpoint, which type of personality are we dealing with? From a physiological standpoint, are we talking about a speed profile, hybrid or endurance profile?” “So a common question you hear often is should conditioning be more sport specific or should it be more targeting the physical capacities underpinning the sport? But the reality of the matter is that physiology exists, whichever sport you're playing.” “It is a very rare occasion in a team sport where you are short on the sport-specific exposure of chemistry” “Sprinting speed is scaffolding for team sports. We can't build it and then let it go, because if we let it go, then the percentage we're working at when running goes up” “The three metrics alongside team sport key training metrics I'm looking at are where's the sprinting speed? where's the MAS? where's the critical speed?” “Athletes need to be exposed to all the stimulus, from low intensity to sprinting speed, probably for 18 months, two years at the low end, for us to be confident, this is the type of profile an athlete is.” “The key metric for low and moderate intensity work is the effort, the internal effort, not the external speed and the answer is whatever speed elicits a five or six out of 10 feeling” SHOWNOTES 1) Gareth’s exploration of the anaerobic speed reserve which has taken him from the UK to NZ to Canada 2) The framework for conditioning and importance of athlete profiling 3) The relevance of middle-distance track events and their training for field sports 4) Getting a clear characterization of what is happening in technical-tactical training sessions and unlearning “classical” physiology 5) Assessing the anaerobic speed reserve in athletes and the practical application of profiling 6) The interplay between critical speed and maximal aerobic speed or velocity VO2max and Gareth’s preferences for measuring both 7) How to use the ASR ratio as a screen of “spread” and benchmarking sprint and endurance physiology 8) Principles versus models and the value of holding principles as loosely as possible until you understand exactly what type of athlete you are dealing with PEOPLE MENTIONED Peter Weyand Phil Bellinger Veronica Billat Phil Scott