Ian Watson meets Andy Barr to hear how NBA life differs from his roles at Bolton, Saints and Man City.
Ian Watson meets Andy Barr to hear how NBA life differs from his roles at Bolton, Saints and Man City.
Andrew Barr is one of the rarest of species - an Englishman working in the NBA.
The former professional footballer plies his trade as a performance specialist for the legendary New York Knicks, but his journey to the Big Apple began in the less-glamorous surroundings of Luton Town.
Between departing Kenilworth Road and arriving at Madison Square Garden, the 31-year-old made stops at Bolton, Southampton and Manchester City,
In our interview, Barr gives Watson a unique insight into two of the world's richest leagues and how life in the NBA compares to working with the likes of Sam Allardyce, Mark Hughes and Clive Woodward.
IW: 'Performance specialist' sounds like a very broad title. What exactly is your role within the Knicks organisation?
AB: My key role is to look at injury prevention strategies, to try and keep the players in optimal health and then optimise their performance.
My job now is about being proactive and working with the players who are fit to try and stop them getting injured, whereas in the past, it was all about managing the players who are injured and getting them back on the field.
Working with [ex-Chelsea, Leeds and England physio] Dave Hancock, we track the intensity of every practice and we can see whether the players are working hard enough to maintain fitness or whether they are doing too much.
Are performance specialists or injury-prevention specialists commonplace at most clubs and teams?
It's quite unheard of, there aren't many teams around the world that have someone in a specific role for it - but it is really important. When I joined Man City in 2009, I was one of the first people in sport to be given the role of injury-prevention specialist.
As a sports science and medical team, your primary goal should be injury prevention - keeping the best players fit and healthy, and secondly, to optimise their performance and athletic potential.
But a lot of teams get that the wrong way around. There is too much focus on performance development and not enough consideration to injury-risk prevention. Then the players get injured, and they have to try and get them fit again.
Where did your journey to the Knicks and the NBA begin?
I started at Luton Town when I was nine years old and went through the youth system before doing a year's pro.
I had a few serious injuries, though, and I knew I needed something to fall back on, so I was fortunate to get a place on a physio course through the PFA, who have a great support system for people who don't make the grade fully.
That eventually led to me getting the position at Bolton.
You spent seven years at Bolton during an exciting time for the club. The Trotters were often labelled as 'pioneers' when it came to application of sports science in the Premier League. Is that fair?
Absolutely. I was so fortunate that in the first job I went into, I was surrounded by these inspirational people that wanted to lead the way.
The thing with Bolton was, we didn't have the players to compete at the top of the Premier League in terms of skill and technique because of the finances. But we could be equal in terms of optimising athletic potential, because we realised a lot of teams weren't doing that.
We might not have been able to improve the players much from a technical point of view, but what we can do is
