Abstract
Providing athletes with real-time feedback on their performance is becoming common in many sports, also in speed skating. This research-by-design project aims at finding a tool that allows the speed skater to get real-time feedback on his performance. Speed skaters often mention a so-called “good feeling” when skating behind a better skater. It is the feeling nearly every speed skater is after when skating alone; skate with less power while maintaining the same speed and feeling of ease. A longer push-off phase at a constant cadence has proven to contribute to this ideal situation but is hard for the coach alone to influence this. Therefore, a system was designed that measures the skating cadence and challenges the skater to change his skating stroke by means of vibro-tactile feedback. Four subjects have tested the feedback system. From this test, we concluded that the system provides meaningful feedback towards changing the skating cycle.
Highlights
Speed skating has a long history in the Netherlands, partly explaining the research interest in this field
The speed of the skater is determined by both physics, physiology and psychology and can be increased by optimizing parameters in three domains; (1) muscular power generation; (2)
By observing the LED on the back of the skaters and their skating pattern, it was found that the skaters are able to skate in the rhythm of the provided pattern; the skater pushed off at the moment the LED turned on and positioned the gliding skate at the moment it turned off
Summary
Speed skating has a long history in the Netherlands, partly explaining the research interest in this field. The speed of the skater is determined by both physics, physiology and psychology and can be increased by optimizing parameters in three domains; (1) muscular power generation; (2). Research efforts have led to drag reduction (aerodynamics of the suit, speed-strips) allowing the skater to go faster with the same power. From a bio-mechanics view point, speed skating itself consists of a rather complex and mutual dependent series of movements. This series of movements, executed in the right posture (i.e., knee angle) and combined with muscular power, determines the amount of muscular work for the final propulsion of the speed skater. Speed skaters say “they have found their stride” when they feel they have reached a state in which they can maintain a constant rhythm and are ‘in flow’
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