Carroll University Sport Performance Institute
Sport Science Research

Advancing Sport Through Science

While an abundance of exercise science research that focuses on the relationship between exercise and physiological mechanisms and health issues exists using college-aged individuals as participants, the same cannot be said for sport science research. Currently, there is a lack of sport science research that focuses on the improvement of athletic performance being completed within the United States. While more colleges and universities have started to complete more sport science research, most of the sport science research that does exist focuses on NCAA Division I or II athletes. While successful tactical strategies for each collegiate sport are well-known across all competitive levels, the physical, physiological, biomechanical and psychological characteristics of Division III athletes that determine success are not as well-known and require further investigation.

Sport Research Solutions

Using the technology within the Exercise and Sport Science Laboratory in Lower Ganfield, the CUSPI regularly assesses the performances of Carroll University student-athletes as part of a long-term athlete monitoring program. While the information collected during monitoring sessions are used to provide feedback for coaches and athletes, it also allows the CUSPI staff to provide further long-term insight about the alterations among athletes at all levels of maturity, ability, and experience. Despite being incredibly valuable information, very little exists among collegiate athletes, especially at the Division III level. Another benefit of long-term athlete monitoring is the ability to conduct a four-year athlete monitoring study (freshman to senior) to help provide a greater understanding of the intercollegiate sport experience at the Division III level. These data would provide invaluable information for sport coaches as well as the health and medical community. Furthermore, it would help establish a database of normative performance values that currently does not exist. This type of research may be viewed as “hypothesis-generating” or “discovery research,” which could result in experimental hypothesis-testing research designs.

Additional sport science research may use hypothesis-testing designs to answer specific questions that may unfold from the athlete monitoring program or from interactions between the sport scientists and coaches. Examples of such studies may include investigating:

The relationship between specific fitness characteristics (e.g. strength, power, flexibility, etc.) and sport performance.
Differences between different resistance training methods and their effects on short- and long-term strength-power or endurance performance adaptations.
Nutritional interventions with various supplements or nutrient timing.
Exercise technique alterations or mechanical ergogenic aids.