A KINEMATIC ANALYSIS OF THE PERFORMANCE OF CHINESE WOMEN RACE WALKERS

Abstract

The action pictures of eight Chinese women race walkers, filmed at the National Track and Field Championships in 1993, were analyzed in the light of biomechanics and the foilowing phenomena were observed: 1) Average stride lengths are between 112.3 cm and 118.9 cm, and average stride frequencies are between 196 strides/min and 216 strides/min. 2) Leg drive is the main factor that affected stride lengths and stride frequencies. 3) Statistics show that the "Overextension" of the knee joint at the vertical position is disadvantageous to the increase of the stride speed. The mean of their knee joint angle at the vertical position during One-leg support was 186.3 degrees. The author suggests that within their certain stride lengths, the players should mainly train their speed frequencies to improve their performance.