Master of High Performance Sport

A professional working in this industry needs to know about testing protocols to assess athlete performance, principles of strength and conditioning, and the technologies available for monitoring and training the high performance athlete. They will need to understand the relationships between fatigue, adaptation, performance and injury, how to acquire meaningful performance data, and how to work within the culture of a high performance industry.

The application of this knowledge and understanding to the planning and delivery of meaningful interventions for athletes to enhance performance and reduce the likelihood (and/or duration) of injury and illness, using appropriate techniques of analysis to accurately interpret competition and training information, and using advanced information literacy skills to communicate ideas and outcomes to specialist and non-specialist audiences is essential for a professional working in the high performance sport environment.

Professionals in this area also need to be equipped with problem solving and self-management skills that promote independent learning and thinking and for pursuing further learning if they are to maintain relevance in an industry that is, by definition, fiercely competitive and constantly evolving.

This course is designed to suit a postgraduate clientele that is already in the workforce, as well as graduating students. The course provides flexible learning pathways that can accommodate:

• professional employment commitments;
• national and international-based students;
• full-time or part-time enrolments;
• exit points with a qualification (Graduate Certificate in High Performance Sport; Graduate Diploma in High Performance Sport); and
• specific career, industry and vocational needs of the individual student.

To meet these objectives, the primary design feature is that the majority of the course is delivered in the online mode.

A suite of coursework subjects focus on the preparation and performance of high performance athletes, including technological advances for athlete monitoring, strength and conditioning, fatigue, recovery and adaptation, and injury prevention and management.

Multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary foci built into the curriculum will bring together current and new knowledge from allied health professions within the industry, for example, sports psychology, skill acquisition, nutrition and dietetics, exercise physiology, physiotherapy, sports medicine and rehabilitation, including a specialist seminar series of guest speakers from sports science and related fields.

Issues of leadership, culture, and communication in high performance sport setting area addressed, and a foundation of project design and research skills is incorporated into the program with direct application to high performance sporting contexts.

To support these subjects, an intensive on-campus component is incorporated as a four day offering during the course. This component offers students hands-on experience with the latest technology in the industry, while providing the added opportunity to network directly with industry specialists and other students in the course.