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University of Florida

Strength and Conditioning Needs Analysis


UF Faculty: Blain Harrison
Department: Applied Physiology and Kinesiology Department
College: College of Health and Human Performance

Partner Faculty: Shane Ball
Department: Discipline of Exercise and Sport Science, Faculty of Medicine and Health
Partner Institution: University of Sydney
Title: Strength and Conditioning Needs Analysis of an International Sport
Project Description: Students will create a 10-minute presentation describing the unique strength and conditioning needs of a sport not commonly played in their culture. Presentations will be recorded within Voicethread and exchanged with students at the partner institution, who will post video comments to the presentation on Voicethread and also complete a peer review rubric related to it. Students will be assessed by their home instructor on the quality of their presentation, Voicethread feedback, and peer review rubric.
Learning Outcomes:
  • Articulate insights into how cultural differences in strength and conditioning training for sport influence a needs analysis on a sport not commonly played in the student’s home country.
  • Demonstrate adequate understanding of the unique qualities and characteristics of athletes in an unfamiliar sport that is popular in a culture different than yours. 
  • Demonstrate curiosity in the strength and conditioning methods of another culture.
  • Interact openly and without judgment with students studying similar topics in another culture.
  • Interpret intercultural experiences from your own perspective and from another worldview while acting supportively on the comments and suggestions of someone from another culture.
  • Identify cultural differences in verbal and nonverbal communications regarding strength and conditioning topics.
Participating Countries: Australia
Number of Participants: 50 UF Students; 100 University of Sydney Students
Discipline: Applied Physiology & Kinesiology
UF Course Code & Name: APK6176 - Strength and Conditioning for Advanced Practitioners
Project Duration: 5 Weeks
Activity Type(s): Student-to-Student Project
Time allotted to each activity:
  • Asynchronous activities: 2 hours/week
  • Local group activities: 2 hours/week
  • Individual work: 2 hours/week
Technology Tools:
  • Voicethread
  • Qualtrics Forms
Sequence of Activities:
  • Icebreaker:

The VE faculty partners will create a powerpoint presentation with 4-5 slides each with unique icebreaker questions from the list provided in this training. Students at each institution will record video responses to the questions and create 2-3 questions on the last slide for their VE partners. They will send a link to the voicethread to their VE partners who will then add a video comment addressing the unique questions included on the last slide. 

  • Engagement Activity:

The students will conduct a review of the physiological and biomechanical needs of a sport popular in the other students’ country. They will create a powerpoint presentation for their findings and upload the slides to Voicethread for collaborative feedback.The final slide of the presentation will contain questions students wish to address to their VE partners regarding considerations for strength and conditioning program design for the sport. Students will send their voicethread link to their VE partners who will then add video comments to the unique questions asked on the last slide of the presentation. Students will then complete a peer review form regarding their VE partners’ presentation within a Qualtrics survey form.

  • Collaboration Activity:

The collaborative feedback will come in the form of video comments added to the VE partner’s icebreaker and needs analysis presentations within Voicethread. This will permit an asynchronous opportunity to communicate with each other. Students will also complete a Peer Review rubric designed by the VE faculty partners and completed within Qualtrics Forms to provide a quantitative and more academic form of feedback. Scores on these peer reviews will not influence the overall grade of the student who created the presentation but rather provide an opportunity for students to gain experience providing constructive feedback on a common task within the field of strength and conditioning to colleagues in another country.

  • Reflection Activity:

A question will be included within the icebreaker activity allowing students to reflect on their abilities to conduct a needs analysis on an international sport before actually completing the analysis.

The questions students create for the last slide of their presentation will permit reflection during the project as students think deeper about questions that weren’t answered by their needs analysis.

Students will be assigned discussion prompts from the list provided within this training following completion of the VE project so that they may reflect on the insights they gained after the assignment is finished.