The research I undertake all surrounds the common themes of health, performance, and athlete development. My passions in the area of research are very broad in a sense where I am looking to expand my horizons in order to gain an appreciation and an understanding of as much science and literature as I can. My main focuses in research surround optimizing human performance while also finding ways to mitigate the risk for injury, specifically in youth athletes. With this topic, I am able to branch of into many areas such as coach philosophy, sport pedagogy, long term athlete development, injury mitigation, and optimizing human performance.
My first experience in Academia started when I was in my fourth year of my Undergraduate degree at The University of Guelph-Humber, where I took on a research project revolving around early sport specialization and risk for injury under the supervision of Dr. John Srbely. While undertaking this research project and working as a research assistant with Dr. Kristina Lisk, I grew more and more intrigued by research which led me to pursue my Master of Science degree.
While undertaking my Master of Science under the supervision of Dr. John Srbely at The University of Guelph, I once again continued to research and develop in the realm of long term athlete development, sport specialization, injury risk in sport, and nociceptive pain. The experience of running my own research study and conducting the work involved with a study was an area that allowed for me to develop and grow within this field. I was also fortunate enough to be tasked with being a Teaching Assistant for 2 semesters and being able to facilitate lecture material, labs, as well as grade student work.
Taking my passion for sport performance and blending it with data analytics and research has led me to where I currently am studying at St. Mary's University - Twickenham as a Doctoral student in the faculty of Sport, Allied Health, and Performance Sciences. As a Doctoral student working under Dr. Hayley Legg and Dr. Dan Cleather, I plan to evolve my research in the realm of athlete development and more specifically in driving performance.
The word of academia can be a tough place for students, many times the students feel overwhelmed and pushed to breaking points due to the high stress environment. I firmly believe creating an environment that is built for success of all students is important when teaching any course at the university level.
When facilitating a course, I believe it is important to not only learn the theoretical knowledge, but to be able to apply the knowledge taught in class. I feel students need to have a good understanding of the theory, but if the student cannot apply the theory, then the theory becomes wasteful. Post-Secondary education should not revolve around who can memorize the knowledge better will succeed better in the course.
When grading students, I feel a balanced approach should be taken in terms of both tests/exams and assignments. I believe all courses should have at least 1 group assignment for the students as this will help build rapport amongst peers but will also serve as valuable lessons for the students to learn communication, and interpersonal skills in which they will be able to carry with them for the remainder of their lives.
In closing, my teaching philosophy revolves around a balanced and holistic approach to not only the theoretical knowledge but, the ability for the students to also learn and develop the necessary application based skills for the course at hand. Having a balanced mixture of exams/tests and assignments, allows for the students to portray the knowledge they possess in a variety of forms and in turn expand their knowledge base.
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