Utilizing force paddles for mean propulsive force measurements in swimming

Abstract

Right now, there is a rapid development within swimming where large number of data points are used to quantify and improve the swimming performance [1]. One of the sensors that is used to gather this performance data is the eo SwimBETTER force paddles that measures the propulsive pressure on the palms of a swimmers hands with sensor filled handsets [2]. In this report, I present the results from a project where I have studied if it could be possible to use the eo SwimBETTER handsets to measure the power output of a swimmer. The first part of the project was focused on studying the reliability of the eo SwimBETTER measurements where I focused on the repeatability of the eo SwimBETTER handsets and the pressure sensor accuracy. In the second part of the project, I performed an initial study of the possibility to use the eo SwimBETTER handsets to measure the mean propulsive force of a swimmer. I tried to design a method for converting the propulsive pressure measured by the eo SwimBETTER handsets into a mean propulsive force. Measuring the mean propulsive force of a swimmer could then be an integral part in a method for measuring the power output of a swimmer. For the reliability part, it was found that the repeatability appears to be good regarding the mean propulsive pressure. The method used has some limitations regarding the repeatability of the instantaneous propulsive pressure but more resources would probably be required to get a better understanding of the instantaneous values. The pressure sensor accuracy part indicates that the pressure sensors gives reasonable results but it is hard to draw any good conclusions. From this study, it appears that it is possible to experimentally find an area that the mean propulsive pressure can be multiplied with to find the mean propulsive force of the swimmer. There is however a need for more experiments to get a better understanding of the possibility of using this method for propulsive force measurements.