Sascha Hartel & Ludwig Ruf (TSG Hoffenheim): Monitoring Maturation in a Bundesliga Academy

The Athletic Evolution Podcast

​Sascha Hartel is the Head of Performance at TSG Hoffenheim He is responsible for Performance Diagnostics in the Professional Teams, Youth Teams (Male & Female), also Adler Mannheim (Ice-hockey) and Rhein-Neckar-Löwen (Handball). He also leads the team of S&C coaches as well as sharing responsibility for dat strategy and innovation. He is a consultant within the TSG ResearchLab a non-profit-organisation "bringing Science and Research from Sports to Society”.

Ludwig Ruf is a strength and conditioning coach at TSG Hoffenheim academy and research assistant at the TSG ResearchLab. He completed a PhD on monitoring load and fatigue in elite youth soccer at Saarland University, Germany. Prior to this he completed an MSc in Strength and Conditioning at Cardiff Metropolitan University and did an annual internship with Adelaide United, Australia. The main aim of his PhD was to enhance our understanding of applied practice by investigating the usefulness of measurement instruments to assess acute responses to load in elite youth soccer players throughout adolescence. Special consideration is given to growth and biological maturation within the framework of monitoring the youth athlete.

In this podcast the pair discuss:

• What caused Hoffenheim to become interested in monitoring maturation in their players.

• The methods they were previously using.

• How they have integrated the BAUSport device into the organisation.

• The efficacy an influence of the device within Hoffenheim.

• The effect of the new information on decision making processes.

• Future research projects taking place within the club

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You can follow Ludwig’s work via his Instagram page: @rufludwig or via his Researchgate profile here: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ludwig-Ruf

Follow Sascha's work vis his research gate profile here: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sascha-Haertel

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