Onboarding and Staying on Board
Jun 26, 2024 | Sports Science
Sports Science PhD fellow Drew Smith reviews his first two seasons in Texas A&M Athletics in the article below.
Coming into my first year here at A&M, just like most firsts, was a little intimidating. I did both my undergraduate and graduate degrees at the University of Pittsburgh so felt very comfortable with that area and its surroundings. Moving halfway across the country to Texas A&M to start a whole new chapter in my life was a big step for me. As well as starting my first year of my PhD here in Aggieland, it was a first for a number of other reasons: first time leading sports science services for a team, first time working with women’s basketball (WBB), first year of using Kinexon (athlete monitoring system) with any sport at A&M, and it was the first year for head coach Joni Taylor at A&M. In the beginning, this all seemed like a very daunting task, but looking back on it two years later, things have worked out well and I have grown a great deal as a result.
Year 1 (2022-23)
My biggest worries going into my first year were don’t fall behind on PhD, make sure we collected good data, and gain trust and support of the staff and players. None of these are given; all have to be worked towards every day, with every action and every conversation. Early on, I worked closely with my advisor Dr. Jennifer Yentes to get a plan in place for the next year (and three that follow). While I had a good idea of the different elements that make up a PhD coming in, putting them all together to create a journey unique to me was a huge step. Through this process, we identified that Year 1 is more geared toward knocking out needed coursework and to start critically thinking about what I want to PhD to focus on (it has changed several times since). This structure in Year 1 gave me more time to navigate my way through leading sports science in WBB. My first big self-win this year was creating the WBB Kinexon report from scratch in RStudio. It was my first “product” I produced here at A&M. As the season started and school picked up things were going well. Passing classes, force-plate testing monthly, sitting at practices collecting all became routine. Fast forward to the end of the year where I had to aggregate all the data we collected and condense into one report for the coaching staff to show trends and normative data collected over the past year. We were able to show things the team did well that year but also revealed things that we can improve upon for next, and most importantly how we can actionably use this data throughout the season. Wrapping up my first year as a PhD student and Sports Scientist lead came with a lot of successes, as well as still knowing that I still have to grow and show my worth and improve in all areas for Year 2.
Year 2 (2023-24)
Starting Year 2 seemed slightly less stressful after building a great foundation in WBB and the PhD process with Year 1. But to grow as a sports scientist and a student researcher, I know more work was ahead. The beginning of the year started in summer 2023, PhD really picks up Year 2 with forming a committee, trying to plan out the next couple of years, and narrowing down topics for my studies. On top of that, with WBB, I (with the performance & wellness staff’s help) created player profiles to help show growth over summer for our athletes as well as changed how we look at intensity of practice and games, which came along with a new report structure. As the semester went on, I realized I was being pulled in many directions. Luckily, we have a growing sports science staff and we utilized that to allow myself to not be at every practice and focus on my PhD and diving deeper into women’s basketball data. I think to any sports scientist or anyone who collects data, releasing that control of not being at every practice and checking all the boxes with your own eyes is tough. But building that trust with our staff and in turn being able to see the quality and quantity of workload completed was a great feeling. We had another successful season with sports science integration in basketball with more frequent force plate testing and conversation with the staff about load monitoring and periodization of practices. Currently wrapping up year 2 I can confidently say I’m not behind on my PhD, we have collected high quality data, and I have built that trust and support of the women’s basketball staff. Looking into year 3 I am in the process of writing systematic review, working on IRB’s for a few studies I have planned and working with Kinexon to get accurate shot statistics from practice and games.
