The recovery umbrella in the world of elite sport: Do not forget the coaching and performance staff
Publicated to:Sports (Basel). 9 (12): - 2021-01-01 9(12), DOI: 10.3390/sports9120169
Authors: Calleja-González J; Bird SP; Huyghe T; Jukic I; Cuzzolin F; Cos F; Marqués-Jiménez D; Milanovic L; Sampaio J; López-Laval I; Ostojic SM; Jones MT; Alcaraz PE; Schelling X; Delextrat A; Singh M; Charest J; Freitas TT; Ronda LT; Petway A; Medina D; Tramullas A; Mielgo-Ayuso J; Terrados N; McLellan C
Affiliations
Abstract
In the field of sports science, the recovery umbrella is a trending topic, and even more so in the world of elite sports. This is evidenced by the significant increase in scientific publications during the last 10 years as teams look to find a competitive edge. Recovery is recognized to be an integral component to assist athlete preparation in the restoration of physical and psychological function, and subsequently, performance in elite team sports athletes. However, the importance of recovery in team staff members (sports coaches and performance staff) in elite sports appears to be a forgotten element. Given the unrelenting intense nature of daily tasks and responsibilities of team staff members, the elite sports environment can predispose coaches to increased susceptibility to psycho-socio physiological fatigue burden, and negatively affect health, wellbeing, and performance. Therefore, the aim of this opinion was to (1) develop an educational recovery resource for team staff members, (2) identify organizational task-specific fatigue indicators and barriers to recovery and self-care in team staff members, and (3) present recovery implementation strategies to assist team staff members in meeting their organizational functions. It is essential that we do not forget the coaching and performance staff in the recovery process. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
Keywords
Quality index
Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel
The work has been published in the journal Sports (Basel) due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency Scopus (SJR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2021, it was in position , thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Physical Therapy, Sports Therapy and Rehabilitation.
From a relative perspective, and based on the normalized impact indicator calculated from the Field Citation Ratio (FCR) of the Dimensions source, it yields a value of: 3.34, which indicates that, compared to works in the same discipline and in the same year of publication, it ranks as a work cited above average. (source consulted: Dimensions Jul 2025)
Specifically, and according to different indexing agencies, this work has accumulated citations as of 2025-07-10, the following number of citations:
- Scopus: 6
Impact and social visibility
Leadership analysis of institutional authors
This work has been carried out with international collaboration, specifically with researchers from: Australia; Brazil; Canada; Croatia; Italy; New Zealand; Portugal; Qatar; Serbia; United Kingdom; United States of America.