Louis, Durotimi & Sydney Dive into Sport Psychology Research

In this week's SPRINT Project blog we are meeting Louis Miles, Durotimi Thompson, and Sydney Claxton, who are completing an MSc in Physiotherapy at the University of Birmingham. Keep reading to find out all about them and how they will be getting involved with the team! 

 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Hi there! We are excited to introduce ourselves as the current first year MSc Physiotherapy students who are doing our research placements with the SPRINT team. For the next four weeks, we will be working with our supervisor, Prof Jennifer Cumming, on different sport and dance psychology projects.  

Intro to Louis:  

Hi there! My name is Louis Miles and I’m a 1st year MSc Physiotherapy student here at The University of Birmingham having recently graduated with first class honours from The University of Kent in BSc Sports Therapy and Rehabilitation (BASRAT accredited). 

I am very excited to be working on the SPRINT project with Prof. Jennifer Cummings as it will develop my previous knowledge surrounding sport psychology and teach me a variety of new skills to take with me into my career as a physiotherapist.  

I played pretty much every sport in school; Football, rugby, basketball, tennis, cricket, table tennis, athletics and I am an avid skier, but have followed football more seriously by playing semi-professionally prior to university and playing for The University of Birmingham & The University of Kent men’s 1st team. Having these sports as a background has taught me a lot of psychological aspects including the effect of intrinsic and extrinsic feedback, motivation, mental imagery, recovery from injuries and many more. I believe that broadening my depth of knowledge in this area will allow for me to keep transferring this knowledge into my sporting life and over my career as a physiotherapist.  

Image description: Louis playing football

Intro to Durotimi:  

My name is Durotimi Thompson, I am an international student at the University of Birmingham, currently in my first year of doing a physiotherapy MSc. Before coming to Birmingham, I did a BSc in Kinesiology in Toronto, Canada. While I was studying my passion for learning about the human body and rehabilitation grew tremendously. This experience led me to work as a kinesiologist, where I got the experience to treat and rehabilitate patients myself. This eventually led me to pursue further education in an MSc in Physiotherapy, as I want to educate myself on how I can rehabilitate patients to the best of my ability. 

As of now, I find most of my enjoyment working out at the gym and playing basketball. As someone who loves sports and is interested in rehabilitation, I am excited to deepen my knowledge of sports psychology over the next 5 weeks. 

Image description: Durotimi standing outside

Intro to Sydney: 

Hi, I’m Sydney Claxton! I’m a first year MSc (pre-reg) physiotherapy student. I am lucky to have the SPRINT Project research as my very first placement at the University of Birmingham. I previously studied at the University of Western Ontario in Canada where I completed a Bachelor of Arts with an Honours Specialization in Kinesiology.  

Having only recently moved to the United Kingdom I found a very welcoming community in both Olympic Weightlifting and Rugby – two brand new sports for me - and am excited to be involved in research that takes what we can learn from sport and applies it to new territories to improve lives. 

I have a strong interest in exercise- and sport-psychology so I  can’t wait to see what working alongside the team at SPRINT brings and to take this experience and the knowledge gained forward to my future endeavours.  

Image description: Sydney in her car

---

Written by Louis Miles, Durotimi Thompson, & Sydney Claxton