African Health OER Network: Exercising advocacy: Some personal ideas and experiences

This video lecture can be used by self learners or as a supplement to sports science course material.

This talk was delivered to UCT alumni in London at South Africa House on 10 October 2007 and recorded a few weeks later in Cape Town. It describes how the University influenced my early career and led me to study two of the important intellectual challenges of my life – exercise-associated hyponatraemia and the central governor model of exercise.

It then discusses the role of science in assisting the rise of South African cricket under the coaching of Bob Woolmer and of South African ascent to winning the 2007 Rugby World Cup under Jake White.

It ends with the story of UCT graduate Lewis Gordon Pugh’s swims in the Antarctic and Arctic including his epic 18 minutes (1km) swim at the North Pole in June 2007;  how science insured his success and the role that his self belief, and that of his scientific support team, played in that success.

Authors: Timothy Noakes

Institutions: University of Cape Town