CQUni graduate scores role with Liverpool, one of world's top football clubs
Published on 31 October, 2011
Liverpool is one of the world's most famous sporting clubs, with players worth hundreds of millions of dollars and a fanatical world-wide following.
Now an academic who earned his exercise physiology PhD at our Rockhampton Campus has earned the chance to work alongside the club's coaches and trainers to improve player performance.
Grant Abt displays some of his sports-related apps for iPad and iPhone
Dr Grant Abt, based at the University of Hull, has developed an exclusive iPad application to aid the players' training and match day performances.
The app allows each player to provide feedback about how they are feeling after training or playing. Then data on their Rating of Perceived Exertion (RPE) is automatically collated and sent to coaching staff.
Dr Abt said RPE is a useful monitoring tool because tiredness or emotional stress may not be detected by taking heart rates or other indicators.
"Collecting a range of data gives the coaches the chance to gauge how their players are feeling and monitor training more closely."
Liverpool has worked with the app throughout their pre-season and early season campaign in the English Premier League.
Dr Abt has earned his stripes as an Apple Distinguished Educator recently as he also developed a TimeMotion app which has been downloaded by professional sport scientists around the world. This app enables data to be collected to help with motion analysis.
The Aussie academic moved to the UK in 2000 and has established an international research profile examining the performance and physiological responses of elie football referees. This project culminated in a review in the Journal of Sports Medicine.
Dr Abt has an ongoing research focus on physiological and biochemical responses to football match play.
While at CQUniversity, he studied the effect of the sports supplement creatine on performance during prolonged intermittent exercise.
During his first few years in the United Kingdom, Grant worked as a sports scientist with West Ham United Football Club in London, on a consultancy basis. He also made early research links with Bolton Wanderers and Glasgow Celtic.