Inside Sport and Exercise Sciences / Winter 2014

The UK’s European University

INSIDE SPORT & EXERCISE SCIENCES WINTER 2014 NEWSLETTER School of Sport & Exercise Sciences University of Kent, Medway

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INSIDE THIS EDITION Welcome to the Winter 2014 edition of the School of Sport and Exercise Sciences newsletter, designed to provide cutting edge insights into the world of sport and exercise sciences and deliver the latest news from the school.

News School performance and statistics Research Excellence Framework (REF) results Professor Passfield on cycling science Student receives 35,871 votes for BBC Sports Personality of the Year

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Student Life Student and staff quiz night Kent shortlisted for Student Experience award Undergraduate dissertation

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Research Spotlight Can subliminal messaging make you train harder?

Critical speed in a field-based environment Sports science support for GB’s ultramarathon athlete Airway Dysfunction in elite athletes

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Graduate Prospects Lorraine Ereira and Sports Pattern Release

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NEWS School Performance Statistics League Table Performance The University of Kent is ranked within the top 10 of UK universities for Sports Science | 2015 Times/Sunday Times Good University Guide

Student Satisfaction The University of Kent is ranked 1st in London and the South East and 3rd throughout the UK for overall student satisfaction | 2014 National Student Survey Employability The University of Kent are 8th in the UK for Sports Science graduating students’ career prospects | 2014 Guardian University Guide 90-95% of students are employed or doing further study six months after finishing their course | Unistats 2014

Research Excellence Framework (REF) results The Research Excellence Framework (REF) has announced that 50% of research within the School of Sport and Exercise Sciences is ‘World Leading’ or ‘Internationally Excellent’.

The REF is the new system for assessing the quality of research in UK universities.

The exercise is managed by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE). HEFCE use the REF to provide benchmarking information and establish reputational yardsticks in research. In going forward, funding bodies are likely to use the REF results to inform the allocation of their research funding.

The Endurance Exercise Research Group has the objective of advancing knowledge on endurance exercise and performance; including not only exercise tolerance and traditional endurance sports like road cycling, but any kind of performance in which resistance to fatigue. The Sports Therapy & Health Research Group explores the application of sport and exercise sciences to research in sports therapy, health behavior and various patient groups.

SSES research submitted for the REF has directly impacted on the performance of athletes. Our research has made a positive impression on the training and performance of coaches and athletes from British Cycling, GB Boxing, GB Swimming, Professional Football clubs, NHS, English Institute of Sport (EIS) and the Ministry of Defence. We have research projects funded by grants from UEFA, World AntiFounded in 2012, these results in 2014 represent the first REF submission from the Doping Agency and the Ministry of Defence. Our specialist laboratories and University of Kent’s School of Sport and clinics have recently been enhanced by a Exercise Sciences (SSES). SSES, £850,000 investment to further improve the previously the Centre for Sports Studies £11 million project, developing Medway have been found to produce high-quality Park as a regional center of sporting research in two distinct areas: (1) excellence.

Endurance Exercise Research and (2) Sports Therapy & Health Research.

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Message from Head of School Professor Passfield When I was young I wanted to win the Tour de France. It was even the reason I went to university. My plan was to study sports science and apply this knowledge to my own bike training. During my time as a student I came to learn that the simple questions I posed about how to train effectively were not easily answered with sports science. Nonetheless upon graduating I made it to an Olympic training camp, dining at the same table as Sir Steve Redgrave no less. On this camp I can remember how I was impressed by the way the Great Britain cycling team dominated their bike race. But these were only young junior raw talents, yet they were powering away on their bikes in a manner I could not match. Fortunately, I was there as a sports scientist not a rider and I realised that for all my training I had more talent for sports science than cycling.

A quarter of a century later and I am privileged to still study and research the process of training. Today in the School of Sport and Exercise Sciences I am part of its Endurance Research Group, probably the largest group of its kind in the world.

Some of the research that we have performed was unthinkable 25 years ago when I first started out in sports science.

We have made riders contract their leg muscles by directly stimulating their brain.

We did this to show that their brain rather than their legs can limit their performance.

When we were concerned about riders’ legs we have investigated the composition of their muscles directly. In a recent study we managed to persuade 40 participants to let us biopsy a small sample of their muscle for analysis. Our 40 participants were deliberately chosen to be young and old, trained and untrained cyclists.

By comparing results across these groups we found that the trained cyclists had more slow-twitch muscles. But that aging had no effect on this muscle composition. Further, the older cyclists had similar fitness to their

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young but untrained counterparts. Regular cycling had saved our older riders from the effects of more than 35 years of aging.

Bradley Wiggins wants to use the fastest pacing strategy possible in a time-trial.

Should he produce a consistent effort throughout a race, go harder up the hills, and easier down, or vice versa? When Chris Hoy chooses his tactics in a sprint, he needs to decide whether to start his sprint early or late, whether to lead from the front, or to come from behind. Clearly getting Brad and Chris to go through all the different possible permutations before each race might not leave them in the best shape to compete afterwards. Our Endurance Research Group has developed an alternative method, which is to use a mathematical model instead.

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Now with the press of a button we can run any number of different computer simulations, changing riders, courses and tactics in order to determine the best options for Britain’s top cyclists to compete successfully.

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However, for the first time in my career, through the work of the Endurance Research Group I can see how cycling science might lead us in the right direction.

Earlier this year the Tour de France held its Student receives 35,871 votes for Grand Depart in Leeds Yorkshire. As BBC Sports Personality of the cycling is such a significant aspect of our Year research, staff and students of the School of Sport and Exercise Sciences were keen to celebrate the occasion. We organised a Charlotte Evans MBE, a third year BA Sport & Exercise Management student, World Congress of Cycling Science in Leeds to coincide with the start of the Tour. was shortlisted for the 2014 BBC Sports Personality of the Year.

The conference provided a chance for our Endurance Research Group to showcase Charlotte is a guide for Paralympic skier Kelly Gallagher, with whom she was jointly the best of its cycling related research. It also brought together cycling experts from nominated. Together they won Great around the world. We were privileged that Britain’s first ever Paralympic gold medal at the winter games in Sochi in 2014. many of the world's leading sports scientists, cycling coaches and medical They were shortlisted for the coveted award practitioners gathered in Leeds for our conference on the science behind cycling alongside some of the world’s most wellperformance. The event was endorsed by known sports personalities, including 2014’s international cycling’s governing body the winner and newly crowned Formula One World Champion Lewis Hamilton, golfer Rory UCI, and many of the Tour’s ProTeams McIlory, footballer Gareth Bale and fellow such as Team Sky, Garmin-Sharp, Medway athlete and skeleton competitor Francais des Jeux, Movistar and Omega Lizzy Yarnold.

Pharma Quickstep were represented.

Speakers at the conference included the Charlotte and Kelly received 35,871 votes Tour de France rider Nicholas Roche, out of a total of 620,932 votes cast during Garmin-Sharp’s Team Director Charlie the live show on Sunday 14 December.

Wegelius (Garmin-Sharp), and former Following the event Charlotte tweeted: “I Italian national champion Marco Pinotti never dreamt I'd get invited 2 #SPOTY2014 (BMC Pro Cycling Team). let alone be nominated for it. What a year, Perhaps the highlight of our time in Leeds the support has been incredible. Thanks EVERYONE” though was that we were also able to promote science and cycling at a local level too. Alongside the conference we ran an event for 150 primary school children, who came and took part in a number of science and cycling themed practical demonstrations and competitions. And the evening after the conference, as the Tour de France riders warmed up, we held an open evening for members of the public to come and learn more too. At these events I had to admit that I still did not have the answers to those simple questions about training that first motivated me to study sports

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STUDENT LIFE Student and staff quiz night

Kent shortlisted for Student Experience award

Quiz master Dr John Dickenson hosted a quiz for over 50 students and staff from the school of Sport and Exercise Sciences.

The University was shortlisted for ‘Most Improved Student Experience’ in the Times Higher Education Awards (THE) 2014, which took place on 27 November.

The quiz was held on Tuesday 2 December in the newly developed Cargo bar and restaurant at Liberty Quays. The evening was a great success thanks to John, Micheala Fullman (Student Support Assistant) and the student course representatives. As a result the school are interested in running similar events in the future and would like to thank all students and staff that attended.

For this particular THE Awards category, student market research specialists Youthsight asked 20,000 students across the UK to rate the academic reputation, teaching, social life and facilities of their institutions.

Student course representatives are also in the process of forming a society for all SSES students. The new student society aims to run similar events in the future.

This latest endorsement of the University by its students is a further reflection of Kent’s long-standing reputation for ongoing investment in these areas.

The shortlisting followed the most recent National Student Survey (NSS) which revealed that Kent’s students are again amongst the UK’s most satisfied with their academic experience.

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Undergraduate dissertation focus

was also observed that muscle oxygen consumption increased throughout the exercise.

Current MSc Sports Science for Optimal Performance student Ciaran O’grady shares his experience of the undergraduate dissertation.

The data from this study suggest that reductions in the way the muscles can use oxygen can contribute to the decrease in exercise efficiency observed during endurance exercise. This research has provided another piece to the puzzle that is endurance physiology and how numerous systems work, and change, in synergy.

For my Undergraduate (BSc) dissertation here at the School of Sport & Exercise Sciences, I completed a research study that investigated one possible reason for the reduction in performance during prolonged cycling. It has been shown previously that during endurance cycling there is a decrease in how efficiently the body utilizes the oxygen available to it, but it is not fully understood what causes this decrease to occur. Cycling efficiency is a measure of the power output to power input and is a key determinant of cycling performance. My research study was designed to assess whether the decline cycling efficiency can be explained by changes in how well the working muscles utilize oxygen to produce the same power output in athletes during a bout of prolonged endurance exercise.

In order to do this, it was necessary to assess how quickly the muscle was using the oxygen available to it. A novel method of doing this is by shining near-infrared light through the muscle and seeing how much is absorbed along the way. Blood with oxygen attached to it has a differing infrared absorbency to blood without oxygen, and this can be used to calculate the proportion of blood within the muscle that is oxygenated and deoxygenated. By preventing supply of fresh blood to the muscle using an expanding cuff, it is possible to see how quickly the muscle utilizes the finite supply of oxygen left in the muscle; which was proposed to increase in speed over the course of the exercise bout.

We found that the oxygenation of the muscle reduced significantly over a 2-hour bout of prolonged cycling, which was mirrored by reductions in cycling efficiency. It

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My personal experience of conducting this research was extremely rewarding; I gained an insight into the many processes involved in conducting novel scientific research. It was also a great honor to present this r esearch at the 2nd World Congress of Cycling Science, and I would like to thank James Hopker and Benjamin Pageaux for giving me their supervision and assistance during the completion of this research study.

This experience strengthened my decision to continue onto postgraduate study, and I am currently studying for my MSc in Sports Science for Optimal Performance here at the Kent.

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RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT Can subliminal messaging make you train harder?

New research has found that athletes who are exposed to subliminal visual cues during endurance exercise will perform significantly better.

Subliminal visual cues are words, pictures or symbols which are unidentifiable in someone’s conscious.

Conducted by Professor Samuele Marcora in collaboration with colleagues at Bangor University, the research discovered that athletes undergoing endurance exercise who were presented with positive subliminal cues, such as action-related words, including ‘go’ and ‘energy’, or were shown happy faces, were able to exercise significantly longer compared to those who were shown sad faces or inaction words.

For the research, 13 participants rode stationary bikes with screens while split into two groups: one received positive subliminal messages like encouraging words or happy faces, the other had negative messages subconsciously shoved into their brains.

The words and faces appeared on a digital screen – placed in front of the athlete – for less than 0.02 seconds and were masked by other visuals, meaning they were unidentifiable to the participant’s conscious.

This research is the first to demonstrate that subliminal visual cues can directly affect performance during exercise. Additionally, it confirms that the perception of how much effort someone thinks they are using can be altered during exercise. This can then have a knock-on effect on their overall endurance capacity.

Professor Marcora is currently exploring ways in which this research could open up new possibilities for athletes to improve their performance during competitions by using technology, such as ‘smart glasses’, to provide positive subliminal cues.

‘Non-conscious visual cues related to affect and action alter perception of effort and endurance performance’ The group with the positive visuals not only rode for longer, the effort felt easier.

“This research is the first to demonstrate that subliminal visual cues can directly affect performance during exercise. Additionally, it confirms that the perception of how much effort someone thinks they are using can be altered during exercise,” Science Daily reports.

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Critical speed in a field-based environment

Galbraith, A., Hopker, J., Lelliott, S., Diddams, L., & Passfield, L. (2014). A SingleVisit Field Test of Critical Speed. I nternational Journal of Sports Physiology Andy Galbraith, James Hopker and Louis and Performance, 9, 931-935.

Passfield have recently been working on two connected research studies which Galbraith A, Hopker J, Cardinale M, were published in the November issue of Cunniffe B, Passfield L. (2014). A One-Year the International Journal of Sports Study of Endurance Runners: Training, Physiology and Performance.

Laboratory Tests and Field The premise of the first study was to develop a method of assessing an athletes’ critical speed in a field-based environment in a single visit. Critical speed and critical power testing have traditionally been laboratory based measures, often requiring 4-5 repeat visits to the laboratory with at least 24 hours between each visit.

Consequently using the original protocols to regularly monitor athletes was a time consuming process. The team validated the new single-visit field approach against a traditional multi visit laboratory approach and demonstrated the test produced valid and reliable values for critical speed. This now paved the way for a longitudinal study using the single-visit test to regularly monitor athletes during a training year.

In the second study, the team monitored a group of highly trained athletes over the course of a year and assessed changes in their critical speed every 6-weeks using the single-visit field test. They also recorded every training session that each athlete conducted during the year using a GPS watch and subsequently analysed this data (totalling over 5000 training sessions!). They were able to demonstrate that the singlevisit field test was sensitive enough to detect small but significant changes in the athletes critical speed during the course of the year. The team were also able to identify which training variables (such as distance covered and intensity of the training) lead to the greatest changes in critical speed.

If anyone is interested in reading further information about either of these studies the full text of these articles can be accessed through the library on-line journal search:

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Tests. International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance, 9, 1019-1025.

Sports science support for GB’s ultramarathon athlete Last month Andy Galbraith conducted a physiological assessment in the lab for Karen Hathaway. Karen is a ultra endurance athlete who represents Great Britain in the 24-hour race event. A 24-hour run is a form of ultramarathon, in which a competitor runs as far as they can in 24 hours. They are typically held on 1 to 2mile loops or occasionally 400-meter tracks. In previous races Karen has covered in excess of 200km (125 miles) during the 24-hour period. Karen is training to compete in a 24-hour race later this year and came to the lab to have here VO2max, running economy and lactate threshold measured. The aim is that the results and advice from the test will help Karen and her coach structure her training over the coming months in the lead up to this race.

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Airway Dysfunction in elite athletes British Thoracic Society (BTS), British Lung Foundation (BLF) and British Association of Lung Research (BALR) jointly offer awards to help the careers of the most promising early career investigators carrying out original research in respiratory medicine and respiratory science during the past year.

To qualify for consideration applicants must be a UK based clinical or non-clinical researcher, usually under the age of 35 (but not consultant or senior lecturer grade), and the first named author of the abstract being submitted to the Winter Meeting. The committee offer three first prizes of £800 and three prizes of £200 for runners up.

This year, 6 finalists were selected from a total of 201 applicants, from a particularly strong field.

Our abstract entitled ‘Impact of Environmental Differences in the prevalence of airway dysfunction in Elite Athletes: GB Boxing VS GB Swimming’, was accepted as a finalist for the Prize. We were pleased and honored to have been given the opportunity to present our research work during the Early Career Investigator of the Year Prize Symposium on Wednesday 3rd December 2014 in London. At the event Dr Irisz Levai received the "Highly Commended runnerup" award from the British Lung Foundation.

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The study was conducted between July 2013 and March 2014 and took place at the English Institute of Sport, Sheffield (GB Boxing), Loughborough University and University of Bath (GB Swimming). The purpose of our study was to evaluate the airways response to hyperpnoea in elite athletes from GB Boxing and GB Swimming that train in different environmental conditions. Hyperpnoea-Induced Bronchoconstriction (HIB) was evaluated in 39 GB boxers and 33 GB swimmers. First we asked participants to complete a questionnaire that asked whether they experienced any exercise respiratory symptoms (such as coughing, excess mucus production, dyspnoea, chest tightness or wheezing) and had a previous diagnosis of asthma/Exercise-Induced Bronchoconstriction (EIB). The athletes then underwent a full respiratory assessment including the following tests: (FeNO) - to measure the level of Nitric Oxide in the exhaled breath; (Spirometry) - to measure the maximum flow and volume of air that can be inhaled and exhaled from the lungs and an (EVH challenge) - a 6-minute breathing test during which the athlete breathes a cold, dry gas mixture (21% O2, 5% CO2, 74% N2) at very high ventilation rates (~85% of MVV). Airway function following the test was compared against normal resting airway function. This is the first study to specifically screen large cohorts of GB Swimming and GB Boxing athletes using an indirect bronchoprovocation challenge. We found a nine fold greater prevalence of HIB in elite swimmers when compared with boxers.

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GRADUATE PROSPECTS Lorraine Ereira and Sports Pattern Release In the wake of her new book being published in paperback and eBook formats, BSc Sports Therapy graduate Lorraine Ereira has shared her student and graduate experience with us. Here is the Q&A we held with Lorraine: What do you enjoy most about being at the University of Kent?

When I was there the course was still very new and was arranged over different campus locations. However in my last year the new campus was built and the Sports Lab and facilities for the Sports Therapy students were brilliant. I think studying there offers so much now in terms of support and learning.

What did you plan to do after your graduation from the University of Kent?

My plan was always to set up and run a clinic. I have effectively been doing this since graduation.

How do you think your experience at the University of Kent has helped you after graduation?

Having a BSc (Hons) in Sports Therapy has changed the way I work. Prior to doing my degree I was a Sports massage therapist, and although I could treat patients, the knowledge I gained on my course has opened so many new doors for me in terms of what I can offer my patients. In addition it’s given me the confidence to be the best at my job, and continue to grow as a practitioner. I would never have had the confidence to write my book Sport Pattern Release™, without my degree behind me.

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How would you recommend the University of Kent to other students in your home country?

The university of Kent is a friendly approachable place that offers great courses with fantastic amenities. The tutors are of the best standard. If you choose to study here, you will graduate from one of the best Universities in the South of England.

How did you find out further information about the University of Kent?

After my initial search, I contacted the university and spoke to the course leader, who gave me all the information I needed to make my decision.

DO YOU HAVE A STORY? Bradley Cronk Marketing Officer B.Cronk@kent.ac.uk 01634 882999

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