The team at the world-leading Strength and Conditioning Department of Middlesex University are experts in researching, designing, and implementing evidence-based training programmes and interventions in a wide range of sports and disciplines.
Their Codamotion system is based in their laboratory at the SpaceX Stadium, home of Saracens Rugby Club.
The aim of the project by PhD student Angela Sorensen and her supervisor, Shyam Chavda, was to determine how strength and power training interventions impacted force output in competitive weightlifters during the snatch and clean. Several key stages of the lift were tracked alongside anthropometric and additional surrogate performance measures.
Effective tracking of the lift required a solution with minimal disruption to the athlete’s natural movement ensuring the data captured was ecologically valid. Codamotion active markers were found to be particularly appropriate for this task, as their intrinsic marker identity allows fully automated tracking using even the most minimal of marker sets while also being rapid to setup.
A dual CX1 system was used together with force plate integration. Markers were placed on hip, knee, ankle, and the barbell itself. This provided the kinetic and kinematic data to answer the initial research questions. So successful was the collection that researchers now expect the large data sets recorded to be used in multiple follow-on analytics projects.
Being able to identify the markers during pre-testing meant that Angela could have multiple setups ready: whilst one participant was active, the other could have their markers placed. And by creating her own Odin protocol, Angela was able to see all the information relevant to her study on one screen before exporting out for further analysis.
Links
Middlesex University Strength and Conditioning Courses - On Campus
Middlesex University Strength and Conditioning Courses - Online Distance Learning
London Sport Institute
Twitter
London Sport Institute @MDX_LSI
Angela Sorensen @angesorensen
Laboratory image (top) courtesy of Angela Sorensen.