American sports, it seems, could be on the cusp of a revolution.With some of the sports science concepts already prevalent overseas beginning to trickle into the United States, the way athletes train, prepare and play is likely to undergo an overhaul.That’s already happened at Kentucky.Mark Stoops and Erik Korem have implemented a first-of-its-kind High Performance program at UK. You’ve read about it on Cat Scratches already, but now Fansided is taking a look as part of the overall story of America playing catch-up in the sports science department.Here’s an excerpt:
When Korem left Florida State following the 2012 season, it was to follow former FSU defensive coordinator Mark Stoops to Kentucky. Stoops was intent on starting a football-based revolution in Lexington and Korem hopes that will be the launching pad for his own movement — he already has unparalleled support from the university.“The reason I came with Coach Stoops is number one I believe in him and I believe in what we’re doing here,” says Korem. “Number two, he was willing to make me the first high performance manager in American football.“What we’re doing here at Kentucky that’s different than pretty much any football program in America right now is we actually have a true high performance model where all of these pieces are working together where we literally sit down as a staff and we script everything to have a certain output, we’re measuring externally from the Catapult [system] and everything internally sports science-wise. We actually have buy-in and assistance from our university exercise science department, so what we’re doing here, for me is a very exciting opportunity to come to UK because it’s the first time in American football that it’s being done.”Stoops’ first year at Kentucky was a humbling 2-10 campaign, but the signs are already there that things are working. Injuries are down, player development is a major point of emphasis and the Wildcats quietly pulled in a top 20 recruiting class this past year.
There’s lots more about UK’s High Performance program and the changing American sports landscape in Patrik Nohe’s story. Read it all here.
