Tracking Impact and Effort: Getting the MDT Together to Track Progress
Often, Head Coaches hold the cards when truly understanding the impact and value of an athlete within the team. They understand the full picture surrounding the player and how they fit into a teams short and long term plans. To assist the coach in this, the MDT work hard to provide detailed feedback to the Head Coach on their involvement with each player and how they see that player within the system.
Using a framework such as the Impact vs Effort Graph below, the MDT can make direct contributions and help piece the puzzle together to illustrate the potential of a player within a team.
Coming together as an MDT and discussing players in this way can aid the coach in his understanding of the players they work with. Additionally, the MDT can draw out rich information about the player that will help them allocate time and resources effectively. This can prevent overuse of resources on low impact players from certain members of the team as well as get the rest of the MDT on the same page as the coach.
In my experience in high performance sport, it is often the lower impact/potential players that demand a huge amount of resources. This could be due to:
their psychological needs being higher due to the constant battle they face for selection
their injuries resulting in lower influence throughout the season
their mental wellbeing negatively impacting their performances and therefore demanding more time and energy from coaches, teammates and psychologists
their technical, tactical, physical and psychological development areas are far larger than higher performing teammates
Learning where to allocate resources effectively is essential in high performing environments to ensure that we do not spend 90% of our time with players that will not have their contracts renewed after the season is done. Whilst this seems harsh, the system cannot work if we allocate 70-90% of resources to non-sustainable areas. It’s like refuelling a gas guzzling vehicle because it needs it rather than charging your electric car. Sure, some maintenance needs to be done and support should be given to all in our care, but there is a reality here where resources are not infinite.
Gathering information around an athlete on the Impact vs Effort Matrix is not intended to identify those that are taking up too much time. Yes, this is part of it, but it is only the first step. Once we draw out this rich information, we can plan more carefully, with added nuance, how best to progress those that demand more time and effort than can be made available. Just as a high impact player who demands too much will be weaned off of support in some areas, a lower impact player can be given feedback to be more autonomous in certain areas of their development. For example:
an unfit player that is taking up the S&C coaches time can be placed on a program that requires a check-in rather than continued 1-1 support.
A low impact athlete that has poor mental health can be placed on a program to upskill them in self-care that will hopefully lead to better self management down the line, rather than needing 1-1 support everyday.
A high impact player with low support needs can be monitored by the team on a continuous but low level basis.
In reality, if the environment is right, a large percentage of support is done already. Creating systems that can catch people before they fall, monitor changes and progression and economise the allocation of resources can create a more sustainable and high performing space.
A good way to put together your own Impact vs Effort Matrix is:
to get all members of the support team to rate each player on a scale of 1-10 in terms of Effort and Impact.
have the head coach do his/her own rating
compare the results and agree where they sit through means of discussion
plot the graph with each player
add detail to why they are where they are and formulate an action plan of how they can progress
This task can help capture the views of the MDT, whilst using the Head Coach’s observations as overarching guidance.