Proceedings, Volume 2, Issue 6

RFID timing is the common method for processing results in mass sport events. Typically, it is used in running, cycling and triathlon events, but with some modifications even swimming athletes in water can be detected. In open water swimming competit...

The purpose of this study was to develop the new wheel-chair which had the function to drive straight by one-hand operation. To perform this purpose, the driving force transmission axis (DFTA) which had transmitted the driving force from the one side...

Providing athletes with real-time feedback on their performance is becoming common in many sports, also in speed skating. This research-by-design project aims at finding a tool that allows the speed skater to get real-time feedback on his performance...

Putting accounts for more shots in a round of golf than any other type of play. The percentage of putts holed decreases as putt length increases, because golfers struggle to achieve a consistent range and direction. Range variation has been partly at...

Measurements of blade forces are made using a load cell mounted between the blade and shaft of a modified paddle. All six force components and moments are measured simultaneously to give a full picture of blade hydrodynamic forces as the centre of pr...

In wheelchair racing, the optimal pair of gloves, as well as knowledge of conditioning of glove-rim contact surfaces can have a significant impact on race performance. Extreme temperatures, humidity, wet or dry conditions can considerably influence n...

Natural rise and fall movement represents typical characteristics of the swing dances in ballroom dances. The rise and fall movements are analyzed in the mechanical point of view in the presentation. The biomechanics of the rise and fall movements we...

This paper reports the outcomes of a series of two Concussion Research Workshops held in Lowell, MA, USA. The workshop examined the state-of-the-art in concussion research, research challenges and the future directions of research within the followin...

Batting cage pitching machines are widely used across the sports of baseball and softball for training and recreation purposes. The balls are specifically designed for the machines and for the environment to ensure high durability and typically do no...

Using multiple cameras with force platforms is a classical and popular method for gait analysis. However; it is difficult to measure natural walking; because the subjects have to adjust their steps to place on the force platform. This study proposes...

The forgiveness of golf putters is traditionally achieved through weight distribution. Higher MOI (moment of inertia) putters will show less ball speed loss on impacts away from the sweet spot. A very large MOI putter, however, may not be desired by...

Golf clubs are often evaluated by many methods to determine their performance. For drivers in particular, the primary performance indicator is ball speed, which is directly related to distance. Golf club manufacturers make many claims about how extra...

Accurate, long-term data are needed in order to determine trends in active travel, to examine the effectiveness of any interventions and to quantify the health, social and economic consequences of active travel. However, most studies of individual tr...

The bicycle, being unstable at low speed and marginally stable at high speed, is sensitive to lateral perturbations. One of the major lateral perturbations is crosswind, which can lead to accidents and fatalities. Here we investigate the effect of cr...

The following considers lift and drag measurements of 13 production golf ball models propelled through still air in a laboratory setting. The balls travelled at speeds ranging from 18 m/s to 91 m/s and spin ranging from 1500 rpm to 4500 rpm. Speed se...

Current research of auxetic materials highlights its potential as personal protective equipment for sports apparel with enhanced properties such as conformability, superior energy absorption and reduced thickness. In contrast, commercially available...

The objective of this study was to evaluate an optimum structure for a rugby wheelchair by estimating the muscle force during forward linear operation of the wheelchair using an inverse dynamics analysis. The simulation model was represented by restr...

A novel measurement system, the Ring of Fire, is deployed which enables the aerodynamic drag estimation of transiting cyclists. The system relies upon the use of large-scale stereoscopic PIV and the conservation of momentum within a control volume in...

A CSMA algorithm was implemented and tested using 2.45 GHz wearable sensors on five human subjects moving in formation. The algorithm forces the nodes to repeatedly sense the carrier frequency to recognize when other nodes are in/out of coverage. The...

An accurate monitoring of the professional athletes’ exercises during training sessions is able to improve their performance by helping them in improving the effectiveness of the movement, in the injury prevention and in the rehabilitation protocols....

The influence of the location of the center of mass (cm) of the putter head, relative to the shaft, on golfer applied kinetics at the grip was investigated. Participants made 12 attempts at a straight up-hill (2.2° slope) 8 ft putt with half of the a...

Understanding the action of the metatarsophalangeal joint (MTP) is fundamental to improving the design process of a new outdoor shoe. Coming from the stated consideration, the aim of this research is to study the influence of shoe sole stiffness and...

A two-part experimental study was conducted in order to better understand how the delivered face angle and club path of a golf club influences the initial launch direction of a golf ball for various club types. A robust understanding of how these par...

In 2003, the BMW Group developed a longboard called “StreetCarver”. The idea behind this product was to bring the perfect carving feeling of surf- and snowboarding on the streets by increasing the maneuverability of classical skateboard trucks. The o...

Headform impact testing is commonly used in the evaluation of helmets and head gear, head impact sensors and in sports related accident reconstruction. While linear acceleration of the headform center of mass can be measured using three linear accele...

The objective of this research is to model the expenditure and recovery of Anaerobic Work Capacity (AWC) as related to Critical Power (CP) during cycling. CP is a theoretical value at which a human can operate indefinitely and AWC is the energy that...

The mechanism of propulsion in swimming has been widely researched in recent years, but not completely clarified. While it is obvious that the movement of arms provides most of the thrust, it is unclear how each phase of the stroke translates into bo...

This work was included in a wider project oriented to the improvement of residual neuromuscular skills in disabled athletes playing wheelchair rugby: the wheelchair rugby Italian national team was involved and tests allowed to analyse the impact load...

A high prevalence of shoulder injuries exists across the wheelchair using populations. To maintain competitive longevity and optimise performance, athletes must employ techniques which pose minimal injury risk. A computational model was used to asses...

Deep neural network architectures show superior performance in recognition and prediction tasks of the image, speech and natural language domains. The success of such multi-layered networks encourages their implementation in further application scena...

The purpose of this study was to quantify the functional roles of the whole-body’s joint torques including fingers’ joints in the generation of ball speed and spin during baseball fast-ball pitching motion. The dynamic contributions of joint torque t...

Swim race analysis systems often rely on manual digitization of recorded videos to obtain performance related metrics such as stroke-rate, stroke-length or swim velocity. Using image-processing algorithms, a stroke tagging system has been developed t...

Athlete monitoring and performance investigations are crucial for athletes and coaches as part of training progress and injury recovery. Athlete training is not always conducted at special training facilities even at some points without a coach being...

The instrumentation of wheelchair racing chairs is currently limited by the influence of the athlete-wheelchair system mass and performance. Inertial measurement units (IMUs) provide a lightweight solution, and have demonstrated accurate kinematic mo...

The rudder is an important appendage and used to adjust the course and balance the lateral displacement in the sailing regatta. RANSE (Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes Equations) was used to simulate the viscous flow field of the hull for 470 Class ya...

Class 470 yacht attracts more and more attention at the World Championships. The hull hydrodynamics is important for winning the games. Hull draughts influence ship maneuverability, seakeeping, rapidity and stability. Numerical simulation by solving...

The objective of this study was to construct a finite element model for a carbon fiber reinforced plastic club shaft, and to investigate the effects of the torsional stiffness of the shaft on the dynamic behavior of a golf club during the swing. Mech...

With the advent of commercially available virtual reality (VR) hardware, immersive experiences can be created to simulate competitive performance environments. Simulators can provide novel ways for fans to engage with otherwise unattainable performan...

Inertial and inertial-magnetic sensors are miniaturised and lightweight which allows the technology to be used to assess human movements in sports. These sensors can produce up to nine channels of time series data which can often be difficult to read...

Falls are harmful to the elderly; therefore, fall detection technologies have been developed by many researchers to help detecting these incidents. The research presented here investigates a Bluetooth Low Energy-based local area network for fall dete...

Aerodynamic drag is a key determinant of cycling performance. The distribution of yaw angles that a cyclist experiences is equally important. Analysis and presentation of aerodynamic data in cycling, generally, has not combined these two effects. A t...

Many cyclists use online-maps for planning their routes, however, only little information is known about the road surface of different cycling paths, farm or public roads. Cyclists prefer road surfaces fitting the type of bike they are using for a sp...

Wrist injuries are the most common types of injury in snowboarding. Protectors can reduce injury risk by limiting wrist hyperextension and attenuating impact forces. There are a range of wrist protector concepts available, but it is unclear if any pa...

A wingsuit gives the human body an airfoil-like shape to fly in the sky. The paper proposes a holistic design approach combining the fluid mechanical simulation of the function with appropriate CAE-software for the generation of pattern cuttings. A p...

An aerodynamic study was conducted on eleven high-end ‘aero-road’ helmets with the aim of determining whether a helmet can simultaneously have low drag and efficient cooling. The aerodynamic drag of each helmet was measured using a custom-built cycli...

A major barrier to wearables utility for kinematic analysis is convenience. Attachment to skin requires significant expertise and is time consuming. Instead this research applies principles of sensor analysis to clothing attachments, to examine tempo...

The pervasiveness of wearable technology has opened the market for products that analyse running biomechanics and provide feedback to the user. To improve running technique feedback should target specific running biomechanical key points and promote...

There is great benefit for small medium enterprises (SMEs) and startups to utilize lead users in product development. By utilizing lead users companies can make products that are more commercially attractive and better accepted in the market. However...

The planning for major international sporting events such as the Olympic Games and Commonwealth Games require the use of a range of Field of Play facilities. Often these are required to be temporary overlay installations due to the cost of constructi...

This study is designed to understand post-exercise comfort perceptions by exploring the relationship between users and garments. Influenced by new technologies from fibres, manufacturing techniques, and surface coatings athletic apparel is changing....