ASCA Podcast #94 - Scott Pollock

Scott hails from Northern Ireland where he started his career as an S&C coach with the Sports Institute of Northern Ireland. Having worked with multiple sports, he ultimately became Physical Preparation Lead for British Swimming. He oversaw significant transformation of several swimmers through to Rio 2016, including multiple Olympic, World, European and Commonwealth Games Champions who broke many world records along the way. Following the Rio Olympics Scott joined British Cycling as Head Strength and Conditioning Coach. He supported sprint and BMX programs and led a national team of S&C coaches supporting over 100 athletes. A year prior to Tokyo Scott was asked to become the coach for the Men's podium sprint squad, and they went on to medal in every possible event. Scott is currently a Senior Strength and Conditioning Coach with the Queensland Academy of Sport and National Technical Lead for Swimming Australia. He is completing a PhD in neuromuscular performance. QUOTES “As a strength and conditioning coach, you are vastly more effective if you understand what else is happening outside of the gym in an athlete's sport” “When you’re coaching a program, what I learned to appreciate is that you don’t always have athletes who are going to show up to training and attack every rep and set with maximal intent because you are not working with robots… so you have to pivot and tinker and adapt” "I think there are ways of reverse engineering performance in field sports but what you might not be able to see though is the same degree of quantifiable change in a gym variable resulting in a change in performance” “I would really love it if I could find a practical way in elite sport to do more job shares so everybody in a high performance team gets a better understanding of each other person’s role” SHOWNOTES 1) A quick recap of Scott’s career so far from Northern Ireland to the Queensland Academy of Sport 2) Being thrust into a technical coach role in a sport you have never coached or played before 3) Leading from the front, leading from the side and leading from behind with the British podium sprint cycling squad 4) The nuances of coaching athletes that are multiple Olympic and World Championship medalists. 5) Reverse engineering performance versus being reactive as a coach and the advantages of both 6) How you might reverse engineer performance in more open skill sports 7) The theory behind transcranial direct current stimulation 8) The “Roy Keane” moment for Scott and his current work with Australian swimming