New Links with UCLan and Chorley RUFC proves valuable to the club

Christopher Neil Gunn Lecturer in the School of Sport and Wellbeing has recently set up links with Chorley RUFC for UCLan students to complete projects with them.

Chorley RUFC are an ambitious club moving to new facilities in the near future and our students have recently carried out recommendations for the club regarding school links, club strategy and policies and social media opportunities. The club was grateful for their research, input and recommendations from the students.

David Martin a member of the committee who is knowledgeable about business and management aspects and holds a significant role at Specsavers gave feedback to the results and how the club is finding their partnership with the University to be beneficial.

"The results from these recommendations and proposals from the students was extremely insightful and useful. As a result we have shifted our recruitment strategy, implemented a new mission statement, club value proposition and are bringing in a non-executive committee role as "community ambassador". These mission and values will be incorporated into our recruitment marketing. Our eye's have been opened to the opportunity of social media in terms of player recruitment and community engagement and we have appointed a social media manager to oversee all online presence, website management and social content."

"Overall, our collaboration with UCLan has been hugely valuable. The student's project has provided the raw research and data to give us a real insight into the opportunities we can exploit as an organisation. Furthermore, the practical nature of the recommendations enable us to make tangible differences in the way we work and ultimately, will support our future growth and development as a club. It is testament to the student's hard work that their recommendations have not only been taken on board but have also been turned into job appointments and key strategies. We wholeheartedly recommend any amateur sports club to work with UCLan and look forward to our continued relationship to help build our club's future."

A big well done to the student's involved Matt Davies, Catherine Savva, Andy Harrision and Chris Lane who all gained some excellent experience and enjoyed the challenge

Golf Coaching Praxis

UCLan is pleased to announce the launch of its Golf Coaching Praxis Level 1 Certificate in golf performance.  This innovative new course is an international partnership between UCLan’s School of Sport and Well-being, The International Institute for Golf Education (IIGE), BMR Golf Management in the US, and Golf Biodynamics from Australia.  The certificate is delivered by Dr David Grecic, Dr Rob Neal and Mr Brendan Ryan and offers golf coaches of all standards an insight into the world of performance golf and in particular how they can best develop young golfers.  It offers 3 distinct units of study – Supporting Young Golfers, Developing Young Golfers, and Managing Young Golfers – which are broken down into small modules of work which deal with thematic areas eg Technology, Biomechanics, Psychology, Instruction, Communication etc (for more information please see   (http://www.uclan.ac.uk/courses/golf-coaching-praxis-level1.php)

Each module is a bite size chunk of information for practising coaches to assimilate and reflect upon.  The course is entirely on line and provides video lectures, lecture slides and notes, reading materials, web links, discussion forums and associated tasks to complete. Final assessment is via a Capstone assignment which brings together various stands of knowledge which are applied to solve a golf performance problem of the coach’s choice.

Course Leader Dr David Grecic explained, “ we are all very excited about our new course.  We see this Level 1 Certificate will enhance coaches core knowledges and make a real difference to their professional practice.  The subsequent Level 2 and Level 3 Certificates will then build and apply this knowledge and help coaches create their own innovative solutions and coaching interventions to ensure the continued development of young golfers across the globe. If you are an aspiring coach or a coach who would just like to update your current golf performance knowledge then you should definitely look at enrolling on our course”. 

If you would like any more information please contact David Grecic directly on dgrecic1@uclan.ac.uk or go to our website:  http://www.uclan.ac.uk/courses/golf-coaching-praxis-level1.php

Higher Education Fairs 2016

It was a real pleasure to be part of the Higher Education Fairs at both Birmingham Met and Stourbridge College. Many students displayed significant interest in pursuing a career in sport and a degree at UCLan! Andy Sprake had the pleasure of meeting students from a wide variety of educational backgrounds and career aspirations, ranging from teaching physical education and coaching to outdoor leadership and setting up their own business in the sports market. Many of the stands were representing their respective universities as a whole, whereas the UCLan stand was representing the School of Sport and Wellbeing. This intrigued several other members of staff at the event and they were only too happy to welcome us as a division!

Here are some students showing an interest in a career in Sports at Stourbridge College.

Colleagues from within the School also attended the fair at Birmingham Met.

Here we see Andy Sprake with Chris Eastabrook from The Outdoors and Denis Pressler from Sports Management.

The team are always keen to come out to schools individually, attend careers advents or welcome schools to visit the university. If we can be of any help, then please do not hesitate to contact Dean Hardy on DHardy2@uclan.ac.uk or 01772 894428.

Induction Week

The Sports Studies induction week has started with a bang and the students have been fully engaged in a variety of activities. The second day saw students working with the Frontier Education Team at the UCLan Sports Arena saw the new first year students engaging in team-building, 
co-operative learning and problem solving activities, all in an outdoor context. 

This provoked some early, and very encouraging, discussions about learning styles, teamwork, the value of group dynamics and the importance of group cohesion for successful learning. A particularly interesting talking point was sparked by the idea that the quietest learners could in fact have the loudest minds. PE Associate Lecturer Andrew Sprake highlighted his pleasure at the engagement of the students stating “This was a fantastic experience for all and it was pleasing to see the professionalism that these students approach the day’s activities with. This clearly was a very promising start from our newest arrivals at UCLan!”

Dr Adams attends opening of major gaming exhibition

Dr Iain Adams attended the opening of the National Football Museum's latest exhibition – Pitch to Pixel: The World of Football Gaming.

The exhibition is sponsored by EA Sports who publish the hugely successful FIFA 16 game series, and Sports Interactive, creators of Football Manager – the world's most popular management game.

Pitch to Pixel features lots of interactive opportunities and insights into how games have evolved and are created.

Dr Adams is pictured talking to Kevin Moore, the museum director, and Miles Jacobson the studio director of Football Manager.

For more information about the exhibition please click here.

UCLan Sports Studies update

New Associate Lecturer Andrew Sprake (left) is set for a busy few months after taking over management of the UCLanSport Floodlit Cup.

Division Leader Nick Passenger has handed over the running of this year's competition to Andrew, which helps forge links with schools and provides volunteering opportunities to students across a variety of sports programmes.

Preston Grasshoppers have hosted four games so far, with Birkdale High School, St Ambrose, ArnoldKEQMS and Stockport Grammar School all progressing to the quarter-final stage.

The PGDE deadline is fast approaching and it's always nice to receive feedback from our Alumni about their development. Ben McGarry and Matthew Dixon are undertaking their PGDE's at Loughborough University and are doing well in their two initial placements at Ivanhoe College and Trent College (Independent School) respectively.

We also have two graduates on the School Direct scheme, with Megan Greaves excelling at Millfield School near Blackpool and Jonathan Barber progressing well at Lakes College in Cumbria.

Away from teaching, Tom Downward has started his internship at the Isle of Man National Sports Centre, while Jessica Horne has confirmed she's off to Dubai to work for Ethiad Airways.

Football experts remain in big demand

Researchers from our International Football Institute (IFI) have been busy over the past few weeks, working on a variety of high-profile projects.

Dr Iain Adams' studies into football during World War One resulted in him being invited to deliver a public lecture at the National Archives in Surrey. The presentation, entitled 'Over the Top - A foul, a blurry foul: the first football charge of The Great War' will be released via podcast in the coming weeks.

Professor John Hughson has been one of the editors of a new book entitled 'New Directions in Sport History'. Co-edited by Duncan Stone and Rob Ellis from the University of Huddersfield, the book contains chapters by Professor Hughson and Dr Adams.

PhD student Graham Deakin recently presented a very well-received paper - 'Up Close & Personal: The Changing Media Image of the 1960's Football Hero' - at the British Society of Sports History's annual conference at Swansea University.

To find out more about IFI please click here.