Smart Measurement Technology for Quantifying Performance in Sport

Abstract

Throughout history there has been a significant union between sport and technology. Technology can be found in all aspects of sport including; the playing surface, the apparel worn, the equipment used, to measure performance, and to provide feedback to aid future performance. As sport is a highly competitive landscape there has been significant innovation, causing a proliferation of commercially available measurement devices. However, researchers have questioned if technology is facilitating better performance, or if an over reliance on data is negatively affecting sporting outcomes. This thesis aimed to review the landscape of measurement devices in sport and considered if the use of sporting technology for measuring performance is an optimised system. The literature review chronologically follows what technology is used to measure sporting performance and how this technology is applied to measure performance. The thesis then explored why and in which context technology is used, with a sub-categorisation that technology can either be embedded into the equipment, worn on the athlete, or embedded in the environment. While there is an abundance of possible measurement technologies, a framework for selection or creation does not exist. Furthermore, there were no clear guidelines to inform how to implement specific technology to measure performance. To address this gap, an operational framework termed the SMART (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology) framework, was created and implemented. The created framework outlined in this thesis, was designed to be an evaluative criterion for selecting and implementing technology. These guidelines, how to use them, and their place in technology implementation, aim to clarify the role of sports technology for capturing sports performance data. To test the framework, six case studies across five different sports were explored all of which necessitated a novel engineering solution to be developed. These case studies resulted in eight peer reviewed publications which are reformatted and presented within the thesis chapters, with an additional reformatted publication in the literature review. A diverse set of case studies was important to ensure the SMART measurement creation and implementation framework could be generalised appropriately. For all contexts, the measurement question had no off-the-shelf technology solution which satisfactorily addressed the problem and as such there was a requirement to engineer a measurement solution. This included; • Different sports (wheelchair basketball, netball, boxing, track cycling, and rowing) • Different times where technology could be used to assess performance (training, game, rehabilitation) • Different groups of participants (male/female, athletes with disabilities, teams and individuals) • Different measurement hardware (virtual reality headsets, inertial sensor technology) • Different measurement software (variety of application software with bespoke algorithms) For all case studies, the framework successfully aided the successful creation of a SMART compliant measurement device addressing the specific measurement question that was posed. Overall, this indicated that the SMART methodology was generalisable for application across many different sports with differing measurement requirements. The adoption of this framework is hypothesised to lead to better measurement outcomes, and future work should be aimed at adopting these guidelines to test this hypothesis. For practitioners reading this document there are many examples where a solution does not require a unique design as an off-the-shelf solution exists. Appendix I (Chapter 8.1) provides a practical guideline for how to select technology and a case study example is shown in Appendix II (8.3).