Monday 6 July 2020 8:41pm
Postdoctoral Fellow Tina van Duijn is looking for 40 participants for her treading water study.
Since coming to New Zealand, Tina van Duijn has realised how passionate she is about water safety.
Originally from Switzerland, the Postdoctoral Fellow in the University’s School of Physical Education, Sport and Exercise Sciences is “crazy about water”, and has trained herself or taught others in different sports such as swimming, surfing, windsurfing, freediving and sailing.
“Since coming to New Zealand, the issue of water safety has become very visible to me - it seems every person I meet can tell at least one story of a near-drowning or drowning incident in their immediate surroundings.
"Since coming to New Zealand, the issue of water safety has become very visible to me - it seems every person I meet can tell at least one story of a near-drowning or drowning incident in their immediate surroundings."
“This made me realise how passionate I am about helping people enjoy the water safely.”
To this end, she’s leading a study which aims to identify the water treading technique which uses the least energy and mental resources.
“Water treading is one of the most-used strategies to prevent drowning, yet there are many different ways in which people tread water,” Dr van Duijn explains. “The longer a person can tread water, the higher their chances of survival if/when they fall into water unexpectedly. Determining techniques for water treading that are energy-efficient and require few cognitive resources will enhance the teaching of this skill.”
Indeed, it could also save many lives.
The 2018 Preventable Drowning Fatalities Report states that there were 66 preventable drowning fatalities in 2018 in New Zealand, 31 of which were immersion incidents (Water Safety New Zealand, 2018).
Participants in this study will attend the School of Physical Education, Sport and Exercise Sciences (SPESES) Flume Lab for a single session, which takes about two hours.
After taking basic body measurements (height, weight, body buoyancy), they will be instructed, and able to practise, a selection of different water treading techniques. They will then be asked to tread water in each of these techniques for three minutes, while breathing through a snorkel, which will be used to measure their oxygen consumption.
"Taking part in the experiment is fun. Participants get to see the renowned University of Otago aquatic flume lab, and get to be part of important research."
Dr van Duijn is looking for up to 40 participants - 20 experts in water treading (water polo players, synchronized swimmers) and 20 people with no specific water treading experience.
“Taking part in the experiment is fun. Participants get to see the renowned University of Otago aquatic flume lab, and get to be part of important research.”
Dr van Duijn holds an MSc in Sport Science from the University of Bern, Switzerland, and came to New Zealand in 2015 to do her PhD at the University of Waikato.
Her PhD was focused on the application of analogy instructions in motor skill learning, which is a form of implicit motor learning. After finishing her PhD, she worked with the pilot project Water Safe Waikato, where she investigated the effect of using different types of instruction to teach water safety skills to people with an international background.
The current project is funded by a grant from the Swiss National Science Foundation, and is conducted in collaboration with Professor Chris Button (University of Otago) and Professor Rich Masters (University of Waikato).
Want to take part?
Contact Tina, Email: tinavanduijn@gmail.com
Story by Otago Bulletin Board Editor Lisa Dick.