Post-Graduate Researcher

Academy Sports Scientist - Newcastle United Football Club

Department: Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation

After completing a BSc (Hons) in Sport and Exercise Science at Leeds Metropolitan University, John went on to study an MSc in Strength and Conditioning at Teesside University. During this time he began an internship with Newcastle United FC working within their Academy. Following the completion of my MSc he was offered a PhD position at Northumbria University. This position is joint funded by the University and Newcastle United FC, and entails working on a daily basis with the Academy players whilst conducting a full-time programme of research.

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Qualifications

MSc Strength and Conditioning
BSc (Hons) Sport and Exercise Science

Overview of Doctoral Research

Monitoring the dose-response relationship between training load, fatigue and fitness in elite youth football players.

John’s main area of interest is the monitoring of training load and fatigue in football. Within elite teams 100s of data points are collected on each player, every day. With this wealth of information comes the issue of finding the “signal” through the “noise”. His doctoral research is looking to establish the most appropriate training load and fatigue measures to use with elite youth football players, to further our understanding of the interaction between training load and fatigue, and how this interaction impacts on performance. Firstly, the project will look to establish the most reliable and sensitive measures for monitoring fatigue. Secondly, the dose-response relationship between training load and fatigue will be investigated, specifically the differences between using arbitrary and individualised speed thresholds. Thirdly, the dose-response relationship between training load and changes in aerobic fitness will be investigated. Finally, an intervention study will look to investigate if improvements in aerobic fitness reduce the effects of football related fatigue.

Publications/Outputs

Ade, J., Fitzpatrick, J., & Bradley, P. S. (2016). High-intensity efforts in elite soccer matches and associated movement patterns, technical skills and tactical actions. Information for position-specific training drills. Journal of Sports Sciences, 34(24), 2205-2214.

Fitzpatrick, J., Russell, M., & Hayes, P. (2016). Reliability of a fatigue response in elite youth football players. Paper presented at the 21st annual Congress of the European College of Sport Science, Vienna, Austria.