A Comparison of the Movement Patterns of Specific Rugby Union Movements on Both Natural Turf and Artificial Turf

S. O'Keeffe, K. Fullam, M. O. Feeley, B. Caulfield, E. Delahunt, G. Coughlan, M. D. Gilchrist

2014

Abstract

A limitation of sports kinematic studies is that they cannot fully represent in-situ play conditions for fast dynamic sports. This paper describes the use of new inertial measurement technology to analyse player motions in the field under game-like conditions in order to quantify the impact of different playing surfaces on biomechanical performance. The wireless sensor system used in this study (Shimmer 3, Shimmer Research, Ireland) is a lightweight (50x25x12.5mm3), wearable, low-power consumption inertial measurement unit that contains a tri-axial accelerometer, gyroscope, and magnetometer. Sensor data can be used to derive a range of spatiotemporal and kinematic variables to quantify performance during gait and other functional activities. In our research we are using these sensors as a means to characterise biomechanical performance during a range of rugby related activities, such as sprinting, side stepping, cutting, and jump landing. The motivation for this study has been to compare biomechanical forces associated with kinematic movements of rugby players on natural turf surfaces and on synthetic surfaces, ultimately in order to establish potential injury consequences for players following the proposed introduction of synthetic sports surfaces. In this paper we present preliminary data acquired from players performing a 10m sprint test and describe our methods of data extraction and subsequent data processing.

References

1. O'Donovan, KJ; Greene, BR; McGrath, D; O'Neill, R; Burns, A; Caulfield, B; Shimmer: A new tool for temporal gait analysis, Annual International Conference of the IEEE, September 2-6, 2009, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.
2. Duthie, GM; Pyne, DB; Ross, AA; Livingstone, SG; Hooper, SL; The reliability of ten-meter sprint time using different starting techniques, Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 2006, 20(2), 246-251 McGrath, D; Greene, BR; O'Donovan, KJ; Caulfield, B; Gyroscope based assessment of temporal gait parameters during treadmill walking and running, Journal of Sports Engineering, 2012, 15(4), pp. 207- 213.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

O'Keeffe S., Fullam K., O. Feeley M., Caulfield B., Delahunt E., Coughlan G. and D. Gilchrist M. (2014). A Comparison of the Movement Patterns of Specific Rugby Union Movements on Both Natural Turf and Artificial Turf . In - icSPORTS, ISBN , pages 0-0

in Bibtex Style

@conference{icsports14,
author={S. O'Keeffe and K. Fullam and M. O. Feeley and B. Caulfield and E. Delahunt and G. Coughlan and M. D. Gilchrist},
title={A Comparison of the Movement Patterns of Specific Rugby Union Movements on Both Natural Turf and Artificial Turf},
booktitle={ - icSPORTS,},
year={2014},
pages={},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={},
isbn={},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF
JO - - icSPORTS,
TI - A Comparison of the Movement Patterns of Specific Rugby Union Movements on Both Natural Turf and Artificial Turf
SN -
AU - O'Keeffe S.
AU - Fullam K.
AU - O. Feeley M.
AU - Caulfield B.
AU - Delahunt E.
AU - Coughlan G.
AU - D. Gilchrist M.
PY - 2014
SP - 0
EP - 0
DO -