Edinburgh Napier University

  Background: Football is evolving in many ways, including technical and physical demands as well as the scientific research underpinning and providing many recommendations to practitioners on how to optimise performance of players and by default, team performance. Evolution is a natural process and necessary to grow and develop and research into football is no different. Researchers are by nature, curious and inquisitive and trying to push the boundaries of knowledge; however, researchers are also humans and humans are open to making errors. The important point is that researchers learn from both their own and others’ mistakes, evolving, growing and developing in response. By doing so will maximise the impact that research can have on the field. Purpose: With this commentary, I discuss lessons that can be learned from some common mistakes I and others have made in football (and sports) related research and some insights to evolve our profession for the better.