3) Human Sport Equipment Interaction

Question 1

What is human sport equipment a combination of?

Answer 1

• Mechanical
• Biomechanics
• Performance, injury and/or perception

Question 2

Give an example of a product with good mech properties but lacking real world performance.

Answer 2

Adidas WC football - good mech properties but real world performance was lacking.

Question 3

How is performance defined?

Answer 3

• judged by a metric e.g distance, time, velocity
• Physiological measure

Question 4

What is physiological performance measure?

Answer 4

○ heart rate

○ running economy (energy demand for given velocity of submaximal running)

• Running economy is strongly related to running performance

Question 5

What is an example of athlete perception defining success of a product?

Answer 5

Nike Sumo 2 golf driver had an unpleasant tinny sound. Athletes decided not to use it.

Question 6

Give examples of perception data collection methods:

Answer 6

Interviews, focus groups, questionnaires.

Question 7

Why are perception studies important?

Answer 7

• Customer needs
• Physiological influences on equipment selection

Question 8

What’s an example of a perceived perception study?

Answer 8

Questionnaire to rate sections of cricket leg guard in protectiveness.

Heat map produced to show results.

Experiment to measure total force experienced in each region of cricket pad.

Results from experiment compared to questionnaire results.

Question 9

What is another purpose of perceived perception?

Answer 9

• Developed to reduce injuries
• Rules and regs by governments to reduce injuries
• Injuries recorded by self reported questionnaires or injury surveillance by medical practitioners.
• Perception - the way in which something is regarded, understood and interpreted.
  “Our conscious interpretation of the external world as created by the brain from a pattern of nerve impulses delivered to it from sensory receptors” (Sherwood, 1993)

Question 10

What are Biomechanics? How do they differ from mechanics?

Answer 10

Sports equipment = mechanical

Sports equipment + user = biomechanics

Question 11

What are the methods of biomechanics data collection?

Answer 11

• Kinematics - study of human movement
• Kinetics - study of the forces that cause the movements:

○ Force plates

○ Pressure sensors/insoles

• Electromyography - muscle activation

Question 12

Give an example of where the study of biomechanics has improved the performance.

Answer 12

The klapskate was introduced as an improvement to the traditional speedskate.

Allowed lifting of the heal through a hinge at the front of the skate.

The klapskate allowed force to be applied to the skate perpendicularly with out the need for knee flex.