Coach Carter

What differentiates sport science from coaching? Perhaps that is an question to answer another day, but one distinction to use would be that of measuring an athlete's physiological functioning in the laboratory. Certainly, it plays a big part in my day to day role as a coach coming from a sport science background.

I love performing lab tests: it is one of the reasons I entered sport science in the first place, but more recently, it has been one of the fundamental ways I get to truly know an athlete - seeing how they cope with the demands of exercise testing tells me just as much about the psyche as it does the physiology. It is a process I love and find incredibly rewarding  - which is a good job considering the months of December and January are filled with appointments in the lab!

Why test? Regular monitoring of fitness is paramount to evaluating how much progress is being made; to check that the training you have prescribed is actually leading to changes in fitness. In the first instance though, getting an athlete into the lab allows accurate determination of training zones - much better to measure the boundaries that cause marked changes in physiology (people will be familiar with such landmarks of exercise intensity such as ‘lactate threshold' and ‘VO2max') than to ‘guestimate' them using dubious equations such as ‘age minus 220' and % max heart rate, or other normative data relating to % of known power producing ability. It gives the athlete confidence that the hours they put in training are hitting the spot - maximising effectiveness is the ideal return for the time investment. Another reason to test in this way is getting a real understanding as to the relative strengths and weaknesses an athlete has. I really value performance tests (like races) or ‘field tests' during athlete's training sessions, but in my opinion these can only supplement the accuracy and precision of scientific: in other words, lab testing measures not only the strain you put on the system (power) but also the stress it produces (heart rate, oxygen uptake and blood lactate concentration).

PBscience athletes receive three lab tests per year included in their package. I think it is fair to say it is one of the most enjoyable benefits of being a member, certainly based on the feedback I get. During the lab visit, we also have plenty of time to talk about how training is going, and also to discuss things such as goals for the season. All athletes get a full test report, normally within 2 to 3 days after the test, and I base their next training block based on this data.

The current batch of lab tests is coming to an end for me, but it will soon be re-test time -  its then we get to see just  how well the training has gone over the 8 to 12 week block. I'll keep you posted!