There are two basic tenets regarding athletic prowess: improve performance and avoid injury. If you don't do the latter, you can't do the former; if you don't, the latter becomes more likely.
For thousands of years, doctors and coaches have done their best to enhance performance and reduce/avoid injuries. Medical science has come a long way since the ancient warriors, but many of the tenets remain the same: support the feet, strengthen the muscles to stabilize the joints, use heat and ice to heal, and so on.
What do we moderns have that the Ancients didn't? Little things like biomechanics research, sensor-based equipment, and wireless data capture. Whether you work for a sports team, a university lab, a footwear manufacturer, or any of the ancillary fields, these tools are irreplaceable.
Bottom line: It might be time to upgrade if you haven't taken your sports science protocols to the next level.
However, before we dive into the best systems for biomechanics researchers and footwear manufacturers, we need to answer a few other questions. Namely, what exactly do we mean by gait analysis? What is its role in sports science? How can gait analysis improve athletic performance? And how do sensors help map pressure in gait measurement systems?
Let's take a look.
Most researchers understand that to diagnose an issue or develop a new orthotic, you need good data. To produce good gait data, you need analytical tools to gather it. These are integral to learning more about why people stand, walk, and run the way they do – whether we're discussing performance enhancement or injury prevention.
Gait analysis matters for myriad reasons. It helps to:
In order to see any of these benefits, though, you need the right gait research equipment on hand. Only then can you complete data-rich, accurate walking and running gait assessments, which is critical to enhancing performance and reducing injury.
Having discussed the benefits of gait analysis in general, let's ask a more direct question: Why is it important to sports science in particular?
Or, before even answering that, we could ask a foundational question that gets back to the heart of training and medicine from ancient times: Why does sports science even matter?
This question's answer could fill several doorstoppers. In short, though, gait analysis is critical to sports science because the mechanics of the entire human body start where the soles of the feet touch the ground. A golfer's swing, a quarterback's throw, and a goalie's block all start with solid footing, and injuries can get in the way of that. Science can help inform therapists how to prevent and heal those injuries most efficiently.
Even where no problems exist, minute datasets related to stance and locomotion can significantly affect how well an athlete performs. Because, again, science.
Getting the right data becomes the challenge. Without it, it is easier to miss a diagnosis or make the wrong one. It's also harder to design effective treatments, provide the proper care for patients or athletes, and educate them on how to take care of themselves.
You need the right equipment, out of the box, with zero design deficiencies or difficult updates – and you need it now. Enter XSENSOR.
At XSENSOR, we believe nothing is more critical than the right information. When you have good data, there's nothing you can't figure out. Information is power, as they say, and nowhere is this truer regarding athletic enhancement and injury prevention.
That's a nice sentiment, but how do sensors help you map pressure? Here's how it works:
Of course, many similar systems already exist. However, they are hamstrung by factors such as wires attaching insoles to equipment, outdated hardware or software, or a lack of integration with other technology. Any of these can muddy your results.
XSENSOR is here to solve such problems.
Athletic coaches and sports performance professionals need lab-quality biomechanical and human performance data. They need it in the lab and in the field—anywhere a sport takes place—because limiting the gathering of data to a lab setting inherently restricts its usefulness.
The Intelligent Insoles | Pro system from XSENSOR helps meet these needs. Our wireless insoles are easy to use and come preloaded with the capability to talk to our proprietary software. Wherever you go, you can now consistently and without recalibration capture data for real-world testing and performance enhancement.
If you're ready for a gait analysis system that works, you're ready for XSENSOR. Don't wait any longer to take your athletes to the next level; get in touch today.