Scottish Gymnastics Student Placement Programme
Each year Scottish Gymnastics offers two sports science students a 10-week placement to support key projects within our performance team. Their research enhances our work and commitment to gymnast health across the sport.
This year’s applications and interviews were so inspiring, we offered the placement to four third year students from Heriot Watt University. Aroush Sheikh, Jenna Penman and Dan Mann researched aspects of female athlete health and Isla Howie looked at fundamental movement at the early levels of the sport.
Three main female athlete health areas were allocated to Aroush, Jenna and Dan. Aroush researched the area of breast health. Jenna researched the area of the menstrual cycle and how it affects performance. Dan looked at gold standard partnerships and education across other sporting governing bodies and organisations in Scotland, Wales and England.
Isla completed research on the value of fundamental movement skills for the foundations part of the gymnastics pathway and beyond. She also considered their contribution to foundation level strength and conditioning and physical literacy.
The students presented their findings to the Scottish Gymnastics staff. They provided valuable insights into each of the topic areas they researched. Their work contributed to our understanding of athlete health and demonstrated the importance of collaboration between academia and sports organisations.
Each of the students carried out a total of 80 hours of work for our team. They have created a set of recommendations for us within their project areas for our performance team. We will incorporate their findings, proposal for education and the way we educate into our four-year female athlete health strategy.
We are proud to support these talented students and look forward to seeing the positive impact of their research on the future of sports science.