Biomechanics: Story + Data = Impact

In high performance sport, the one percenters can prove the difference between a gold medal, a silver medal or no medal at all. And it’s the team behind the team, the sport science experts, who continue to investigate, innovate, and forge new ways to identify the minute details that can lead to memorable moments.

To celebrate National Science Week, New South Wales Institute of Sport (NSWIS) Senior Biomechanist Damien O’Meara, who has worked at the Institute for over 15 years measuring forces and motion across a range of sports including swimming, rowing and archery, has revealed the keys that are needed to finding those one percenters.

“Biomechanics is critical in high performance sport,” O’Meara said. “It is all about assessing the athlete’s technique – the way they move, the way they move their body segments, whether it be swimming and holding form in the water, or whether it be running and keeping the pelvis steady and moving the legs effectively.

“We look at movement patterns, we measure them and give feedback on speeds and velocities and how the body coordinates segments to be effective. We also measure forces to look at the braking and propulsion side of how an athlete moves.

“In biomechanics, there’s a lot of data because of the multiple things you want to measure. And you need to have that to understand the components, but to have an impact on the way the athlete moves, the way the coach coaches, you need to understand the story as well.

“I often say the story plus the data equals impact.”

O’Meara, who is currently working closely with the NSWIS U23 rowing program, rises early at least three times a week to watch the sunrise on the water with a dedicated group of aspiring rowing Olympians, assisting them to better move the boat through the water using the science of biomechanics.

“The technical side of rowing is incredibly important to go fast. You need to be strong, you need to have a good engine, the physiology, the endurance, but you actually need to know how to deliver your power to the boat.

“And to do that, you have to be technically efficient and that’s where biomechanics comes in – body coordination is a key element to delivering power to the boat. You need to move your body carefully and match the speed of the boat.

“There’s the ‘drive’ phase and the ‘recovery’ phase in rowing – if you’re really strong, you can potentially pull on the oar hard, but you actually have to push on the legs, on the foot stretcher and hold on to the handle, not pull the handle.”

Tokyo Olympian and NSWIS scholarship holder Tara Rigney, who boasts two silver and two bronze world cup medals credits biomechanics for the huge difference and significant improvement to her boat speed at the world cups.

“Rowing has a very large technical element to the sport, which is particularly amplified the smaller the boat class is,” said Rigney. “Biomech allows coaches and athletes to look at data such as length, how the boat is running, force curves and even footplate pressure to make small technical changes that equate to significant changes in boat speed.

“During the world cups my coach and I were playing around with the position of my footplate by one cm. This sounds small, but it made a huge difference to the run of the boat and how long I was rowing. We used biomech to compare the changes and it resulted in significant improvements in boat speed!”

O’Meara, who has a PhD in biomechanics uses a variety of equipment to measure the required data to develop his biomechanical analysis. However, he pointed out video is a key feedback tool because it provides analysis on the sum of the parts to assess the overall result.

“In video we’ll assess speed of movement, and the way different parts move in relation to each other’s coordination” O’Meara said. It’s a more detailed viewer video, not just the overall performance.

“It’s essential to look at the individual and apply the technical model from biomechanics with the coaching model and the understanding of that individual. They come together and that leads to the conversation between the scientist and the coach. That conversation is very important.”

Communication is a crucial part of O’Meara’s role at NSWIS, and he regularly connects with coaches to provide the data analysis. It is important he understands the current technical training and how it fits in with any other training, such as physiological training.

“We talk about what the athlete and coach have been working on and look at ways the testing can slot into those training blocks. We will do some work at the beginning of the year where the athlete is coming back after a break, how that looks in the middle and then closer to the competition.”

O’Meara credits his inquisitive nature, love of problem solving and passion for high performance sport as key to his success as a biomechanist at NSWIS.

“My role as a practitioner is to give coaches objective information which they can base their decisions on to train and coach the athlete to be world’s best.”

“It’s an area that involves a lot of problem solving, being able to interpret what the coach and athlete are trying to work on. And sometimes you can only do that if you ask questions. So being inquisitive being problem loving . . . problem solving, I guess . . .  is the core of the role and the passion I have.”

Always looking for one percenters, O’Meara is considering ways to incorporate Artificial Intelligence (AI) in looking at automatically assessing video and motion of body segments of the athlete.

“I think there’s the opportunity that we can enhance feedback from automatic processes that can detect motion for us. AI can also add to the analysis in terms of showing relationships for us in the way we can analyse information that we might not otherwise pick up.”

“The models of running gate or swimming or rowing won’t change because we’re still dealing with humans. AI can’t replace that in terms of assessing technique. It can fast track some of those processes.”

O’Meara is used to the early starts on the water with the rowers.

“It’s a nice time of the day and it’s not hard to be up with people who are really dedicated,” he said. You’re around people who are positive and constructive in what they’re doing and the way they organize themselves.”

Outside of work, he continues to apply his love of problem solving through house renovations, orienteering in the bush and bike riding around northern Sydney.

“These days I jump on the bike and I do a lot of riding because the knees don’t work. I conduct a little bit of self biomechanical analysis, but I’m not as dedicated as the athlete,” O’Meara said with a grin.

Frances Cordaro, NSWIS