Preparation, delivery and recovery

Research

Our research and enterprise projects include:

• Strength and power sport
• Endurance sport
• Team sport
• Talent identification and development
• Facilities, clothing, equipment, and technology
• Extreme environments
• Leadership, coaching, and consulting
• Multidisciplinary performance support teams
• Fatigue and pain
• Sleep.

Real-world impact

Examples of how our work has had an impact include:

• Harnessing the therapeutic potential of environmental extremes – Dr Lee Taylor specialises in environmental extremes (heat, cold and hypoxia), his research focuses on harnessing their therapeutic potential to enhance rehabilitation or preparing elite athletes to compete in them.
• The use of Heat suits to simulate exercise benefits – We are testing a heated suit which replicates some benefits of exercise without the need for physical activity. Just an hour of passive heating encourages the body to produce inflammatory proteins, while blood flow can also be increased, helping to maintain oxygen flow through the body and muscles. Passive heating could also control insulin production and boost the body’s ability to process sugar – reducing the risk of diabetes.
• Faster, healthier, longer – Our biomechanics research – conducted in partnership with the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) – focuses on players’ fast bowling techniques with a view to enhancing individual performance whilst reducing the likelihood of injury.

People

If you would like to collaborate with our researchers, engage in consultancy or discuss potential PhD projects, please contact them using the information on their staff profile.

Staff in this subtheme include:

• Dr Sam Allen – Understanding technique in sporting activities using experimental biomechanics and computer simulation.
• Donald Barron – Performance analysis; talent identification and player recruitment in elite sport; sports analytics; and artificial intelligence and machine learning.
• Dr Laura Barrett – Development of the physical and performance characteristics of youth athletes.
• Dr Stephen Bailey – Influence of exercise and nutritional interventions on exercise performance and cardiometabolic physiology.
• Dr Jamie Barker – Developing effective performance under pressure.
• Dr Richard Blagrove – Strategies to enhance performance and maintain health in endurance athletes.
• Dr Dave Burke – Employing experimental and simulation techniques to explore and understand the biomechanics of sporting techniques, with focus on throwing and hitting.
• Dr Mark Burnley - Kinetics of pulmonary oxygen uptake and the related concepts of exercise intensity domains and the power-duration relationship.
• Dr Tom Clifford – Nutrition for performance and recovery from exercise induced muscle damage.
• Dr Ed Cope – Coaching behaviour, coach learning, and educational learning design.
• Dr Richard Ferguson – Improving human performance and health through exercise training and the use of novel interventions; with a particular interest in skeletal muscle and peripheral vascular adaptations.
• Dr David Fletcher – The psychology of performance excellence in sport, business and other performance domains.
• Professor Jonathan Folland – Physical performance, fitness and training, and especially neuromuscular function (strength and power) and the underlying physiology and biomechanics that explains function.
• Dr Michael Grey – Acquired brain injury and the assessment of sport-related concussion with respect to pitch side assessment, development of better return to play/work protocols, and the assessment of prodromal dementia associated with sport-related neurodegeneration.
• Professor George Havenith – Environmental physiology.
• Dr Liam Heaney – The application of mass spectrometry-based techniques for biomarker measurements in sports performance, nutrition and anti-doping.
• Dr Michael Hiley – Maximising consistency and performance in sporting activities through probabilistic optimisations (computer simulation).
• Dr Robin Jackson – Deception; visual behaviour; anticipation and decision making; choking and thriving under pressure.
• Professor Mark King – Maximising performance and minimising injuries in sport.
• Dr Danny Longman – Using athletes and sport to study human adaptability and evolution.
• Dr Stephen Mears – Optimising fluid and carbohydrate intake for endurance performance.
• Dr Stuart McErlain-Naylor – Quantifying the human body’s response to sporting impacts, via wearable technology and computer simulation, for training and rehabilitation monitoring/prescription.
• Dr Matthew Pain – The biomechanics, motor control and neuromuscular mechanics underpinning performance and injury mechanisms in combat, contact and power-based sports.
• Dr Anthony Papathomas – Exploring experiences of mental illness and poor mental health within elite performance settings.
• Dr Ian Taylor – Motivational processes that optimise health (e.g. adherence to activity or rehabilitation) and performance (e.g. the capacity to endure discomfort).
• Dr Lee Taylor – Optimising elite athlete training, competition and recovery for/from exercise in the heat – including heat acclimation and body cooling interventions.