Frequently Asked Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
Answers to the questions we are asked most often by athletes, teams and practitioners. If your question is not covered here, the contact page is the fastest way to reach us.
1. Working with Omniathlete
What does Omniathlete do?
Omniathlete provides sport science, strength and conditioning, sports medicine and performance technology consulting to professional teams, national federations, governing bodies and individual athletes. The work ranges from single-project consultancy to season-long integration with an existing performance department, and covers physical preparation, injury prevention, return to play, recovery management and the selection and interpretation of testing technology.
Who is behind Omniathlete?
The consultancy is led by Antonio Robustelli and his staff. Antonio is an international high performance director and consultant with more than twenty years of experience in elite sport. His work has involved individual athletes and professional teams across Europe, Asia and the United States, including athletes who competed at the last five Olympic Games.
Where does the work take place?
In three ways, and most long-term collaborations combine them. Consulting projects are delivered on site at the client's own facilities, including training grounds, performance centres and medical departments, with visits arranged around the competitive calendar. Athletes also travel to Italy, for assessment and coaching periods. Where travel is not practical, or where a project needs continuity between visits, the work continues remotely: testing data collected by the client's own staff is reviewed and interpreted online, and training, nutrition and recovery plans are managed through a dedicated platform.
How does a collaboration usually start?
With a conversation. Whether the enquiry comes from an athlete, a team or a practitioner, the first step is to understand the context: the sport, the competitive calendar, the staff and technology already in place, and the problem that needs solving. What follows is proposed on that basis, rather than as a fixed package.
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2. For Individual Athletes
Do I need to be a professional athlete?
No. The individual consulting service covers athletes ranging from Olympians and professionals to semi-professional and amateur competitors, across track and field, soccer, tennis, cycling, basketball, rugby, volleyball, swimming, martial arts, boxing, weightlifting, archery, long-distance running and rowing.
What can individual consulting cover?
Speed development, strength and power development, endurance performance, return to play and post-injury or post-surgery rehabilitation, general sport performance consulting, sport science support, recovery optimisation, private coaching, and injury prevention assessment. The assessment side includes unique and advanced technologies such as infrared thermography, tensiomyography, myotonometry, force platforms, EMG, foot pressure mapping, gait and running analysis, posturography and neurofeedback.
Do I have to travel to Italy?
Not necessarily. Consultations take place at the Omniathlete lab in Italy (Salerno), at the athlete's own location, or remotely, depending on what the work requires. An initial assessment is more informative in person, because it involves measurement; the management that follows can usually be handled remotely.
I have a recurring injury that no one has been able to resolve. Is that something you look at?
Yes. Recurring problems and chronic pain are a frequent reason athletes get in touch, and they are approached as a question about the whole system rather than about the painful structure alone. The assessment looks at neuromuscular function, movement mechanics and load history together, because a symptom that keeps returning usually depends on more than one factor.
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3. For Teams and Organisations
What does team consulting involve?
The technology is brought directly to the client's facility and the players are tested according to the team's needs. Neuromuscular function and biomechanical efficiency are evaluated from an applied, on-the-field perspective, with results linked to the demands of the specific discipline. Each testing session is followed by a detailed meeting with the coaching, medical and performance staff, in which the data is discussed and turned into decisions.
Can we start with a single testing session?
Yes. The service is modular and is built around the budget and the needs of the organisation. It can be a complete neuromuscular screening with integrated technologies — myotonometry, tensiomyography, foot pressure mapping and infrared thermography — delivered as a single pre-season session, or a full service with scheduled follow-ups across the season.
Which teams do you work with?
Teams and organisations in soccer, basketball, rugby, volleyball, baseball and hockey, across Europe, Asia and the United States, from first to third division leagues, as well as national federations and governing bodies.
Do you work alongside our existing staff?
That is the usual arrangement. The work is designed to integrate with an existing performance or medical department rather than replace any part of it, and the meeting after each testing session exists precisely so that the staff who see the athletes daily are the ones who act on the data.
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4. Education and Mentorship
Who is the Professional Mentorship for?
Strength and conditioning coaches, sport scientists, physiotherapists, athletic trainers, sports medicine practitioners and students who have completed their foundational education and want a more integrated way of reasoning about performance. It suits three situations in particular: practitioners with access to testing technology who are unsure how to interpret and integrate the data, practitioners who understand the individual components of training but struggle to organise them across a season, and practitioners who want to develop one area in greater depth than a course allows.
How are mentorship sessions structured?
Every programme begins with a scoping conversation about the participant's working context, the athletes or teams they support, the technology available to them and the problems they want to address. The topics are agreed from that conversation. Sessions are delivered live over Zoom and last two and a half hours each, and they are conversations rather than lectures: participants bring their own testing data, training plans and video, which are examined directly during the session. The longer programmes include coaching support between sessions.
Which mentorship programme should I choose?
The Basic programme runs over one week and suits a single well-defined question, such as the interpretation of force plate data or the structure of an in-season strength phase. The Intermediate programme runs over two weeks and allows a topic to be developed across several sessions, with time between them to apply what has been discussed. The Advanced programme runs over one month and suits practitioners who want to review and rebuild an area of their practice. The Hybrid programme runs over three months and adds three days in person in Italy. Current durations, session counts and prices are listed on the mentorship page.
Do you deliver courses for our department?
Yes, through the Staff Education and CPD service, which is delivered on site at the team's training ground or facility. The content and duration are built around the needs of the department rather than offered as a fixed syllabus.
What is published free of charge?
We have a range of free educational contents regularly published on our website, including free e-books, guides, webinars and expert roundtables. Our blog publishes two long-form articles each week on applied sport science, and the newsletter, sent twice a month, includes reviews of recent research papers alongside commentary and updates on courses and events.
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5. Technology
Which technologies do you use?
Assessment relies on the integration of several systems rather than a single tool: Myoton, tensiomyography, infrared thermography, foot pressure mapping, force plates, timing gates, gait and running analysis, posturography and neurofeedback. The reasoning behind this is deliberate: no single metric describes an athlete's functional state, so several sources of information are combined before a conclusion is drawn.
Can you advise us on which systems to buy?
Yes. The selection and interpretation of testing technology is part of the consulting service, and it is often the most useful place to start, because equipment bought without a clear question to answer tends to be used once and then left in a cupboard.
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6. Practical Questions
How do I get in touch?
Through the contact page, which includes the enquiry form and the direct e-mail address. Enquiries from athletes, teams and practitioners are all handled through the same channel.
In which languages do you work?
Consulting projects, mentorship sessions and courses are delivered in English and in Italian.
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