A Fresh Start

The new intake of first year HESS students have just completed an exciting and comprehensive induction week where they were subjected to a variety of events designed to ease them into university life here at Solent. Highlights included a Dragons Den event for students studying BSc Fitness & Personal Training, BA Fitness Management & Personal Training and BSc Health, Exercise & Physical Activity, where groups had to come up with a new fitness initiative to pitch to a team of HESS ‘dragons’ as part of National Fitness Day on Friday 28th September. These students were also given a workout in the university’s health and exercise lab where a new Wattbike and Keiser Functional Trainer have been added over the summer.

Students studying BSc Applied Sport Science and BSc Sport Coaching were given careers advice and guidance from a sports recruitment company to motivate and inspire them to take full advantage of the multitude of fantastic employability initiatives included with their degrees. The week culminated with the traditional fitness testing session where the entire new intake had to undertake a variety of tests, all supervised by current second and third year students.

Programme Manager Martin Skivington stated, ‘these events are crucial in welcoming new students to Solent and helping them make the transition to higher education. We provide a mixture of informative, educational and fun sessions to help them settle in and get to know their fellow class mates so that when teaching starts, they already feel like part of the Solent community’.

The HESS teaching team, pictured above at a recent staff development event, welcomed over 120 new students to their courses this year.

Dynamic Training Courses Re-Launched

            

With the new academic year almost upon us here at Southampton Solent University, Senior Lecturer and conditioning expert Marcus Sanger MSc has been working hard over the summer in preparation for the re-launch of the Dynamic Training workshops. Responding to industry demand coupled with customer and student feedback, the Dynamic Dumbbell and Dynamic Swissball Training workshops have both been condensed into half day workshops and are accredited each with 4 REPs CPD points. He has also put together a one day Dynamic Kettlebell Training course accredited with 8 REPs CPD points. Designed for Personal Trainers, Conditioning Coaches and health and fitness enthusiasts, Marcus suggests "customer expectations for proven training methods in the constantly evolving fitness industry mean personal trainers need to be able to provide a scientific rationale for their chosen methods and sessions, and these workshops and course do just that".

For further details please go to www.solent.ac.uk/reps-cpd

Show your support for local Paralympian Aaron at live Channel 4 broadcast

Dr Bruce-Low and Aaron Phipps.

Staff, students, family and friends will get a chance to cheer on Southampton’s Paralympic wheelchair rugby ace, Aaron Phipps, during a live broadcast for Channel 4 at Solent University’s sports science department, on Friday 7 September.
 
A crew from Channel 4 is coming into the University’s Centre for Health, Exercise and Sport Science, where Aaron has trained, as part of a live feature to cheer on the British Paralympic team. The University is hoping to gather a crowd of supporters to come along to the filming to show their support for Aaron. 

Aaron – who started wheelchair racing in 2007 before switching to rugby in 2009 – has represented Great Britain at three major competitions. 

“Wheelchair rugby is fast-paced; it's the only full-contact wheelchair sport,” said Aaron. 

“The Paralympics are the highest level an athlete can compete at and it will be amazing to represent my country. 

“Our coach, Tom O'Connor, has been very inspirational and Solent University’s sports science team, headed by Dr Stewart Bruce-Low has helped me a lot." 

Wheelchair rugby – originally known as murderball because of its aggressive, full-contact nature – is played on an indoor court and involves teams of up 12, with four players per side on court at any one time. 

Since making its Paralympic debut in Sydney in 2000 the game has gone from strength to strength, and tickets for the sport at London 2012 sold out in record time. 

Filming starts at 7.40am with live slots at 8.15am and 8.45am, and supporters are asked to come to the venue at least 15 minutes before filming starts.

Here's your chance to show your support and cheer Aaron on, so please let the Press Office know in advance if you'd like to come along by emailing press.office@solent.ac.uk.  Flags and noise welcome!

Solent Assists Cycling Success

Watch the video below to see how Southampton Solent University's Sport Science Physiology Laboratory was used to support the Open University and the EIS in a feature video on cycling performance. Watch out for cameo performances from our very own laboratory technician Grant Davis and laboratory director and Applied Sport Science Course Leader Dr Stewart Bruce-Low!

English Institute of Sport Physiologist Esme Taylor who works with British Cycling speaks to the Open University as part of a feature looking into the physiology involved in cycling as part of their 'Science Behind the Bike' series.

Diving to Success

Congratulations and good luck to Southampton Diving Academy’s Stacie Powell, Chris Mears and Pete Waterfield. The trio secured their places on the British team for the London Olympic Games which will commence at the end of July. With an excellent performance, Stacie won the National Championships last month and will be competing in the women’s individual platform event. Pete will also compete in the men’s individual platform event as well as the synchronised event with diving partner Tom Daley. Chris is a spring board specialist and will compete in both the individual and synchronised 3m spring board events with his diving partner Nick Robinson-Baker.

Dr David Jessop and Pete Waterfield

Dr David Jessop (pictured above and below with Pete Waterfield) and Emma Patel have been working closely with the athletes over the last year, providing biomechanical feedback and nutritional advice. Both David and Emma have been keen to involve BSc (Hons) Applied Sport Science and BSc (Hons) Sport Coaching students in their work with the divers. This has given them great practice and experience in working with elite athletes whilst also providing the perfect surroundings in which to apply what they’ve learned in class. In March, Pete also came in to the University to give a guest lecture and answer questions on his experiences which have seen him win medals in every major diving competition including world cups and a silver at the Athens Olympics in 2004. 

Dr David Jessop and Pete Waterfield

This week saw the final session working with the athletes before they head off to their training camp ahead of the start of the Games. There has been a fantastic atmosphere during the build-up and we wish them all the best in their events.

Paralympic Insight

Aaron in action versus Australia.

Aaron Phipps from the GB Wheelchair Rugby squad provides an insight into his world in an interview with Huck (surf, skate and snowboarding) magazine as he prepares for September 2012 alongside colleagues and students from the Applied Sport Science course from Southampton Solent University. Follow the link below to read the article in full and find out more! http://www.huckmagazine.com/features/murderball/

HESS Staff Present at European Conferences

With academic teaching finished for the year, HESS staff have been busy presenting at two conferences across Europe. Dr Marie Stopforth, Senior Lecturer in Sport and Exercise Pyschology, was invited to present at the 17^th annual European College of Sports Science congress held at the Oud Sint-Jan congress centre in Bruges from 4-7 July. It covers all disciplines in Sport and Exercise science including psychology, biomechanics, physiology, health and fitness, research methods etc. 

The title of her presentation was 'A Comparison of Different Intervention Methods as Support for Weight Loss and Improved Body Composition', and was based on one of the BSc Fitness & Personal Training students’ undergraduate dissertations (Megan Baker, who graduated in 2011). She found that participants using an online website to support their weight loss were just as successful as those attending weekly face to face sessions. The congress attracts around 2000 participants from around the world and is a great way to share knowledge and network.

 

In slightly less glamorous surroundings, Principal Lecturer Martin Skivington was invited to give a talk at the annual Nuffield Health Physiology Conference in Leeds on Friday 6^th July. His talk was entitled ‘The Future of Personal Training; Evidence-Based or Anecdotally Driven?’ and was delivered to an audience of 120 Nuffield physiologists and physicians. In his talk, Martin presented evidence for the benefit of using a Personal Trainer, along with a vision of what skills a personal trainer might require in the future to provide an optimal service.

Martin comments ‘the best thing about the conference was the fact that 5 Solent health and fitness graduates were present in the audience and working in fantastic roles within Nuffield Health. The worst thing was the weather, as the rain in Yorkshire caused my return flight to be cancelled!’