Staff profiles
Alex Bliss
Sports and Exercise Science Consultant
- MSc Applied Exercise Physiology
- BSc (Hons) Sport and Exercise Science
- MSc Thesis “In Press” at Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness
- Participates in football, golf, racket sports
- Research interests: Youth sport, relative age effects, talent ID
Originally from North Hampshire, Alex moved to Eastbourne to study at the University of Brighton. Alex completed both undergraduate (Sport and Exercise Science BSc(Hons)) and postgraduate (Applied Exercise Physiology MSc) degrees at Chelsea School before obtaining his current position in Sport and Exercise Science Support. Alex has presented his postgraduate research at the BASES 2010 Student Conference and featured a prize-winning submission at the inaugural Chelsea School Exhibition. Alex’s MSc thesis investigating the effects of relative age (a season of birth bias in junior athletes) on performance in football has been accepted for peer-reviewed publication and is currently “In Press” at the Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness.
Alex’s experience in athletic development has stemmed primarily from a football background. Alex was a member of Reading FC’s elite Centre of Excellence for a number of years as a junior and has an enthusiasm for developing aspiring young athletes. This passion has led Alex to provide sport science support at a host of professional teams from different tiers of the football pyramid including: West Ham United (Premier League), Reading (Championship) and Oxford United (Conference). Alex also provided sport science support for the senior squads at Brighton and Hove Albion in their 2010/2011 League One Championship winning season. Alex has also worked with local athletes in the past five years from sports, including Special Olympic Powerlifting, endurance running/cycling and golf.
Dan Temple
Sports Science Consultant
- Sports Science BSc(Hons) and MSc
- UKSCA Strength and Conditioning accredited
- EIS Strength and Conditioning Coach
- Lectures on Environmental Physiology
- Participates in hockey, distance cycling, racket sports
Dan has worked with a wide variety of Olympic athletes and International level athletes throughout his career including from disciplines including:
British Triathlon, British Paralympic Triathlon(World Champion), England Wheelchair Basketball (5 x Olympian), Double Trap Shooting (2010 Commonwealth Gold), Olympic Skeet Clay, Long Distance Swimming, Olympic Weightlifting (British No 1), England Women’s Deaf Football, England Men’s Blind Cricket, England Women’s Football, Fulham Deaf FC, Great Britain Table Tennis, Event Riding Nationals, British Water Skiing Team, World Junior Sprint Cyclist Champion, England Ice hockey, Great Britain under 18 Orienteering, Great Britain Youth Sailing, and many more. Dan has also worked with a number of athletes coming back from injury. Namely, ACL reconstruction, lower back injuries and shoulder rehabilitation.
Dan’s personal sporting interests are hockey, tennis and skiing. Dan plays a variety of different sports and enjoys being challenged in new areas.
Rob Harley
Sport and Exercise Science Consultancy Co-ordinator
- Sports Studies BA(Hons)
- Physiology MPhil
- Lectures on Physiology of Exercise and Fitness
- BASES re-accredited
- Participates in ultra-distance running, triathlon
Rob has worked as an applied Sports Scientist for the past 20 years since graduation from the West Sussex Institute of Higher Education in 1991. He worked for seven years as the Sport Science Officer for the England Basketball Association while undertaking a Master of Philosophy degree in applied physiology. During his time with the EBBA Rob advised National league clubs on strength and conditioning and offered field based assessment of players fitness levels. He also worked with the GB Men's Olympic squad and the Men's and Women's England squads. This involved physiological assessment of players which allowed the identification of physical strengths and weaknesses and the designing of individual training programmes. In 1995 he travelled with the England Women's team to the European Qualifying tournament in Turkey working with the players on physical preparation, hydration and nutritional strategies to optimise performance.
Rob has written a manual on strength and fitness training for basketball coaches and players, which is sold through Coachwise (Sports Coach UK). During his 15 years working as an applied Sports Scientist Rob has worked as consultant physiologist to the England U21 and U17 Netball squads, The England U19 and U15 cricket squads and the Sussex County Cricket Squad (Division one County Champions 2003 and 2005).
Rob has been a BASES re-accredited physiologist and still enjoys working with athletes helping them optimise their physical performance.
Dr Martin Bailey
Martin's PhD was in the biomechanics of cycling knee injuries and he has worked with cyclists and other athletes suffering from injury. He also has an interest in the performance aspects of cycling biomechanics and has worked with cyclists to improve their positioning. Alongside his biomechanics experience Martin worked with an exercise referral scheme for six years and has experience of delivering staff training for and implementation of exercise referral schemes.
Dr Gary Brickley
Gary is a BASES accreditated sport and exercise physiologist. He was exercise physiologist to the GB cycling team prior to working at the University of Brighton. Gary has a PhD in muscle metabolism during exercise and a MSc in cardiology. He is the regional exercise physiologist for the Great Britain triathlon squad and carries out physiological assessment on the team. Gary is also coaching advisor / physiologist to the Great Britain Paralympic cycling squad and also advises the Handcycling team. Specialist areas include swimming, cycling, running and exercise cardiology.
Dr Helen Carter
Helen is currently the joint BASES lab director (with Rob Harley). Though her role has predominantly focused on research, she has used this background to work with many endurance athletes. Her list of clients include club and regional level cyclists, distance runners and triathletes. Helen has also worked with several ultra-distance athletes including transatlantic rowers and participants in the Marathon de Sables.
Monica Dorobantu
Monica's consultancy has included one-to-one sessions and workshops with a variety of athletes and non-athletes. She has developed mental skills programmes for participants in track and field, golf, swimming and climbing and delivered a range of workshops such as team building and communication for junior athletes on a regional Sports Science Support Program, goal-setting and time management for Bath Rugby Club and concentration skills for University of Brighton staff. Monica has also worked in collaboration with colleagues at the National Danish Institute for Elite Sport on developing educational programmes for national level coaches.
Dr Sarah Hardcastle
Sarah's consultancy work has included the delivery of a training course to health professionals working in exercise referral schemes in London. More recently, she has advised a NHS trust on training methods for exercise practitioners and nurses in terms of their role in facilitating health behaviour change. Sarah has also advised the Trust on tools to measure exercise related psychological predictors and outcomes, in addition to exercise consultation strategies. Currently, she is involved with a physical activity and healthy eating pilot in conjunction with Eastbourne Downs Primary Care Trust. Sarah is also undertaking consultancy work with local cardiac rehabilitation units, providing training on brief counselling for behaviour change.
Dr Neil Maxwell
Neil's predominant area of consultancy is allied to environmental physiology, where he offers physiological support in the broad areas of heat and cold stress and altitude exposure. Neil conducted his MSc and PhD thesis in the area of heat stress and intermittent sprint exercise and continues to apply his research to the practitioner. As a mountaineer, having organised several high-altitude expeditions he has experience in expedition physiology and preventative measures of high altitude illnesses. Neil also has a long background in middle distance running, as an athlete, a UK Athletics endurance coach and providing physiological support to athletes from club to national level. With a background in table tennis as well, Neil has provided physiological support leading up to the Commonwealth and World Table Tennis Championships.
Stuart Mills
Stuart has been involved with providing sports science support to athletes from a variety of sports prior to joining our consultancy team at University of Brighton. His previous clients include: netball - regional youth teams, rowing - regional development squads, elite level mountain bikers, and club level endurance cyclists and runners. Recently Stuart has carried out technique analysis of spin bowlers as part of our consultancy work with the Sussex County Cricket Club and Academy. He now specialises in sports technique analysis using a combination of 3-D motion analysis, 2-D video analysis, force analysis or EMG (electromyography).
James Wallis
Physical Education BA(Hons) with QTS, Sport and Exercise Science MSc (Sport Psychology). Has been part of the University of Brighton Sports Science Support Team for two years offering sport psychology services in a range of disciplines. Predominant areas of work are currently elite junior athletes and with Sports College talented and gifted programmes. Currently engaged in consultancy work with the British Triathlon Association delivering mental skills workshops to elite junior triathletes from the South East region.
provide the opportunity for students on GCSE, BTEC and A-Level courses to experience the practical demonstration of exercise and fitness tests that are usually confined to the pages of their text books. We also underpin the days with elements of theory that are included in the syllabus to bridge the gap between the classroom and the laboratory.
The Welkin Laboratories (a BASES accredited facility) has a wealth of exercise testing equipment to monitor all aspects of human fitness and physiology. Students will be toured around the five separate laboratories within the main Welkin site and get to experience how the country’s top athletes are tested and trained. Students will also have the opportunity to either take part in or assist with lactate threshold, VO2 max,, and other fitness testing and analysis.
