Congratulations to Professor Ben Oakley and Dr Alex Twitchen on their recent publication in the Applied Coaching Research Journal. Their paper focuses on how carefully structured online forms of digital learning can contribute towards sports coaches’ professional development. The publication can be read here.
Congratulations Ben and Alex!
Congratulations to Gavin Williams, who has recently won the British Educational Research Association (BERA) Early Career Researcher Award for his presentation at the recent BERA conference at Northumbria University, Newcastle. The Award is selected by members of the BERA Conference committee and other judges who attend all of the Early Career Researcher sessions at the conference. Gavin’s presentation was based on his recent doctoral work and was titled: Boundedness belonging and becoming: primary school children’s perspectives of education and learning in the South Wales valleys.
In October 2017, Dr Ben Langdown was invited to deliver a 1 day keynote workshop to The Professional Golfers’ Association of The Czech Republic in Prague. Ben shared research around creativity in coaching, movement variability and warm-up protocols for golf. The workshop combined theory and practical elements to support over 40 PGA golf coaches from both The Czech Republic and Slovakia.
2018 has again shaped up to be a year of international 
dissemination for Ben. In July he travelled to The University of The Fraser Valley, based in British Columbia, Canada to share his latest research at The World Scientific Congress of Golf. Ben presented two research projects to the audience of academics and coaches. His first was focussed on the warm-up habits of highly skilled golfers which he has been collaborating with The Professional Golfers’ Association on (abstract available here). Secondly, he presented initial data on the practice and tournament volumes of young golfers to highlight that very little is known about the impact on their performance and longevity in the sport (abstract available here).
October, 2018 saw Ben head off to the sunshine state of Florida to present his research for the fourth time at the World Golf Fitness Summit. This summit is attended by over 600 strength and conditioning coaches and golf coaches from around the globe. You can check out Ben’s presentation slides and summary here and keep an eye out on this site for more updates on publications following these conferences.
Dr Caroline Heaney has recently had two articles published in BASEM Today and Football, Medicine & Performance. These applied articles are dissemination pieces stemming from Caroline’s PhD research into the psychology of sports injury. The articles focus on ‘How can we successfully integrate sport psychology into sport and exercise medicine education?’ and ‘What do sports medicine professionals working in football need to know about sport psychology?‘ respectively.
Congratulations Caroline!
In December 2017, Candice Lingam-Willgoss presented her research on the differences between recreational and elite athletes’ experiences of motherhood at the 2017 BPS – Division of Sport and Exercise Psychology conference in Glasgow. Fast forward 12 months and Candice will be presenting again at this year’s BPS annual conference, this time in Belfast, on her research into elite female athlete career transitions in sport.
Dr Ben Langdown has had a paper accepted for publication in Journal of Sports Sciences (September 2018) investigating the ‘Acute effects of different warm-up protocols on highly skilled golfers’ drive performance‘
He previously presented this work at the World Golf Fitness Summit in 2014 to an international audience of golf fitness professionals, coaches and medical practitioners, and has since used the findings to influence numerous golfers’ warm-up habits.
Congratulations to Ben and the other authors!
We are pleased to share an example of scholarship work that has been taking place over the past 12 month within the Sport and Fitness team:
Congratulations to Jessica Pinchbeck and Dr Caroline Heaney who have published an intervention to improve the quantity and quality of student resubmissions on a level 1 distance learning module:
Pinchbeck, J. & Heaney, C. (2017). Case report: the impact of a resubmission intervention on level 1 distance learning students. Open Learning: The Journal of Open, Distance and e-learning, 32(3) pp. 236–242.
On 3-5 May 2017, Dr Helen Owton was invited to present in a symposium at the Annual British Psychological Society at the Hilton Brighton Metropole, UK. She presented in the symposium “Using film in critical arts-based psychological research” with her paper “The video space in sensitive research: Using arts based methods” drawing from her collection of work on employing creative analytical practices investigating sexual abuse in sport.
Dr Karen Howells presented “Qualitative exploration of Adversarial Growth in Elite Swimmers” at the Division of Sport and Exercise Psychology (DSEP) Conference 2016 in Mecure Cardiff Holland House Hotel and Spa. The Division of Sport & Exercise Psychology (DSEP) promotes the professional interests of sport and exercise psychologists and is part of the British Psychological Society. Karen presented her work as the PhD award winner and received great feedback about her research.
Dr Ben Langdown, Lecturer in Sport and Fitness, attended the World Golf Fitness Summit in New Orleans in October 2016. This is an event which attracts over 600 international coaches, trainers and golf researchers. He presented research from the final experimental chapter of his PhD which assessed the relationship between the overhead squat screening test and movements made in the golf swing. He also suggested how coaches could adapt practice sessions to allow the development of increasingly creative golfers and allow more efficient transfer of strength and conditioning gains into the golf swing.