Year
2024Credit points
10Campus offering
Prerequisites
NilUnit rationale, description and aim
To optimise athlete and/or team performance, strength and conditioning coaches working in high performance sport require advanced knowledge of theoretical concepts, and the practical skills to apply this knowledge. This unit develops this knowledge and skills for contemporary practice, with a focus on emerging research, innovation and practical application in areas such as warm up, altitude training, high-intensity interval training, and speed training. This focus on innovation and application also addresses evidence-based and ethical challenges faced by the practitioner. Students will also gain the practical skills required to deliver high quality training sessions.
Learning outcomes
To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.
Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.
Explore the graduate capabilities.
| Learning Outcome Number | Learning Outcome Description | Relevant Graduate Capabilities |
|---|---|---|
| LO1 | Communicate emerging research and practices in strength and conditioning and their application | GC1, GC7, GC9, GC11 |
| LO2 | Analyse, interpret and report the outcomes of athlete assessment protocols and their application | GC2, GC3, GC8, GC9, GC11 |
| LO3 | Plan meaningful interventions for athletes, directed at enhancing performance and reducing the likelihood of injury or illness | GC2, GC3, GC6, GC8, GC10, GC12 |
Content
Topics include:
- Blood flow restriction training;
- Velocity based training and testing;
- Speed and agility training;
- Altitude training;
- Other contemporary and/or emerging practices in strength and conditioning.
Learning and teaching strategy and rationale
ACU Online
This unit uses an active learning approach to support students in the exploration of knowledge essential to the discipline. Students are provided with choice and variety in how they learn. Students are encouraged to contribute to asynchronous weekly discussions. Active learning opportunities provide students with opportunities to practice and apply their learning in regards to strengrth and conditioning in situations similar to their future professions. Activities encourage students to bring their own examples to demonstrate understanding, application and engage constructively with their peers. Students receive regular and timely feedback on their learning, which includes information on their progress.
Assessment strategy and rationale
In order to best enable students to achieve unit learning outcomes and develop graduate attributes, standards-based assessment is utilised, consistent with University assessment requirements. A range of assessment strategies have been purposefully designed for the assessment of learning outcomes reflecting the principles of authentic assessment design and include:
- Assessment Task 1: Written summaries to assess comprehension and reflection on unit content.
- Assessment Task 2: Critical appraisal and application of literature.
- Assessment Task 3: Oral presentation to assess students' ability to search and synthesise the literature and to apply the evidence in a high-performance sport environment.
Students must achieve a cumulative grade of at least 50% across all assessments.
Overview of assessments
| Brief Description of Kind and Purpose of Assessment Tasks | Weighting | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|
Assessment Task 1 Week(s) in review Requires students to engage with the weekly content and demonstrate their comprehension. | 10% | LO1 |
Assessment Task 2 Article review Requires students to critically appraise, summarise and disseminate information. | 40% | LO1, LO2 |
Assessment Task 3 Pitch to the Coach (Oral Presentation) Requires students to search and synthesise the literature and to apply the evidence in a high-performance sport environment | 50% | LO1, LO2, LO3 |
Representative texts and references
Coutts, A. J. and S. Cormack (2014). Monitoring the training response. In Joyce D & Lewindon D, High-Performance Training For Sports. Champaign IL: Human Kinetics: pp 71-84.
Cormack, S. and A. Coutts (2016). Monitoring Training Load. In Joyce D & Lewindon D, Sports Injury Prevention and Rehabilitation. London: Routledge. pp 380-391.
McGuigan, M. R. and S. J. Cormack (2011). Biochemical Monitoring in Strength and Conditioning. In Cardinale M, Newton R & Nosaka K. Strength and Conditioning: Biological
Patterson, S. D., Hughes, L., Warmington, S., Burr, J., Scott, B. R., Owens, J., ... & Loenneke, J. (2019). Blood flow restriction exercise: considerations of methodology, application, and safety. Frontiers in physiology, 533.
Van Cutsem, J., Marcora, S., De Pauw, K., Bailey, S., Meeusen, R., & Roelands, B. (2017). The effects of mental fatigue on physical performance: a systematic review. Sports medicine, 47(8), 1569-1588.
Weakley, J., Mann, B., Banyard, H., McLaren, S., Scott, T., & Garcia-Ramos, A. (2020). Velocity-Based Training: From Theory to Application. Strength & Conditioning Journal.