Our people

Dr Rich Johnston

Associate Professor
School of Behavioural and Health Sciences

Areas of expertise: sport science; training load; injury; muscle fatigue; athlete profiling; microtechnology; data analysis

HDR Supervisor accreditation status: Full

ORCID ID: 0000-0001-6618-2853

Phone: +61 3623 7726

Email: richard.johnston@acu.edu.au

Location: ACU Brisbane Campus

Rich Johnston has worked as a strength and conditioning coach and sport scientist across several sports in both the UK and Australia. He completed his PhD from Australian Catholic University in 2015 where he investigated fatigue, recovery and physical performance in rugby league players. Since his PhD, Rich has conducted research across various team sports including rugby league, rugby union, soccer and Australian football. His main skills are around data analysis and modelling, as such, he is involved in a wide range of projects. His main areas of interest are how technology can be used and integrated to support athletes in understanding and managing performance, sleep and recovery from sports-related concussions.

Select publications

Johnston RD, Gabbett TJ, Jenkins DG, and Hulin BT. Influence of physical qualities on post-match fatigue in rugby league players. J Sci Med Sport 18: 209-213, 2015. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsams.2014.01.009

Johnston RD, Gabbett TJ, Seibold AJ, and Jenkins DG. Influence of physical contact on neuromuscular fatigue and markers of muscle damage following small-sided games. J Sci Med Sport 17: 535-540, 2014. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsams.2013.07.018

Johnston RD, Gabbett TJ, and Jenkins DG. Applied sport science of rugby league. Sports Med 44: 1087-1100, 2014. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-014-0190-x

Hulin BT, Gabbett TJ, Pickworth NJ, Johnston RD, and Jenkins DG. Relationships among playerload, high-intensity intermittent running ability, and injury risk in professional rugby league players. International Journal of Sports Physiology & Performance 1: 1-7, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1123/ijspp.2019-0139

Johnston RD, Weaving D, Hulin BT, Till K, Jones B, and Duthie G. Peak movement and collision demands of professional rugby league competition. J Sports Sci: 1-8, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1080/02640414.2019.1622882

Projects

NRL player workloads and injury: a leaguewide project

• Determine injury profiles and risk factors
• Establish training and match demands
• Explore relationships between training, competition and injury

Movement changes following a sports-related concussion

• Determine methods used to quantify movement changes post-concussion and quantify their validity and reliability
• Explore the ability of currently collected IMU data to measure key gait metrics
• Understand the time course of changes in gait characteristics post-concussion

Reducing concussion incidence in contact sports: can a novel headgear help?

• Determine the efficacy of a novel headgear in reducing concussion incidence, severity and burden
• Does a novel headgear reduce the frequency and magnitude of head acceleration events during competitive match-play across contact sports
• Blood biomarker responses to contact sport matches wearing a novel headgear.

Accolades and awards

Visiting position Leeds Beckett University 2018-to current

Appointments and affiliations

Applied experience/roles

• Sport Scientist, Heart of Midlothian Football Club (three years)
• Sport Scientist, Scottish Rowing (one year)
• Sport Scientist, Livingston Football Club (one year)
• Strength and Conditioning Coach and Head of Performance, Norths Devils Rugby League Football Club (six years)

Current and prior consultancy roles

Rich currently works on a leaguewide training load project for the NRL, looking to determine training load, injury and performance relationships across the competition. He has provided consultancy roles to Queensland Rugby League player performance pathways (2013-2018), which involved profiling players during State of Origin camps. Rich now conducts applied research and consultancy with a number of sporting teams in Australia and overseas. This primarily centres on automating and expanding data workflows and athlete monitoring processes to arm practitioners with the best available information to improve decision-making.