The latest episode of the Experts in Sport podcast, hosted by Stuart McErlain-Naylor, features Professor Franco Impellizzeri from the University of Technology Sydney.

Franco is active within the Sports and Exercise Science & Medicine industry, with a background in sports coaching in clinical science and is currently working as a researcher.

Having collaborated with various academics throughout his career and undertaking research within private institutions, Franco gives his expert opinion on current issues within the sector. He discusses the implications around the commercialisation of using external measures of training load and the impact this has upon sports team composition and achieving optimal performance.

Franco speaks about how decisions within sports coaching may be informed by data: “Nowadays, we tend to use more external measures of training load because it’s easier and also because there is more commercial interest in that area”. He examines how companies market products to appeal to teams and researchers, alluding to the capitalisation of the industry.

During the episode, Stuart and Franco discuss the problems with these technologies, such as the over-exertion of athletes when attempting to achieve higher numerical statistics. It is considered how researchers must begin to collaborate across multiple disciplines and strengthen communication between sectors to reduce bias.

Listeners of the podcast can subscribe and download the latest episode by visiting iTunes, Spotify, and TuneIn. All subscribers will receive an alert once new episodes are published.

The Experts in Sport podcast is a regular series that brings together experts from across Loughborough University with external thought leaders to discuss the latest research and hot topics in sport and academia with new episodes launched regularly.