If you fancy working in the sporting industry there's a university here in the North West which boasts a multi-million pound state-of-the-art sports complex.
The university's health science building has dedicated teaching laboratories where students get to work on ongoing research projects.
Professor James Roberts, lecturer in motor control at Liverpool Hope University, said: “We incorporate any research we’re doing, into our courses and find our students are much more engaged as a result.
“Some universities with expensive laboratories don’t give undergraduates the opportunities to really use them, but we have seminars and tutorials all within a laboratory setting to put our students at the forefront of our research.”
One student project Hope is running this October will use technology that tracks the eye at a very high speed, to show where someone is moving and what they’re looking at in milliseconds.
Professor Roberts said: “What research has shown in a football setting - where there are so many pieces of information to take in on a pitch - is that experts usually have a shorter number of fixations.
“What we’re hoping to find with this type of project is that skilled individuals are better at recalling patterns than less skilled individuals.”
This project will be ongoing for around four months and students starting at Hope in October will be getting involved in it.
Professor Roberts said: “This type of research will be published in a sports psychology journal and contributes to advances in sport. Hopefully it will be used by coaches in the future as a training tool.”
Another project the university is working on uses markers to analyse body movement in great detail, when someone kicks a football or saves a goal.
Professor Roberts said: “The technology can pinpoint the rotation of the hip, or look in detail at the movement of the knees - which could help work out why someone might have a problem in that area.
“We do research like this all the time. Being in a football dominated city, a lot of our students are interested in the sport, so we like to incorporate as much football-related research into our studies as we can.”
Sports courses you can study at Hope
- Sport and Exercise Science BSc (Hons)
- Sport and Physical Education BSc (Hons)
- Sport Psychology BSc (Hons)
- Sport Rehabilitation BSc (Hons)
- Sport Management Postgraduate
- Psychology Postgraduate
To find out more about each course and Hope, visit their website here .
