Strength and Conditioning - MSc

Profiling clients and analysing their data is a core responsibility of a strength and conditioning coach. It is essential for providing tailored training programmes and monitoring progress. In this module, you will learn how to perform tests for various physical qualities (e.g., strength and power) to benchmark individuals progress and inform training. You will use coaching and feedback techniques to ensure these tests are valid and reliable. Additionally, you will conduct task specific assessments, such as evaluating sprinting for an athlete, or analyse gait for a patient with a non-communicable disease (e.g., stroke). Interpreting the data and using it to inform training will require you to apply your understanding of physiology and biomechanics.

The module will be taught through a mixture of online lectures and in-person practical sessions. Lectures will focus on the theoretical aspects of profiling and the related evidence, while practical sessions will provide hands-on experience in conducting these tests, familiarising you with the equipment and challenges involved.

You will be assessed on your ability to design and justify a battery of tests suitable for a client or athlete, perform the tests, and interpret the data to make informed training recommendations.

This module will provide you with a detailed and well-rounded understanding of key training principles in Strength and Conditioning, as well as the associated acute and chronic physiological responses. You will take a critical view of the training literature and evaluate exercise selection to optimise training responses, challenging conventional training approaches. Throughout the module, emphasis will be placed on understanding the underlying mechanisms of adaptations rather than focusing solely on the outcomes of training. As a result, you’ll be able to apply these training principles to a variety of applications.

The module content will be delivered through weekly online lectures and in-person practical sessions. The lectures will review the theory underpinning training variables associated with key training approaches, which will then be applied during the practical sessions. The practical sessions will provide opportunities for you to develop your coaching ‘toolkit’ and explore how feedback can facilitate the desired acute responses to training and improve exercise technique.

You will be assessed on your ability to design and construct a training session for a specific athlete or client and their goals. You will be required to justify your approach using relevant literature and theory. Additionally, you will be assessed on your ability to deliver the session, ensuring the athlete or client can complete the programme safely and effective, while using coaching tools to provide corrective feedback for exercise technique.

It is essential for strength and conditioning coaches to continually reflect on and update their practice to maintain effectiveness. This can only be achieved by staying informed of the latest research and applying it to your practice. With the accessibility to social media and online databases, keeping up-to date with research has become a simple task. Additionally, a wide range of perspectives and interpretations of studies are available online. As a result, it’s now even more critical for strength and conditioning coaches to be able to assess the quality of research and evaluate how, or if, it can inform their practice. This module is designed to equip you with the tools to critically evaluate research, with a focus on the common pitfalls in strength and conditioning research. You will also develop your own framework for assessing how research findings can inform your practice.

Lectures will introduce the key concepts and research issues to raise awareness of these challenges, while the seminars consist of workshops that provides hands-on experience with identifying such issues and assessing how they impact practice.

You will be assessed through your ability to generate a method to answer a novel research question, informed by a critical appraisal of the literature. Your research project can be based on sport or non-sporting applications, so you can focus on the areas of strength and conditioning that appeal to your own interests. Regardless of your topic, you will need to ensure your research approach has due consideration to the external and ecological validity, with the goal of making a meaningful impact on practice, whether that’s in sport, health, or other fields.

The module will build upon the underpinning content on the Principles of Strength and Conditioning module and explores how these principles are applied to specific contexts, whether that’s in sport or health-based settings. Examples include throwing athletes, combat athletes, injured athletes, patients with non-communicable diseases along with many more. You will examine how the training needs, and the desired adaptations, differ across various athletes differ athletes. A key theme of this module is evaluating how to manage and programme these varying needs alongside the demands of their respective sports. Designing training programmes is a fundamental requirement of a strength and conditioning coach, and this module will challenge you to think innovatively with your design, whilst applying the key principles to optimise training and achieve the desired adaptations.

The lectures will focus on the evidence and theoretical components of programming, periodisation, and unique needs of athletes. Practical sessions will provide ands-on experience with more nuanced training approaches specific to these sports, while seminars will offer opportunities to receive feedback on your programming for different types of athletes.

For your assessment you will be tasked with applying the principles of training and your understanding of adaptation to a specific type of athlete and using this knowledge to construct an effective and adaptable periodised programme.

This module aims to provide you with the knowledge and skills necessary to work across a variety of contexts. Building on the underpinning strength & conditioning concepts established in prior modules, you will develop a critical understanding of the importance of evidence-informed practice for different populations with unique needs and challenges. The topics discussed in this module range from female athletes at various life stages, individuals with religious needs, and training for health as well as those with disease, reflecting the diverse, real-world applications and expanding scope of the strength and conditioning coach. You will gain the skills and confidence to adapt practices and training recommendations for the diverse populations you may encounter in your career.

The module will be delivered through a variety of learning approaches, including online lectures, practical sessions, and seminars. Lectures will cover the core knowledge, which will be applied in practical sessions and seminars in a more interactive environment. Additional resources, such as research papers, podcasts, and webinars will be provided to support your learning beyond the scheduled activities.

For the assessment, you will be tasked with writing an expert statement that critiques typical strength and conditioning practices for a chosen population and proposes innovative solutions for more effective application of strength and conditioning principles for that population.

The module aims to provide you with the skills required to work in a strength and conditioning setting. You will undertake a placement where you will provide strength and conditioning support to an athlete, team, or health/exercise-based client. For example, this may be within the NHS, in elite sport, or improving individuals' health at a recreational club. You will develop a critical understanding of the importance of evidence-based practice, and you will be required to provide a comprehensive evidence base to rationalise the tests and/or interventions you implement in your practice. Additionally, you will develop essential communication skills, reflect on your practice, and evaluate the role of strength and conditioning coaches within multidisciplinary teams.

The primary learning mode for this module will be independent distance learning in an applied environment. To support your learning, lectures, workshops and practical sessions will be delivered at regular intervals throughout the module, and individual tutorials will be available to support your professional practice. In addition, the teaching team will support you throughout the duration of your placement. In the first three weeks of your placement, you will join an MS Teams meeting with your provider and a member of the teaching to further clarify the expectations of the provider and of you, as a student. This is also an opportunity to raise any potential concerns. Where possible, a site visit by a member of the teaching team will take place instead of the video call. Following this, separate video call will take place with you at weeks 6, 12 and, 18 to monitor the progress of your placement and provide opportunities to raise or identify concerns. We do not expect any issues to occur on your placement, but these steps mean any concerns that do arise are swiftly resolved.

This module is designed to integrate all the skills, knowledge, and experiences that you will obtain throughout the course, and attest to whether you are ready to become an applied strength and conditioning professional. The tests and interventions you plan will contribute to your assessment in the form of a portfolio, along with a development plan that evaluates your personal growth through critical reflection.

This module provides you the opportunity to further develop your project proposal from the Interpreting and Applying Research module and demonstrate your competence in the planning, execution, analysis, and evaluation of research. As part of the assessment, you will be expected to clearly articulate the proposed outcomes of your study and how they will directly benefit practitioners in their practice, considering the current body of research. Additionally, you will be required to reflect on the challenges encountered in conducting research and suggest directions for future studies to overcome these challenges and better inform practice.

The module requires 400 hours of study, with a strong emphasis on student’s independent study and professional practice (354 hours). You will have 15 hours throughout the module to collaborate with staff, who will support you in conducting your research. A further 36 hours of structured teaching (i.e. lectures and seminars) will provide materials and activities to support you with the various aspects of the research process, such as research designs, sample size estimates, and ethical considerations. These sessions will also offer opportunities to share ideas and solutions with your peers and experienced lecturers.

A key theme of this module is collaboration. You will work closely with staff and peers to conduct your research project and produce meaningful data. The ability to work effectively as part of a team is critical, as strength and condition coaches often operate within multidisciplinary teams involving various stakeholders.