Where Sports Science Meets Coaching: An Interview with Simon Heidenreich
Questions for Simon Heidenreich
Podcaster, former professional ice hockey player, sports scientist, and strength and conditioning coach.
Intro & About Me
“Who are you, what drives you—and where can people find you?”
I’m Simon Heidenreich, a former professional ice hockey player, sports scientist, and strength and conditioning coach. I currently work for the Blue Devils Weiden and in the youth development program of the German national ice hockey team. I’m also a college lecturer at DHGS and the host of the “Science in Sports” podcast. These days, you’ll most often find me in or around the Hans-Schröpf Arena in Weiden.
What drives me is really the combination of science, theory, and practice. I don’t just want to know what works; I also want to understand why it works—and then translate that knowledge into practice in a way that benefits my athletes and coaches.
The Path to Sports Science
“What initially inspired you to pursue sports science?”
Sports have actually always been a big part of my life. I started playing ice hockey and tennis at a very young age and quickly realized how exciting it is to develop performance and use training in a targeted way.
Alongside my active career, I was already working as a youth coach and strength and conditioning coach in Rosenheim. Why does an athlete get faster? Why does a certain training method work for one player but maybe not for another? And how can training be designed to be as individualized and scientifically grounded as possible?
Questions like these ultimately led me to sports science—and to this day, they guide me in my daily work in Weiden or at the DEB.
Podcast
“Why did you switch to the microphone? What topic was so close to your heart that you had to start your own podcast about it?”
I’d long felt that there’s a wealth of valuable knowledge in sports science, but that it often either remains confined to academic circles or is presented in a very simplified way on social media.
With “Science in Sports,” I wanted to bridge that gap to some extent: to have engaging conversations with people who really know their field and to convey scientific findings in a way that’s relevant and understandable to coaches, athletes, students, and other practitioners. Everyone should be able to learn something from it.
Since May 2024, this has grown into nearly 100 episodes featuring guests from a wide variety of fields and all corners of the world. What I find particularly fascinating is how diverse the perspectives can be—and how much we can learn from one another when science and practice engage in dialogue.
AMS & Tech in Everyday Life
“What role does AMS play in your daily training and coaching practice—where does it create real added value for athletes?”
For me, technology is most valuable when it answers a specific question. I don’t want to simply collect as much data as possible; rather, I want to use data to make better decisions.
Monitoring and management systems can help us view an athlete’s workload and response more objectively and track developments over a longer period of time. This is particularly interesting in team sports because I work with many athletes every day while also having to account for individual differences.
For me, however, the greatest value doesn’t come from the data alone, but from the combination of data, experience, and communication with the athlete. Technology should support the coaching staff—not replace it.
Digital Development & Vision
“Between a Flood of Data and Gut Feelings: How is digitalization changing coaching today, and where—despite all the technology—must we not forget the human element?”
I believe that digitalization is transforming coaching enormously—and that this is fundamentally a great opportunity. Today, we can measure and analyze things that weren’t even possible a few years ago. This gives us additional information and allows us to make decisions that are, in some cases, significantly more objective.
At the same time, there’s a danger that we’ll confuse data with truth. Just because something is measurable doesn’t automatically mean it’s relevant to the training decision at hand!!
Ultimately, we’re training people, not data sets. Personal interaction, the coach’s experience, and—above all—how an athlete actually feels and moves remain crucial.
For me, therefore, the future doesn’t lie in “data over gut feeling,” but in a meaningful combination: scientific evidence, objective data, practical experience, and—most importantly—putting people at the center.
https://open.spotify.com/show/3WN7ZUuVaor4JYRGlarvjN?si=b89fe7cd7d70469f
