A wheelchair basketball team have approached you for some physiology support and exercise testing. The coach is particularly interested in the team’s energy expenditure during training and competition and how he can apply this information. Your role is to determine this. You have complete access to the team for a number of lab and /or field based assessments as you feel fit over the season. You also have permission to collect data from competitions. The team train twice a week and have at least one game every weekend. The club play in the first division of the National league. The team consist of athletes with the following conditions; spina bifida (2); amputees (3) (one above knee unilateral; one below knee unilateral, one below knee bilateral; spinal cord injury (4) (T4, T8, T10, L5), muscular dystrophy (2).
To the writer: you must know wattles spinal cord injuries mean as different levels of injury will effect sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems and also body mass as depending on where the break in the spine is this will determine what the athlete has lost as t1-t4 supplies the heart and lungs so if there was a break here this could effect their breathing. Also somatically i.e. L2 provides nerver for hip flexion so if break was at this point or above the athlete would not be able to move hips and thus have a decrease in energy expenditure.
You must also include Nervous systems, other receptors which may be effected i.e. thermoregulators, baroreceptors, chemoreceptors etc.
Adipose tissue lipolysis and catecholamines also play a very big role! You should look towards which never supply what organs as this is important as if you have no supply to adrenal glands for example then you will not get production of adrenalin to increase HR which will have an effect on Energy expenditure.
1. Outline the key physiological difference between the athletes with different spinal cord injuries that may affect energy expenditure
2. What key physiological aspects differentiate the other conditions on the team with respect to energy expenditure
3. Describe what tests/data collection you would need to perform in order to determine the energy expenditure of the wheelchair basketball team in training and competition
4. Based on the likely data obtained what advice could you give the players?
5. Discuss the limitations of the methods you have described.
The Referencing Style is Coventry harvard style referencing. Please google to see layout.
The essay (2000 words) should:
(See marking scheme provided)
1. Provide an introduction to the area.
2. Outline the key physiological difference between the athletes with different spinal cord injuries that may affect energy expenditure
3. Discuss the key physiological aspects that may differentiate between the other conditions on the team with respect to energy expenditure
4. Describe what tests/data collection you would need to perform in order to determine the energy expenditure of the wheelchair basketball team in training and competition
5. Discuss the limitations of the methods you have described.
6. Proved advice to the players based on the likely data obtained?
