Learning Outcomes

Module 1

• Understanding of the scientific method and its application in sports science: This includes the process of forming a hypothesis, conducting experiments, interpreting data, and drawing conclusions. It emphasizes the importance of evidence-based decision making in coaching, training, and other performance-related areas.
• Familiarity with the various disciplines within sports science: This includes anatomy, biomechanics, exercise physiology, bioenergetics, data science, sports technology, sports medicine, sports nutrition, and sports psychology. Each discipline contributes to the overall goal of improving athlete performance, health, and well-being.
• Knowledge of the principles of testing and measurement in sports science: This includes understanding the importance of using reliable and valid measurement techniques and procedures, controlling and standardizing testing conditions, and interpreting data accurately.
• Understanding of the role of sports science in performance improvement: This includes the application of scientific principles to maximize athletic performance, optimize training interventions, and improve athlete health and well-being.
• Ability to apply basic and applied sciences in sports science: This includes the application of physics, chemistry, biology, and other sciences towards the improvement of an athlete's health, well-being, and performance.
  
  

Module 2

• Understanding of the scientific principles of training: This includes the concepts of training stimulus, fatigue, recovery, and adaptations. The module emphasizes the importance of these principles in designing effective training programs and achieving desired performance gains.
• Knowledge of the supercompensation model: This model describes the interrelated process of stimulus, fatigue, recovery, and adaptations, where the trained functions and parameters have a higher performance capacity post-training period than they did prior to the training period.
• Familiarity with the principles of training load: This includes understanding the concepts of internal and external training load, and how to manage them to ensure proper periodization and maximize performance improvements.
• Understanding of the physiological responses to training: This includes the adaptations to aerobic and anaerobic training, and how these adaptations contribute to performance improvement and readiness for sports training.
• Ability to apply recovery strategies: This includes the use of sleep, nutrition, hydration, massage, stretching, ice bath, hot bath, contrast bath, and sauna to enhance and speed up recovery, thereby facilitating performance improvements.
  
  

Module 3

•  Understanding of the importance and methods of testing and monitoring in sports science: This includes the use of both objective and subjective data to assess an athlete's performance state, with a focus on health, wellness, and performance.
• Knowledge of the principles of health and wellness assessment: This includes understanding the various domains of health (physical, mental, and social) and wellness, and how exercise and other factors can influence these domains. It also includes familiarity with various health and wellness measures, such as blood tests, urine tests, blood pressure, anthropometric measures, orthopedic assessment, and psychosocial tests.
• Understanding of the role of sleep in recovery, readiness, health, and wellness: This includes the ability to assess sleep both subjectively and objectively, and understanding the benefits of optimal sleep duration and quality.
• Familiarity with the principles of physical and performance testing: This includes understanding the importance of specificity, validity, reliability, standardization, and familiarization in testing. It also includes knowledge of the various purposes of testing, such as identifying physiological strengths and weaknesses, predicting future performance, evaluating the effectiveness of a training program, tracking performance over time, and assigning and manipulating training loads.
• Ability to apply various testing protocols and methods: This includes understanding the pretest requirements, the testing process, and the post-test considerations. It also includes familiarity with various tests for assessing anthropometrics, body composition, heart rate, blood pressure, muscular strength, endurance, power, speed, aerobic fitness, anaerobic capacity, agility, and flexibility.
  
  

Module 4

• Understanding of monitoring wellness and training load: Learners will gain a comprehensive understanding of how to monitor an athlete's wellness and training load, both subjectively and objectively. They will learn to use tools like the Short Recovery and Stress Scale (SRSS) for subjective measures and resting heart rate and heart rate variability for objective measures. They will also learn to monitor training load data, both internal and external.
• Data management skills: Learners will acquire skills in managing and handling large amounts of data, especially when working with a team or group of athletes. They will learn to transcribe data into effective databases, create normative data sets using descriptive statistics methods, and proceed with comparative analysis to highlight strengths and weaknesses in individual athletes.
•  Application of sports science principles: Learners will understand how to apply the principles of sports science, testing, monitoring, and data handling in real-world scenarios. They will learn how to interpret wellness/readiness data in relation to training load data, and how to make necessary adjustments and effective interventions when necessary to avoid any negative effects.