GLOBAL RESEARCH PARTNER

 

AUT – AUCKLAND UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY, AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND

https://sprinz.aut.ac.nz/

The Sports Performance Research Institute New Zealand (SPRINZ) is New Zealand’s number one rated sports research institute with a growing global reputation. SPRINZ is a group of dynamic and innovative researchers producing applied research in improving human health, sports performance and long-term athletic development. Each research group collectively contributes to the ever-expanding research, education and industry engagement offering a collaborative approach to improved performance for the sport and recreation sector.

Introduction /Background

Provides a brief description of any background knowledge that may be relevant to the research study. This could include previous literature and findings, as well as the authors’ hypotheses. And provides a brief description of the methods that were used in the research. This may include how the research was conducted, what occurred during data collection, what technologies and analyses were used, and any other pertinent information in regards to the actual data collection and analysis process.

Key Findings

Provides the key findings of the research. These key findings are non-biased, with objective results only.

Practical Applications

Provides practical applications; how coaches and athletes may use this research in their own practice. These practical applications are based on the objective key findings, as well as both the researchers’ subjective knowledge. Coaches, athletes, and the like are encouraged to read the full research publication and draw their own conclusions.

Research Source

All research articles in the RESEARCH section are conducted, created, written and published by the research team from AUT Sports Performance Research Institute in New Zealand.

Visit https://www.aut.ac.nz/ to know more about AUT’s work and facilities.

AUT-SPRINZ RESEARCH TEAM

Dr John Cronin

Dr. John Cronin is recognized internationally as one of the world’s leading sports scientists. He is a Professor of Strength and Conditioning at Auckland University of Technology’s Sports Performance Research Institute New Zealand. John’s personal research interests are in human movement research particularly around the strengthening of muscle, these themes spanning developmental to high performance sport.  Of particular interest is the applications of wearable resistance to sporting performance and injury prevention and aligned to this research focus is his role as Head of Research for Lila Movement Technology, Malaysia.  As our Head of Research, Dr. Cronin oversees all EXOGEN® wearable resistance research globally.

John currently supervises 15 PhD and 7 Masters students. John has published over 330 peer-reviewed papers, supervised 20 PHD and 30 Masters (students to completion. According to ResearchGate (RG) he has a research profile score of 45.2, which is higher than 97.5% of the 15 million members. John’s h-index is 65 (Google Scholar – GS), i10-index 210 (GS), had over 366,500 reads (~2400 per week – RG), and over 15,100 citations (GS).

Dr Aaron Uthoff

Dr. Aaron Uthoff (https://www.aut.ac.nz/profiles/aaron-uthoff) is a Research Fellow at the Sports Research Institute of New Zealand and Auckland University of Technology where he lectures on principles and applications of strength and conditioning. He is also a strength and conditioning consultant who specializes in training sprint athletes. Aaron has an MSc(d) in Performance Psychology from the University of Edinburgh, a PhD in Sport and Exercise Science from Auckland University of Technology and is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist through the NSCA. His applied interests include the practical application of biomechanics and strength and conditioning research on youth athlete development, speed, strength and agility. His research focuses on the novel, yet emerging areas of backward running and wearable resistance. The primary goal of his research is to help coaches by bridging the gap between literature and practice.

Shelley Diewald

Shelley Diewald, ( https://www.aut.ac.nz/shelley-diewald ) is a Sports Technology Research Officer at Auckland University of Technology Sports Research Institute of New Zealand (SPRINZ), as well Research Marketing Lead for Lila. Shelley began her career with years of engineering industry experience. Previously, she held the role of aerospace systems engineer in Florida, USA, working on a multitude of different commercial jet and rocket engine programmes. She is currently applying the systems engineering skill set and technologies to different sporting and research environments. Her research is largely focused around the application of innovative technologies for different physical (sporting, health, etc.) applications. Currently, her research includes multiple training studies (football, tennis, running), as well as assisting other AUT SPRINZ Strength and Conditioning and Sports Technology post-graduate students with research methodology design and data analysis.

Paul Macadam

Paul Macadam (https://www.aut.ac.nz/student-profiles/paul-macadam) is a Research and Development Manager and Public Health Directorate at Isle of Man, and a PhD Candidate AUT.  His research includes Understanding Rotational Overload Effects of Thigh Wearable Resistance on Kinematic and Kinetic Properties of Sprint-Running. He is involved in research for advancements in technology that enable loads to be attached to the body, creating wearable resistance (WR) which athletes can wear during sport-specific movements, such as sprint-running, measurements of sprint-running mechanics are often linear in quantification, despite being the result of joint rotations. He works on quantifying rotational movement, especially with the emergence of WR limb loading. His research is aimed to assess the kinematic and kinetic effects of a sprint-specific rotational form of resistance through thigh attached WR and sought to determine whether IMUs could quantify rotational kinematics of sprint-running.

James Forster

James is a student at AUT University working to complete a Masters of Sport and Exercise Science. He has worked as a Strength and Conditioning coach with individual and team sport athletes at different stages of maturation. Growing up playing a variety of court and field sports has led him to develop a natural interest in the improvement of athletic performance, specifically in the area of speed and change of direction. The first phase of his research is to add diagnostic value to the pro-agility COD test so that is provides a lot more information than a total time. The second part of the research is determining the effect of different wearable resistance loading strategies on COD performance and force-velocity characteristics.

Hamish Kyne

Hamish Kyne is a strength and conditioning coach based in Wellington. Currently he is studying towards a PhD at Auckland University of Technology. Hamish has a particular interest in what can be done to improve the power amplification of the stretch shortening cycle. His research is focused on acute kinetic and kinematic effects of light weight wearable resistance on vertical jumping, the contractile component, series elastic component, and parallel elastic component varying functions during force transmission according to contraction type, amplitude and velocity of movement. Jumps such as the squat jump, countermovement jump, and the drop jump have been reported to give insight into the quality of these physiological structures. He is researching on how the addition of light-weight wearable resistance may alter the kinetic and kinematics of these jumps and the effect this has on these different mechanical components of the muscle-tendon unit.

Ruth Naidoo

Ruth has a Masters in Master in Health Science and is pursuing a PhD with AUT-SPRINZ.  She is Senior Academic Staff within the Sport and Exercise Department at Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology, Tauranga, NZ.  She is also Co-Director at Physical Impact a fitness facility in the Bay of Plenty. His research is focused on the decrease in physical activity during work hours as a major contributor to the general declining health of society. This is especially problematic since half of the world’s workplace spends considerable time in sedentary workplace environments. The overall goal of this programme of research is to design, quantify and implement a workplace strategy that micro-doses movement throughout the day to offset the negative effects of sedentary behaviour. These micro-doses may prove more effective with the application of wearable resistance. The programme specifically aims to improve both physiological and psychological wellbeing, via the integration of cutting edge movement programming with smart phone and computer applications.

Trey Job

Trey is originally from Kennesaw, Georgia, outside of Atlanta. He grew up playing baseball among other sports and studied Exercise Science at Georgia Southern University. Trey has worked as a strength and conditioning coach at Georgia Southern, Kennesaw State, and Southeastern Louisiana. He has enjoyed working in the team sport environment, especially at a high level in the university setting. Currently, Trey is the Athletic Performance Director at Athlete Training + Health in Houston, Texas where he works with collegiate and professional athletes, PACK Swimming’s National and Pre-National level swimmers, and return to play athletes. His research is focused on the effects of loaded throwing on pitching velocity in baseball pitchers. This will be comparing the effects of wearable resistance and weighted baseballs on throwing velocity while looking at strength measures such as rate of force development in the shoulder.