What technology do I start with for my Player Performance program? Force plates!
Introduction
Since
the early 1990’s there have been significant advances in hardware to track and
measure human motion. Cameras,
electro-magnetic trackers, and inertial measurement units to track the position
and orientation of the body; EMG sensors to track muscle recruitment; EEG sensors
to monitor brainwaves that initiate recruitment; and eye-trackers to identify
stimuli that generate movement are all examples of hardware used to study human
motion. Because of these hardware
advances and the research of human motion there has been a huge impact on the
academic disciplines of Physical Therapy, Athletic Training and Performance
Enhancement.
And
these advances have now made their way into athletics at the professional level. Many of the professional baseball and basketball
teams have former biomechanists and athletic trainers from academia on their
staff as they seek to prevent injury and enhance performance. And the recently formed Baseballbiomechanics.org is one
indication of the inroads made thus far.
We see this trend accelerating to the university and collegiate
level. And private performance
enhancement companies such as Driveline
and Jenkins Elite are also
getting into the act with services targeted at the high school level. Many of these programs rely on advanced
hardware.
One
question often asked by coaches and staff is where do I start? Equipment that fueled research is often
considered too expensive and too difficult to use effectively in a coaching or
team setting environment. Our
recommendation is usually “force plates.”
Force plates are portable, easily connected to computers and work well
when evaluating large numbers of subjects.
When joined with the right software, force plates will provide
information on the power and speed that an athlete can generate. And as budgets increase, force plates provide
the base platform of an integrated system for tracking and measuring human
performance.
What is a force plate?
On one level it can be described as a glorified bathroom scale. It measures weight or more accurately, the force your body exerts onto the surface of the plate. For use in performance enhancement, most force plates will have 4 sensors that allow the measurement of both the lateral force as well as the vertical force (3D) being applied to the plate. This 3-dimensional force vector is necessary to accurately measure the reaction forces being applied to the bottom of the feet. There are 1- dimensional force plates on the market which measure only vertical force eg. ForceDeck. One dimensional plates typically have a lower price tag because of reduced hardware and engineering costs. However, the tradeoff is that they cannot be expanded to provide kinetic data. As you can see, force plates are much more than a bathroom scale and have a price tag to match!
There
are several manufacturers of 3D force plates with the more well-known being Bertec, AMTI, and Kistler.
These are manufactured in ISO facilities with a precision acceptable for
research and performance. Wherever
purchased, it is important to understand the specifications for expandability, frequency,
noise and sensitivity before purchase.
Why are people using force plates?
Force plates
are being used by many different disciplines and for different reasons. At the academic research level, force plates
are an integral part of understanding the biomechanics of movement and the
force and moments experienced at different body joints. Force plates are also an important tool for
understanding balance and the organization
of the vestibular system. At the
coaching level force plates are used to quickly evaluate the power and speed of
large numbers of candidates. Jump
Analysis products provide a consistent testing protocol that quickly generate
reliable and relevant measures of subject ability to generate power. These
metrics are applicable to a wide-array of sports, including those which may not
be obvious, such as running.
Dr. Matt Jordan touched on many applications of Jump Mechanics in his recent
talk at the 2021
Sports Biometrics Conference. Strength and conditioning coaches can
quantitatively monitor progress achieved by each participant over a training
cycle or help evaluate the effectiveness of alternative training programs as
described on
P3’s website. And increasingly,
force plates are being used to aid the return
to play decision. Balance, symmetrical
power output and performance relative to pre-injury levels can be factored into
the decision with the aid of force plate data.
Role of Software
Perhaps
more important than the Force plate itself is the software that will be used
with the plate. Some software is special
purpose in the sense it is used for a particular application. SwingCatalyst
is an example of a force plate being used with software to analyze a golf or
baseball swing. Hawkin Dynamics
software is an example used to analyze jump ability. The MotionMonitor
xGen is used for a variety of biomechanics-related applications, including jump
assessment, kinematics for general sport movements, golf and baseball swing
analysis, real-time audio and visual feedback for training, and more. Expandability
to include other hardware is an important feature. The ability to synchronously collect motion
capture, reference digital video, EMG or eye tracking data allow for more
complex analysis of an athlete’s movements.
For example, a recent
publication from The Sports
Surgery Clinic that included the collection of kinematic data revealed
injury risks that were not observable from force plate data alone. The
MotionMonitor xGen’s Jump Pro offers a scalable solution that can be
upgraded to include any of its supported hardware and software applications. The
short video of a Baseball application below is an example of an upgraded application that includes full body 3D motion capture
in addition to force data.
Opportunities for teams at the collegiate level.
Collegiate
athletics offers opportunities that rival the professional teams. Budget sharing with Kinesiology and Sport
Science departments might ensure access to research grade hardware while
providing researchers with subjects for study.
The Auburn Tigers are an excellent example of that kind of
collaboration. The 6-minute
video below offers a great discussion of such a program.
We'd welcome the opportunity to talk with you about your applications & experiences building a player performance program. Feel free to connect on social media (@motionmonitor) or send us an email at support@TheMotionMonitor.com.
-Meredith
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