IMPROVED BIOMECHANICS & TRAINING: IS THE GENDER GAP CLOSING?

For many years it has been recognized that women were physiologically as capable of running all events from 100 meters to 42 km as their male counterparts. The number of women participating in all sports has steadily increased, as has their rate of improvement. Whip and Ward (1992) projected that eventually women’s times would converge with those of men. Gender differences in physiological variables of runners have been explored in a number of studies. Bam, Noakes, Juritz, & Dennis (1997) suggested that comparable performances could be expected from athletes who possess similar relevant physiological characteristics. Joyner (1993) concluded that improved competitive opportunities and more difficult training programs appear to be the reasons for the high rate of improvement in women runners. The purpose of this study was to examine whether, indeed, race times of men and women are converging as predicted by Whipp and Ward (1992)

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THREE STARTING TECHNIQUES IN RUNNING LATERALLY

The ability to start quickly and run laterally appears to be important in a number of sports including American football, baseball, volleyball, and tennis. Coaches and teachers vary in their recommendations of the most effective technique for moving laterally. Two techniques are widely accepted: the jab-step and the cross-over step. A third technique that is not as widely recognized is the gravity-step. Four studies compared the efficacy of jabstep and the cross-over step in baseball and slow pitch softball (Israel & Brown, 1981). Chandler, et al. (1975) examined the jab-step and cross-over step in American football. Along with other techniques, Cox, et al. (1982) studied the effectiveness of the jab-step and cross-over step in volleyball while Bragg & Andriacchi (2001) looked at applications of these techniques, and the gravity-step, in tennis. Various measurement methods were used in these studies and they produce equivocal results. The purpose of this study was to examine the efficacy of three starting techniques - jab, cross-over and gravity steps - in lateral running to distances up to 27 m (90 ft)

EFFECTIVENESS OF THREE SPRINT STARTS: A LONGITUDINAL CASE STUDY

Sprint starts are increasingly important as race distance declines from 400 meters. In this study, three sprint start techniques, a crouch start, a crouch-to-upright start, and a standing start, were examined to determine their relative effectiveness. Effectiveness was defined as time to reach a series of timing gates. A single subject performed all trials in two sessions separated by four years. The mean times for each interval were calculated for each technique and each session. Each trial was videotaped, and representative trials were digitized in order to track the movement of the subject’s center of mass. The results showed that the standing start was clearly faster than the other two techniques at every interval and that the center of mass exhibited full running stride characteristics at an earlier stage

ISBS: THE EVOLUTION OF A REVOLUTION

PROLOGUE: The idea of an organization dedicated to the advancement of sports biomechanics germinated during the Montreal Olympic Games in 1976, where the Olympic Biomechanics Cinematography research team, led by Professor Juris Terauds, discussed the issue at length. At the University of Alberta in the fall of 1977 Terauds continued to explore the idea through a long series of philosophical conversations with Geoff Dyson. These discussions explored a variety of topics, including the value of biomechanics in sports, the nature of biomechanics research, and ways in which coaches could be brought “out of the dark ages” and into the starting blocks with scientifically based information. An informal meeting was held in conjunction with the Clinic for High Speed Biomechanics Cinematography in Edmonton, Canada during the International Congress of Sports Sciences in July 1978. Participants expressed a strong sentiment supporting an international society of sports biomechanics. It was not, however, until the following month, at the Commonwealth Games, that the 29 members of the biomechanics cinematography research team addressed the problems of forming and implementing an international society focusing on sports biomechanics. Juris Terauds obtained a two-year sabbatical leave from the University of Alberta for the period 1979 to 1981. He used this time to promote the idea of an international society with biomechanics enthusiasts from around the world. This was no trivial task in an era when the dominant technologies were typewriters, snail mail and non-cell telephones. Nonetheless, he was able to consult with a substantial group of sports scientists. It is interesting that in spite of the relative difficulty of communication, 17 of 40 contributors he contacted were not residents of the U.S.A. Those who made significant contributions are listed in Appendix A

INFLUENTIAL LITERATURE IN APPLIED SPORTS BIOMECHANICS

This study documented the perception of prestige of applied sports biomechanics journals, as well as influential articles and books. Recent ISBS members were surveyed to rate the quality/prestige of 35 journals. Descriptive statistics of ratings were calculated for respondents and correlated with the 2008 impact factor (IF) reported in the Journal Citation Reports. Mean ratings showed that international perception of influential journals were weakly (r = 0.48) correlated with the IF. These results confirm previous studies that the IF is a poor index for evaluating the influence of journals publishing applied sports biomechanics research, and there was considerable diversity among the respondent’s nominations of the most influential books and articles in the field

A VISIT TO THE SHRINES OF THE VERTICAL JUMP AND THE 40 YARD DASH

Biomechanics has a unique focus in the study of sports. While other sports subdisciplines such as motor learning, exercise physiology, and sports psychology grapple with hypotheses and theories, biomechanics is in the enviable position of being rooted upon a well defined body of principles and laws. These have been passed on to us by some of the founding fathers of science itself. Included in their number are the disciples Aristotle, da Vinci, Borelli, Galileo, and Newton. Working with knowns and invariability makes it easy for the biomechanist to generalize. If the variables of the equation are known, then the outcome is certainly known. However, such a distilled view of human movement is not possible in the real world. The biomechanist must learn to cope with the inherent variability of human motor performance. This paper will discuss some of the problems encountered in making this transition. Specifically, misinformation regarding two increasingly used predictors of motor ability -the vertical jump and the 40 yard dash -will be explored. It would not be too much of an exaggeration to suggest that these two performances have become shrines of sort, worshipped by those who seek athletic deliverance. But, beware of false gods

INTERNATIONAL PRESTIGE OF SPORTS BIOMECHANICS SERIALS

This study measured the prestige of seventy-five serials in the international sports biomechanics community. The 2007 ISBS membership was surveyed by electronic mail and asked to rate the typical quality/prestige of the serials on a five point scale. Descriptive statistics of ratings were calculated for the sixty-five respondents and correlated with the 2006 impact factor (IF) reported in the Journal Citation Reports. Mean ratings showed that international perception of sports biomechanics serials was unique from other areas of biomechanics and this perception was weakly (r = 0.34) correlated with the IF. Based on these data, it appears that the IF is an inappropriate index for evaluating the international prestige of sports biomechanics serials

THE GENDER GAP: 100 M TO 42 KM

Gender differences in running performance have attracted considerable interest in the last thirty years. Projections that, over time, women would run as fast or faster than men has fueled a controversy about the abilities of the sexes. The purpose of this study was to examine data from the 2000 Olympic Games to determine if there is evidence of convergence of men’s and women’s times over standard race distances from 100 m to 42 km. Gender differences were found to fall in a relatively small band over these distances. The mean difference over all events was 10.59% when only first place finishers were considered and 11.06% when the first seven finishers were used. Results of this study supports previous work that suggests gender differences have plateaued

SCORE PREDICTION ON KIPS PERFORMED ON THE PARALLEL BARS

INTRODUCTION: Kips are performed by both male and female gymnasts in a variety of apparatus including the parallel bars. Althought kips are considered to be one of the fundamental skills in gymnastics, research is scarse (Prassas, 1993). The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors that influence the score awarded to kips performed on the parallel bars by qualified judges

GIANT SWINGS ON THE PARALLEL BARS: A CASE STUDY

Giant swings, routinely performed by gymnasts on the high bar, rings and uneven bars, have been the subject of several investigations (Arampatzis & BrOggemann, 1998; Prassas, Papadopoulos & Krug, 1998; Yeadon & Brewin, 2003). They have not been studied, however, on the parallel bars, where they have been introduced only recently. The purpose of this study was to investigate the kinematics of giant swings on the parallel bars