Arena Strength and Conditioning Suite

Facilities

The strength and conditioning (S&C) suite boasts eight fully equipped lifting stations and a full range of supplementary equipment one would expect to find in a modern S&C suite. Two of the platforms have continuous video recording and playback facilities, so athletes and S&C coaches may view session lifts ‘live time’, to monitor and discuss technical proficiency.

The S&C suite functions as a performance lab, strictly timetabled to operate only when qualified S&C coaches are in attendance. The S&C suite compliments the Riverside Fitness Gym, developing the Severn Campus into a health and wellbeing centre

How is it used? 

• Using the Teambuilder app, downloaded to personal mobile phones, allows personalised Skilful programming. Which enables direct service provision to over 350 student athletes, 57 scholars and the professional sport franchise (UW Worcester Wolves Basketball Men’s NBL Div 2 & Women’s NBL Div 1 wheelchair).
• The UW Performance Sport Programme also underpins 10 sport teams, 8 of which have male and female squads.
• The S&C Coaching team are also responsible for training scholarship athletes.  UW is an accredited TASS Hub with dedicated S&C coaching delivered to TASS athletes, all year round.

Coaching

Over 400 athletes receive S&C coaching, each must complete a PAR-Q, a needs analysis and undergo a battery of performance tests (2 x p.a.). Each athlete receives personal training programmes broken into meso cycles across pre/competition/post season. The S&C coaches operate a wellbeing login system whereby each athlete records information on how they feel and how prepared they are to train each day. This enables S&C coaches to adjust planned training content for an athlete showing high levels of fatigue, or stress, so managing personal need in an individual athlete centred model.

Community Engagement

Community engagement is an important part of the work undertaken in the UW Arena S&C Suite. For example, each week S&C coaches deliver active ageing fitness classes for people over the age of 65yrs. The S&C team provide outreach support and coaching for a wide range of local sports clubs.

The S&C team have also pioneered the Young Worcester Talented (YWT) S&C sport support programme; Offering support to young athletes finding it difficult to access, or afford, the level of specialist S&C coaching needed to manage individual, physical athletic development for elite performance.

The S&C coaching team give academic support, delivering both technical and practical demonstrations in lectures. They collaborate with academic staff undertaking applied research, making available statistical information collected during training and fitness testing. Anonymised data is also available for lecture exemplars.

Work based placement opportunities are allocated to undergraduate and Masters students, enabling them to gain valuable practical experience working in a professionally mentored S&C environment. In six years of opening, the S&C coaches have logged over 7000 hours of student S&C placements.