The Faculty of Sports and Exercise Medicine of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland recently hosted their Spring Symposium in collaboration with the Sport & Human Performance Research Centre at the University of Limerick.
The theme of the online event was Sports Injuries & Athletic Development in the Young Athlete. The event was co-chaired by Dr Matthew Cosgrave, Consultant Sports & Exercise Medicine Physician, UPMC Sports Surgery Clinic, Santry, Dublin and Dr Mark Matthews,Course director of MSc Sports and Exercise Medicine & MSC Sports and Exercise Nutrition, Ulster University, & lecturer in Sport and Exercise medicine.
The first speaker was PESS PhD candidate and MTU Kerry lecturer Fionn Fitzgerald who provided an overview of growth and maturation in relation to athletic development, covering his recent publications on the prevalence and estimation of maturation in Gaelic Games.
The second speaker was PESS Associate Professor Phil Kearney who explored the definition of healthy sports participation for youth athletes. Phil’s talk covered the variety of interpretations of “specialisation”, the challenges associated with promoting multi-sport participation, and drew attention to both the Lifelong Participation in Sport & Physical Activity (LISPA) model and the International Olympic Committee consensus statement on youth athletic development.
Contributions from speakers outside of UL were provided by Mr Cameron Tucker-White – Lead U9-U16 Athletic Development Coach at Brentford FC – who provided an overview of the Athletic Development Programme in a Premier League Academy, Mr Sam Oussedik – Knee, Sports & Trauma Surgeon, Clinical Director of Trauma & Orthopaedics, University College London Hospitals, NHS Foundation Trust – who spoke about Decision making in the Adolescent ACL Injury, and Prof James MacDonald – Clinical Professor of Family Medicine and Pediatrics, Ohio State University (OSU) College of Medicine. Associate Division Chief of Research, Division of Sports Medicine, Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Ohio – who spoke about Finding the Sweet Spot. A strong sympatico between the talks of Dr Kearney and Prof MacDonald was in the emphasis on appropriate encouragement of play at all levels of athletic development.
Dr. Phil Kearney is the Course Director of the MSc Applied Sports Coaching within the PESS Department here at the University of Limerick.
View Phil’s profile: https://pure.ul.ie/en/persons/philip-kearney
philip.kearney@ul.ie (for MSc inquiries please email ASC@ul.ie)
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