Technology-assisted performance monitoring affords novel opportunities for tracking and guiding training programs and the development of elite as well as recreational athletes. Comprehensive training diaries are kept by athletes and coaches and coaching records are forming a prerequisite for funding allocation by for example, track and field athletics in the United Kingdom (uk sport, 2009). Sprinting is a highly technical discipline involving a multitude of strength, conditioning and technical training exercises and a significant number of parameters that may be recorded for athlete monitoring. The task of longitudinal record keeping becomes ever more complex and time-consuming and automation of this process, currently witnessed for example in the medical field, is a useful tool for managing data and relieving the coach and athlete from some record keeping tasks. As part of the SESAME project (Sensing for Sport and Managed Exercise, http://www.sesame.ucl.ac.uk/) an integrated system has been developed with the aim of providing fine grained performance information for the coach and athlete, for example split time, step frequency, step length, foot contact time, etc. A series of interviews with leading sprints coaches (Thompson, Bezodis, & Jones, 2009) revealed the importance of accurate and sport specific performance data, where longitudinal records may provide reliable assessments of athlete development, using specific historical points of reference, and allow for self-assessment of coaching practices as a means of quality control. Therefore, performance monitoring may be viewed as both a real-time and long term exercise. To address the specific needs of athletics coaching and training a multi-lane light gate system (Pisa Light Gates, PLG) was developed providing 10 m split time readings for 5 lanes of a 60 m indoor running track (Cheng et al., 2010). Accurate speed and split time data provide essential performance information to the sprints coach and this unique system has been specifically designed, using coach and athlete feedback throughout, to support the daily coaching activities. To ensure userfriendliness this system was designed to be operated wirelessly, requiring no equipment setup and allowing multiple athletes to be tracked simultaneously at the press of a button. Following a run, all data are displayed in real-time on a WiFi device (iPod Touch, Apple Inc.) and importantly all data are logged automatically and stored on a remote server permanently for interrogation by the coach after a training session. In this abstract we cover the development and application of an automated performance parameter database system which is fully integrated with PLG. This system has been developed with continuous feedback from coaches and athletes and is being used by athletics coaches on a daily basis.
© Copyright 2011 Sportinformatik trifft Sporttechnologie. 8. Symposium der dvs-Sektion Sportinformatik in Kooperation mit der Deutschen Interdisziplinären Vereinigung für Sporttechnologie vom 15.-17. Dezember 2010 in Darmstadt. Veröffentlicht von Feldhaus, Ed. Czwalina. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.