VIEWPOINT

December 2023

‘Sir Dave Brailsford and the role of a Performance Director’

The news that Dave Brailsford was to take up a position at Manchester United has been met with quite a lot of critical comment, but it makes total sense to me. Understanding high-level performance and the pressures that abound in elite sport is crucial for any person involved in the delivery of sustained success in any sport. If you can deliver the goods in one, it is very likely to mean that you can do it in others.

Sport performance is complex, and we are right when we try to keep it simple, up to a point. Simple that is, for the players. Coaches and fitness specialists may need to study performance in detail, but their task is to make sure that players understand their functions in the simplest possible terms so as not to be overwhelmed by too much ‘thinking’. Many people do the thinking for the players, and we should leave the players to make decisions on the field of play. Those behind the scenes can ensure that the environment is as it should be for training, recovery, travel, accommodation etc.

Consideration of many of these elements does not require technical knowledge of any one given sport.

The person who can make sure that all factors are considered in a balanced way is the performance director. I can remember in the early '80s when Frank Dick, then one of the top running coaches in the world, was invited to take a session for RFU Senior rugby coaches at Bisham Abbey. The purpose was to show how to improve running skills, particularly speed. Several of the coaches present were heard mumbling, “What has this got to do with rugby”? How things have changed since then, with the role of Performance Director increasingly regarded as of great importance. In recent years Sarah Symington, an Olympic cyclist herself, has had key performance roles with British Archery, Athletics and England netball, achieving significant success with all of them. She is now back with British Cycling. Chris Spice, a former Australian hockey International and coach, was the performance director at British Basketball and then England Rugby before moving to British Swimming, where he has been working successfully since 2013.

Dave Brailsford was the Performance Director at British Cycling, then Team Sky and finally Ineos. He has also helped Nice this season who are now sitting 2nd in the top French soccer division, somewhere they are not used to being.

Despite this, there have apparently been many United fans asking what a cycling man can bring to their club. It should be obvious - he can bring a knowledge of sustained high-level performance. There is more to it than the ‘marginal gains’ philosophy that brought Brailsford’s approach to Cycling into the public domain, though this alone might suffice if it is understood properly.

Six months before the 2012 London Olympics I spent a day at the Manchester Velodrome, the home of British Cycling, and had a couple of hours with Dave Brailsford. At the time I was on the council of the Rugby Football Union and was quite involved in the performance of the England team. I asked him straight:

“If you were the Performance Director of England Rugby, would you win us the World Cup?”

With no element of boastfulness, he said “Yes, but there are two provisos. First, don’t expect me to be the coach. I am not the coach of Chris Hoy and Bradley Wiggins, but I am responsible for their programme. I am also responsible for who coaches them.

Secondly, I would want something I don’t think you could give me - control of the players.”

The latter point was a telling one, as England and France are the only two leading rugby nations where the top players are not primarily under the control / management of the National Governing Body. I believe that he could have steered England to the World Cup, it is unfortunate that he never had the chance!

On my visit to the Velodrome I saw something remarkable that provided a terrific example of what world-class performance, including marginal gains, is all about. I was looking down on the track, above the bend. The team pursuit team were being put through their paces. Suddenly, when it was his turn to take the lead, Geraint Thomas made a rare mistake and clipped the back wheel of the team-mate in front of him. He went flying and slid perhaps 20 metres round the track, burning his lycra suit, coming to a stop sprawled across the track and holding his shoulder. The head of communications, who was showing me round, said immediately that this could be the end of Thomas’s Olympic aspirations, as such falls usually result in a broken collarbone or at the very least, a dislocated shoulder (which is what happened in this case).

What happened next, and within seconds of the fall, was astonishing. A doctor appeared, seemingly from nowhere, and knelt by the side of the cyclist, immediately followed by a paramedic with a stretcher. Thomas was taken to hospital, where he was seen within less than 30 minutes of his accident. Having immediate attention meant that his recovery was swift, and less than 6 months later, the pursuit team of Burke, Clancy, Kennaugh and Thomas won the Olympic Gold in a new world record time.

I asked if this was a regular occurrence as they seemed so ready for it. The response - “No. It is the first accident like that I have seen here for a couple of years. We just have to be ready for the next one, whenever it is”. Marginal gains is attention to detail, and there are many details involved in elite performance. I am pretty sure that if Dave Brailsford goes to Manchester United, he will make changes, and they will lead to improved performance. I hope he has the chance this time!