FOUR national teams turned to the UST Center for Research on Movement Sciences (CRMS) for their physiological tests and training in preparation for next year’s Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in the Philippines.
National Fencing coach Walter Torres, whose team underwent tests in UST last Nov. 4 and 5, said the Philippine Team needed new methods of training to maintain its status as a major contender in the SEA Games.
“We needed an assessment of the fitness and health of the athletes,” Torres said. “And we are aware that UST has a very modern way of determining the fitness profile of an athlete.”
CRMS head Prof. Joven Cerdenia said physiological testing allows coaches and trainers to pinpoint the physical strengths and weaknesses of an athlete to prevent unnecessary injuries in training and in competitions.
According to Prof. Josephine Joy Reyes, Sports Science chair of the College of Rehabilitation Sciences, which handles the CRMS, the Center also tested the national basketball, water polo, and dragon boat teams earlier this year, because the facilities of the Philippine Sports Commission were allegedly “not functional.”
“’Yung mga national teams mismo ang lumalapit sa atin,” Reyes said. “It was a good opportunity for our students (to work with national athletes firsthand).”
The collaboration confirmed the projections Reyes made in an earlier report from the Varsitarian. She stated that sports science, or research-based sports, is the trend in developing a better sports training program athletes need to win medals in events like the SEA Games. The SEA Games is a biennial sports meet of about 10 countries which the Philippines last hosted in 1990.
The University first offered a course in Sports Science in 2002. With reports from www.manilatimes.net
