Blog
Seattle, USA
Monday 1st October 2012
I left Vancouver, somewhat subdued, at 5am this morning, drawing on the excitement of going to visit Sam Ramsden, the newly appointed Performance Director at the Seattle Seahawks.  Sam was at the Seahawks when I last visited the franchise, in their old training facility back in 2002, although back then he was the assistant athletic trainer.  Recently he has been tasked with developing the support network & management approaches to optimise athletes' performance.  This is a relatively novel approach in American Football, in my opinion, where often the culture can restrict the types of advancements made by other sports in this area.

I am delighted to report that Sam seems to be the perfect candidate for the role.  Not only is he well respected, experienced & driven, he is open-minded & asks the pertinent questions.  Without adopting the knee jerk response to affecting change, he seems to be picking priority issue by priority issue & bringing the coaching staff along with him.  The same points that were brought to conversation with Andy Barr at the Knicks last week, were apparent again, in that American sports need a patient approach to change management.  I was lucky enough to witness the early fruits of his labour as a senior coach passionately presented a flawless presentation on the importance of sleep, as advised by Sam with expert content guided by Dr Cheri Mah from Stanford (for examples of her research, search through the Blog for some of her papers).

Sam seems supported by some hard working staff & they are blessed with the best facilities I have had the good fortune to experience during my clinical visits.  There have been no half measures employed in the construction of an environment that would be a pleasure to get up & go to work in every morning - it certainly reminded me why I would still relish the chance to work in this part of the world given the opportunity.

I hope to remain in contact with Sam & look forward to hearing how his plans progress over the coming years.  Thank you Sam, to you & your team for making me so welcome today & taking the time to discuss your ideas.  Good luck for the rest of the season.
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