ASCA Podcast #112 - Dan Howells

Dan is an Accredited Strength & Conditioning Coach with the UKSCA. His experiences spans Professional, Olympic and Paralympic sports in both the UK and the USA, working in sports such as Rugby Union, Rugby 7s, and Major League Baseball. His work with the Team GB Rugby 7s teams took him to Rio in 2016 where the team placed Silver, and Tokyo in 2021 where the team placed 4th. Between these Olympics, he worked for the Houston Astros where he was part of the staff that went on to win the American League. In recent years, Dan has founded Collaborate Sports, which aims to provide practitioners personal development and mentorship opportunities as well as consultancy services to clubs and organizations. Dan currently works with around 60 coaches across the world to help target their personal development, provide network opportunities with other practitioners and mentor them through their careers. Dan is also a senior lecturer at the University of Brighton. QUOTES “As an industry we seem to be a big S and a little c… and this is probably an indication of where our S&C industry is at right now" “Energy system development is very specific to adaptation but general to task, whereas conditioning is the use of energy systems within a task, very specific to task but general to adaptation" “I would want my athletes to earn their seat at the table in terms of basic aerobic physical qualities, much like strength qualities” "Energy system development doesn’t necessarily help us in the task, it also helps us just as much between tasks, especially with aerobic qualities” “There is a double bang for buck with aerobic work especially if you take it off feet, we know it has little to know cost off feet and it can also promote some recovery as well” “Sometimes we can’t get an athlete where the need to be in any given season and we need to be comfortable with that" SHOWNOTES 1) Dan’s journey and update since our last episode (#72) 2) The differences between fitness, energy system development and conditioning 3) How to establish training residuals for strength and endurance with your athletes 4) Key principles for energy systems development and the importance of developing a general base 5) The periodisation of energy system development and an example from Team GB 7s 6) Modifications in energy system work based on individual abilities, anaerobic speed reserve considerations and return on training investment 7) Direct and indirect benefits of energy system work and comparison between energy system assessments and sports performance 8) Task specificity in around energy system development, limitations in oxygen uptake versus oxygen muscle saturation and future research in near infrared spectrometry 9) The benefits of understanding how to visualize data and pedagogy for S&C coaches PEOPLE MENTIONED Nathan Heaney Gareth Sanford Andrew Usher