Hammers team up with university in player recovery research

West Ham have teamed up with Swansea University in a bid to understand more about the best techniques to aid players' post-match recovery. The rigours of modern day Premier League football are such that a quick jog around the park doesn't quite cut it for a warm-down any more, and a new collaborative study between the club and the university have shed some interesting light on the issue.

According to Dr Liam Kildruff, of Swansea University's School of Engineering, a new recovery strategy based on the increasingly of muscle blood flow, has already paid dividends for rugby players and now could be set to be introduced on permanently within the Irons' medical department.


"Studies have highlighted that sprinting, high intensity running and changes of direction are the main factors in a game that impact on a player's physiological recovery. The study we've just completed with West Ham uses well established markers of recovery to examine how a new recovery strategy may aid players recovery."

The study was worked on by Kildruff, current Swansea Masters student Tom Taylor and Swansea graduates Matt Evans and Eamon Swift, now Head of  Sports Science and Assistant Sports Scientist respectively at the Boleyn Ground.

Swift certainly thinks the research is something worth implementing in the long term, with positive results already being produced.

"Player recovery is a key area in professional football and one that we have been looking at for years- Swansea University's reputation in elite sports research is second to none and we feel this research has great potential in our environment, in particular around periods of intense scheduling and travel demands. A number of our senior players have reported back to me that they feel the recovery method has aided in their post-game recovery."

 And a strong relationship between the two parties has now been forged, says Kildruff.

"Three of our Sports Science graduates are now working at West Ham and we have a strong working relationship with the club- hopefully this relationship, based on collaboration and knowledge exchange, will grow in the future."

All this is fantastic news, given the problems the club has had with injuries over the past few seasons.. here's to a more sparsely populated treatment room at Upton Park!

By Alex Shilling, News Editor

@alexshilling