Building Comprehensive Integration of Health and Performance Support Through Sport Science

Abstract

This article provides an overarching view on establishing a sport science department that fosters comprehensive integration of student-athlete health and performance support in collegiate athletics. Collegiate athletic departments have adopted the high-performance model to help manage the complex health and performance needs of their student-athletes. Considered best practice by many, the high-performance model has limits in collegiate athletics, whereas comprehensive integration is the next generation of best practice. It combines every available resource to establish unprecedented health and performance support. This is accomplished, in part, by collaborating with academic, health care, and industry stakeholders who can fill persistent gaps in the broad services, knowledge, and expertise required to meet the ever-evolving health and performance challenges faced by athletic departments. A well-designed sport science department can facilitate this process by establishing mutually beneficial partnerships to fulfill various service, research, education, or innovation initiatives. This article details the role of the sport scientist in establishing comprehensive integration. It guides athletic departments who wish to begin a sport science program, as well as those who wish to expand their current sport science structure. See Video 1—Video Abstract, http://links.lww.com/SCJ/A369.

Applying Sport Scientist Roles Within Organizations

“…Although full-time SS positions are typically funded by the sport organization, alternative funding may be available for certain organizations. For example, the Director of Sport Science position at the University of Louisville ( 44) is funded by U of L Health (an academic health system) (67) in a philanthropic effort to provide comprehensive and integrated support to community athletics, including local high school and university athletic departments (53). Because of this arrangement, the position offers support to a broader range of partners and goals and is not limited to micro-level support of the university athletic department.…”