Leeds Beckett University - City Campus,
Woodhouse Lane,
LS1 3HE
Fuelling future Rhinos
Cooking and nutrition doesn’t always seem fun when you’re 15/16, but for aspiring rugby league players it’s a top priority. Within my role at Leeds Beckett University I work as an applied researcher-practitioner with Leeds Rhinos Men’s Academy and Scholarship.
Young players join the Scholarship system at 15 years old and, if successful, progress through to the Academy until they are 18. The player pathway system is designed to develop and nurture “home-grown” talent to become future Leeds Rhinos Super League players. The Scholarship and Academy system aims to provide education to players across a wide-range of topics, of which nutrition is a key focus.
My role as Academy Nutritionist is to educate, upskill and support players with their nutrition, as they mature and develop through the performance pathway. Developing strong positive relationships with food is a focal message of my practice. It’s vital to ensure players enjoy eating, and do not just see their food as fuel. Building this positive relationship helps support them for the future and develops a life-long positive relationship with food.
One of my passions is teaching players how to cook. From the rock-chop to the cross-chop, the claw and bridge, using a knife correctly, efficiently and safely is a key skill I suggest everyone learns, whatever stage of life! The ability to cook and confidence in the kitchen can allow players to cook more enjoyable meals, have less reliance on family, especially at a young age, and prepare them for leaving home. Teaching cooking is a vehicle to also delivering nutrition messaging, which makes it an excellent tool for educating young developing rugby league players.
Nutrition education for rugby league players is vital for development, and maintaining good health as an athlete. To help support players with this, teams across the club are supported by past or current students at Leeds Beckett University, including Lauren Delany (Leeds Rhinos Super League Men’s Team), Beth Vickers (Leeds Rhinos Women’s Super League team), Imani Wilson (Leeds Rhinos Women’s Academy and Scholarship team), Matt Brearley and Charlie Curtis (Leeds Rhinos Men’s Scholarship team).
Through Leeds Beckett University’s strong partnership with Leeds Rhinos Rugby League club, we can support players to perform and develop optimally, answer key research questions shaped through our experiences as applied-practitioners, and develop and educate future sport and exercise nutrition (SENr) practitioners to work in applied sport as part of their future careers.Behind the Scenes: Leeds Rhinos Scholarship Pre-Season
Take a look behind the scenes as Leeds Rhinos Scholarship ramped up their training and preparations ahead of the 2022 season.
Dr Lucy Chesson
Lucy Chesson is a Senior Lecturer in Sport and Exercise Nutrition. She leads the Level 6 cohort of the Sport and Exercise Nutrition undergraduate programme at Leeds Beckett University and is co-lead of the MSc Sport and Exercise Nutrition Applied Practice programme.
Lucy teaches across multiple levels, including leading the Level 5 Food and Nutrition for Health and Exercise module, the Level 4 Food Science module with a practical cooking focus, and the Level 5 Practitioner Skills for Sport and Exercise Nutrition module, helping students develop essential applied skills. Before moving to work in academia, Lucy worked in public health as a nutritionist on a variety of government-funded projects, and as academy nutritionist for Leeds Rhinos, where she completed her applied PhD of the thesis titled: Illness incidence, prevalence and prevention experiences in rugby.
Post-PhD, Lucy's research spans multiple areas but is strongly focused on amplifying the voices and experiences of participants in nutrition, health, and athlete welfare. She has a particular interest in behaviour change and implementation science within sport and exercise.
