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Research Interests

Mr Sheehan is the Programme Director for BSc in Sport Science and lecturers on number of modules on the B.Sc. programme in Athletic Rehabilitation & Therapy , Sport & Exercise Science and M.Sc. in Strength and Conditioning at SETU Carlow. He has presented at the Symposium on Strength and Conditioning Training on children and adolescents in Portugal 2015 and FSEM conferences in Dublin 2014. He was co-author on the paper published in Strength and Conditioning Journal 2013 “The Role of the Paediatric Exercise Specialist in Treating Exercise Deficit Disorder in Youth" .  He is current supervising a M.Sc. student project “The effects of an exercise programme on children with autism" . He was the sport performance coach to the very successful Junior Karate Irish team at the World Karate Championship in Italy 2013 and Ireland 2017. He is the Clinical & Performance Director at Carlow Rehabilitation & Sports Injury Centre and has worked with numerous of teams of all ages in Carlow and surrounding counties for the last 15yrs. He is a founding member of professional body Athletic Rehabilitation Therapy of Ireland (ARTI). His research interests is in injury prevention, paediatric exercise science and athlete recovery.

Engagement and Collaboration

I have developed a very successful afterschool structured exercise programme (STEP START) for children aged 6-12 year olds at SETU Carlow and in collaboration with some of the surrounding primary schools in the area. The STEP START programme is an age appropriate strength based programme which focuses on fundamental skill acquisition with some elements of integrated neuromuscular training. The emphasis is on FUN and its successful rollout has been facilitated through the integration into the third year sports science paediatric strength and conditioning module. My goal is to extend the STEP START programme firstly on a county wide basis and pending further research on a national basis through the physical education module in primary schools in Ireland.

Current Research Students

Candidate’s Name:TopicSupervisory Team

Craig Coffey

 

 

 The effects of an exercise programme on children with autism

 

 

Dr. Sharon Kinsella;

Prof Avery Faigenbaum

Publications

Peer Reviewed Journal Articles

Faigenbaum, A.D., Lloyd, R.S., Sheehan, D. and Myer, G.D., 2013. The role of the pediatric exercise specialist in treating exercise deficit disorder in youth. Strength & Conditioning Journal, 35(3), pp.34-41.

Conference Proceedings and Papers

All Ireland Post Graduate Conference 2017 “STEP START" Future health and fitness for children . Institute of Technology, Carlow.

Symposium of Strength and Conditioning Training in Children and Adolescents. Nov 2015 University of Maia Portugal- Presentation "Injury Prevention training in adolescence, is just good training"

World Federation of Athletic Training and TherapyWorld Congress & FSEM 11th Annual Scientific Conference Sept 2014                                                    The Sporting Hip, Groin and Hamstring: A Complete Picture, DCU, Ireland. Clinical Case Study: The conservative treatment and management of hip Femoral Acetabulum Impingements (FAI)