Abstract
Kicking is a fundamental skill in soccer that often contributes to match outcomes. Lower limb movement features (e.g., joint position and velocity) are determinants of kick performance. However, obtaining kicking kinematics under field conditions generally requires time-consuming manual tracking. The current study aimed to compare a contemporary markerless automatic motion estimation algorithm (OpenPose) with manual digitisation (DVIDEOW software) in obtaining on-field kicking kinematic parameters. An experimental dataset of under-17 players from all outfield positions was used. Kick attempts were performed in an official pitch against a goalkeeper. Four digital video cameras were used to record full-body motion during support and ball contact phases of each kick. Three-dimensional positions of hip, knee, ankle, toe and foot centre-of-mass (CMfoot) generally showed no significant differences when computed by automatic as compared to manual tracking (whole kicking movement cycle), while only z-coordinates of knee and calcaneus markers at specific points differed between methods. The resulting time-series matrices of positions (r2 = 0.94) and velocity signals (r2 = 0.68) were largely associated (all p < 0.01). The mean absolute error of OpenPose motion tracking was 3.49 cm for determining positions (ranging from 2.78 cm (CMfoot) to 4.13 cm (dominant hip)) and 1.29 m/s for calculating joint velocity (0.95 m/s (knee) to 1.50 m/s (non-dominant hip)) as compared to reference measures by manual digitisation. Angular range-of-motion showed significant correlations between methods for the ankle (r = 0.59, p < 0.01, large) and knee joint displacements (r = 0.84, p < 0.001, very large) but not in the hip (r = 0.04, p = 0.85, unclear). Markerless motion tracking (OpenPose) can help to successfully obtain some lower limb position, velocity, and joint angular outputs during kicks performed in a naturally occurring environment.
Highlights
Kicking is a frequent technical action taken in football matches, and achieving highvelocity and accurate targeting standards usually contributes to winning matches [1,2].Int
Positional differences were observed between the two methods only in the z-coordinates of the knee
A simple tracking algorithm was proposed to overcome the original limitation of OpenPose that provides a set of full-body poses per frame without any tracking information, allowing us to determine the set of poses for a specific person over time
Summary
FIFA-standard, natural grass pitch, four tripod-mounted digital video cameras (240 Hz, 1920 × 1080 pixel; Hero 7/Black Edition, GoPro® GmbH, München, Germany) were distributed perpendicular to each other and 2.5 m laterally to the established kick mark (18 m apart from the midpoint goal line). Kick attempts were performed near the entrance of the penalty area (18 m from the midpoint goal line), and participants were instructed to strike the target’s centre (1 × 1 m in both goalpost upper corners) while avoiding a teammate goalkeeper intercepting the ball. A detailed description of the design of the field assessments and the test–retest reliability measures of the task adopted to measure soccer kicking characteristics are both available elsewhere [39]. A Method to Synchronise Video Cameras Using the Audio Band.
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