BSc (Hons) Sport Performance Analysis

“Performance analysis is an objective way of recording performance so that key elements of that performance can be quantified in a valid and consistent manner” (International Society of Performance Analysis in Sport). Performance analysis is used in a variety of ways, in a variety of professional sporting environments. Performance analysis enables athletes, coaches and exercise professionals to objectively appraise performance characteristics and tactics of sporting play/activity. In order to achieve this valuable insight into the effectiveness of sports performance, the professional analyst must possess knowledge of the tactical and technical requirements of that sport, as well as understanding the methods and tools used to record, measure and analyse performance. 

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. 

A successful career in a sport sciences-based discipline requires the individual to demonstrate a range of core competencies, including the application of scientific knowledge and technical skills; an understanding of research; self-evaluation and professional development; communication; problem-solving and impact; management of self, others and practice; an understanding of the delivery environment, and professional relationships and behaviours. Being able to recognise and start to develop their abilities in these core competencies, will allow students to begin their trajectory towards becoming employable graduates.  

Once a student has a comprehensive awareness of the methodological principles of performance analysis, and a sound skillset with computing technologies used to collect, process, analyse and present their work, they then face a critically important set of challenges. Great performance analysis work ensures that every stage of the work is both efficient and effective for the performer, their coach, or a team’s understanding of enhanced performance. This requires the performance analyst to understand the differences between analysis that is performed to provide information for information sake, and analysis that may meaningfully contribute to the performance aims of an athlete or team. This demands that the student develops both a critically analytical mind when deciding on their methods of performance analysis, and a critical awareness of the rules, demands and opportunities of the sport they support. 

A sound understanding of exercise physiology is essential to explain the reasons why exercise may be beneficial for health and sports performance. This module develops the fundamental human and exercise physiology knowledge gained during Level 4. In Sport and Exercise Physiology, content focuses on developments in research-derived evidence, detailing how molecular, cellular, tissue, organ and system levels of human physiology respond and adapt to sport and exercise stimuli. The ability to learn from contemporary research evidence is vitally important to those wanting to further advance specialist knowledge and apply research-informed practice in the field of exercise or sports physiology.  

Biomechanics is the study of movement, which necessitates its practice as an applied science. The aim of this module is to further students’ theoretical knowledge of human motion analysis and apply this in an even more hands-on learning environment. Students will explore the practical aspects of kinetic and kinematic motion analyses, and consider how these techniques are used to define movement analysis in sports and exercise. Students will go on to explore other laboratory research techniques essential to the real-world study of biomechanics. This will also involve introductory considerations of the interaction between the exercise/sports performer, their equipment, and the environment. Students will explore the neural determinants of motor learning, how new movement patterns are developed and performed with greater efficiency to facilitate improved sporting performance. 

The Dissertation will provide an opportunity for individuals to develop an area of scientific interest arising from their sport performance analysis discipline. It will enable students to further develop skills learnt throughout the programme such as enquiry-based learning, problem solving, critical thinking and reflection. Students will engage with the principles of primary research and/or literature review to further their understanding of the evidence base. This module will enable students to utilise intellectual, decision-making, and possibly practical skills in novel situations, and provide a mechanism by which students can demonstrate autonomy and self-direction, whilst undertaking a real problem-solving approach to a research topic. The focus of the Dissertation will be a research-based study, which will either be original research (including data collection and hypothesis testing) or a review of the scientific literature. 

An emerging role of the contemporary performance analyst is the dedicated undertaking of talent identification and recruitment to support coaches and management staff. The principal responsibility of the talent identification and recruitment process is to identify athletes with the potential to develop and excel. In team sports the process of talent identification is complexified due to the numerous different attributes that contribute to the overall measurement of performance, these attributes can be derived from a number of broad categories including physiological, psychological, technical and tactical performance. To inform the talent identification and recruitment process performance analysts need to apply effective data management and analytical skills alongside compiling statistical and visual reports to discover patterns and generate insights. This module is designed to provide students with the knowledge and skills to undertake analysis tasks that can support the talent identification and recruitment process in elite sporting environments. 

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.  

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.