Boccia Support Profile

All information correct as of July 2012

Sport: Boccia
Performance Director: Matt Hammond
Athletes EIS work with: 15
Investment in EIS services since 2009: £269,964.27
EIS services accessed: Sports Medicine, Physiotherapy, Soft tissue therapy, Performance Analysis, Performance Lifestyle, Talent ID
Hours of support received: 11,660 

The EIS team behind Boccia

The EIS has worked with the GB Boccia Federation this cycle predominantly out of the programme’s main base at EIS Sheffield as well as providing support out of other EIS high performance to support their local requirements.

The GB Boccia programme has increasingly developed its performance programme over the past cycle and in doing so, has increased the breadth of sport science support services offered to athletes on the programme from the EIS. For the benefit of performance, a holistic package of sport science and medical support has been put in place by the sport, a perfect example of a Paralympic sport truly embracing the potential that science and medicine has to offer. 

The EIS practitioners working within the sport are considered world class experts in their field by GB Boccia Federation, developed over a sustained period of applied work and improved understanding.

EIS medical support services play an important role in supporting a squad with a range of disabilities, some degenerative, not only through classification issues, but in the ongoing growth of understanding of where athletes’ performance edge can be developed.

Performance Analysis and Biomechanical Analysis has been used extensively on the programme to better understand and identify the characteristics required for success, thereby better informing the Talent Identification Process and Pathways.

Performance Lifestyle services have also assisted some athletes support in combining their university studies with the required environment for training as an elite disability athlete and the scheduling of training and competition. 

The EIS staff that have been working on the Boccia programme have been first class and, one of the things we can't afford to lose into Rio, is the performance expertise that now exists in Paralympic sport through the institute. If we are serious about Rio, and we are serious about the investment made in the London cycle providing the springboard, then the EIS has to be a main player in this respect. The fact that we now have disabled athletes understanding what a performance environment really is, and with expectations of others in the programme, and consequentially themselves, about what being World Class really means, is an understated legacy achievement for the EIS. Well done!
(Matt Hammond, Performance Director February 2012) 

Case Studies

Boccia & The English Institute of Sport (EIS)
Performance Lifestyle helping athletes prepare for life after sport through a series of presenting skills workshops... (Download PDF 174KB)