The purpose of this study was to explore the utility of an 8-week rope skipping intervention in enhancing standing long jump performance was assessed by means of specific kinematic parameters acquired by 3-D space photography. The fifteen male college students from the physical education institute were randomly recruited as the research subjects. Participants first completed a standing long jump test without rope skipping intervention. Participants subsequently took part in a second standing long jump test after rope skipping training. Two high-speed digital cameras with 100 Hz sampling rate were synchronized to capture the movement. The captured images were processed using motion analysis suite, and the markers attached to joints on images were optical auto capture. Based on the results, the velocity of the center of gravity at take-off and landing were significantly improved. In addition, the study confirmed the requirement for forward tilt of the hip joint at landing to increase the velocity of the center of gravity and hence long jump distance. The detailed kinematic analysis described here provided further evidence of the benefits of integrating non-specialized and specialized training activities to enhance athletic performance and offers a contribution to movement theory and practice.

The purpose of this study was to explore the kinematical characteristics of jumping discus throwing. Eight male right-handed discus throwers who used to practice the jumping throwing technique were recruited as participants. Two high-speed digital cameras with 120 Hz sampling rate were synchronized to capture the movement. The captured images were processed using a motion analysis suite, and the markers attached to joints on images were digitized manually. Based on the results, throwers should keep smaller the shoulder–hip twisting and the right anterior superior iliac spine (abbreviated: ASIS) in front of the right acromion (for right-handed throwers) from the instant the right foot lands to the instant the left foot lands, before the instant of the right foot lands; keep the discus at a depressed position; and reduce the time before discus release, particularly the time of the non-support phase and the second single-support phase. Additionally, release velocity must be improved because throwing distance is directly proportional to squared release velocity. In conclusion, the current study demonstrated comprehensive kinematical analyses, which can be used to instruct the jumping discus throwing technique with duration and angle characteristics of throwing movement for athletes by coaches with videos.

Shot put is a throwing exercise in track and field. Performance has a strong relationship with the thrower’s height, technique, and energy transferred. The purpose of this study was to compare basic kinematics, joint movement, shot mechanical energy, and joint energy of the male glide-style shot put between high-performance (HP) and low-performance (LP) athletes. Data for 12 right-handed male shot putters with glide-style was captured at the National Games held in Taipei city in 2013. The HP ( n = 6) and LP ( n = 6) groups were classified according to their best throwing distance in the competition. Additionally, the 2D kinematics of their joints and shots were obtained by Kwon 3D motion analysis. Finally, the kinematics and energy were calculated in Excel software package. Results showed significant differences in throwing distance, the relationship between throwing distance and body height index (RDH index), release velocity, and the shoulder-shot (BSX) angle at right toe-off ground instant (RTF) and the angle difference between the right toe-off instant and release instant (RI-RTF) between the HP and LP groups. However, the energy of the joints and shots were not significantly different between the two groups. The better throwers exhibited a faster release velocity, accompanied by a smaller change in the SSX angle, and the SSX angle can be used by the coach to assess the body’s forward or backward tilt during training.

This study aimed to explore the kinematic characteristics of males using various foot landing strategies. The participants were fifteen male students from Physical Education College, Huaibei (non-professional runners, who did not have a fixed running landing strategy mode) (mean height = 178.20 cm; mean weight = 67.60 kg; mean age = 19.40 years). In this experiment, the running model of different foot landing strategies (forefoot strike, FFS and rearfoot strike, RFS) were analyzed using two high-speed cameras captured simultaneously at a sampling rate of 100 Hz. According to the results, the runners with better sports performance have shorter contact time, longer flight time, lower duty factor, larger stride angle, faster V COG, greater A COG, and knee and ankle angles which were crucial kinematics factors to enhance the running. Therefore, this study recommends that coaches or researchers can use photography to analyze novice runners who do not have a fixed landing pattern, and to let novice runners who have a long flight time choose RFS mode for training and for beginners with a larger stride angle, choose FFS mode for training.