HLPE3531 Sports Biomechanics Example - Sprint Biomechanics

 Enhancing acceleration in 100m sprint athletes

Acceleration ability is one of the key components to success in athletic sprint events yet also an essential skill in many team-based field and court sports. Faster team sport players can often reposition themselves on the field more quickly during decisive moments of the game such as challenges for the ball and during goal-scoring opportunities (26,62); therefore, identifying the mechanical characteristics underpinning acceleration and sprint performance is desirable. Key performance indicators during the acceleration phase of a sprint action include propulsive impulse (31,36), thereby producing and applying a high level of anteroposterior (horizontal direction) force (54) under time constraints; increased magnitude of maximal external power (65); plus the continued ability to orient the force vector horizontally as running velocity increases (38,54,61). To quantify the mechanical determinants contributing to sprint performance, a field method known as force-velocity (F-v) profiling has been proposed (66). Sprint F-v profiling is a diagnostic tool used to determine the maximal mechanical capabilities of the neuromuscular system (66) and describes the linear F-v relationship. Sprint F-v profiling has gained greater interest in the sports performance literature more recently because of simple field method approaches (61,66) providing performance characteristics, which can be used to individualize training interventions (45,46), plus identify the potential risk of injury (24,48).