"AS TO METHODS, THERE MAY BE A MILLION AND THEN SOME, BUT PRINCIPLES ARE FEW.
THE MAN WHO GRASPS PRINCIPLES CAN SUCCESSFULLY SELECT HIS OWN METHODS. THE MAN WHO TRIES METHODS, IGNORING PRINCIPLES, IS SURE TO HAVE TROUBLE"
Harrington Emerson
from his 1912 book The 12 Principles of Efficiency
what is SYSTEMS IN SPORT?
Systems in Sport is a coach education platform which strives to support a diverse community of S&C specialists, personal trainers, physiotherapists, rehabilitation experts and doctors to develop their strength and conditioning practice in service of their own athletes, patients and clients.
There’s no coaching method for sale here. Instead, I have drilled down into my coaching knowledge and experience to find the universal principles of strength and conditioning. As such, these frameworks present the foundational building blocks of effective training programme design for athletic development.
This solid, foundational platform is presented here to empower coaches to select their specific methods, pursue their own interests and develop their decision making skills to thrive in what can otherwise be an overwhelming world of information and noise.
NEVER DESIGNED FOR PUBLIC CONSUMPTION
Every resource you find here was originally created as a personal reference manual to support my own coaching practice and drive consistency in the coaches around me. They were never really intended for public consumption beyond those around me.
Every colour used and poster made was used to engage my athletes in the coaching process and show them a path to developing their movement competency alongside strength, power and speed. Each was designed and deployed to solve a particular task in my coaching be it detailing exercise progressions, communicating training standards, goal setting or driving consistency amongst a multi-disciplinary team.
The purpose has always been to write truly individualised programmes at scale. I present these materials now as a consolidation of all that work. A record for everything I’ve learned and found to be effective to pass on to others as a record of that work.
do great things for good people...
My goal is for this resource to be of service to those that are enthusiastic about coaching and the change they can make in peoples lives through sport, health and exercise.
I do not care where you are on your coaching journey or what profession you are coming to us from, if you’re interested in precise and systematic programme design with a desire to offer the best service possible to your athletes then Systems in Sport is here to support you.
we're also COMmITTED TO GRASS ROOTS COACHING
Great coaching is great coaching and I want to support great coaches fighting the good fight whatever their background and whatever their profession. Many of our users and supporters have benefited from excellent University courses (myself included). However, expensive courses are unattainable for many and shouldn’t be the only way into performance sport. Systems in Sport is committed to developing young coaches from challenging backgrounds to forge alternative paths into performance sport.
We run a series of entry level personal training courses at Empire Fighting Chance, an incredible charity in Bristol which counsels and mentor young people from across the city from a vast range of difficult and backgrounds. We take young people and give them a foot-up in the fitness industry with a Level 1 Award Assistant Fitness Instructor and pack the course with as much practical knowledge, communication skills and coaching philosophy as we possibly can.
We’re creating links across the city to provide opportunities for motivated young people looking to develop their career in the vast range of professions that exist in sport, fitness, health and exercise.
ABOUT ME
My name is Bob Smith. I am a Strength & Conditioning Coach with 15+ years of experience working in performance and professional sport.
I’ve cared for athletes spanning the performance pathway. From 11 year old female tennis players to retiring cricketers. I’ve supported student-athletes on their Olympic journey and professional sportsmen and women grinding a career out of sport.
I became a UKSCA accredited S&C Coach in 2008 shortly after leaving Loughborough University with an MSc Sports Science. My 15 year coaching career is broadly split into thirds:
I spent the next 5 years at Bath University which was where I really developed my own coaching philosophy alongside some really great friends and coaches.
Working with 40 tennis players from 11-30 years old was a constant challenge. Here I was forced to discard what I previously thought to be true in training athletes and attend only to what kept players on the court and contributed to their development as players.
After leaving Bath, I became lead S&C Coach at Gloucestershire County Cricket Club for 5 seasons. I took what I’d learned in tennis and put it to the test in a new sport with different demands, tore it up and rewrote it again with a few more tweaks.
I currently work for the ECB as Project Manager for Athlete Management Systems having developed a keen interest over the years in using data to answer performance questions as a coach.
I partner this role with a passion for coach education that I hope you’ll find at Systems in Sport.
MY INTENTION FOR IT ALL
This website is a collection of the work I’ve done over the last 15-20 years which I think will help others on their coaching journey. These are live documents that I continue to add to and refine to support those in my community with their coaching as well as my own.
I truly hope you find something helpful in your own coaching journey.
