Total Athlete Management (TAM) and Performance Diagnosis
Document Type
Book Chapter
Publisher
Wiley-Blackwell
Editor(s)
Marco Cardinale, Rob Newton, Kazunori Nosaka
Faculty
Faculty of Computing, Health and Science
School
School of Exercise and Health Sciences / Centre for Exercise and Sports Science Research
RAS ID
13340
Abstract
The modem athlete faces enormous demands on their time, Body, and mind. As professional sport becomes more sophisticated and the income potential escalates; training, preparation, and competition dominate almost every waking hour. The days of being successful at the elite level based purely on natural ability are gone. Genetically determined capacity is still essential for elite performance but optimal strength and conditioning, nutrition, rest and recovery, travel management, mental preparation, skill practice, and strategy must all come together in a planned and implemented total athlete management (TAM) programme. TAM is the ongoing process of 'plan, do, review, improve' common to management practice but applied equally effectively to athlete performance. For the elite, professional athlete the process is total in scope, addressing all aspects of the athlete’s life: sporting, business, and social. While the strength and conditioning specialist’s is concerned less with business and social aspects, all components impact on all others, all impact on the athlete's ability to train and perform, and thus all impact the specialist's planning and processes. Having said this, we will be focusing in this chapter on assessment of athlete physical performance subsequent training programme design, while being cognizant that so many other factors (relationships, sponsorship commitments, family, etc.) impact on an athlete's ability to train and compete. Of the key areas for TAM we will not be discussing mental preparation or skill practice and strategy as these domains are outside the usual strength and conditioning specialist role.
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Comments
Newton, R. , & Cardinale, M. (2011). Total athlete management (TAM) and performance diagnosis. In Marco Cardinale, Rob Newton, Kazunori Nosaka (Eds.). Strength and conditioning: biological principles and practical applications (pp. 335-342). Wiley-Blackwell.