Heather Farmer | Growing Sport Science from the Ground Up

NSCA’s Coaching Podcast

As Director of Sport Science at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), Heather Farmer spearheads comprehensive integration efforts. This includes ensuring every stakeholder, from sport performance staff to academic advisors, has a seat at the table. Farmer also outlines developing an internship and graduate assistantship program to meet staffing needs and offer opportunities for practical experience. She recounts how leveraging relationships — not data — has been her key to scalability. Additionally, Farmer recognizes that to make an impact, she must meet athletes and sport coaches where they are, which she uncovers through “highlights” and “hurdles.” She suggests that sport scientists with strength and conditioning backgrounds, like herself, are uniquely equipped to excel due to their communication skills. Farmer and McMahon also discuss avoiding “analysis paralysis” and how to incorporate data to elevate the student-athlete experience — an unignorable factor as athletes bring an element of “self” in the age of name, image and likeness (NIL).

Reach out to Heather by email at: [e-mail] | Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs or LinkedIn: @ericmcmahoncscs

Show Notes

“I can carry 8 - 10 undergrad interns. I have graduate students, PhD students who wanted that experience. And boom, now all of a sudden, we've got a full operating department. These guys became pivotal. We live tag 6 - 8 teams every day on campus… They get to see what they're doing in action versus just that blind data collection.” 8:15

“We want to align with the coach. Whatever your vision is, we are spearheading that. We are making sure we're traveling together.” 18:20

“So, for them, I gave them, what was the internal workload score of the day? What was that intensity? What was the external workload of the day? What was that intensity? And we look at one recovery metric, and those are the only five things we look at for that team. And is that because that's the best and that's the absolute scientific principle of high performance? No, but we also have to make sure that we talked at the beginning about meeting coaches where they're at. Where can I get the buy-in and the understanding?” 23:40

“I don't want to just grow, grow, grow to meet certain thresholds. I want to grow, grow, grow and make sure those experiences are at such a high level. As sports science continues to grow throughout all of the levels and we're bringing everyone together, I think you'll see more sports scientists being hired at different schools across the country. I think it just takes time, just as the other sport performance pillars did.” 27:25