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ACL Return to Play: Why the Problem is Not the Knee
The anterior cruciate ligament rupture is one of the most studied injuries in sports medicine. The volume of research produced on ACL rehabilitation, surgical outcomes, and return-to-sport criteria over the past three decades is extraordinary. And yet, ACL re-injury rates remain stubbornly high. This article argues that ACL return to sport is not primarily a structural problem. It is a systems problem.

Antonio Robustelli
3 days ago


High HRV and Fatigue: Rethinking Recovery Signals
Heart rate variability (HRV) has become a widely adopted tool in sport science and athlete monitoring, often interpreted as a straightforward indicator of recovery status. In many applied settings, higher HRV values are assumed to reflect better recovery, greater readiness, and a more favourable autonomic state. Conversely, lower HRV values are frequently interpreted as signs of fatigue, stress, or insufficient recovery.

Antonio Robustelli
Jun 26


Blood Testing and Athletic Performance: Why A Single Biomarker Tells You Almost Nothing
In athlete monitoring, a blood biomarker is frequently evaluated the same way it is in a clinic: a single value compared against a population reference range and pronounced "normal" or "abnormal". Ferritin sits within range, testosterone is adequate, vitamin D is sufficient — and the panel is filed as reassurance. Yet this approach answers a narrow question.

Antonio Robustelli
Jun 23


Not All Load Is Equal: A Joint Mechanical Perspective on Rugby Performance
Understanding the dominant mechanical stresses experienced by rugby players can help practitioners make more informed decisions when planning strength training.
By considering not only how much work athletes perform, but also the type of stress they repeatedly encounter, practitioners may be better positioned to develop targeted and context-specific strength training interventions.

Francesco Sarno
Jun 16


Heart Rate Variability in Sport: From Early Adoption to a Modern Understanding of Regulation
HRV is not a magical window into the entire autonomic nervous system, nor a universal indicator of stress or fatigue. It is a specific cardiac signal, reflecting how the heart is being regulated at a given moment. And if we want HRV to remain a meaningful tool in sport, we need to move beyond outdated concepts and adopt a more accurate, nuanced understanding of what the signal actually represents.

Antonio Robustelli
Jun 5


PlateMate Force Plates: Practical Force Measurement for Coaches, Physios, and Performance Staff
Force plates have become one of the most valuable tools in modern performance environments. What used to be confined to biomechanics labs is now part of daily monitoring in gyms, clinics, and training centres. Coaches and clinicians increasingly rely on objective force‑time data to complement their own judgement—whether they’re tracking neuromuscular readiness, managing return‑to‑play progressions, or simply trying to understand how an athlete produces force and absorbs energ

Mathies Olsen
May 26


Why Coaches Use Dashr Timing System: a Complete Ecosystem That Makes a Coach's Job Easier and Athletes Better
Dashr gives you the ability to test speed, agility, power, reaction, and more—quickly and accurately—without complicated setups or recurring subscription fees. You can capture results instantly on your phone, give athletes immediate feedback, and still have everything synced for long-term tracking and reporting when you want it.

Chase Pfeifer
Feb 9


How Vald Performance is Revolutionizing Athlete Testing in Team Sports
by Antonio Robustelli, MSc CSCS Since the launch of the NordBord, Vald's first product to enter the professional sport market, the Brisbane-based company has grown exponentially by quickly becoming a leading athlete testing systems provider as well as one of the most innovative sports technology companies in professional and high-level sport today. Even if sports technology is a big opportunity and one of the single most important challenges in sport performance, very few s

Omniathlete
Aug 27, 2019


Elite Player Profile Part II: You've Completed your Assessments, Now What?
Once you’ve designed your elite player profile and completed the assessment process with your athletes, it’s time to use the data to drive your decision making. The priority should always be managing injury risk, and this data is extremely valuable to identify your high risk athletes. These are athletes who performed below the minimum standard on a number of assessments, and should be managed differently than your athletes who performed above the minimum standard. I have crea

Sam Reffsin
Feb 6, 2019


The Lost Art of Creating the Elite Player Profile
In any high performance environment the goal is clear, minimize the risk of injury and maximize athletic development. If you lay in bed at night and honestly tell yourself you’ve done everything in your control to protect your athletes health, then you certainly have an assessment process in place. Most sports have technical, tactical, and physiological (I suppose we could add psychological here, but we won’t for now) requirements. If you don’t work with elite level athletes,

Sam Reffsin
Jan 3, 2019
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