Congratulations: (from left) Phoebe, Gee and Lim were among the university college’s sports and exercise science students who shone at the colloquium.
FORMER rhythmic gymnast Phoebe Ng Xiao Yan knows all too well that doing leaps and jumps is part and parcel of an athlete’s career in this field.
Keen to explore ways for rhythmic gymnasts to perform such abilities better, she made it the key focus of her research.
Her effort – which involved preparing an abstract and recording her presentation on the findings – paid off as she was among the five sports and exercise science students at Tunku Abdul Rahman University College (TAR UC) who were recognised for their presentation and research skills at the 1st AgileMas Research in High Performance Sports Colloquium (HPSC) 2022.
Held by the National Sports Institute of Malaysia from Aug 23 to 25, the event saw Phoebe, Kleven Lim Jin Yew and Nuraina Nahira bagging the Best Presenter Awards, and Gee Yong Yong and Ng Wan Xi taking home the Best Investigator Awards.
With plyometric training – which is a type of training exercise that uses quick and powerful movements to improve jumping and leaping abilities – as her focal point, Phoebe titled her presentation “The Effect of Fast Stretch-Shortening Cycle Plyometric Training on Lower Limb Strength Qualities among Rhythmic Gymnasts”.
“There are three main difficulties in rhythmic gymnastics, and one of them is doing leaps and jumps.
“I had always had better abilities in this area compared to balancing and pivoting, hence I wanted to explore it further,” she explained in a press release.
Being a first-time participant in an academic research event, Phoebe said it gave her the opportunity to obtain feedback from experts and learn from other participants.
“It helped me to gain perspective on how I could further my research as my abstract has also been accepted by the International Conference on Movement, Health and Exercise (MoHE),” she added.
Organised by the Malaysian Journal of Movement, Health and Exercise and supported by the Sports Section, Policy Planning and Research Division of the Higher Education Ministry, the 8th MoHE Conference will be held from Sept 27 to 29.
Set to join Phoebe at the conference is Lim, whose presentation at the AgileMas HPSC 2022 delved into his research on how an athlete’s personality traits play a role in sports achievements.
“I aspire to become a sports therapist who works closely with athletes to help them manage their injuries and return to sports.
“With my research topic, I hope to highlight the importance of the psychological aspects of personality traits and competition anxiety in affecting sports performance,” he shared.
For Gee, who carried out research on the effect of taking sodium bicarbonate on runners, her experience at the colloquium had improved her confidence in her presentation skills.
“I plan to participate in more events like this and pursue a doctorate in sports science,” she said.
The AgileMas HPSC 2022 was aimed at providing a platform for researchers from academic institutions and organisations to communicate research ideas, stimulate interest and discuss potential research areas in the field of high performance sports.
