Minor Sport Science

Content minor Sport Science

The minor Sport Science offers students a multidisciplinary introduction to contemporary issues in the field of sport science. Students with a range of different academic backgrounds will be taught courses by experts from the fields of medical, behavioural, social and economic sciences. Through a series of lectures, tutorials, practical sessions, presentations and assignments, students will gain insight into the knowledge, methods and research used in the field of sport science.

The minor Sport Science is offered in two packages of 15 ECTS. In the first package there are two compulsory and two elective courses. Students are required to choose one of the two elective courses to come to a total of 15 ECTS in package 1. Package 2 consists out of three compulsory courses and it is advisable (but not required) to follow package 1 prior to package 2. Each package provides a cohesive introduction to the field of sport science based on three specific themes:

Sport & Healthy Aging

The focus here is on the physical and psychological factors involved in sport and exercise participation: ranging from promoting an active healthy lifestyle, to the prevention and rehabilitation of injuries.

Sport & Performance

This theme focuses on the identification and development of talented athletes, and the theories and techniques necessary for sport performance analysis.

Sport & Sustainable Society

This theme focuses on the social, cultural and economic impact of sport on society.

In the minor Sport Science, you will learn to:

• Develop domain specific knowledge in the areas of sport and healthy aging, sport and performance, and sport and sustainable society;
• Gain insight into the role and impact of sport science research in the three main themes;
• Apply a multidisciplinary approach to contemporary issues in sport science research.

Coordinator: Dr. Anne Benjaminse, Department for Human Movement Sciences, University Medical Centre Groningen
E-mail: minorsportscience umcg.nl

Packages Minor Sport Science

Course overview

Course descriptions

Talent development in sport

ECTS: 5

Who are the elite athletes of the future? What is the importance of growth, maturation and learning? A series of task, personal and environmental characteristics are involved in the development of elite sport talent. In this course, important general theories, concepts and models will be presented. The role of personal characteristics, such as physical, technical, tactical and psychological factors, will be discussed. Meanwhile, environmental influences such as the role of parents and coaches in an athlete’s progression to the top will be clarified.

Course organiser: Dr. Anne Benjaminse (Faculty of Medical Sciences/UMCG, Department of Human Movement Sciences) e-mail: minorsportscience umcg.nl

Sport and health

ECTS: 5

The course provides students with the opportunity of gaining an insight into the development of sports and exercise medicine, more explicitly: the effects of active lifestyle on healthy aging, the negative effects of injuries, the development in research and implementation of injury prevention in sports, and the use of sports and exercise in primary and secondary prevention of disease, costs of health care, individual disease load and physical activity for people with disabilities. The course will be divided into weekly themes, each containing an overview and introductory lecture, followed by an assignment, and short group presentations.

Course organiser: Dr. Inge Scheek (Faculty of Medical Sciences/UMCG, Sportmedisch Centrum & Orthopedie) e-mail: i.scheek umcg.nl

Sport and performance psychology

ECTS: 5, Elective

In this course, we review the key concepts, theories, models, and research findings from the field of sport and performance psychology. Students will be challenged to recognize their scholarly significance, to infer their implications, to think critically about them, and to put them into practice.

Course organiser: Prof. dr. Nico van Yperen (Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences, Department of Psychology) e-mail: n.van.yperen rug.nl

Sport in history, culture and the media

ECTS: 5, Elective

We are so accustomed to the central role of sport in our daily life and in the media, that we tend to think that sport and mass sport are universal phenomena. Mass sport - both as regularized competition and as systematic individual training- is in fact historically contingent. It depends on a range of cultural, social and political factors, that determine the place of sport and athletes in society, that guide who can participate and under which conditions, and that influence how sport is valued in society at large.

This course offers a broad overview of the main historical trajectories of sport from antiquity to the present day. It will give special attention to the cultural political and social-economic factors that enable and regulate sport activity, and investigate the place of sport as a practice and idea and their societal impact from a historical perspective. We shall study how sport and athletes are represented and discussed in different kinds of media over time: from art and literature to journalism, radio and TV, and social media; and investigate how these representations have in their turn influenced the role of sport and athletes in society.

Course organiser: Prof. dr. Onno van Nijf (Faculty of Arts, Ancient History) e-mail: o.m.van.nijf rug.nl

Sport performance analysis

ECTS: 5

Sport performance analysis is an emerging academic and professional area of the sport and exercise science industry. It can be defined as an objective way of recording performance so that key elements of that performance, i.e. key performance indicators, can be quantified in a reliable and valid manner with the goal to provide information to coaches and athletes in order to plan subsequent practices and improve performance. The course aims to allow the students to engage in the processes of sport performance analysis in individual sports, like running and cycling and team sports, like soccer and volleyball by 1) critically discuss research and literature and 2) develop practical skills to generate, analyse and interpret data. The facilities of the SportsFieldLab Groningen at Zernike will provide an ideal learning environment.

Course organiser: Dr. Anne Benjaminse (Faculty of Medical Sciences/UMCG, Department of Human Movement Sciences) e-mail: minorsportscience umcg.nl

Sport education and participation

ECTS: 5

During this course, we will focus on motor skills development and different aspects of sports education and participation in the light of ‘dealing with differences’. In this course, we will focus on questions such as: what factors affect the development of motor skills? How do typically developing children and children from special populations acquire motor skills? What are the goals of Physical Education (PE) and how are they attained? How can PE teachers accommodate to differences between students?

Course organiser: Anneke Timmermans, a.c.timmermans rug.nl

Sports Economics

ECTS: 5

This course consists of two parts. In the main lecture, a review is given of modern literature on the economics of sports. Important topics are: demand for sports, supply of sports, the outcome of sport events, the market for (top)talent, sport and the government, marketing of sports. During tutorial sessions, the theory is applied to simple problems, recent development are discussed, etc. Students are expected to participate during the tutorials. Finally, students write a paper in teams of two on a topic of their choice. Of course, that topic should be related to sport economics. One or two guest lecturers will provide another perspective on current developments.

Course organiser: Prof. Ruud Koning (Faculty of Economics and Business, Department of Economics, Econometrics & Finance) e-mail: r.h.koning rug.nl

Organizational information

The minor Sport Science is offered by the Faculty of Medical Sciences and for all minor-related questions students can contact the minor coordinator: minorsportscience umcg.nl. The minor Sport Science is coupled to the Teaching and Examination Regulations (TER), exam committee and programme committee of the bachelor Human Movement Sciences. This accounts for the minor in general and for the courses ‘Sport and health’, ‘Talent development in sport’ and ‘Sport performance analysis'. The other four courses are offered by other faculties and are therefore coupled to other committees and TER.

The courses ‘Sport education and participation’ and ‘Sport and performance psychology’ are coupled to the Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences and to the associated TER. In addition, the course ‘Sport education and participation’ is coupled to the TER, exam committee and programme committee of Pedagogy and Educational Sciences. The course ‘Sport and performance psychology’ is additionally coupled to the TER, exam committee and programme committee of the Bachelor Psychology.

The course ‘Sports Economics’ is coupled to the TER and exam committee of the Faculty of Economics and Business and to the programme committee of Econometrics.

The course ‘Sport in History, Culture and the Media’ is coupled to the faculty of Arts. The coupled TER, exam committee and programme committee are to be announced.

Enrolment procedure

All students need to enroll for the minor Sport Science courses on ProgRESS WWW between May 24 2024, 12:00, and July 5 2024, 23:59.

After enrolling for Package 1 and/or Package 2 of the minor Sport Science, you are enrolled automatically for all courses within the package.

However, from July 15 - 31, 2024 you must indicate in Progress.www which elective course(s) from Package 1 you prefer (you can pick one or both) and unenroll for the other course if you will follow only one of these two courses*.

Package 1, elective courses:

Sport and performance psychology* (PSB3E-IO11)

Sport in history, culture and the media* (LGX226B05)

Also, if you decide to not follow a course / entire minor: you need to unenroll yourself from ProgRESS WWW as soon as possible.