Coach one-pager
Why DNA profile
your athletes?
A coach's guide to the case for genetic profiling. Every question a head coach, S&C lead or director of sport asks before signing off — with straight answers on injury risk, recovery, ROI, legality and privacy.
Once per career
A DNA profile is a permanent dataset — profile once, reference for the athlete's entire career.
60+ markers
Athletic, lifestyle and nutrition genes resolved from a single raw DNA file.
Role-secured
Athletes see only their report; coaches see only their squad.
The case for profiling
The headline questions a head coach or director of sport asks first.
Value
Why should I invest in DNA profiling when I already have GPS, bloods and a wellness app?
Those tools tell you what is happening to the athlete right now — load, fatigue, biomarkers. DNA tells you why each athlete responds differently to the same stimulus, and where their ceiling is. A forward and a back doing identical pre-season volume will not adapt, fatigue or break down at the same rate. Profiling turns one-size-fits-all programming into individualised load, recovery and risk decisions that your existing data cannot reach.
Injury
Can a DNA test actually predict injury?
It cannot predict an injury — no test can. What it does is flag predisposition. Variants like COL5A1 (tendon collagen quality), MMP3 (tissue remodelling rate) and GDF5 (ligament development) mark athletes whose connective tissue recovers slower or tolerates less ballistic load. With that flagged in advance you periodise differently, screen earlier and front-load physio contact. The point is to move the at-risk athlete left of the injury, not to label them as 'broken'.
ROI
How quickly will I see a return on the investment?
The fastest return is injury avoidance. One avoided ACL or hamstring season-ender repays the cost of profiling a full squad many times over. The second return is efficiency: athletes who recover faster on less volume, and those who need more, are identified from day one rather than discovered through a season of under-performance. Profiling is a once-per-career data set, not a recurring monthly cost.
How it changes coaching
The practical, day-to-day questions from S&C and rehab leads.
Application
How does this actually change my training program on a Monday?
It sits alongside your load data as an additional input, not a replacement. ACTN3 and ACE shape the power-to-endurance balance of a session block. IL6 and AMPD1 set who needs longer between high-intensity days. MCT1 and PPARGC1A tell you who clears lactate slowly. The traffic-light report gives the coach a red/amber/green read with a clear action — 'manage', 'monitor' or 'keep going' — so the change shows up as load periodisation, recovery protocols and screening frequency, not as a re-write of your philosophy.
Recovery
We already manage recovery well. What does DNA add?
Recovery is currently managed reactively — you measure soreness or HRV after the session. DNA tells you who will under-recover before the session is written. IL6 and TNF variants mark a slower inflammatory response; COMT and BDNF shape the stress and sleep response. You can pre-load recovery — extra sleep priority, cold-water timing, anti-inflammatory nutrition — for the athletes who need it, rather than treating everyone the same and catching the under-recoverers late.
Nutrition
Is the nutrition side just generic supplement advice?
No. Each nutrition marker is tied to a real genotype the athlete carries. Lactose tolerance, caffeine metabolism (CYP1A2), vitamin D receptor sensitivity (VDR), MTHFR methylation, iron and selenium transport — the report flags who absorbs and who doesn't, so the team nutritionist spends budget where it has an effect rather than on a blanket multivitamin. Every suggestion is flagged for WADA/UKAD batch-tested review.
Risk, ethics & trust
The governance questions from the medical lead and the board.
Legality
Is genetic testing legal and WADA-compliant?
Genetic testing is not on the WADA Prohibited List. What is prohibited is gene doping — modifying DNA for performance — which is entirely different from reading the DNA an athlete was born with. Profiling for training, injury and recovery insights is permitted and is used by professional academies and national teams. The data is used to inform coaching, never to select or deselect athletes on genetic grounds.
Privacy
Who owns the data, and how is it protected?
The athlete and club own their data. The portal is built on row-level security: an athlete sees only their own report, a coach sees only the athletes assigned to them, and an admin manages the squad. Raw DNA files are stored per athlete and access is role-checked on every read. No genetic data is sold, shared with third parties, or used for insurance purposes.
Accuracy
Consumer DNA kits like MyHeritage or 23andMe — is that data accurate enough for elite sport?
The raw SNP calls are highly accurate — the chip reads genotypes with >99% confidence per marker. The limitation is coverage: not every relevant SNP sits on every consumer chip. The parser handles this by using validated proxy SNPs where a marker is absent (for example ACTN3 via rs1671064) and flagging any marker that could not be resolved so the coach knows it is missing rather than guessing. The report shows the raw call next to every verdict so the evidence is transparent.
Philosophy
Doesn't this just give athletes an excuse — 'my genetics made me do it'?
The opposite. Every report opens with the principle that genetics marks predisposition, not destiny. A red flag is not a ceiling; it is a sign that the default approach will under-serve that athlete and a different one is needed. Used well, profiling removes excuses because it explains why a standard program fails a specific athlete and hands the coach the adjustment. The traffic light is a coaching tool, not a label.
The bottom line
Genetic profiling does not replace your sports science team or your load data. It adds the one layer they cannot measure: the athlete's individual ceiling for power, endurance, recovery and tissue tolerance. For the price of profiling a squad once, a coach gains a per-athlete risk and response map that prevents the injuries that derail seasons, focuses nutrition spend where it works, and explains why a standard program fails a specific athlete. Used as a coaching input — not a label — it is the highest-leverage, lowest-cost performance dataset a squad will ever collect.
Genetics influences predisposition, not destiny. This document is a coaching guide and is not medical advice. Profiling informs training, injury and recovery decisions alongside GPS load data, bloods and subjective wellness. Supplement suggestions must be reviewed by a registered nutritionist or team doctor and checked for WADA/UKAD batch-tested status.