University of East London Homepage

Can UEL technology and expertise give West Ham the winning touch?

Monday 17 September 2012

Matt Taylor West Ham Bod Pod

Almost the entire West Ham United first team turned up at the University of East London today to take part in a series of highly specialised physical tests, intended to give them the upper hand this season, having recently re-entered the upper echelons of league football.

The team found themselves back in the Premier League following a 2-1 win over Blackpool in the play-off final at Wembley back in May and now hope that specialist data gleaned from a series of tests the players will undergo at UEL’s School of Health, Sport and Bioscience could help keep them there for the long-term.

Star players, including defender Winston Reid, midfielder Matt Taylor, goalkeeper Jussi Jaaskelainen and striker Ricardo Vaz Te took part in tests to measure hip flexibility, ‘landing mechanics’ and ‘single leg function’. They also all submitted to a stint in the University’s Bod Pod, a futuristic looking isolation chamber, which measures body fat and lean muscle mass.

West Ham’s strength and conditioning coach, Monty Columbo, said: “There’s so much science out there nowadays making footballers into better players. We have tests we can do at our training ground but what we’re going to get from coming here today is really good biomechanical video-analysed data, which we can use to individualise training and fitness programmes. We hope to see a significant improvement over the season from the players using this kind of exercise.”

He added: “It’s brilliant to have facilities like this we can use. It can only be a good thing for West Ham and the University of East London to be working together. If you look at most American sports, the big teams are always linked to a university. We have a fantastic relationship with UEL and it’s one we hope to make stronger in the coming years.”

Midfielder, Matt Taylor, said: “The big thing we’re trying to do this year is to deal with injuries before they happen. We’re doing a lot here today to find out what parts of our bodies need strengthening. Once the findings are put forward to the medical team, we will each have a specific injury prevention plan, adapting our individual training programmes accordingly. The expertise of the staff here at UEL can only help us in our quest to stay match fit.”

Dr Nick Bourne, project lead for UEL, said: “A number of our final year students are doing research projects with West Ham, all designed to give feedback to the coaches and players to enhance their performance. West Ham is the number one football club in East London, so it’s a logical partnership and one we hope goes from strength to strength. We are delighted to be helping them out.”

Notes to Editors

The University of East London (UEL) is a global learning community with over 28,000 students from over 120 countries world-wide. Our vision is to achieve recognition, both nationally and internationally, as a successful and inclusive regional university proud of its diversity, committed to new modes of learning which focus on students and enhance their employability, and renowned for our contribution to social, cultural and economic development, especially through our research and scholarship. We have a strong track-record in widening participation and working with industry.

Information for screenreader users:

For a general description of these pages and an explanation of how they should work with screenreading equipment please follow this link: Link to general description

For further information on this web site’s accessibility features please follow this link: Link to accessibility information