Team sports such as hockey, handball and football are very dynamic: rapid changes of direction, sprinting, and sudden stops, all in response to the ball, teammates, and opponents. To win games, physical, technical, tactical, and mental skills must come together perfectly. Rapid developments in technology and artificial intelligence now create new opportunities to take performance to the next level.
Postdoc Eline Nijmeijer has been appointed as an embedded researcher on this project. She has started by mapping the needs of sports associations among embedded scientists, coaches, and technical directors. Where can meaningful impact be achieved in team sports? Next, priorities will be defined and a concrete plan of action will be drawn up. Ultimately, the goal is to provide the best possible support for national programs and increase their innovative power. A key part of this is leveraging the unique characteristics of team sports and combining them with scientific expertise and knowledge from industry partners to stimulate innovation.
The ambition of both parties is to carry out at least two pilots in national elite team sports programs to test innovations. Because the programs are not competing with each other, sharing knowledge between team sports plays a central role in this process. In this way, we are jointly strengthening the innovative power of Dutch team sports. Imagine a handball team that knows exactly when to pick up the pace to surprise their opponents, powered by data insights. Or a hockey team that gets real-time insights into player workload, enabling coaches to intervene early to reduce injury risk. These examples show how science and technology can transform the practice of team sports, from developing smarter strategies to promoting better athlete care.
The project started on September 1 and will run for two years. It is led by Dr. Michel Brink, associate professor in the Department of Human Movement Sciences, and carried out in close collaboration with Kamiel Maase, performance manager at NOC*NSF. Eline Nijmeijer, employed by UMCG as an embedded researcher, has day-to-day responsibility for implementing the project, and spends half of her time with the elite sports programs. Financial support from NWO and NOC*NSF has made this initiative possible.
