At the English Institute of Sport (EIS) national conference this week (January 18-19), our team of practitioners and support staff are coming together to reflect, recognise and focus on where their work has and will make a performance impact leading up to the London 2012 Games and beyond.

As the EIS moves into its tenth year, the development of the sport science and medical system, designed to support high performance sport, has been phenomenal in meeting challenges and achieving fantastic results.

Perhaps one of the biggest developments we have experienced over the past ten years is as a result of the growth in high performance sport and the system around it.

The evolution of sports performance programmes has led to athletes, coaches and performance staff having more questions around performance and wanting to measure the impact of training techniques and interventions to keep ahead of the game.

Sport science and medicine has played a key part in answering these performance questions, learning from them and looking not only to what has worked previously but forward to what can work next in sport's fast paced climate of change.

We've learnt such a lot from across the range of sports we work with on a daily basis that we are able to harness the experience gained and continue to apply what we know works well.

But we will also continue to seek further innovations and collaborations which will help to keep sports ahead of their rivals and continue to deliver a performance impact.

The institute structure has helped bridge the gap across areas of expertise, helping to ensure the team behind the team live up to expectations.


High level coaches and athletes are now far more aware of how sport science and medicine can impact upon performance, and expertise within these fields are on the agendas of sports bodies as they plan performance programmes.

But the journey is by no means complete. Now as we face the countdown to the London Games, it's the culmination of understanding from across the sports we work with, and the performance questions our staff continue to ask and answer, which will play an important role in getting the British team in best shape alongside their coaching and support staff.

What's particularly exciting are the discussions about which of the developing pieces of work over the past Olympic and Paralympic cycle will come into fruition for the London Games, and also what the next ones are moving forward to the next key events such as Glasgow 2014, Sochi 2014 and Rio 2016.

Sport never stands still and neither does sport science and medicine and the London 2012 Games will be a landmark of over a decade of developing a vital system of expertise.

Let's hope the next 10 years bring us even further towards understanding more about performance and keeping athletes at the top of their game when it counts.

Nigel Walker is the English Institute of Sport's national director and one of the few people to compete in both the Olympics, as a hurdler, and Five Nations rugby for Wales