*Opening film: actual shot of my bike. Lighting and colour grading were AI generated.
Making exercise science useful.
01 · Teaching
I am a Teaching Fellow in exercise and sport science at Deakin University. Since 2022, my teaching has spanned eight units across physiology, exercise prescription and programming, coaching, motor learning and research methods. I teach every trimester, in seminars, practical and laboratory classes and online, and I also mark assessments. My appointments have included a full-time contract in T2 2025.
Exercise Prescription and Delivery
Research Methods and Data Analysis in Exercise and Sport
Principles of Sport Coaching
Introduction to Anatomy and Physiology (from T1 2026)
Motor Learning and Skill Acquisition (from T2 2026)
Integrated Human Physiology
Exercise Programming
Physiology of Sport Performance
Additional marking: HSE102, HSE110, HSE727.
At Victoria University, the SSC2000 unit chair delegated its coordination to me in 2025: student communication, seminar updates, self-moderation and grade release. In 2026, I coordinated both deliveries of AHE3114 Sport Physiology while its unit chair was on leave, covering unit news, student support, all marking, self-moderation and grade release.
In HBS109 Introduction to Anatomy and Physiology, practical classes bring nursing, medical, occupational therapy and exercise science students together in one room.
Several of these units sit within the areas La Trobe names for this role. HSE103 and HSE302 teach physical activity and health, and the Exercise Programming curriculum includes strength and conditioning for older adults, postpartum women and people returning from injury. HSE104 Research Methods and Data Analysis, together with the 34,731-session dataset from my doctorate, gives a practical base for sports analytics. In a current Deakin resistance-training and altitude study, I teach lifting technique and run strength testing.
In one 2026 Deakin trimester, three colleagues asked me four times to cover classes across four units at short notice. I took the two requests I was free for, three HSE304 sessions and one HSE103 session, and could not take the other two because I was already teaching.
02 · Curriculum
Read the athlete's circumstances.
Build the training week.
Explain each choice.
At Victoria University in 2025, I proposed and delivered an endurance sport technology session for SSC2000 Sport Coaching Systems and Technology, drawn from my research. Students built a training week in TrainingPeaks and explained each choice using physiological evidence and the athlete's history and circumstances. The task asked them to interpret data, recognise uncertainty and justify a professional decision.
I also contributed to the unit's development and updated its seminar content.
For the second assessment in SSC2000 in 2025, I marked every group presentation and prepared individual feedback, cohort and rubric-level statistics, and a commentary on common strengths and areas for improvement. I raised an ambiguity in recording individual and group marks with the unit chair and applied the unit chair's guidance.
At La Trobe I would bring that unit-level experience to curriculum work with the colleagues who lead its programs, starting from the learning outcomes and building the cases, data and tasks around them.
03 · Students
You have a great presence in the classroom, and your ability to connect research with real world sporting scenarios made the learning experience that much more valuable.
I genuinely appreciated the way you delivered the content, challenged my/our thinking and provided constructive feedback when warranted.
Thank you for making my final unit not only enjoyable, but challenging in a good way.
AHE3114 student, Victoria University
Really good at helping work through the practicals and the seminars.
Patient with class and explained concepts when asked
HSE208 student feedback, Deakin University, T2 2026
Leighton is a magnificent resource, very knowledgeable and very well prepared for classes
Knows the content well and relates back to personal experience
Leighton had valuable knowledge in the topics and developed our understanding
Made content easy to understand in laboratory sessions
04 · Research
My doctorate examined how triathlon coaches prescribe, measure, monitor and manage training load. The work combined a national survey, interviews, six months of athlete training data and a coach-education intervention. I completed my PhD in Sport Science at Deakin University in December 2025 and graduated in February 2026.
Thesis Figure 1 · p. 25
Prescribe Load
Measure Load
Monitor Load
Manage Load
Part 01
The survey examined coaching practice against published recommendations. Interviews then explored the reasons behind coaches' decisions. Coaches were often adapting to the demands of their athletes' lives. The research identified opportunities to improve monitoring and communication while retaining coaches' understanding of the individual athlete.
Thesis Figure 9 · p. 56
Even though RPE was regularly used to prescribe load, it was one of the least commonly used load measurement metrics (62%).
Prescribe Load
Measure Load
RPE: Rating of Perceived Exertion · HR: heart rate · TSS: Training Stress Score · TRIMP: Training Impulse
You can be getting great data, and the athlete is falling into a hole, and you're not picking it up because everything looks great, and the compliance is high and all those sorts of things.
Part 02
TrainingPeaks records from 95 age-group triathletes provided 34,731 sessions over six months. The study examined training load and intensity, with explicit data-cleaning rules and analysis by age, sex, race-distance preference and training phase.
These phase-specific variations in the present study indicate that age-group triathletes appear to be following periodised training plans.
Thesis p. 93
Thesis Figure 13 · p. 90
In research-methods and data-analysis teaching at La Trobe, I would use this study to work through data cleaning, comparisons between groups and the limits of observational evidence.
Part 03
A coaching-education study combined training records, communication activity, athlete surveys, coach ratings and interviews. Two coaches and 17 athletes took part across a six-week control period and six-week intervention. Coach comments on the training platform increased more than fourfold. No statistically significant differences in athlete perceptions or training adherence were detected during the six-week intervention.
Thesis pp. 103–105
Results indicated subjective improvements in overall TL practices.
Self-rated TL practice · both coaches: 5 out of 10 before, 8 out of 10 after
Self-rated communication effectiveness · Coach 1: 4 out of 10 before, 9 out of 10 after
Self-rated communication effectiveness · Coach 2: 5 out of 10 before, 7 out of 10 after
Adaptive Contextualised Informed Practice is the proposed approach developed in the thesis: planned training, objective information, feedback and the capacity to respond when life changes. The approach has not been empirically validated.
RUP
Reactive Underinformed Practice
Low training load and communication practice structure
Low training load structure. Minimal planning, minimal objective and subjective data utilisation. Reactive to life load.
ACIP
Adaptive Contextualised Informed Practice
Flexible training load and communication practices that effectively account for sport and non-sport load
Structured training load, planned with flexibility in mind. High objective data utilisation with an emphasis on subjective data (feedback and context) utilisation. Highly responsive to life load.
EBP
Evidence Based Practice
Highly structured training load and communication practices, rigidly planned
Highly structured training load is rigidly planned. Low flexibility, high objective and subjective data utilisation. Interpreted as rules to adhere to. Less responsive to life load.
In the current Deakin resistance-training and altitude study, I recruit participants, teach lifting technique, run strength tests and laboratory protocols, and mentor an honours student. As a Deakin Research Assistant in 2023, I tested the energy-expenditure accuracy of GPS sport watches, including sub-maximal VO₂ testing of recreational runners on a clinical-grade treadmill with a MetaLyzer.
I conclude that this thesis is an original scientific contribution that meets or exceeds international standards for the Doctor of Philosophy in sport science. I recommend its approval without reservation.
05 · Published work
The doctorate produced three first-author peer-reviewed papers, and my master's research produced a fourth. A fifth paper, reporting the education intervention, is in second-round review.
Inspect +Article preview
Frontiers in Sports and Active Living · 2026
Inspect +Thesis chapter preview
International Sport Coaching Journal · 2026
Inspect +Article preview
International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching · 2025
Inspect +Article preview
International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching · 2023
TrainingPeaks Coach Blog · 2026
augo · Substack
Doctoral thesis · Deakin University
Three papers on AI-assisted research methodology in sport science, with Professor Stephen Seiler, Professor Marco Cardinale and Palo Galko.
Journals including the International Sport Coaching Journal, the International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching, Frontiers in Sports and Active Living and Frontiers in Physiology regularly invite me to review manuscripts.
06 · Explaining the science
AusTriathlon and TrainingPeaks invited me to present my research at the Queensland Academy of Sport in December 2024, adapted for development, performance and Olympic-level coaches. AusTriathlon then asked me to deliver a national webinar on training load and communication, open to its coaching membership.
AusTriathlon Coach Connect · Load Management · 19 February 2025
For researchers, I presented the doctoral findings at the European College of Sport Science Congress in 2025.
At Deakin Open Days in 2023, 2024 and 2025, I rode for about five hours a day to demonstrate the training technology athletes use, from novice to elite level. In 2025 I co-supervised a Master of Applied Sport Science candidate whose research examined menstrual-cycle symptoms and perceived performance in female triathletes. The candidate earned a High Distinction. I currently mentor an honours student within the resistance-training and altitude study.
I wanted to sincerely thank you for your support and guidance throughout the IPAN Research Excellence Programme.
TrainingPeaks commissioned an article from my 2026 Frontiers paper for its international coaching audience. I also coach athletes in Australia and internationally, where each plan has to fit the athlete behind the training: their background, schedule and goals.
Twenty years working with athletes, more than thirty years in triathlon and seven Ironman finishes.
Written communication began in industry. I wrote manuals and made help videos for scientific instruments as a technical writer at Varian. Later, as Marketing Communications Manager at GBC Scientific Equipment, I managed the team producing them for a wider range of equipment.
07 · Documents
Dr Leighton Wells · Sport science, teaching and applied practice
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