Atheltics Weekly

- Peta Bee,
performance editor
PERFORMANCE
STARTING AFRESH
MUCH criticism has
been directed towards
the current UKA and
England Athletics coaching
pathways since they
were first implemented in
2010. Courses that many
perceive to be lengthy,
expensive and far too
general in terms of content
have been widely cited as a
reason for a decline in the
numbers of new coaches.
So, it will be interesting
to see how the updated
Athletics Coach
qualification will be
received following the
initial pilot courses which
commence in September.
Unlike their predecessor,
which required all
prospective coaches to
spend hours studying the
intricacies of every event,
the new set-up seems
to offer the opportunity
for earlier specialisation
as you elect to focus on
speed, throws, jumps or
endurance.
In other words, you
won’t need to study the
finer points of hurdle
technique if your goal is
to coach.
PERFORMANCE
GUIDE
News round-up
58 Sports science snippets
60 Technique
Learn the triple jump
5 8 A T H L E T I C S W E E K L Y
IOMECHANICS
B
researchers from
Leeds Beckett
University are to
conduct the largest ever IAAFfunded
project during the World
Championships in London. Dr
Athanassios Bissas, a principal
lecturer in biomechanics, will
lead a team of 40 people from
the University’s Carnegie School
of Sport in a study that will use
40 cameras – including 25 highspeed
cameras and 15 HD
camcorders – to analyse
performances in 17 different
events. The team of analysts will
work overnight to ensure a
quick turnaround of the
biomechanical assessments.
For the sprints, video
footage will be used to produce
3D biomechanical data of
variables such as stride length,
stride frequency, ground
contact times, joint angles and
velocities and other important
biomechanical variables while
studies of distance runners
will look at changes in fatigue
during the 10,000m, foot-strike
patterns in the marathon, and
NEWS
IAAF LAUNCHES MAJOR
STUDY AT LONDON 2017
TECHNICAL ASPECTS OF 17 EVENTS TO BE EVALUATED
Technique analysed:
40 cameras will record
the action in London
water jump hurdling technique
in the steeplechase.
The biomechanists will
also be looking at velocities at
various stages of the throwing
events including release angles,
release height, segmental
coordination and other key
factors while their analysis of
jumping events will focus on
take-off characteristics such as
angles and velocities, approach
kinematics, calculations of each
phase in the triple jump, lean
angles in the high jump, and
approach velocity in the pole
vault.
Stage one of the IAAF
funded biomechanics research
project kicked off in June
at the British Grand Prix of
Race Walking 20km event
in Roundhay Park, Leeds,
which doubled as the British
Team Trials for the IAAF World
Championships.
Dr Brian Hanley, a senior
lecturer in Biomechanics at
Leeds Beckett, was leading the
trial on the walkers.
GOOD RUNNERS MAKE BAD FIGHTERS
IT’S LONG been proposed
that you can achieve
excellence in one aspect of
athletic endeavour only at
the expense of your aptitude
for another. So it seems,
at least in the case of
laboratory mice.
A study at the University
of Utah has revealed that
male mice better able to
defend their territory through
You’re a
runner,
not a
fighter,
study
finds
fighting off other males may
have been stronger, but their
running ability was lacking as
they were found to burn more
oxygen than less-successful
fighters.
Since humans also
employ both endurancebased
and aggression-based
behaviours, the researchers
suggested we are prone to
similar trade-offs.
MARK SHEARMAN