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A lot of emphasis at a professional football club is on heart rates and GPS systems and
so a lot of preparation will go into the heart rate systems and the GPS. So we'll come in
in the morning and we'll assign these units to players. The GPS systems are quite expensive
so they tend to go to the first team players. Then we'll go out to training and we'll tend
to be with the under-18s, being an assistant to the actual coach and we'll also collect
the data then with a piece of equipment called Activio and that allows us to actually see
live data of their heart rates and gives us an idea of the intensity of the session.
Then it'll come to the afternoon and we’ll actually analyse the data which could be anything
from seeing how many red zone minutes they've got - which is any time they spend above 85%
of their maximum heart rate. TRIMP which stands for Training Impulse, which is a score of
the band of their maximal heart rate, so it actually gives a better indication of how
hard they've been working. The work on a daily basis involves coming
in in the morning and making sure that all of the supplements and the nutritional side
of it is set up to begin the day. In my nutrition module they are talking about different type
of nutrition for different situations, and obviously I can see what football players
need as opposed to a bodybuilder or something like that. There's a lot of nutrition supply
in the cupboards here that we get to see, loads of different types. So you get to actually
see it and see the players using it as opposed to just reading about it. The main benefit
is that you hear about what goes on in the press with regards to the clubs and obviously
the sport science that's available, we get to see it firsthand. What we learn in our
lectures we can actually see it in practice so it gives it more realism.
The advantage of offering internships to Birmingham students is great for us because they've got
a good solid all-round knowledge after their first and second year of studies and then
with that we get a member of staff which is local, able to come in and help us with all
different parts of the role, it's multi-factorial really they might do some logistical things
such as set up and make sure everything runs well, all the way through to analysis and
help us work through the data and do some statistical analysis. So it's us being able
to use their skill set but also for them to be able to develop as practitioners and learn
from us. You're gonna lean forward, knee over toe,
opposite arm’s gonna drive up to that position to hold.. one.. two...
My UG studies were invaluable really because of the knowledge I gained and the good practices
that I went through there so what I hope really is that everything I do here in an applied
environment is underpinned by good solid scientific evidence and knowledge really.
I did an internship at Birmingham Uni which was predominantly lab-based picking up some
of the skill sets that you need when testing athletes and then also did some strength and
condition work with some of the sports team there. After that I saw an internship advertised
at West Brom so I applied for that and was successful and then started as an intern for
about 18 months here. From there I got the full-time academy sport science position and
then from there for the last six months I've graduated up into a first team role here.
Working in this setting and applying your skills, I think it's invaluable because you
are here full time, you're in and around the players, the athletes and other members of
staff. So you're just in a culture where the environment breeds conversation about it and
you can learn from all the experienced practitioners. The quality of students that we received on
the internship from Birmingham has been great. This is our 4th year now of the placement
and every time the students have had a great work ethic, a good sound scientific knowledge
and their application has been very, very good and they've learned as they've progressed
throughout the year. You've seen a definite improvement in this environment from day one
all the way through to the end of the year. If you go to an employer and they have a first
class honours degree - the person you're competing against has a first class honours degree - you
also have a first class honours degree and an internship at a premiership football club,
they know you are going to understand the environment, they know you're going to have
put what you've learnt into practice and I think that'll make you stand out in the future
so it's definitely beneficial to be somewhere likes this.
As soon as I'd seen Mike White [Reader in Exercise Physiology] say, in the lecture,
that an internship is available for West Brom I said to myself "I'm having that". So I emailed
him, I actually had my phone on me in that lecture, and I emailed him whilst he was still
talking about the internship. So I made sure I got in there first!