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The impact of this research has been evident in a change of practice regarding the consideration of fatigue in musculoskeletal profiling, and as an aetiological risk factor for injury. This change in practice is evidenced across a range of user groups, influencing evidence-based practice in both the clinical and sporting context. The body of research has generated a shift in the consideration of fatigue with regards sporting injury incidence. Postgraduate teaching has evolved to consider injury prevention strategies in relation to fatigue, and Governing Body injury audits have cited this research in working toward injury prevention policies.
The Human Performance Research Group at Aberystwyth University developed a novel high- intensity "warm-up" regime, known as "priming exercise". Performing this type of exercise can provide an ergogenic effect during subsequent exercise or competition. This research has impacted upon professional practice of sports scientists and coaches tasked with preparing elite athletes for competition. Specifically, previously warm-up exercise was performed prior to exercise, whereas now many practitioners apply priming exercise regimes. In addition, this practice has a direct impact upon the performance of both elite and amateur athletes.
This case study examines the long-term and ongoing relationship between an industrial collaborator (Chas A Blatchford & Sons Ltd) and researchers at the University of Roehampton. This systematic programme of biomechanical research on how prostheses perform in activities other than walking has had two significant outcomes. Firstly, this work has significantly improved prosthetic design, with four new prosthetic designs marketed worldwide. Secondly, it has increased awareness of — and importantly increased engagement with - exercise therapy for amputees among healthcare professionals (prosthetists and physiotherapists) and amputees themselves. This research has reached a wider audience including amputee charities and healthcare professionals, with whom we focus on mobility and movement rather than the prostheses.
A 20 year collaborative programme of research and physiological monitoring between the Royal Yachting Association (RYA) and the University of Chichester (UC) has significantly impacted upon training and competitive strategies adopted by the RYA to maintain world class sailing performance within the REF period. Research conducted in the period 1993-2004 provided the first empirical evidence base to underpin training for dingy and boardsailing. This provided the foundation to develop training guidelines for youth and elite sailors, contributing to successful sailing performances in the past five Olympic games. The guidelines are now freely accessible online for recreational sailors.
Research by Alison McConnell and colleagues has underpinned the creation of a new category of exercise training and rehabilitation; "breathing training" improves exercise tolerance and reduces perceived exertion. McConnell invented the market-leading POWERbreathe® breathing trainer, and since joining Brunel (2000), has led further new product developments via Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP) and consultancy. Research by McConnell and her team underpins marketing by POWERbreathe® and several "copycat" products serving UK and overseas markets. Impacts include: 1. physiological benefits to individual users globally, from elite athletes to patients; and 2. commercial benefits to POWERbreathe International Ltd., its supply chain, and to new international businesses serving the breathing training market created by POWERbreathe®.
Very considerable changes worldwide, in the management of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) admitted with acute ventilatory failure, have been a major impact of the research of the King's College London (KCL) Clinical Respiratory Physiology Group. Previously, invasive ventilation to treat such COPD patients was associated with complications which could be fatal. The KCL group conducted the first randomised controlled trial in the world of treatment by non-invasive ventilation (NIV). The trial demonstrated that NIV reduces complications and death compared to invasive ventilation. The study dramatically changed the treatment of hypercapnic flare-ups (where there is too much carbon dioxide in the blood) of acute COPD worldwide. NIV has become best and routine practice, and is advocated in national and international guidelines, benefiting many thousands of COPD patients.
The applied research generated has targeted practitioners and athletes at all levels, and by combining expertise and knowledge from different areas (primarily Biomechanics and Physiology), aimed to directly influence the way in which muscle function is assessed in competitive sports. The studies in the area of muscle conditioning and function has generated a body of work that has the potential to be useful to coaches both in competition as well as in training, but to date has not been fully realised. By examining how the muscle responds to certain stimuli, training suggestions have been provided that can acutely increase the performance of an athlete, for example conditioning stimuli prior to athletics performance (reference 4 in section 3). These suggestions can assist both in improving the competitive performance as well as in improving the quality of the content and experience of training sessions.
Further, evaluating a range of tests and assessment tools, such as by examining their validity and reliability, monitoring and assessment becomes much more accurate and sport-specific, enabling high-quality training (such as in reference 2, section 3). In addition, as these assessments allow testing to take place within the training and performance environment the performer is accustomed to (such as in reference 6, section 3), they also result in minimal disruption of the training programme, which cannot be achieved using traditional assessment techniques which require a visit to a laboratory for the assessment to take place.
The range of applicability of the research to support uptake of the recommendations and resultant training and performance benefits has been maximised by ensuring the suggestions and equipment used are low cost and easily accessible, enabling coaches and athletes from a wide range of performance levels to utilise them, such as functional tests (such as in reference 5, section 3). The work has highlighted that coaches and athletes need to reassess their approaches to measuring performance and specific measurement techniques used, and that doing so can improve training techniques and athletic performance.
Research conducted at Swansea University has helped transform the pre-competition strategies of elite sport. This research has focused mainly on the application of post-activation potentiation (PAP), manipulation of warm-up variables and morning priming for enhanced performance. This work has had significant impact on the recent successes of elite skeleton bobsleigh athletes at the 2010 Winter Olympics (e.g. ~4% improvement on their key performance indicator) and a number of other British sports during London 2012 (e.g. British Cycling who won 12 medals). The research continues to impact elite sports and is being embedded into athletes' pre-competition routines for Sochi 2014 and Rio 2016.
Research into the biomechanics of elite swimmers with a disability undertaken by Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) has contributed directly to the development of Para-swimming both nationally and internationally. Firstly, it has made a significant and sustained contribution to the development of British Para-swimmers and their coaches, leading to outstanding performances by British swimmers at major International competitions including, most notably, the Beijing 2008 Paralympics, the IPC World Swimming Championships, 2010 and the London 2012 Paralympics. Secondly, In 2009 the IPC mandated the development of new, evidence-based classification systems for Paralympic sports and, in 2010, announced its intention to use the research findings from MMU to help devise a new classification system for Para-swimming.
University of Salford researchers have transferred knowledge from research in the foot health devices sector into products and services in commercial and clinical settings, supporting a £100 billion global healthcare equipment and supplies industry, contributing to economies and to quality of life on a daily basis for those with foot and lower limb health problems, world-wide. The benefiting partners are part of global businesses and public and private sector clinical services and researchers have pioneered the connection of research to commercial foot health contexts on a unique scale: