Q&A Jared Roberts-Smith

Jared Roberts-Smith is the former Head of Performance at Luton Town Football Club, where he played a pivotal role in the club’s rise through the English football leagues into the Premier League. With over fourteen years of experience spanning sports science, performance strategy, nutrition and mindset development, Jared has worked across multiple levels of the English football pyramid as well as internationally. In a recent conversation, he reflected on his holistic approach to athlete performance and the evolving role of movement tracking technology.

You’ve worked across various levels of the English football system. Looking back, what’s stayed consistent in your approach to athlete preparation and what’s evolved the most?

What’s stayed consistent is a player-centered, evidence-based approach to athlete preparation. My focus has always been optimizing the individual to elevate team outcomes. This means creating high-performance environments grounded in current research, targeting elite industry standards, and ensuring effective communication and organization across multidisciplinary teams.

The ultimate goal is enhancing physical status, reducing injury risk and improving player availability. Recovery has always been a key mindset, combining efforts across departments like coaching, medical and analysis to build a platform where players can thrive and improve.

What’s evolved most significantly is the integration and use of technology and data.

When I started about 14 years ago, the tech and insights were limited – early heart rate monitors and GPS systems – but the data was siloed. Now, everything is integrated, from pitch data to gym and wellness data to biomarkers, creating intelligent platforms that sync these streams to optimize workloads and processes efficiently.

You’ve taken a holistic view of performance – blending sports science, nutrition and mindset. Where do you see the most untapped value in that integrated approach, especially when supported by tracking technology?

The untapped value lies in driving precision in player preparation – not just supporting elite performance but maximizing it. When these workflows and disciplines are aligned and technology-enabled, they unlock insights greater than their individual parts.

An integrated approach allows us to see deeper trends and correlations, expanding narratives and honing in on the fine margins of elite performance. Instead of working in silos, blending these aspects helps us optimize the smallest factors that can make a big difference.

What are some of the key pillars of performance that have kept the teams you've worked with competitive, especially during high-stakes stretches?

Player availability and load management are critical, especially during high-stakes stretches like playoffs or relegation battles. There’s a big difference between players being simply available and being both available and competent to perform at required levels.

That balance is an art – pushing too hard can lead to injury, but focusing only on availability may mean not maximizing player potential. Using evidence-based monitoring, proactive recovery strategies and clear return-to-play frameworks helps maintain this balance. Another pillar is elite culture and accountability across both staff and players.

Throughout my career, I’ve worked to establish high-performance environments where expectations are clear, ownership is shared and processes are respected. Educating people within this system supports that culture.

An integrated multidisciplinary team is also essential. Integration isn’t just about data workflows but collaboration across departments, shared values and aligned decision-making to reduce noise and enable fast, effective actions.

Finally, individualization is key within the team context. Tailoring strategies based on profiling data and understanding what motivates each athlete helps get the best out of them while respecting the collective goals.

Movement tracking systems like Sportlight have become part of everyday performance workflows. How can clubs better translate that data into actionable insights across departments?

Tracking systems provide vast data, but the real value is turning that into actionable decisions through a shared performance language and aligned workflows. Raw numbers aren’t enough; data must be contextualized into simple, meaningful insights for key personnel – not just sports science, but coaches and other stakeholders who may not have a deep technical background.

For example, coaches care about positional demands rather than raw physical metrics, so linking data to their perspective helps build narratives they understand. The data needs to fit within a broader performance strategy and not sit in isolation.

Regular cross-department meetings to discuss players and underpin decisions with data ensures alignment. For example, sprint efforts data can inform nutrition strategies to reduce muscle inflammation or medical interventions for soreness, creating actionable plans that integrate across departments.

Not every athlete responds to data in the same way. How have you built trust with players around what tracking can reveal – and helped them use it to their advantage?

Building trust starts with establishing relationships and making data personal and relevant. It’s important for players and coaches to understand that the data empowers them – it’s a tool for the player, not about the player.

Players sometimes fear data might be used to hold them back in selections or contracts, but we emphasize that it supports their goals. Being data-informed rather than data-led is key – we use data to inform decisions, not dictate them. Understanding how each player prefers to receive information – visually, conversationally, in tables or graphs – and linking data to their personal goals helps engagement.

Involving players in the process – for example, tailoring recovery or gym plans based on their load metrics – creates a feedback loop that rationalizes decision-making. Explaining rationale, like why a player might need rest after a high-load game day regardless of how they feel, helps them see the importance of data-informed interventions. Combining player feedback, data and practitioner experience leads to the best decisions.