Sports students conducting research with regional sports teams

Three PhD students working with teams in football, cricket and rugby

PhD students from the聽Faculty of Health, Education and Life Sciences are providing key insight and performing innovative research with three prominent sports teams within the West Midlands.

Innovative research, professional clubs

Daniel Jackson is working with professional football club聽 to ensure their small squad鈥檚 workloads are managed efficiently in order to minimise injuries and achieve the ultimate goal of promotion back to the Football League. Meanwhile, Tom Brown鈥檚 research into the lack of professional cricketers with a South Asian heritage has secured him on-the-ground research with . Finally, Francesco Dimundo is working with an established rugby team聽to assess the pathway and trajectory of their academy players. All three of the researchers are based within the Department of Sport and Exercise.

鈥楢mazing鈥� PhD support

All three students believe the University has provided them with the resources they need to thrive, as well as the guidance of their supervisors. 鈥淲hen you start the PhD process, you鈥檙e not sure of what the journey is going to be like as it鈥檚 not a set structure,鈥� Tom says. 鈥淭o have people supporting you is instrumental. Myself and my supervisors have regular meetings and as a PhD community we all help each other out. I can鈥檛 speak highly enough of them.鈥�

Francesco was enticed by the state-of-the-art facilities. 鈥淭he new Sport and Exercise Department excited me, as it鈥檚 a new group formed by specialists with lots of experience,鈥� he says. 鈥淚 really wanted to be a part of this venture and collaborate as much as possible.鈥�

Collaboration is key

Dr Adam Kelly, Lecturer in Sport and Exercise Science, believes collaborative research projects such as these are key. 鈥淲e want to push a practice-led, knowledge-applied approach where students aren鈥檛 just in classrooms; they鈥檙e actually going out and applying knowledge that they are taught,鈥� he says. 鈥淕enerating a relationship with external clubs and organisations brings a host of benefits. It allows our researchers to gain additional skills, while their research will provide considerable impact to the three clubs and beyond. It鈥檚 important to also share the knowledge through publications and conference proceedings, to support our efforts to be a leading sport and exercise research hub.鈥�

What our partners say...

"We endeavour to be a world leading player pathway, and we anticipate this investigation will support these efforts. Francesco is using a multidimensional approach to study our players, while also complementing our staffing structure from a strength and conditioning perspective.鈥�

Chim Gale, Academy Manager for Rugby team

"We have been working with 探花直播 for 18 months and have set up a testing and educational days for our first team, Under 23 and Under 18 squads, which has been a huge success. This has now been taken to the next level with Dan鈥檚 PhD. His expertise and knowledge will allow injury prevention methods to be implemented across the entire club.鈥�

Adam Crowle, Chief Operating Officer,聽Kidderminster Harriers聽

"We are delighted that the PhD studentship is underway and the progress it has made to date. We thank Tom, as well as the excellent staff at 探花直播, for their hard work and fruitful partnership."

探花直播