Newswise — With a shot at Olympic glory at stake, some of the world's most elite athletes differentiate themselves from each other by mere hundredths of a second.
During the hurdle event at the U.S. Olympic team trials at Sacramento, Calif., last week, world-class athletes breezed across each obstacle in the blink of an eye in their race to the finish. But in that blink, every movement, every nuance, every technique was being videotaped and recorded for analysis.
Biomechanist Al Finch, a professor of physical education at Indiana State University, and his team of videographers were on the sidelines at the Olympic training center as part of U.S. Track and Field's Elite Hurdling Development program. Armed with 8-12 high-speed digital video cameras, Finch and his crew documented each race, analyzed the video footage with the coaches, then together presented their findings and reviewed the tape with the athletes. The goal is to help the athletes identify faulty techniques and improve performance times.
"We want to look at performance variables that an athlete while they're running may not feel or see," Finch said.
The high-speed cameras help them do that.
"Our visual eye holds a new image about every 15th, 16th of a second. The standard video would be 30 frames [per second]. My camera films as fast as 240 pictures per second so we see a lot of images of a movement that the athlete wouldn't see, the coach wouldn't see and here we can play it back for them."
Finch has devoted the better part of 30 years in the field of performance analysis. As an undergraduate at the University of Connecticut in the early 1970s, Finch used a 16mm camera filming tennis ball trajectories, and later as a grad student at the University of Maryland, he analyzed jumping mechanics and bowling ball release and movement on the bowling lane.
After joining Indiana State University in 1980, Finch's work expanded beyond the academic setting into the athletic arena at the National Sports Festival in Indianapolis in 1982. Since then, Finch has worked at the 1996 Atlantic Olympics, the 2000 Olympic trials and the 2001 USA Track and Field Championships.
For the past several years Finch has been working with the Elite Hurdling Development program at the request of program director John McNichols, coordinator of Indiana State University's cross country and track and field programs.
The methods of Finch's work have evolved along with technology, from the 16mm film in the early stages to high speed digital video today. In the early days, a microfilm reader would print the film image on graph paper, but the analysts would have to read the coordinates from the graph paper manually. Then came the optical digitizer that would perform the task. In the early 1990s software was introduced that employs animated stick figures whose movements correspond with those of the athlete.
"Back in the film days I would shoot between 3,000 and 4,000 foot of film a year until I had developed an extensive film library," he said. "We're in the process now of developing an extensive video library from middle school track and field, to high school to collegiate."
In the early 1990s, Finch recalls, a high-speed video camera would range in price from $80,000-$85,000. As technology has advanced and prices have dropped, Finch has acquired a collection of high-quality cameras. And in Indiana State's sports science lab every computer workstation is equipped with the Ariel Performance Analysis System program, software licensed to the university for free to beta-testing it; a single license of the program normally costs $6,500.
That type of computer power, coupled with the three decades of experience Finch brings to the table, gives ISU sports studies majors an edge.
"There's a lot of hands on experience," noted Keely Fitzgerald, a graduate student from Storrs, Conn., studying exercise science, "and a lot of equipment that I didn't have at my undergrad [institution] so it's been really beneficial."
"The opportunities we have, especially in this area, are phenomenal," said David Sanquenetti, a first-year grad student from Clinton studying exercise physiology. "It's unbelievable to see what we have to work with here and how much you can actually analyze, how far you can take that here."
To add to the classroom learning experience, Finch said, student research and instructional data is collected in real time and projected for the benefit of the class.
"So any time a student asks me a question," Finch said, "I'm able to demonstrate it real time for them, which is good because seeing is believing. When technology has a glitch, sometimes it's quite harrowing to make it happen real time for a student environment, but we do that here for our students to increase their visuals."
Over the years Finch has had a number of students present their research at independent and professional research conferences, several as undergrads.
Biomechanical analysis has also benefited ISU's athletic teams. Among some of the work done with ISU athletic teams is an analysis last year of free throw shooting form by ISU women's basketball players.
"About a third of the way through the project we could tell if it was going to be a missed shot before they ever shot," Finch said, "because of the behavior and the movement that occurred that we saw typically with a missed shot. So as we sit down with an athlete or a coach we can point out information that is very hard to see with the naked eye and we can help the athletes."
Now, Finch is hoping his work helps athletes find ways to improve their performances for the 2004 Athens Olympics. The Games begin Aug. 13.
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