Every person and every organized group has its process. Technological innovations often reveal their significance in the process innovations that emerge from them. Those follow-on process innovations typically require a thorough understanding of the technology in order to materialize.
Sports science is a case of process innovation that is trailing lots of technological innovations – equipment, computing, sensors, materials, nutrition, healthcare, the list goes on. It’s a lot of technical material to cover and the expertise usually comes with university-level training in engineering, chemistry, systems, computer science, design, analysis.
In sports the know how is, in many cases, the product of trial and error, the result of someone (coach or staff) who takes on a problem to solve. Many times there is an expertise gap between the mostly untrained solver and the problem solving task.
This knowledge gap shows up in the lack of clarity in discussions of the processes of athletes and sports teams. Journalism features a range of debates, secrets, tests, balances, evolutions and reshapings.
But the technical experts are coming to sports. The knowledge is starting to arrive in the form of corporate investment and academic interest.
Non-expert experts are a problem when they voice an authority that exceeds their training. People who work in sports make up a community of practice. It’s a community that is gaining a deeper understanding of technology. The time is coming when technology recommendations come from technologists
instead of from coaches, but the community is not yet at that place. (See these tech recommendations by Carl Valle.)
Change is coming. All you need to do is look. The technical competence on display at places like Driveline Baseball (see Building Your Team’s In-Season Training Plan – Part I) and Sparta Science (see Why Sports Medicine and Strength and Conditioning Need to Align) looks solid to even hardboiled engineers. The trend is toward fewer and fewer technical lightweights in sports science.
More things that I read and liked last week: