Performance Analysis: aid of software and inertial sensors for training and competition monitoring in elite athletes practicing Dance Sport

Sport Engineering and the use of inertial sensors have a very important role to play in the sports context, to evaluate and develop new equipment, as an improvement in sports performance and for injury prevention. These areas are experiencing considerable interest and exponential growth. This work has explored current and emerging trends in the implementation of new technologies applied to sport and has tried to highlight some of the future developments. The focal point of this PhD research activity has been the most recent use of sensors in a sports context with a focus on new technologies still in the experimental or commercial phases. The study conducted in this research and the results obtained show that the use of software and inertial sensors has made it possible to accurately detect the specific movements of sport and to quantify the sports needs that other monitoring technologies are unable to analyse. In addition, multiple sensor models provide a tool for a more precise understanding of specific movements and allow coaches or judges immediate feedback on correct and incorrect techniques, facilitating detailed analysis of movement in real time. The research conducted during this PhD was oriented to Performance Analysis and to the study and biomechanical analysis of movement through the creation and use of software and inertial sensors for monitoring and control of training, able to provide quantitative information in real time. The sports discipline chosen for the research was Dance Sport. With this procedure it would be possible to expand the scientific knowledge related to the performance model of the Athlete of Dance Sport and to define the specific models of performance useful to design a correct programming of training procedures, and to optimize the performance in competition. As regards the experimental phase of the Research that was conducted during this PhD, oriented to the study of Performance Analysis in Dance Sport athletes, we have availed Abstract 8 Performance Analysis: aid of software and inertial sensors for training and competition monitoring in elite athletes practicing Dance Sport ourselves of the collaboration of two leading companies in the international field: Sensor Medica, Italian excellence ideator of the first prototype system in the latest design phase for the biomechanical analysis of movement, monitoring and control of sports performance designed with the aim of providing a distributed control system, which allows the capture and analysis of the complete movement of the body, through 3D kinematics; and Captiks, a young emerging company in the field of ergonomic and postural evaluation that has designed a device already in the commercial phase for the Motion Captur and motion analysis equipped with video acquisition, 3D animation and real-time data collection. In order to meet the need to analyze the movements made in the chosen sport, in the first phase of the Research we proposed to participate with a collaborative project from the initial design and development of the prototype system "Motion lab" ideated by Sensor Medica, then we proposed to develop a validation protocol of the inertial measurement device through a comparison with an optoelectronic stereo-photogrammetric system, to establish the degree of accuracy and reliability of the device itself. Validated the suitability of the sensor and the applicability of the software developed, which proved, through the experimentation carried out, reliable and consistent with the intended purposes of use, it was proceeded to the analysis and detection of biomechanical parameters of the various body segments during some simple movements chosen in the context of sports performance and representative of the basic technique of the Dancer. Considering that the Research is experimental-applicative, with particular attention to the instrumental and scientific-operational validity, as a further advancement of the assumed path, it was proposed to use a new system for the measurement and biomechanical analysis of the movement already completed and in commercial phase. In this regard, the "Movit System" produced by the Captiks Company was integrated, which made it possible to carry Abstract 9 Performance Analysis: aid of software and inertial sensors for training and competition monitoring in elite athletes practicing Dance Sport out further instrumental analyses and complete the research project. Through this type of further analysis it was possible to make comparisons and verify the validity of the application on the data provided by the use of inertial sensors. This further investigation that we proposed to evaluate represents another important qualitative leap on the type of information that can be acquired by IMU sensors in the field of sports application. By means of the data collection methodology carried out through the "Movit System" of Captiks and through the scientific and statistical survey achieved, it was possible to objectively analyze, evaluate and quantify the performance and technical-tactical performance of the athlete of Dance Sport. Specifically, the analyses carried out allowed us to assess the presence or absence of significant performance differences in the chosen motor gestures, called " significant moments" taken into consideration and the reliability of the Key Performance Indicators, KPIs, chosen as key elements and determining parameters for the evaluation of the Dancer's sports performance. Therefore the Performane Analysis has been used as the means to transform the performance model into a mathematical data in order to better analyze the model itself and improve it through training. The help of new technologies applied to Dance Sports, shows how an analysis of the performance carried out with statistical-mathematical criteria is of fundamental help in reading, in physical indexes, the technical gestures analyzed and the performance made by the Dancer (individual analysis). Specifically, the objective that we wanted to pursue concerns the analysis of the dispersion around the mean of repeated motor gestures called "significant moments", in order to assess the variability of deviation and to define a reliable and predictive model. With this method and through the study and analysis of the chosen variables it was possible to evaluate the ability of each individual subject to perform gestures and events repeatable Abstract 10 Performance Analysis: aid of software and inertial sensors for training and competition monitoring in elite athletes practicing Dance Sport with constancy and presumptive stability, so as to establish whether there is a significant difference between the parameters considered. These variables could be predictive reference values in order to identify motor indexes, which will be a useful instrument for the study and analysis of the sports performance of the Dancer, and can become an easy indicator for the setting and quantification of a conventional range of reference and at the same time represent a highly predictive data for the definition of a qualitatively correct gesture.