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• Although we have access to elite level equipment, the accessibility of the equipment was limited. We as a group weren't aloud to book the equipment ourselves, so our supervisor James had to book it for us. He ideally had to find a time where we had access to everything at once for the best efficiency. Furthermore, we had to try and find the best possible time where all of the group was there and where we could bring along the most participants.

• On the day the S&C suite space was shared with Rochdale FC which meant we had less room for the testing and we had to make sure no one was getting in the way of each other or the Rochdale players.

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I have always been active growing up playing a range of sports, with my main sport being Football. I have always been interested in becoming a better athlete and ever since my second year Strength and Conditioning unit I gained a wealth of knowledge and the means to become a better athlete. I am a centre back who plays for the University's first team, receiving players' player of the year, and play semi-professionally for Wythenshawe FC. Furthermore, as a Centre Back it is important to be physically dominant over your opponents. Therefore, I want to expand my knowledge and understand more how to become stronger and more powerful, and see if there is a correlation to other aspects of athleticism so I can also help others.

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On Wednesday 30th October we had our first meeting with our project supervisor James Shaw, we had to finalise our research question and we were tasked with finding 5 articles on how strength and power effect speed and what they do and don't do well, for the next meeting, as a beginning to start the Literature review

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Approval for the Project from the ethics Panel

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Approval for the Project from the ethics Panel

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When I was completing my Ethos, I completed the Moodle training on Academic Integrity

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On Monday 9th December we had our second meeting with Dr. James Shaw where we discussed relevant articles we had found and used them formulate the introduction section of the project. We were also assigned to try and get participants over Christmas and the New Year with a Draft introduction. The image attached is my Draft Introduction with feedback from James. The 5 readings I completed for this meeting were:

• Baker, D. and Nance, S., 1999. The relation between running speed and measures of strength and power in professional rugby league players. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 13(3), pp.230-235

• Bissas, A. and Havenetidis, K., 2008. The use of various strength-power tests as predictors of sprint running performance. Journal of sports medicine and physical fitness, 48(1), pp.49-54.

• Comfort, P., Stewart, A., Bloom, L. and Clarkson, B., 2014. Relationships between strength, sprint, and jump performance in well-trained youth soccer players. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 28(1), pp.173-177.

• Cronin, J.B. and Hansen, K.T., 2005. Strength and power predictors of sports speed. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 19(2), pp.349-357.

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Over the new year period our group had to find the participants. I personally used my contacts in the Football team to reach out to as many participants as possible. We ended up with 20 participants total

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We had the S&C suite and the Football Dome at Platt Lane booked from 9AM-12AM on Tuesday 4th March.

Upon arrival we ensured that everyone signed a consent form, we them measured their height and weight, using SECA 321 digital scales (Vogel & Halke, Hamburg, Germany) and SECA 321 stadiometer (Vogel & Halke, Hamburg, Germany). We then carried out a warm up which consisted of, lunges, squats and vertical jumps. This warm up was designed to activate key muscle groups.

We then demonstrated and explained the Isometric mid-thigh pull so they were able to do it. They had 3 maximal attempts and then once recovered they went over to another set of force plates where they would then complete 3 maximal Counter movement jumps, after seeing a demonstration.

They then went over to the Dome on the 3G artificial surface, which is the same surface as which most games are played on. After a warm up of, light jogging, high knees, walking lunges, leg swings, A skips, bounding drills and progressive strides. They completed 3 maximal sprints through electronic timing gates (Microgate, Italy), with their time measured at 10m, 20m and 30m.

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This is the spreadsheet where we gathered the participants name, sport, position, DoB, height, weight and sprint splits for 3 maximal efforts over 10m, 20m and 30m

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On Tuesday 18th March we had our third meeting with Dr. James Shaw where we discussed our methods and results section and how to write them up and present them in our dissertation.

We had to do a Pearson's correlation coefficient test in SPSS to determine the relationships of the IMTP and CMJ data over 10m, 20m and 30m sprint.

We had to create at least 2 tables, one for each the IMTP and CMJ data. The image attached is one of the tables I created, this is the CMJ correlation data.

We were also assigned do have a draft Methods and results section completed before our next meeting in a weeks time.

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On Tuesday 25th March we had our fourth meeting with Dr. James Shaw where we recapped our methods and results, and spoke about starting our discussion, practical applications and abstract.

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• Reflecting on recruiting participants I thought it was going to be easier to recruit more, being part of the football team. However, I found that a lot of the team who initially agreed to participate dropped out closer to the time. This is mostly due to the date where we could get all of the equipment was during reading week where a lot of students weren't in Manchester.

• If we weren't able to get as many Participants this would've been a problem, the data would've been more effected by anomalies which means that it wouldn't be as accurate.

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• The Graph above is all of the significant CMJ and IMTP variables

• CMJ variables (Jump height, relative propulsive power, net impulse) had strong negative correlations with sprint times over 10m, 20m and 30m.

• CMJ Jump height (r = -0.822) had the strongest correlation, showing explosive vertical power is highly linked to sprint speed

• IMTP relative peak force also showed significant correlations but was less predictive than CMJ metrics.

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• Power (how fast force is produced) was more closely linked to sprint performance than maximal strength.

• Relative strength and power (adjusted for body mass) are more relevant than absolute values in sprinting.

• Sprinting is a power to weight activity, producing force efficiently without being slowed down by excess body mass.

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• CMJ is a practical, non-invasive test that strongly predicts sprint potential.

• Strong CMJ correlations across all sprint distances suggest it's useful for evaluating acceleration and MAX. velocity phases.

• Modified reactive Strength Index (mRSI) at 20-30m highlighted the importance of elastic ability and stretch shortening cycle (SSC)

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• Time of testing (morning) may have impacted athlete performance due to nutrition/ hydration not being optimal.

• Sprint technique wasn't assessed, some poor sprint times may be technical, not physical.

• Only vertical force was tested (CMJ & IMTP), acceleration will mostly rely on horizontal force application

• No follow up testing or intervention to assess training effects over time.

• Sample size could be larger (n=20)

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• To investigate the relationship between lower body strength and power to sprint speed in high-level male Rugby and Football players. Specifically the study examined whether isometric strength and power outputs can predict sprint performance over 10m, 20m and 30m.

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• To assess how countermovement jump (CMJ) variables relate to sprint time

• To examine whether isometric mid-thigh pull (IMTP) strength correlates with sprint performance.

• To compare which test (CMJ vs IMTP) is more strongly associated with sprint performance

• To provide practical insights for coaches to optimise sprint focused training

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• This research project taught me the importance of planning, consistency and attention to detail when working with real athletes and performance data

• I learned the power of competition, any athlete competing at a high level has to have a competitive streak, with encouragement they will wanting to perform at their best to beat their peers also testing

• Managing time effectively and adapting when unexpected challenges arose strengthened my problem solving and organisational skills

• I gained confidence in using performance testing equipment.