About – R1 ReadyFirst

Dr. Matt Kritz, PhD, CSCS

Founder and CEO Body pillar – movement & physical readiness

Built integrated performance systems for elite athletes – strength, sports medicine, mental skills, sleep, nutrition, recovery. 25+ years across 30+ sports, with 40+ Olympic and World Championship medal performances. His research on movement competency is the foundation of R1’s Body pillar.

He spent his career developing and implementing the systems that contributed to world-class performance, and realised none of it existed for the 30 million children playing youth sport. R1 is the fix.

The science behind R1

The ideas are decades old. The technology is new.

R1’s readiness framework was built over 25 years with elite athletes – refined across 30+ sports, tested at Olympic and World Championship level, and published in The Art of Ready before R1 existed as a company.

What R1 adds is visibility. The Energy domain detects when demand outpaces capacity before it shows up as injury, burnout, or dropout – without clinical language or placing the burden on the child.

This is a research initiative with intellectual heritage – not a thesis invented to raise capital.

Read more about the science behind R1 →

The Art of Ready

by Dr. Matt Kritz – the science and philosophy of readiness, written before R1 existed.

Available on Amazon →

Brian Alexander, MA, CMPC

Co-Founder Mind pillar – psychological readiness

Former Olympic Team Member (U.S. Water Polo). Certified Mental Performance Consultant. Supported 2024 Olympic bronze medal performance. Brian designed R1’s psychological readiness framework and the challenge/support profiling system that personalizes every coaching prompt.

The mental side of readiness is the one coaches can’t see. That’s why it’s the one that matters most to measure.

Dr. Richard Swinbourne presenting on sport science

Dr. Richard Swinbourne, PhD

Co-Founder Energy pillar – sleep, nutrition & recovery

Sleep scientist and dietitian. 15+ years in elite sport. Former Singapore Sport Institute, currently with the Saudi Arabian Olympic Committee. Richard built R1’s Energy pillar – the sleep, nutrition, and recovery science that determines whether an athlete can sustain their sport.

Recovery isn’t rest. It’s the system that decides whether tomorrow’s training helps or hurts.

Dr. Alexandra Abbott, MD

Founding Advisor · Abbott Sport Performance

Former collegiate athlete. Dual board-certified in pediatrics and sports medicine. Dr. Abbott started as a collegiate athlete studying kinesiology and has dedicated her career in medicine to long-term athlete development.

She has cared for elite athletes across NCAA Division I programs and professional environments, including the Lakers, Dodgers, and the Sparks. Her clinical work focuses on pediatric sports medicine, applying evidence-based systems to athletes at every age and stage.

Her focus for young and developing athletes includes injury prevention, safe load progression, and sustainable development. She advises R1 because the mission matches her own: protecting athlete development early, before damage is done, and treating children as individuals rather than chronological cohorts.

R1’s advisory structure is in its founding stage. As the national study scales, the advisory board will expand to include additional research, medical, and policy voices. Current governance is led by the founding team with advisory input from Dr. Abbott.

Dr. Abbott does not provide clinical care in partnership with R1. Her advisory role is independent of any clinical practice or institutional affiliation.

Research
& Policy

A foundation for youth sport research and policy

The R1 study is designed to produce the first longitudinal readiness dataset at national scale. The intent is for that data to be cited and built upon – supporting future research, informing programme design, and grounding policy decisions that depend on knowing what actually drives dropout. A philanthropic gift to the study is also a contribution to the evidence base every other organisation in the field will need.

Injury
& Return

Injury prevention and a real return to sport

Children who get injured are routinely told to take six months off – and lose their team, their routine, and most of their social world along with the sport. R1 is designed not only to make injury risk visible before it lands, but to support the return to sport when it does. Proper return-to-sport guidance, built into a readiness system, is something the field has been missing.

Aspen

Aspen Institute / Project Play

R1’s study complements the Aspen Institute’s State of Play research – the most cited data source in US youth sport. Project Play maps the system. R1 measures the developmental conditions inside it that no participation report can see.

R1 ReadyFirst is a product of The Ready Collective, Inc., a Delaware for-profit corporation. The company is pre-revenue and led by Dr. Matt Kritz.

R1 is raising philanthropic capital to fund the first national readiness study – 100,000 children, multiple sports, 2 years. Philanthropic gifts are tax-deductible through R1’s fiscal sponsor, Players Philanthropy Fund, a 501(c)(3) public charity. See how your gift works →

The support we reserve for college and pro athletes – youth athletes need it too.

The ideas are decades old. The technology is new.

Led by the people who built the science.

Brian Alexander, MA, CMPC

Dr. Richard Swinbourne, PhD

Research and medical advisory.

Why this study matters beyond R1.

A foundation for youth sport research and policy

Injury prevention and a real return to sport

Aspen Institute / Project Play

The team built the science. The study proves it works.