Applied Sport Science students heavily involved in GB Wheelchair Paralympics preparation.

This week students from all 3 years of the BSc (Hons) Applied Sport Science course helped Dr Stewart Bruce-Low undertake a battery of fitness tests to monitor baseline values of the GB Wheelchair Rugby Elite Squad. This meant an early start for all students in order to be at Stoke Mandeville to start setting up the tests at 7.30am. The successful testing day was followed by a high intensity workout for the players led by Dr Bruce-Low ably aided by the students. On the long drive home it was very clear that all students had gained huge amounts from this experience and are already looking forward to the next testing day early in the new year.

2012 Paralympic opportunity for Applied Sport Science student

Phil Zealey (pictured far left), one of our third year Applied Sport Science students is pictured here applying the knowledge learnt on his course to the real world experiences that we expect our students to undertake. 

This was pictured in early October after GB Wheelchair Rugby won the silver medal at the European championships in Switzerland. His role was to act as one of 4 students from Solent on either our BSc Applied Sport Science or BSc Sport Coaching courses who delivered the performance analysis for the squad. This role will take Phil to the Paralympics in London in 2012. Phil has shown extensive dedication in both his studies and his practical work which has afforded him this opportunity. Keep checking the blog for details of Phil's progress as he and squad prepare for 2012! Go GB!

Gold Medal comes back to Southampton Solent University

Following on from the latest blog titled "Wheelchair Basketball at the 7th Annual Paralympic World Cup", James Fisher, Technician Instructor and Associate Lecturer from the Health Exercise and Sport Science Department at Southampton Solent has been away at the Paralympic World Cup (PWC) last week in Manchester. James is an assistant coach to the GB Women’s Wheelchair Basketball Team.

Gold medal Celebrations

The PWC is a major multi-sport Paralympic event where over 300 athletes from all over the world compete. This year Great Britain Women (ranked 6^th) faced Germany (2^nd), Canada (3^rd) and Japan (7^th).  This is a key tournament in their preparation for 2012 and presented some great challenges to overcome some of the best teams in the world.

Their first game was against Canada where they held on to take a close win 47-43. James commented “It was a much needed victory to send a message that we can compete at this level and build confidence for the coming games”.

Next they faced Germany reigning Paralympic and World Silver Medallists. They led through the majority of the game and once again held on to a close win 58-53. Once again GB’s defence proved too much for the usually strong German offence.

Their 3^rd game saw a loss of form and a tough loss to Japan 43-42. After leading throughout the majority of the game a scoring drought towards the end allowed Japan back in to it, and allowed them to steal a victory. However, enough had been done to earn a place in the Gold Medal game the following day.

The final saw Germany face GB, and whilst a loss to this team would have been no great shame with 6 places between them in the rankings, confidence was high having already beaten them earlier in the week. GB took control early on and never looked back; leading by as many as 17 points in the 3^rd quarter and finishing 63-52 for the victory and the Gold Medal.

James commented that "This sends a ripple around the world that GB Women are a strong contender for medals at up coming tournaments. Our youngsters performed excellently and with the Under 25 World Championships in Canada in July 2011 we are setting our sights on another gold medal. We have strong momentum going in to the European Championships in Israel in September 2011 and then of course London 2012. It was a great tournament with a fantastic result. The girls are in excellent condition and their work ethic is fantastic, we have amazing camaraderie; we know we can perform like this and really this victory is no surprise!" You can catch the highlights of the final game here.

Sport Science Support: Guest lecture by Dr Jamie Pringle from the English Institute of Sport.

As part of the guest lecture series Dr Jamie Pringle from the English Institute of Sport come down to visit us today to talk to our third year HESS students studying on the Sport Science Support Unit. Dr Pringle is one of the physiologists responsible for organising and undertaking the support for a selection of the athletes that went to Beijing in 2008 and also athletes who are anticipating to compete at the 2012 Olympic games. Dr Pringle spent time talking about his role and in particular the concept of precision, prioritisation and parallel thinking when dealing with athletes and sport science support. He went on to discuss how the students must build their CV and how this is perceived as the most important factor when working in elite sport (something we stress to our students on a weekly basis and provide opportunities for their CV building which is our unique selling point as a course). Dr Pringle finished his session with a Q&A session with the students offering a variety of questions about the many aspects of his role as well as employment advice.

Preparation for London 2012 continues.

This past weekend saw James Fisher (Associate Lecturer and Technician Instructor at Southampton Solent University), part of the Health, Exercise and Sport Science portfolio travel up to Nottingham for another weekend of coaching with GB Women’s Wheelchair Basketball Team. 

James has been an assistant coach with the squad since early 2009, and helped them to a 3^rd place at the 2009 European Championships as well as a 6^th place at the 2010 World Championships, improving 2 places in their world rankings since the Paralympics in Beijing 2008. 2011 sees the team travel to Canada for the first Women's Under 25 World Championships, and later to Israel for the 2011 European Championships.

 2010 Paralympic World Cup, Manchester, UK.

James commented “This weekend we had 21 athletes, ranging from 15 up to 36 years preparing girls for competition both this year and next. British Wheelchair Basketball is pushing for the highest ranking ever achieved by the women’s team at the Europeans this year in Israel, as well as at London 2012. Of course, we are also very focused on the under-25 World Championships in Canada. Last year 6 of our 12-player squad at the World Championships were under 25, so we have high hopes for that competition”.

The next camp is in April 2011, watch this space for regular updates and tournament results.