The price of Sports Science

Today I attended the University of East Anglia (UEA) open day with my parents and Suzie, my sister who is looking to pursue a degree in Nursing with mental health. The journey back on the M25 gave me time to reflect on my own degree and whether or not I would choose to undertake the same degree with the new £9,000 price-tag alongside it. 

A survey conducted by Prospects in 2010 found that roughly 8,000 individuals were graduating with a degree in Sports Science! This is an astonishing amount when you consider how many PAID jobs are available within the Sports Science community. However, many graduates do end up changing direction and working within an industry that requires no knowledge of sports science whatsoever. With the new £9,000 tuition fees coming into action this September, it has been estimated that some 200,000 young people will graduate each year with average debts of £45,000. Can this really be justified when colleagues of mine both at Exeter and other ''top end'' institution's manage to only have as low as 4 hours of contact time per week in some semesters? Consequently, even with the rise in tution fees, Sports Science is currently the eleventh most popular option in the UCAS course choice league table.

An example of jobs which a degree in Sports Science can lead to are listed below, this list is not exhaustive by far:

• Physiotherapist
• Personal Trainer
• Police Constable
• Gym Instructor
• Multi-Sports Coach
• Sports Instructor/Life Guard
• PE Teacher
• Lecturer in Sport and Exercise Science
• Sports Psychologist
• Physical Therapist
• Nutritionist
• Performance Analyst 
• Sports Development Officer 
• Strength and Conditioning 
• Sports Medicine 

Is there a realistic opportunity for graduates to attain a full time paid job with such a small market of jobs available?

My overall experience studying at Exeter is one of overwhelming enjoyment and satisfaction. On a academic level I feel I have learnt a great deal of knowledge that I can practically bring into the academic arena. With regards to work experience, both the school and its staff were instrumental in helping me gain internships within my 2nd and 3rd year, of which I strongly believe is a huge asset to any graduate. Although I am sure many other graduates are pleased with the way their degree was conducted, future students will demand more - this is common sense due to the added money spent on their studying. The following list is a description of what I would personally like to see change in order for the Top 10 Sports Science institutions to justify their increase in fees:

- Smaller seminar sizes; maximum of 10 people

- An increase in the average amount of contact hours per week, I personally would like to see a 9-5 schedule adopted 4 days of the week

- Compulsory attendance in masters and PhD experiments, this is an area that not many undergraduates take part in and would greatly effect their leaning experience 

- Smaller year group sizes so lectures can be as interactive as possible 

- Greater links with professional clubs/organisations to help gain work experience for the undergraduates

If you have any more suggestions please feel free to comment below

Conclusion 

Yes, I would take the opportunity to undertake the course again; however, this is probably greatly influenced by my previous experience of studying at Exeter, which I can only describe as fantastic. If, on the other hand I, like my sister, was looking to undertake a degree in the £9,000 category, then I would hope the above points would be addressed and put in place. Sadly, the new era of Sports Science at University is going to see many potential students not undertake this path due to the fear of increased debt.

Clinical Exercise Prescription

Although not an area I wish to pursue as a career, clinical exercise prescription enables me to draw on a lot of the knowledge that I have gained during the last 3 years of my studying. During my last term at University I undertook a clinical module, of which assessment was based on a comprehensive coursework, theory and practical examination. This was by far one of the most enjoyable modules I took whist studying for my degree and consequently when arriving back home I was faced with a great opportunity to use the knowledge in a meaningful way. My granddad, who is in his late 70's now, sadly suffers from several medical conditions; crumbling vertebrae, nerve end damage and arthritis of the spine. He approached me, asking for my advice on this matter, and after discussing his illness and daily lifestyle routine, I have given him a simple programme to complete for the next 2-4 weeks. After this I will assess how he is doing and review his progress. Below I have put together some information regarding exercise, arthritis and what I have recommended to my Grampy!

Exercise as a treatment for Arthritis

- An emerging body of research highlights that light to moderate intensity exercise can play a restorative role in combating the declines in health and functional capacity caused by Arthritis (Strasser et al., 2010).

- Although pain and functional limitations present challenges to physical activity amongst individuals with Arthritis, regular exercise can help manage and minimise typical symptoms (Klippel, 2001).


- In Stenstrom & Minor’s (2003) systematic review of 15 Arthritis health studies, it was found that general health and functional ability improved (by an average of 30% and 18%, respectively) when patients were engaged in dynamic physical activity patterns (Stenstrom & Minor, 2003). 

Process of Arthritis: Bone starts to be worn down. Bone moves against bone increasing erosion and pain. Spurs develop to compensate = deformation = joint moves incorrectly = pain 

Improved Cartilage Health

- As cartilage is avascular, nutrition occurs through diffusion of synovial fluid (O’Hara, Urban, & Maroudas, 1990).

- Diffusion aided by “pumping” effect that mechanical loading produces (Van Den Hoogen et al., 1998).

- Regular exercise in animals may increase proteoglycan content through increased synthesis and retention, particularly in dynamic loading (Van Den Hoogen et al., 1998).

- Dynamic exercise can increase circulating insulin-like growth factor (IGF) by 25% (Melikoglu, Karatay, Senel, & Akcay, 2006).

- Suggestion that IGF’s can stimulate synthesis and reduce degradation of proteoglycans, thus enhancing cartilage health (Melikoglu et al., 2006).

- Larger solutes, like IGF’s, rely on intermittent loading to reach cells, due to importance for production of synovial fluid and distribution across joint surface (O’Hara et al., 1990).

- Implications are paramount to cartilage health as proteoglycans are one of the main contributors to durability (Van Den Hoogen et al., 1998).

Recommendations for future exercise

- Exercise during the day when pain has subsided.

- Some discomfort may be present during or shortly after activity, although this does not mean further joint destruction.

- If pain persists longer than 2-hours post-activity and exceeds pre-activity levels, duration and intensity of activities need to be decreased.

- During “flare ups”, performing range of motion exercises so as not to exacerbate condition is encouraged.

- Every session should incorporate a warm-up and cool-down in order to minimise pain. These may both include slow actions of moving joints through a full range of motion.




An example of some of the exercises I have prescribed - all exercises involve the use of simple resistance bands. Note - all exercises were conducted sitting down due to the patient also having arthritis in the hip. Please feel free to leave any comments regarding the above, I feel this is an interesting topic and hope that this can have a big impact on friends and family who have similar conditions.

References

Klippel, J. H. (Eds.). (2001). Primer on the rheumatic diseases (12th ed.). Atlanta, GA: Arthritis Foundation.
Melikoglu, M. A., Karatay, S., Senel, K., & Akcay, F. (2006). Association between dynamic exercise therapy and IGF-1 and IGFBP-3 concentrations in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Rheumatology International, 26(4) 309-313.

O’Hara, B. P., Urban, J. P. G., & Maroudas, A. (1990). Influence of cyclic loading on the nutrition of articular cartilage. Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, 49(7), 536-539.

Stenstrom, C. H., & Minor, M. A. (2003). Evidence for the benefit of aerobic and strengthening exercise in rheumatoid arthritis. Arthritis & Rheumatism, 49(3), 428–434.

Strasser, B., Leed, G., Strehblow, C., Schobersberger, W., Haber, P., & Cauza, E. (2011). The effects of strength and endurance training in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Clinical Rheumatology, 30(5), 623-632.

Van Den Hoogen, B. M., Van De Lest, C. H. A., Van Weeren, P. R., Lafeber, F. P. J. G., Lopes-Cardozo, M., Van Golde, L. M. G., & Barneveld, A. (1998). Loading-induced changes in synovial fluid affect cartilage metabolism. British Journal of Rheumatology, 37(6), 671-676.

The story so far.......

Hello and thank you for visiting the blog. I find myself graduating this Summer from the University of Exeter with a Sports Science degree, after 3 extremely enjoyable and rewarding years at St Luke's campus. Starting in September I will be taking up the role of Strength and Conditioning Coach at Bloxham School; an exciting opportunity to learn and develop as a coach and already the staff there have made me feel very welcome. However, between now and then I will be working at a English Summer School based up at the historic Rugby School, this will comprise coaching a variety of sports to mainly European children aged between 11-18. I worked for the same company last year and although challenging at times I thoroughly enjoyed it; your communication skills are well and truly tested when coaching sport to children who have a very basic level of English!

My home for the last 3 years, St Luke's Campus-University of Exeter 

The main aim of this blog is to reflect and hopefully debate many of the challenges that I face in the next year. Although coaching during the day at Bloxham, I will be assisting the welfare and pastoral work of a boarding house during the evening, which again will bring new challenges and perspectives. It is also my aim to keep my Sports Science knowledge up to date, this will involve occasionally posting reviews of scientific papers/articles. I hope you enjoy the blog and please feel free to leave a comment whenever you see fit.