FSH - Faculty of Science and Health header
Faculty of Science & Health
four people standing against a blue door, smiling at camera
L to R: Dr Stephen Behan, Dr Robin Taylor, Dr Áine Macnamara and Dr Jamie Taylor.

From lab to pitch: how research is helping rewrite the rules of elite sport

In the high-stakes world of professional sport, the development of coaches and athletes has traditionally been driven by “the way it’s always been done”, or established best practices. Yet, practice often outpaces the available evidence.

“Enormous investment goes into the development of people... yet we lack a strong grounding of evidence.” 

says Dr Jamie Taylor, co-lead of Dublin City University’s CoEx|Lab. 

Every sporting organisation wants to optimise performance, at all levels. However, while there is an abundance of research and knowledge available to be applied to coaching methods, this needs to be made more accessible for individuals and organisations putting this into practice.

CoEx|Lab addresses this issue by bridging the gap between research and practice in coaching, talent development, and performance systems. They don't look at sports from a distance; they conduct their research directly inside the daily practices of elite organisations. 

Based in the new Polaris Building on DCU’s Glasnevin campus and the School of Health and Human Performance, the lab is led by Dr Áine MacNamra and Dr Jamie Taylor,  along with Principal Investigators Dr Stephen Behan, and Dr Robin Taylor who teach on the University’s Professional Doctorate and MSc in Elite Performance. The lab’s team is composed of practitioner-researchers  bringing an informed perspective on the problems they research.

“CoEx|Lab was established to combine expertise in coaching science and emerging AI technologies in ways that create meaningful impact for coaches, athletes, and organisations across sport,” says Dr Áine MacNamara. “This engaged approach to research  —working with and for sport and performance— is the central pillar of our work.” 

"We offer a contextually grounded understanding," Dr JamieTaylor elaborates. "And, as a result, we really do understand the problems that people are experiencing and are therefore able to deploy research methods accordingly."

“Ultimately, it's our job to understand the context before we suggest a research solution,” notes Dr Jamie Taylor. 

"The real world isn't static; things change, things move. Particularly in the kinds of domains in which we work, which tend to be pressurised. There are all sorts of different things that go on that might get in the way of somebody progressing towards their intentions."

By teaching coaches how to develop this strategic range, CoEx|Lab changes the system around the practitioner, helping them simultaneously perform better and learn faster under pressure.

 

Rewriting Practices

The value of CoEx|Lab’s approach is found in the impact it has on the institutional practices in some of the world's biggest sporting organisations.

In elite football, the Premier League commissioned the ‘coaching expertise project’, subsequently embedded the findings by embedding a expertise profiling tool across academies and changing academy regulations to enhance coach development.

A landmark project led by CoEx|Lab investigator Dr Amy Shelley reshaped the landscape of professional rugby in the UK. Her data directly informed an academy license and boundary agreement between Premiership Rugby and England Rugby.

"What the lab does is go and do research with people to understand their problems," says Dr Taylor, "to provide evidence-informed solutions that help guide the progress of practice and ultimately offer a return on investment."

 

High Performance and Grassroots

The lab also believes that research should not be confined to high performance sport. 

Dr David Moran, a postdoctoral researcher with CoEx|Lab, has been conducting an extensive project in the GAA where streaming practices are being transformed through research. The research has already had significant impact leading to requests for support from clubs and a planned webinar for the GAA.

CoEx|Lab’s goals for the future focus on global scale and democratisation. While much of the lab’s research has focused on challenges in elite sport, it wants to make evidence-informed development accessible to all.

A major driver of this future vision is their partnership with Coach Logic. By conducting rigorous reliability and validity testing on AI software, CoEx|Lab is helping to develop future tech products aimed at democratising coach education globally.

“The intention isn't to automate coach observation, but to support better coach learning and more informed developmental conversations,” says Dr MacNamara. “If technology can help coaches reflect more effectively, support athletes more intentionally, and create more evidence-informed learning environments, then it can make a genuinely valuable contribution to coaching and expertise development.”

The lab's footprint is expanding rapidly across sports nationally and internationally. The team recently hosted an International Coaching Consensus, with participants from around the world including the USA, Australia, Germany, UK and Ireland; it is actively driving diverse projects; ranging from a venture with the Football Association of Ireland (FAI), to strategic work with Irish Rugby, Hockey Ireland, and the Special Olympics. 

Working from an evidence-based approach, CoEx|Lab is ensuring that the future of sport will no longer be dictated by who guesses the best, but by who understands the science of performance the deepest.

 

About CoEx|Lab

Co|Ex Lab is led by Dr Jamie Taylor and Dr Áine Macnamara along with Principal Investigators Dr Stephen Behan and Dr Robin Taylor. The research team includeInvestigators: David Moran, Amy Shelley, Dean Clark, Alex Burns and Stephanie Brennan