carnegieXchange: School of Sport

Fuelling Huddersfield Town's 2021/22 season

In his first full season as a Performance Nutritionist at Huddersfield Town, PhD student Ben Samuels has been an important part of the first team backroom staff supporting the Terriers as they finished the season in third and made it to the Championship playoff final.

Image of Ben Samuels

What is your role at Huddersfield Town?

My role as a Performance Nutritionist at Huddersfield Town is in developing and implementing team wide nutrition strategies, and individual player nutrition programmes, to optimise player health, performance, and recovery. This sees us work in combination with the performance staff and chefs at the club to ensure that each eating occasion is mapped to training and match demands.

How did the opportunity to work for the club come about?

I think there are two people who need a lot of credit for the approach at Huddersfield Town. Firstly, Head of Football Operations, Leigh Bromby, has a vision where all players in the first team and academy have access to all sports science disciplines on an individual level. This encompasses nutrition, psychology, strength and conditioning, and physical performance. Secondly, Head of Physical Performance, Paul Bower, nurtures a progressive environment within the first team that enables performance staff in those disciplines to deliver day in day out. 

Those key stakeholders at the football club have formed a relationship with Leeds Beckett through Dr Nessan Costello and Dr Stacey Emmonds, who in partnership have grown the connection between the club and the university. It is from there that the opportunity to undertake an applied PhD at Huddersfield Town came up.

HUDDERSFIELD TOWN'S 2021/22 SEASON

  • Finished the season in third place
  • Beat Luton Town in playoff semi-finals 
  • Managed by former Leeds Utd coach Carlos Corberan

What is your research topic?

My research topic is the energy requirements of senior professional male soccer players during contextual periods. Investigating daily resting, physical activity and total energy expenditure through different phases of the season, or within different player groups, such as starters and non-starters, or in special circumstances, such as injured players. In understanding the energy requirements during those contextual periods, we will be able to further individualise nutrition strategies and support nutrition delivery across the club.

The key aspect of applied research is to live the experiences of an applied practitioner in the field and see first-hand the performance problems that exist. From there, you have the connection with the university to develop research questions and design studies that generate the knowledge to answer the performance problems. This concept aims to deliver transformational improvements, where the research active practitioner exists with the mindset of research to practice and back again.

 

This is your first full season at the club. How have you found it?

It’s been nothing short of amazing to be part of. This year we are at a 49-week season when you consider pre-season and the playoff campaign. Across that, we will have played 46 league matches, three play-off games and five cup fixtures, so well over 50 matches across those 49 weeks. If we add on the considerations of travel and congested fixture periods it has been full-on in that regard, but the group we have here, from the players to the staff, make it a great place to be and a great place to work. The dressing room is a special one to experience, and as hectic as it’s been at times, it’s been a pleasure to be part of it.

Does having extra games in the playoffs change how you work with the players?

It doesn’t necessarily change our approach from a nutrition strategy or delivery perspective. What you find with the playoffs campaign is that you get an extra two-game week, and a one-game week in terms of the semi-finals and then the final. If we consider the performance, recovery and fatigue that has accumulated throughout the season, to add a number of weeks on to that becomes an additional challenge in terms of physical and mental performance. While the nutrition advice and guidance through those weeks wouldn’t be different to an in-season week, when you consider what’s gone before, everything becomes more focused and more dialled in for the playoffs. You’re adding all the extra bits and pieces that you can to get across the line at this stage.

Image of Ben Samules speaking with player on pitch before match

Ben's role sees him work with first team players on an individual basis

It’s been a successful season for Huddersfield Town. What are your thoughts on how things have gone for yourself and the club?

In terms of experience, this season doesn’t change depending on the outcome of the playoffs. There was a lot riding on it for both teams, that’s the nature of playoff football. But nothing changes going into it, it’s a game of football and it’s all about focusing on everything you can control in the lead-up to and during the game. The outcome then takes care of itself; win or lose, it doesn’t change what a fantastic group of players and staff we have, and the season we’ve had. Of course, you want to be on the right side of the result, but either way, it’s been a pleasure this year.

What are your short and long-term plans?

The short-term is very much Huddersfield Town and Leeds Beckett focused, I have a few years left on my PhD programme. Within that, there are going to be more research questions which will hopefully improve what we do here at the club on a day-to-day and individual player basis. My focus is very much on those two things at this stage.

Beyond that, I hope to be able to combine the academic and applied roles in high-performance environments. If we consider the academic side as building knowledge of a topic, then the applied side is how we deliver that to improve performance. Ultimately, those two concepts become big areas that underpin what we do.

 

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