MSc student Erin Liney goes to the Olympics
Published: 20 August 2024
Erin a current MSc (R) Sports Science student, has spent the first part of her post-graduate training working with Team GB Rugby 7s
Erin Liney, a current MSc (R) Sports Science student, has spent the first part of her post-graduate training working with Team GB Rugby 7s (https://gbrugbysevens.com/) male and female squads. Erin provided sports science support for the women while they prepared for and competed in the recent Olympic Games in Paris. Erin has also been providing sports science support for the men and women’s squads during their competitive season in the World Series.
Being embedded with the squads, Erin’s role involved monitoring their training and competition load and intensity using STATSports GPS units (https://statsports.com/) . These units comprise a tri-axial accelerometer, magnetometer, and gyroscope. Metrics derived from these sensors’ output allows Erin to interrogate the relationship between the deceleration load experienced by players and the impact on their performance measures such as power and repeated sprint ability.
Erin joined Team GB 7s support, working under the Head of Athletic Performance James Nolan, after graduating in July 2023 with 1st class BSc (Hons) Physiology & Sports Science. The skills she developed in her undergraduate internship paved the way for her applied MSc (R) with Team GB rugby 7s, supervised by Victoria Penpraze and Prof Niall MacFarlane. Although the elite sport environment proved another step up in challenge; “it is intense and high pressure but so rewarding. As a performance staff member, it drives you want to perform at your best for the success of the squad as a whole.”
Erin hopes her research will help “inform coaches and performance staff of the relationship between training load and performance output and thus be used to design evidence-based training programmes and effective competition preparation”.
Collaborative research partnerships, such as this one, between University of Glasgow’s Sport and Exercise Science group and elite sporting organisations are important for both partners; students develop valuable applied skills in the unique environment of elite sport and host sport organisations get access to talented sports science students who can provide evidence-based insight and positive impact on the athletic performance.
First published: 20 August 2024