BSc (Hons) Sport and Exercise Science

Psychological variables contribute to people's engagement in sport, exercise, and physical activity, their enjoyment in these contexts, and their success in achieving their individual goals by performing these tasks. It is therefore not surprising that sport and exercise psychology (SEP) is an equal partner compared to other disciplines in sport sciences.  

In this module, students learn to identify SEP as a scientific field and familiarize themselves with SEP as a potential future work specialization. Since this is an introductory module, students will learn to understand how sports and exercise experiences can be analysed from a psychological point of view, which important variable clusters are examined in SEP and how these clusters are largely related to one another.  

Two sets of variables that students will study in more detail are motivational and emotional concepts. Both types of concepts are important to understand why, and to what end people practice sport, exercise, and physical activity, and how enjoyable these tasks are for them. 

The Sport and Exercise Science domain is ever-increasing in both popularity and diversity with regards to specialist intervention. Key components in health, wellbeing and performance are now delivered through Strength and Conditioning professionals. Strength and Conditioning specialists require a diverse skill set to deliver practical solutions to help athletes and clients achieve their individual goals. As such not only do Strength and Conditioning coaches need to draw upon the three main pillars of Sport and Exercise Science (i.e. Physiology, Psychology and Biomechanics), but they also need to develop excellent ‘soft-skills’ (e.g. decision making, communication, empathy etc.). The aim of this module is to combine delivery of the fundamental theoretical knowledge with practical delivery experiences so that students can gain an understanding of ‘real-life’ scenarios. There will be strong links across other modules to affirm learning and challenge students to consider the applications of theory to practice. Topics will include the ability to perform basic needs analysis, ensure appropriate health and safety, deliver fundamental exercises (e.g. squat, bench press and deadlift) and consider training programme design, among others. 

All sports science students must possess a thorough understanding of the principles of scientific enquiry. The scientific method and logic, research and analysis techniques, questioning and communication, form the foundation of all science-based disciplines. It is also vitally important that a student identify and acknowledge ethical issues in scientific enquiry. Students must demonstrate an understanding of the value of critical thinking; a thorough comprehension of the scientific method and how it is applied to their disciplines, and potential graduate professions.

Psychological variables contribute to people's engagement in sport, exercise, and physical activity, their enjoyment in these contexts, and their success in achieving their individual goals by performing these tasks. It is therefore not surprising that sport and exercise psychology (SEP) is an equal partner compared to other disciplines in sport sciences. 

In this module, students learn how important aspects that define psychological experiences are related. This will help them better understand concepts related to performance and social behaviour, the impact coach leadership has on athletes, and self-regulation. Students will appreciate that psychological variables interact with one another in a dynamic network that, when combined with other physical and physiological variables, explains athletic experiences and performance.

Strength and Conditioning specialists need to design and implement training programmes for a diverse range of exercise/sport participants. This necessitates that the specialist has an in-depth knowledge of a range of complex training modalities, which can be individually tailored to their clients’ short- and long-term training requirements. This module continues to develop the theoretical cornerstones of Strength and Conditioning (e.g. strength, power, speed, endurance, agility, etc.) and maintain learning through real-world exercise/sporting scenarios. Students will explore further training principles which add more advanced techniques to their foundation knowledge such as Olympic Weightlifting, Inertial (Flywheel) and Velocity Based Training, amongst others. Students will also explore the most modern techniques to assess and monitor internal and external training load in sport participants.  

Graduates of the sports sciences need to understand how research, experimentation and numerical analysis of data drive their professions forward. This module prepares students for further study and employment by providing an understanding of what science is and how it works, and of the importance of inferential statistical analysis of scientific data. It also prepares students for the Dissertation modules in later years of study. This module will develop students’ working knowledge of the principles of scientific research, and in particular, the planning and design of experiments and use of various methodologies. Students will refine skills for literature searching, and the preparation of papers for publication and/or oral presentation to the scientific, sports and general public communities. 

Achieving success in sport requires athletes to be conditioned to cope with the rigours of training and competition. Strength and conditioning specialists need to prepare athletes to compete in peak condition, which is a complex task, and so it is vitally important that they understand relevant physiology to enable effective design and implementation of testing, training and recovery programmes. This module will develop sport and exercise physiology, and strength and conditioning content that we have learned at earlier levels of study. We need to explore why we respond and adapt to training stimuli, at a slightly deeper level including advanced physiology, and importantly learn how to apply that knowledge so we can better support athletes in a variety of sports.  

Therefore, we will need to review how we can test/monitor our athlete/player performance, and when we should test/monitor them. In order to design effective training programmes we must understand the time-course of a number of physiological adaptations, as performance will only improve if the training stimuli is able to produce the adaptations that enable performance to improve. We do this by revisiting the fundamental principles of frequency, intensity, time and type, and ensure they are utilized in a way that evidence tells us should lead to improvement for the specific performance requirements of the athlete’s/player’s sport. And finally, we need to review how we avoid ‘overtraining’ athletes/players, by making sure that training load is managed, and recovery is as well planned for as the exercise training sessions.  

Every athlete is required to excel in an environment that will challenge both their physical and mental resilience. Indeed, an athlete’s psychological state has the potential to help or hinder their final attainment. Mental preparation has many positive implications for sports performance and numerous psychological interventions can be implemented within these environments to create a real and meaningful mental advantage. This module allows students to critically explore the application of these interventions, utilising the most recent theoretical models.

Good nutrition should ensure we consume the best range of foods to aid our health and sport performance. This module will focus on the demands of exercise training and competition, in both general population and elite sport settings. Well-designed nutrition strategies can help individuals achieve their health improvement goals, and aid performance and recovery to support the demands of training and competition for athletes. 

Good nutrition supports physiological adaptations that are induced by well-designed training programmes. Therefore, the physiology of exercise conditioning and nutrition are inseparable, whether that be for general health or sport performance. And good sport performance is impossible without good fundamental health. Poor nutrition will very likely not allow for positive training adaptations to take place. The challenges in implementing an effective nutrition strategy in both general population and elite sport settings are immense, but it is a vitally important aspect of health and performance, so we must ensure we use good evidence-based practice when possible.  

A successful career in the sports sciences requires the individual to demonstrate a range of graduate skills, including the critical application and communication of scientific knowledge, leadership, self awareness, and a commitment to continuing professional development, amongst others. This module is designed to assist you in developing a portfolio of resources in preparation for applying for your first graduate position. You will have opportunities to explore a range of professional issues and be encouraged to reflect on your learning, development, and experiences so far, as well as developing strategies for continually maintaining up to date with current evidence-based practice and self development. The module will introduce you to the principles of coaching and supervising and further explore and contextualise accountability, resilience, leadership, enterprise, entrepreneurship, and innovation in the sports sciences, with input from alumni where possible.