CONSTANT VELOCITY
After initial acceleration, athletes will move into an upright running posture.
While this posture is most often associated with the attainment of maximal speed, it is also the posture in which many athletes complete a high proportion of their work at sub-maximal speeds. Sports with a high transitional component such as football (soccer), AFL , lacrosse and field hockey all rely heavily on performance in this area. To avoid confusion, we have termed this area CONSTANT VELOCITY, which is also a component of how we capture data (book a demo to learn more).
By assessing an athletes running mechanics at progressive fractions of maximal speed, SPEEDSIG develops models of all its measured variables against running speed. These models inform the sports practitioner HOW the athlete generates speed of varying magnitude.
Our research (to be available via publication soon) has shown conclusively that athletes not only have different strategies as to HOW they run, but those strategies can change dramatically and in unexpected ways with speed. Therefore it is critical that when assessing running mechanics in a field sport athlete that assessment be made of HOW the athlete operates at different speeds.