KINEMATICS OF SPRINTING: COMPARISON BETWEEN NORMAL AND AMPUTEES ATHLETES

Abstract

The paper introduces the initial activities of a project related to the kinetic analysis of amputees athletes running by means of dedicated orthopaedic prostheses. In this first session it has been analysed the kinematics of four athletes sample, three normal (the first a high-level pro, the second a junior and the third an amateur) and one unilateral below-knee paralympic amputee. Research objective is to analyse the kinematics of the amputee athlete and the differences in respect of normal athletes. It has to be considered that each normal athlete has its own way of running which depends on his anthropometrical parameters and on its motion strategy: an ideal biomechanics of running, which is a reference to optimise the performance of athlete, doesn't exist. First of all it has been described the running biomechanical phases of normal athletes and the structural components of a sprinting prosthesis; then the system to analyse human movement and finally the adopted protocol for acquisition. The kinematical parameters and the motion strategy adopted by amputee are different in comparison to normal athletes: it has been analysed the anthropometrical parameters, the time-space parameters and pelvis, hip, knee and ankle angles. The collected data will be applied to the design process of running prosthesis in the socket manufacturing and in the alignment of prosthetic components to optimise the performance of the athlete.