A PhD in Sport and Exercise Science at UWA will help you unlock your power to enhance the success and performance of elite athletes and sporting teams.
And with UWA’s vast industry connections, you’ll have the opportunity to undertake your PhD at organisations such as the Western Australian Institute of Sport (WAIS).
We interviewed Daniel Astridge, a third-year PhD student at WAIS, about his research and how it impacts the performance of elite athletes.
Moving from Aberdeen, Scotland to Perth to study his PhD was an easy decision for Daniel, mainly due to UWA’s “longstanding and strong relationship with WAIS and its High-Performance Sport Research Centre”.
The research centre offered a scholarship for joint work and research with the WAIS Rowing program with the aim of optimising athlete performance. The opportunity to study at a university as historic and prestigious as UWA, while conducting research and working with a group of elite level athletes, was too great of an opportunity to turn down.”Daniel Astridge, UWA PhD Candidate
Studying at UWA has not only allowed Daniel to create a strong network of professional connections, but also a lot of friends by playing for the UWA-Nedlands Football Club. Daniel’s favourite memory of studying at UWA so far was being the captain for his team in the UniSport Nationals Week.
What has your experience at WAIS been like so far?
“The PhD students at WAIS are treated like any other member of staff, which is an incredible opportunity to learn and develop key skills we will need to be successful in the workplace following our studies. We are given access to the best athletes in the state to be participants in our research and have supervisors who have completed PhD’s previously themselves but are now working as applied practitioners, so can give us great advice from both an academic and professional lens.”What are you researching?
“At the 2028 Olympics, the rowing racing distance will be reduced from 2000m to 1500m, the shortest in Olympic history. My research aims to compare the physical and physiological capacities required for maximal performance across the traditional and new distance.”Why have you focused your research on this area?
“The change in racing distance is very significant, as 2000m has been the standard racing distance in rowing since 1912 for male athletes and 1988 for female athletes. Research is required to understand the physiological differences between maximal racing over each distance, which will then allow coaches and practitioners to help athletes to perform to the best of their ability over 1500m.”
How will your research impact athletes?
“Following the Paris 2024 Games, attention will turn to LA 2028 where rowing will be competed over 1500m. I hope that my research will lead to some practical outcomes which coaches and sport scientists can apply with their athletes that allow them to improve performance over the shorter, and unfamiliar, racing distance.” “So far I have completed two studies, the first completed in the lab on a rowing ergometer, and the second completed on water. Both studies have shown that rowers are very much used to optimising performance over 2000m, and struggle to increase speed or power output over the shorter distance. This shows us that work is required to optimise and maximise performance over the 25% shorter race.”
Where do you see yourself in ten years?
“The ideal goal is to be at the 2028 Olympics as a member of staff with a national rowing program. I have loved my time in Australia working with Oz athletes, so I think it would be special if I was able to be part of the Australian Olympic team in LA.”
Hear more about what our PhD students at WAIS have to say about their experiences so far
Interested to find out where a PhD in Sport and Exercise Science could take you?
Find out more about our postgraduate study options including the Doctor of Philosophy.
