Professional sports coaches guest lecture at College
12th April 2021 3:50pm - Return to press releases
Two of Hull’s top sports coaches working in elite sport dropped in on East Riding College’s degree students to share their knowledge and experience with guest lectures relating to their specialist fields.
HE sport students benefitted from online visiting lecturers over lockdown as part of their studies covering sport coaching and strength and conditioning on the Foundation Degree in Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences.
Josh Smith a student on the degree course said, “I found the guest lectures really interesting and helpful towards me completing my work and also found they provided first-hand insights on how an industry I am interested in works. Very beneficial and very informative.”
Tutor Matt Jeffery organised guest lectures from coaches at College partners Hull City and Hull FC Academy.
Hull City’s lead performance coach Matt Busby chatted with HE learners and took part in a Q&A answering questions about pre-season training, fitness, cardiovascular training and performance testing. Matt shared his experience of training professional players and touched on the importance of social interaction and camaraderie as part of coaching. He also explained how the professional players he coaches were trained over lockdown, keeping them fit to avoid injury when they returned to the training ground.
The second guest lecturer was Kieran Smith, Hull FC Academy head strength and conditioning coach who has also worked in rugby union and football. Kieran delivered a lecture on periodisation - sports training divided down into different cycles to hit peak performance at crucial times - so that the students could compare his approach in rugby league with the approach taken in football. Kieran emphasised the real-world application of the theory surrounding training for sports performance and answered questions on building relationships with other coaches in the team and the players, performance-based, results-driven fitness testing and young player development.
He said, “I really enjoyed giving the lecture and would be more than happy to help out again in the future. I think it’s great for students to see how theory is applied in the real world.”
Students were able to compare and contrast how the different team sports design their coaching and training programmes and it was a rare opportunity for HE learners to ask questions of professional coaches working in elite sport.
Sport lecturer Matt Jeffery said, “It was very generous of the coaches from Hull City and Hull FC to help us with the challenge of learning sport under lockdown. They had some amazing insights in terms of applying the theory the students are learning in the real world, in two different sports, and really demonstrated their own knowledge, experience and expertise, showing the students how their studies will help them in their future careers. The students also used the opportunity to ask some very specific, detailed questions pertaining to their own special areas of interest, building on their own research and practical understanding.”
East Riding College offers Foundation Degrees and Top-Up Degrees in Sport, meaning students can attain university-level qualifications without the price tag. The College is also currently No.1 in Yorkshire for student satisfaction (NSS 2020). Find out more on our higher education page.
