research

The Cutting Edge

Why do we devote time and resource into research?

• Student Athlete Welfare and Wellness
  • Our student-athlete welfare and wellness is by far our highest priority. Our philosophy at OU Athletics is that we must commit our resources to serve our student-athletes to the best of our ability. These insights allows us to better care for our student-athletes here at Oklahoma and our research and findings allows programs around the world to learn from our conclusions.
• Gaining an Advantage
  • If we aren’t the leader in research, then we are reading someone else’s research and findings – that means we are behind and have now lost competitive advantage.
  • We are one of four groups doing this kind of work on a consistent basis for the sport. Peers include a group from Spain, a group from the U.K. and a team from Australia. 

What sets our research apart?

• Our team is dedicated to student-athlete wellness and optimization as well as science and research. The additional groups mentioned above are committed to the science but are not working with student-athletes on a day-to-day basis. Our staff is committed to a wholistic approach that includes well-rounded assessment.

How do you see the research and studies impacting the industry around the world?

• While Gatorade is known to be a worldwide consultant, they approached our sports science team to share our work on counter-movement jump analysis and acute fatigue.   We are essentially “teaching the teachers” – Gatorade now uses their training and knowledge gained from our team to go around the world teaching and consulting. 

Looking to the future…
Investing in people and growing sports science here at Oklahoma is vital. If we want to take our program to the next level, increasing the number of scientists on our team is a necessity.  

---