Within Olympic sport the performance of most programs is led by a performance director. Winning and losing medals for these programs can mean the difference between proper funding and not enough to compete, so they take their business very seriously. These sport leaders select, manage and integrate coaches, medical personnel and staff in order to create the very best performance culture – not a simple task.
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Recently, I noticed two appointments that stuck out in the Canadian sport scene when it comes to non-Olympic sport performance management.
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The University of Ottawa has created an assistant director position in charge of high performance athletics. Maybe there are more positions like this in Canadian University sport, but they are few and far between.
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Here is the announcement: Ottawa
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Then, in early January, the Toronto Blue Jays hired Angus Mugford as their director of high performance, ultimately to oversee physical and mental player development across the organization.
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Here is the Globe article on the appointment: Blue Jays
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Mark Shapiro, the newly appointed CEO had this to say about the important appointment:
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“..if we have one person [Mugford] outside of the fundamental [baseball] side oversee all the areas of opportunity there – largely strength-and-conditioning, medical services, mental performance and sports science – we think it could help us gain a competitive advantage.”
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Is there a shift taking place in university and professional sport? At least there is for these two programs. Applause to them both, especially Ottawa, as funding is always tight in Canadian university sport.
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Who in your organization is managing performance? Are they in a position to properly assess whether you have best practice in place and can they support coaches, staff and medical personnel?
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Are you curious about this? Here are some steps you can take to dig a bit deeper.
- Contact a National Sport Organization – There is good practice taking place across the Canadian Olympic sport system and sometimes all it takes is asking if you can learn about how they manage performance.
- Hire someone or make create a combined position – Do you have someone on staff who could take this on now? If so, can you get creative with their job description?
- Hire a consultant – Consultants can provide an overview of your current status and they can be hired to provide support for a period of time until you determine the next steps you wish to take.
If any of these thoughts resonate with you – or they have sparked an interest in a conversation, I would love to hear from you! wuotilaron@gmail.com
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