The coming week sees the 7th Annual Paralympic World Cup take place in Manchester, UK, where athletes compete on the World’s stage in further preparation for 2012. The event will host over 300 athletes from across the globe and in 2010 saw 14,650 spectators descend upon Manchester. The event hosts several sports including Athletics, Swimming, and notably for Southampton Solent University, Wheelchair Basketball.
James Fisher (Technician Instructor and Associate Lecturer on the Health, Exercise and Sport Science portfolio) has been an Assistant Coach with the Great Britain Women’s Wheelchair Basketball team since their return from Beijing, 2008.
Recently the Women’s team have improved their ranking to 6th in the world but face some tough competition from Germany, Canada, and Japan. James commented "Every UK tournament is a great opportunity to play in front of a home crowd and further prepare for playing in London (2012). The team continues to make excellent progress and we have some rookies playing in the PWC this year to continue trying new things and looking at different combinations. This will be a great tournament; both Germany and Canada (ranked 2nd and 3rd, respectively) will provide the tough challenge needed to continue to improve".
The team have a busy schedule through 2011 including the Under 25 Women's World Championships in Canada (July) and the European Championships in Israel (September) as well as smaller tournaments. Watch this space for progress.
You can follow the Paralympic World Cup on Channel 4! Take a look the the advert below.
April saw the start of the annual 5 day REPs-approved ETM course. 10 students from years 1-3, all studying on various health and fitness related degrees in the Health, Exercise and Sport Science portfolio were about to embark on the most difficult tasks to date in their portfolio. The aerobics class consists of a warm-up, main cardio section (inc. re-warm and pulse lowerer) finishing with matwork MSE (muscular strength endurance - ie press us, core stability etc) and stretch. The students were led through a 'demo' class by the tutor on day 1 and at the end of this class it was obvious from their faces that they were thinking 'how on earth am I going to teach that?' Having seen some of their 'grapevine' moves, I must be honest and say I was slightly concerned for them too! However as the course progressed, their dedication, enthusiasm and commitment stood them in good stead and their confidence, teaching skills improved enormously.
The assessments were completed 4 weeks later to enable them to practice what they had learnt and to polish their performances. The assessment itself consists of a large variety of criteria to ensure the qualification meets with the REPs (Register of Exercise Professionals) requirements. There were some nervous faces that day, but I am pleased to say that all 10 students passed. This will open up new opportunities for the students as the qualification can be built upon with various CPD courses to further their careers.
At the start of this academic year we started a unit called Applied Principles of Performance Analysis. This would allow us to gain an insight into analysing performance across a range of sports. Throughout this process we used a piece of specialist software called SportsCode. This software can be used in conjunction with a wide range of sports to allow the coaches to identify incidents which affect performance in positive and negative ways. Throughout the unit and during taught sessions we were able to work regularly with the software which enabled us to become very familiar with its use and therefore use it in an effective way in relation to pinpointing key incidents within performance.
A screenshot of SportsCode in action.
In November 2010, student internships were offered to three students from Southampton Solent University’s Health, Exercise and Sport Science department with the aim of operating the performance analysis department within AFC Bournemouth. This was initiated under the guidance of Associate Lecturer and AFC Bournemouth coach Louis Langdown. The journey began under Eddie Howe where basic requirements were put in place so that the management team could gather in depth information on match performance. Since Eddie left the club for Burnley in the Championship, former player Lee Bradbury has taken charge and things have changed in relation to our involvement within the team. This involves the importance of the data we provide and also the social aspect with the coaches and playing staff.
The process throughout the day consists of arriving at the football club 2 hours before kick-off so that a suitable area within the gantry can be used to set up the equipment. This involves setting up the tripod and camera as well as preparing a suitable area for the person who has been chosen to code the match. This then allows us time to collect a team sheet from the staff and test out the equipment to see whether everything is working effectively and to the correct standards. Throughout the game we select 3 different roles which involve capturing the game through the video camera, coding the match using SportsCode and noting down the amount of passes that are produced from both teams and relate them to success and unsuccessful patterns.
Once the game has finished and following the coding process we are presented with numerous clips from the game showing key components of the performance. This also enables us to export statistical information to excel so that a statistics sheet can be formulated to produce a quantitative document for the coaching staff and players. Once this is done we make our way down to the changing room where we liaise with the management and players with regards to their performance. This consists of us showing them the key clips of the game which normally consist of the oppositions goals or attempts on goal. We then eat with the staff and players whilst discussing the game before making our way back home.
