Located on the top floor of Sport & Fitness, the University of Birmingham Sport Performance Centre offers one of the best specialist support teams in the UK for developing athletic performance. We work with students, staff and the Birmingham community as well as professional athletes on an individual and team basis. Offering the latest specialised sports science and medicine support delivered to you by a team of multidisciplinary experts; we can help you perform at your optimum level.
Our team of experts work closely together to create an integrated support plan tailored to your needs. Our expert support is underpinned by scientific theory and the latest research with the use of state of the art specialist equipment, including the AlterG© Anti-Gravity Treadmill and Altitude simulator.
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Before coming to the University of Birmingham my biggest achievements were with the GB Senior Team, winning silver medals at the European and Commonwealth Games. I chose Birmingham for the standard of the hockey coaching and team. Whilst studying, the sport scholarship allowed me to continue training at a high standard and improve my future potential. The specialist support provided by the Performance Team – strength and conditioning, physiology, nutrition, lifestyle and physiotherapy support ultimately helped me achieve my long term aim to win a medal at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.
Lily Owsley – Sport Scholar, Hockey |
We partner with individuals and teams from across the sport and fitness industry from local to Olympic levels.
Alan works with professional athletes and teams from the sports of Motocross and Mountain Biking and has coached 6 world Champions. He works closely with the Performance Centre team and performs testing and training from the facilities at the University of Birmingham.
In 2016 Alan coached Rachel Atherton to ‘the perfect season’ winning all world Cup events and retaining her World Championship title.
Rachel and Gee Atherton – both of whom are Downhill MTB World Champion
Manon Carpenter: 2014 Downhill MTB World Champion.
Brendan Fairclough: Team GB international Downhill MTB racer
Mark Scott: International Enduro MTB rider, ranked number 10 in the world
Joe Breeden: UK no.1 ranked Junior Downhill racer
Jamie Carpenter: UK Youth Motocross National Champion
Joe Wootton: International Enduro Motocross racer U23
Specialist Physiotherapy Assessment, Diagnosis & Treatment of injuries. Physiokinetic the team of physiotherapists has extensive experience in treating all kinds of musculoskeletal injuries, whether they are sports/hobby related, work related, or have just developed without obvious cause. Their physiotherapists work alongside University of Birmingham Sports Performance Centre team in supporting our national and international sport scholars.
Alex established the Performance Centre at the University of Birmingham Sport over 10 years ago. The aim of the centre is to provide integrated athlete-centred specialist support to talented athletes so that they can reach their sporting potential.
Alex brings over 20 years’ experience of working with national and international athletes and coaches, having worked with both Scottish and English Institutes of Sport, and NGB athletes and coaches. Alex’s specialist interest is in developing multidisciplinary specialist support systems which support transitional stage athletes – moving from junior to senior competition.
In addition Alex is a BASES Accredited Sport & Exercise Scientists & Laboratory director of the Performance Centre’s Physiology Lab. She is also a specialist in the body composition (Level 3 ISAK accredited anthropometrists) delivering training and assessing ISAK accreditation courses throughout UK and Europe for the past 10 years.
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