High Performance Services: Overview

The superior performances of the modern-day athlete are the product of a complex interaction of physiological, biomechanical, nutritional and psychological factors. Coaches today recognise that the most consistently effective methods of preparing her/his athlete for the demands of international competition are those based on proven scientific principles, rather than on trial or error. It has therefore become commonplace for the coach and athlete to seek input from qualified sports scientists in order that the athlete reach her/his full athletic potential.

The Sports Science Institute of South Africa, through the Discovery High Performance Centre, aims to enhance the sporting performance in selected sports through the provision of scientific and medical testing, monitoring and the direct application of the results of a high quality applied research programme. This is enabled though a close working relationship with the researchers of the Exercise Science and Sports Medicine Department of the University of Cape Town, housed at the Institute.

The Discovery High Performance Centre operates from the international standard training centre of the Sports Science Institute of South Africa in Newlands, Cape Town. The Institute is ideally positioned in the heart of this sporting town, between the Newlands Cricket ground and Newlands Rugby ground, making it an ideal venue for visiting sports teams.

During the past two decades several countries, most notably Australia and the United States of America have committed substantial financial and human resources to identifying and developing their sporting talent. A central component of the programmes employed in both of these countries has been the establishment of National Sports Institutes (in Canberra and Colorado Springs, respectively). At these centers athletes undergo sophisticated physiological testing and medical evaluation and receive the most up to date scientific feedback and sports-specific data in order to aid the athlete and coach modify and optimise training programmes. Since the development of the Australian Institute of Sport the performances of that nations athletes has improved quite remarkably. In the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal, Australia won a total of five medals; at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics they won 27 medals.

A strong case could be put forward that those countries, which are not competitive in the sports sciences, will ultimately become non-competitive in those international sports identified for scientific study by other leading nations. Hence, any country's future success in any sport at the highest level is likely to be determined by the ability of its sports scientists to identify those persons with special sporting talents and initiate the appropriate research programmes to foster the specific human and other factors that determine success in that sport.

The primary aims of a scientifically based exercise testing and medical evaluation programme are:

• To construct an event specific physiological profile
• To determine the physiological and health status of an athlete
• To indicate the athlete's strengths and weaknesses relevant to his/her sport
• To provide baseline data for training prescription
• To provide insight into the condition of the athlete and the type of changes that might be feasible to optimize performance

Since the primary purpose of such testing is to monitor the efficacy of a particular training programme or other intervention, it is obvious that the tests should be repeated following different phases of training. The results of these tests must be interpreted directly to the coach and athlete and the physiologist/medical practitioner should, on the basis of current test data, advise coaches on the optimal methods of implementing specific training interventions.

The Sports Science Institute of South Africa offers a range of services to both local and international teams in training camps as well as on an ongoing basis.