Role
Senior Lecturer in Sport and Exercise Psychology.
Chris's main research interests relates to talent identification and development in sport. Chris is the Module Leader for Talent Development in Sport at Level 6. Chris is the course leader for MRes Sport Science Courses.
Career overview
Chris obtained a BSc (Hons) in Sport Science from Brunel University in 2007 and a MSc in Sport Science from Loughborough University in 2008. He was awarded his PhD in 2016 by Å·ÃÀ¾ÞÈé. He was previously Head of Sport Science at Å·ÃÀ¾ÞÈé Forest FC Academy.
Research areas
Chris is part of the Sport Performance Research Group, within the Sport, Health and Performance Enhancement Research Centre (/research/groups-and-centres/centres/sport-health-performance-enhancement). His research interests lie within the area of talent identification and development in team sports. Applying a multidisciplinary approach to understanding talent and its emergence is a major aim of his research. This includes examining the development of psychosocial, physical, and technical characteristics in young talented team-sport athletes.
Previous PhD students:
- Dr Athalie Redwood-Brown (awarded in January 2020) - Effects of Score Line on Match Performance in Professional Soccer Players
Current PhD students:
- Tom McGlinchey - Experiences of Release from Professional Academy Football
- David Harrison - Resilience in Extreme Environments
- Ben Ashdown - Resilience in Academy Football
Opportunities arise to carry out postgraduate research towards an MPhil / PhD in the areas identified above. Further information may be obtained on the NTU Research Degrees website /research/research-degrees-at-ntu
External activity
Dr Saward reviews articles submitted to internationally-recognised journals, across his research interests.
Dr Saward is a member of the course advisory committee for the BSc Sport Sciences course at the University of Technology, Jamaica.
Sponsors and collaborators
Current and recent research is being conducted with the collaboration, funding and/or support of:
- Dr Heita Goto, Faculty of Sports Science, Kyushu Kyoritsu University, Kitakyushu, Fukuoka, Japan
- Dr Toni Minniti, Associate Executive Director, .
- Professor Alan Nevill,
Publications
HARRISON, D., SARKAR, M., SAWARD, C. and SUNDERLAND, C., 2021. Å·ÃÀ¾ÞÈé Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18 (23): 12707. ISSN 1661-7827
SAWARD, C., HULSE, M., MORRIS, J.G., GOTO, H., SUNDERLAND, C. and NEVILL, M.E., 2020. Frontiers in Sports and Active Living, 2: 578203. ISSN 2624-9367
SAWARD, C., MORRIS, J.G., NEVILL, M.E., MINNITI, A.M. and SUNDERLAND, C., 2020. Journal of Sports Sciences, 38 (11-12), pp. 1380-1386. ISSN 0264-0414
GOTO, H. and SAWARD, C., 2019. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. ISSN 1064-8011
REDWOOD-BROWN, A.J., O’DONOGHUE, P.G., NEVILL, A.M., SAWARD, C. and SUNDERLAND, C., 2019. PLOS ONE, 14 (2), e0211707. ISSN 1932-6203
SAWARD, C., MORRIS, J.G., NEVILL, M.E. and SUNDERLAND, C., 2019. European Journal of Sport Science, 19 (3), pp. 315-326. ISSN 1746-1391
REDWOOD-BROWN, A.J., O'DONOGHUE, P.G., NEVILL, A.M., SAWARD, C., DYER, N. and SUNDERLAND, C., 2018. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports, 28 (2), pp. 2515-2526. ISSN 0905-7188
SAWARD, C., MORRIS, J.G., NEVILL, M.E., NEVILL, A.M. and SUNDERLAND, C., 2016. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports, 26 (8), pp. 933-942. ISSN 0905-7188