2021 FMPA VIRTUAL CONFERENCE SPONSOR
FMPA Virtual Conference Programme 2021
The Multi-disciplinary Team:
Fighting for order amongst the chaos
The 2021 FMPA conference will take a critical look at the MDT; the Past, Present and Future. The last 10 years have seen a proliferation of the field of Sports Science and Medicine; for the better? As each individual discipline strives for recognition amongst a landscape of opinions, how do we create clarity amongst the inevitable chaos? How is it best achieved? The term interdisciplinary team is frequently used but how does this truly look? More importantly, how does this truly work? Calling on experts across world leading institutions, a wide-ranging assembly of MDT speakers will discuss best practice, challenges faced and what the future holds for want-to-be world leading performance and medicine departments.
Knowledge is power and strength comes from working together
9.25
Welcome & Opening Address
Eamonn Salmon
CEO
FMPA
Chair: Chris Barnes – Sports Scientist, UEFA
9.30
The 21st Century Club: Challenges for the High-Performance MDT
Like all organisations, football clubs and their MDT have undergone significant transformation in the 21st century driven by increasing financial investment and advances in science and technology. Increasing size and expertise, emerging technology, growing importance of data and the proliferation of information in science and medicine continue to enhance the effectiveness of the MDT. These developments, however, present challenges which can reduce the effectiveness of the MTD if they are not appropriately addressed. Warren will present an overview of the key issues associated with these sources of disruption together with solutions which aim to enhance the ability of the MDT to derive insights which enhance performance.
**LIVE** Q & A
Professor Warren Gregson
Head of Performance Science & R&D, Aspire Academy/Qatar FC
Professor of Exercise Physiology, Football Exchanger, Liverpool John Moores University
10.00
Learning from coaches and coach education: How can physical coaches and practitioners more effectively integrate into a contemporary football MDT?
Reflecting on his work with the education of English professional game coaches working at youth and senior level Matt will discuss how the coach education curriculum is helping coaches to better understand aspects of physical performance in relation to the development and performance of football players. He will also share insights into how other members of the MDT can benefit on the wider knowledge coaches are gaining to help them become a more effective team when working to support their football programme.
**LIVE** Q & A
10.30
Pulling (hamstrings) together!!
As the sporting world has tried to adapt to the pandemic-induced challenges of maintain athletic performance and preventing injury in the face of restricted practice, there is constant doom-mongering predicting a tsunami of soft tissue injuries as various levels of competitive sports resume. As one of the most widely-researched and troublesome issues to deal with (even in non-plague times!!), hamstring strain remains a topic worth revisiting. James will present an overview of the literature past & present as well as introducing his methodology for monitoring, maintaining, improving and evolving hamstring (p)rehabilitation as well as discussing how the MDT has a role to play in pulling together to best service the needs of our athletes.
**LIVE** Q & A
11.00
Coffee break, trade exhibition & networking
We kindly ask all our delegates to support our sponsors.
Chair: Dr Imtiaz Ahmad, Head of Medical, Queens Park Rangers FC
11.30
Sport Nutrition in an interdisciplinary sport science support program: A focus upon injury
Despite sport nutrition being a fundamental component of athletic performance, the discipline of sport nutrition is relatively new and therefore the role of the sport nutritionist is often not fully integrated within elite football clubs. Indeed, it is not uncommon to see the role being performed by other members of the performance team such as strength and conditioning staff, or the sport nutritionist being employed on a casual part time basis. Like all sport science disciplines, sport nutrition works best when it is part of an interdisciplinary sport science support programme with close collaboration between the medical, performance and coaching staff as well as the players themselves. This presentation will look at one example of where sports nutrition is crucial, that of the injured player, and investigate how a truly interdisciplinary approach will result in the maximum benefit to the player.
**LIVE** Q & A
Professor Graeme L. Close
Professor of Human Physiology, LJMU
Head of Performance Nutrition, England Rugby
Head of Performance Nutrition, The European Tour Golf and European Ryder Cup Team
12.00
Multi-disciplinary team approach in a professional football club: FCBarcelona experience
How do FC Barcelona work together as a club in different departments such as medical, performance, sports analytics and methodology? How do doctors, physiotherapists, physical coaches, coaches, etc… strive to work together to make decisions on a daily basis with the same objective in mind? As always even with the best methodology and even the best philosophy, the people are the key.
In a huge club with so many people involved, and under constant pressure, this system is pushed to the limit, which can put these people at risk of physical and mental illness. If people work in isolation and not cohesively within the team support system, the relationship with others weakens and the system can fail, with potential impact on players, coaches and staff. Dr Rodas Font will describe his experience of almost 20 years in one of the worlds greatest clubs.
**LIVE** Q & A
12.30
Basketball in a Bubble
To help ensure the completion of the NBA season impacted by the pandemic last year, the league took a drastic approach in establishing a bubble during the playoffs. This required 22 teams to enter a never before seen bubble environment that in the end lasted over three months. Health and safety protocols were being developed on the fly while teams were isolated away from family and friends and undergoing daily testing.
Dr Judy Seto reviews the unprecedented challenges encountered last season during the Los Angeles Lakers’ run for their 17th championship. She will discuss how challenges throughout the season helped solidify the team’s resolve and ability to perform under pressure. She will also present how the organisation’s focus on a player centric model and a continuum of care by the multidisciplinary helped foster an environment of adaptability and sacrifice that led to an eventual championship.
**LIVE** Q & A
13.00
Lunch break, networking and trade exhibition
We kindly ask all our delegates to support our sponsors.
Chair: Dr Fadi Hassan, NHS & Birmingham City FC
13.30
The Next 10 years: A magic roundabout or the holy grail?
As football performance practitioners what have we learned over the years, how do we see the next ten years evolving?
More research? More data? More stats? More confusion? More chaos? Perhaps yes and why not?
May be the marrying up of physical performance and psychological performance leading to a complete player performance model? Or will we see that we may already have many answers within our grasp and re-focus, re-set and look perhaps closer to home in how we all work and function within a football business environment. And yes, potentially another ten years of fighting for order amongst the new chaos?
*Available for post presentation questions – please email conference@fmpa.co.uk
14.00
Development and Performance is Everybody’s Business: A Performance Psychology Perspective
Traditionally, the perception of performance psychology support has involved working one-to-one directly with players. However, psychology support within football has increasingly shifted toward a more systemic approach, including working with and through the Multi-disciplinary team. This presentation will discuss perspectives on how this level of support may prove more impactful than working primarily with players, and discuss some practical examples of effectively positioning psychology support in such a way.
**LIVE** Q & A
14.30
Artificial Intelligence – a valuable current & future multi-disciplinary team member?
The presentation will touch on the data landscape in football for injury risk management. We will explore the current challenges faced by MDT’s to leverage big workload datasets for injury mitigation and highlight how artificial intelligence is already being successfully deployed in the football industry to reduce injury rates.
**LIVE** Q & A
15.00
Coffee break, networking and trade exhibition
We kindly ask all our delegates to support our sponsors .
Chair: Eamonn Salmon, CEO – FMPA
15.30
Fitness & Football: How can members of the MDT work collaboratively to aid session design & completeness
Team – group of individuals working together towards a common goal. A challenge to staff MDT is ensuring our support is directed correctly to a team full of players with individual needs.
This talk will explore the role of Fitness staff and how they can work together with Football coaches for the good of the player and overall holistic performance. Case examples will be outlined from both 1st Team and Academy football. Our time with these players is precious, how can we make the environment as challenging, enjoyable, and integrated as possible to aid player/ team development.
**LIVE** Q & A
16.00
The MDT: perspectives of a S&C coach leading a sports science and medical department
The inherent nature of the performance and medicine department is multifaceted with a breadth of disciplines aiding performance. Spanning from detailed physiology, to biomechanics, psychology (performance and mental health), nutrition requires a team of specialists to all cohesively feed into a dynamic environment with their own perspectives of the situation/environment. Therefore, as a lead of such MDT, what are the “right” questions in subject fields that we are not an expert in? How do we successfully position each practitioner within department, academy, first team and The Club to develop an aligned and uniform process?
**LIVE** Q & A
16.30
Performance Support in Major League Soccer
Major League Soccer is a league with many unique characteristics that set it apart from any other sports competition in the world. Phil will discuss his intriguing path from Oldham Rugby League Club to Los Angeles Galaxy and explains the challenges facing performance teams in the US. He will explain how extensive travel impacts on team performance and how the rules surrounding the salary cap dictate that key players really must be available for selection in order to maximise a teams chance of success.
**LIVE** Q & A
17.00
Integrating performance analysis within the MDT
Performance analysis is traditionally seen as being a discipline to support the coaching staff and players. As the area has evolved and the technology utilised has continued to develop it has allowed analysis to be integrated to a far greater extent across the MDT. This presentation will look to discuss how analysis has changed and offer some practical examples of how it be used to support not just the coaches but also the sports science and medical teams.
*Available for post presentation questions – please email conference@fmpa.co.uk
17.30
Close
This programme is subject to change at the discretion of the FMPA.
