Kelsey Vinson - Creating a Sport Science Program in College Football
Feb 11, 2025
Episode 174: In this episode of the Sport Science Insights Podcast powered by Inform Performance, Steve Barrett sits down with Kelsey Vinson, Sports Scientist for Virginia Tech Football, to explore the evolving role of sports science in American football. Kelsey, now in her second season with the Hokies, brings a wealth of experience from her time working with teams across the ACC, SEC, and Big 12, and shares her insights on the latest trends in sports science.
✏️Topics Discussed:
▪️What a sports science role looks like in a university football setting.
▪️The impact sports science can have on a football program, from injury prevention to performance optimization.
▪️The innovations in sports science that are shaping her work.
▪️The future of sports science in American football and where it’s headed.
Key Points
- Comprehensive GPS Tracking with Catapult: GPS technology is central, with a large portion of the athletes (80 out of 120 players, or about two-thirds of the team roster) equipped with Catapult GPS units during all on-field activities. This includes practices and games. The directive is clear: "Anytime your feet are on the grass, you have your Catapult on." This allows for meticulous tracking of external load metrics like total distance, high-speed running distance, sprint counts, accelerations, decelerations, and player load, providing a robust dataset for monitoring workloads, identifying fatigue, and informing training adjustments. This is a core tool for managing athlete exposure and optimizing performance.
- Weekly Force Plate Assessments Using Vald: Force plate testing is conducted weekly, utilizing the forcedecks software. These assessments provide a snapshot of an athlete's neuromuscular status, going beyond simple jump height metrics. The focus is on identifying subtle changes in movement patterns, asymmetries between limbs, and indicators of fatigue or readiness. This data helps to tailor training prescription, and identify players that are potentially at greater risk of injury.
- Hamstring Health Monitored with NordBord: The NordBord system is employed specifically to monitor hamstring strength and identify potential weaknesses or imbalances. Hamstring injuries are a prevalent concern in collegiate football, and the NordBord provides a quantitative measure of eccentric hamstring strength, which is a key factor in injury prevention. Regular monitoring allows for targeted interventions, such as specific exercises or modified training loads, to address any deficits and reduce the risk of hamstring strains or tears.
- Velocity-Based Training (VBT) Using Devices in the Weight Room: Velocity-based training is integrated into weight room sessions, using devices to measure the barbell's movement speed during exercises. This provides real-time feedback on the power output of each repetition, enabling coaches to adjust the load or volume based on the athlete's performance on that particular day. This ensures training is individualized and adaptive, optimizing for either maximal strength gains, power development, or speed enhancement, depending on the training goals.
- Wellness Surveys for Holistic Athlete Monitoring (Once or Twice a Week): Wellness surveys are administered once or twice a week, serving as a crucial element in monitoring athlete well-being. These surveys gather subjective data related to soreness levels, perceived fatigue, sleep quality, mood, and recovery strategies used by athletes. This provides a holistic perspective, complementing objective performance data obtained from GPS, force plates, and VBT. The insights gained from wellness surveys help inform decisions related to training load adjustments, recovery protocols, and early identification of potential overtraining or burnout.
- Effective Communication Tailored to Coaching Styles: Communicating complex data to coaches necessitates a nuanced approach, adapting the presentation and level of detail to suit individual coaching preferences. Some coaches are highly data-driven and appreciate detailed reports with sophisticated visualizations, while others prefer simplified summaries and actionable insights. For example, a coach may respond better to a traffic light system (red, yellow, green) indicating an athlete's readiness, than a bar chart of complex metrics. The key is to translate data into practical recommendations that coaches can readily implement in their training plans.
- Connecting Metrics to On-Field Performance (the 'So What?' Factor):Demonstrating the value of sports science relies on establishing a clear link between data-driven insights and on-field performance. This involves analyzing how specific metrics, such as GPS-derived measures of high-speed running or force plate-derived power outputs, correlate with relevant performance indicators like game statistics, player ratings, or injury rates. By quantifying these relationships, sports scientists can illustrate the tangible impact of their work and gain the trust and buy-in of coaches and athletes.
- Needs Analysis Should be Sport Specific: A thorough needs analysis, tailored to the specific demands of the sport, is critical. The unique requirements of a sport and even different positions within that sport, should dictate the types of data collected, the specific metrics analyzed, and the interpretation of results. A sport scientist should take into account biomechanical demands, physiological requirements, common injury patterns, and other sport-specific considerations when designing a sports science program. The needs of a baseball athlete are very different to those of a gymnast for example, and the sports science program must reflect this.
- Practicality and Accessibility are Key for Implementation: A practical approach is essential when launching a sports science program, with a focus on accessibility and feasibility. Select testing methods and technologies that are not only informative but also easy to implement, time-efficient, and cost-effective. Consider factors such as athlete buy-in, staff training requirements, data processing workflows, and integration with existing training protocols. If a testing method is too complex, time-consuming, or expensive, it is unlikely to be sustainable in the long run. Therefore, the primary goal should be to adopt an approach that is manageable, scalable, and delivers practical insights without overwhelming resources.
Where you can find Kelsey:
Sponsors
VALD: makers of the Nordbord, Forceframe, ForeDecks and HumanTrak. VALD Performance systems are built with the high-performance practitioner in mind, translating traditionally lab-based technologies into engaging, quick, easy-to-use tools for daily testing, monitoring and training.
Hytro: The world’s leading Blood Flow Restriction (BFR) wearable, designed to accelerate recovery and maximise athletic potential using Hytro BFR for Professional Sport.
Teambuildr: A platform for any coach in any setting. Every day, thousands of coaches log into TeamBuildr to write training programs, build questionnaires and access athlete and client performance data. Teambuildr is a complete platform. Whether you're building your own programming, looking to create custom reports or give athletes a tool for accountability, they've built it out.
