Reference: JW Harding, CG Mackintosh, DT Martin, AG Hahn, DA James, Automated Scoring for Elite Half-Pipe Snowboard Competition: Important sporting development or techno distraction?, Sports Technology 1 (6), 277-290
Abstract: We previously reported a strong relationship between video-based objective data (air time and degree of rotation) and subjectively-judged scores awarded during elite half-pipe snowboard competitions. Advancements in sport-monitoring technologies now provide the capacity to accurately and automatically quantify this objective information. This may assist current subjective coaching and competition judging protocols provided the integration process imparts a large element of control to key players within the sport. We therefore recently hosted an invitational half-pipe snowboard competition (2007 Australian Institute of Sport Micro-Tech Pipe Challenge) designed to evaluate whether the snowboarding community would embrace a competition where results were in part determined by automated objectivity. We explored the practical, logistical, and technical challenges associated with conducting such an event and evaluated the relationship between subjective judging and results predicted from objective information to see if prior research had ecological validity. Ten elite, male half-pipe snowboarders were instrumented with inertial sensors throughout this competition. A prediction equation using previously-established weightings of average air time and average degree of rotation accounted for 74 per cent of the shared variance in subjectively-judged scores awarded during this competition. Although our predictions of overall scores and rankings were good, 26 per cent of the total variance was still unexplained. This should not be considered a weakness of this approach, but a strength, as the subjective components of style and execution should never be removed from the sport. The future of half-pipe snowboarding, however, may be best guided a judging protocol that incorporates both objective and subjective criteria.
References: - 1
Harding JW, Toohey K, Martin DT et al. Automated Inertial Feedback for Half-Pipe Snowboard Competition and the Community Perception. The Impact of Technology on Sport II. Taylor & Francis London 2008; 845–850.
- 2
Harding JW, Toohey K, Martin DT, Hahn AG, James DA. Technology and Half-Pipe Snowboard Competition––Insight from Elite-Level Judges. The Engineering of Sport 7. Springer, Paris, 2008; 467–476.
- 3
Harding JW, Small JW, James DA. Feature extraction of performance variables in elite half-pipe snowboarding using body mounted inertial sensors. BioMEMS and nanotechnology III. Proceedings of SPIE; 5–7 December 2007, Canberra, ACT Australia.Bellingham, WA: SPIE, 2007.
- 4
Harding JW, Mackintosh CG, Hahn AG, James DA. Classification of aerial acrobatics in Elite half-pipe snowboarding using body mounted inertial sensors. In: EstivaletM, BrissonP, eds. The Engineering of Sport 7. Vol. 2 Springer: Paris, 2008; 447–456.
- 5
Miah M. New balls please: tennis, technology, and the changing game. In: HaakeS, CoeOA, eds. Tennis, Science and Technology. Blackwell Science: London, 2000; 285–292.
- 6
Tenner E. Why Things Bite Back: Predicting the Problems of Progress. Fourth Estate, London, 1996.
- 7
Catapult Innovations. Mini Max. Catapult Innovations: Melbourne, 2007.
- 8
Mackintosh C, Logan G. V21.0. Australian Institute of Sport, CRC for Micro-Technology 2004.
- 9
James DA, Davey N, Rice T. An accelerometer based sensor platform for in situ elite athlete performance analysis. IEEE Sensors Conference; 24–27 October 2004, Vienna, Austria. Piscataway, NJ, USA: IEEE, 2004; 276–277.
- 10
Green J, Krakauer D. New iMEMS® angular-rate-sensing gyroscope. Analog Dialogue 2003; 37: 3.
- 11
- 12
Doki H, Yamada T, Nagai C, Horaki M. Development of a measurement system for snowboarding turn analysis. In: SubicA,UjihashiS, eds. The Impact of Technology in Sport. ASTA (Australasian Sports Technology Alliance): Melbourne, 2005; 324–325.
- 13
Delorme S, Tavoularis S. Kinematics of the ankle joint complex in snowboarding. Journal of Applied Biomechanics 2003; 21:394–403.
- 14
Bianchi L, Petrone N, Marchiori M. A dynamometric platform for load data acquisition in snowboarding: design and field analysis.The Engineering of Sport 5 2004; 2: 187–193.
|
