Josh Secomb awarded top honour

Image Credit: Surfing Australia / Nikon – www.mynikonlife.com.au Surfing Australia PhD scholar Josh Secomb has been awarded a top honour for academic excellence at the University of Newcastle. Secomb was this week awarded a Faculty Medal for his studies last year in the Bachelor of Exercise and Sport Science (Honours). Medals are only awarded to the highest achieving Honours graduates. His Honours thesis was ‘A Time Motion Analysis Of A Surfing Training Session And The Associated Physical And Physiological Fatigue’. Secomb is now completing his PhD through Edith Cowan University at the Hurley Surfing Australia High Performance Centre (HPC) at Casuarina under Surfing Australia Sport Science Manager Dr Jeremy Sheppard. “My PhD will be based on aerials surfing and looking at the physical performance differences between higher and lower performing aerial surfers,” Secomb said. “The idea being once we figure o ut what the physical differences are we can then design effective training programs. For example if we can improve a surfer’s lower body power and strength they’ll be able to perform bigger and better aerials out in the surf.” Secomb is one of several PhD scholars based at the HPC under Dr Sheppard. “The research scholar program we have developed between Surfing Australia and Edith Cowan University is something we at the HPC are very proud of,” Dr Sheppard said. “Our scholars like Josh are truly the engine room of our research and innovation.”]]>