In sports, coaches and support staff spend considerable time analyzing athletes’ technique.
It is well known that athletes who can perform movements associated with their
sport of choice using a better technique are more likely to present better performances.
Video-based analysis has traditionally been the most used procedure to assess athletes’
technique [1,2]. This consists of recording sports skills and the subsequent computation of
meaningful parameters describing the movement from raw data [3]. However, this data
acquisition and handling is a time-consuming process. Consequently, coaches and support
staff are looking for less time-consuming procedures that lead to real-time outputs and that
they themselves can also use and handle. The use of wearables allows the acquisition of
kinematic [4], kinetic [5], or physiological variables [6] that are of paramount importance
for coaches and athletes. For instance, Lim et al. [7] aimed to predict the lower limb kinetics
and kinematics during walking with a single inertial measurement unit (IMU) placed on
the lower back. In the specific case of the aquatic environment, cable handling makes
data collection more difficult. Thus, wearable usage is a solid alternative in aquatic sports.
Besides kinematic data, swimming researchers can also measure kinetic parameters, such as
propulsive force, that are key determinants for performance enhancement [5,8]. Regarding
physiological parameters, these can also be measured or estimated with the data collected
with wearables. A study by Dasa et al. [9] aimed to assess the accuracy of commonly
used global positioning systems/accelerometer-based tracking devices to estimate energy
expenditure during high-intensity intermittent exercise in soccer. The authors noted an
underestimation of the energy expenditure since these gears do not account for anaerobic
energy production during high-intensity exercise [9]. Nonetheless, and despite the
deviations observed in energy expenditure that should be considered by practitioners and
researchers, it was argued that the devices tested can still provide useful information, but
with the limitations addressed.
This research was funded by the FCT Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology,
grant number UIDB/DTP/04045/2020.
