Dr Phil Hayes

Assistant Professor

School: Sport Exercise and Rehabilitation

Phil is the longest serving member of the sport science staff having joined the University in 1991 during which time he has fulfilled a number of senior roles, including 14 years as Programme Leader and currently as admissions tutor. His main teaching areas encompass fitness testing, the physiology of training, particularly aerobic training, and the physiology of endurance exercise.

Phil is a BASES accredited Sport and Exercise Scientist, a Chartered Scientist and has, in the past, been an accredited anthropometrist with ISAK. His PhD was titled ‘Physiological factors affecting running performance’ and his current research falls broadly under the banner of enhancing athlete performance. Within this Phil’s main interests are: how fatigue effects running gait, in particular the role of muscular strength; aerobic interval training, quantifying training and the relative age effect. In addition, Phil has provided sport science support for Premier League football teams, a professional cricket team, and international runners, including the local athletes who were involved in Dame Kelly Holmes ‘On Camp with Kelly’ scheme.

The practical application of his work also fuels some of Phil’s interests outside of work. Phil is a UK Athletics Level 4 middle-distance running coach, coaching for a local athletics club. He has coached GB U23, GB Students, GB U20, and GB U18 runners, along with Inter-Counties, British Universities and England Schools medallists. Previously, he has been UK Athletics Regional Coach for Endurance Events. Phil is one of the few BASES Accredited Physiologists and Level 4 coaches in the UK.

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Research Themes and Scholarly Interests

My research interests fall broadly under the banner of enhancing sport performance. Currently most of my work is focused upon middle and long-distance running, with projects looking at aerobic interval training. One PhD student (Sherveen Riazati) is looking at how fatigue effects running gait, in particular the role of muscle strength. A second PhD student (Arran Parmar) is investigating the acute responses to, and recovery from, aerobic interval training. In addition to this I'm interested in the relative age effect and quantifying training loads.

Key Publications

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
Running gait kinematics are reproducible at the beginning and end of two different intensity, energy expenditure matched runs, using either discrete points or functional data analysis, Riazati, S., Matabuena, M., Caplan, N., Hayes, P. 3 Apr 2026, In: Frontiers in Sports and Active Living
The role of hip abductor strengthening and the effects on running gait. A systematic review, Hall, G., Barry, G., Hayes, P. 28 Mar 2025, In: Advanced Exercise and Health Science
University course choice: Views and experiences of undergraduate sport and physiotherapy students from a United Kingdom higher education institution, Hibbs, A., Thornton, C., Hayes, P., Johns, K., Bruce-Martin, C., McCullogh, N., Peart, D., Baker, K., Rumbold, P. 27 Nov 2025, In: Journal of Hospitality, Leisure, Sport and Tourism Education
Making the Invisible, Visible: An Exploration of Track-and-Field Coaches’ Perspectives of Their Planning Processes, Johns, K., Potrac, P., Hayes, P. 1 Nov 2024, In: International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance
Coaching in the shadows: critically examining the unintended (non)influence of pedagogical practice, Nichol, A., Potrac, P., Hayes, P., Boocock, E., Vickery, W., Morgan, C., Hall, E. 4 Jul 2023, In: Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy
Estimating Knee Movement Patterns of Recreational Runners Across Training Sessions Using Multilevel Functional Regression Models, Matabuena, M., Karas, M., Riazati, S., Caplan, N., Hayes, P. 3 Apr 2023, In: American Statistician
Gait and Neuromuscular Changes Are Evident in Some Masters Club Level Runners 24-h After Interval Training Run, Riazati, S., Caplan, N., Matabuena, M., Hayes, P. 2 Jun 2022, In: Frontiers in Sports and Active Living
Athletes as ‘sites of normative intersectionality’: Critically exploring the ontology of influence in sport coaching., Nichol, A., Hayes, P., Vickery, W., Boocock, E., Potrac, P., Hall, E. 1 Sep 2021, In: Sociology of Sport Journal
Inter-limb strength asymmetry in adolescent distance runners: Test-retest reliability and relationships with performance and running economy, Blagrove, R., Bishop, C., Howatson, G., Hayes, P. 1 Feb 2021, In: Journal of Sports Sciences
The dose-response relationship between interval-training and VO2max in well-trained endurance runners: A systematic review, Parmar, A., Jones, T., Hayes, P. 18 Jun 2021, In: Journal of Sports Sciences

PGR Supervision

Gary Hall What effect does fatigue during high-intensity running have on Hip abductors and running gait? Can resistance training offset these effects? Start Date: 01/10/2021
Simone Di Gennaro Start Date: 20/01/2025
Madelaine Hill Ready or Not: An Investigation into the Role of Wearable Technology in ACL Rehabilitation and Return-to-Play Decision-Making Start Date: 10/02/2021

Qualifications

Sports Science PhD October 09 2015
Sports Science (Education) MSc August 31 1989
Accredited Member British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences (BASES) 1992