The Science of Sport - Mattamy National Cycling centre.

By Tricia Hayton

October 24th to 28th, Milton hosted the world. 

Held at the Mattamy National Cycling Centre, the TISSOC Track Cycling World Cup welcomed over 300 athletes and staff from 40 different countries.   These cyclists travel as fast as 75 kilometers per hour around a 250-meter track in a wide variety of races.  For a small highlight clip, follow this link:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BpkoZ6JlTYY/?taken-by=cyclingcanadaofficial .

In May, I joined Cycling Canada as part of their integrated support team in the daily training environment.   Working with Olympians and inspiring NextGen athletes is very fulfilling and motivating, but the pit crew behind the athletes is just as impressive.   The medical team includes sport psychology, physiotherapy, a sport medicine physician and a registered massage therapist.   The scientific team includes a nutritionist (who also assists the medical team), biomechanist, exercise physiologist, a videographer and a strength and conditioning coach.   Long gone are the days that you simply had to pedal harder to go faster.

The science behind sport involves examining the athlete to determine training plans to maximize their ability to perform their sport.   The nutritionist will look at Vitamin B levels, Ferritin blood work and diet plans to make sure that the athlete has the fundamental building blocks for training and improving.  A critical element to avoid overtraining and the dreaded REDs.   A strength and condition coach is boss in the gym and will measure power for the sprinter and pure strength and endurance for the endurance teams.     The physiologist studies lactate and exertion at different efforts.    Is it the athlete threshold or tolerance that needs to improve?   The biomechanist, physiologist and physiotherapist work together to improve bike fit and aerodynamics of the athlete.  In an afternoon of work, you can improve performance by 70 watts of power.   A few tweaks of the bike are the same as a year of training.  All of this information is fed back to the coach, so they can develop individualized training plans that maximize the performance of the team.

Is it working?

Well, since May, 4 broken Canadian records and 9 medals say that we are on the right track! Pun intended.

Tricia Hayton is a physiotherapist and partner at Physio Sport Med of Oakville