Fergus Connolly: Improving NBA Load Management by Balancing Volume, Intensity, Density, and Collision/Contact
Whenever a new article comes out about load management in the NBA, it’s invariably about Kawhi Leonard, LeBron James, or other stars sitting out games. This makes fans believe that rest days are the main thing. But according to Fergus Connolly, who learned from legendary coaches like Al Vermeil, the head strength and conditioning coach for Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls – teams would be better served applying the VIDC model he introduced in his bestselling sports science book Game Changer.
So what is VIDC? It’s an acronym Fergus came up with to encompass volume, intensity, density, and collision/contact. Volume is the amount of work performed, intensity is how hard and fast a player goes, density is the balance between work and rest periods, and collision/contact is the combination of physical knocks from opponents and ground contact.
“I came up with the VIDC model for two reasons,” Fergus said in a recent episode of The Basketball Strong Podcast. “The first is that in elite sports, there’s so much information coming in, so I saw a need to understand what was happening with each person as a whole in a way that the data can’t always quantify. With VIDC, there are only four variables, which anyone can handle. It also gives resource-strapped coaches an opportunity to look at how they program for their athletes in a way that doesn’t require a lot of money or staff. The second reason I created the VIDC model was to let people interchange technology. If you get a new GPS platform or heart rate monitoring system, the model is insulated because it’s simple and evergreen.”
During the conversation, co-host Tim DiFrancesco – who guided the likes of Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol, and Ron Artest as head S&C coach of the Los Angeles Lakers – suggested that a mistake coaches often make is wanting to dial their athletes up to 10 out of 10 in all the VIDC elements. Fergus agreed and stated that it’s impossible to maintain that without increasing the risk of injury and jeopardizing athlete care. To him, the VIDC model is just one aspect of a holistic approach that considers each athlete as a human being first and performer second. This includes letting coaches and athletes bring up issues and then utilizing sports science to provide more information and build a better decision support system that works in the real world – not just on a spreadsheet or a screen.
“One issue with sports technology is that it’s usually very myopic,” Fergus said. “In my first few roles in sport with the Welsh national rugby team and Bolton Wanderers FC in soccer, GPS was becoming popular. It’s great in many ways, but it only gives you a small piece of the puzzle. One time I was trying to explain some sports science data to Coach Scott Johnson. His eyes glazed over at the numbers, and he said, ‘You know what? One thing I’d like you to measure is how long players spend on the ground after they’re tackled.’ He believed this would indicate how much effort they were putting into practice. This is an example of letting the coach or athlete define a problem they’re having and then finding information that will help them solve it.”
Another topic that Tim and Fergus discussed was load exposure. They agreed that players need to be exposed to adequate amounts of stress in all four VIDC areas to prepare them for the demands of competition. This is why Fergus’s approach with teams, coaches, and athletes in every sport starts by “working backward from game day,” as he put it. It’s only when you understand exactly what the sport itself, the position played, the opponent, and the conditions will subject the human body to that you can start to set more precise targets, thresholds, and limits in the weight room and on the practice floor.
If coaches gradually and carefully ramp up their players’ load exposure – like Tim and his fellow coaches do in the Basketball Strong Level 1 online training program – it won’t lead to them missing more games, like the misguided current interpretation of load management might lead you to believe. Rather, maintaining a high chronic load – work done over a set period, such as a week or 10 days – will avoid a player spiking their acute load when they’re required to go harder and faster for longer. Injuries often occur when a bench player becomes a starter or a starter must become a star, like when teammates get hurt.
Fergus revealed that the transitions between preseason and the regular season and the regular calendar and playoffs are also traditionally dangerous because volume, intensity, density, and collision/contact can all spike. When a rookie is used to playing 20-something times in college and makes the leap to 82 regular season games in the NBA, their body sometimes breaks down because all four VIDC elements are ramped up. In any of these situations, a player will better handle this if they maintain a high chronic load throughout the entire calendar year, because they will be more durable and resilient. As Free Solo director Jimmy Chin – who won an Oscar for his biopic of climber Alex Honnold – sometimes says, “Stay ready for everything, so you never have to train for anything.”
Listen to the first part of our conversation with Fergus here, read his book Game Changer, and check out his coaching resources at https://www.fergusconnolly.com.
