With the 2012 London Olympic games underway, I thought it would be a good time to do a series of blog posts and discuss biomechanics and the role it plays in analyzing and improving the performance of Olympic athletes. My former doctoral adviser and mentor, Dr. Wendi Weimar, an associate professor at Auburn University, got me interested in analyzing movement several years ago when I was a Master's student at Auburn. Dr. Weimar is highly skilled at watching an athlete perform a motor skill, or just watching a person walking down the street, and then analyzing their performance or walking gait. She has worked with several former and current Olympians that attended Auburn, and as a graduate student, I had the unique opportunity to assist her. We had an underwater video camera that was used to capture the swimmer's motion from a unique position, and then we were able to use a motion analysis program called Dartfish to analyze variables such as the swimmer's body position, joint angles, and the mechanical efficiency of the movement. In many of these Olympic events, the difference between winning a medal or coming in last place is only a few hundredths or tenths of a second, so even the smallest biomechanical details are critical. Over the next few days, I am going to take some of the sports in the Summer Olympics and discuss biomechanical factors related to the skill. If you would like to read more about Dr. Weimar and her work, please click on the link below.
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