INTRODUCTION: Athlete can be measured, analyzed and tracked with several systems. While heart rate has been the most commonly used technology in sports for several decades, more recently different technologies have been introduced in numerous sports. For example, in skiing mobile phone accelerometers have been used for technique detection (Stöggl et al. 2014). The modern mobile technologies have also come into everyday coaching in almost all sports. Mobile apps such as Ubersense and Coaches Eye make it possible to film and analyze sport trials with hand-held devices. However, combining other signals e.g. forces still requires quite a lot of work and time, and the feedback is rarely readily available online. The aim of the Coachtech project was to develop a universal, not sport-specific, real-time and easy-to-use analyzing system for sports that is capable of acquiring and combining analog signals with videos. METHODS: Development of the online feedback system, Coachtech, was started in 2011 and has been continued since then. The system is based on wireless nodes (8ch, 1000hz, 16bits, +/-5V, 40 x 28 x 92 mm, 58g) and access points for collecting the analog signals and synchronizing the cameras. Along with the nodes, several GoPro cameras (100Hz, HD720p) and different analog sensors (force, angle, EMG, etc.) can be attached to the system. RESULTS: All of the data is collected with the node system. Videos and analog signals are automatically cut, synchronized and calculated to real values. With a sport-specific calculation algorithm, several essential biomechanical parameters (e.g. in skiing measurements cycle: time, rate, length, push/swing phases, force: peak, impulses, averages) are calculated. Results are instantly ready for both the athlete and coach to view. Selected trials can also be directly exported to a web-server where athletes and coaches have access via the internet and personal credentials. Web-based analyzing software allows users to view one trial at a time or to compare two trials with 10-100% playback speed or by a frame-by-frame method while analog signals are presented graphically and calculated parameters as average values over trial length. DISCUSSION: The system is fully functional and in use in Finnish snow sports including crosscountry skiing and ski jumping. It is also possible to use it in other sports e.g. track and field due to the universal analog input. The system will also be set up for several sports institutes in Finland during 2015. In the future, implementing the results of a high accuracy motion analysis system e.g. Vicon Nexus into Coachtech would give more valuable information to athletes and coaches as well as researchers. CONCLUSION: The Coachtech system provides important information for athletes and coaches in their daily work for the development of quality technique and high performance. In addition, it is also a good tool for long-term monitoring due the storage of the data in a web-based system. --- The hosting University of Jyväskylä is planning to publish conference proceedings "Science and Nordic Skiing III". In case you are interested in this publication please contact the editors (Anni Hakkarainen anni.s.j.hakkarainen@jyu.fi) to become registered for the book.
© Copyright 2015 3rd International Congress on Science and Nordic Skiing - ICSNS 2015. 5-8 June 2015, Vuokatti, Finland. Veröffentlicht von University of Jyväskylä; University of Salzburg. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.