BARRY’S BAY – A budding young university graduate would have been thrilled to know that her thesis was recently published in a prestigious academic journal.
That’s the word from Dr. Steve Brown, who taught the late Grace Glofcheskie during her time at Guelph University. Glofcheskie is originally from Arnprior, but spent much of her time in Barry’s Bay visiting her many family members that still live in the area today.
Glofcheskie studied human kinetics and did her master’s research thesis under associate professor Dr. Brown. It took two years for her to complete her thesis, which examined and compared motor control of the spine muscles in three groups of individuals including varsity golfers, varsity runners and non-athletes. The paper was recently published in the journal, Human Movement Science.
“This is a very good journal in our field,” Dr. Brown explained. “It is widely read by academics, scientists, and health care practitioners in the world of movement science and athletic performance.”
Through her research, Glofcheskie found that the athlete groups in general were superior at all aspects of spinal motor control, and that golfers in particular had the best capability of accurately sensing the position of their backs as they moved, Dr. Brown explained.
“She felt that this was both a function of training in the athlete groups, as well as an ‘in-born’ natural ability that the athletes had that helped them excel in their sports,” he added.
Her research required a lot of work, including recruiting 36 individuals to the lab and affixing senses to their bodies (to measure strength, movement and muscle activation). She then analyzed her data, interpreted the findings and wrote her thesis, which ended up being 110 pages long.
She shortened it to roughly 4,000 words, which would allow for the publication in an academic journal like Human Movement Science.
Get your March 8, 2017 edition of The Valley Gazette to read the full article.