Facelift for sports facilities
22 June 2006
When Sports and Exercise Science students at NEWI return for the start of next year they are going to benefit from a huge investment in new facilities and equipment. In a complete refurbishment, the Human Performance Laboratory has undergone a massive ‘facelift’. The space has been completely transformed into a bright, work-friendly environment and state-of-the-art equipment has been installed costing over £80,000.
The refurbished lab has been designed especially to enhance the students’ learning experience, with specialist equipment which includes a glass fronted environmental chamber, cardiovascular analysis equipment and a new 3D motion analysis system, for the study of physiology and biomechanics. One of the walls of the lab has been prepared to be a huge screen for live data from experiments to be projected onto it so that students can observe results and changes to the athletes as they actually occur. A wireless network also enables faster data transfer and students to carry out additional work in the lab.
Dr Sue Taylor, Senior Lecturer in Sport and Exercise Sciences, explains, “The facilities for the students are excellent. Students will have full access to all of the equipment which can be used for a wide range of analysis. For example in physiology they could be looking at the effects of extremes of temperature on running performance or monitoring the body’s response to an endurance test on a bicycle in an overweight adult. In biomechanics the equipment will allow students to analyse a corner kick in football or the technique of a professional golfer’s swing. The refurbishment of these new facilities coincides with the introduction of our two new degree courses in Applied Sport and Exercise Sciences and Community Sport Development. Students on the Applied Sport and Exercise Sciences course will use the lab frequently, gaining lots of valuable hands-on experience and will have lots of opportunities to apply their new skills and theoretical knowledge to test local sports teams and athletes”.
All the equipment is now in place and up and running, but students aren’t the only ones to benefit. Janet Hayes, Senior Laboratory Technician added, “Whilst the equipment is ideal for elite sport training, it is equally useful for measuring and improving general health and fitness in any individual. So it is important to remember that it won’t be just the students using the new facilities. At NEWI we see this as an investment in a community resource as well as student facilities.”
For example, a specialist cardiac rehabilitation group from the Wrexham Maelor is already utilising the laboratory, and numerous community sports groups who work closely with the Sport and Exercise Science Department at NEWI will also make regular use of the laboratory for fitness testing.