I hope I am putting it in the right section here guys and mods please feel free to move it if you think it would be better in the Biomechanical section.
Of all the hard to ascertain variables (normally requiring force plates, high speed cameras, in a lab), like ground contact time, Accelerative force per stride, deccelerative force per stride, ect. do you feel would be most useful to get on a daily, every day training basis if you could and why? How would this help you train your sprinters or yourself to become better?
Ground contact time. Someone needs to make shoes with a contact mat insole. The difference in most peoples’ good days and bad days can be seen in contact time.
If you had access to this, don’t you think the mental strain on the athletes to always be better then the last workout would be so high that it would eventually shut them down completely?
Charlie,How would one go about reducing ground contact time?A close friend has told me that I look heavy on my feet…more to the point how would you go about reducing GCT without trying to go for more frequency?
My guesses would be EMS on the sole and or plyos…?
GCT is a result of numerous factors, including muscle status, load, period in the preparation, regeneration, as well as the training elements used.
Adding more to an overloaded program won’t help and may hurt, but, if there’s room in training, these elements can be effective.
GCT is not related to a conscious attempt to gain more frequency- in fact it usually results in the opposite of the desired effect.
An effective increase in frequency is solely due to a decrease in GCT, not the other way around.
I haven’t bought the software yet, but more for coaching purposes and a better understanding of ground contact and stride frequency I will download software that will connect to the finish lynx unit. I will let you know the results or post a video of the actual start, followed by the graph breaking everything down. Some of you might have had access to this type of software already. I’ll keep doing starts untill I get a good one for measurement sake. It should be pretty cool!
I dont know yet! Im downloading the software right now. They have a few new things on their site. Im not actually sure what all this does. Ill tell you in a minute.
How are you going to measure gct without a mat or force plate? It can’t be derived from 100m time alone. Unless you are filming every foot contact and calculating using software?
Hmm I did some research into what you are suggesting some time ago. I concluded that an acceleromteer worn on a belt of some kind with a data logger could measure the profile/signature of a sprinter. The data could be smoothed then gct measured for each phase. The link below shows an application for rowing.
The company I work for has developed a system that lets you test just about everything on ever run. It’s not in production yet and so not for sale, but I am currently on tour in the US doing demos for coaches and getting feedback on it. Here is a run down of what it is and what it does.
I have just started back to sprinting and did my first workout with it today. I am going to start a training journal here so you guys can see the info i am getting and all the feed back.
It’s really cool system.
The inForm system is a small sensory device that you belt to your athlete which feeds information wirelessly to a tablet computer thus making it a mobile sports lab. You can then run the athlete through a growing number of different athletic tests that include:
• Vertical jump tests,
• Linear sprint tests,
• Linear Skate tests,
• Agility tests,
• Skate Agility tests,
• Stability tests
• Upper body tests
After each test is complete results are provided within seconds on the tablet computer.
For example on a 40 yard dash you will get:
o ground contact time
o stride frequency
o accelerative force per stride
o decelerative force per stride
o vertical force per stride,
o fatigue resistance,
o power maintenance,
o right/left imbalances,
o acceleration,
o reaction time,
o Average stride length
On a vertical jump test you will get:
o jump Height,
o power,
o time to peak power,
o push off time,
o landing impact force
What I am doing is testing ever max effort sprint I do. With this I can see exactly when i start to get a drop off in speed and power and really know when to stop my runs. Let me know what you guys think, and what kind of applications you can see for something like this.
Just a side note I am not selling this. It’s not for sale so I am not trying o flog it on the site.
Adam do you have a picture of the device? I would love to see what it looks like.
Application wise, it will be a good device for amature athletes training alone and coaches of all kinds. The only people that won’t invest in it are those who have coaches already, as too much data will just overload them. Their coaches however, are an entirely different ballgame.
Yeah here it is. Sorry these are taken in my hotel room. so not very professional. It’s still a prototype so there is no marketing material for it so no glossy nice shots yet.
I will get my ass in gear and start typeing up my training diary and post som of the output files.
I believe that the intention is to sell it to coaches, I don’t think it will be something athletes can afford. Although I have no idea.
I would like to see the average gct for your speed work and average gct for your special endurance sessions. What happens to your gct during a speed session and during a special endurance session and so on. Does the average improve with longer recovery times?
Right now the system is only good up to 100m distances so special endurance is not really an easy one to get.
I have all my results in an excel spread sheet from my last workout. I will post the spreadsheet. It right now the system displays graphs of individual ground contact for each stride, but it doesn’t list them in excel. On Monday I am going to call our tech department and get them to fix that.
Here is my fist sprint workout in about 8-10months.
My workout consisted of, 5 squat jumps, off about 30sec. I do this to with my feet staggered and my knees bent to approximately 90 degrees.
Rest 3min.
10m x 5 (2min rest between each)
20m x 5 (3-5min rest between each) The system glitched and missed one of these ones
30m x (8 3-5min rest between each)
My times were not decreasing and I was staying fairly constant right till the end so I feel that my cns was fine and from that end i could have kept going, but I decided to go on the side of caution and shut it down after that. good thing i did I am very sore today.
hmmm it will not let me attach an excel file. anyone want to send me a quick tutorial on the best way to display an excel spread sheet or pdf files?
It’s awesome. I wish I had this thing when I was training in the past. I would have loved to have this when I trained for bobsleigh.
No retail yet. It will be expensive i know that much. But I have not been given any figures. It’s still a prototype and still a little glitchy now and then. Right now we are just going and doing demos for coaches around the country trying to get ideas and info on how people think it could be made better and more usable.
I know they wanted to have a releasable version finished for September, but I know we are still a ways off that.