Dr. Stephen West
Positions
Post Doctoral Associate
Faculty of Kinesiology
Contact information
Preferred method of communication
Contact by email.
Background
Educational Background
PhD Athlete monitoring, injury epidemiology and injury prevention, University of Bath, UK, 2019
BSc Sports Science and Health, Department for Health and Human Performance, Dublin City University, Ireland, 2014
Research
Areas of Research
Rugby Union is one of the most popular team sports globally, however it also demonstrates a high risk of injury and concussion across all levels of the sport. Over the past five years, Dr. West’s research has focused on injury prevention and injury epidemiology in professional rugby union in the UK.
Working with the governing bodies of the sport in the UK, he has led the day-to-day management of the Professional Rugby Injury Surveillance Project and produced annual epidemiological reports on the risk of injury in the professional game. During this time, he also completed his PhD focusing on training load as a risk factor for injury as well as examining risk factors such as age, position, previous injury, previous concussion and match exposure.
His current research as part of the Sport Injury Prevention Research Centre at the University of Calgary focuses on primary prevention of injury in youth rugby. These prevention strategies include a neuromuscular training warm up program, video analysis to identify high risk events during match play and tackle training interventions.
Participation in university strategic initiatives
Awards
- Postdoctoral Fellowship for 2021-2023, CIHR. 2021
- Postdoctoral Scholarship, O’Brien Institute for Public Health . 2020
Publications
- Canadian high school rugby coaches readiness for an injury prevention strategy implementation: Evaluating a Train-the Coach workshop. Shill, I., Raisanen, A., Black, A.M., van den Berg, C., McKay, C., Barden, C., West, S.W., Pasanen, K., Hagel, B.E. & Emery, C.A. Frontiers. (2021)
- Training and match load in professional rugby union: How do contextual factors influence the training week?. West, S.W., Williams, S., Tierney, P., Batchelor, T., Cross, M., Kemp, S.P.T. & Stokes, KA.. South African Journal of Sports Medicine. (2021)
- More than a metric: How training load is used in elite sport for athlete management. West, S.W., Clubb, J., Torres-Ronda, L., Howells, D., Leng, E., Vescovi, J.D. Carmody, S., Posthumus, M., Dalen-Lorentson, T. & Windt, J. International Journal of Sports Medicine. (2020)
- Trends in match injury risk in professional male rugby union- a 16-season review of 10851 match injuries in the English Premiership (2002-2019): The Professional Rugby Injury Surveillance Project. West, S.W., Starling, L.T., Kemp, S.P.T., Williams, S., Cross, M., Taylor, A., Brooks, J.H.M. & Stokes, K.A. British Journal of Sports Medicine. (2020)
- Training load, injury burden and team success in Professional Rugby Union: Risk Versus Reward.. West, S., Williams, S., Kemp, S., Eager, R., Cross, M. & Stokes, K. Journal of Athletic Training. (2020)
- Returning to play after prolonged training restrictions in professional collision sports. Stokes, K.A., Jones, B., Bennett, M., Close, G.L., Gill, N., Hull, J.H., Kasper, A.M. Kemp, S.P.T., Mellalieu, S.D., Peirce, N., Stewart, B., Wall, B.T.. International Journal of Sports Medicine. (2020)
- Patterns of training volume and injury risk in elite rugby union: an analysis of 1.5 million hours of training exposure over 11 seasons. West. S., Williams, S., Kemp, S., Cross, M., McKay, C., Fuller, C., Taylor, A., Brooks, J. & Stokes, K. Journal of Sport Sciences: 38 (3). 238-247. (2020)
- Athlete Monitoring in Rugby Union: Is Heterogeneity in Data Capture holding us back?. West, S., Williams, S., Kemp, S., Cross, M. & Stokes, K. Sports: 7(5). 98-108. (2019)
- Modelling the HRV response to training loads in elite rugby sevens. Williams, S., West, S., Howells, D., Mobed. R., Kemp, S. & Stokes, K. Modelling the HRV response to training loads in elite rugby sevens. Journal of Sports Science and Medicine: 17 (3). 402-408. (2018)
- Trends in Match Concussion Incidence and Return-to-Play Time in Male Professional Rugby Union: A 16-season prospective cohort study. West, S.W., Cross, M., Trewartha, G., Taylor, A., Brooks, J., Kemp, S.P.T., Locke, D., Ahmed, O. & Stokes, K.A. Brain Injury. (2021)
- Same name, same game, but is it different? An investigation of female rugby union match events in Canadian Varsity players. West, S.W., Shill, I.J., Clermont, C., Pavlovic, N., Cairns, J., Seselja, B., Hancock, M., Roberts, S.P., Hendricks, S., & Emery, C.A. Submitted to International Journal of Sports Science and Coaching. (2021)
- Injuries in elite men’s Rugby Union: an updated (2012-2020) meta-analysis of 19,877 injury events. Williams, S., Robertson, C., Starling, L., McKay, C., West, S.W., Brown, J. & Stokes, K.A.. Sports Medicine (In Press). (2021)
- Injuries and concussions in Female High School Rugby: Prevention is worth a try. Shill, I.J., West, S.W., Sick, S., Schneider, K., Hagel, B.E., Pasanen, K., Wiley, P., Emery, C.A., & Black, A.M. Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine [In Press]. (2021)
- Better way to determine the acute: chronic workload ratio?. Williams, S., West, S., Cross, M.J. & Stokes, K.A. British Journal of Sports Medicine:51. 209-210. (2017)
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