10 INSIDE FOOTBALL WEDNESDAY, MARCH 6, 2013 Inside features 10 C arlton 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