4 years with placement

In your final year, you’ll consolidate and add to what you’ve learned on the course so far by practising as a coach, furthering your knowledge of how we measure and evaluate athletic performance, and boosting your employability. You’ll learn how to rehabilitate athletes at the late and pre-discharge stages of recovery, so that they can return to competitive sport at their pre-injury standard with a reduced risk of re-injury. We’ll train you to help clients of all abilities reach their potential by teaching them how to use free weights, and correcting and monitoring their techniques and performance.

You’ll discover how to develop children and young people as athletes in educational and recreational settings. You’ll learn how to endow them with physical literacy and fundamental movement skills to maximise their athletic potential and encourage their lifelong participation in sports and physical activity. You’ll also find out about the pressures and competition for work and funding experienced by coaches in performance sport, and what will be expected of you if you choose to work in this field.

You also have the options to explore how training programmes are designed to avoid and offset fatigue in order to maximise performance, explore biomechanics in more detail, learn how to apply biomechanical interventions to help clients at all levels improve their technique and reduce their predisposition to injury, and critically evaluate how methods used in training alter the body in a variety of ways.

We’ll use a range of assessment methods to help you measure your progress. These include presentations, practical skills tests, scientific reports, case study critiques, online assessments and a research project. We’ll also encourage you to reflect on your work, and participate in peer assessment.

Introduction

Study in Cambridge for a rewarding career as a strength and conditioning coach. Learn about exercise science, movement, coaching and rehabilitation – then apply your knowledge across different population groups.

If your ambition is to be a strength and conditioning coach and be able to work across the fitness and health industry, this course is for you.

At ARU, we're proud to be ranked number 1 in the country for sports science courses in the Guardian League Table 2021.

This is an exciting and diverse course where you'll discover that strength and conditioning is more than just gym work. You'll help athletes to develop the speed, agility, endurance and strength they need to compete at the highest levels. You'll consider correcting movement patterns to improve efficiency or avoid injury; and adopt different coaching methods for the different performers you work with. At times, you’ll need to understand how to progress the rehabilitation of an injured client.

But there are options outside of professional sport too, with an emerging and urgent need for qualified fitness professionals to engage the community in physical activity. You’ll consider different populations in the community and how you could support their differing needs. As mentioned, strength and conditioning professionals will work alongside rehabilitation specialists so providing a seamless transition for the client back into sport or being active in the community again.

Our Sport and Exercise Science course is aligned to UK Strength and Conditioning Association standards and endorsed by the Chartered Institute for the Management of Sport and Physical Activity (CIMSPA), so you'll graduate ready to work in the UK’s burgeoning sport and fitness industry or to continue your learning journey to postgraduate study. Find out more about our approved and accredited courses.