Players' health key for Prof. Bird

New Brisbane Bullets High-Performance Director Stephen Bird immediately wanted to develop the mission and vision for the health and performance of the club's players when he was appointed with the mission to make it a destination franchise.

At the end of the 2024/25 NBL season, a full independent review was undertaken into the injury trouble the Bullets had throughout the campaign and the biggest outcome in that was that there was a need to overhaul, and improve the high performance program.

The key appointment to that was Professor Stephen Bird to oversee the entire program as High-Performance Director bringing with him an enormous amount of both studied and applied experience through a wide variety of world-class sport including in the NBL and basketball in general.

When approached for the position to combine with his work in the School of Health and Medical Sciences at the University of Southern Queensland, what most attracted Bird to the position was the chance to help every Bullets player become the best version of themselves.

"What our vision is for players to walk into the Bullets facility and see the athlete support team and the vision and mission that we have not just for the organisation, but for the high performance unit," Bird said.

"And how that links to assisting the players to present the best version of themselves on and off the court every single day. That's what most attracted me to the role."

When Bird first spoke with Bullets CEO Malcolm Watts about the potential role, what immediately enticed him was the chance that he could impact the performance with a focus on their physical and psychological health and well-being.

It didn’t take Bird long to realise the vision that he has on working with teams or athletes aligned perfectly with what the Bullets were attempting to implement.

"The first part of the role that interested me was coming into an organisation that had a win now, all in philosophy around improving athlete performance services," Bird said.

"They wanted to improve in that area from an athlete heath care perspective which would lead into athlete performance, and then of course athlete long-term development.

"Those three pillars are central to the works I've done previously and having the chat with Mal in particular around what the vision was for a high performance unit, and being impactful in those three areas in particular.

"So that interested me straight away with how we could leverage current performance science, applied research and move this program forward where the high performance unit will be a key part of the Bullets being a destination franchise."

While Bird was excited by the role and the impact he could have overseeing the new high performance team at the Bullets, the focus quickly turned into actually putting things in place and getting to work.

The focus on the health of athletes in all areas quickly became the focus of everything which in turn is what the plan is for that to lead to the performance that Bullets fans see out on the NBL court.

"We had a couple of priority areas that we want to improve on in a phased approach within the organisation which will come to light in the future, but suffice to say there's a reason that our terminology within the club now is athlete health and performance," Bird said.

"The word health where it sits in that is very important to me. There's a lot of work that goes on behind closed doors before the fans see the player on game day which allows them to produce in the moments that matter on court.

"So it's about how we can support them with everything from their own level of health, their psychological and mental well-being, their physical well-being and this holistic approach is geared towards performance optimisation. It's a key area that you will see as an integrated theme in the program for us moving forward."

Above everything else, the most important thing for Bird as he begins the role at the Bullets is creating a relationship with the Bullets players where they have full faith and trust in him that he will help them get the best out of themselves in every way.

"For any person walking into a new role at a new organisation, the critical component there is how quickly can I develop meaningful relationships with the players and with the staff," Bird said.

"For us, that trust performance continuum consistently swings and that's built on how much trust they have in me as a person let alone a practitioner. Trusting me as a person is the most important aspect with the process we're putting in place.

"One of the first areas we unpacked within the high performance team was defining the vision and mission of our unit.

"Then when we established what that was, we needed to define our key values that aligned to the vision and mission of the high performance unit. Then when we did that, it was onto the daily behaviours that we need to exhibit to display those values.

"By having that high level of clarity, everyone knows what the high performance unit will deliver day in and day out so that was the first key part that we had to unpack upon arriving so that first step will go a long way in helping us developing those key relationships with the players, front office and coaching staff."