Sport & Exercise Science BSc (Hons) (with Foundation Year)

The Foundation Year is a great opportunity if you have the ability and enthusiasm to study for a degree, but do not yet have the qualifications required to enter directly onto our degree programmes. A significant part of the Foundation Year focuses upon core skills such as academic writing at HE level, becoming an independent learner, structuring academic work, critical thinking, time management and note taking.

Successful completion of the Foundation Year will enable you to progress into the first year (Level C) of your chosen honours degree.

Introduction to sports psychology*
You will learn foundational concepts in sports psychology and skill acquisition, such as personality, confidence, motivation, emotion, information processing and motor control

Functional anatomy and kinesiology*
Providing the foundations of understanding human movement by understanding the muscles, bones, origins and insertions that co-ordinate the different types of muscular contraction and movement patterns underpinning sports performance

Exercise physiology
Understanding the foundations of the physiological basis for sport and exercise, with particular reference to the anatomy and physiology of the respiratory, cardiovascular, muscular and metabolic systems. Introduction to the regulation and integration of these physiological systems alongside an overview of neural, digestive and urinary systems. A highly applied section of the degree supported by an intensive programme of laboratory work where you will learn the fundamentals of human exercise testing and physiological evaluation.

Principles of exercise training
An introduction to muscular anatomy and physiology, assessment of muscular function and the adaptations to muscle anatomy and physiology due to the training process

Fundamentals of biomechanics*
Building on fundamental kinesiology you will understand how to quantify human movement via kinematic and kinetic approaches and understand the terms work, power, force, speed, velocity. Learning is supported by laboratory and field work.

Physical activity and health
Physical activity is central to the maintenance of health and the prevention of non-communicable disease. You will consider the “Landmark” studies that for the first time provided evidence for the prevention of disease through physical activity and exercise. You will also examine recommendations for how much physical activity should be undertaken and how this contrasts with typical physical activity undertaken by UK adults and children.  

Study skills & research methods*
A key outcome of undergraduate study is the transferable skills that you acquire, such as those in writing, presenting information, working within teams, interpreting data, data analysis and understanding evidence. Studying these skills directly improves your degree outcome and improves employability prospects. Moreover, in a world with ever more conflicting opinion you will understand what information you can, and cannot, rely upon to be true.

*Single Honours students only

Sport Psychology*
You will study applied aspects of sports psychology such as aggression, attribution and coach-athlete relationships

Physiology of exercise training
With a focus on the physiology of cardiac function and aerobic function, you will understand adaptations to exercise training and the measurement of key parameters such as cardiac output, lactate threshold and maximal oxygen uptake. This forms a basis for understanding functional decline in disease and the basis of training intensity distribution for aerobic performance. Accompanied by a series of laboratory-based workshops where you will make direct measures of cardiac and aerobic function.

Training programme design
Effective training programme design and evaluation is central to maximising the effects of training. You will learn about the fundamental principles of strength, speed and agility training and how to program them within an overall training programme. Lectures are supplemented with practical sessions in the field to understand best practice in the measurement of these parameters.

Sports performance analysis
The analysis of sports performance begins with an evaluation of the demands of the event, a process known as notational analysis. This component of the course will teach you the fundamentals of notational analysis as a basis for further study in the field of sports performance; learning will be integrated with aspects of Training Programme Design in order to develop you as an interdisciplinary practitioner in the field.

Sport Biomechanics*
Through practical sessions in the purpose-built laboratory and a lecture series, you will develop your skills and knowledge in kinematic analysis, with an emphasis on gait analysis and measurement of muscle 

Physical Activity, Health & Health Promotion
Building on your first year of study, you will develop your understanding of the relationship between physical activity and health to examine the effectiveness of different health promotion campaigns to promote physical activity across a range of different communities and environments, such as disability, minority groups and the workplace.

Sports Nutrition*
You will study foundational principles of carbohydrate-loading before and after exercise and the effect on exercise performance. This in addition to learning practical techniques to quantify fat and carbohydrate oxidation during exercise and addressing the controversial topic of fat-adaptation and sports performance.

Environmental Physiology*
Extreme environments have profound effects on human physiology, impacting upon sports performance. You will learn about the acute effects of extreme environments and the adaptive processes that occur during acclimatisation.

Motor Control & Skill Acquisition*
Supported by a series of seminars in the biomechanics laboratory, you will study the interaction of perception, visuomotor control and feedback in producing skilled performance

Study skills & research methods*
In your second year you will start to plan for your final year research project. From developing a research proposal to evaluating your data through statistical analysis you will be supported to produce the best possible dissertation. You will also consider your future career and understand how effective data analysis techniques are essential for the workplace in our field.

*Single Honours students only

Sport Psychology*
Advanced applications of psychological principles, including imagery, motivation, self-talk and mental toughness

Exercise & cardio-metabolic disease*
Examining the physiological mechanisms linking physical inactivity to disease and how these are reversed with exercise training

Sports Nutrition*
You will study the evidence and practical applications underpinning the role of diet and dietary supplementation of carbohydrate and protein to promote sports performance and training adaptation. You will also consider key ergogenic aids and evaluate whether not they can enhance exercise performance.

Biomechanics of Injury*
You will study biological and biomechanical mechanisms of sports injury and principles of injury rehabilitation

Physical Activity, Exercise & Health
With ever increasing rates of non-communicable disease, you will study best practice in prescribing exercise for the promotion of health in a range of different diseased and healthy populations, such as diabetes, osteoporosis, pregnancy and children.

Performance Analysis
Within this component of the course, you will learn about fundamental principles of sports profiling and race analysis and how they can be applied using contemporary technology.

Motor Control & Skill Acquisition
You will learn what it means to be an expert skilled performer and the role of practice, feedback and pressure. Learning will be integrated with aspects of Performance Analysis in order to continue your development as an interdisciplinary practitioner in the field.

Science of Sport Coaching
A scientific view of structuring and programming training, considering issues such as screening, age, sex, recovery, sleep and concurrent training. 

Paediatric Exercise Science
Understanding growth, development, physical literacy, issues of maturation and the physiology of training and overtraining in children and adolescents.

Study choice (normally choice of 2 from 4)*

Applied Sport Biomechanics*
Based predominantly in the human movement laboratory, you will utilise motion capture and force-plate analysis to learn how to produce a 3-D analysis of sports performance and technique analysis.

Applied Sport Psychology*
Examining the latest research in applied sport psychology with an emphasis on the development of psychological interventions to promote sport performance

Measuring cardiovascular function*
With a “hands-on” approach you will examine the physiological principles of techniques to measure cardiovascular function, such as ECG, echocardiography, pulse-wave velocity and the use of ultrasound for monitoring vascular function

Physiology of sports performance*
Focussing predominantly on aerobic performance, you will acquire a critical understanding of lactate threshold and critical power, including their measurement, estimation and role in establishing intensity domains of exercise training.

Research Dissertation*
An independent research project with the purpose of discovering new findings in the field of Sport & Exercise Science. Combined honours students will undertake two smaller research projects, but can opt to complete a full dissertation combining elements of their combined option.

*Single Honours students only