Jason Avedesian, Ph.D., joined Clemson Athletics in November 2021 as the Director of Sports Science for Olympic Sports. He is a Doctor of Philosophy in Interdisciplinary Health Sciences, Biomechanics (University of Nevada Las Vegas, 2021) with an M.S. in Biomechanics (Ball State University, 2018) and B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and Kinesiology (Michigan State University, 2016).
Within this role, Avedesian oversees all sports science initiatives across Clemson Olympic Sports, including research and design, athlete monitoring, data analytics, and technology implementation. He also oversees the Clemson Olympic sports science internship program, consisting of a semester-long sports science curriculum. Avedesian has worked to bridge across the university to multiple academic departments through guest lectures, technology demonstrations, and open house events.
We spoke to Jason about his role on campus and the importance of olympic sports at Clemson University.
Give us an overview of your background and how it has led you to this point.
As an athlete growing up, I idolized my favorite professional athletes and was amazed by how effortlessly they performed their sport. It led me to curiosities related to the “why” behind human movement and performance. To help answers these questions, I obtained undergraduate degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Kinesiology from Michigan State University, followed by a Master’s in Biomechanics from Ball State University and PhD in Interdisciplinary Health Sciences from University of Nevada, Las Vegas. My primary research to date has focused on sports-related concussion and ACL injury mechanisms and risk mitigation strategies in adolescent and collegiate athletes. While I enjoyed my graduate studies and research, I aspired to be an applied sports scientist within the university setting. I believed my research and scientific skills translated to helping student-athletes improve performance and mitigate injury risk. I was fortunate to be selected as the first Director of Sports Science (Olympic sports) at Clemson University and have served in this role since November 2021.
What are your responsibilities at Clemson?
As the Director of Sports Science for Olympic sports, I oversee our sports science initiatives across our Olympic sports. This includes research and development, data analytics, performance science, and technology implementation. My goal is to provide the best knowledge and data to our various high performance groups (sport coaches, performance coaches, sports medicine, nutrition) to better inform the decision-making process.
Additionally, I oversee the Olympic sports science internship program, consisting of a semester-long sports science curriculum. The sports science internship is composed of Clemson undergraduate and graduate students across various fields of study (engineering, mathematics, data science, physics, and computer science). Students are assigned specific teams each semester, completing various projects that are created by our high-performance groups.
What current projects are you working on?
While there are many projects at various stages of completion, a few of our bigger initiatives are listed below.
1) The sports science and sports medicine teams are working on systematically designing return-to-competition protocols for all major injury types. While each sport presents unique injury risk, we are striving to leverage our technology and data to provide more objective measures of a student-athlete’s progress during injury rehabilitation.
2) As sprinting performance is an important key performance indicator across a variety of our Olympic sports, we develop individualized force-velocity and load-velocity profiles for our athletes to develop specific sprint training programs.
3) Leveraging our database of more than two million NCAA baseball pitches, we are developing predictive models to better understand which pitch characteristics lead to pitcher and hitter success.
Why are these initiatives important at Clemson?
With the increased use of technology and data within collegiate sports, there is a great need for dedicated personnel to leverage these resources for improving student-athlete health, well-being, and performance. Our sports science initiatives help us better understand how a student-athlete is developing during collegiate career, as well as identify any key performance indicators that may require targeted interventions from one or multiple of our high-performance groups. Additionally, these initiatives help us quantify historic performances at the individual and team-level that are useful for determining future indicators of student-athlete and team success relative to the ACC conference and NCAA.
Are there any novel technologies being utilized?
While the technology we utilize is relatively commonplace in professional sports, as well as gaining popularity within the university setting, the novelty is how we integrate our technology across our Olympic sports.
We are fortunate to have an array of technology to quantify various aspects of performance and injury risk. Our team of performance professionals (S&C and sports science) collaborate to interpret the data from this technology to better individualize training and monitor progress. We deem this process our “sports science feedback loop”, consisting of the following components:
1.) Data collection of objective, subjective, and practitioner-informed measures
2.) Data analysis and interpretation to determine normative values, thresholds, trends, and outlier performance
3.) Adjustment of training based upon the presented data relative to the individual athlete, historic information, and time of season
4.) Implement adjustments during training, competition, and recovery
How are you bridging the gap between athletics and academics?
The relationship between athletics and academics is paramount for a successful sports science program at the university level. One of my first priorities at Clemson was developing strong relationships with our academic partners. Meeting various faculty members and visiting facilities on campus gave me greater insight into how sports science could “bridge the gap” between athletics and academics. Of our accomplishments so far, I am most proud of our sports science internship program. Clemson undergraduate and graduate students from various departments gain real world sports science experience working with our technology and teams to help provide support across Olympic sports. Students are responsible for data collection, analysis, and knowledge dissemination. In less than a year since starting the program, Clemson Olympic sports science interns have secured positions within MLB and the NCAA. We hope to continue to build our internship program to provide Clemson students with the best opportunities to develop their sports science skillsets. One of my personal goals is for former Clemson sports science interns to occupy positions within every professional sports league.
How is the Robert H. Brooks Sports Science Institute partnering with you?
The Brooks Institute was instrumental in the creation of my position at Clemson. I am very thankful for the support of the Brooks Institute for allowing me the opportunity to fulfill a dream and provide a service to Clemson athletics and our student-athletes.
What do you see as the future of this athletic-academic partnership?
I see the partnership between the Brooks Institute and Clemson Olympic sports science continuing to grow and provide more opportunities for Clemson students to fulfill dedicated sports science roles within our program. I believe this continued partnership will ultimately allow us to provide the best experience to Clemson student-athletes.
To learn more: visit clemsontigers.com/olympic-sports-strength-conditioning
