Russell Best

What do you love about your job?

The flexibility and variety of what we do. Teaching is great, and Wintec has provided me opportunities to develop in that area whilst combining that with research and having the freedom to pursue and develop my own interests in a range of areas is really rewarding.

How would you describe your approach to teaching?

I like to take a Socratic approach to teaching where possible. Questioning our students in their areas of interest allows us all to share our experiences and knowledge, challenge ideas, and encourages me to be better too.

What is your experience in the industry?

In the UK, I ran my own nutrition consultancy specialising in youth athletes, endurance and ultra-endurance sports whilst also supporting a range of professional athletes and teams. I have acted as a consultant sports scientist to a range of bodies and have been fortunate enough to spend time in Kenya and Portugal for training camps and visit the Australian Institute of Sport and Beijing Sports University.

What are your qualifications and educational background?

I have a PhD in Environmental Physiology, a Masters in Sports Science with a focus on sports nutrition and a BSc (Hons) in Applied Sports Science. I’m also a certified anthropometrist and a Chartered Scientist through the British Association of Sport and Exercise Science.

What are your areas of expertise/research?

I lead our Environmental Ergogenics and Polo Science research strands. I work with our team to understand human performance in a range of environments and how we can improve this through nutrition and other interventions – this is particularly relevant to the upcoming Olympics and other sporting events around the world. Specifically, we have focused on menthol and performance in the heat and are currently progressing to investigate other tastes. On the polo side of things, we work with players, horses and their equipment to assess and understand the limits of polo performance and how we can nurture future players and their development within the sport. I am really proud of our player-led and industry-embedded approach to this research.

What is your greatest achievement?

I don’t think it’s happened yet.

What are some of your hobbies and interests?

We are pretty busy with a young family, but outside of work and family time, I enjoy reading, running, writing, and horse-riding. The goals are to run a decent marathon and play some good polo in the future.