Better athletics through science: researchers are applying engineering principles to human motion to enhance performance

0 Comments | Insight on the News, Nov 11, 1996 | by Cynthia Long

Researchers are applying engineering principles to human motion to enhance performance.

NBC's melodramatic coverage of the 1996 Summer Olympics is a faded memory, but the methodic work of researchers helping athletes enhance their performances continues. It's not quite the bionic man, but scientists are using technology to create a better Olympian.

The International Olympic Medical Commission has been collecting technical data on athletic performance since the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles--information used not only by athletes but also by equipment designers and producers of educational handbooks, videos and CD-ROMs. Robert Gregor, professor of health and performance science at Georgia Tech (one of the sites for the Summer Games) and a team of researchers sponsored by the IOMC has applied engineering principles to human motion to help gold-medal runner Derrick Adkins leap over hurdles with heightened velocity and Carl Lewis hurl himself an extra meter in the long jump.

"Technology can improve athletic performance," Gregor tells Insight. "We've taken high-speed video technology and combined it with physics and biomechanics to measure human performance and learn how to improve it."

Research at the '96 Games has proved particularly useful to gymnasts. A team of scientists from the United States, England and Germany used high-speed video to study gymnasts' floor exercises, high-bar routines, aerial maneuvers and landing techniques. The landing studies proved timely after Kerri Strug's injury and, according to Gregor, the '96 data will lead to a new standard for mat thickness to help prevent future injuries.

Researchers also performed new studies with Olympic divers at the Atlanta games using high-speed video. "Visual is important," Gregor says. "We can make all of the calculations we want but if we don't explain it and show it in a way athletes and coaches will understand, you don't have anything."

By studying the lunge of a diver off the tower (or the arch of a high jumper's back or the propulsion of a javelin thrower's spear), scientists can help athletes get that extra meter of velocity or turn a double somersault into a triple. "High-speed motion allows you to capture information, synchronize it with ground forces and put all of that information together for a richer, more quantifiable picture," says Gregor. "If you can quantify it, you can measure it. If you can measure it, you can improve it."

On the other hand, video alone has limits. "It only tells you the outcome. It says nothing about the causes," says Gregor. "It doesn't give you any information about muscle forces or external forces exerted on an athlete or, more importantly, what athletes have to do to overcome those forces." To correct this problem, researchers embedded a special plate into the 10-meter diving tower at the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center to measure the force of divers as they leapt from the platform. "This technology takes it another step," says Gregor.

IOMC researchers worked on 14 projects at eight Olympic venues during the 1996 games, including swimming, tennis, softball, equestrian events and track and field. While data were given to coaches and athletes immediately, the analysis continues and collaborative scientific articles from the researchers will appear early next year.