Coaches understand that each athlete has a unique body, different training habits, and individual goals. They frequently benefit from objective feedback which they can use to adequately tailor “individual” training programs. We are able to provide coaches with meaningful data from our objective, research driven, biomechanical assessments. Furthermore, we are able to make recommendations to help correct faulty biomechanical techniques that will positively transform muscle efficiency, enhance training, and make significant differences to the health, safety, and peak athletic performance of both elite and recreational athletes.
For “running” coaches:
Under of the leadership of our Department Chair, Dr. Casey Kerrigan, The SPEED Clinic is geared to be one of the worlds’ finest gait labs. Equipped with cutting edge motion analysis instruments, our qualified staff provides unique motion analysis assessments.
In typical motion analysis laboratories, it is difficult to capture multi-stride force data during simulated steady state running. Outdoor tracks that have embedded force plates are ideal, yet require significant “set-up” and need to be carefully calibrated each time data is collected because of environmental changes. Moreover, traditional gait labs feature only stationary force platforms that measures Kinetic or force data, which examines the loading of joints – unique to each individuals’ gait. Although our lab employs these traditional stationary force plates, we also employ a unique force plate treadmill for gait analysis. Our facility features one of only 2 custom designed instrumented treadmills, worldwide, that facilitates capture of multi-stride force data either at training or competition velocity.
Furthermore, in contrast to gait labs that use only motion capture systems to assess range of motion (Kinematics), our SPEED Clinic is currently the only facility in the USA that is able to simultaneously capture and assess multi-stride force data (Kinetics) at 250 times per second. As a result, we are able to thoroughly understand joint mechanics during movement and obtain objective data which has meaningful implications for your athlete.
Following the gait assessment, we provide you with “immediate”, objective feedback that allows you to integrate the information into to the training cycle sooner than later.
We provide you with a clear, functional interpretation of data and figures, and a concise list of problems, exercises, and gait cueing techniques. And finally, we recommendexercises to help remediate defective biomechanical parameters that can potentially limit training, athletic performance, and cause repetitive injury in your athletes.
For “ cycling” coaches:
The “bike fits” performed at the SPEED Clinic are “dynamic” and therefore, unique compared to traditional “static bike fits”. We use our 10 infrared cameras to get data on your rider 250 times a second. As you know, a cyclist’s position in the saddle is dynamic. A cyclist moves forward on the saddle to bridge a gap, or slides back to summit a long climb. Therefore, quantifying and assessing range of motion and torque while riding facilitates an accurate “bike fit”.
We also believe that while it is important to “fit a bike to a cyclist”, understanding “individual” and “intermittent” changes in strength, flexibility, and posture are pivotal to adequately “fit a cyclist to a bike”. For example, your cyclist may present to our clinic with limitations in strength and flexibility and simply placing a rider in their most beneficial position during our analysis, ignores the comprehensive issue of either restricted mobility or strength.
Therefore, we perform a detailed musculoskeletal assessment that is effective in identifying “individual musculoskeletal limitations”. Based on our assessment, we then provide your cyclists with recommendations to work on musculoskeletal deficiencies that will allow them to adequately adjust their position as they make functional gains. Therefore, by using a holistic approach, our ultimate goal is to develop a more efficient rider.
