Category Archives: Research

New Book Chapter

One of the #TeamOUsport lecturers, Dr Jim Lusted, recently contributed a chapter to a book collection titled ‘Community Sport Coaching: Policies and Practice’, edited by Ben Ives, Paul Potrac, Laura Gale and Lee Nelson published by Routledge. His chapter is called ‘Coaching Ethnically Diverse Participants: ‘Race’, Racism and Anti-Racist Practice in Community Sport’.

The chapter explores how issues of ‘race’, ethnicity and racism can influence community sport coaching settings, and proposes some good practice suggestions for coaches working with ethnically diverse participants. It was co-written with Dr Dan Kilvington, an academic researcher with an expertise on racism in sport and Asad Qureshi, a community sports coach with many years’ experience of coaching in ethnically diverse settings. This blend of academic theory and professional practice offers a well-rounded discussion of the key issues that coaches should consider when working with participants from a range of ethnic backgrounds. The chapter proposes the need to develop a form of coaching practice that is explicitly anti-racist in its approach to ensure that all participants are able to feel safe, enjoy and thrive during their sport experiences.

Click on the image to read the abstract:

Jim and his co-authors are currently in discussions with sport organisations to create a range of resources and training to help coaches develop an anti-racist approach to their own coaching practice.

Congratulations to Jim and his co-authors!

Lusted, J., Kilvington, D., & Qureshi, A. (2021). Coaching Ethnically Diverse Participants:‘ Race,’ Racism, and Anti-Racist Practice in Community Sport. In B. Ives et al. (eds) Community Sport Coaching. London: Routledge. Pp. 77-96.

New Publication

Dr Ben Langdown of #TeamOUsport, has recently had another of his PhD chapters accepted as a journal paper. The paper, titled ‘The Influence of an 8-Week Strength and Corrective Exercise Intervention on the Overhead Deep Squat and Golf Swing Kinematics’ has been published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research.

It reports on an intervention study that explored the use of the Overhead Deep Squat (OHS) as a screening tool to predict loss of posture in the golf swing. With much debate in this area, results showed that, while golfers were able to achieve greater depth in the OHS following the intervention, there were no significant changes to posture during the golf swing. This suggests that either there were spurious relationships between the OHS screen and swing positions or that there is an amount of lag time required for the transfer of new ranges of movement/physiological adaptations to the movements used in the golf swing. This may also require extensive coaching or practice to incorporate these adaptations into performance. Ben has previously presented the results at The World Golf Fitness Summit and at various invited keynote presentations / workshops across Europe.

Congratulations to Ben and his co-authors!

Langdown, B.L., Bridge, M.W., Li, F-X. (2022). The Influence of an 8-Week Strength and Corrective Exercise Intervention on the Overhead Deep Squat and Golf Swing Kinematics. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, (online ahead of print). https://doi.org/10.1519/JSC.0000000000004254

Research Conference – Presentation Accepted

On 6th July 2022 AL Sport and Fitness Staff Tutor Jane Dorrian will be delivering an ‘Ignite’ presentation at the Advance HE Teaching and Learning Conference being held at Northumbria University in Newcastle.

Woman Writing on a Notebook Beside Teacup and Tablet Computer · Free Stock Photo (pexels.com)

The focus of the conference is ‘Teaching in the spotlight: Where next for enhancing student success?’ and Jane will be presenting her PRAXIS funded scholarship project titled

‘What is a tutorial? An exploration of ‘learning event literacy’ on student experience’.

The project is looking at issues connected to the fact that all learning events in the School of Education, Childhood, Youth and Sport are currently labelled as tutorials on timetables even though their content, organisation and delivery differ widely. Jane is working with the Student Support Team to look at how students find information about what to expect when they attend a tutorial and she is undertaking analysis of a series of tutorials to identify different characteristics that could be used to distinguish them into different categories such as seminars, workshops or lectures. She is also trialling delivery of a different type of learning event, labelled as an assignment surgery on the timetable, to see how students respond to having an alternative type of session.

More information about the conference is available here: Teaching and Learning Conference 2022: Teaching in the spotlight: Where next for enhancing student success? | Advance HE (advance-he.ac.uk)

Congratulations on the presentation acceptance, Jane!

New Publication

Quest for Freedom!

Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies

Dr Helen Owton has published an article providing an insight into the embodied and sensorial experiences of motorcycling through a series of vignettes. Helen’s research focused on ‘bringing the body back in’ via a phenomenologically inspired approach, exploring how ‘tests of experience’ can cultivate a sensuous self by sharpening awareness of all the senses. Motorcycling requires a sharpening of senses, meticulous preparation, and swift recovery following setbacks. There may be risks attached to pursue ‘tests of experiences’, but new adventures and unique experiences can cultivate joy, fulfilment, enhance confidence and resilience, and provide an opportunity to grow and expand one’s sense of self.

To read the full article, please click here and to read Helen’s OU blog on the ‘Thrill of Motorcycling’. 

Congratulations to Helen!

Research conference presentation

In November 2021, Sport and Fitness AL and Staff Tutor Steph Doehler presented findings from her publication on the media framing of Colin Kaepernick at the European Communication Research and Education Association’s Media, Sport, and Diversity conference. The online event hosted by Aarhus University in Denmark was attended by scholars from across Europe and included several presentations on sports communication and journalism. Steph’s research centred on how the American press responded to Kaepernick’s sustained activism during the 2016 NFL season, and compared this with their response to him in the wake of George Floyd’s murder in 2020.

 

PhD News

Many congratulations to Sport and Fitness Senior Lecturer, Jessica Pinchbeck for recently passing her PhD viva with just minor modifications.

A summary of Jess’s PhD thesis:

“It’s more than just playing a sport”. A socio-cultural analysis of participation in netball across the lifespan.

This thesis followed the journey of a small sample of women from one netball club located in the East of England to provide an insightful analysis into their childhood experiences of sport, exploring the extent to which this may have shaped their adult participation and the complexities of this connection. The study was conducted from an interpretivist perspective and used an ethnographic approach to examine how the women think and act in different situations, and how this develops over time as a result of previous experiences. These women and their experiences are not viewed in isolation but examined and studied in the wider context and alongside relationships in which their sports experiences have been socially constructed. Bourdieu’s (1984) theory of practice examines the extent to which social processes influence the behaviours, tastes, and judgements of individuals. This approach provides a valuable theoretical lens through which to view the sociocultural context of the women’s historical childhood experiences of sports participation alongside their current sports participation.

Findings show support for the formation of a habitus towards sports participation developed throughout childhood which has endured into adulthood. The women’s habitus persists as a significant influence on their lives, demonstrated in the drive and passion to negotiate their netball participation, which can sometimes cause friction and tension in the women’s relationships. Subtle changes are evident in the behaviour and dispositions of the women as they enter different stages of their lives and also as their skill level in the sport increases. Habitus, developed throughout their childhood, influences the women’s tastes and socialises them into ways of behaving, however, their behaviour is also shaped and influenced by social structures. This study provides a unique connection of past and present to contribute to the knowledge and understanding of female sports participation.

Jess has completed her PhD part time alongside her full-time roll with the OU Sport and Fitness team. She was supervised by Dr Sam Murphy, Dr Martin Toms and Dr Alex Twitchen.

Congratulations to Dr Pinchbeck and all her supervisors!

New Honorary Associate

We are delighted to introduce Dr John Bradley as a new Honorary Associate within the Sport and Fitness research group. John’s research and publications will be affiliated to the group and he is already working on collaborative projects with members of the team. Welcome, John!

Professional biography

John is an associate lecturer with the OU, currently working with E236: Applying sport and exercise sciences to coaching, and SK299: Human Biology. He has previously held a number of academic and applied sport science positions including lecturer in Exercise Physiology and Coaching Science at University College Cork in Ireland, and Exercise Physiologist with the Scottish Institute of Sport. John has a PhD in the field of Exercise Physiology from Glasgow University, with a thesis titled: Lactate production and the redox state of muscle.

Research Interests

Part of John’s research looks at factors influencing athlete performance, and then using this to create informed conditioning programmes. He has recently analysed the injury risk factors of athletes participating in swimming and then used this information to develop an informed conditioning programmes based upon these risk factors. He is now looking to continue this research in swimming and extend it to include a range of other sports such as golf and tennis.

Another area of research interest is the role of sport and non-sport extracurricular activities on academic achievement. This can perhaps be partly summarised by the Healthy Mind, Healthy Body concept, but also including non-sport activities as well. This has resulted in the development of a dual step transfer model to explain the enhancement of school academic achievement from participation in a range of extracurricular activities.

Other activities

John volunteers as a coach with a local swimming club and enjoys a range of water sports himself, including swimming, kayaking and canoeing.

Selected Publications

New PhD student

We are excited to introduce Lorna Mackay, one of our new PhD student within the Sport and Fitness research group. Lorna is studying part time with us alongside her personal training. Lorna’s research into the use of percussive therapy to improve perceptions of chronic non-specific musculoskeletal pain in strength and conditioning settings will be supervised by Dr Ben Langdown, Dr Joan Simons and Dr Jitka Vseteckova.  Welcome, Lorna!

Professional biography

Lorna Mackay runs her own business as a personal trainer and Zumba instructor. Her specialist interest lies in the management of chronic pain through the participation in exercise. She is a strong believer in both the physiological and psychological benefits of exercise.

Research interests

Lorna holds a MSc in Sport an Exercise Science; her research considered the effect of Zumba® and ZumbaGold® on non-specific, pre-existing musculoskeletal pain. Lorna’s PhD research is building on her previous work by investigating the effect of integrating percussive therapy into warm ups of strength and conditioning programmes, to improve perceptions of chronic non-specific musculoskeletal pain in knees, lumbar spine and shoulders.

Other activities

When Lorna isn’t in the gym or studying, she is out walking her dog in the local countryside.

New Publication

Dr Nichola Kentzer, along with Associate Lecturer (E235), Jo Horne, recently published an article in the Journal of Physical Activity and Health. The article was a systematic review examining UK based research on informal carers and their physical activity levels. More detail on the review can be found in this OU Sport and Fitness Blog post, written by lead author Jo.

The authors, from The Open University and Anglia Ruskin University, are currently undertaking further reviews examining international literature on the same topic.

Congratulations to Nichola, Joanne and their co-authors!

 

New Publication and Training Model

Dr Nichola Kentzer recently contributed to the 2019 Winter edition of Research Intelligence from the British Educational Research Association (BERA) with an article featuring a model that was developed as part of her PhD research.

 

The mentoring model conceptualised in Nichola’s research has subsequently been used to good effect by supporting the development of the supervisor training resources for the British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences (BASES) new Sport and Exercise Psychology Accreditation Route (SEPAR) launched in January 2020.

The use of Nichola’s mentoring process in the BASES SEPAR supervisor model has been a key part of structuring the supervisor training. Collaborating with training lead Dr Hayley McEwan from the University of West Scotland, Nichola wrote and delivered the second compulsory training module focusing on the use of observation in the supervision process.

 

On the back of this work, the two colleagues have recently published an article in The Sport and Exercise Scientist (Summer 2020), outlining how their approach to supervising BASES SEPAR trainees could be used across the other sport science disciplines.

 

Congratulations to Dr Nichola Kentzer and her collaborators on the success of this high profile project.