Ellie Farwell
Ellie describes the experience of working in a professional Sports Science environment.
Hello! My name is Ellie I completed a placement year as part of my Sport and Exercise Science degree at Southampton Football Club during the 2022/23 season. My main role at the club was within the academy, working as a Strength and Conditioning Volunteer with the male U23s team - although there were many opportunities to explore sports science across the boys’ and girls’ grassroots levels, U18s, men’s and women’s first teams too!
My time at the club allowed me to explore many amazing aspects of my course, and how they can be applied from U9s all the way up to first team Premier League football. A typical day would start with the planning and delivery of pre-activation/warm-up sessions prior to their training to ensure that all the players were physically prepared for the demands of the coaches’ drills. Following training, I would download, ‘clip’, and analyse the GPS data from the session to inform the rest of the Sport Science and Medical department on the physical load each player or the team experienced that day.
This data, combined with the qualitative feedback, is heavily relied upon to determine practice that follows, mainly from an injury prevention perspective. I felt this aspect of my role helped me to integrate with the highly reputable coaches and medical staff at the club. Imposter syndrome is a massive factor to be aware of if you’re considering a placement; how you deal with feelings of being the least qualified within the department and how quickly you can pick tricks of the job up, plays a massive role in your success on placement but also your overall happiness throughout the experience. Creating GPS reports also massively improved my ability to be critical with data and how best to communicate its meaning to professionals who might not be familiar with the software. This skill is heavily transferrable to any industry you choose to work in.
I am incredibly passionate about how much my placement year has helped me develop as a practitioner within a professional environment, which is understandable given the 12-month experience. Yet, the most important skill has been working on my ability to comfortably convey my knowledge and understanding in a manner that others can comprehend, something I struggled with prior to placement. This skill is invaluable when working in a team or when learning from others, which you will do constantly throughout your entire professional career!