The Real Differentiator: What You Do With Your Education
Education on Your CV ≠ Value on the Field.
It’s a common saying in education circles, borrowed from another similar saying by Geroge Bernard Shaw, but it is one that hits harder the longer you spend in high performance sport.
When we’re young, we’ve got the greatest capacity to learn — yet those years are clouded with noise. Social distractions, not yet understanding why the learning matters, and just trying to get through the workload of undergrad or a coursework master’s. We’ve all been there. And let’s be honest: most of us weren’t exactly tuned into everything the way we should have been.
But here’s the thing: once you’re ten or fifteen years into your career, once you’ve done the hours in the trenches and you actually understand the stakes, your education finally has context. That’s when it either becomes a blunt certificate on your CV… or a sharp tool in your kit.
Everyone Has the Paper
I’ve been through a few hiring processes lately — sitting on interview panels, reading 100+ CVs, and even going through the process myself. Here’s the reality: everyone’s got the paper.
Undergrad? Tick.
Master’s in S&C or high performance? Tick. (Almost all coursework, very little research training.)
Some with honours, a growing number with PhDs — especially in the EPL and at the higher end of sport.
On paper, the differences are thin. Which means the real question isn’t what you’ve done — it’s what you can do with it.
“You’re the First Person Who Showed Me How to Use My PhD”
A few months back, I was working with a mid-career practitioner, smart guy, doing a PhD. I presented a methodology to evaluate how strength contributed to performance in a variety of sports. Simple idea:
Define the dependent variable (say, 2km rowing erg time or 100m sprint).
Run analysis to understand the contribution of strength measures (in the presence of sufficient data using machine learning or simpler univariate regressions with R squared and P values for guidance).
Start to see patterns: which lifts, which qualities actually matter to performance.
I showed some code, some outputs, some facetted graphs. He looked at me and said:
“You’re the first person who’s ever actually shown me how to use my PhD at work.”
That floored me. Not because I thought I’d done anything special, but because it revealed the gap. We’ve got smart people, with advanced degrees, who haven’t been shown how to connect what they’ve studied with the actual work of applied sport.
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Around the World, Same Problem
In the last few years with SpeedSig, I’ve done several laps of the globe. NFL, EPL, MLS, college football, AFL, NRL, rugby, Olympic programs. Everywhere I go, I see the very similar things:
Massive data sets collected, but limited time spent in analysis.
Graphics and dashboards without being produced often without any performance context.
Means and standard deviations thrown at coaches as if red and green zones equal decision-making.
That’s not analysis. That’s wallpaper.
Recently I saw a body of work completed by a physio — three years of data on a world-class athlete. Huge effort, but it was unstructured and unanalysed. You could look at the graphs and wonder “why did that change?” but there was no statistical backbone, no causal thinking, no answers. All that work, and the athlete — and staff — got very little out of it. If they did try to take anything it was only by guessing what the graphs meant. As professionals we need to be better.
What Actually Matters
This is where mid-career professionals have an opportunity to sharpen their sword and get in front of those around them. If you’ve been in the game 10+ years, you’ve got enough context to start asking the right question: what actually matters?
It’s not enough to:
Plot numbers side by side.
Rely on the mean as your line in the sand.
Say “above good, below bad.”
That wasn’t good enough twenty years ago. It’s definitely not good enough now.
What matters is pushing your education further than the coursework gave you. That might mean teaching yourself operationally effective stats (there are plenty of places on the internet). It might mean learning how to model athlete development over years to understand long term effectiveness of your program. It might mean learning to connect gym strength data with field performance or understanding how injury alters timelines and how to remodel them.
I’ve done this over the last few months with an athlete aiming for Commonwealth and Olympic Games selection. We had his long-term progression mapped out — strength targets, technical benchmarks, performance goals. Then he suffered a big contact hamstring injury. We didn't need to throw the plan out; we simply reengineered it. Adjusted timelines, adapted progression scales. We knew where he was, where he needed to go, and how to bridge the gap. That’s the difference between just collecting data and using education to problem-solve.
Bring More to the Table
Here’s the blunt truth: if you want to move into high performance management, or you want more responsibility, you’ve got to bring more to the table.
Energy and enthusiasm are great — but if that’s all you’ve got, you’ll be the team jester. The pros who get the jobs, and the promotions, are the ones who can answer the question:
“What do you bring? What specifically can you do that makes us better?”
If all you can point to is a degree on the wall, you’re in trouble. If you can show that you know how to evaluate data critically, model athlete development, or connect cause and effect between training and performance — then you’re valuable.
Final Word
I’m not saying everyone needs to rush out and do a PhD. Far from it. But I am saying: stop buying the book without flipping the page (Matt Corby “Resolution”).
If you’re a mid-career S&C coach, physio, sports scientist, or rehab specialist — it’s time to squeeze your education for all it’s worth. Don’t just collect it. Use it. Push it. Apply it until it bends to your environment.
That’s where you separate yourself. That’s where you stop being “just another CV.”
Reflection for Mid-Career Coaches
Take a look at your own career and ask:
Am I just carrying education on my CV, or am I really using it to solve problems and make my environment better?
The answer to that question might decide the next step in your career.
Everyone’s Got the Degree. Few Know How to Use It. — Jason Weber
