By Mike Hurst
November 23, 2007 12:00am
THIS is Australia’s fastest man like you have never seen him before.
Make no bones about it, exciting new technology is enabling biomechanical experts at the NSW Institute of Sport to give Josh Ross and other Olympic aspirants an edge in the countdown to the Beijing Games in August.
Winner of the past four national 100m championships and two Stawell Gifts as backmarker, Ross, 26, is the best sprinter in the country but he still has plenty of shortcomings.
NSWIS staff, including biomechanics expert Mark Moresi, himself a former international 400m runner, are studying Ross on special video film that has helped his new coach identify technique problems.
But the most intriguing and potentially most valuable scientific evaluation may come through the use of the Vicon computer program, which provides a three-dimensional perspective of the subject.
The athlete appears as a skeleton that can be viewed either as a still picture or on the move. This is done by using a series of infra-red cameras.
The Vicon system creates a 3D reconstruction of the athlete in motion, enabling a detailed analysis of his movement pattern, be it sprinting from the starting blocks or hurling a discus.
“Once we’ve got the reconstruction on the computer it allows us to get any sort of measurement, such as joint velocities, distances from toe to knee, toe to hip or whatever so that we can work out the athlete’s centre of mass,” Moresi said. “Ultimately we can track all of the athlete’s movements, efficient or otherwise.”
Ross and his new coach, Paul Nancarrow, have embraced the science as part of an overhaul Ross wants to make to his training in a bid to produce his best at an international championship.
National sprints coach Paul Hallam, who works at NSWIS and is working with Nancarrow, said analysis had revealed Ross has a few technical problems. “He yields at the hip and knee on his left leg which means his foot collapses after an initial good contact with the track,” Hallam explained. “You’re only as strong as your weakest link in the chain of movement so we’re working to correct this.”
Ross will target the world indoor 60m title this summer. Nancarrow believes that if his training goes to plan Ross will be faster off the starting blocks at the indoor tournament in Valencia, Spain, from March 7 to 9.
The indoor meet follows the annual Australian championships in Brisbane the previous week (Feb 28-March 2) when Ross will be gunning for his fifth consecutive national 100m crown.
