Over the past four years I have been lucky enough to visit the Caribbean (Jamaica & Trinidad) to deliver a set of workshops on Sports Nutrition. This year was no exception and I recently returned from another successful trip. The beauty of the Caribbean, and Jamaica specifically, is that they have a unique ability to 'Breed Champions' based on a small population, modest facilities, and low GNP. Consequently, I want to base the next two articles on my reflections of this trip, as surely this is a nation we need to understand better and learn from.

The topic of this year's workshop was 'Behaviour change', a concept I am extremely interested in, have alluded to before in previous articles, and something I believe the Jamaican's do very well. Behaviour change is not about the quality of the (scientific) 'strategy' per se, it's about the adherence to, or the habituation of the 'strategy', i.e. what they 'do' coach, teach or suggest sticks and clearly makes a difference. So in the absence of high levels of education - what Jamaican's are is great coaches, great practitioners, and excellent sponges (of anything that they think will benefit them).

I appreciate that many might state that behaviour change is traditionally a psychological phenomenon, and I don't disagree. However, it is something we all have to understand if we are truly going to 'hand on heart' make a difference as athletes or coaches.

The reason I am so interested in behaviour change, is because no matter how good the potential strategy, or the innovative science that sits behind it, if the strategy is not executed properly then it's unlikely to have the desired effect. Furthermore, I consistently see the same issue of athletes/coaches looking for magic formula's when in reality the 'foundations' on which the athlete is built are not secure enough to survive the test of time. If you just look at high level performance, then in high pressure situations the athletes tends to forget about detail and revert to their default 'performance'. If this default is not a level where behaviour has actually taken place, then the strategy is lost. This is why in my opinion upsets are few and far between!

So in everything an athlete does or a coach prescribes - think not just in the science of the strategy, think also about how you go from introducing it to ensuring it is ingrained in behaviour so that when the athlete is under pressure, it is still routine. It's like creating the most autonomous athlete we possibly can. The method behind behaviour change is a science in itself, and requires a strong relationship, clever coaching, and strong detail in planning. In the modern game, it's not good enough to just have the ideas - you have to be the best at implementing the ideas - so that the change survives the test of time. And if I remember my very first article correctly, ultimately we are all judged on performance, so I'm not sure we can ignore this concept.

Nick