ANGULAR KINEMATICS IN ELITE RACE WALKING PERFORMANCE

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to measure and analyse the important angular kinematic variables in elite race walking. Research has shown that these variables include knee angle at contact and midstance, rotation of the hips and shoulders, and hip extension velocity. Eighty elite race walkers were videoed during competition and analysed using 3D-DLT with SIMI Motion. The knee angle was found to be almost straight at contact in most athletes and hyperextended by the vertical upright position. Athletes varied in the amount of rotation at the hips and shoulders, with 50 km men having greater hip rotation and 20 km women having greater shoulder rotation. There was much more variation in the values found for elbow and shoulder angles. Very few angular measurements correlated with key race walking variables such as speed, step length and cadence.