Identifying key movements contributing to ground reaction forces in sports
Conference: XXVII Congress of the International Society of Biomechanics (ISB2019)
Abstract: Body-worn sensors are commonly used for field-based movement and load measurements to asses injury risks in sports. To further explore the feasibility of using accelerometers for assessing whole-body biomechanical loading, this study used principal component analysis (PCA) to identify important movements and their contribution to the ground reaction force (GRF) for tasks that are frequently performed during running-based sports. Fifteen team-sport athletes performed accelerated, decelerated and constant low- (2-3 m/s), moderate- (4-5 m/s) and high-speed (>6 m/s) running, and 90° cutting trials, while full-body kinematics and GRF data were collected with a three-dimensional motion capture system and force platform respectively. A PCA was performed on the combined marker trajectory matrices for each task to identify task-specific principal movements (PMs). Resultant principal ground reaction forces (PGRFs) were calculated from each PM and assessed by the root mean square error (RMSE) of the summed PGRFs (∑PGRF). Across tasks, PM1 primarily described anteroposterior body movements, but PGRF1 errors were very high (>4 N/kg). Vertical body compression was the dominant contributor to the overall GRF and was described by PM3 (cutting), PM2 (low-speed) or PM5 (moderate- and high-speed), but less important for accelerated (PM10) and decelerated running (PM7). These results demonstrate that fundamental movement features contributing to GRF profiles are task-specific, making generalised evaluations of GRF features across different activities using predefined movements (e.g. segment accelerations) is difficult. Future research should investigate if PMs and PGRFs can also be related to structure-specific measures of biomechanical load (e.g. joint moments).
Listed In: Biomechanics, Sports Science,
Tagged In: Body-worn accelerometers; Musculoskeletal loading; Running; Principal component analysis; Ground reaction force
View PDF | Contact Author
Abstract: Body-worn sensors are commonly used for field-based movement and load measurements to asses injury risks in sports. To further explore the feasibility of using accelerometers for assessing whole-body biomechanical loading, this study used principal component analysis (PCA) to identify important movements and their contribution to the ground reaction force (GRF) for tasks that are frequently performed during running-based sports. Fifteen team-sport athletes performed accelerated, decelerated and constant low- (2-3 m/s), moderate- (4-5 m/s) and high-speed (>6 m/s) running, and 90° cutting trials, while full-body kinematics and GRF data were collected with a three-dimensional motion capture system and force platform respectively. A PCA was performed on the combined marker trajectory matrices for each task to identify task-specific principal movements (PMs). Resultant principal ground reaction forces (PGRFs) were calculated from each PM and assessed by the root mean square error (RMSE) of the summed PGRFs (∑PGRF). Across tasks, PM1 primarily described anteroposterior body movements, but PGRF1 errors were very high (>4 N/kg). Vertical body compression was the dominant contributor to the overall GRF and was described by PM3 (cutting), PM2 (low-speed) or PM5 (moderate- and high-speed), but less important for accelerated (PM10) and decelerated running (PM7). These results demonstrate that fundamental movement features contributing to GRF profiles are task-specific, making generalised evaluations of GRF features across different activities using predefined movements (e.g. segment accelerations) is difficult. Future research should investigate if PMs and PGRFs can also be related to structure-specific measures of biomechanical load (e.g. joint moments).
Listed In: Biomechanics, Sports Science,
Tagged In: Body-worn accelerometers; Musculoskeletal loading; Running; Principal component analysis; Ground reaction force
View PDF | Contact Author