Sport and Performance Division Day Success

The second CASES Division Day of 2025 took place at UA92 in Manchester on Monday 28 April, with a variety of presentations and practical sessions on all things Sport Performance.

Keynote speaker sessions by Dr Jon Bartlett (British Cycling - To Influence or Not Influence: A People Focused Practitioner Model for Effective Performance Intervention) and Prof Anthony Turner (Middlesex University- Reverse Engineering in Sport: Developing a High-Performance Roadmap) were very well received by delegates who had travelled from across the UK for the ‘mini conference’.

Around 50 delegates, members and non-members of CASES, both students and professionals, spent the day learning about some of the latest research and projects, with ample opportunity to network and build collaborative ideas.

The morning session speakers across the day included:

• Dr Stephen McQuilliam (Liverpool John Moores University), “Everyone Wins” – Integrating Collaborative Research in Women’s Football

• Dr Richard Page (Edge Hill University) Contemporary Considerations of Physical Monitoring in Football

• Dr Christina Langley (UA92, Manchester) Impact of Vitamin D on Para Athletes
  

Short and informative oral presentations followed in break out rooms:

• Kevin Paxton - Working in a collaborative MDT manner - The 6 Ps of Productivity

• Dr Tasneem Sabir - An anatomical female knee surrogate for testing metamaterials knee brace concepts

• Callum Taylor - Surveying the Perceptions and Current Applications of Virtual Reality in Academy Football

• Elena Wilson - Prevalence, Magnitude and Methods of Rapid Weight Loss in Junior Powerlifters

• Ryan Lally - Analysis of External Load in Professional English Football League 2 Soccer Players

• Dr Alan Tonge - Supporting a first team level professional football player utilising an existential psychology approach. A case study vignette.

• Joshua Till - Altitude Training for Judo: Practices, Perceptions and Education of Judo Athletes and Performance Staff

• Ade Oke - Inside the Mind of a Head Coach: Understanding the Wellbeing of Coaches in Sport through Interviews and IPA

• Dr Luke Oates - An Analysis of Technical Team Performances in the British Netball Superleague 2023-2024 

After a packed morning, Sam Grady-Graham and Gary Hutt from GB Boxing offered a practical session to energise the afternoon with a hands-on demonstration of testing and monitoring strategies to inform programming for GB Boxers. This was followed by Denis Potter, Romaine Bailey, Amy Truesdale MBE, and Adam Kirkwood from GB Taekwondo, who provided a fantastic practical session on preparing for the physiological demands of Taekwondo competition. It was a brilliant opportunity for delegates to see a Gold Medal athlete being put through her paces!

Dr Mitch Finlay MCASES, Deputy Chair and Chair of the Sport and Performance Division said, “The talks and the practical sessions were of a really high standard, and demonstrates that as a sport and performance community, we have some great people, and brilliant practices going on. We've had really good feedback, and are looking forward to next year already.”

To conclude the day, awards were presented to two abstract presenters.

Congratulations to Callum Taylor (University of Wolverhampton) and Archie McKenzie (Leeds Trinity University) (pictured) who were awarded prizes for best oral presentation and best poster presentation, respectively. The prize winners have been invited to enjoy a day at the International Universities Strength and Conditioning Association (IUSCA) conference thanks to CASES’ partners IUSCA.

The Division Day would not have been possible without our partners and sponsors. Thanks to VALD Performance, RYPT, Output Sports, and Gait and Motion Technologies for supporting the event and to the team at UA92, Manchester who hosted the event with great success.

Whilst the CASES Annual Conference returns in 2026, it is the intention of the Sport and Performance Division to retain the abstract submissions and presentations for next year’s division day, with these potentially primarily being reserved for undergraduate and post-graduate students.

CASES Members will be able to read an exclusive account of the day in the Summer 2025 edition of The Sport and Exercise Scientist (TSES), the member publication of The Chartered Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences.