Sports Science students have a go with state-of-the-art equipment at Bath University

Bath University is renowned as one of the top sporting universities in the UK, which houses some of the state-of-the-art Sport Science equipment. 10 students from Year 11 and Sixth Form were given the golden opportunity to pay a visit to the institution, including a tour, a lecture and the chance to get a taste of what the sports science equipment is like first hand. The highlight of the trip for all students was watching me complete a maximal aerobic endurance test, the VO2 Max! Having previously tested my endurance at the Academy, completing the Coopers 12 minute run and Multi Stage Fitness Test, I thought this was going to be a breeze - how wrong was I going to be! After 25 minutes of running at an increasing speed and gradient I finally reached exhaustion, where the Sport Scientists' could read off my heart rate, blood lactate and most importantly, how well my body utilises the oxygen I breathe in. My scores were comparable to a top class goalkeeper in football (which is my position). This equipment is only available to elite performers and costs a lot of money so I was delighted to get the opportunity. We also managed to measure our power by completing the Wingate Test and our strength using the 1 Rep Max machi

nes. Annoyingly Mr Payne was by far the strongest, much to William Cheong's displeasure! The visit to Bath University included a very well presented tour of the sports campus, which showed off the immaculate sports facilities, that included an Olympic sized swimming pool (currently under construction), 9 indoor tennis courts, a martial arts dojo, two top class gyms, and not to mention the bobsleigh practice start track and many other facilities. The campus is also home to Southampton Football Club's Youth Academy, using the facilities to produce top young footballing talent. Dylan Matthews-Evans, one of the students who grabbed the opportunity to visit the institution with both hands said; ‘I think that the trip gave me an insight into the level of intensity of top class sport and university life - I cannot wait to go to university!’ All of the students felt that the trip was very useful to them as it is extremely important that pupils aged 16-18 get an insight into what career path they want to follow, and what they need to do to follow that path. By Dylan Wild, Year 13