The science of recovery from sport and exercise

The Science of Recovery from Sport and Exercise

The aim of this assignment is to practise and develop some of the skills that you will require for the final Project by critically evaluating literature on your chosen study topic option in relation to a case study. There are two options: Option A relates to Study Topic 4A (The science of recovery from sport and exercise) and Option B relates to Study Topic 4B (Whose game is it? Rethinking youth sport). You only need to complete one of these options. Option A – Recovery Read the case study and then answer the essay question below: Write a critical essay that discusses the effectiveness of compression garments/devices and sports massage as recovery strategies for Matilda’s sprint group.

Case study: Matilda’s recovery plans Matilda is an athletics coach who specialises in coaching sprints and hurdles. Other than giving her athletes two rest days per week and encouraging them to eat well, she does not currently integrate any passive recovery strategies into her athletes’ training programmes. As her training group is about to enter an intensive phase of pre-season training focusing on speed (e.g. short sprints on the track), power (e.g. plyometrics) and strength (e.g. heavy weight training), Matilda is keen to investigate whether recovery strategies could help her athletes. The science of recovery from sport and exercise. After attending a Continuous Professional Development (CPD) event and talking to other coaches, she has identified that compression garments/devices and sports massage might be of benefit to her athletes. After searching online, she has found lots of support for these strategies enhancing recovery, but as this is mainly from companies and manufacturers of recovery tools, she is not sure how reliable this information is. She would like to know what evidence there is for these recovery strategies and be able to make an informed decision about whether to integrate them into her athletes’ training programmes.

The science of recovery from sport and exercise

Order 100% Plagiarism Free Paper on this topic

Matilda is considering using recovery strategies for two main purposes. First, she is aware from experience in previous years that when her group starts this intense phase of winter training they find it quite hard and often report feelings of tiredness and muscle soreness. She wants to know if use of the recovery strategies can combat these feelings, allow her group to recover more quickly from hard sessions and make greater training gains. Second, she wants to know whether these recovery strategies will be useful when her group enters the competitive season. In particular, she wants to know whether the recovery strategies will be useful on competition day when her athletes will be competing in multiple races in one day. For example, her athletes might be competing in rounds (heats, semi-finals and finals) at a championship competition or in various distances on the same day (e.g. 100m, 200m and relay).

Guidance Option A (Recovery)

Your essay will consist of an introductory section, a main section critiquing the evidence in relation to the case study, and a conclusion detailing the implications for practice and pointing towards future study directions. The science of recovery from sport and exercise. Guidance on writing essays can be found in the Help Centre and further guidance is provided below which indicates what is expected within each of these sections, as well as a suggested word count for each section.

You should not include section headings or subheadings to structure your essay.

Introduction (approx. 300 words)

The task asks you to produce a critical essay that discusses the effectiveness of compression garments/devices and sports massage for the case study. In this introductory part you are setting out the foundation for your work. First you need to introduce the topical context of the essay i.e. recovery in sport. Then you should precisely state what the focus of your answer will include and define the key terms where appropriate. The task asks you to produce a critical essay that discusses the effectiveness of compression garments/device and sports massage as recovery strategies. It is important that you clearly define your interpretation of ‘effectiveness’. For example, effectiveness may relate to psychological measures of recovery (e.g. perceived muscle soreness), to physiological measures (e.g. creatine kinase) and/or to Matilda’s objectives (the purposes outlined in the case study).

Main section: critiquing the evidence (approx. 1300 words)

In this main section you are demonstrating your familiarity with the academic literature and any underpinning background knowledge needed to discuss, evaluate and critique the two recovery strategies, including any debate or controversy that makes it a contemporary issue. Your narrative argument should have a clear direction: you are working towards clarity and a reasoned conclusion on whether these strategies are effective for Matilda’s group. You should address both purposes of recovery strategies that Matilda is interested in. i.e (1) recovery during an intensive block of training and (2) recovery during a single competition day.

Your essay should also take into consideration the type of exercise that Matilda’s group are participating in (i.e. speed, strength and power). For your discussion of compression garments/devices you may find it useful to refer back to Unit 13a, in particular Sections 13.1, 13.2 and 13.3. As Unit 13a discusses both compression garments (e.g. compression socks) and intermittent pneumatic compression (IPC) devices (e.g. compression boots) you can choose to answer in relation to one or both of these, i.e. your answer can either look at compression garments or compression devices, or both compression garments and compression devices.

For your discussion of sports massage, you may find it useful to refer back to Unit 14a, in particular Sections 14.1, 14.2, 14.3 and 14.4. As Unit 14a discusses manual massage, foam rollers and massage guns you can choose to answer in relation to one, two or all three of these, i.e. your answer can either examine manual massage, foam rollers, massage guns or a combination of these. As well as drawing on the units in Study Topic 4A that relate to the specific recovery strategies Matilda wants to know more about (Units 13a and 14a) you should also draw on the content of Unit 11a which discusses recovery more broadly. You may find it particularly useful to refer to Sections 11.1, 11.2, 11.3, 11.4 and 11.5.

Your answer must focus only on the two recovery strategies in the questions and not any other strategies covered in Study Topic 4A or the strategies currently used by Matilda (rest and nutrition). Within your answer you are expected to explore evidence from both academic and media sources beyond those presented in the study topic. The TMA asks you to explore and critique evidence using contemporary examples. The science of recovery from sport and exercise. This means that there is an expectation that you will source additional evidence and that some of the academic and media sources should be relatively recent. We normally expect ‘recent’ to mean material since 2021 onwards. However, subject areas are built upon key academic research that is more dated and these sources can also be included in the discussion: the skill is in recognising how knowledge has developed over time from the early literature. You may find it useful to refer back to the activities where you undertook a search for further academic literature and media sources such as

Study Topic 4A

Activities 13.5 and 14.6. You should refer to the module framework for further advice on investigating a contemporary issue. You should also address non-academic evidence – media representations, for instance, which can often illustrate academic theories and concepts – alhough you should always make clear your awareness that this is not a substitute for academic material and is secondary to it.

You may choose to do this mainly in one subsection or distribute it throughout your narrative. It is recommended that you consider the credibility of different media sources. Once again, it is important that you extend the media sources beyond those presented in the study topic to ensure that your answer considers any new developments/perspectives.

Conclusion and implications for practice (approx. 900 words)

In this final section you should clearly state the conclusions you have drawn based on the evaluation of the evidence presented on whether compression garments/devices and sports massage would be effective recovery methods for Matilda’s group and discuss the wider implications of this conclusion for applied sport and fitness. It might help when thinking about this section to consider these three prompts: 1. The science of recovery from sport and exercise. What does the evidence point to in relation to the study topic area? (The conclusion.) 2. How is this information of any value to those working in sport and fitness? (The implications for practice.) 3. Are there any future research directions proposed that would further evolve the subject area?