Quincy Johnson - Research Mentor Spotlight

Bio:

Name: Quincy Johnson

Department: Health, Sport and Exercise Sciences

Describe your research/creative scholarship in a few sentences that we can all understand: 

My research interests focus on optimizing athletic performance, developing physiological profiles to support training and return to play approaches, long-term athletic development, and training load monitoring. These interests have led to professional roles within high school, collegiate, professional, and private athletic settings.

Questions:

Q: How did you first get interested in doing research or creative work?

A : It all began with my background as collegiate athlete and the interest grew as I began my career as a strength and conditioning professional. As an athlete and coach, I have always been interested in maximizing athletic potential, but in order to do that we need to know where we are starting and where we would like to go. Research has helped me formalize questions, approaches, and experiments to answer some interesting questions over the years.

Q: What does your research look like on a day-to-day basis? What do you spend most of your time doing?

A : On a day-to-day basis, my research looks fits within one of a few categories. Either we are preparing and calibrating equipment for data collection, collecting data, analyzing data, or writing up our findings for publication. On data collection days are where we have the opportunity to perform a range of physical fitness tests with athletes. These range from simple measures of height and weight to measures of athleticism like markerless motion capture, vertical jumps, isometric strength tests, and short sprints.

Q: What do students in your discipline learn by doing research that they wouldn’t learn by just taking classes?

A: Students in our discipline take part in an immersive experience when assisting or conducting research. This helps bridge the gap between theory (what they learn in class) and application (what occurs outside of the classroom). Beyond that, students develop a specialized skillset that is needed to operate research equipment and further enhance their ability to think critically, and deeply about our world, athletic performance, and athletic potential.

Q: What do you find to be the most exciting part of doing research or creative work? What makes this line of work meaningful and interesting to you?

A: The most exciting part of doing research is the opportunity to contribute to a professional field with a rich history of excellence, and of course to assist athletes and coaches as they strive for optimal athletic performance. This makes it all meaningful and interesting to me.

Q: For many students, doing research or a larger creative project is the first time they have done work that routinely involves setbacks and the need to troubleshoot problems.  Can you tell us about a time that your research didn’t go as expected? Or about any tricks or habits that you’ve developed to help you stay resilient in the face of obstacles?

A:  Try as we might, there are always going to be minor setbacks or hiccups. True in science, true in life. When we set goals of researching a topic or completing a project (even smaller projects sometimes present challenges) we often imagine that it is a smooth process from planning, to implementation, to completion. This isn't always the case, but there is no need to be discouraged. Framing your thoughts positively, preparing yourself for minor setbacks, and looking at challenges or problems as opportunities to grow can help develop resilience in the face of obstacles.

Q: How do you spend your time outside of work?

A: I'm an avid sports fan so more often than not I am at a football game in the fall, a wrestling or basketball event in the winter, or at a baseball game in the spring.