Change of direction ability; testing, developing physical qualities and maximising on-field transfer with Tom Dos’Santos and Alistair McBurnie

This week’s Pacey Performance Podcast is the second part of Rob’s conversation with Alistair McBurnie and Tom Dos’Santos. Just as a reminder, Alistair is a sports science analyst for Manchester United’s first team, having worked his way up from coaching at academy level. Tom is a lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University, where he teaches strength conditioning and sports biomechanics. Previously, he’s worked at the University of Salford, England Northwest and Manchester Thunder netball squads. They’re currently collaborating on multidirectional speed.

The conversation continues with more insight into the world of change of direction, including its definition and the key positions athletes and coaches should be aware of for effective change of direction. This includes effective training of these key positions, and how to coach them in an applied setting. There’s also discussion into how to build an athlete profile, and how technological advances have led to developments in on-field change of direction testing.

Furthermore, Alistair and Tom talk about whether change direction testing is becoming less prominent following recent findings from their peers. Overall, if you’re looking for incredibly detailed discussion in this area of coaching, including drills, coaching plans and how to measure output, this week’s edition of the podcast is ideal for you. For all this – plus where to find even more information – hit the play button now.

This week’s topics:

• Definition of change of direction
• Key positions when it comes to effective change of direction
• Effective training of key positions
• Coaching change of direction drills in an applied setting
• Whether change of direction testing is becoming less prominent
• Building an athlete profile during change of direction testing
• How technological advances effect on-field change of direction testing
• Change of direction deficit
• Signposting for more insight from Tom and Alistair