Application of Portable Force Sensors in Sport

Recently the results of published surveys have indicated that portable force sensors are being increasingly used by sport and exercise science and medicine professionals due to commercial devices becoming more affordable. Portable force sensors are being applied in both elite sports facilities and private medical clinics to assess athletes’ ability to produce maximal force in specific tests. The resultant information generated is used to inform the design and management of exercise programmes, either when athletes are healthy and need to improve performance, or when they are injured or fatigued and need to recover.

Our research of this topic has been supported by both external and internal funding and we have published the results extensively in peer-reviewed journals and textbooks. Our staff have been invited to present on the application of force plates in sport at each of the largest international conferences in strength and conditioning, sports science, and sports biomechanics since 2018. We have also delivered force plate workshops aimed at improving practitioner knowledge and travelled around England and Spain to test hundreds of professional footballers as part of our projects. Several key findings have been embedded into world-leading force plate software which is used to conduct more than 1 million tests with athletes each year.

Team

University of Salford

PhD Students

Andrew Badby

Emily Cain

External Collaborators