Role
Dr Fieke Rongen is a Senior Lecturer in the Sport Science Department within the School of Science and Technology.
Career overview
Dr Rongen joined the Sport Science Academic Team at Nottingham Trent University (NTU) in August 2023. In 2016, she was awarded her PhD which explored the impact of football academy involvement on both the sport and non-sport (e.g. educational, psycho-social, injury, health and well-being) development of players. She also holds a BSc and MSc in Psychology (specialising in clinical psychology) from the Radboud University Nijmegen (the Netherlands) and a PgDip in Performance Psychology from the University of Edinburgh. Fieke is a fellow of the HEA.
Prior to joining NTU in 2023, Dr. Rongen worked as a senior lecturer in Sport Coaching at Leeds Beckett University for 8 years. Before this, she was the High Performance Sport Officer at Nottingham Trent University and worked as an Academic Advisor/Counsellor for the department of psychology and artificial intelligence at the Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands.
Research areas
Fieke is part of the Sport, Health and Performance Enhancement Research Centre (https://www.ntu.ac.uk/research/groups-and-centres/centres/sport-health-performance-enhancement). Her research has focused on the healthiness of (intensified) youth sport involvement through exploring:
- the wide ranging impacts of involvement across different levels of sport participation (community sport, talent development, elite)
- key features and characteristics of effective, ethical and healthy sporting (performance) environments.
- the role of coaches and athlete support personnel, in particular the qualities, skills and knowledge they require, to ensure ‘healthiness’
Previous PhD students:
- Dr Ffion Thompson - What is it like to be a sport school student athlete? A holistic impact mixed method evaluation. (Leeds Beckett University)
- Barney Sargent-Megicks - The evaluation of talent development environments across European sport: Developing holistic guidelines to enhance practice. (Leeds Beckett University)
- Craig Winstanley - What are the key factors to successfully navigating critical transitions for developing talent in elite level football? (Leeds Beckett University)
Current PhD students:
- Jonathon Wheeler - Investigating relative age, maturity and psycho-behavioural skills across age grades in adolescent rugby. (Leeds Beckett University)
- Joshua Wall – Developing support for student-athletes in an independent girls’ school (Leeds Beckett University)
For any potential doctoral students interested in studying a PhD in the above areas, please visit the Research Degree page.
External activity
Consultancy and enterprise
Dr Rongen is a TALS accredited lifestyle advisor and has supported athletes from a variety of different sports as a TASS lifestyle advisor at Nottingham Trent University, Leeds Beckett University and Sheffield Hallam University.
Journal Reviewing
Dr. Rongen provides expert opinion and reviews articles submitted to several internationally-recognised journals, including:
- Journal of Applied Sport Psychology
- Sport, Exercise and Performance Psychology
- International Sports Coaching Journal
Sponsors and collaborators
Dr Rongen is and has been involved in collaborative research with:
- Professor Kevin Till, Leeds Beckett University
- Dr. Laurie Patterson, Leeds Beckett University
- Professor Julian North, Leeds Beckett University
- Dr. Ian Cowburn, Leeds Beckett University
- Dr Chris Low, Leeds Beckett University
- Dr Colum Cronin, Liverpool John Moores University
- Dr Jason Tee, Jeppe Highschool for boys, University of Pretoria