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InsIde Football Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Inside features10

Carlton is now home to a world class sports science facility. The only one in Australia, the

Bio Motion Centre at Visy Park is an incredible example of how much sports science has evolved in the field of movement analysis.

I’ve never seen anything like it! The Bio Motion Centre is what’s

known as a gait lab, where gait refers to the pattern of movement of the arms and legs as a person walks or runs.

A gait lab is a space where several cameras are used to record athletes walking, running, performing specific exercises or sports specific actions.

These labs enable sports scientists, researchers and other medical professionals to gain a lot of information about a person’s movement.

Carlton uses the Bio Motion Centre to measure and monitor player performance as well as to aid with injury prevention and management.

Watching Carlton’s injury prevention team recording the movements of players in the lab is in many ways like watching a computer game.

No surprise there, given the technology in the centre was originally developed to generate computer-simulated graphics.

The Bio Motion Centre at Visy Park is the biggest of its kind by volume in the world. It’s a climate-controlled room with a white floor and white fabric side and rear walls (3m wide x 7.3m deep x 3m high).

There are 14 cameras positioned

around the lab, each sending synchronised video streams to a computer. The system acts much like a 3D scanner.

Every move of a player while under the red lights of the Bio Motion gait lab cameras is instantaneously replicated in 3D by a figure on the sports scientist’s laptop.

The software can measure the angles at the joints in every movement.

If you can recall the scene in the Matrix when the camera appears to swing around the actors in three dimensions, then you will get an idea of the way this software does the same for an athlete filmed in the Bio Motion Centre.

The technology is a sports science development specifically related to physiotherapy.

Sports physiotherapist and Carlton’s injury prevention coordinator Sam Rosengarten explains that Carlton is a world leader in the way it is using this new technology to assess player acceleration, jumping and landing, change of direction and kicking, to name a few.

“The type of information we are getting on our players on a weekly basis is more sensitive than anything we have used previously and on par with what is being done anywhere in the world,” Rosengarten said.

He speaks from experience, having travelled internationally and visited NBA basketball, English Premier League soccer and NFL teams.

He adds that the use of this technology for sport is relatively new.

“The guys at Dynamic Athletic (a US sports analysis company) took this ground-breaking technology and their interest in sport and evolved the software and processing to allow it to be specifically useful for sporting applications,” Rosengarten said.

“It’s currently being used in NFL football (quarterbacks, punters and wide receivers), Major League Baseball (pitchers and outfielders throwing) and by NBA coaches (jump shot technique analysis).

“The application to AFL has been really challenging, as our players are very different in how they construct their movements compared to the athletes in US sports.

“We are using this technology to apply screening and analysis techniques we have been using for many years just with quicker turnaround and more in-depth information collection.”

While it’s impressive to see the

Carlton is using a state-of-the-art laboratory to help understand its players’ skill and ability – and to prevent injuries, writes DR JODI RICHARDSON.

Blues enter the

Matrix!

YARRAN: Fluid mover.

technology in action, the real excitement comes from the information that the technology generates for each player as they are tested in the lab.

There’s far more to this centre than meets the eye. Ground reaction forces can be generated as an athlete moves anywhere in the floor area of the lab.

This is especially useful for movements that are dynamic and take up space. Normally force plates are only 1m x 1m which limits what you can do on it.

This lab gives players more scope for natural movements and, therefore, the data gathered during testing is more applicable in a real-life setting.

“The system collects joint angles, such as hip, knee and ankle ranges on the left and the right legs, as well as the force generated by a player at each joint such as hip, knee and ankle,”

Rosengarten explained. “When we look at how players are

developing their jumping action, we can actually break it down to how much force they are developing in each joint.

“At times the players can generate the same performance outcomes but how they do it can vary quite a bit.”

In other words, all players will be able to perform a particular movement, but sometimes the way a player completes it may give indications that he is developing movement patterns that might lead to an injury in the long term.

This technology gives the club the sensitive information needed to identify such an issue and put in place strategies to correct the problem.

The technology is also used to assess the force generation and sequencing of

movement of athletes before and after surgery.

The data generated from Bio Motion Centre assessments gives insight into injury and rehabilitation never before available.

With so much baseline data, if a Carlton player suffers an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tear, the rotations and the forces through the knee can be compared before and after injury and during rehabilitation.

This data is available within minutes of a test being done.

To fully appreciate the technological advances that the Bio Motion Centre brings to Carlton, it needs to be seen in light of a traditional gait lab.

With traditional gait labs, in order for the cameras to be able to track the movement of the limbs, the player has markers placed on specific locations

InsIde Football Wednesday, March 6, 2013

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InsIde Football

11I just find it extraordinary that, people like Greg (Swann), do their battles through the press. I just think it’s something tacky about it to be perfectly honest. Only ever one side is highlighted – Richard Colless on Greg Swann, on Morning Glory

on their body, usually their ankles, legs, knees and hips.

The marking up of an athlete takes around 45 minutes. The markers need to positioned in exactly the same anatomical location every time that player is tested. The problem with this method is not only the time taken to prepare each athlete, but the markers move as the skin slides over the bones, affecting the accuracy of the

information collected. There can be errors associated with the positioning of markers on the player in follow-up sessions. The Bio Motion Centre is a markerless lab, which immediately eliminates one time consuming and laborious task. Regular tests on Carlton players require them to put on only their compression gear. Tests take between 1½ and three minutes per player so an entire playing list can be analysed in around two hours.

Carlton examines all players regularly so that staff can quickly recognise changes in players that aid injury prevention and injury management.

The markerless system and the ability to measure ground reaction force as players move around the lab floor ensure that measurements of player motion are as close to that seen in training and in a game as possible.

The technology aside, one of the best things about this centre is that its use is not confined to Carlton Football Club. It is also a

public facility where individuals, teams, school groups, researchers and medical professionals have access to the motion capture technology. Physiotherapist and motion capture analyst Kevin Lieberthal, conducts a broad range of analyses on athletes outside of Carlton.

He highlights that the information gathered from testing in the Bio Motion Centre can have a great impact on performance and injury prevention.

“The body is very good at finding a way to achieve a task, but sometimes the way this movement is achieved could be improved,” he said.

“The Bio Motion Centre enables us to see how an athlete is achieving a task.

“We assessed a young girl with a knee problem and we had a look at her jumping. We could see that she could achieve the task but the overall

amount of flexion through the knee and through her ankle is much less so she is not actually absorbing the load all that well to then propel herself off the ground.

“In the medium to long term, if we don’t do something about that, and she doesn’t get the strength and conditioning work she needs, then there’s an issue there.”

Within a landscape of distrust and negativity around AFL sports science, this facility is a prime example of how this important branch of a football club can not only impact on player performance in meaningful ways, but also has broad reaching implications for the community.

You never know, you might just need it yourself one day!

GAME CHANGER: Gaining an edge.

HOW IT WORKS: “Matrix” in action.

‘Recall the scene in the Matrix when the camera appears to swing around the actors in three dimensions.’

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COLLINGWOOD defender Harry O’Brien says the new-look Magpies have already

formed a stronger bond than the 2010 premiership team as they prepare for their second season under Nathan Buckley.

The Magpies recruited heavily in the off-season, but also lost a group of senior players.

Quinten Lynch (West Coast), Clinton Young (Hawthorn) and Jordan Russell (Carlton) joined the squad while Chris Dawes (Melbourne), Sharrod Wellingham (West Coast) and Chris Tarrant (retired) all left.

O’Brien said the squad had jelled well and everyone felt positive about the upcoming season.

“The guys already have such a strong bond,” O’Brien said.

“We’ve had this group of players together for quite a while now. We’ve been through a lot of ups and a lot of downs. We’re certainly closer than ever.

“I thought back in 2010 when we won the premiership that we were a really close group and a very young group.

“I thought ‘gee, this is as close as a team gets’ and Mick Malthouse used to say that we were an extremely close group and as close as he’d ever seen,” he said.

“Yet I think it’s gone to another

Despite turnover of players, Magpies remain a tight unit

should be able to do both.“But last year I wasn’t able to have

that attack because I wasn’t doing it well, wasn’t doing it the way I was supposed to.

“I’m really looking forward to the challenges ahead. I’m excited about this season more so than any other in my career. For me it feels like a new phase of my life.”

O’Brien received heavy criticism for his form at times last year and said that had been a challenge he’d had to adapt to. But he welcomed the opportunity to show that he could rebound and return

to his best form.“As your profile grows, or in my

case my dreadlocks grow, you become more visible to the greater public that watches football,” he said.

“One of my biggest strengths was my consistency, but I have had dips in form and I’ve learnt from every one of those experiences.

“Last year was a huge learning experience. I feel like I’m really ready to get the most out of myself and the theme for all my pre-season has been to do it at 100 per cent.”

– CRAIG O’DONOGHUE

level given the things that we’ve been through, in particular losing a mate in John McCarthy.”

O’Brien had an indifferent season last year. He still finished eighth in the club best-and-fairest, but didn’t provide the same drive off half back as he had in previous years. The 26-year-old said he was determined to rediscover that run and combine it with locking down on small forwards.

“I had a poor year,” he said. “Ultimately, with my attributes, I

O’BRIEN: “You become more visible.”

RUSSELL: Having an impact.

LYNCH: Helping take the Pies to another level.