Competitive and Recreational Running Kinematics Examined Using Principal Components Analysis

Abstract

Kinematics data are primary biomechanical parameters. A principal component analysis (PCA) of waveforms is a statistical approach used to explore patterns of variability in biomechanical curve datasets. Differences in experienced and recreational runners’ kinematic variables are still unclear. The purpose of the present study was to compare any differences in kinematics parameters for competitive runners and recreational runners using principal component analysis in the sagittal plane, frontal plane and transverse plane. Forty male runners were divided into two groups: twenty competitive runners and twenty recreational runners. A Vicon Motion System (Vicon Metrics Ltd., Oxford, UK) captured three-dimensional kinematics data during running at 3.3 m/s. The principal component analysis was used to determine the dominating variation in this model. Then, the principal component scores retained the first three principal components and were analyzed using independent t-tests. The recreational runners were found to have a smaller dorsiflexion angle, initial dorsiflexion contact angle, ankle inversion, knee adduction, range motion in the frontal knee plane and hip frontal plane. The running kinematics data were influenced by running experience. The findings from the study provide a better understanding of the kinematics variables for competitive and recreational runners. Thus, these findings might have implications for reducing running injury and improving running performance.

The Effects of Running Kinematics on Peak Upper Trunk GPS-Measured Accelerations during Foot Contact at Different Running Speeds

“…To our knowledge, these comparisons have not been previously reported; however, they substantiate the relationships described by Derrick (2004) on the determinants of bodily segmental accelerations when exposed to impact forces during running. These findings infer that including segment velocities in future studies can lead to a be er understanding of the intersegmental relationship during running instead of focusing on joint kinematics alone, as seen in previous studies [7,19,33].…”

Effects of Forefoot Shoe on Knee and Ankle Loading during Running in Male Recreational Runners

“…Kinematic and kinetic variables of the running stance phase were processed and quantified using Visual 3D (C-Motion, Germantown, MD, USA) by extract C3D files from Vicon system. The reflective markers were filtered using a 14 Hz low pass Butterworth filter and the ground reaction force (GRF) filtered using a 50 Hz fourth-order Butterworth filter [40,41]. The stance phase was defined as the period of initial contact to toe-off of from the ground.…”

On-Field Biomechanical Assessment of High and Low Dive in Competitive 16-Year-Old Goalkeepers through Wearable Sensors and Principal Component Analysis

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