Seven tips for developing and maintaining a high performance sports medicine team

In 1989, Stephen Covey published his highly acclaimed book ‘ The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People ’.1 This book, with sales exceeding 25 million copies, describes how individuals contribute to successful organisations, in part by fostering interdependence among staff. The multidisciplinary2 and interdependent3 nature of high-performance sporting teams have been highlighted in BJSM editorials. Central in these commentaries has been the importance of collective decision-making and shared responsibilities.2 With sports medicine teams growing rapidly, sport has become somewhat of an ‘arms race’, with team owners often convinced that the secret to developing a winning franchise lies in the quality of the backroom staff. When assembling a sports medicine team to support the coaches and athletes, what should owners be looking for? What are the characteristics of a highly effective sports medicine team? Here, we provide a perspective from 12 different high-performance organisations based in four countries. ‘Doing the 1%-ers’ is a phrase used ad nauseam in sport. However, it takes a lot of ‘1%-ers’ to make 100%! The foundations of successful performance and injury prevention are based on a well-designed and implemented training programme …