Why Your Training Should be Informed by a Performance Needs Analysis
All too often, I see people trying to guide their own training with no idea how it relates to the improvements they’re chasing. Or if they go to someone who should be able to help, but the coach wings it, using a generic, predefined plan that outlines sets and reps but doesn’t deliver true personalization based on a useful evaluation. So no wonder they end up getting mediocre results. In this article, we’ll explore what a needs analysis is, how it helps solve these issues, and why you could benefit from it.
Analyzing Current Performance Capacity
When a client comes to see my fellow coach, physical therapist, and life partner, Dr. Beth Ansley, and says, “My knee is swollen” or “My elbow hurts,” she does a manual muscle test, takes them through a full range of motion, and does other assessments to find out what the cause is. Then she provides a PT plan with corrective exercises to treat the symptoms and reduce the chance of the issue recurring.
A needs analysis is similar, but we’re looking through the lens of performance and usually doing so in the absence of injury. To get you to where you need to be from a performance perspective in the future, we first need an accurate view of where you’re at now. The aim is to objectively establish your strengths and weaknesses. Even the most well-rounded athletes usually have deficiencies at a couple of points along the speed-strength continuum. To train you more effectively, we need to find out what these are.
To do so, I conduct tests that have different physical requirements. For example:
Squat: Low speed and high force
Power clean: Medium speed and force
Countermovement jump: High speed and low force
These three movements provide insights about how you perform at multiple points along the force-velocity profile. I also utilize shuttle runs, sprints, and other evaluations to fill in the gaps. In addition to using force plates to assess your jump height, they can also help identify imbalances between opposing muscle groups – such as adductors and abductors – and left-to-right asymmetries. These can inform training interventions such as unilateral training that help reduce the risk of injury and enhance power, speed, and strength expression on both sides of your body.
A lot of coaches just take a couple of metrics at face value, so they only have part of the picture of each client’s capabilities and so create a shortsighted program. Performing a comprehensive needs analysis provides a broader, more informed view and guides the creation of a targeted and tailored plan. It also improves athlete buy-in by enabling me to sit down with you, explain where you’re at right now, and show you what we’re going to do next to help you achieve the changes you seek. As a Science for Sport article stated, “To design a well-planned, holistic, and effective physical training program, it is essential the fitness coach researches and designs an in-depth sports-specific needs analysis for their athletes.”
Comparing Data and Establishing Functional Minimums
The assessment phase of the needs analysis doesn’t exist in isolation. If a previous coach has conducted similar tests in the past, then we might be able to retrospectively compare your current numbers to prior ones and see how you’ve progressed, regressed, or stayed the same. These are the kinds of trends an athlete management system tracks in a linear way.
More often than not though, a new client who comes to me has never undergone a needs analysis. Which means that to make its findings actionable, we need to look to an external data set that will provide some median or average values for either the level you’re at or the one you’re trying to move on to.
The comparative aspect of the needs analysis helps us find out a range for each physical quality. The bottom end of this will be the lowest acceptable baseline needed for you to perform well. This is what Fergus Connolly referred to in his book Game Changer as a functional minimum. “We could look at every athlete who ever played a sport and say that none of them ever fell below a certain level and was still successful,” he wrote. “In other words, there is a basic minimum level of ability that one must reach to function in the activity.”
To find these levels, we need to know how you compare to the performance of other similar athletes. For example, this might mean creating a filter that focuses on female higher basketball players. We could get even more granular, selecting those players in their junior year who are guards, depending on the data available. This way, we can find the basic minimums Fergus referred to and see how you measure up to them.
The comparative phase of the needs assessment often looks to the future. For the example above, you might want to know what standards you’ll need to hit as a high school senior and then as a college freshman. But the side-by-side analysis can also go the other way. A seasoned veteran athlete who currently competes in a master’s division may want to look at younger age groups to see how they’ll need to improve to be competitive in an open race.
Creating and Executing a Targeted Plan
Usually, an athlete has met or exceeded multiple functional minimums and fallen short of a few others. Once I have your individual needs analysis results and compare them to your peers, I will understand what your strengths and weaknesses are and can zero in on which physical qualities you need to improve. When I know where you’re deficient in the force-velocity profile, I can write a personalized plan to address these areas.
For example, it might be that you can develop a lot of force but do so slowly. So we will need to add in ballistic movements and overspeed exercises to improve your jump height. This will lead to a greater rate of force development. To look at the three testing exercises in another way, you might be great at the countermovement jump, average in the power clean, and poor in the squat. If I can help you improve in the squat, this will eliminate your main limiting factor. Enhancing your squatting will also lateralize into further improvements in the other two movements mentioned.
Unlike some coaches, I don’t forsake all other areas in pursuit of the one you’re lacking in. We will continue to work on multiple modalities while concentrating on addressing your deficiencies. As a result, there will be the effect of a rising tide lifting all boats. If we can help you reach one or two new functional minimums, then you will also bolster areas you’re already proficient in and will increase your overall performance.
In creating a bespoke plan, it’s important to take into account not just where you’re currently at, but also where you want to be. I need to know about your goals and how realistic they are. If you’re targeting small improvements, this might be achievable in a single training cycle. Whereas if you have a lofty aim like making an Olympic team or going from a beginner to an advanced athlete, then it’s going to take a longer time. In which case, we can’t rush the process but will need to focus our efforts on one or two areas at a time.
For athletes with long-term goals and/or a defined competitive season, I usually create an annual plan. Many others do better when their training is broken down into three-month blocks. Clients find that it helps to see what the plan is for the next 12 weeks, know how it relates to their strengths and weaknesses, understand the main goal, and grasp how we’re going to get closer to it each day.
Once we’ve been through the training plan, it’s not a one-and-done situation. Instead, I’ll re-run each test in the needs analysis again. By taking another snapshot of your performance, we can compare each value to your previous baselines to see what’s working and what isn’t. I will also look at the before and after scenarios alongside the normative data of other similar athletes to see if you’ve now reached or exceeded the functional minimums that you were below initially.
This creates a continual pattern of test, compare, plan, perform, and re-evaluate. Such a cycle leads to faster short-term progress and greater, more consistent, long-term gains. If you want to train purposefully and reach your goals in a timely manner, you need to know where you’re at currently, what standards you should be targeting, and which steps you need to take to hit them. That’s what a needs analysis provides. It will lead to you developing into a well-rounded athlete, deliver performance gains across the board, and make you more resilient.
Want to target your training? Book a needs analysis with me today.
