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PERFORMANCE LIFESTYLE

Performance lifestyle is a personalised support service specifically designed to help each athlete create the unique environment necessary for their success.

For elite athletes to maintain a performance lifestyle they must fit many aspects of their life alongside their intensive training programme. Trained and accredited athlete advisor at the IOS provide aim to provide support to athletes by giving them the necessary skills to cope with the special demands of being an elite performer and to better prepare them for their life after sport.

The approach is to work closely with coaches and support specialists as part of an integrated team to minimize potential concerns, conflicts and distractions, all of which can be detrimental to performance, and at worst, may end a sport career prematurely.

Performance lifestyle advisers can support athletes with time management, budgeting and finance, dealing with the media, sponsorship and negotiation/conflict management.

Advice is also available for athletes on finding suitable jobs and deciding on a future career. This could include help finding a job to supplement income that fits around the athletes training demands, work placements, or planning for a career after sport. To do this, athlete advisers develop links with local employers to promote the range of skills and experiences athletes can bring to the workplace.

The advice offered by advisers may be in a 1:1 session or as a workshop to a squad. The latter may involve coaches and parents to educate and inform the athlete’s support network. Confidentiality is paramount in building rapport and a relationship between the adviser and the athlete. Therefore, information will only be shared in the instance of the athlete giving their permission.

Performance Lifestyle is available to all athletes on the World Class Performance Programme, plus those nominated by local associations.

Athletes can arrange confidential individual sessions with Athlete Advisers based at IOS sites throughout the country, or attend squad and regionally organised multi-sport workshops.

Athlete Advisers can also work with sport’s staff to deliver lifestyle management activities around an annual programme or training camps.

Research and Innovation:

The performance advantage of an innovative approach to both technique and equipment is well illustrated. The challenge is on to look at ways innovators can help us in our quest for success.

We will be looking to set up our own Research & Innovation team and the IOS's goal will be to support the delivery of the same, which is to maximise performance gains in ensuring success through an innovative approach to delivering performance solutions. The team would work with those across the board with a passion for innovation – harnessing the best of expertise from the academic, industrial and commercial sectors.

The programme is focussed on bringing external expertise into the sporting system, building on existing skills, knowledge and competencies already there to help supplement and solve specialist performance needs. These needs may relate to the following priorities:

• Athlete equipment and accessories
• Coaching techniques
• Training science
• Medical management

Though to retain a competitive advantage over competitors, much of the work done by the team may not enter the public domain. Innovation is a world where it pays to be secretive because any advances in technology or technique could make the difference between ‘the best’ and ‘the rest’.