A novel dynamometric central for 3D forces and moments assessment in swimming starting

Biography

Professor João Paulo Vilas-Boas is a Full Professor at the Faculty of Sport, University of Porto, a member of the Steering Group Biomechanics and Medicine in Swimming of the World Commission of Science in Sport, and a member of the board of the Portuguese Olympic Committee, a former Olympic Swimming Coach and he is the director of the Porto Biomechanics Laboratory, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal.

Synopsis

Since Cavanagh et al. (1975), the direct swimmers’ kinetics measurement in starting is one of the interesting areas for biomechanics applied service and research. As classifications in competitive swimming events have continuously been decided by less than a second, sports engineers and biomechanists have designed optimised instrumented starting blocks for other analysis purposes beyond the individual ventral starts (de Jesus et al., in press; Mason, 2012). Despite the noticeable technological advances provided by these devices, there are still limitations which should be considered for full performance assistance. This study aimed to describe the development of a new 3D dynamometric central to assess mainly independent right and left upper and lower limbs external forces and moments at individual and relay starting and turning techniques.